Notes from the Headteacher... Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of St John’s Academy I can’t believe it has been a year since I introduced you to the last Christmas newsletter. Where has 2013 gone? Whilst I can reflect that it has been a very busy year for of all us, and therefore the time has gone by very quickly, it has also been another great year here in St John’s at the North Inch Community Campus. The usual Christmas preparations are well underway with the sound of carols and music throughout our corridors as we prepare for the now ‘famous’ Nativity play and concerts and we plan the parties from Nursery through to Secondary six. At this time of year, when small children (and not so small children and young people) are preparing lists for Santa and hinting for the latest ‘must have’ gifts, it’s always a joy to see our children and young people reaching out to others in greater need. On Tuesday 19 November we had a bucket appeal for the Philippines SCIAF Disaster Aid Fund and amazingly, in just over 1 hour, we raised over £700 – amazing generosity. December, as always, is full of fun filled lunchtime activities while raising our usual thousands of pounds for SCIAF. Before we break off for Christmas we will post off our many boxes of gifts to the abandoned children and families that the Mercy Project supports in the area around Bucharest in Romania. Huge thanks to all of you for your kindness and I ask you to keep all of the people we try to support in your thoughts and prayers. I hope you enjoy reading about the highlights of this year throughout this newsletter. For me, one of the highlights will once again be when we join our Polish community in their inspiring approach to celebrating Christmas. Our term will finish on Friday 20 December 2013 with our Primary service at 9.30am; our Secondary service will begin at 11.20 taking us to 12 noon when we can all go off to enjoy our holidays. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the joys and blessings of Christmas and to send the very best of wishes for 2014 to all our families. twitter: @st_johnsacademy 2 St John’s RC Academy- Term Two Newsletter New website - www.st-johnsacademy.org.uk Curriculum Update “undergoing a time of major curriculum improvement” St John’s RC Academy (along with every school in Scotland) is undergoing a time of major curriculum improvement. These improvements are needed so that we can enable every child and young person to be ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Under the title of ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ there have been significant improvements in approaches to learning, to teaching and to how we engage children and young people in all aspects of the school community. “progression from the current National 5s” The most recent changes involve the introduction of new national qualifications in S4, which are called National 3-5. These replace Standard Grades and will also replace Access 3 and Intermediate 1-2 from next year. Next year also sees the introduction of the new Highers which will offer progression from the current National 5s. “young people in S4 will have fewer exams in April/May” Some of the changes are quite fundamental to how we assess our pupils. For example, qualifications at National 3 and 4 (and a few at National 5) do not require an external exam. This allows assessment to be gathered on a day-to-day basis and will better reflect what our pupils can actually do, without the distraction of a formal examination. This will also mean that almost all young people in S4 will have fewer exams in April/May. We are currently looking at what this will mean for exam leave with other Perth City schools and what alternative programmes we might be able to offer for those with only a few/no examinations in April/May. “all our young people can achieve” Teaching staff in the school are working extremely hard to ensure that every child and young person achieves at every stage throughout the school. Teachers in the secondary are working hard to deliver the new national qualifications in S4, and prepare for the new Highers in S5/6 for next year. As always, we ask our parents and carers to support your child and your school in every way you can so that, together, all our young people can achieve or even exceed our expectations. “delighted to hear your views” We would be delighted to hear your views on how the curriculum at St John’s RC Academy is meeting the needs of your child. We would also be particularly interested at this time to know your views on exam leave. Please let us know in writing and address this to Mr Hagney, Depute Headteacher, or call the office and ask for a meeting time. Find out more at: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/NPF/files/2013/04/npfs_learner_journey_coloured.pdf New website - www.st-johnsacademy.org.uk Rights Respecting School News... In the past few weeks the Rights Respecting Schools Committee has been working hard on promoting rights throughout the primary and secondary schools. Both schools have been linking classroom display boards with an article that relates to the display. The primary school has been working on a football charter and a playground charter so anyone in those areas is aware of rights. Also a group of pupils from the secondary committee have been talking to library staff about getting a designated area in the library for books and displays dedicated to rights. The primary committee have come up with the idea of “Right of the Fortnight” where every two weeks the classes focus on one particular right. Primary pupils who show particular respect towards that right, will receive an award during assembly. The secondary committee have something similar with “Article of the Week” in the school bulletin every day with a new article being put in every Monday. The primary committee have also organised a competition to design a banner to be placed in the street area of the school to promote Rights Respecting Schools. Peace One Day Here are some of the photographs from our ‘One Day, One Dodge’ dodgeball tournament held in October. Each House from both primary and secondary competed against each other to celebrate the global annual event ‘Peace One Day’. This was a great success and we hope this will become an annual tournament where pupils can work together and celebrate Peace One Day. New website - www.st-johnsacademy.org.uk Nursery and Primary News... We have been very busy in Nursery this term. We celebrated Halloween by coming to nursery dressed up; we dooked for apples and played games. We also invited our parents/carers in to nursery to see what we do. It was good fun showing them our folders and playing with them. We also found out about Autumn. We made a house for Percy the Park Keeper and helped him look for woodland animals in the nursery. Then we had a Scottish week where we found out about Scotland; we read special stories, made tartan patterns and celebrated St Andrew’s Day by wearing something tartan, having a Scottish snack and learning some Scottish dances. We have also been very lucky as we get to work with some S3 girls who come to visit us every week. Some came during Book Week and read us a story. We are now finding out all about Christmas and are having a party and Sing Along on the 19th December (look for the posters in our cloakroom for the times). Mummy - Visit Primary 3 has been learning all about Ancient Egypt. We really enjoyed our trip to Perth Museum. We got to see a real Egyptian mummy called Princess Takherheb! We learned lots of interesting facts. We became archaeologists and took part in mummifying a mummy and found lots of amulets buried inside Ken the mummy! How Toys Work Primary 4 is learning about how toys work. First we looked at old toys and we asked our parents what toys were like when they were young. Then we tried to work out how toys worked and explored how they moved using magnets, electricity and forces. We have made our own posters, adverts and have prepared and presented toy talks. All the class was entertained by our puppet shows, which we wrote, designed the backgrounds for and acted out. Finally, we are going to design and create our own toys using all the information we have learned. Brooke and Amy P5 and P6 Mass On Sunday 1st December, Primary 5 and 6 led the 11am mass in St John's Church around the theme of advent. Thank you to all who came along to participate in the mass or to support the children. Dalguise Trip At the end of the October term, Primary Seven pupils had the opportunity to attend the Dalguise Outdoor Activity Centre. They had a wonderful time, supporting one another to take part in activities that were challenging as well as great fun. Activities included the Giant Swing, Zip wire and Jacob's Ladder, as well as night time fun with Cluedo, the disco and songs around the campfire. The children had such a fantastic time that some of them are still singing the songs that they learned there - especially the Moose song! New website - www.st-johnsacademy.org.uk Maths News..