A message from our Assistant Headteacher
Dear Parents and Carers,
It seems hard to believe that it is a whole half term since I last wrote to you. What a term it has been!
We can certainly say that we like to keep busy here at St John Vianney School and I think spring term 2 has been our busiest yet and this week was no exception.
It was so pleasing to see our Calvert group back safe and sound last Friday, with tales of great adventures and memories, that will stay for a long time. There were some very tired staff and pupils back in school on Monday, but it was clearly evident that the strong relationships that are formed and fostered in school had really been cemented after the shared experience of a residential.
We also celebrated World Poetry day this week; Mr Lomax delivered 6 engaging sessions with some of our older pupils on the theme of ‘homelessness’. Pupil engagement and responses were very moving and respectful.
Our Lenten challenges ended this week and the whole school community has really outdone themselves this year with the amount of money raised. We have had a multitude of money raising activities and there are some very good entrepreneurs in our midst! What has been truly fantastic this year is that our pupils have chosen how they would like to spend the money raised and classes have selected a vast array of CAFOD ‘world gifts’, that will help people in poorer countries to have access to clean water, vegetable growing facilities, livestock and even houses, to name but a few! This really puts our Gospel values into practice. Thank you to you all for your contributions and generosity, the St John Vianney community truly is magnificent!
We have finished the term with our Easter services, where our community has celebrated the most important time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. The children should be commended for the respectful, but joyous way they attend our services and their participation is always excellent. I would particularly like to mention those pupils who get up and read at mass; they speak with such passion and clarity and I am always so proud to see pupils, who have found reading difficult in the past, have such courage to read in front of a large audience.
Mr Moloney was delighted to be able to award his end of term awards at the end of each service and a pupil from each class was chosen to receive the pupil of the term award. Each Key Stage also had a coveted Gold Card 'Headteacher Award' that gets the winning pupils’ access to a range of treats in the next term! Pupils were eager to see who had won and what always pleases me is the support that these pupils get from their peers, who always gave rapturous applause and lots of ‘well done’ to the winners.
Thank you to those parents who attended our Parents Evening on Thursday. It was lovely to see so many families attend and was a great opportunity to meet with your child’s form teacher and discuss the recent interim reports, that went out earlier in the week.
Finally, the much anticipated Bury Arcade trip took place on Friday morning; Mr Cassidy led staff in supporting 75 of our pupils to attend where they could play on many different types of retro arcade games from the 80s onwards. The trip was to reward pupils who gained over 95% attendance this term and was a great success!
As I said at the beginning of this letter we certainly like to keep busy, but now it is time to have a break and recharge our batteries ready for the summer term. On behalf of all the staff and governors at St John Vianney School I would like to wish you a peaceful and restful Easter. Can I remind you please that School reopens for the summer term on Monday 17th April at 9am?
Best wishes,
Miss Nesbitt
Assistant Headteacher/SENCo
Stars of the Week
Each week a 'Star of the Week' is chosen by the class team to celebrate achievements; both academic and pastoral.
These are some of the achievements we are celebrating this week.
Ryan - For consistently good behaviour and attitude to learning!
Dylan - For engaging well with his Microsoft course.
Thomas - For showing brilliant enthusiasm during our charity fundraising events.
Sana - For absolutely brilliant reading out loud during assembly, even though you were really nervous! Well done Sana!
Kyan - For continuing to work well in lessons and trying his best to use kind words.
Justin - For having a mature attitude and dealing well with issues.
Ezra - For fantastic listening, engagement and independent work in School this week.
Micah - For an excellent week at Calvert Trust showing great maturity.
Rayyan - For putting himself out of his comfort zone at Calvert Trust.
Filip - For coping well with changes and trying hard talking with his friends.
Pupil Voice
Name - Zachary
What I have done this week.
I've done lots in my lessons this week. I've done Maths, English (similes in English) and Science!
What is the best thing about being in SJV?
I don't have a best thing, I just feel it's an all round good school.
It would be even better if…
We had bigger tables in the classrooms and a bigger workspace to do our work on.
Hopes and dreams for the future:
My dream job is to one day be a Pilot!
The whole school have been taking part in raising funds for CAFOD during Lent this year. Each and every class have done their bit to raise as much money as possible so we can buy essential items such as homes for life, emergency water, cows and even worms! This year we raised a huge total of £2173.53. That is an amazing effort by all our children, staff and their families who have supported them in raising such a fantastic amount. Thank you for your generosity and support.
Well done!
Class News
Class 3
This week the boys have some great experiences. As a class they have been organising and fund-raising for CAFOD, which finished with their penalty shootout challenge against their peers at break time.
As part of our Laudato Si promise, Class 3 helped to plant some trees in our horticulture area. We will be going back to check in and maintain the trees as they grow!
At the farm, they saw some cute newly born lambs and ate some wild garlic! Then we learned all about kale and how to cook it.
Class 5
Class 5 had a relaxing afternoon doing peer massage! They were also very proud to plant their trees at school to support the Laudato Si message.
Class 6
This week Class 6 went to the Farm and flexed their muscles. In the pouring rain they tried the machinery that horses use to comb the grass. How much horse power does Class 6 have?
Class 7
This week in Class 7 planned their own trip into Chinatown. We went to supermarket, and used our buying & budgeting skills.
We also had a poetry intervention we looked at poetry written by the homeless & how we can make a difference. they were really engaged & it had a real effect on them, well done Class 7.
Class 8
A lovely last visit to Forest School this week for Class 8.
Class 9
Class 9 were enjoying their residential stay at the Calvert Trust in the Lake District.
The pupils enjoyed rock climbing, canoeing, gill scrambling, and cycling around a nature reserve and we even met the Gruffalo! Well done guys, thanks for a great week!
Class 10
Class 10 attended UA92 as part of their BTEC Media Studies.
A great time was had by all.
Class 11
Class 11 haven't been resting since our return from Calvert Trust - this week we've been out raising funds for CAFOD and were also fortunate enough to plant our own selection of trees in the garden, just in time for Spring!
Class 12 & 13
Class 12 and 13 pupils took part in their work experience at the Children’s Adventure Farm. The group worked really hard in the Spring sunshine weeding and clearing away the duck pond area.
Class 13
Class 13 completed their 100 mile Lenten Challenge this week.
The group worked very hard to complete this. With the money raised the class were able to buy a goat, some chickens and other useful items.
It's off to work we go!
Ben from Class 12 had an amazing interview for his work experience, which will start after our Easter break. He demonstrated the skills he has been learning about in his BTEC. Well done, Ben!
Attendance Award Trip-Spring Term
Almost 100 pupils and staff went to Bury Arcade today as part of the attendance reward scheme. Everyone had lots of fun, including the staff! Thank you Mr Cassidy for organising!
Our Catholic School
Can you believe it’s the end of the Easter term? It’s been a busy half term for SJV with residentials for Keys Stages 3 and 4, OFSTED visiting and all the usual busy activity that happens at SJV during Lent and the normal curriculum.
Within SJV we are asked on our Lenten journey to the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday to consider our relationships with God. St Vincent De Paul ‘We should let our hearts open to the suffering of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us the spirit of compassion’
In our Catholic school we have had our two Easter services which were led by Father Nick and the Chaplaincy team- it is always wonderful to see the chapel full and spend some spiritual time together.
It’s exciting to see some many different activities taking place for Lent. We have classes walking 100 miles doing raffle, being sponsored to have a 'pie in their face' or doing the ice bucket challenge. We have students taking penalty shootouts and classes bringing in cans of food for our most vulnerable local residents. Classes are staying silent for Si-LENT and making time just to be with God, they are remembering and expressing what they have to be thankful or grateful for and writing up lots of kind acts for our 40 Acts of Kindness.
The chaplaincy team within their bubbles have been run off their feet keeping up with the demand for kindness slips and keeping track of all the fund raising and prayer activities that are happening all over SJV.
Within RE this week we have continued to look at Lent and have been looking ahead to Holy Week and different traditions at Easter – do you know for example in Switzerland they have an Easter Wizard instead of an Easter bunny and in France children celebrate with an Easter chocolate fish!
Mrs Garfin
Enjoy your Weekend!
Credits:
Created with images by geralt - "board school done" • ZoomTeam - "Tuscany hills" • Africa Studio - "Little boy gathering colorful egg in park. Easter hunt concept" • pingpao - "Asian little girl helping his father to plant the tree " • Gorilla - "Mountain cycling couple with bikes on track, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Dolomites, Italy" • mehdi33300 - "Chinatown in Malacca, Malaysia"