It been another productive week at St. Joseph's. Y4 and Y6 enjoyed their trip to the Natural History Museum, they returned safe and well; enthused about their learning and the beauty of the museum. That you to all the parent helpers who supported on the day and made these trips possible. Well done to the teaching team for organising trips that enhance our teaching and learning offer.

On Friday, we participated in Show Racism the Red Card. It was great to see the children wear red in unision supporting this cause. Thank you all for your support.

Y6 secondary school deadline end of October, Please contact the office if you need any help.

A reminder about two PTA events coming up. The Sweet Read which is in the Junior Hall next Friday and our Annual Musical Fireworks are flying off the internet! Hundreds have already been sold and this id the link to purchase tickets.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend.

From Mrs Ashley and the Team

Wellbeing

It's Menopause Awareness Month

World Menopause Day is an internationally recognised event established by the International Menopause Society in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The month of October is Menopause Awareness Month, and World Menopause Day is held annually on 18 October. It aims to break taboo and improve women’s health and wellbeing by raising awareness about the symptoms of menopause and the support options available.

Each year there is a theme to shine a light on different topics surrounding the menopause. The theme for World Menopause Day 2024 is Menopause Hormone Therapy, known in the UK as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

There is a lot of advice on line for women or you can go to your GP to find out more information. In the meantime, here are some tips you might find useful.

Early Years

Nursery celebrated World Mental Health Day and wore something yellow in support of Young Minds. We thought about what makes us happy and did lots of singing and dancing. We also decorated biscuits and made icing and made smiley faces using currants. We talked about what we can do if we are feeling sad and who we can tell. We made a list of things that make us feel happy and thought about how we can look after each other.

Reception: This week in phonics we are learning the sounds: k, u, b and f.

Key Stage 1

This week in year 2, we have been learning about a lyrical explanation (poem) in English which explores and describes different emotions. We have learned about similes and personification. As well as this, we looked at different strategies for calming down when our emotions get too overwhelming and showed some of these strategies through role play.

In maths we have continued learning about place value, comparing and ordering both objects and numbers which have been represented differently. During RE we have been coming towards the end of our topic on 'chosen people' where we have compared some of the key people that God chose to do special tasks and lead others. We have been thinking about what it means to be chosen by God and how we would feel if we were Abraham, Moses or Daniel.

For Science, we have been exploring the topic of habitats further by using the woodland trust website to research different animals that live in woodland habitats. We have also looked at how animals are suited to their habitats as well as how animals and plants depend on their environment for survival. Our focus in music lessons have been where we have learned how to change and create song lyrics that match a beat, which we enjoyed very much.

Lower Key Stage 2

This week in 3T, we've been getting creative! On Monday, we headed to Forest School to explore the outdoors, gathering scents, colours and textures to help us come up with descriptive words for our poem writing next week. In Science, we designed our own prosthetic hands, learning about how muscles enable movement and exploring some fascinating scientific advancements. For Art, we've been focusing on texture - discovering how it can be used to enhance our creations. We went to the playground to make rubbings of different surfaces, which we'll later incorporate into our artwork.

Upper Key Stage 2

On Tuesday, Year 6 had a great trip to the Natural History Museum. We explored the different rooms to support our learning in Science, and each child came back with a few new facts to bring to our lessons. A big thank you to Jonathan and Philip for taking some spectacular photographs!

Our learning on Nelson Mandela was finalised with the pupils presenting their Robben Island Escape Plans. We watched a video about the only man to ever escape from the island as inspiration, and continued our discussion on political prisoners, as well as the positive impact Nelson Mandela has had on how we view equality.

On Friday we had a workshop on Carbon Monoxide, and how to keep safe and look for signs of danger, and discussed the issues of racism as we showed our support for Show Racism the Red Card.