We started off the week by receiving our published Ofsted report. I am delighted to let you know that we maintained our Outstanding rating! Something that we thought would be impossible last year. How wonderful is to see the hard work of the team and children yield such a result. The children are what makes St. Joseph's truly special and I am in total agreement with the HMI Inspector, when she stated we have a created 'harmonious learning environment' for children and adults alike.

Thank you for trusting us with your children, they remain at the heart of all that we do and we feel honoured to serve and support this school community. If you haven't read it yet, you'll find the full report is here.

On Tuesday our fabulous choir participated in the Young Voices showcase at the O2 Arena. They sang beautifully and represented the Federation so well. Hearing them rehearse and show such dedication and joy was truly heartwarming and uplifting.

They deserved the upgrade they received by being seated in the suites! Miss Arthur and Ms Luri did a great job preparing and looking after the children and we are so grateful to all the parents who supported on the day too!

There are a group of children who would really love to have drum lessons, so we purchased a new drum kit for the school this week. Thank you to Croydon music service who helped us get a reduced price. I cannot wait to see it in use when it arrives all shiny and new. I hope it brings the children joy for years to come. We are trying to source enough 3/4 guitars to have a class set. If you can help us in any way please contact the school office.

Today we took part in the Year of Jubilee Launch Day and the children had special assemblies where they observed Archbishop John talking about Hope, the Jubilee’s theme.

Archbishop John said hope comes in many guises, whether hope for our own personal lives or something much bigger like world peace. But “our greatest hope”, the Archbishop said, “is the Lord Jesus and that’s why we need to turn to Him with our hopes.”

The Archbishop reminded us that prayer, which he described as a “wonderful act of hope, which shows our faith and builds our love of Christ and all around us.” His sentiments are shared by us all at St. Joseph's. We have truly been witnesses to the power of prayer, God's love and strength this past year.

Please can you keep Sara, Y3 in your prayers. She has undergone brain surgery this week. True to form she is as bonny and strong as ever and was smiling soo after her surgery. She is making a good recovery. She has such a loving family around her and I know she is drawing strength from them. I pray she is back to full health soon so that she can rejoin her classmates and brighten up St. Joseph's with her infectious smile.

Prayers and best wishes,

Mrs Ashley and the Team

Safeguarding

Responding To Online Challenges

There are more and more reports of online challenges popping up on social media platforms. While not all pose potential risk, it is important as a parent/carer to know how to handle an online challenge that you may be concerned about.

What are Online Challenges?

Online challenges are social media trends where people take part in or mimic games, activities or dares. They typically originate on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram before spreading to other platforms. Fortunately, some challenges or online trends are reported by the press first and are referred to as ‘going viral’, which can give the impression that the challenge or trend is more popular than it actually is.

Advice for parents

Talking to your child about online challenges can seem daunting, especially if they don’t come to you on their own. Having an honest conversation with your child about their online habits is the best way to address this as well as careful monitoring.

For further support visit: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/#advice

Early Years

Our Planet- Zarg’s World.

We have been learning about our planet. We have been; observing our planet using our senses, exploring our spaceship role-play area and reading story books about life in space to help us understand that there are other planets. We learnt about gravity, these are our gravity paintings we made by letting go of pom poms from a height to see them drop onto the paper.

Key Stage 1

In Art this week, Year 1 have been exploring a sculpture by Australian artist Samantha Stephenson called 'Other' (2014). We looked closely at the sculpture and discussed what we could see, what it might be made of, and where it might be placed. We learned that this artwork is a three-dimensional sculpture, made using metal and curves to show movement, with bright colours that give it energy.

Our challenge was to create something like the sculpture by rolling the paper into tubes.

Lower Key Stage 2

It has been a busy week for year 4 as we started a number of new topics and activities. In English we have been studying The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, learning about new grammar techniques including adverbial phrases and personification. In maths we have continued to consolidate our knowledge of multiplication and division methods, applying them to worded problems.

Our new science topic is states of matter, exploring solids, liquids and gases and their properties. We were also excited to start a new history topic about the Anglo Saxons and other people who have invaded and settled in Britain and we are really looking forward to our trip to the British museum in a few weeks time.

As well as all of this, we began a new art topic, tints and shading, and enjoyed mixing prime colours to create shade and tints.

Upper Key Stage 2

This week, Year 5 have continued to learn about World War 2 and how people's lives were affected by the Blitz. We studied some old photographs that were taken at that time and the children were able to discuss devastation, loss and resilience. Some of the class compared it to the present day and the wild fires in Los Angeles. In groups they were able to say how they felt when they saw the images and how they imagined the people who experienced war had felt. I was very proud of the deep level of questioning they had and the degree of respect towards that period in history. The class were left with a hunger for more information and are compiling their own list of questions to research using different resources to help them!

Curriculum Update

Religious Education

After such a busy and joyful end to last term, we have begun the Spring term quietly and peacefully. Our first day back in school was the Feast of the Epiphany, where we celebrated Jesus being visited by the Magi (the 3 Kings). This Feast day also celebrates the beginning of the Church's Liturgical year, so we have been talking about new beginnings and a fresh start for everyone.

January 24th (today) is also the beginning of a special Jubilee Year in the Church, which has the theme of 'Pilgrims of Hope'. We had a special assembly this morning to launch this in our school, which included a special message from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

We will be taking part in a number of events, activities and competitions linked to this throughout the year and I will be sending out further information about this later in the term.

Finally, just an early reminder that Lent will begin this year on 5th March and, similar to last year, we will be taking part in a number of events during this period which we will inform you about nearer the time.