Dear parents and carers,

I want to start by saying thank you so much for all of your support and understanding last week. I know how disruptive strike days can be. I also know how annoying it is to be told how important attendance is to the school for it then to be closed. The staff at St John's are incredibly hardworking and they want the best for your children. Not one of them would have made the decision to strike lightly.

Despite a disrupted week, we still managed to achieve so much. Here are some of the highlights and our up and coming news:

Nursery trip

On Wednesday, the Nursey went on a trip to the Nature centre. This was a big adventure - for some of them it was the first time that they had explored a new place without a parent with them. The Nursery staff said how much they enjoyed it and were impressed with how independent they were. All of them carried their own lunch around with them in their backpacks and no one lost anything! Parents of older children - if Nursery children can do it, there is no excuse now for them making you carry their bags and water bottles to school!

Year 2 collective worship

Year 2 shared their 'Around the World' performance with parents on Friday. It was amazing - I felt like I was watching a West End show. The singing, dancing and acting was of such a high standard and they showed us just how much they had learnt over the year. We visited London, France, Mexico, Australia and Antarctica; 4 continents in half an hour! Well done to all children and staff involved.

Football team

This week, the football team played in the Greet Mini League Cup and won!!! They played 4 matches in all against Clifton Primary, Greet A team and Al-Furqan. In the first game Eesa told me, 'My shoe fell off so I had to play on without it. I assisted the shot and through balled it to Nasir who scored'. The battle for first and second place was between St John's and Al-Furqan. Waleed reported, 'It was a tough game but towards the end we got through it'. The final score was 1-0 to us. We now are the proud owners of a large silver trophy which we will put on display. Well done to all of the team and the staff who have coached them.

Year 6 fundraising

School trips are getting more and more expensive as the cost of tickets for places and coach prices keep rising. We know how hard this is on our families so Year 6 have been carrying out fundraising in aid of this. They have already done a sponsored sport event this week and would now like to host a cake sale. The sale will be in the hall on celebration evening and will include cakes, cookies and chips. Make sure you bring some change along to buy a yummy treat.

If you would still like to contribute something but don't want the cake, you can still do so through our GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/dfb281e6. Thank you.

Year 6 service at the Cathedral

Year 6 have been busy this week as they also had a trip to the cathedral for a Leaver's service which was organised by the Diocese. This was also an adventure as we got all 60 children and adults travelling there and back on the public bus and managed a picnic in pigeon park after! I've been told how brilliant our children were in the Cathedral and that our singing was commented on as being impressive. Thank you also to Pranati who wrote and delivered a prayer in the service.

Year 5 taster day at Moseley secondary

Our third trip of the week was to take year 5 to Moseley to get an idea of what secondary school is like and to encourage them to think about their choices for next year. Year 5 parents - I know it seems early but you will have to apply by the end of October 2023 so you might want to start thinking now and looking at when open days are next term. Here is the link to Birmingham admissions page (it is for this year but a lot of it will be the same next year): Birmingham Secondary Admissions information

Important dates next week:

Monday 10th July: Reports

Your child will come home with a report in a large envelope. Inside will be the report, a letter about new classes and any results from Statutory tests. Year 6 you have to wait a bit longer for your SATs results sorry - they come out later in the week. Please come and tell us if the envelope hasn't made it to you!

Thursday 13th July: Celebration evening 3.30 - 5

Please come in and look at your child's books and work on display in their classroom. There are no appointments to speak to the teacher as the teachers have written everything in the report already. If you have any questions though, this gives you the time to ask them. Make sure you take the time to visit your child's new teacher and also pop down to the hall for the cake sale.

Thursday 13th July: Reception induction

This is for the parents of any children starting our Reception in September. You will have had information about this sent to you - speak to someone in the office if you haven't received your letter.

Friday 14th July: Nursery induction

Nursery will be closed to current Nursery children so that we can welcome our new families. If you are starting our Nursery you also should have received information about it. Talk to the office team if you haven't.

Issues with parentmail

We discovered this week that not all parents had received a parentmail. If you ever think you have missed a letter, please let us know so we can fix it. It is really important that we communicate well with you as there is so much going on at school. Please don't think we have left you out or ignored you. Often email addresses or phone numbers get changed and not saved on the system, or the system makes a mistake. We will sort it out asap.

Best wishes,

Mrs Hedges

Head Teacher