9th May, 2008.

Dear Parent/Carer,

Ethiopian Water Crisis

In recent weeks the people of Ethiopia have suffered a severe water shortage. The water wells, built with money raised by the children of St. Joseph's, proved to be a valuable lifeline for the people of Addis Alem, when all other water dried up. This is an incredible example of how this school community, has not only contributed improving the lives of others – but also saving the lives of others! We should be proud of what we have achieved and look forward to making more of a difference in the future.

Reception

The reception class will be buying fruit from Tesco next week to make a fruit salad. Please let Mrs. Rollings know if your child can’t take part or has any allergies.

Holiday Request Form

When you request a holiday form for your child/ren to take a holiday during term-time, parents also need to attach a letter explaining the reason for the holiday. We have several forms in the office, without letters explaining the reason for requested leave. Please can any parents who have submitted a form only, send a letter in to the office as soon as possible.

Absence

If your child/ren are absent from school, could you please telephone the school office or inform the school in writing. If we do not receive a message, the school will telephone to confirm your child is at home for a valid reason.

Celebration of Achievements

Luke Staddon, Estella Maloney-Danvers, Marissa Peart, David Koleczko, Harry Barton,
Matthew Klamanski.
Monday's Celebration Assembly will be held in the school hall at 3pm. All parents are welcome.

Year 3-4 Parents – KEEPING UP WITH THE KIDS COURSE

Flyers will be sent out today to parents of children in Year 3 and 4 about this exciting course. The couse has been designed to enable parents to develop their own Maths and Computer skills whilst working with their children, who are improving their own skills. It is a 6 week course that will take place every Tuesday afternoon in school. Half of the session will be adults only and the second half will be with the children.
If successful we hope to plan similar sessions and open them to other groups of parents. Please see the flyers for futher details.

After School Activities

Recently we received a couple of comments (thank you!) in the suggestion boxes regarding after school activities. The parent asked whether more activivities could be arrange for different age groups of children and whether parents can be more involved?
It is the schools aim to provide a wide range of activities for all ages of children and we have managed to provide something for all ages this year. We hope to develop this in school more next year, but we are finding managing this additional provision quite a challenge (managing finance, managing staff from outside school, ensuring health and safety requirements are met – that your children are looked after and are safe).
We are very plaesed with how this side of school life has improved this year and more will be on offer next year. This will include more activities shared with other local schools and sometimes offered in different locations.
As far a parental contributions are concerned, we all know that parents have much to contribute and I welcome any suggestions. However we need to ensure that children are always safe and that we follow all proper procedures. This can make it difficult to invite parents in to work with children without CRB checks (which we can do easily) and a school member of staff (who is a First Aider) to help supervise the activity (this is sometimes more difficult to arrage). We have also had to ensure that adults volunteering to coach PE activities are fully qualified and we are trying to get a parent onto a Food Hygeine Certifivcate, so they can take small groups for cookery. So it can be done, it just takes a bit more organisation!
If there is something that as a parent you could contribute for an after school activity, please let me know and we can start organising things now.
A big thank you to the parent who made these useful comments.

Clifton Cathedral

Year 6 leavers will be going to the Clifton Cathedral on Wednesday, 18thh June, at 1.00pm.
All parents are welcome to join us at the Cathedral.

Dates for Diaries

Monday 12th May Start of KS2 SATS week
Tuesday 20th May Mrs Rollings/Miss Wright’s – Bristol Zoo
Tuesday 20th May Mrs Ford/Mr Sherwin’s – SS Great Britian
Friday 23rd May End of Term 5 – School closes
Monday 2nd June INSERVICE DAY
Monday 2nd June Start of Term 6 Wednesday 11th June Y6 – Bristol Cathedral
Wednesday 18th June Y6 – Leavers Mass (Clifton Cathedral)
Saturday 21st June Summer Fayre
Friday 25th July End of Term 6 – Summer Holidays.