The Year Ahead

Our thanks to all those parents who made the effort to join us for the Welcome Back Meeting this week. I hope you found the evening useful and, as always, we'd welcome your reflections and feedback.

For parents unable to attend, please find here a copy of the presentation with some brief audio clips to give you a flavour of what was discussed. Presentations and resources from Year Teams will be available on your child's Google Classroom.

There are some important increases in expectation this year and we want you to feel informed about them so that you can support your child to achieve well and be successful at St Joseph's.

2022 Vision - Parents Blog

Harvest Time

Year 4 have been enjoying harvesting their goods in the allotment. After a summer term of regular visits in Year 3, their hard work was rewarded with a bountiful harvest. There were such an array of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, radishes and rhubarb. It was particularly exciting to let the rest of the St Joseph's community take the produce home!

He has purple prickles all over his back!

This week in English, Year 1 have been looking at one of our favourite stories - The Gruffalo. We have been making puppets of the different characters and using them to act out the story, trying to remember some of the different words and phrases used in the book.

Green things!

In Year 4 this week, the children have been exploring ways to generate exciting vocabulary for a Roald Dahl inspired recipe using "Green Things". Using donations from parents (thank you!), we used our senses to reimagine what these ingredients could be. Examples were "the veiny brain of a lonely mountain lion" and "the coarse, matted hair of the last lion in Africa". We discovered that when we close our eyes, our imaginations are much more active and a few brave children even allowed themselves to be blindfolded for the experience! Such a fun lesson; I love the looks of disgust as we blended the mixture to a luminous green sludge!

Léonie's fundraising pageHelp Léonie Johnson raise money to support Phyllis Tuckwell

A message from Mrs Johnson...

On Sunday 2nd October, I will be running the London Marathon in aid of the Phyllis Tuckwell hospice. As many families will know, the hospice provides care for patients, and their families, living with terminal illnesses. My own father became very ill some years ago and this is when I first knew of the hospice and what they did. The staff at the hospice showed the highest level of care and support that we could have asked for at that time. Since then, I have come to know many other people who have benefited from their service. Running the 26 miles around London is my way of giving something back to them. Training is extremely hard and time consuming, but the challenge I face does not compare to the tireless work of the hospice staff.

If you feel you can support Mrs Johnson's effort for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, simply click on the photo opposite.

Our SMART Year 6

This week in PSHE, Year 6 have been recognising positive things about ourselves and thinking about our personal strengths. We also looked at how to set ourselves long and short term goals and how to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) to get the most from them.

Playing with place value

Year 3 are continuing with their Maths unit about Place Value this week with some active learning, as promised at our Curriculum Evening! Substituting playground equipment for hundreds, tens and ones, the classes were split into teams to try to make a number using the equipment. We saw some wonderful teamwork and clear direction from all of the classes. Later in the lesson, they made Place Value creations, and then calculated what value their creation had. We had a lot of fun making our creations and enjoying the warm ( and, thankfully, dry!) weather at last.

C - 25th Ordinary

Trust in Christ

In worship this week, we have been looking ahead to the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) and the parable of the untrustworthy servant. On discovering that he is to be dismissed from his master's service, the servant sets out to gain friendship and favours from others through dishonest means. Jesus explains that people who are trustworthy in small acts, can be trusted with much greater responsibilities.

We have explained to the children this week that we place trust in them to follow our school rules, even in small actions and with seemingly insignificant objects. Even the way they treat a glue stick or a handwriting pencil reveals a great deal about the amount of trust they are ready to bear, especially when we consider some children have access to mobile technology or are trusted to travel to and from school alone.

Searching for Vocab

This week Year Two enjoyed a walk to the local woodland to explore the sights, sounds and feelings of the forest. We were trying to put ourselves in Little Red Riding Hood's shoes and imagine how she felt when she took the long, dark walk to the library to return her book. We didn't meet a Big Bad Wolf, but we were able to describe the leaves, sticks, creatures and footpaths that we saw.

Our thanks to the dedicated parent volunteers to help to make these important opportunities a reality. If you think you can spare the time and skill to be a regular school volunteer, please contact the School Office.

Welcome Reception!

A huge week for the new Reception children, we are so proud of you! You have settled into school life brilliantly! We have even been learning about our school motto, and how we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We can’t wait to see how brilliant you will be this year! Watch this space...

Writing Journey

In English Year 5 I have been following the plot points for "Journey" by Aaaron Becker. Here are some example of the wonderful work the children have been producing:

A colony of beautiful fairy lights glittered through the enchanted forest creating a bright sparkling path. It was showing her the way to go like an infinite red carpet. ( Oscar 5L)

A crescendo of colours glistened through a cluster of trees with emerald-green leaves. (Joanna 5C)

Cautiously, Amelia stepped back, in front of her eyes stood a giant, ruby red door. She was amazed, "Wow! This must be magic,"' she quietly whispered to herself. (Olivia 5J)

Local Events...

Report abuse