Friday 6th March 2020

www.st-johnscofe.hants.sch.uk 01256 324121

St John’s Newsletter

Learning, Loving and Laughing Together

This week in worship… we have begun our programme of bible stories by looking at the story of Jesus Calming the Storm.

We have discussed what it means to be scared and how we can ask God for help, through prayer, when we are fearful of

something. Our worship music this week has been Amazing Grace which was written by John Newton in 1772 after surviving

a violent storm at sea. On Tuesday, our children’s worship team led worship. Having been given the theme by Miss Bulkeley,

they worked to put together the story, song and prayer and then deliver it themselves. They did an amazing job particularly

since it was their first time. We are hoping they will lead more worship sessions in the future.

Sing Happy Birthday to the tap!! With the number of Coronavirus

cases increasing daily, it is inevitably causing anxiety for everyone.

At school we are following, and will continue to follow, all the

advice being issued by Public Health England. This has included a

whole school session on washing our hands. We have explained to

the children that to be effective every part of their hands needs to

be washed and that they need to do so for about 20 seconds—the

time it takes to sing Happy Birthday to the tap twice! The song has

been ringing out across school constantly this week but I think we

can all cope with this if it delays the onset of the virus at St John’s. I

have had a number of parents ask about soap and hand sanitiser.

We currently have plenty of soap and some more on order from

our supplier. Soap dispensers are all filled up in the evening by our

cleaning team and we have emphasised to the children that if they

are emptied during the day, they are to let a member of staff know

and we will fill them back up again. We have been unable to obtain

hand sanitiser from anywhere and have been informed that the

government is holding back supplies to ensure that the NHS has

what they need. Every evening, after the children have left, our

wonderful cleaning team give the whole school a good clean. This

includes wiping surfaces and cleaning toilets. In addition, we are

now cleaning all door handles on a daily basis. IPads have also

been given a thorough clean and posters have been put up around

school reminding the children of good hygiene.

A number of our children are complaining about sore hands,

particularly across the back of their knuckles. We think this is due

to increased washing along with not ensuring their hands are fully

dry before they leave the bathroom. Similarly, we have also

become aware that some children are not washing the soap off

fully. Please can everyone remind their children to dry their hands

fully.

We are all worried about the impact this situation could have on

daily life and how it could make our loved ones ill but please trust

that St John’s staff don’t want to be ill either so we are working as

hard as we can to get the children to wash their hands effectively.

Emergency Closure

Apologies for the emergency closure today. Yesterday, it became clear that the staff toilets were not flushing. We called the drain company and expected that they would clear the drains on site and everything would be fine. However, having lifted the manhole covers it became clear that the blockage was in Kingsmill Road rather than on our site. Beyond our site the problem has to be dealt with by Thames Water who we informed and at the time of closing had not attended the site. The staff toilets were the first to be affected as they are the nearest to the drain system. The children’s toilets would have been next had the problem continued. We will be open Monday unless otherwise communicated.

Activities to do today while we are closed. These are optional and the year group in brackets is just as a guide.

Write and illustrate another adventure for their book day character (year 1—6)

Draw a picture of their book day character (Year R—1)

Practise their timestables on TT rockstars—some classes have battles starting today. (year 2—6)

Practise their number facts on ‘numberbots’ (years 1—2)

Log in and play the games on Mathletics (all year groups)

Year 6 —revise for SATS using BBC bite size—pick an area of maths you need to go over.

Play shops with coins to help with coin recognition. (years R –3)

Any work can be brought in to show class teachers on Monday.

Friday 6th March 2020

www.st-johnscofe.hants.sch.uk 01256 324121

What’s happening next week…

Monday – Year 1/2 Titanic Workshop

Tuesday -

Wednesday -

Thursday -

Friday - Greece Non School Uniform Day

Diary Dates

16-20/03/20 Year 6—PGL

17/03/20 Year 5 Legoland, Windsor

18/03/20 Year 1/2 Visit to Anvil Barnaby Bear 1pm—3.30pm

27/03/20 Year 3/4 Romans Workshop—NEW

27/03/20 Choir Rehearsals at Bishopswood Junior School 4.15pm—5.30pm

28/03/20 PTA - Easter Egg Hunt

03/04/20 Easter Service @ 10am All Saints Church—Year 1 leading

03/04/20 Second hand book sale @ 3pm

06-17/04/20 Easter Holidays

30/04/20 Class Photos

01/05/20 Happy School Bags 9am-10am

01/05/20 Year R Summer Born Hearing + Vision / Height + Weight Measurements

07/05/20 Orchestra Rehearsals at Costello School 4.15pm—5.30pm—NEW

08/05/20 Bank Holiday

11-14/05/20 Year 6 SATs week

12/05/20 Year R visit to Watercress Line—more details for follow

15/05/20 Orchestra Rehearsals at Costello School 4.15pm—5.30pm—NEW

16/05/20 PTA - Summer Term Circus

22/05/20 Sports Day

25-29/05/20 Half Term

01/06/20 All day Choir rehearsal at St Mark’s Primary 9.30am—2.30pm

05/06/20 All day Orchestra rehearsal at Christ Church, Chineham 9.30am-2.30pm

09/06/20 All day Choir and Orchestra rehearsal at the Anvil

09/06/20 Choir and Orchestra performing at the Anvil 7pm

10/06/20 Choir and Orchestra performing at the Anvil 7pm

17/06/20 Year 6 Leavers Service at Winchester—children only

22/06/20 INSET Day (5)

02-03/07/20 Year 6 Induction Days at Basingstoke Secondary Schools

10/07/20 Happy School Bag tbc

INSET Days (2019/2020)

22nd June 2020 (5)

Acorns Toddler Group

Meet on Mondays during term time, in the school library 9am – 10.30am. All welcome.

Friday 6th March 2020

www.st-johnscofe.hants.sch.uk 01256 324121

PTA EASTER EGG HUNT - Saturday 28th March 2020 Tickets/Timings/Prices

Tickets will be available to purchase very soon - ONLINE ONLY (we will provide you with a link). The event will run from 1 - 3pm. The cost is £3 per child. You are welcome to invite friends/family to purchase a ticket. Ticket sales will close at 9am on Friday 27th March. The Hunt (it's different to last year!)

This year’s event will be slightly different to previous years. Every child who takes part in the hunt will receive an actual Easter egg (medium sized), a mini bag of Haribo and a Malteser bunny. There are also 10 golden eggs to find and the successful children win a Jellycat bunny, a rabbit themed book and a paint your own egg kit!! FYI - The ‘hunt’ is no longer 3 coloured sticks - It’s going to be 3 Easter themed pictures in multiple colours that each contain a letter. You find all the letters, work out what the word is and then claim your prize!! Colouring Competition

There is also a chance for your child to enter a colouring competition. We will provide you with a picture of an Easter egg shortly. Any child who brings in their coloured picture on the day of the hunt will receive a bendy pencil and a temp. tattoo. The best one will receive a bigger prize (there will be two prizes available - Ages 0-7 and 7+). For those of you who don't have a printer at home we will put plenty of copies in the Parents Room at school. There is More .......!!

Separate to all that, we have:

☕ Refreshments - mixed prices

Raffle with awesome prizes - 50p per ticket

Adopt a bunny rabbit - £2 (includes adoption certificate)

Easter themed Craft table - ££ donations of any value

Glitter tattoos - £1 each

Congratulations to Greece Class

Congratulations to Greece Class for winning February’s attendance with an impressive attendance of 99.40%.

They can celebrate with a non-uniform day on Friday 13th March 2020.

Suitable clothing for school is required.

Book Fayre

Thank you to so many parents for purchasing books at our Book Fayre this week, we raised £275.98 to be spent

on books for our library.

Friday 6th March 2020

www.st-johnscofe.hants.sch.uk 01256 324121

LETTER ALERT!

Child Title Response?

Year 3 & 4 Romans Workshop Letter Wednesday 11th March

Year 5 & 6 Big Picture—Road Trip Arizona

Year 5 Legoland Letter

Year 2—5 KS2 Music Tuition for new pupils

from September 2020

Friday 27th March

Specific Children KS2 Music Tuition for existing

pupils from September 2020

Friday 27th March

Class Reading

‘Children and young people who read daily are four times more likely to read above the level expected for their

age compared with their peers who don’t read daily’ - Annual Literacy Survey

This week’s winners of a new book for their book corner are:

EYFS and KS1: New Zealand Class

KS2: South Africa Class

EYFS and KS1 KS2

Aruba: 68% Bangladesh: 61%

Denmark: 63% Cameroon: 63%

Ghana: 57% Djibouti: 67%

Greece: 67% Maldives: 70%

New Zealand: 73% Morocco: 70%

South Africa: 82%

World Book day

To celebrate World Book day and to encourage a love for story, the

children each produced a potato book character. Once they had

designed and created their character, they each wrote a story about

the adventures of that character. In the afternoon, all the children

were paired with a child from another class to share their stories.

They also took their character with them so that the story could

come alive!

Sport Relief

Sports relief this year is Friday 13th March 2020. To support this charity, we are having a non uniform day where we are

giving the pupils the opportunity to come to school dressed in sports clothing in exchange for a £1 donation. At lunchtime,

there will also be some sports activiities , run by year 6, which children can take part in for 20p a go.