ST. JOHN'S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER 2 - SUMMER 2005

Dear Parents,

Dates for your diaries:...

Saturday 18th June SUMMER FAYRE Monday 20th June Dentist visiting school Wednesday 22nd June Visit to City Hall - Newly elected School Council members Thursday 23rd June Secondary School Transfer meeting - 7.30pm Monday 27th June Pathway Assembly - 9.10am Tuesday 28th June Y5 Assembly - 9.10am - School Hall Wednesday 29th June Copthall Sports Day - 10.00am-4.00pm Thursday 30th June Y2 Trip to Museum of Childhood Friday 1st July School Open Day - School closes 1pm - reopens 4pm Monday 4th July Y1 Assembly - 9.10am Tuesday 5th July Y1 Trip to Butterfly House, Syon Park Tuesday 5th July Y2 Assembly - 9.10am Wednesday 6th July YN and YR Activity Day Wednesday 6th July Y4 Trip to London Wednesday 6th July KS1 SATs consultation - by appointment Thursday 7th July Y6 children to visit secondary schools Thursday 7th July Y1, Y2, Y3 Sports day - 9.30am Monday 11th July Governors Annual General Meeting - 7pm - School hall Tuesday 12th July Y3 Trip to Syon Park - The Tropical Forest Wednesday 13th July SCHOOL PRODUCTION - 7.30PM Wednesday 13th July YR Trip to "Discover" Thursday 14th July SCHOOL PRODUCTION - 7.30PM Friday 15th July Nursery picnic - nursery closed in afternoon Friday 15th July SCHOOL PRODUCTION - 7.30PM Friday 15th July Nursery picnic - Nursery closed in afternoon Tuesday 19th July Sports Day - Y4, Y5, Y6 - 1.30pm Thursday 21st July End of Term - School closes 2.30pm

Summer Fayre

This promises to be a great success thanks to the very hard work of the PTA. Please do not forget tomorrow 17th June is a non-uniform day in return for YN, YR, Y1,  Y2 bringing in cakes and Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 bringing in new gifts. Last non-uniform day was very fruitful - many, many thanks for your kind donations of bottles! Thank you also for all your kind offers of help on the day - the success of the day depends on a team effort from everyone - well done as always. 

Production - Bugsy Malone

Rehearsals are now well under way, everyone, staff and children are working really hard. The performances take place on Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th and Friday 15th July at 7.30pm. Tickets will be on sale from Monday 20th June from the school office. Please buy your tickets early as they sell out very quickly. Please refer to attached letter for more details.

Healthy Living Week

I would like to express my very sincere thanks to Miss D'Aristou for organising a superb week for all of us and to Miss Skinner for all her help in assisting her. We all had a great time and learnt some facts and skills which will be with us lifelong. Thanks also to the PTA for funding this week and to you parents for generously providing exotic fruits! The organic fruit and veg deliveries have got off to a great and popular start and I for one was very pleased with my two bags!

Clubs

As you will be aware this half term is very busy both for staff and pupils and to this end the only clubs that will be running are as follows: 

D&T - Monday

Beginners Chess - Tuesday - all beginners welcome

Production - Wednesday/Thursday - Years 5 and 6 (all staff involved!)

Art - Wednesday - places already allocated.

A letter will be sent out at the beginning of next term with all the new clubs and start dates.

Cricket Club

All for Sport are running a cricket summer camp from Monday 25th July to Friday 12th August at Old Elizabethans Cricket Club.  There will be former England cricket stars attending during the summer and these include Mark Ilott, Darren Gough and Nasser Hussain.  For more details call Paul Barnfather on 07761 678535/01992 552369 or e mail on: allforsport@btinternet.com

Open Day

This takes place on Friday 1st July from 4-5.30pm. As in previous years the school from YR through to Y6 will be closed at 1pm and children should be collected after lunch from the usual pick up places. The nursery will not be closed in the afternoon and afternoon nursery pupils should attend as normal.

You are all warmly invited to return to school at 4pm with your children. There will be "drop in" activities in YN, YR and Y1 for the younger children to take part in at any time between 4pm and 5pm. The children in Y2 through to Y6 will be involved in activities for 20-30 minute slots between 4pm and 5.30pm, children will bring home notes detailing these activities at the end of next week.

When not watching your child's activity we would like you to look around the whole school to see the displays and activities taking place in every classroom. There will be a chance for you to say goodbye to your child's present teacher and to introduce yourself to their new one. Every year this event is extremely well attended and shows us how you value the opportunity to see the progression of learning through the school. The children always love to show off their talents on this day and are looking forward to it tremendously.

Staffing

Mrs Fowler is retiring at the end of July. She has worked with dedicated commitment for 16 years here at St. John's and will be sorely missed by the whole school community. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all her hardwork and caring support and wish her a very well earned and restful retirement. We will be purchasing a gift for the children to give to Mrs Fowler, if you would like to contribute please send it in a named envelope to the school office before 8th July 2005.  

Mr Steve Llewellyn is also leaving us in July after four years as D&T co-ordinator and PE teacher. He has raised the standard of DT enormously during his time here and has put DT on the map as a very popular subject. He has put in place many plans that will allow us to carry on his good work when he is no longer with us. We wish him every happiness in the future and look forward to welcoming him back for DT weeks in the future.

Miss Latimer has this year successfully completed her Graduate Teacher Training programme with us in Y6. She will be moving on to full-time employment in the primary sector (hopefully not too far away!) in the new academic year. She has been a great asset this year and has been especially supportive to the Y6 pupils in their last year at St. John's. We thank her for all her very hard work, enthusiasm and energy and wish her a very rewarding and successful career ahead as a primary teacher.

Staffing for Next Year

Maintenance Fund

Many of you have already fully paid up but there are still some outstanding contributions. We would urge you to check your records and if you have not already done so please send in your contribution as soon as possible. Thanks to this scheme we are having the replacement of our boiler and classroom heaters partially funded. The work is due to take place during the summer holidays. At present we only have to pay a small percentage of the cost of this work. However, had we not been fully paid up to the maintenance and insurance scheme last year the school would have had to meet the whole cost of this work, so you can see how important your contributions are. We need the support of all parents in this.  

Illegal Parking

It never fails to amaze me that despite constant reminders one or two parents consistently put the lives of our children at risk by parking on the zig zags and at the entrance to the staff car park. Residents of Swan Lane have vociferously and quite rightly complained on a regular basis and we have asked them to take down details of car registration numbers and forward them to the police. Please

DO NOT PARK ON ZIG ZAGS OR AT THE ENTRANCE TO OR IN THE STAFF CAR PARK.

You are endangering the lives of yours and other peoples children - do not wait until it is too late!!! 

Jane Martin

16.6.05