Newsletters

Friday 25th November 2022

Today Father Mark blessed our beautiful Advent Wreaths in St Joseph's Church

 

 


This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and as part of our preparation for Advent we shall be sending out our travelling Advent cribs for each child in class from Monday.
During Advent a Travelling Crib Bag is taken home by a different child each night. All we ask is that when your child brings home their class crib you spend a little time exploring the contents with your child.
The travelling crib bag contains:
Crib and a set of Nativity figures
A candle to light by the crib.
A simple prayer leaflet so that you may pray together.
A ‘notebook’ in which you might like to write a prayer or share a thought about this holy season. It would be great to see some pictures of you sharing the story at home. These can be posted on class dojo or included in the notebook.
The travelling crib bags for our younger children have been updated this year and each bag contains a new Nativity story book for you to share together.
To help us to allow as many children as possible to benefit from these new resources, please make sure that they are taken care of and that each item is returned to the bag after use.
Please make sure your child returns the bag to school the next day, ready for another family to enjoy.
We appreciate your participation in celebrating the special season of Advent.

As you know last Saturday, we had our open morning for prospective parents.

This event was really well attended and all of our visitors were extremely impressed with our fantastic tour guides !

A huge thank-you to our wonderful Y6 team of tour guides …

Megan, Aiden, Sofia,Annabel, Anna, Atty, Sammy, Isabelle, Lily, Rosie and Amelia 

Our visitors left some wonderful feedback ...some of which we would like to share with you all…

"Thank you for allowing us to look around your wonderful school, your pupils are very well-mannered they are a credit to your school, friendly staff, lovely atmosphere !!"

"A really lovely atmosphere throughout with knowledgeable students to show us around.Thank you !"

"Very welcoming school. The boys showing me around were very good and presented themselves very well. They are an absolute credit to the school. A brilliant experience."

"We were all very impressed by the state of the school, the learning opportunities the school gives the students."

 

 

As always we would like to remind all of our parents and carers to park safely and considerately when dropping off and collecting children.

This week we received a lovely thank-you from one of our parents :

"I would like to thank Mr Exley for manning the traffic outside the school gate this morning. 

Someone was dropping her son off and parked on the zig zag lines outside school and as I was crossing over the road in front of her she was still rolling her car forwards whilst looking in a different direction and nearly hit my daughter. 

Mr Exley told her she shouldn’t park or drop off there and could knock children over. 

I just wanted to mention this and give him a special thanks for looking out for the safety of our children. "

In school, we are all doing our best to keep the children safe - please help us with this by making sure that you park safely.

DO NOT PARK ON THE ZIG ZAG LINES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL OR ON THE DOUBLE YELLOW LINES - THANK YOU.

 

This week one of our neighbours got in touch to say that children and parents are sitting on his front wall outside his house. He has politely asked that people do not do this. Please do be kind and considerate to all of our lovely neighbours.

If you or somebody that you know is struggling to buy uniform for your child, Hands worth Food Bank may be able to help. They are now stocking uniform for all the local schools in our area.

Charity shop opening hours are Fridays 10am – 1230 & Saturdays 9.30 – 1.30pm

Similarly, if you have any uniform that your child has grown out of and you no longer need, then the Food Bank really would appreciate your donations. Items can be dropped off at the following times.

Opening hours are Tuesday 12-2pm & Thursdays 4-6pm.

As always thank you for your support.

COST OF LIVING CRISIS:
ADVICE, SUPPORT & FINANCIAL HELP IN SHEFFIELD

Millions of people are experiencing increases in the cost of living, including rises in petrol, food, and gas and electric charges. This has left many facing tough decisions about how to spend their money, and many others in need of advice and financial support to afford rent, fuel bills, and everyday items. We have put the following list together which shows the resources available across Sheffield.

GENERAL ADVICE AND RESOURCES
• Sheffield City Council has put together a Money Support Guide and Worrying About Money leaflet which can be found online (https://bit.ly/3zBLzdF). Your local GP surgery may also have a paper copy.
• Sheffield City Council’s benefits page (https://bit.ly/3cKLyuW) contains information about support available in the city, including Household Support Fund, Council Tax Support, the Council Tax hardship scheme, Discretionary Housing Payments, and the Local Assistance Scheme.
• Voluntary Action Sheffield has information about local cost of living support, including the network of Welcoming Places across the city.
• The MoneySavingExpert website has information about how to reduce your spending as costs rise.
• The Government’s MoneyHelper and Help for Households websites provide advice for people facing financial difficulties.
• Citizens Advice Sheffield provide free, independent advice on benefits, debt, housing, and employment rights.
• The Stop Loan Sharks team have a 24-hour helpline (0300 555 2222) and online chat to enable people to report Loan Sharks and receive confidential support.
• Step Change provide advice and help for people who are in dept, including an online debt tool.

FUEL AND ENERGY SUPPORT
• The Sheffield City Council website has a page of information about Ways to reduce your fuel bills.
• The government has a Simple Energy Advice website, including an Energy Efficiency Calculator
which provides personalised advice on reducing energy bills.
• The Turn2Us website contains information about the schemes available to help with fuel bills.
• Groundwork provides free Green Doctor visits to help with reducing heating costs.
• Energy suppliers have Priority Services Registers which provide support for vulnerable people, including those with a mental health condition or families with children under five. You can find more information about these on the Ofgem website.
• National Energy Action (NEA) provide one-to-one advice, support, and grants to the most vulnerable and low-income households. They have grants available for customers on pre-pay meters and on low incomes or benefits.
• Water suppliers also have extensive support for people struggling to pay. Information about the schemes offered by Yorkshire Water schemes can be found online.
• Citizens Advice Sheffield may also be able to offer fuel cost support for prepaid meter users.

HOUSING SUPPORT
• If you are a Council or Housing Association tenant and are struggling to pay your rent, you should contact your landlord in the first instance. Council tenants who make contact may be able to arrange for their debts to be paid over a longer period or by direct debit and will also receive advice about the support they are entitled to.
• Discretionary Housing Payments can provide financial support for rent or housing costs to those who receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (but not the maximum amount).
• If you are of pension age and on a low income, then you may be able to claim Housing Benefit and/or Pension Credit.
• The Homelessness Prevention Fund can be used as short-term help for someone who is homeless or at risk of homelessness. For further information call the Housing Solutions Team (0114 273 6306).
• Private rented tenants struggling to pay their rent and at risk of homelessness can contact the Sheffield City Council Housing Solutions Team on 0114 273 6306.
• If you are worried about paying your rent or mortgage, you can find information and advice on Shelter’s website and via their freephone line (0808 800 4444). You can also contact your local Shelter team on 0344 515 1515 or email Sheffield_Hub@shelter.org.uk if your landlord has threatened or taken action, served you with a notice or there is a court order in place.

GRANTS AND FUNDING
• Council Tax Support may be available for those on low incomes. In addition, the Council Tax Hardship Scheme provides further support to those who receive council tax support but are still unable to meet their council tax costs.
• The Household Support Fund is available for those who need urgent support coping with the cost of living crisis, providing advice on a wide range of hardship grants and support schemes. The support fund team can be contacted online or by phone (0114 273 4567).
• Citizens Advice Sheffield are also available to support people to claim for Universal Credit through
their Help to Claim service available online or over the phone.
• Families who are eligible for Free School Meals will continue to receive vouchers over some school holidays this year. Further information about this scheme is available online.
• Sheffield Credit Union is on hand to provide affordable loans and savings advice for those who need it. The credit union can help build and improve credit records to improve your access to mainstream financial services.
• The Local Assistance Scheme provides grants to support independent living and for those in crisis situations who are not receiving help. 
For Organisations:
• South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation has set up a Sheffield Cost of Living fund. This can
provide grants for organisations that are supporting local people with the cost-of-living crisis.

Message from the Friends of St Joseph's 

We'll be having a Christmas Raffle to raise money for school. Every penny is spent on the children. We know times are really tough so any support you can give is extremely welcome.

Tickets are £2.50 each and are now on sale on The School Gateway. If you'd like to buy tickets for family members please enter their name and contact number in the Comments section. The raffle will be drawn on the 19th December.

First, Second and Third prize £50 cash.

If you're able to donate a prize that would be amazing. Please drop donations off at the school office or email friendsofstjos@outlook.com to arrange collection.

We're asking for donations of the following luxury items for a hamper: -

• Wine/Spirits

• Chocolate

• Biscuits

• Ham/Salmon

• Sweets

• Crackers

• Mince pies

• Christmas puddings

If you would like to find out more about being part of the Friends of St Joseph’s please email the friends email address friendsofstjos@outlook.com

Thank you for all your support xx

 

Spotlight on Y5 and Y6

This week, we thought you might like to take a look at some of the fantastic work that has been happening in our UKS2 classes.

Year 5

 

 

 

Year 6

 

 

 

This year, we are delighted to have been given a place on the SHINE Project, delivered by Sheffield Girls High School.

We are one of eight schools in the city who have been chosen to send 4 of our  Y5's for 10 Saturdays to the High School.

The children shall be experiencing lots of great opportunities whilst they are there. These sessions started last Saturday, and it is fair to say that the children loved it !`

This week we received some fantastic feedback about one of our students in particular :

"I just wanted to send you this email to tell you that Ezekiel has been nominated to be our Star of the Week. All the mentors were very impressed with how much Ezekiel got involved in the activity and took on a leadership role in his group. We recognise how much confidence this required, and we are pleased to see this. "

We are extremely proud of all the children who are attending, Ezekiel, Lilly Mae, David and Anastasia.