Newsletters

Friday 1st March 2024

The Gospel reading this Third Sunday of Lent shows Jesus’ anger as he drove animals and moneychangers out of the Temple. The sellers and moneychangers were not coming to the Temple because they loved God, they were coming to make money. Both these things made Jesus angry.

Jesus taught us that all people are God’s children; so we must treat each other as sisters and brothers, with love and respect. Jesus showed us in today’s reading that feeling and expressing anger when we see unfairness is okay; but doing nothing to change that unfairness is not.

As children of God we have a responsibility to change our world for the better. That means challenging unfairness whenever we see it. And we don’t have to turn over tables to do this, we can challenge unfairness gently. We can show people a fairer way to live by setting a good example. We can share our concerns with others and ask for their help. We can also ask God to help us challenge unfairness. Through prayer, we can ask God to change the hearts of people who are treating others badly, and we can ask God to show us how we can take action to make things better.

Sports for Champions Day

We are thrilled to announce that our Sports for Champions day was an incredible success! We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the dedicated parents and families who contributed to the tremendous success of this event. Your efforts in raising funds for our school are truly appreciated. 

A special thank you goes to Bex Rayner and Sophie Haywood, whose dedication and enthusiasm made this event possible. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to personally praise and thank Autumn in Year 4 who raised an incredible £150 to help our cause. 

The energy and passion displayed by the children during the drills were nothing short of amazing, with plenty of red faces showing just how hard they worked! 

Thanks to your incredible support, we were able to raise a total of over £1,800! St. Joseph's will be keeping around £700 from the proceeds to enhance the future of sports at our school. 

Let's keep the spirit of sports alive and continue to encourage and support our young champions! Thank you all for being a part of this fantastic success.

 

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World Book day is on Thursday 7th March.  On this day and throughout the week, we will be running various activities including author talks, library visits, dressing up and competitions.  

On Friday 8th, we are inviting all children to dress up as a BOOK character (not a film character); it could be as elaborate as you like, or as simple as wearing your pyjamas.  There will be prizes for the most creative and uniquely considered costumes.  

We are also running a ‘World Book Day Potatoes’ competition.  We would like as many of you as possible to decorate a potato to symbolise your favourite book.  These should be brought in on Thursday 7th, where they will be displayed and judged.  Prizes will be awarded.  Examples could be:

 

We will also be running a ‘Guess Who?’ competition, where teachers have had a photo of themselves taken whilst hidden behind their favourite book.  Can you guess who they are? 

If you want to take part in your own class’ version of this, please take a photo of yourself reading your favourite book, but don’t let us see your face, and send these to your class teacher on Dojo before Wednesday 6th March.  Examples:

World Book Day tokens

All children will receive a £1 book token as part of the World Book Day event. This can then be used as part payment for a more expensive book, or they can be exchanged for the specially published £1 books. You can view the books available to buy on the website and also find a list of booksellers who stock the books .https://www.worldbookday.com/books/

Children will enjoy a range of activities throughout the week; these may include:  

  • Sharing recommended reads with friends  
  • Role-playing book characters  
  • Listening to famous authors reading extracts  
  • BBC live lesson at 11am (Thursday 7th) 
  • School library visits (Y6)
  • Making bookmarks 
  • Live Writing lesson 9:30am (Thursday 7th) 
  • The Great Big Footy & Booky Quiz 9:30am (Y4-Y6) (Thursday 7th) 

Sharing a story https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/ks2-english-world-book-day-10-minute-storysharing/zjyc96f

These videos are from World Book Day's 10 Minute Story Sharing, where you can watch and listen to a selection of book readings with some of World Book Day's favourite authors, including extracts from stories by Michael Morpurgo, Ben Bailey Smith and Dominic Sandbrook.

We look forward to sharing our love of reading with the children throughout the week. 

Thank you. 

E. Loveridge 

This week we are looking for children who demonstrate the

Maker Spirit of being Innovative

Our house captains from the Disciples and Prophets houses, introduced the skills children need to be innovative. They explained that to be innovative

  • We need to be open to change and be positive about the prospect of changing ideas to make them more useful or improve the design. 
  • We need to seek out all possibilities and to find different ways to make or design something to then make a good decision.
  • We need to persevere and make things work. If something isn’t going as planned we can try to make it work by making small changes or re-designing the project. 

How to develop innovation in children

Skill How to Encourage
1) Develop Curiosity Encourage exploration and ask open-ended questions.
2) Encourage Taking Risks Support them in trying new things and not being afraid of failure.
3) Let them choose & Decide Give them options and let them make decisions.
4) Provide a purpose Show how their creative efforts contribute to something meaningful.
5) Encourage kids to play more Promote activities that involve imagination and creativity.
6) Praise their Efforts Focus on the process and effort, not just the end result.
7) Create a space for their Ideas to be shared Provide a platform for them to express and discuss their ideas.

Language Ambassadors

Our Language Ambassadors work hard to promote an awareness of languages and cultures and to foster a love of languages across the school. The Language Ambassadors held a whole school assembly to talk about why it was important to learn foreign languages and celebrate diversity of languages and cultures. They introduced Japan as this month's focus country and shared some interesting facts including how to say hello - konnichiwa

Upcoming Events and Important Dates 

Tues 5th March - Mars Day

Thurs 7th March - World Book Day

Thurs 7th March - Y6 visit to the library

Mon 11th March - Science Week begins

Wed 13th March - Sheffield Girls High Netball Coaching 

Wed 13th March - Step into the NHS Day

Thurs 14th March - Parent Coffee Afternoon 2-3pm

Mon 18th March - Autism Awareness Week

Tues 19th March - Solemnity of St Joseph's - Mass @ 10am

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

Weds 20th March - Stations of the Cross in church  

Thurs 21st March - Parents Evening (3:30 - 6pm)

Sun 24th March - Palm Sunday Beginning of Holy Week

Tues 26th March - Parents Evening (3:30 - 6pm)

Weds 27th March - KS2 Easter Praise

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

Easter Break - 29th March – 12th April

Mon 15th April - Pupils return to school

Mon 13th May - SATS week

Fri 17th May - May Procession

Year 5 visit Pizza Express

Year 5 visited Pizza Express where they learnt a lot about cooking and good food and had loads of fun along the way. They arrived at 9:30am and were greeted by the Restaurant Manager and their team. Before cooking began, the Manager went through some important cooking basics, such as washing hands and staying safe in the kitchen.


Ready, steady, pizza. Next, the pizzaiolo (pizza chef) demonstrated how to make a famous, Italian classic: the Margherita. Everyone had the chance to knead the dough, making it lovely and smooth, and create the perfect base. Then the children discovered just how important the fresh ingredients are to the pizza’s flavour. The pizza's were finished by topping with passata (tomato) sauce, mozzarella and basil.


Of course the final test is in the tasting!

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Your attendance counts

The academic and social benefits of good school attendance gives children the best start in life and beyond.

In the last few years the number of children missing days of school has increased and it is a priority in Sheffield, and in the rest of the country, to turn this around. We can all work together to improve children’s school attendance.

Being on time matters too, as being late for school can be disruptive to children and their friends in class. 

We want children to be in school every day, on time and ready to learn!

Weekly Attendance - week beginning 26th February 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

Top Tips for Supporting Children Who Are Experiencing Bullying

Bullying has long been a pervasive issue in schools – and, being realistic, it’s regrettably a problem which is always likely to exist to a certain extent. There are still plenty of steps we can take as trusted adults, however, to lend support, comfort and reassurance to children who are going through this deeply upsetting experience.

Such a highly emotive topic can be a difficult one to talk about with children – but honest, open communication nevertheless remains vital to young victims’ wellbeing. It’s important to be aware, then, of effective ways to broach and explore the subject. The guide below has expert advice on effective ways to support children who are being bullied.

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Thankyou to those parents that took the time to complete our survey regarding the parking around school. We will use the results to understand the concerns around parking and develop ideas and solutions to help tackle the issue. 

Parking Enforcement Officers visited on Tuesday before school and witnessed several cars pulling up in the restricted areas around school. All of these drivers were spoken to by the officers giving them a warning that if they did park there again whilst they were present a PCN would be issued. The congestion around school has noticeably improved and the Parking Enforcement Officers and PCSOs will be attending as often as they can in the future.

What can you do to help keep everyone safe around the school gates?

Please don’t:

  •  Block the road - emergency vehicles and other traffic may need access
  •  Park on yellow lines, zig-zags or block the school entrance
  • Park on the pavement, across dropped kerbs or residents’ driveways
  • Park opposite or within 10 metres of a junction 
  • Park where you will cause inconvenience to other road users
  • Leave your vehicle with the engine still running
  • Stop in the middle of the road to drop your child off, even for a few seconds
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We are an Operation Encompass School

Operation Encompass is a partnership between police and schools

Schools receive an Operation Encompass notification when a child is exposed to (or involved in) any domestic incident. Specially trained members of our Safeguarding Team are informed so that we can respond appropriately to support the safety and wellbeing of any children and family members affected. 

Our Safeguarding Team is: 

Designated Safeguarding Lead

  • Mrs P Harrand 

Designated Safeguarding Deputies

  • Mrs D McFarlane
  • Mrs H Fern
  • Mr T Findler 
  • Mrs E Loveridge

To find out more please follow this link Operation Encompass

 British Science Week

British Science Week 2024 takes place during the 8th - 17th March 2024 and this year's theme is Time!

Dear Parents/Carers

As already highlighted in the school diary, we are offering you an opportunity to come into school this term to look at your child's work and discuss his or her progress with their class teacher. This will also give you an opportunity to explore how we can work together to ensure your child makes the best possible progress towards the targets and expectations we are setting them.

This terms Parents’ Evening will be across two days: 

Thursday 21st March (3:30pm - 6:00pm) 

Tuesday 26th March (3:30pm - 6:00pm) 

You will receive an appointment from your class teacher on class dojo. If you are unable to attend at the allocated time, please send a dojo message or contact the office so that a suitable alternative can be arranged. Please be aware that appointments are strictly 10 minutes and you will need to arrive in good time. If you require any further discussion beyond the initial meeting, you must make a separate appointment with your child's class teacher. 

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher.

FRIENDS OF ST JOSEPH'S

It's almost Mother's Day! To show all the mums, grandmas and carers some love, we'll be having our present wrap on

FRIDAY 8th MARCH.

Presents are £3 and will be available to buy on the School Gateway ❤️

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Loving God,

Help us to work together

to share what we have

so that everyone has what they need.

Help us to build a better world

where each of us can become the best person we can be.

Amen