Spring Term Issue 20: 13th February 2026

Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning

Dear Families,

What a wonderful half term it has been! The school has been buzzing with great learning, joyful play, and plenty of exciting moments. It was lovely to see so many of you at Parents’ Evening on Tuesday, which is such a valuable opportunity to talk together about your child’s progress and celebrate all the positive steps they are making.

Our second Parents’ Evening will take place on Wednesday 25th February, when we return after the half‑term break. If you haven’t had a chance to book a slot yet, please do.

 

Headteacher Parent Café

On Friday 27th Feb at 9:15 I will be hosting the next headteacher parent café. There will be an update from the school’s governors, a discussion on home/ school communication, and then time for open questions.

 

New Kids Online safety website

The DfE is launching a new website on 16th February 2026 to support families and encourage regular conversations about what children may be seeing online. The website has:

  • tips for parents’ conversations with their children

  • actions to support each stage of their child’s life

  • parental controls information

It also signposts to trusted resources from charities and third parties. You can browse through by clicking here Kids online safety 

 

Thank you for the concerted effort everyone has made to arrive on time for school. A calm and settled start to the day makes such a positive impact on each child—their confidence, their readiness to learn, and their sense of belonging in the classroom.

To finish I want to say a huge thank you to you all. We are very fortunate to have such a connected and supportive community. Your kindness, involvement, and encouragement help make our school a truly special place, and I am very grateful to each of you.

Wishing you all a restful and enjoyable half‑term break.

 

Alli

In Reception this week, we have been reading the book the Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai. A picture book that raises some difficult issues as part of Our Social Justic theme for the Big Ideas this half term.  The children have written letters to Malala to thank her for her bravery, and for speaking out to help other children get the chance to go to school.  We have had lots of great discussions about fairness and equality. This ties in well with our final RE lesson where children created their own parable stories, to teach someone how to live well, by being fair, helpful and kind.

Fired up by looking at photos of children who can’t go to school; we finished the half term with a real protest march, carrying our banners and chanting around the school… “Boys and Girls are Equal” School should be free”  “Education is a right!”

Reception

We have had another busy and fun-filled week in Year 1. In English, we have been writing a letter to the ‘sea’ inspired by The Sea Saw, working hard to include verbs, expanded noun phrases and conjunctions. It has been wonderful to see the children applying their grammar skills with growing confidence and taking real pride in their learning.

As part of Mental Health Week, we have been exploring the importance of belonging, thinking about ‘this is our place’. The children shared lovely reflections such as, “My place is the reading room because it is quiet and calm,” and “My place is the beach because I like to hear the waves.”

In History, we have been continuing to explore the history of toys, using the terms ‘living memory’ and ‘beyond living memory’. The children have been confidently applying this vocabulary in discussions and when sorting toys into past and present.

We wanted to say a huge thank you for your continued support this term. It has been filled with fantastic learning and joy, and we are so proud of all of the children. We wish you all a lovely break!

Year 1

Year 2 have taken their very first steps into multiplication, and what a brilliant start they’ve made!

We introduced the children to the idea of arrays—a visual way of showing multiplication using rows and columns. The class worked incredibly hard to draw their own arrays, using dots, shapes, and even mini pictures to represent equal groups.

To deepen their understanding, the children also had the chance to build arrays physically using cubes and other classroom resources. This hands‑on exploration helped them see how multiplication is really just repeated addition in a fun and organised way.

They have loved discovering that:

  • 3 rows of 4 counters is the same as 4 + 4 + 4

  • Arrays can be rotated and still show the same total

  • Multiplication can be represented, built, and drawn!

We are so proud of how confident and enthusiastic the children have been. They are well on their way to becoming multiplication masters!

Year 2

In Year 3, we have been enjoying taking part in activities linked to Children’s Mental Health Week. We have been focusing on theme of belonging and were very excited to have some visitors from Year 5 to help us develop an understanding of how to take joy from physical activities like PE and dance. The children planned and took part in learning a short routine, working as both the class community and in smaller groups. We have also been developing our understanding of what it means to belong and identified places and people that help use feel a sense of belonging. We then worked as a class to create our own class flag, showing how our class community relies on all the individuals coming together.

Year 3

Year 4

In Year Four, we have been reading a beautifully illustrated book about freedom called ‘Tar Beach’. This week, we received a letter from the BBC asking us to turn the book into a script for a TV show! The children worked in groups to divide the story into three acts and then wrote a script for each one. After drafting, they edited their scripts and performed them for the class. It was such a fun and creative way to end the half-term! 

 

Year 5

In year 5, we have been writing speech and acting out scenes based on conversations we think could’ve taken place between Circe and Odysseus as she tries to turn him into a pig! We got into character by thinking carefully about what the characters were doing (the narration) in order to show their emotions and to progress the story alongside considering what they were saying and how to use the correct punctuation to show this in our writing.

Year 6

 This week, Year 6 transformed into leading academics as we researched and compiled detailed notes on the ancient Maya ball game, Pok-a-Tok. After rigorous investigation, we took to the field in PE to experience the game for ourselves (purely for research purposes, of course).

The highlight of our conference came when delegates presented their findings to the panel using a state-of-the-art microphone (also known as a glue stick). Experts spoke confidently about rules, equipment and the cultural significance of the game, fielding challenging questions from the audience with great authority.

A highly successful symposium – we now consider ourselves fully qualified Pok-a-Tok specialists!

News from the Art Studio…

This week in the Art studio we celebrated Children’s Mental health week.

Using cardboard cups and Posca pens, we created bright, colourful, moveable rainbows.

Music this week…

As it was Children’s Mental Health this week we spent some time during music lessons thinking about how music can make us feel. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 looked at the story, The Colour Monster before thinking about what the different emotions might look and sound like. The children then selected percussion instruments which could represent, anger, calm, fear, happiness and sadness. Year 6 children listened to Elgar’s Cello Concerto and I was very impressed at one child’s comment that “It sounds like the cello is mourning”. Children in Year 4 were thinking of positive affirmations which they could say to themselves and which we then tried chanting over a backing track.

In Year 4 we started to learn the Ukulele as a class. Starting with the basics of the strum, the names of the 4 strings and the parts of the Ukulele, we will be continuing to learn the basic chords after the half term break.

Sports Update

On Tuesday, we took some of our Year 6s to a netball tournament where they truly shone as team players. They lost their first match, but this did not put them off—if anything, it made them work even harder. They made it all the way to the finals and eventually lost 1–0 due to the golden goal rule.

Our umpire was extremely impressed with their play and praised them for their politeness throughout the tournament. We are so proud of you all!

A huge thank you to Coach Ali and Lou for giving up their time once again to attend the tournament with us.

Friends of SJSC

A reminder to get your tickets for our Quiz Night here: https://square.link/u/6uYZvYan

Friday 20th March - 8pm in the school hall.  Tickets are only £8 and there will be a bar selling drinks and snacks.

Come and have a fun night with other SJSC families.

Thanks for your support.

Values Awards

&

Reading Champions

See you next week!