“The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy."
Proverbs 12:22
A message from the Head
What a glorious time of the year it is after the May half term; the sun is shining, school is busy, and the children are cheerful!
As the we enter the summer season, we know many of the older children begin to cycle to school independently, as such we planned Bikeability lessons for Y5. This also prepares them for the option of cycling to their high school. At the end of a week of training, they achieve a proficiency certificate. Please ensure your child always wears a helmet on any of the wheeled devices they use as this will hopefully protect them if they fall off.
Summer term is also an extremely busy time for various national and in house school assessments. Well done to all the year groups who have now completed the national tests and assessments. They have worked extremely hard, persevered and I know they will reap their rewards!
As many of you are aware, our Site Manager (Mr. Paul Hemmings) has been off work due to long term illness. Paul will be retiring at the end of this term. He has given St John’s roughly 26 years of dedicated service to our school community, and we are very sad he will be leaving us. We can thank Paul on behalf of all our past and present families for the love and dedication he carried out his role, and we wish him all the best for the future. If you would like to contribute towards a gift, please send it through to the main office in a clearly mark envelop.
The local community are also planning to say thank you and celebrate his huge community spirit at the Hogsmill Community Garden Swan Pathon on Saturday 29th July from 2pm. You are all invited. Please contact Julie.blythe@hotmail.co.uk for additional information.
Byron Y2 visit to Kingston Museum
Y2 visited Kingston Museum for a fun and interesting workshop last week. Ms Brierley for organising this for the class.
Continuing our relationship with Bradbury House...
This year, we have again renewed our partnership with Bradbury House. Over the past years we visit our senior citizen neighbours, and take part in a variety of activities like singing and playing table top games. This year we have been enjoying reading our own written stories to them. This week a group of children from Year 3 were busy reading again at Bradbury House. The children are enjoying their weekly visits.
Antonia said: ‘I really like how they listen so well when we read and I like talking to them about everything’.
World Ocean Day
We took part in the World Ocean Day celebration with an assembly led by our Rights Respecting Ambassadors. They really shone on the day.
After our World Ocean assembly, Year 3 were keen to litter pick along the Hogsmill River. The children wanted to play their part to look after the habitats and wildlife living in the Hogsmill river. Year 3 said:
‘We need to make sure we put all our litter in the bin so it doesn’t blow into the river’.
‘Rubbish in the water can kill the fish and birds living in or around our river’.
Our Year 3 Rights Ambassador reminded the class: ‘We have a right to a safe and clean environment’.
Read what our Rights Respecting Ambassadors have been up to
At our recent Rights Respecting School ("RRS") Ambassadors' meeting, Freddie, one of our Year 5 RRS Ambassadors, said: ’We like learning about Rights but want to make our RRS assemblies more trendy.’
Ben and Francesca, our Year 6 Ambassadors, used their own time to plan 2 short skits to help us explore Article 28: You have the right to a good quality education and Article 15: You have the right to choose your own friends.
Freddie, Willow and Sam, our Year 5 RRS Ambassadors, played their part by performing a short skit arguing about which fictional character is better as they talked about Article 12: You have the right to give your own opinion.
Eve and Narges from Year 6 said the skits made it really easy to understand and remember the importance of Rights.
Well done Ambassadors!
Year 3 were so inspired by Year 5 and 6’s performance that they also planned a short drama to explain Article 16: You have the right to privacy.
The children spoke clearly and confidently as they enacted the importance of privacy. Well done to Eliza, Ellie, Florence, Antonia and Lily.
Kids Day out
We took part in the annual Kids Day Out event sponsored by the Rotary Club. The children had a fabulous time at Chessington World of Adventures. Mrs Hutchinson reported that they were a credit to St John’s. Thank you to her and her team for ensuring our children were included in this activity.
Celebrating Windrush Day
As part of the national Windrush Celebrations, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMS Windrush we held a special day.
Our Windrush celebrations were a huge success. There was a buzz of excitement throughout the school as children enjoyed stories from the Caribbean, tasted exotic foods and listened to reggae, soca and calypso music. Our children were so excited to learn about the Empire Windrush as it arrived from the Caribbean and finding out how the Windrush has changed and helped Britain.
Our day started with an assembly led by Wendy Shearer, a Professional London Storyteller, writer, imagination weaver and published author. She shared a short extract from her book of Caribbean Folktales and Windrush memories. She worked with every year group to create a short story based on the character of Anansi. The children were excited to share their ideas with Wendy as she wove these into her story telling.
Throughout the day some of the classes explored the different ways the Windrush generation has enriched our country through their contributions in areas such as music and food.
There was cooking and food sampling in every class.
Year R sampled a variety of exotic fruit
Year 1 tasted plantain and Reception tried a variety of fruits
Year 2 enjoyed a Caribbean fruit salad
Year 3 enjoyed making Jamaican Banana fritters
Year 4 cooked roti,
Year 5 made a delicious Caribbean style dish using eddoes, yam, cassava, peppers and mango
Year 6 enjoyed tasting the food food by Mrs Benvides
A huge thank you to Mrs Benevides for preparing some delicious food from South America for Year 6.
We are proud of the way our children were keen to try new foods and even came back for second and third helpings. Some comments from the children:
Grace (Year 3): ‘I liked Windrush Day because I got to taste new fruits and vegetables’
Josiah (Year 3):’ I liked the banana flavour in the Jamaican fritters and I really enjoyed making them’
Maya (Year 4): ‘I liked being the firebird in the Anansi story and wearing a headdress. It was fun!’
Jake (Year 4): ‘I enjoyed making roti. It tasted delicious!’
Sam (Year 5): ‘I liked learning about a different culture and hearing Caribbean stories from Wendy’
Gabriel (Year 5): ‘I enjoyed trying a yam (asaro) porridge’
Teddy (Year 5): ‘I really enjoyed creating stories about Anansi with Wendy. It was fun!’
The children have produced some wonderful work around the Windrush, this is on display in our main lobby. Please come to see the amazing work created by your children.
Here are some of Wendy Shearer’s books you may enjoy sharing these Caribbean tales with your child.
Complementary colours by Eve, Y6
Today in art we were learning about complementary colours, and producing a piece of work that has a mix of different pairs of complementary colours.
Complementary colours are two colours which are opposite to each other on the colour wheel and complement the other colour. For example, red and green, blue and orange, and purple and yellow.
I very much enjoyed this art lesson and I love how my work turned out.
Eve, year 6
Thank yous
A huge thank you to Mrs Benevides for preparing some delicious food from South America for Year 6.
Another huge thank you to Mr Lyons for donating 2 reading books to our school library as part of the Windrush celebrations.
A final massive thank you to all the parents and carers who donated fruits and vegetables to our Windrush day a success.
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.
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...
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: