10th January 2020
Welcome back! Happy new year! At Cardinal Newman, we have had a really positive start to 2020 – the children have come back refreshed and ready to learn for the new term. I have enjoyed reading lots of accounts of their exciting holiday news and have been delighted to give out several Headteacher’s Awards this week, where teachers have recognised excellence in subjects as diverse as Art (fabulous portraits in Y2!), Writing, Music and amazing progress (for sounds). One KS2 child was recognised for explaining in Collective Worship that Jesus is with us in Holy Communion.
As you know, over the last few months we have been working as a school at making our foundation subjects curriculum even broader and more exciting. As part of this project, you will see today that your child’s “Activity Passport” has been sent out for you to have a look at. This is based on the National Trust “50 things to do before 11 ¾” book and each year group has a list of activities which we would like them to complete during that year. Most of the activities have been built into the curriculum in school but there are a few which are for home learning! You have been warned!! Please return the passport to school on Monday so that we can work on this through the term – the plan is that we will look after it in school but you can let us know the things which have been completed at home (maybe send in a photo or souvenir to share) as the year goes on. We hope the children will be excited by all the different activities and we look forward to completing the passports together! Thank you for your support with this new curriculum project!
The next “Coffee and Conversation” parent forum will take place on Thursday 23rd January from 8:40am. All parents are warmly welcome to join me in Whizz Kids, where we will be discussing some of the key issues raised by parents and by the school. If you have questions to raise, please email them to the office by Monday 20th January. This term, the two school issues I would like to raise are:
Reporting to parents (School reports) – Introducing the new Xavier summer report template
Wellbeing Survey – As you may be aware, we are working with the Xavier Catholic Education Trust and an Educational Psychologist on a Mental Health Award. As part of this, we are gathering parent feedback about 6 key questions as follows:
1) Do you feel that mental health within the school community should be a priority?
2) Are you aware of the support with children’s mental health and wellbeing eg. CAMHS which is available within and beyond school?
3) Do you know who to talk to in school if you have concerns about your child’s mental health?
4) Do you feel your child should receive more education and information on mental health and well-being?
5) Would you be interested in receiving information on how you can promote positive mental health and well-being at home?
6) Do you have concerns about your child’s mental health?
The answer to all 6 questions gives an option of: Yes / No / Somewhat
Please do join us if you would like to discuss these topics or anything else. Emailed responses to the survey questions are also welcome.
Finally, a warm welcome to our two new members of staff this term:
Mrs Fleur Coleman who is working part-time on a temporary contract until June in the first instance. Mrs Coleman is a teacher who will be supporting with class cover and is also running our exciting “Day in Nature” project.
Mrs Helen Brennan who is our new Office Administrator and takes over from Mrs Bates in the School Office. She has hit the ground running and we are delighted to welcome her to the team.
In a bid to reduce workload in Helen’s first week, we are holding over the activity passports and the termly topic plans to go on the website– watch this space for the link to these in next week’s newsletter!
Thank you for all your support for our school.
Best wishes for the new year!
Catherine Burnham