Johnston Community Primary School January 20th 2023

Dear parents and carers,

It has been another busy week in school with our usual range of curriculum activities as well as topic launch events and school sports! On Monday I held the first headteachers coffee morning. I am going to do this each half term and the idea is that parents are able to have an open discussion about areas of the school which they feel are working well and areas which they feel could be improved. Thank you to everyone who attended. Some of the things that we discussed were:

The stress on school budgets at the moment.
School curriculum developments.
Ways in which we can continue to enhance our outdoor learning offer.
The success of the Jubilee Celebration last year. The importance of arranging another similar event.
The importance of providing pupils with opportunities to engage in the performing arts.

I shared this feedback with staff and we are going to continue to work on these areas.

Sports Report

On Friday, we welcomed Prendergast School for rugby and netball matches. There was a lovely atmosphere in school and I was particularly proud of the pupils who represented the school in a sport for the first time. Thank you to all of the volunteers who supported this event! All of the pictures which I was handed were taken of the rugby match so next time we will make sure that we make a netball feature. Keep an eye out for the pupils sports blogs at the beginning of next week. We look forward to welcoming Cleddau Reach School in a few weeks!

Topic Launch

We had great fun launching our school topics on Monday night!

Seren yr Wythnos Celebrations!

Well done to our merit winners this week! We are very proud of you.

Attendance

Thank you for your support with school attendance this week. The school average for the week was 96.5%. Excellent work everyone.

Important Dates this Half-Term

January 16th - Years Four, Five and Six topic launch after school.
January 16th - Headteacher coffee drop is session.
January 17th and 18th- Year Five Working with Tom Bean. Wellies required!
January 20th (Friday Afternoon) Contact Rugby and netball against Prendergast Primary School.
January 24th-25th - Year Six Cardiff Trip
February 7th - Safer Internet Day
Thursday 9th February - Pembrokeshire Dance Competition
Tuesday February 14th - School Museum exhibition.
Wednesday 15th - School Disco

Please Read This Important Information about Free School Meals.

It is vitally important that any parents who qualify for Free School Meals Register.

Schools receive additional money based upon the number of pupils who are in receipt of free school meals. This money is used to provide additional staffing to support pupils.

Despite the fact that Welsh Government is rolling out universal free school meals, we still need parents to register for free schools meals to qualify for additional funding support.

A pupil may be able to get free school meals if their parent or guardian gets any of the following:

Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Guarantee element of Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided the parent isn’t entitled to Working Tax Credit and has an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after a claimant stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit to 31 March 2019, Universal Credit 1 from 1 April 2019, Universal Credit, provided the household has an annualised net earned income of no more than £7,400 (as assessed by earnings from up to three of their most recent assessment periods).
Pupils who receive Income-related Employment and Support Allowance,
Income Support or Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance in their own right could also be able to receive free school meals.

For children/young people to be eligible to receive free school meals:

the parent (or child/young person) must be in receipt of the relevant benefit or support payment
an application for free school meals should have been submitted to the local authority
the application should have been approved, or documents should have been seen that strongly indicate eligibility.

You can apply by visiting Pembrokeshire County Council Website, or by calling into school.

If you think that you may qualify and you would like support or information, please call into our school office. Mrs. Greenish and the school admin team will be happy to help.