Autumn Term: 13th November 2026

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

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Dear Families,

Thank you to the parents who were able to join me this morning for our Headteacher Parent Café.

This year, we are trying a slightly different format, creating a more relaxed and informal space for conversation. The aim is for these sessions to be an opportunity to hear parents' views on different aspects of school life while also providing a forum for you to raise questions, share experiences, and discuss topics that may be emerging within the parent community.

This morning, we talked about the types of Parent Café sessions that would be most useful and interesting to families throughout the year. We also discussed concerns around screen time in schools, which continues to be a prominent topic in the media. This is something we will be reviewing as a school, alongside how we approach the use of and education around artificial intelligence (AI), ensuring that our practices remain thoughtful, balanced, and appropriate for our children.

Finally, I have a small plea! Our lost property collection seems to be multiplying at an astonishing rate and is growing faster than we can keep up with. If your child has misplaced any clothing, please do take a look through the lost property box. We would also be very grateful if all items could be clearly labelled, as this makes it much easier for us to reunite lost belongings with their owners.

Thank you for your continued support. I look forward to seeing many of you at future Parent Café sessions.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Alli

Reception

Year 1

Year One had such a brilliant day visiting the London Transport Museum! As part of our history learning, we have been exploring old and new things and discovering how transport has changed and developed over time. Our visit was a fantastic opportunity to bring our learning to life and see just how much things have modernised!

The children particularly enjoyed having the chance to step into the role of bus drivers, collecting money from passengers and experiencing what it might have been like to work on buses in the past. There was so much excitement, curiosity and enthusiasm throughout the day, and it was wonderful to see the children making connections with everything we have discussed in class. It was a truly memorable experience, full of fun, discovery and hands-on learning!

The Year One team would like to say a huge thank you to all the wonderful adults who supported us on this trip. We really appreciate your time, help and enthusiasm in making the day such a special one for the children.

Year 2

This week, Year 2 have started thinking about our local area in Geography. We have been learning about physical and human features and went on a discovery walk to see how many of these features we could find in our local community.

We recognised that, although we are lucky to have a lovely park nearby, our local area is mainly surrounded by human features such as roads, buildings and shops. We may now write letters of complaint about the amount of dog mess and litter we found during our walk and think about how we can help keep our local environment clean and safe for everyone.

Year 3

In English, Year 3 have been learning all about how Fairtrade helps protect farmers and ensures they receive a fair price for their hard work.

The children put their persuasive skills to the test by designing and creating their very own short campaign posters in support of Fairtrade. To make their posters really stand out to the reader, we focused on using all four different sentence types and making sure we use the correct punctuation for each one!

Year 4

Year 4 have loved learning more about Shackleton’s voyage of disasters this week! They even interviewd each other for the role of becoming a crew member aboard the ship. We have been focussing on describing the ship as it was held firmly in the grip of the pack ice and have been selecting verbs choices carefully to reflect its ultimate fate. We hope to watch the 2022 Endurance documentary together that includes footage from the expedition!

Year 5

In year 5, we started off the week by pretending to be characters from our book about Ignatius Sancho. We became journalists created questions to interview the characters and then ‘hot seated’ them to record their answers as quotations.

 

In PE, we marked Bonfire Night by creating choreography to reflect wireworks! We worked in small groups to plan our movement and then were further inspired by listing to Igor Stravinsky’s orchestral piece ‘Fireworks’. 

Year 6

Year 6 have been developing their hockey skills in PE, practising their stick control, dribbling, passing and teamwork. Come rain or shine, the children have shown fantastic enthusiasm and determination, embracing the challenges and making the most of every session. Well done, Year 6 – keep up the great effort!

News from the Art Studio…

Year 5 are learning about WW2 this half term and have been selling poppies in school for Remembrance Day so in art they created beautiful poppy wreaths to mark the occasion. We began by mixing different shades of red with watercolours, exploring how many tones they could create. Then they made observational drawings of poppies, first in continuous line, then zooming in on the fine detail of the seed pod, stamens and petals. Each child then designed their own poppy on card, bringing their own style and creativity to the task. Finally, the poppies were combined into a single wreath for each class, which is now on display on their classroom doors. Well done year 5 for such thoughtful work.

Music this week…

In addition to revisiting The Ukulele, Year 6 children have started to practice writing song lyrics. The initial task was to think of a “hook” to remind Reception Children of the importance of washing their hands. Once a hook was established, they had to think of a rhyme scheme they wanted their lyrics to follow. You can see two fantastic examples of the work produced.

Children in Year 3 were also looking at lyrics which they have been writing for their English National Opera   Plant This Seed Project. Their task was to add harmony to their lyrics by thinking about pitch. They recorded themselves singing their tunes before considering changes they wanted to make to the dynamics and tempo.

Friends of SJSC

Save the date: 28th November 1-4pm - that’s just two weeks until the Christmas Fair! 

 

This is a special day of fun, community and cheer that boosts the children through the last few weeks of the term, and we hope to see many of you there. It’s also our biggest fundraiser of the year, and it’s entirely run by volunteers! If you can spare some of your time on the day to help run some essential stalls, please either tell your year reps or let us know in this 10-second form: https://forms.gle/vUv7RkDz48Kh4fYaA  

 

And below we bring you some more ways to take part in the festivities. 

 

Christmas Raffle now live!

Our popular Christmas Raffle is back, with over 50 fabulous prizes generously donated by local businesses. Delicious food and drink, gym classes, wellness treatments, theatre tickets and more - there’s something for everyone! Raffle tickets are £2 each and can be purchased now through Sunday, 6th December at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/SJSCraffleX   

 

Calling all crafty kids!

In anticipation of the much-loved Kids Craft Market at the Christmas Fair, we’re encouraging any children who wish to sell their arts and crafts to start making ASAP. Anything from jewelry to tie-dye to zines and beyond is welcome. We also need children to volunteer to run the stall. If your child is interested, please message Jess at 07828812884. 

 

Still need to sort the Christmas Tree?

The SJSC Christmas Tree Sale is open, offering high quality non-drop Nordmann Fir trees starting at £30 for a 3-4ft tree. All proceeds support the school, and trees can be collected at the Christmas Fair on 28th November between 1:30-3:30pm. Order your tree by Thursday, 19th November using this link: https://st-johns-and-st-clements-ptfa.square.site/ 

 

Planning a clear-out ahead of Christmas?

Please consider donating goods to the Christmas Fair. We are seeking the following:

  • 🧸 “As-new” charity shop finds, secondhand toys and gifts for Elfridges

  • 📚 Gently used children's books for the Book Stall

  • 🍬 Leftover party bag fillers, sweets, chocolates, etc, packed inside clean food jars for our Booty Jar Stall or loose small trinkets and toys for the Lucky Dip. Empty jars also welcome - we never have enough! Important: Please remember all food items must be nut free.

  • 🎄 Donate your old Christmas jumper and/or pick up a new one at the Festive Jumper Swap (operating just like the uniform swap)

 

We’ll collect donations at the school gates every morning between 23-27 November. 

 

Thank you as always for your help!

 

Have a great weekend, see you next week!