St Joseph's Academy Parent Portal - Friday 24th January 2024

In the Catholic Church, a Jubilee or Holy Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to come back into the right relationship with God, with one another, and with all creation.

The 2025 Jubilee Year began on Christmas Eve 2024 and concludes on 6^th January 2026. For schools, the Jubilee launch day is today, the 24^th January 2025.

The theme for the Jubilee is Pilgrims of Hope. Pope Francis has invited Catholics to renew our hope and discover a vision that can ‘restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone’. We are also invited to rediscover the spirituality of God’s creation in which we understand ourselves as ‘pilgrims on the earth’ rather than masters of the world.

The theme of the Jubilee Year is hope.

Mrs Harrand, along with our Y6 Liturgy Leaders, led a whole school assembly today, to launch the Jubilee Holy Year. We were also joined by our Vice Chair of Governors, Mrs Rae, who had been lucky enough to be in Rome over Christmas and had seen Our Holy Father opening the Jubilee Door. A wonderful way to begin our whole school pilgrimage of hope.

St. Francis of Assisi (Oct 4) Free ...

This week our Y5 children led a whole school assembly all about their class saint, Saint Francis of Assissi.

It really was fantastic, the children spoke so clearly and the singing and solo pieces were beautiful.

They left us all with a very important message, that every small act of kindness makes a big difference.

Let us all try our very best to be more like Saint Francis.

Whole School Attendance - 95 %

Reception 95%

Year 1 95%

Year 2 95%

Year 3 97%

Year 4 92%

Year 5 96%

Year 6 96%

St Joseph’s whole school attendance is relatively strong and better than some of the other schools in our locality.

It has been noticed, however, that unfortunately, a number of children are persistently late for the start of the school day. Please make sure that you give yourselves plenty of time to travel and particularly to park your car safely if you travel to school by car.

Children don’t like being late as this means that they miss the start of a lesson. This may make them feel embarrassed, miss out on being able to speak to their teacher or TA in the morning, or they simply miss out on finding out what they are learning.

The school gate opens at 8:15am and children should arrive at 8:30 am, ready for registration at 8:45am. If you arrive after this time and find the school gates closed, please go to the school office and sign your child in using our electronic system.

The registers are legally closed by the office at 9:15 am. This means that any child who arrives late after the Register is closed at 9.15am will be registered as an unauthorised absence ('U' code in the register). This counts as half a day’s absence.

If your child is going to be late due to an urgent medical appointment, please ensure that the office is informed and has seen proof of the medical appointment either before or after they have attended.

The only way to ensure that your child is not marked as late in the register is for them to be in their class line for when the teacher arrives to collect their class at 8.40am, so that they can be registered at 8:45am.

Should you have any questions at all in regard to this, then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

According to findings from the NHS, 1 in 5 children in England suffer from a probable mental health issue, with 420,000 treated for such problems every month. With such high numbers of young people in need of mental health support, it’s perhaps unsurprising that plenty of them have turned to using apps intended to help them through these kinds of challenges.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of risks associated with these services, from data collection to a potentially unhelpful, impersonal experience. It can be difficult to know how to keep young users safe as they navigate these services, but this week’s guide provides expert advice on how to do exactly that, while also breaking down the specific safety concerns of mental health and wellbeing apps.

Coming soon is ‘Rock and Pop’ Music Lessons!

Exciting news! From Thursday 27th February 2025, we will be welcoming Rocksteady Music School to St Joseph’s School.

It’s an incredible opportunity for children to learn to play their favourite songs in their very own bands with a choice of drums, keyboards, electric guitar, bass guitar or vocals.

As well as learning new musical skills, lessons also boost children’s confidence, well-being, social skills, and teamwork. Lessons take place every week during school time.

These fun and inclusive lessons are taught by highly trained professional musicians who know how to inspire a life-long love of music. At the end of each term, the bands perform a concert for the school and their families, so you can see how far they have come!

Here’s what you need to know:
• All instruments are provided.
• No musical experience necessary.
• Suitable for all ages.
• Lessons take place in school.
• All children work towards an Ofqual regulated, Trinity Music accredited qualification in Music.
• Your child will learn up to 300 instruments, band, and performance skills.
• You’ll receive regular online parent timeline updates.
• There’s a money-back guarantee for the first month.
• You can cancel at any time.

To introduce the children to Rocksteady, workshops will be held in school on Thursday 30th January 2025, giving the children a chance to try out the instruments and learn all about being a musician in a band.
You can sign up for lessons online. Please look out for a letter from Rocksteady, which your child will bring home with them after their workshop, or visit www.rocksteadymusicschool.com.

Dates for your Diary – South Lodge Primary

Thursday 30th January - Rocksteady Assembly
Friday 7^th February – Y3 visit to Kelham Island
W/C Monday 10th February - Wellbeing Week (This is a change from the date published last week.)
Friday 14^th February – Oliver Performance (For Parents of Y5)
Monday 17^th – Friday 21^st February – HALF TERM
Monday 24^th February – New Term Begins.

Promoting home school links - Parent Portal

We are always looking for ways to support and encourage parents and carers in the faith formation of their children. We are now able to share a new Parent Portal from TEN:TEN

The new TEN:TEN Parent Portal supports family prayer and worship at home, through seasonal featured TEN:TEN Collective Worship resources. Parents and carers will be able to view the monthly Parent Newsletters which bring Ten Ten’s media rich worship resources experienced by children at school, into their own homes, thus providing opportunities for enhancing family prayer times

Throughout the changing seasons of the Church’s Liturgical Year, featured resources will be made available as well as useful articles and advice on how to establish quality family prayer time.

All parents will be able to access the Online Parent Portal with the following login credentials:

We hope that families will enjoy praying together using the new Parent Portal and that the continuity between what children experience at school and home will help to promote ever closer home/school links and a more fruitful prayer experience for children and their families.

The TEN:TEN Online Parent Portal also gives parents access to our Relationships and Health programme called Life to the Full.

Using the same username and password above you can:

Understand the vision of the programme
Review a summary of all lessons
Watch videos
Engage your children with Suggestions for Home
Join in with the programme of prayer at home

Jubilee Prayer for Schools

God, our loving Father,
In this Jubilee year,
You remind us of our call to love creation.
Help us to work together
to replant, repair, and renew.
Guide us on our journey as pilgrims of hope.

Jesus, our light,
In this Jubilee year,
You remind us of our call to love our neighbours
and to set free those who suffer.
Help us to treat everyone with dignity;
to be fair, forgiving and kind.
Guide us on our journey as pilgrims of hope.

Holy Spirit, our inspiration,
In this Jubilee year, you remind us of our call to grow in faith and love.
Help us to hear you in scripture, to see Jesus in others,
and to be united as God’s global family.
Guide us on our journey as pilgrims of hope.
Amen