Message from Mrs Venning:

Walking around our school I am so pleased to see the inspiring learning opportunities that teachers and teaching assistants create for children. At the moment every class is busy discovering more about Carnival, its history, carnival around the world and, of course, the special links to Bridgwater. On Tuesday afternoon there will be an opportunity to see the children, playing music, wearing masks and showing off some of the amazing carnival carts that they have made. We look forward to you joining us to celebrate Carnival!

Mrs Venning

S

Parents Evening

(Tuesday 22nd Oct & Thurs

24th Oct)

Booking is open at:

www.stjohnstfrancischurch.

parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

School Christmas Lunch

Our Caterers have confirmed that Christmas

Lunch will be held on 18th December. Please book

online at www.parentpay.com, if you haven’t

already done so.

Mrs Kendrick :

Monday 11th November at 3.30pm

On 11th November we will be remembering and giving

thanks for the life of Mrs Kendrick. There will be a short

moment of reflection, a tree will be planted to reflect Mrs

Kendrick’s love of the outdoor classroom and

presentation of a bench donated by OSCAR. We

welcome our parents and families to join us outside of

Wren Class.

Our PCSO, Helen Hayes, has received further

concerns regarding the parking around school

at drop off/pick up times. Please ensure parking

outside of school is considerate, and not across

our neighbours’ driveways, dropped down

pavements by the shops etc. We are also aware

of some parents continuing to drop their child off

on the zigzag lines outside of our gates. Please

note our PCSO will continue to monitor this, and

speak with drivers where appropriate.

Message from our Chair of Governors:

Dear Parents and Carers,

On behalf of the Board of Governors, I write to inform you that we have begun the recruitment process

for a substantive headteacher appointment for April 2020. Our school continues to make good progress

under the current leadership of Headteacher Mrs Jenny Venning, who completes her time with us at the

end of the Spring term 2020.

The Board of Governors will be advised and supported throughout the recruitment and appointing

process by the BWMAT Central Team of educational and personnel professionals.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely.

Major Yvonne Rouffet

Chair of Governors

Mrs Venning

**Reminder** Flu

Immunisation : 18th

November 2019

Please complete the

consent form previously

sent home and return in the

office post box no later

than 18th October 2019.

For more information,

please visit:

www.sompar.nhs.uk/what-

we-do/children-and-

young-people/young-

person/immunisation

Golden Book Award

This week’s winner for most attractive and inspiring

reading corner is…

Tawny Owl class!

Whole School photos – order forms will be with every family by next week. Orders can be made online, or if you

prefer, returned via the post box in the School Office lobby. Please note the order date cut-off via school is Weds

6th Nov, Orders after this date will need to be placed directly with Tempest and will be subject to postage charges.

A reminder that as part of our topic on Carnival, children should come

to school with something colourful on Tuesday 22nd for our Carnival

parade at 2.30pm. Parents and carers are welcome to attend,

and as always, for safeguarding purposes, we ask that mobile phones

are not used on the school site, and no photographs are posted on social media.

pictures are

Uniform reminder:

The uniform to be worn after the half-

term holiday is:

• Long grey or black trousers (no

leggings) – boys/girls

• Grey or black skirts/pinafores

• Cotton shirt with stiff collar (Year

Reception can wear white polo

shirts for their first year)

• Tie (can be elasticated for Years

R-2)

• Blue school sweatshirt or

cardigan with logo (from

supplier) – ‘V’ neck only

• Sensible black shoes – no

trainers or boots

• Fleece jackets are not

appropriate to wear in

classrooms.

Whole School Photo thank

you:

A huge thank you to Laura,

Claire & Sarah who were a

fantastic help yesterday in

assisting with the whole school

photos being taken.

Year 6 : Kilve 2020

A reminder that the

second instalment is

due to be paid by

Friday 1st November.

Please pay via

www.parentpay.com

Many thanks

Farewells

Next week we are saying goodbye to our TA Mrs Tottle,

who has worked at our school for 17 years. We wish Mrs

Tottle a long and happy retirement.

Mrs Warren, Mid-Day Lunchtime Supervisor, will also be

leaving us on 8th November. We wish Mrs Warren well for

her future.

September 2020 Primary school admission

A reminder that if your child is starting Primary school in September 2020, you can apply to Somerset

County Council from 16th September 2019. Applications must be received by Somerset County

Council by 15th January 2020. Please see https://www.somerset.gov.uk/education-and-families/apply-

to-start-school/ for further information.

Secondary School admission : September 2020

If your child is currently in Year 6 and due to start Secondary School in September 2020, you can apply

to Somerset County Council from 16th September 2019. Applications must be received by Somerset

County Council by 31st October 2019. Please see https://www.somerset.gov.uk/education-and-

families/starting-at-a-secondary-or-upper-school-in-september/ for further information.

Please note the following clarification of timings for

Harvest services (24th Oct):

KS1: 9.30 - 10.00

Y3/4 - 10.15 - 10.45 and

Y5/6 - 11.00 - 11.30

Our Harvest Festival will be a traditional Church Service

with songs, readings and prayers – and time to present

harvest gifts.

After the success of the last three years collections,

we are again asking for your kind donations of food

for Bridgwater Food Bank. We would be grateful for

donations of the following non-perishable food items:-

Milk (UHT or powdered) Sugar Fruit Juice (carton)

Tinned meat Tinned Fish Tinned fruit

Tinned tomatoes Cereal Rice Pudding (Tinned)

Instant mashed potato Rice Pasta

Sponge Pudding (Tins) Biscuits or snack bars Tinned Vegetables

Soup Pasta sauces Jams or Spreads

Tea bags Instant coffee Toiletries

Tinned vegetables Jam or spreads Baby wipes/nappies

Please can children bring gifts to school on the day of

the service. Many thanks

Thank you to B & M

Another HUGE thank you to B & M for their donation of two large bags of seeds, which our

Forest School are grateful to receive! Thank you for thinking of us.

Throughout this academic year we are continuing to further develop our curriculum across the school.

This term we are adding Knowledge Organisers to our website - a Knowledge Organiser is a go-to

document for a topic/unit of work: each one identifies the key information that children need to have

learned by the end of a topic.

It also acts as a tool to support children in retaining and retrieving knowledge for life-long learning.

We are developing our own Knowledge Organisers to support the delivery of the curriculum as

knowledge (and skills) progression are integral to a coherent curriculum. They are tools to help children

gain, retain and build the knowledge and skills as set out in our curriculum intent.

Uploaded to the website already are the Science Knowledge Organisers for the Autumn Term. Click on

the link to take to you straight to them - https://stjohnstfrancisbwmat.org/knowledge-organisers/

Best

attendance

this half-

term

Eagle

class

Amazing attendance

The class with the best attendance this half-term is Eagle Class! Well done for achieving

great attendance. Eagle Class can wear non uniform on Friday 8th November.

The winning class have also been given our ‘Attendance Owl’ to look after for the

week, as a reminder of their achievement.

This week 7 classes are above the school target of 96% which is good!

Our Whole School Attendance this week is 96.22% which is above our School Target of

96%. In comparison our annual Whole School Attendance last year was 94.57%.

Thank you for ensuring your children attend regularly.

Our school attendance target is 96%, and whole school attendance for the school

year to date is 97.09%.

Class % year

to date

100%ers Non-uniform

days: this year

Robin 96.88 20 ✓

😊 Wren 96.24 18 ✓

Blackbird 96.78 12

Sparrow 98.0 19 ✓

Chaffinch 97.15 14

Goldfinch 97.64 19 ✓✓

Jay 98.41 18 ✓

Woodpecker 98.23 17 ✓

Barn Owl 96.3 17

Tawny Owl 97.12 14 ✓

Heron 97.32 16 ✓

Kingfisher 98.33 19

Eagle 98.59 20 ✓✓✓

Kestrel 97.08 17

TOTALS 97.09 240

Eagle class have achieved best attendance this half term. In total, ALL 14 classes achieved

the school target of 96%, which is an incredible achievement-well done!

As we near the end of October, and as mentioned in an earlier newsletter, we have again

written to parents whose children have either fallen below 92% attendance so far this

school year.

We are aware that children have had a number of sickness bugs, coughs and colds already

this Autumn, and hope you find these letters informative of how your child’s attendance is

looking, so that it can improve over the coming months.

Thank you everyone for participating in the Bridgwater Schools Travel Challenge!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE BRIDGWATER WAY ACTIVITIES AT YOUR SCHOOL? We’d love to hear your thoughts about the recent Schools Travel Challenge, and about the other activities have been delivered in school as part of The Bridgwater Way. Please complete our short questionnaire to let us know what you think. There’s a £250 cash prize for the school which has the best survey response rate (the number of responses as a % of the number of children in your school), a great personal motivation to get involved! You can access the survey at: https://www.research.net/r/StJohnStFrancisParents Please complete your survey by Sunday 27th Oct. Family case studies: Also - would you prepared to talk to us (briefly on the phone or via email) about how you as a family have responded to the challenge of travelling more actively to school and your experiences of this – both good and bad? If so, we'd also love to hear from you. Please drop me a line at helen.bonner@steergroup.com and leave your contact details and I will call/email you back. Thank you for your help.

Boost for our New Library!

We are excited to announce that over

coming weeks, with the financial help of

OSCAR, we will be developing our library

into a wonderful space for your children

to enjoy using! Our new library will have a

jungle theme and include some super

new seating and book shelves.

Thank you to OSCAR for your generous

donation of £1500 towards the

refurbishments of this special area of our

school!

If you are artistic and would like to help

with the painting of murals onto the walls

over the half term holidays then please let

Miss Dyer know.

Christian value:

Our Christian value for this half term is Friendship. “Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there”.

Recommended Read

This week Miss Pinch thinks you should read Wonder

by R.J Palacio

August Pullman is no ordinary 10 year old boy. He

had never been to school; and had always been

taught at home by his parents. But, one day, at 10

years old, they decided and told him, that it was

time for him to go to school. Can you imagine what

it would be like to start school in year 5? For August,

this was a very scary thought. You see, August has a

severe facial deformity that makes him stand out.

He is scared that he won’t make friends and that

nobody will like him because of the way he looks.

This is a heart-warming story that follows August’s

journey as he starts a new school. It helps us to

realise that we should never judge a book by its

cover.

I read this book with my year 5 class last year and

they loved this story. I definitely recommend

Wonder as one of my favourite children’s books.

Miss Pinch

We are looking to develop our school library and are in need of your talents!

If you have experience of working in a library or if you are just able and willing to give up some time to help the school each week then we want to hear from you!

Please contact the office, Miss Dyer or Mrs Lewis if you are interested.

Welcome to our new section, aimed at providing information on services which can support our families. If you would like to share any

information to help other families in our community, please contact the School Office.

• Together Team, East Bridgwater – Please visit https://www.sedgemoor.gov.uk/togetherteam for more information on the

support that can be offered to families such as access to work opportunities, volunteering and training. Concerns about

a problem or issue in the local area can also be self-referred.

• Samaritans - A registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to

cope, etc. They can be contacted FREE 24/4 on 116 123.

• Every Mind Matters Every Mind Matters helps manage and maintain your mental health, as good mental health makes

such a difference. It helps us to relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more. Please visit:

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters for more details.

***Please note the date for the OSCAR Film Night has changed to Wednesday 13th November. The previous forms sent home can still be

used, please return all forms and payment by Friday 8th November***

Local Church Services:

Salvation Army, Moorland Road, Bridgwater

• 10am Prayer Meeting

• 10.30am Family Worship

• 11am Sunday Club from 4 years to 11 years

Bird of the week

Robin George

Wren Charlie

Blackbird Arthur G

Sparrow Jazzmin C

Chaffinch Ashley R

Goldfinch Claire G

Woodpecker Daniel P

Jay Nirvarna

Barn Owl Isla T

Tawny Owl Kresta P

Heron Lilly-May

Kingfisher Oliver R

Eagle Diya S

Kestrel Lysander R

Class Worship Leaders

Robin Whole Class

Wren Whole Class

Blackbird Whole Class

Sparrow Scarlett N

Chaffinch Whole Class

Goldfinch Isabelle N

Woodpecker Whole Class

Jay Reuben

Barn Owl Whole Class

Tawny Owl Scarlett C

Heron Whole Class

Kingfisher Whole Class

Eagle Charlie G

Kestrel Whole Class

St Francis Church, Saxon Green, Bridgwater

• 10am Holy Communion

• 10am Lighthouse Club for Junior Church activities

• 10am Midweek Communion Wednesday

Extra-curricular opportunities:

Monday : Gymnastics Club, run by Premier Sports for Years R-6. Please see leaflets which were sent home 9th September 2019 and book

online at www.premier-education.com

Years 3 & 4 Study Club, run by Mrs Davies. Please see letter sent home w/c 30th September. Places still available.

Wednesday : Year 4, 5 & 6 boys football run by Miss Bryant. This club is now full.

Years 5 & 6 Study Club, run by Mrs Davies. Please see letter sent home w/c 30th September. Places still available.

Thursday : Year 3, 4, 5 & 6 rugby club run by Mr O’Neill. This club is now full.

Key Stage 2 Choir Club, run by Miss Smith. This club is now full.

*Please note that all clubs finish at 4.15pm

***Please note there are no school run clubs next week due to Parents’ Evening. Gymnastics will still run, however.

All clubs will resume w/c 4th November.***

Safeguarding is high priority at St John and St Francis Church School. We take every opportunity to ensure that our pupil’s safety is

paramount. We want our pupils to be healthy and happy and to develop well both physically and mentally. The school follows the

latest Government Guidance to ensure we are fulfilling our duties in this important area.

The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and contact at School is Mrs Tamar Warner, and our Deputy Safeguarding Leads are: Mrs

Suzanne Crane, Mrs Emily Wells, Mr Lee Butt & Mr Alexis Piper. Our Safeguarding Governor is Mr Chris Moore.

The School’s Safeguarding policy can be found online at: http://stjohnstfrancisbwmat.org/about-us/policies/local-policies/

If you have any concerns about the safety of a child you can phone Somerset Direct on 0300 123 2224.

There is lots of online safety advice on our website- please follow this link to help keep your child safe.

October

21st Years 3 & 6 Cross Country event at North Petherton Rugby Club. Please see Miss Bryant’s letter 27th September for more details.

22nd Whole School Carnival Procession at 2.30pm. Details as advised in letter 11.10.19

22nd Parents Evening 3.30pm – 6.30pm. Parents can log-in to www.stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book an appointment with their Class Teacher. New parents will be given information on how to log in.

22nd Years 4 & 5 Cross Country event at North Petherton Rugby Club. Please see Miss Bryant’s letter 27th September for more details.

24th Harvest Service @ St Francis Church, Saxon Green - EYFS & KS1 : 9.30am – 10.00am Yrs 3 & 4 : 10.15-10.45am & Yrs 5 & 6 : 11.00-11.30

24th Parents Evening 3.30pm – 6.30pm. Parents can log-in to www.stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book an appointment with their Class Teacher. New parents will be given information on how to log in.

25th INSET DAY – School closed to all pupils.

Half-term 28th October – 1st November

November 4th School re-opens following the Half-Term break. 8th Share a Story Session 2.50pm-3.15pm, for families of children in Year 6. Come and listen to

your child reading the School Hall, younger siblings are welcome to attend. 11th Children in Need week – further details to follow 11th OSCAR Meeting in the School Hall @ 6.30pm 13th OSCAR Film Club – forms went home 14.10.19. **Postponed from 23rd Oct. 18th School Flu Immunisation sessions for Years R-6. Closing date to return Consent forms is 18th

October 19th Year 5 Sharing Assembly @ 2.30pm in the School Hall for parents/carers of children in Year 5.

26th Festival of Light day.

December 2nd OSCAR Non Uniform in lieu of donations for Christmas Fair.

4th OSCAR Christmas Fair – further details to follow nearer the event

11th Years 3 & 4 Christmas Carol concert at Salvation Army@ 9.30am - 10.30am Booking will be open nearer the event on www. stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk

12th Years 1 & 2 Christmas performances at Salvation Army @ 9.30am - 10.30am Booking will be open nearer the event on www. stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk

FULL DIARY DATES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE SCHOOL WEBSITE: http://stjohnstfrancisbwmat.org/school-calendar-dates/

12th Years 3 & 4 Christmas Carol concert at Salvation Army @ 2pm – 3pm Booking will be open nearer the event on www. stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk

13th Years 1 & 2 Christmas performances at Salvation Army @ 2pm – 3pm Booking will be open nearer the event on www. stjohnstfrancischurch.parentseveningsystem.co.uk

13th OSCAR Christmas Disco – further details to follow nearer the event

16th – 20th Sparkle & Shine Week. Please send in a decorated shoe box/bag on Friday 13th.