Dear parents and carers, 

Well that was a bit of a wet and miserable end to the week! I hope you are all home now and dried off.

Induction days

We have had really successful induction days for our new Reception and Nursery children. It was so lovely to welcome new families in - and also to get a chance to catch up with some of you who have been part of the family of St John's for years. At the meeting, we showed parents a link to our new prospectus. I'll put the link here for everyone. It is useful to have a read through as it tells you everything to know about St John's: times of the day, who's who, uniform guidelines, what's going on in the curriculum etc. It is a useful read even if you have a child at our school already.

St John's prospectus 2023-24

Celebration evening

Thank you to all of those parents who came along to look a their child's work, talk to teachers and buy lots of chips! Who knew the food would be so popular? We will order more in next time so we can have lots more satisfied customers. If you couldn't make it on Thursday, don't worry as we will send your child's books home at the end of term. Also, if you missed out on buying the reading books that we were selling, we will put a table out after school next week (if it is dry) and you can purchase some. They are a bargain at 10 for £1!

Reports

Thank you too to all of those parents who replied to our reports comment form on parentmail. There is still time to do it if you haven't had a chance yet. Lots of the comments were so positive. It is great for the teacher's to hear how pleased you are with how your child is getting on. Comments included:

'(My child's) success is credited to your hard work. Thanks once again.'

'Thank you for all of your hard work, support and love.'

'I am very grateful my son has the opportunity to study at St John's school and receives the education he needs.'

'I am a very proud parent'.

We had a couple of questions about homework and I think we need to be more consistent with this across the year groups. In September, we will make sure that teachers communicate their expectations to parents as well as children so that you know what they should be doing and when! If you are ever not sure, come and talk to one of us and we can make sure the right work is being sent out.

Zones of regulation

Your child might come home saying things like 'I am in the red zone' or 'I want to help myself get back to green'. They are talking about the zones of regulation. This is a tool we use to help children talk about their feelings so that they can learn to manage them better. We don't say things like 'you are so naughty' or 'stop behaving like that' we say, 'How are you feeling?', 'What zone are you in?', 'What has made you feel like that?', 'How can we get you back into the green zone?'. We often say that the child is 'dysregulated' and that they need help to 'regulate' their emotions. Then when they are calm, we look at ways of repairing and making amends for any behaviour that wasn't acceptable. I have been teaching for 25 years and I believe this method has been the most successful for making lasting, positive changes in behaviour. You will be spending a lot more time with your children in the holidays and I know if can be hard to manage when they have more free time. Here is a link to some information about how you can make the zones of regulation work at home:

Zones of Regulation for the Summer holidays

If you ever feel that you want help with parenting skills then come and talk to us. Many of us are parents ourselves and we don't always find it easy at home either. We can help with strategies that might make things easier.

Collective worship at church on Tuesday

If your child is reception to Year 6, remember to take them to St John's church on Tuesday morning at 8.45am. We will have a celebratory Collective worship and then all walk back to school afterwards.

Meet the teacher

On Tuesday, children in Reception to Year 5 will get to meet their new teacher for an hour in the afternoon. Spending time in their new class with their new teacher should help any children who feel a bit anxious about what to expect next year. Ms Begum and Miss Imran are new teachers in September but they will also be in on Tuesday. They are two lovely and brilliant teachers; we feel very lucky that they have chosen to come and join the St John's family.

Talent show

Children in Years 3 - 6 may have come home talking about the talent show. For some of our children this is the biggest moment of their school year! I have been busy auditioning this week and will let children know on Monday if they have made it into the final, which will be held on Monday 24th July. Unfortunately, we cannot invite parents in to watch this event. We have 420 children, all staff, a stage and a panel of judges to fit into the hall - there isn't much room for anything else. I will update you on how the children have got on in a later newsletter.

We finish on Tuesday 25th July at 1pm which means it is not long to go until the end of term. We have so many exciting things going on in the next week and a bit though, make sure your child comes to school everyday as they won't want to miss out!

Best wishes,

Mrs Hedges

Head Teacher