Spring Term Issue 22: 6th March 2026
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
What a wonderful week we’ve had at school!
World Book Day was a real highlight — each class poured so much creativity into decorating their doors to represent their favourite books, and the school was buzzing with reading‑themed fun from morning to afternoon. The costumes were absolutely fantastic and made our parade such a joyful occasion. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so special and to Miss Cosby and Mrs Laidlaw-Shaw for organising.
Year 1 had a brilliant time taking part in an inspiring art workshop this week, kindly funded by our PTFA—a huge THANK YOU to you all! Their artwork will form part of our Arts Fest Exhibition in the summer term, and we can’t wait for you to see what they’ve created.
A quick reminder that Monday is class photo day. Feel free to practise your best smiles over the weekend!
Wishing you all a restful couple of days ahead.
Alli
This week in Reception we have been creating our own booklets all about how seeds are dispersed and how they grow; finding out that some seeds are moved by the wind and some are moved by animals! We had lots of fun planning sentences to write about squirrels hiding acorns and birds & foxes eating berries and what happens next.
The seeds that we all planted last week have started to sprout and we are all excited to take turns watering them and making sure they are in a sunny spot. We had a great time looking at everyone’s splendid costumes in the World Book Day assembly. Afterwards we build a library outside using crates and lots of comfy cushions. We are really proud of our classroom doors that we decorated. The children voted for their favourite book inspirations… Stik class’s door inspired by Ning and the Night Spirits and Himid Class by The Three Little Pigs.
Next week Forest School for Stik Class Friday 13th March 9-11.30 Himid on 27.3.26
Reception
Year 1
We have had a wonderfully busy and exciting week! We were very lucky to welcome a visiting artist who flew over to lead a special art workshop. Together, we explored new techniques and collaborated to create our own class book. It was fantastic to see everyone experimenting creatively and working so beautifully as a team!
In English, we have been learning about the suffix -er and how it can be added to adjectives to make comparisons. We also challenged ourselves to recognise when -er does not make sense and we need to use ‘more’ instead, such as ‘more beautiful’. The children wowed us by building comparative sentences using adjectives with -er and the conjunction ‘but’.
We also enjoyed celebrating World Book Day, and we were so impressed with the wonderful costumes and learning that took place throughout the day. To finish the week, we baked Welsh cakes as part of our United Kingdom topic, carefully measuring ingredients and following instructions- with taste testing being the clear favourite!
Year 2 had an absolutely brilliant time celebrating World Book Day this week! The children loved taking part in our exciting costume parade and proudly showing off their amazing outfits to the whole school. From brave heroes to curious creatures, classic characters to imaginative inventions, the creativity was incredible!
We were so impressed with the effort everyone put into their costumes—so colourful, so imaginative, and so full of personality. Well done, Year 2! You really brought the world of books to life.
Year 2
This week in Year 3, we have been investigating soils! We found out about why knowing the sort of soil in the ground is useful for growing plants. We considered then identified and described the soils from our area. Afterwards, we planned an investigation into observing the structure of different soils by mixing samples with water and allowing them to settle over time.
Year 3
Year 4
Year 4 had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day! The children came in wearing the most incredible costumes—full of colour, creativity, and imagination. We were truly impressed by the effort everyone put in.
One of the highlights of the day was our lively costume parade, followed by dancing up and down the hall together. The energy, smiles, and enthusiasm made it a day to remember.
What a brilliant celebration of reading, stories, and creativity—well done, Year 4!
Year 5
Spring has sprung and we have been enjoying some awesome PE lessons out in the sunshine this week – practising dribbling and passing footballs at speed. We’ve also had a brilliant time celebrating World Book Day. Like every year, we’re blown away by the children’s creativity and we’re so impressed by their love of reading – shout out to the children who chose characters from our year 5 books so far!
Have a lovely weekend!
Year 6
For Year 6, this year’s World Book Day was particularly special as it was their final one at SJSC. It was a fun week in the lead-up to the day, with everyone working hard to create their classroom door and getting into the spirit of the celebrations.
The day itself was wonderful to share together, with some truly incredible costumes and lots of enthusiasm for books and characters. A lovely way for Year 6 to celebrate their last World Book Day at SJSC!
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio Year 1 worked with artist, Monica Gionvinazzi. Using found and recycled materials, they created weavings, pop-ups and collages. Monica will collate all the children’s artwork into large pop-up books.
This work will be on display during our Arts Festival in May.
Music this week…
Year 1 Kahlo children were experimenting with sound in their music lesson this week. With the objective of recreating the sound of water, children made their own instruments selecting different materials and contents.
Children in Year 2 continued to listen to music which has been composed about Rivers. This week our focus was a piece called The Vltava which is a River which flows through Czechoslovakia. As the children listened, they were drawing what they envisaged to be in or on the banks of the river before turning this into a chant for example “fishes swimming in the water”.
To celebrate World Book Day please see attached a clip of children in Year 4, 5 and 6 singing a special version of George Ezra’s song, Shotgun.
World Book Day
We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day across the school, with wonderful parades, imaginative costumes and a real buzz around books and reading.
Well done to all of our competition winners for their creativity and enthusiasm!
Our ‘Decorate Your Door’ Competition also produced some brilliant designs. Photos of the doors and our winning classes will be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Sports Update
On Wednesday, the Year 5 netball teams played against Heber. Although we didn’t win, we were all hugely impressed by how much the players’ skills and knowledge have developed. A big shout‑out to Penny, who took on a position she hadn’t played before – and absolutely nailed it! And to Seyi and Mina for their brilliant defensive skills.
A huge congratulations to Ava and Elizabeth for being chosen as Players of the Match by the Heber team. We’re really proud of you all!
Thank you to Mrs Laidlaw-Shaw for offering her time to help chaperone us to and from Heber safely.
Friday netball club will now run until 4:30. Children can still leave at 4:15 if they have other clubs and commitments.
Friends of SJSC
We have a few remaining tickets for our Quiz Night on Friday 20th March. You can buy up to 6 tickets for team or come solo and meet some new people. Tickets are a bargain at £8 each and are available here: https://square.link/u/6uYZvYan
A reminder of some important dates coming up:
Wednesday 20th May - School Disco
Saturday 20th June - Summer Fair
Thanks for your support.
Stars of the Week
See you next week!