“Do to others as you would have them do to you."
Luke 6:31
A message from the Head
As we explore the Christian value Honesty, it has been refreshing to see how our children interact with this in a range of situations.
It has been an extremely busy 2 weeks and we have been fortunate to have had such wonderful weather, and this has meant the vitamin D has brought out even more laughter in our children.
It has been an absolute joy to have had Byron Y2, Darwin Y3 and Newton Y5 lead curriculum assemblies. The children showcased little snippets of what they’d learnt throughout the year. The subjects ranged from History, PE, RE, English, Geography, French and Science. The children spoke confidently and enjoyed sharing their learning. We are really proud of them all.
Anning Y4 spent 3 days at Juniper Hall in Dorking as part of their residential curriculum. The class had so much fun learning different science and geography skills. Thank you to Ms Campbell and Ms Shaw for giving up their time to ensure a successful trip.
Turing Y6 have been counting down the days to leaving St John’s. They have attended various fun activities and events.
- Class 6 had a fantastic day at Chessington World of Adventures. They spent the day running around, laughing and going on as many rides as possible. The weather was glorious, the children were immaculately behaved and the day went by in a flash. What a wonderful way to celebrate the end of their St John's journey.
- Class 6 went to the Leaver's Service at the beautiful Southwark Cathedral. St John's falls inside the Southwark Diocese. Every year, the Cathedral holds a series of services to celebrate the children within their family of schools moving to secondary school. The Cathedral was filled with children from different schools and we sang and celebrated the end of their time at primary school. It was a lovely day out.
- As their last trip out of school, class 6 went to the Cornerstone Church Hub in Kingston. They met up with children from other church schools in Kingston and were put into groups according to which secondary school they were moving on to. This gave them an opportunity to make new friends and discuss a range of issues relating to secondary school transition. It was an enjoyable and valuable experience.
The Bishop of Kingston, (Martin Gainsborough) visited and led collective worship. This allowed our choir to perform one of their music festival songs. The children also had an opportunity to ask him questions. He was asked by Hubble class ‘Who made God?’
We are pleased to have achieved the Bronze Attachment Awareness Award which recognises that St John's is an attachment aware school. A big thank you to Mrs Hutchinson for drinving this initiative.
It was lovely to meet our new and old families of pupils starting Nursery and Reception classes in September. We are looking forward to welcoming all our new families to St John's to start their journey into school life.
Careers Day 2023
On Monday we held a Careers Day to support the aspirations and ambitions of our children. Parents and volunteers came in to talk to Years 5 and 6 about different career paths. This gave the children an opportunity to explore and think about the vast range of careers at their disposal. It also taught them the importance of becoming responsible citizens contributing to the community and to the economy.
A huge thank you to the following parents, governors and volunteers: Mrs Hone, Mrs Theodorou, Mrs Knox, Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Hamilton, Mrs Loffler, PC Coombes and PC Khan who shared a broad range of career paths.
Here are some comments from the children;
Ellmina (Y6):’ I found it interesting that even though it may be a low paid job, you can still enjoy it. It makes me question what I want to do in the future.’
Manny (Y6): ‘ Careers Day made me think about becoming a Recruitment Director so I can help people find good jobs.’
Narges (Y6):’ It was interesting to find out that some people don’t start with their dream job but it becomes their dream job after a while when they have experienced it.’
Orla (Y5): ‘It opened my eyes to what different jobs I could have’.
Music Festival
Last week, our school Choir had the wonderful opportunity to perform at the Rose Theatre for the Take Flight Schools' Singing Festival. This involved Primary Schools coming together to perform three superb songs written by two local schools with the musician James Redwood. The children then went on to perform a song of their own choice on the theme of aviation or flying. Our children chose to sing - Walking in the Air. I must say that the children were fantastic. They sang their hearts out and they really knew the songs backwards. They sounded great. Well done choir.
Language Morning with Kingston Grammar School
This year, our annual Language Morning took place on Monday 19th June. Kingston Grammar School students planned a range of exciting activities to help Years R- 5 explore different languages in a fun and creative way. The children had the chance to learn new words and phrases about food, transport, colours, animals and numbers in Spanish, Italian, German, French and Chinese.
It was a morning of fun with creative activities to inspire everyone to love learning a language.
Beatrice (Year 4): ‘It was fun learning languages through games’.
Molly (Year 4): ‘I really liked learning all the animals in Spanish’.
Hamish (Year 3): ‘I liked playing Bingo in Italian’.
Antonia (year 3):’I liked leaning how to count in Italian’.
For more photos, please click the button below.
Unicef Rights Respecting Silver Award
We are proud to announce that on Friday 23rd June, we successfully achieved the UNICEF UK Silver – Rights Aware Award for our rights-respecting work! The Rights Respecting Schools Award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of our school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos.
Silver - Rights Aware: Rights Aware is the second stage of the Rights Respecting Schools Award (after Bronze: Rights Committed, which we achieved in April 2018).
Achieving Silver: Rights Aware means that as a school we are making excellent progress towards embedding the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into our ethos and curriculum. There is evidence that:
our school is explicitly embedding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in our policy, practice and culture.
our school is promoting knowledge and understanding of the Convention throughout the school community.
our school is beginning to see the positive impact of these actions on our children, staff, and on our school’s ethos, practice and environment.
our pupils are beginning to see themselves as rights respecting global citizens and advocates for fairness and children’s rights, both locally and globally.
The accreditation visit was very positive and the professional advisor from UNICEF really enjoyed a virtual meeting with our children, parents, governors and staff. Our children were able to confidently talk about their rights and discuss how they respect the rights of others.
We are really proud of our Rights Ambassadors, staff and children who have worked together to achieve this award. This is a fantastic achievement! We are now striving to achieve our gold award! Thank you to our parents and governors for supporting school during this process.
Sports day
Congratulations to all the children who competed for their houses in our annual Sports Day today. It was an enthusiastic, energetic day, full of wonderful team spirit! Our carousel of activities included penalties, javelin, long jump, sack racing, obstacle races, hoop shoot and bean-bag throwing!
Children across the whole school also participated in class novelty races in the afternoon. They thoroughly enjoyed cheering their teachers on for the staff races too.
A special shout out to Mrs Hutchinson who today, completed her 30 day skip-a-thon for charity and invited staff to join her for her last 100 skips.
Congratulations again to all of the children. More information about this fantastic achievemnt can be found by clicking the button below.
Thank you to the staff and students from Holyfield and Surbiton High Schools who kindly volunteered their time to support us throughout the day.
More photos can be found by clicking the button below.
Hubble YR Visit to Hampton Court
Hubble class had a wonderful trip to Hampton Court Palace. We travelled there and back by boat, which was very exciting. We saw different wildlife and waved to lots of the people we passed. At Hampton Court we took part in the 'Once upon a time' story session, specifically for Early Years. We helped the Queen feel powerful, kind and brave through the story. We visited different areas of the Palace with her. All the children were amazing and helped the Queen solve the clues. The afternoon was spent in the Magic garden which was truly magical. It was a fantastic day. Thank you to our parent helpers who joined us.
Y4 Juniper hall
Our Y4 children went on their residential trip to Juniper Hall last week.
For more info - click on the button below
Hollyfield science project
The children in Y5 Newton class were invited to a Science session at Hollyfield School. They learned all about space, gravity and spacecrafts. The children were invited to create rockets and experimented with different levels of take offs. The children used a tool to create a thrust and filled the rockets with water to apply pressure. Year 5 had a fantastic time and are hoping to recreate the experiments in the next few weeks at school!
Staffing for the new academic year (2023-24)
YN - Miss Barter and Mrs Hutchinson
YR - Mrs Constable
Y1 - Mrs Keaney
Y2 - Miss Gunstone
Y3 - Miss Wilson
Y4 - Miss Francis
Y5 - Miss Papafio
Y6 - Mr Redhead
Visit Hampton Court Palace for £1
Hampton Court Palace is piloting a new low-cost entry scheme for people receiving Universal Credit and other means-tested benefits. Eligible visitors are invited to explore the home of King Henry VIII and his wives, surrounded by 60 acres of gardens, including the world-famous maze and children’s playgarden, the Magic Garden, for just £1.
The pilot will run from 14 June – 9 July. For more information, please click on the button below.
Forgotten items reminder
If your child has forgotten any items they need for school on a day, eg: lunch, water bottle, PE kit, wellies for forest school, etc... please leave them clearly labelled with your child's name and class in the plastic box outside the office and a member of staff will pass them over to your child before lunchtime.
Keeping children safe (Safeguarding)
Please find here an excellent Safeguarding Hand-book for primary schools by the Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Team. Safeguarding—In Safe hands
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline
Continues to operate 24 hours a day including bank holidays & weekends. 0808 2000 247
Please remember if you have any concerns or questions regarding Safeguarding out of school hours follow the link.
Do not forget
No pets allowed on the school premises
No smoking or vaping on the shcool school premises
Use of mobile os not permitted on the school premises
PSA dates for your diary & Newsletter
You can keep up to date with all PSA events and read their latest newsletter on their page on the school website here.
Please visit the Easy Fund Raising App to easily raise money for the School. Simply visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk, and select St John's School as your chosen charity.
Remember next week Friday the PSA are hositng a Summer BBQ - please remember to book your ticket.
Remember...
Dates for your Diary
All dates appear on our school calendar on the school website. This includes school holiday dates, inset days, clubs, swimming and parent's evenings. You can find the calendar here:
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