St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School 15 th December 2015 Hillcrest Road, Dudley, Dear Parents, West Midlands DY2 7PW Principal: Mr M Hinton, B.Ed. Hons, NPQH Happy Christmas Telephone: 01384 818925 We break up for the Christmas Holidays on Friday. This newsletter Fax: contains all of the important dates for the rest of the week and some 01384 818930 other useful information about the school. We would like to wish you Website: www.st-jo-dud.dudley.sch.uk and your family a very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year and Email: [email protected] look forward to working with you and your children in 2016. This Week th Wednesday 16 December: OWN CLOTHES DAY FOR ALL CHILDREN, Father Christmas will be visiting to deliver the school’s Christmas present to each child and we will be having our Christmas Parties and Discos. If you can, please donate £1 towards the cost of the Disco and please donate a tin of food which we will send to the homeless at The Good Shepherd Shelter. This is an Advent offering and we always ask for the tins on the day of the parties and discos as a reminder that not everyone in the community is as fortunate as we are this Christmas. By donating a tin of food the children are learning that it is important to think of others during Advent and Christmas. Thursday 17th December: Carol Service in Church at 6pm. All are welcome. If you would like your child to perform, please contact Mrs Hancox and let her know. All of the children need an adult in the Church with them at all times – they cannot be dropped off at Church. This beautiful service which is a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas lasts for about 45 minutes. There will be an optional raffle to raise funds for the Church. Friday 18th December: Merit Assembly and Attendance Certificates at 11am. Our Choir will be performing a selection of their Christmas songs at the assembly. There will be Christmas Carols and Readings around the tree in the hall at 2pm. All are welcome. Christmas Holidays: We break up on Friday 18th December and school reopens to pupils at 8.45am on TUESDAY 5th JANUARY. Other News Thank you for your generous support Thank you so much for your support of our Christmas Fair and the many raffles we have held at the Christmas Nativity performances. The fair raised £650 and this has been split between school fund and the Church All of the money raised for school fund pays for extras for the children such as Christmas Part of St John Bosco Catholic Academy Company Registered in England and Wales No. 08608177 Kind hands, kind words…like Jesus Registered office: Burton Road, Dudley DY1 3BY Snow and Bad Weather The main ways we publicise the closure of the school in bad weather is by texting parents and putting a message on the school website. Please make sure you have updated us with your current mobile phone number. We will also publicise the closure on the Dudley Council website. We will attempt to publicise the closure on local radio stations: Black Country Radio, Free Radio (Wolverhampton and Black Country) Free Radio (Birmingham) Heart / Capital and BBC Radio WM. Please note the radio is the slowest media to be updated due to volume of calls/emails from schools so by far the best channel is to check your texts, our school website and the Dudley Council website. When listening to the radio remember there are lots and lots of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Schools in the West Midlands! Listen out for the address to ensure it is our school that is being called out! Christmas Mass times in the Church Masses at Our Lady and St Thomas of Canterbury, St Joseph Street, Dudley Christmas Eve: Carols at 5.30pm, Vigil Mass at 6pm Christmas Day: 11am A polite request Please could we ask you to remind the children not to knock/pull the memorial tree by the shelter. The tree is a lasting tribute to a past pupil of St Joseph’s, Rachel Poppy Turner who sadly died of Cancer in 2002. Thanks ever so much. Applications for places in our Reception Class The deadline for applications for places in Reception Class is 16th January 2016. If your child will turn 5 between September 1st 2016 and August 31st 2017 you need to apply for your place. Please make sure you apply in time as applying late puts you at great risk of NOT getting your preferred choices. Parentview Please remember to submit your views on our school via Parentview. All that we ask is that if you have any problems – please, please speak to us first so we can try to make things better. Please go to www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk you will need to register if you haven’t already done so and you will need an email address. Even if you have submitted a review before – we now need more new reviews for this academic year as reviews are archived after 12 months. We would be ever so grateful if you could spare the time to submit your review. Goodbye and thank you At Christmas we say goodbye and thank you to Mrs Webb who has worked in our Nursery for many years. Mrs Webb has been a well-loved member of staff by hundreds of Nursery children and their parents who have always appreciated her care, kindness and helpfulness. Mrs Webb has been poorly for a while and has decided to leave our school at Christmas. We want to thank her very much for her years of service and wish her health and happiness as she leaves our school. We will also be saying goodbye to Miss Conlon, teaching assistant from Year 6 at the beginning of January. Miss Conlon is leaving us to start work as a social worker. She has been an excellent member of staff in the four terms she has worked with us and we wish her well for the future. Welcome In January we will welcome a support teacher to our Year 6 team. Mrs MacDonald will be supporting Year 6 as they get ready for their important tests at the end of the year. Mrs MacDonald is a qualified, experienced and successful teacher and will work under the direction of Mrs Cheema, Year 6 Class Teacher, to provide small group and one to one tuition. Keep in touch We are proud to always be ready to sort problems out straight away. If you or your child are unhappy or worried for any reason, no matter how small, you only have to let us know. You can normally see the class teacher after school and you can always phone and leave a message if you prefer. Mr Hinton (Headteacher) and Mrs Chapman (Deputy Headteacher) will always try their best to see you straight away. If we can’t see you immediately we will always phone you straight back. In our absence Mrs Hancox (Head of Early Years) and Mr Seex (Head of SEN and Inclusion) are the senior teachers. There is always a senior person available to help you. If for any reason you do not feel your problem has been resolved to your satisfaction – please always see Mr Hinton or Mrs Chapman and we will do our best to resolve the matter. Once again, Happy Christmas to you and your family and thank you for your support for the school. Kind regards, Mr M Hinton, Principal .