What a blessed and exciting week we've had at St Joseph's! On Monday, we were delighted to welcome Father Thomaz to our school. His visit was a wonderful reminder of the strong links we share with our parish, and the children were inspired by his presence and his words. These connections between school and parish are so important in nurturing our children's faith and helping them feel part of a wider Catholic community.

As part of our Lenten tradition, Year 6 attended Mass on Tuesday morning. Throughout Lent, we ensure that all year groups have the opportunity to attend Mass, giving every child the chance to participate in this special season of reflection, prayer and preparation. It was beautiful to see our oldest pupils showing reverence and deep engagement in the liturgy, setting a wonderful example for the whole school.

This week has been Book Week at St Joseph's, and what a celebration of reading it has been! Mrs Daniels really went above and beyond to ensure that it was a memorable and inspiring week for staff and children alike! Our children have been enjoying buddy reading sessions, with older pupils sharing stories with younger ones and fostering a real love of literature across the school.

Our World Book Day parade was a huge success! The creativity and effort that went into the costumes was absolutely wonderful, and the children looked amazing as their favourite book characters. I was so sad to have missed the parade as I was attending a National Headteacher meeting, but I've heard all about it and seen the wonderful photos. Thank you to all the parents and carers who helped make the costumes so special, and to our staff who organised such a memorable day.

The Dulwich Book Fair has been a great success too, with children enjoying the opportunity to browse and choose new books. Many of our pupils used their World Book Day vouchers, and it's been lovely to see so many children excited about taking home new stories to read. Thank you for supporting this event and encouraging your children's love of reading.

West End in theatre brought books to life for our children and each year group had an immersive drama lessons where they learnt and reenacted less familiar traditional stories from across the globe!

On Thursday, we had the privilege of welcoming Portuguese author Nuno Caravela to our school. The children were captivated by his storytelling and inspired to create their own stories. It was a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to meet a real author and see how books come to life. A huge thanks to Mrs Santos for organising and ensuring our children have amazing enrichment opportunities.

In sporting news, our boys' football team has done us incredibly proud at the Croydon football tournament, coming first and proving themselves to be the best team in the borough! What an outstanding achievement! The boys showed exceptional skill, teamwork and determination throughout the tournament. Congratulations to all the players and to the staff who have coached and supported them. You've made St Joseph's very proud indeed!

As we continue through Lent, let us keep in our prayers all those in our school community who are unwell, those facing challenges, and those who have passed away. May we find strength in our faith and in each other as we journey towards Easter together.

This week, why not ask your child: "What did Father Thomaz talk to you about during his visit?" or "What did you learn from author Nuno Caravela?" or "What book did you choose at the book fair and why?" or "What was your favourite book character costume from World Book Day?" These conversations help deepen your child's understanding of their faith and their love of reading, showing them that what happens at school matters to you at home too.

Thank you for your continued partnership and for nurturing your children's faith and love of learning at home.

I hope you and your family have a great weekend,

Mrs Ashley and the Team

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him." – Psalm 28:7

Safeguarding

AI Chatbots

What are AI chatbots?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots – such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and others are becoming more common in everyday life. Children may encounter them at school, in games or even through websites and apps. While these tools can be useful and fun, it’s important for parents to understand how they work, the potential risks and how to keep children safe. AI chatbots are computer programmes that can hold a conversation with a person.

They can:

-answer questions (e.g. helping with homework or explaining a tricky topic).

-spark creativity (e.g. helping write a poem, story or quiz).

-support hobbies and interests (e.g. generating recipe ideas, sports facts or coding tips).

-provide entertainment (e.g. riddles, jokes or role-play style games).

Used wisely, chatbots can be a helpful tool for learning and fun.

The key message is that AI Chatbots can be a useful tool, but they are not a replacement for safe, supportive human relationships. With guidance, supervision and open conversations, parents can help children explore this technology in a safe and balanced way.

When conversations can become concerning

Although conversations may start out innocently, there are risks to be aware of:

-Unpredictable responses: chatbots sometimes give inaccurate, confusing or inappropriate information.

-Role-play risks: a child may ask the chatbot to pretend to be a friend, character or even a parent figure. This can blur the line between fantasy and reality.

-Sensitive topics: children may explore personal worries with a chatbot and the answers they receive might not always be supportive, accurate or safe.

-Over-reliance: a child might start turning to a chatbot for advice instead of trusted adults.

Early Years

Both reception classes have been to West Norwood library. The librarians told us a lovely story which we listened to really well and we sang and learnt some new songs. We then chose a book to take home to share with our grown ups.

Can carers and parents please return their child's library book on Wednesdays with homework. We will swap the book the they have returned for a new one and will do this every Friday.

Key Stage 1

This week in Year 1, we had lots of fun exploring our senses! We started by looking at optical illusion pictures and discovered how our eyes can sometimes trick our brains into seeing things in different ways.

We then carried out a smell experiment, using only our noses to sniff a selection of mystery items, including coffee, garlic, onion, milk, ginger, and sardines. It was tricky to guess what the items were using smell alone, but there were lots of giggles and some very thoughtful guesses.

A fun and memorable way to learn how our senses help us understand the world around us!

Lower Key Stage 2

Year 3 had an exciting and action-packed Book Week full of wonderful reading experiences! The week began with a fun Teacher Dash followed by Buddy Reading with Nursery, where our pupils shared stories with the youngest readers in the school. On World Book Day, the children enjoyed a fantastic book character parade, proudly showing off their creative costumes and beautifully designed hats. They also had the amazing opportunity to attend an assembly with Portuguese author Nuno Caravela and take part in an engaging West End in Schools session.It was also lovely to welcome parents and carers into school to read with the children, making the celebration even more special.

Upper Key Stage 2

This week started with a day of purposeful prayer in preperation for Lent. We looked at different ways to pray and how to make them meaningful.

In Geography, we started our topic on Deserts and created a wonderful display of facts, while in Maths, we excelled in short division. We've taken advantage of the wonderful weather and used the Forest as the perfect backdrop to practise our scripts for Macbeth.

PE

Our girls’ netball club is up and running on Fridays and the girls are absolutely loving taking part each week. The sessions have been full of energy and enjoyment, with smiles all round.

RE

We had a lovely Epiphany liturgy to start our term and are now looking forwards and making plans for the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is on the 18th February this year, which is during the half term holidays, and we will begin a variety of activities when the children return to school. We will send out further information nearer the time but this will include mass on 19th March (which is St Joseph's Day) and the annual Y3 Easter production. During this period we hope to raise money to support CAFOD and the Catholic Children's Society.