Wednesday 20th July, 2011

Dear Parents and Carers,

An Amazing Year!

Welcome to the last newsletter of this school year. A paper copy is being sent home to all families this week. The children have had a great year of learning and are making better progress than ever before.

Many of our key stage results this year are well above national averages in almost all areas and are improving in all subjects. We are doing especially well in reading and writing, although maths is improving too across the school!

Here are some highlights -

Foundation Stage Outcomes

The children have done brilliantly this year in reading and writing, with our children doing better than ever! The children have a great foundation for learning in Year 1. Children have made good progress in all areas of the curriculum and are happy and confident individuals.

End of Key Stage Results – Key Stage 1 (level 2b is national expectation)

An amazing 47% of children attained well above average at Level 3 in reading compared to 26% nationally.
80% of children attained L2b+ in writing, compared with 60% nationally.
80% of children attained L2b+ in Maths, compared to 72% nationally.

End of Key Stage Test Results – Key Stage 2 (Level 4 is national expectation)

94% of children attained Level 4 in English overall. This compares to 84% nationally.
An amazing 97% of children attained Level 4 in writing. This compares to 70% nationally.

Attendance

This has continued to improve over the last 3 years and is now almost 95% overall.

Well done to the following children who have achieved 100% attendance this year - Evie Attwood, Jane Campos, Thomas Coombs, Rungkan Downes, Kelsey Ford, Ceris Lee, Samuel Masenyama, Ty Mitchell, Lea Scott, George Stenner, Aaron Tarr, Jerrin Thomas, Jordan Toy, Eoan Tuohy, Benjamin Underhill, David Wabissa and Vanessa Wabissa

Sing Up – Platinum Award

I am sure that you will be delighted to know that we have achieved the SingUp Platinum Award. We are only the second school in Bristol to have achieved this, and the only school in both Bristol and the wider area to have achieved the entire Awards journey from having no awards, through to achieving Silver, Gold and now Platinum! As a Platinum school we will now be working towards having an outwards focus to our singing, and will be helping other schools along their singing journey.

This is a huge achievement for our school and really emphasises the quality of the education that pupils receive at St Joseph’s. Well done to Mrs Marsh for leading us to this success and the whole school community for their enthusiasm and commitment.

A message from Maureen Tuohy (Foundation Governor)

As we come to the end of another school year I would like to say once again how proud I am to be a part of the St Joseph’s school community. I have attended lots of meetings, masses and assemblies this year, not to mention the sports day, summer fair and the fabulous year 6 leavers production of Oliver! I have also had the great privilege of visiting St Joseph’s during the school day, talking to children, looking at their work and being shown around by learning detectives. What I have found, as a result of all my contacts with St Joseph’s this year, is a lively, caring and happy community in which children are progressing in their learning.

This is reflected in the results of the questionnaire which was sent out last term. I plan to give detailed results in September but would like to share with you that the vast majority of parents (91%) who returned their questionnaire placed their responses in either the agree or strongly agree options. Comments included “A warm, welcoming school…”, “St Joseph’s is a very encouraging school.” and my personal favourite “ A good start in life to children to show that we can all live and work together even though we are different, because we respect one another’s differences.” Thank you to all of you who responded!

I look forward to working with the school again in September and can’t wait to see what the children will achieve next year! Have a great summer break!

Maureen Tuohy (Foundation Governor)

School Dinners

I am pleased to be able to inform you that the price of school meals will remain at £2.20 for the next academic year.

With the success of school dinner packed lunch, this will be continued until the end of term 1 when the menu will change.

After School Activities

After school activities will commence the week beginning 19th September. Letters will be distributed in the first week of term.

Goodbyes

We are very sad to be saying goodbye to Eva Gossan, who has been appointed business manager at Abbeywood Community School. We wish Eva all the best in her new role.

Also Miss Wright will be leaving the school this week. She has been a great Year 1 teacher and will be missed by us all. We wish her all the best in her future career.

Thank You

I would like to thank all children, parents, staff and governors for all your hard work and support. We look forward to making 2011-2012 an even better year of learning.

Leaver’s Mass is tomorrow at 2pm in the Church. The first two days of term (September 1st and 2nd) are staff training days. School will reopen on Monday 5th September.

Have a safe and happy holiday


Matt Condon
Headteacher.