SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Friday 9th November 2018

St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School

Tel: 01538 722378 & 01538 722093

Principal: Mrs S Baxter

Website: www.st-thomas-tean.staffs.sch.uk

Email: headteacher@st-thomas-tean.staffs.sch.uk

or office@st-thomas-tean.staffs.sch.uk

Parental feedback Survey 56 families responded. Some comments were very specific to individual pupils but here’s the general overview:- What we do well:- What we could do better:-

Thank you for all of your responses and it’s fantastic to see that you think that we do so many things well. We are always striving to improve and will try to act upon the things that we can do better as soon as we can. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. It would be great if you could also leave feedback on Parent View on the Ofsted website at https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/ Behaviour and achievement The use of behaviour points seemed to be a concern for a number of parents. In school, we most definitely work on a positive culture – we all work better for the carrot rather than the stick! During the first half of the autumn term, we awarded 10,683 achievement points and only 156 behaviour points. This figure goes to show that the achievement far outweigh the behaviour incidents. Class rewards for reaching a target number of dojos have ranged from film afternoons to superhero days. Individual certificates are given at the end of the term for achievement. We are also in discussion regarding additional rewards for the end of the half term e.g. Breakfast with a chosen staff member etc. The most common use of the behaviour point was for low level disruption in class. The system allows us to monitor behaviour across the school and, when needed, talk to the parents with accurate information regarding incidents. If children do not read at night, they are not issued with a behaviour point, they are asked to read to a member of staff for a period of time over break or lunch time. Parking Whilst we appreciate that parking at the end of the day can be very difficult, this is no different than in the hundreds of other schools around the country. To try and alleviate the problem, we do utilise the bottom playground for parking at the start and the end of the day. After discussion with staff, the earliest that we can open the playground at night is 3.05pm. This is first and foremost a playground and is used on some afternoons for P.E and we do not want the children missing out on P.E lessons due to the area being used to park. As the road is a public highway, the school has no control over this and cannot enforce any sort of parking control or traffic management as suggested by some parents. We have contacted the police safer highways team and are awaiting a visit from them to give us advice.

A number of parents have spoken to me with suggestions of how to help alleviate the problems at drop off and pick up times. We are happy to meet with these parents to discuss this, and to this end have asked Miss Hodson-Turner to communicate with interested parents to arrange a suitable date/time (posting on ‘Friends of St Thomas’ Facebook page). If you do not have access to social media and would like to be involved, please contact the school office directly. Look out for a notification with further details. After school club The requests for a daily after school club will be investigated further and information will follow. Encouraging participation at mass Thank you for the suggestion of sending out personal invites to mass, this is certainly something that we will be implementing.

Communication (app/newsletter/website) 29

Relationships with parents 15

Relationships with pupils 9

Engagement (theme days etc) 10

Sport 10

Teaching/progress 18

Act quickly/effectively on concerns 4

Transition (Rec/Y6) 4

Clubs 10

Homework 5

Rewards 9

Relationships between year groups e.g. paired activities. 8

Environment 3

After school club 7

More class info on dojo/class pages on website 6

Sports for the ‘non-sporty’ 3

Parking 4

Promote school mass 2

Timescales – needing things back by the next day 5

Feedback from tests results 1

Behaviour points 8

Attending events in the school day – working parents. 2

Playground 3

Consistency of rewards 5

Year 6 took part in the Bikeability

Scheme on 18th & 19th October, learning

how to ride safely on the road.

Reception School Admissions 2019

Please note that if you are applying for a place at St Thomas’ for your child in Reception in 2019, we have put some

information for parents in the New Intake folder on our website (https://st-thomas-catholic-primary.secure-

primarysite.net/new-intake-september-2019/).

Christmas Boxes

Thank you to all of those who have already returned their boxes. Can any outstanding boxes please be returned to school by Wednesday 14 November 2018. Thank you.

Mad Science Club

Will start on Thursday 15 November after school (there may well be two classes). As soon as we receive a list of names from Mad Science we will send a text confirming your child’s place.

Remembrance Day

Thank you to all the parents who sent in bottle bottoms for the pupils to make into poppies. If

you have spotted our display in the Window Repair Centre, you will have seen how good they looked! Thank you also to Mrs Davis for donating some fake grass and to Mrs Barlow for the military

helmet. Also, thank you to Mrs Ottley for organising the display.

Free School Meals/Pupil Premium

All pupils in Key Stage 1 get a free hot dinner, but some pupils may be entitled to “Free School Meals” which also includes help with payment for school trips, music lessons, after school clubs, etc. All pupils could qualify for this benefit if you are in receipt

of one of the following:-

Income Support Income Based Job Seekers Allowance Income Related Employment and Support Allowance Eligible for Child Tax Credit but not Working Tax Credit and the household income

(as used by HMRC to assess tax credits) is not more that £16,190. Please note: anyone eligible for Working Tax Credit, or if you have a partner and they receive it, regardless of Income, you will not qualify

The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 In receipt of the 4 week run on of working tax credit (this is where someone becomes

unemployed or reduces their hours and so is no longer entitled to working tax credit but will continue to receive it for a further 4 weeks and is entitled to free meals during that time)

Universal credit (provided you have an annual net earned household income of no more than £7,400 as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods). Your net earned income is your household income after taxes and deductions and does not include income from Universal Credit or any other benefits you may receive.

Please see extract below from the Staffordshire County Council website - https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/educationalawardsbenefits/FreeSchoolMeals/home.aspx

If you think you may qualify for this entitlement, please either visit the Staffordshire.gov website (above) or contact the school office.

For every pupil registered with the council as eligible under the entitlement criteria, the school will receive additional funding called Pupil Premium which is used to help raise achievement levels. Each school will decide how to spend the funding and are required to publish how they spend it and what impact it has had. So that schools (and pupils) can continue to benefit from this extra funding it is important that parents who do meet the criteria continue to register a claim with the council if they meet the entitlement criteria above.

We held a “Rock Steady” assembly on Monday 22nd October, when pupils were entertained by live rock music and clearly enjoyed it very much!

There will be a Rock Steady Music Workshop in school for all pupils on Wednesday 14th November.

Year 6 Book Swap

As part of our strategy to encourage reading, we are

introducing a “book swapping” shelf in Year 6.

We are asking Year 6 pupils to bring into class any fiction

books (not comics) they have finished reading. They will

receive a token and can use this token in exchange for

another book from the class library. All “swapping” books

will be kept in the Year 6 classroom and swapping can

take place at any time.

This should hopefully increase the amount of reading

done by Year 6 and give pupils access to a greater range

of books.

Books should be in good condition and suitable for Year 6

reading ages and abilities.

Dates for your diary …..

Tuesday 13th November, 3.30pm Confirmation meeting with Father Eric Wednesday 14th November, pm Rock Steady Music Workshop Wednesday 14th November, pm KS2 Intra-School Dodgeball Competition Thursday 15th November, 3.30pm First Holy Communion meeting with Father Eric Friday 16th November, 9.15am Mass in Church (Years 6 & 3) Sunday 18th November Family Mass in Church Thursday 22nd November Tempest Photography (missing pupils from previous date) Thursday 22nd November, pm KS2 Inclusion football Friday 23rd November, 9.15am Mass in Church (Years 5 & R) Wednesday 28th November, 10.00am Years 5/6 Girls’ County Football at St George’s Park Friday 30th November, 9.15am Mass in Church (Years 4 & 1) Friday 30th November Year 5 Greek Day Friday 30th November, 7.00pm PTA Meeting at Checkley Cricket Club Monday 3rd December Year 2 Scooterbility Day Thursday 6th December, 3.30pm Sacramental Preparation meeting Friday 7th December, 9.15am Mass in Church (Years 5 & 2) Monday 10th December, 1.00pm Reception & Year 6 Concert Tuesday 11th December, 1.00pm Years 1 , 2 & 5 Concert Tuesday 11th December, 6.00pm Reception & Year 6 Concert Wednesday 12th December, 1.00pm Years 3 & 4 Concert Wednesday 12th December, 6.00pm Years 1, 2 & 5 Concert Thursday 13th December, 6.00pm Years 3 & 4 Concert Friday 14th December Key Stage 2 Pantomime at Stafford Gatehouse Friday 14th December, 9.15am Mass in Church (Key Stage 1) Friday 14th December PTA Christmas Fayre Tuesday 18th December Key Stage 1 trip to Tamworth Snowdome Wednesday 19th December Christmas Lunch for all pupils Friday 21st December, 9.15am Whole School Mass in Church Friday 21st December School closes for Christmas Holidays Monday 7th January School reopens for Spring term Monday 7th January Roald Dahl Day Sunday 13th January Family Mass in Church Friday 25th January, 2.30pm Class 3 Assembly Thursday 7th February, 3.30pm Sacramental Preparation meeting

Most gracious God and Father,

in whose will is our peace:

turn our hearts and the hearts of all to yourself,

that by the power of your Spirit

the peace which is founded on righteousness

may be established throughout the whole world;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray for all who suffer as a result of war