Weekly Update: 2nd July 2021

Published July 2nd, 2021

Tour de St Joes

I’m starting this week’s update on a positive. This week I have been showing off our wonderful school to Year 5 families who are considering applying for a place at St Joseph’s for September 2022 (rest assured, the tours have been one family at a time, we have been wearing masks, sanitising hands on entry and adhering to social distancing guidelines). I must share with you what a joy it is going around school and seeing the pupils in all the subject areas; it really does fill me with a sense of pride and the visiting parents are always complimentary on our respectful and nurturing ethos and the behaviour of the pupils.

This week, I’ve seen pig heart dissections in Science, Relationships and Sex Education in RE, improvisation and physical theatre in Drama, cubism in Art, apple crumbles, Kedgeree and macaroni cheese being prepared and cooked in Food Tech, coding in ICT, speech writing in English, food sampling in Spanish, fractions in Maths, Yr10s having virtual mock interviews, compositions in Music, tennis and cricket in PE, earthquakes in Geography, and pupil-led learning in History. It all makes me wish I was a pupil again!

The Need to be Covid-Careful

I must echo the sentiments from last week’s update – we certainly aren’t out of the woods yet in terms of Covid. I referred to 22 schools in Hampshire having to close/partially close, but have been hearing this week that schools in Salisbury have also had to close bubbles.

After coming so far, it is vital that we all do what we can to ensure that we can make school as covid-secure as possible; twice week lateral flow testing is an important measure as is good hand hygiene.

At present, the decision to wear face masks in communal areas is a personal one, however our preference as a school is that they are worn in corridors. We are constantly considering bringing back compulsory mask wearing in corridors and communal places. This decision will be taken if we see a rise again in the local area.

We’ve scheduled Sports Day, House Competition Day and the Awards Assemblies for the final week of term and want to do all we can to ensure that our whole pupil and staff community can be present for these showcase days.

Parents’ Evenings

On Monday you will receive further communication regarding the parents’ evenings and information evenings scheduled for the week beginning 12th July. In these communications will be links to the online meetings and instructions of how to access them.

Progress Reports

These will be distributed in the final week of term and during the information evenings you will be briefed on how to read them and how to contact us should you have any concerns.

Last Day of Term

We will be breaking up for summer on Friday 23rd July at 12:30. As usual the only buses to run at that time will be the buses taking pupils into town.

Achievement Points Race

As we enter into the final weeks of term, it’s still incredibly close! 

  • 1st Place: Teresa – 28,706 points
  • 2nd Place: Margaret – 28,643 points
  • 3rd Place: Vincent – 28,483 points
  • 4th Place: Francis – 26,505 points

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Rooney

P.S. Is it coming home?!

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