Newsletters

Friday 19th January 2024

Our School Vision Statement

“We nurture the resilience and potential of future global citizens.”

Our Motto

Following in Jesus’ footsteps, we live, love, learn and share.

Over the next few weeks the children and staff will be reviewing the school vision and revisiting the motto which represents our school beliefs and ideals.  We want to ensure that we are living this motto and that we all are aware of what it should look like in our school. Our school vision embodies our hopes for every child's future.

Our house captains, Sophie and David, introduced our first Maker Spirit for this year

Collaboration

Collaborative learning will help the children develop a range of skills. It helps to build confidence and working in a team encourages children to do their best. It motivates and inspires them and promotes embedded learning. Pupils are more likely to remember something they've learnt through discussing and sharing ideas. Working collaboratively can improve psychological health. This means children can develop emotional maturity, a strong personal identity, the ability to overcome challenges and a basic trust and optimism for people. Each pupil brings their own skills and strengths to the table and they can be supported and valued by others in the group.  Collaboration can help shape the children into well-rounded adults. They can take what they've learnt about the value of each other's strengths and supporting others further into their education, and eventually into work

Year 5 Visit to Magna

On Thursday Year 5 visited Magna for a workshop to support their learning on Forces. This workshop introduced the children to the invisible role of forces in everyday life. In our dynamic world everything that happens is caused by forces. In order to help understand them the children investigated fire, rockets, whirlpools, and even marshmallows. The workshop motivated the children to have a go, puzzle over problems and think through answers. 

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Reading at St Joseph's

Reading is a skill that most of us take for granted, yet is one that is essential for being able to get on in life. As a child grows up, being able to read well not only enables them to discover new facts and to learn at school, but also opens them up to a world of new ideas, stories and opportunities. Research shows children who read for pleasure will achieve more than those that don’t in later life. 

We value the importance of ensuring that our children are exposed to a wealth of books.  We have carefully selected books that represent different abilities, cultures, beliefs, appropriate age content as well as offering challenge to readers in all year groups in both poetry, fiction and non-fiction alike. We have created, a progressive list of books for all classes with our

100 Books to Read before you leave

Offering a diverse Reading curriculum ensures that we are supporting all our children in finding titles that they can read and connect with on some level while affirming their own cultural identifies and hopefully developing important, positive insights about others.

Smartphone Safety Tips

According to Ofcom, 69% of under-18s use a smartphone as their main method of going online. Additionally, 49% of children use them for online gaming – putting smartphones only behind consoles (59%) as the device of choice for playing games on. Most people won’t require such statistical evidence, however, to acknowledge the huge importance of phones to young people.

Given that Santa’s recent visit is likely to have bestowed smartphones on an even greater number of young people, it’s a particularly opportune moment to ensure that children are able to use their handsets responsibly – and, above all, safely. Please find some essential advice, including passcodes to parental controls, and from screen time to scams in the guide below

Attendance guidance for parents

One of the most important things you can do for your child is to make sure they attend school regularly and on time. This starts from the very first time your child attends an education setting e.g. nursery or foundation stage. 

Starting good attendance and punctuality habits early will help your child’s social development. Making and keeping friendships is easier if your child is there on time, every day. 

Absence 

Unfortunately most children will have some absence from school, usually due to illness. It is important, however, to remember that not all illnesses mean your child cannot attend school unless obviously unwell, and that your child should return to school as soon as they are able. Never keep a child off school to avoid being late, being on time is important but it is better to miss a small part of the day than the whole day.

The longer children are away from school the harder it may be to fit back into school life. The more school work they miss the harder it will be to catch up. Even though written work can be caught up, the lesson itself cannot be re-taught and valuable explanation or group activities can be lost. 

Holidays/Exceptional Leave in Term Time

Family holidays should be taken during school holiday periods. Your child is expected to be in school every day during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

If there are exceptional circumstances requiring your child to be absent from school then an application for leave should be made to the headteacher who will decide whether or not to grant the leave.

If leave is not granted and you take your child out of school for a holiday you may be fined.

Weekly Attendance - week beginning 15th January 2024 

 

Our whole school attendance target for this academic year (23/24) is 96.5%

Follow the link below for further information:

NHS 'Is my child too ill for school?' guidance

 

Upcoming Events and Important Dates 

2024

Tues 23rd Jan - Visit by Bishop Ralph

Thurs 1st Feb - Star Man visit Year 5

Thurs 1st Feb - South Yorkshire Fire Service visit Year 3

Mon 5th Feb - Children's Mental Health Week

Tues 6th Feb - Safer Internet Day

Fri 9th Feb - Sports for Champion Day

Spring Half Term - 12th to 16th February

Thurs 29th Feb - Year 5 visit Pizza Express

Weds 20th March - Year 6 Get Up to Speed STEM showcase @Magna 

Thurs 21st March - Parents Evening

Sun 24th March - Palm Sunday Beginning of Holy Week

Tues 26th March - Parents Evening

Weds 27th March - KS2 Passion Play

Thurs 28th March - Maunday Thursday - End of Spring Term

Easter Break - 29th March – 12th April

Mon 15th April - Pupils return to school

Adverse Weather Policy 

As the weather forecast is poor, we would like to remind you of the emergency procedures.

As well as the unpredictable weather, there may be times when we are not able to open school due to unforeseen emergencies such as no water which would mean that the site does not meet the necessary Health and Safety requirements. We could even find ourselves without enough staff available to look after all the children. Should any of these events occur we will communicate this information in the following ways: 

EMAIL - We will email messages as email will often arrive quicker so please check your emails. 

WEBSITE - You can check on Sheffield City Council Website:  https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/schoolclosures

click here

RADIO - Messages will be relayed on:

Radio Sheffield 88.6, 104.1 FM  and  Radio Hallam: 97.4, 102.9, 103.4 FM 

Please do not ring school as the phone lines will be busy.

THE PRAYER INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE YEAR 2024

JANUARY
FOR THE GIFT OF DIVERSITY IN THE CHURCH
We pray that the Holy Spirit may help us to recognise the gift of different charisms within the Christian community and to discover the richness of different traditions and rituals in the Catholic Church.