February 2022 Newsletter

 

Dear Parents, Carers and Children,

We have been delighted with how the children have returned since January – in good spirits and keen to work!  It has been wonderful to witness such excellent attitudes and commitment to being the ‘best you can be!’  

 

General information

Excellent attendance badges 

We appreciate the difficulties associated with attendance currently but you continue to commit to our high expectations for attendance and punctuality – thank you!   Every day in school is precious.  In the House Meeting this month we gave 55  badges for Reception to Year 6 children for ‘Excellent Attendance’.  These badges were awarded to children who displayed an outstanding commitment to their attendance in the Autumn term.  They can wear these badges with pride throughout the Spring term.

 

Term dates

All term dates – 2021/22 and 2022/23 are available to view via our website.  https://stbernadettes.npcat.org.uk/term-dates/  Over the last 2 years, the children have been forced to miss many days of face to face education – please be mindful of this and book holidays accordingly for this and next academic year. 

 

School meals

Our new chef, Nicola Mason, is settling into her role with the support of our fantastic Kitchen team.  Our delicious school menu is on a 3-week rota and up to date details are provided via our website: https://stbernadettes.npcat.org.uk/lunch-menu/   If you would like your child to have school dinners please inform the school office.  

 

Packed lunches

In our school curriculum provision, we often discuss the importance of healthy living and lifestyle choices.  With this in mind, please ensure you encourage your children to have a good balance of food choices should they be on packed lunches.  It has been noted that some children have several unhealthy choices in their packed lunches and this is not conducive to the message we provide in school.  Please note we do not allow any products containing nuts. Please ensure that grapes are halved. 

 

Party invites

Please be aware that as a result of some children getting upset recently we will only now distribute birthday party invites in school where the full class have been invited or a full group e.g. all girls/all boys.  Where not all children are able to attend a party please can parents facilitate their own way of inviting children.  Thank you for your understanding.  

Please also be reminded that we cannot distribute sweet treats/cakes following birthdays in school.  

 

Arbor agreements

We are still awaiting some parents to agree to our updated User agreement via the Arbor app.  We have reissued reminders where necessary this month.  If anyone would like to discuss certain aspects of the User agreement do not hesitate to contact Mr Conway, Miss Brady or Mr Bourner via the school office. Currently we cannot display children’s work via Facebook without this agreement.  

Please also read and agree to our Trust Home School Agreement on Arbor which outlines our close partnership and expectations. 

 

Reading and Times tables video 

Mr Bourner has created a learning video to explain our rationale behind our Reception to Y6 ‘100 read’ scheme and our Y1-6 ‘Times tables’ booklets.  If you have not already seen it please visit our school website and please continue to support our initiatives either at home or as a regular volunteer – it makes a massive difference! https://stbernadettes.npcat.org.uk/curriculum-support-videos/

 

COVID updates

We will keep you abreast with the regular changes to COVID guidance.  As things stand please be aware of the following:

• Please be advised that there are a limited number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 within some year groups.  Across the country Covid-19 rates within the school age groups are increasing, please be assured we will continue to do all we can to prevent the spread of infection to keep our children and families safe. We would recommend that where possible children take regular lateral flow tests to limit the spread of infection.  It is the responsibility of Test and Trace to inform you where you/children are close contacts.   Provided they don’t have symptoms of COVID, close contacts can continue to attend school/work but are expected to take lateral flow tests for 7 days.  
• Please be aware that confirmatory PCR tests following a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result are to be temporarily suspended from Tuesday 11 January. This is for asymptomatic people.  This will mean that asymptomatic people who receive a positive LFD test result will be required to self-isolate immediately and will not be required to take a confirmatory PCR test.  All positive lateral flow tests must be recorded on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result
• The guidance on symptomatic people (new continuous cough; high temperature; change of taste / smell) still requires people to stay at home and self-isolate immediately. You should arrange to have a PCR test as soon as possible. The guidance on symptomatic people is unchanged (new continuous cough; high temperature; change of taste / smell): If you have COVID-19 symptoms you should stay at home and self-isolate immediately. You should arrange to have a PCR test as soon as possible. If this PCR test result is positive, you must continue to self-isolate.  
• On Monday 17th January, the isolation period for people who test positive for Covid was cut to “five full days” in England.  People will be able to leave isolation from the start of day six after two negative tests e.g. Day 5 and morning of day 6.  Without 2 consecutive days of negative lateral flows, you must continue to self-isolate for 10 days.

 

Parent evening feedback

Thank you to all of the 66 parents who completed our November questionnaire. We were heartened by your responses as the staff have worked so hard to ensure your children are happy and progress well. We are proud of our school and our staff work so hard to make it the best possible school for your precious children.  A reminder that feedback was shared in early January but to view the full feedback summary and our responses in relation to parents who identified areas for improvement please click on the following link: Parent Questionnaire | St. Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School

 

Homework

Thank you to you all for all you do to support weekly homework activities.  Please also be aware that all classes have a range of optional creative, engaging activities in line with their termly work on class Google Classroom pages. 

 

 

Recent Events

Synod

The children, staff and school community contributed towards our Synod on the future of the Catholic Church. It was heartening to hear how important faith and community was to so many of our children. We have collated this information and shared with the diocese, who will further collate all parish and school responses and send them to Rome. 

 

Whole school assemblies

Each Monday we have our weekly whole school Collective worship linking to Sunday gospels.  This month we have also focussed on reinforcing our understanding of British Values and relaunched our CAFOD fundraising.  We have a green pot in each class whereby we encourage all children to bring 10p to class weekly from their own money. 

 

Y6 / Reception Buddy Assembly

It was lovely to welcome parents to our Buddies assembly this month.  Buddies are such a special feature of our school family.  Our children presented a fun and loving assembly on Wednesday 19th January.  Please note a video of the assembly is available to view via reception and Y6 class pages. 

 

Laudati Si

The Vatican released an encyclical by Pope Francis, ‘Laudato Si’ – Care of our common home’, in 2015. An encyclical is a letter circulated by the Pope to Catholics “every person living on this planet”.  In school we regularly reflect on the Pope’s message and identify ways to actively demonstrate care for our common home e.g. CAUSE hampers; fundraising (Reindeer run / CAFOD World Gifts); recycling and saving energy etc The letter is summarised in the following YouTube clip Laudato Si’: Animated clip for kids

Prior to Christmas, four of our Y6 children joined in a Trust wide singing collaboration.  Singing a song specifically written to summarise the key messages and the difference we can all make, to ensure that we care for our common home. We are currently learning the words of the song as a school.  Please view this AMAZING video via the following link: https://vimeo.com/662273490/2be9274a7d

 

 

Sporting Events

Indoor Athletics

Where possible, we aim for all children to experience competitive sport.  As such our Y4/Y6 (whole class) loved partaking in an Indoor Athletic event at Eston Sports Centre in mid-January.  Our Y6 children returned with silver medals and our Y4 children had a great day and were commended for their excellent attitude and behaviour from the NPCAT lead organiser.  

KS2 Cross Country

Following trials, Mrs Smith organised for nearly 50 children to take part in a cross-country event at Trinity Catholic College on Wednesday 26th January. Despite the cold weather they performed admirably. Particularly well done to the following groups and children: Reggie and Verity in Y3, Theresa Y4, Luke and Amelie in Y5 and Henry in Y6.  

Please can we remind parents not to attend unless permitted by the organisers of the event.

Y3/4 Swimming 

As part of our PE curriculum Y4 will be engaging in 2 weeks of afternoon swimming lessons each day: w/b 7th February and Y3 will have their two weeks w/b 28th February.  

Extended school provision 

Mrs Smith, our new PE lead, has planned a range of activities throughout the school day to try to capture the varying interests of large groups of children across the school.  The timetable is reviewed half termly and further details regarding future clubs will be provided in due course. Should you wish further information on these clubs please contact Mrs Smith or the school office.  

 

PE Uniform 

Please can we once again remind you of our Uniform policy in relation to jewellery.  Small studs are permitted in school however they should be taped or removed on PE days.  The only other accessory allowed in school is a sports watch but this must not cause the children to be distracted from the class work.  If you require any PE kit please place your order asap via our school website or order directly from Motiv8 to ensure we all continue to look as SMART AS CARROTS.  If anyone needs support with the supply of uniform, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Conway or Miss Brady. 

https://www.motif8.co.uk/schoolwear/primary-schools/st-bernadette-s-primary.html

 

Future events

Significant dates:

• Safer internet week 7th-11th February 
• Basketball Tournament Y5/6 Wednesday 9th February (selected children) 
• Netball Tournament Y5/Y6 girls Wednesday 16th February (selected children)
• Break up Friday 18th February, 3pm
• Return to school Monday 28th February, 8.40am
• World Book day – we will have a week long celebration of all things reading wb 28th February (Miss Cuff will communicate further information) 
• PTA meet Wednesday 2nd March, 7.30pm in school 

 

Y2 Assembly

The Year 2  children will have their class assembly on Friday 18th February at 9am.

The 9am performance will be for parents/carers only as the whole school (children) will see class assemblies at an alternative time. Whilst we appreciate COVID restrictions are lifting, it is essential we continue to keep our community as safe as possible.  To safely distance visitors, we can welcome a maximum capacity of 60 adults into the hall this term and therefore we can only invite two adults per Y2 family to the assembly (separated families may have 2 tickets per family). 

Please contact our enquiries email ([email protected] ) or see Mrs Simpson at the office from Monday 31st January to request your places. 

All visitors must wear masks, sanitise their hands, have a ticket and have no COVID symptoms. 

Please note, we will also film and place on Google Classroom for any family members who cannot attend.

 

First Holy Communion

St Bernadette’s Church recently informed parishioners that the celebration of all sacraments from Baptism onwards would now be totally parish based. We have been asked to inform parents to direct any queries regarding this to their own parish priest. This would include the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion (our current Y4/5 cohort).  Hopefully, if there is sufficient interest, our children will partake in preparations alongside their friends. 

 

E safety

E-safety continues to be at the forefront of our minds as we prepare our school children for the online world of today and tomorrow.  We would like to remind you that we have an e-safety week planned w/b 7th February. Mr Bourner has arranged a raft of engaging activities and the year group foci are listed below: 

• EYFS – Stranger Danger
• Y1 – Divulging personal details
• Y2 – Roots into the online world
• Y3 – Reliability of online information/spam
• Y4 – Online gaming
• Y5 – Social media and cyberbullying
• Y6 – Social media/grooming and privacy settings

As with our RSE work these areas will be delivered in an age appropriate manner. 

 

And finally,

 

School’s Out

Please be aware we are now in a position where we can resume full wraparound provision again from Monday 31st January (7.45am-5.30pm).  Thank you for your understanding and support over the last week.  

 

Mr. P. Conway           Miss S.Brady

Headteacher              Head of School