Dear Parents/ Carers,

Happy Friday to you and your families! I hope that you are all safe and well, and not feeling too frazzled by the experience of home schooling, or working through the pandemic.

Thanks to everyone that joined us for virtual Stars of the Week this morning! There was some amazing work on show from right across the school! If you missed it, click this link to watch now:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDIyMDVlODQtNTY3ZS00NGUyLWJjNzctMWZjYjM2MzJlMmRk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228f92ae84-3008-45fe-8d7d-99c5e5e69f95%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22da9fd9a9-4f62-44a2-af87-d0298113704f%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d

I also want to thank you all for the incredible support you are showing to your children and their education. I have been part of some of the class registrations this week, as has Mrs Hedges, and we have seen first hand some of the great participation and concentration shown by children of all ages (and their adults in the background!). Well done to everyone involved in muting, raising hands and answering questions! You really have to keep your wits about you in an online meeting!

Here are some ways that you can keep in touch, and that your children can express themselves:

1. Our Facebook Page.

You can get to this from the homepage of our school website: https://www.st-johns-pri.bham.sch.uk/

Once you are on our Facebook page, you can use the Messenger button on the page to send me messages or photos of children's work. I would really like to put some photographs of work or art that children have done that has a message of support to the other children at school, so if you have anything, or your child does something, please send it in.

I think this will be a really good way of keeping you informed about things that are going on in school too, so do follow the page if you are Facebook, so that you will be alerted when new posts are put up.

2. Our Values noticeboard.

You can get to this by following this link: https://padlet.com/c_seymour/ak62ehctnmhc21co

Once you are there, you can leave a message on a virtual post-it note. It's a great way for children to reflect on how their faith affects the way they live their life.

One of the best things about being a Church of England Primary School is that we talk to the children about God. Most of the children have a religious faith that is very important to them, whether they are a Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. We talk to the children about how St John's is a special place because we welcome everyone: people of any faith and no faith are welcome in our school. We learn about each other- how we are different and how we are the same- and we treat each other as we would like to be treated ourselves.

We are just finishing the value of Justice, so over the weekend, children have a chance to leave me a message about how they have been trying to make the world a fairer place. Here is a link to our Justice collective worships from the past three weeks which you might want to have a look at: https://www.st-johns-pri.bham.sch.uk/justice-1/

Do encourage your child to have a go. Their message won't appear immediately as I have to approve all entries, but I will get to them as fast as I can.

Have a lovely weekend,

Best wishes,

Mrs Seymour