The Link Newsletter #64

Friday 28th March 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

It is hard to believe that we are near to the end of another term at St John's. As usual it has been jam packed with trips, class assemblies and sporting events as well as charity fund raisers and of course World Book Day. The Summer term is no different and always has a lot for us to look forward to with fantastic community events such as Sports Day, the Summer Fayre, concerts and end of year performances.

Firstly, I would like to thank parents who responded to the survey about the breakfast club provision. We had 43 responses in total with parents indicating that there is sufficient demand for the service on most days. As a result, we will now work hard towards implementing this provision for September. We hope to be able to give you further details about this after the Easter break so that parents are able to plan ahead for the start of the new academic year.

We will be saying a fond farewell to Mrs Shave at the end of the week as she prepares to commence a new role at Forest School after the Easter holiday. Mrs Shave has worked at St John's since 2021 supporting individual children with specific needs and providing whole class and intervention support. I am sure you will wish to join me in thanking Mrs Shave for the wonderful commitment that she has shown the staff, children and parents.

We welcome Mrs Da Silva Constantino who will join our LSA team after the Easter holiday. 

Mrs Tinker and two pupils and their parents attended a celebration event recognising our recent success in a Healthy Schools competition. A few months ago, children at St John's were tasked with creating a resilience backpack. We created a display and sent a photograph of this as our entry.

Mrs Tinker writes:

"All age groups designed their own resilience backpack from EYFS right up to Year 6. We discussed what resilience is at age-appropriate levels and what helps them when they are finding situations a challenge and need to bounce back."

Congratulations to everyone who contributed entries to support this competition and to Mrs Tinker for coordinating this opportunity. Ivy and Adriana collected this award and prizes. They reported that their day in Brentwood was "The best trip ever!"

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WORLD BOOK DAY

We had much fun celebrating World Book Day. The children's costumes were as inspiring as ever and the judges found it exceedingly difficult to choose a winner. The standard of home made costumes increases each year. Well done parents and children for making such an incredible effort.

Just over £1300 was taken after the book fair closed meaning that we have over £700 to spend on books for our library. Thank you to everyone who supported the book fair. 

The winners of the best dressed award are:

A video of the World Book parade can be watched here.
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ONLINE SAFETY INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Mrs Peacock is our Computing and E-Safety leader and will be sending fortnightly communications to parents informing you about how best you can educate and prepare your children when accessing the Internet. We know children use the Internet for homework, for their own interests, whether that be watching content or playing games.

We have recently updated our E-Safety curriculum and will be following a new scheme from Common Sense Media. This scheme is reviewed and updated regularly and their lessons reflect this ever changing world and the risks and opportunities posed. This means that you too will benefit from regular and updated advice.

How to keep your child safe online (Edition 1)
As a parent, you will be aware of how important the internet is to children and young people. They use it to learn, play, socialise and express themselves. With the many and varied online games, social media and applications used by children today, it is increasingly challenging to keep track of the suitability of what our children are seeing and who they are talking to online. There are wonderful games and learning tools online and we do not want to stop children using the internet. We want to provide you with information and reference points to help you support your child in accessing safe sites and games. The following checklist is a helpful guide as you protect them and decrease the online risks they face:

- My child has shown me the sites they use
- I have set appropriate parental controls on my child’s computer, mobile and games console
- I have asked my child to set their profile settings to private
- I have asked my child about their online friends
- My child has agreed to tell me if they are worried about something online
- I have verified that any video games my child plays are age-appropriate
- I know where to get help if I’m concerned about my child

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NEW SUMMER TERM MENUS

Mrs O'Neill met with a group of children last week to gather information about the food they enjoy eating at school. She also asked what they would like to see on the menu next term. Some of their ideas have been included in the Summer Term menus. Please review these menus with your children and help them to understand what to expect.

I am delighted to learn that overall take up for school meals has risen to 75% of all children enjoying a school meal. 73% of children in KS2 have chosen a school meal. This is to be celebrated after just 6 months of operating.

I am also seeing that 40% of children are choosing the main meal option, 12% the vegetarian option and the remainder is split across the variety of fillings for baguette and jacket potato options.

Summer Term Menus

KS1 Sportshall Athletics

Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics
On 21st March, a team of Year 3/4 children represented the school at Debden Park High School. The team worked well together and St John's was placed 3rd out of the 6 schools competing. A good result. Thank you to every athlete who took part and thank you to the adults who supported this event.

Cross Country Finals - 7th March
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Cross Country event at Ashton Playing Fields. Everyone ran their fastest and tried their best - well done to all of our runners.

The children finishing in the top 10 were:

Summer J - Hawk, placed 3rd
Albie - Hawk, placed 4th
Adriana - Falcon, placed 5th
Ivy C - Raven - 6th
Leila B - Raven - 7th
Isabella T - Badger - 9th

 Summer, Albie and Adriana go on to compete in the County finals in Southend. 

Overall the Year 6 girls team finished in Silver position, joint first with Hereward but the children's finishing positions determined second place overall.
Year 5 boys team finished in Bronze position. Both are fantastic results.

Boys Football
St John's played against Hillhouse on 12th March. They won the game comfortably 6-1. This was the last league game of the season. Well done to the team and thank you to Rob for your support and coaching.

St John's finished top of the group having won all five games. Leverton have also finished top of their group and so we will organise a play-off match to determine the overall winner.

Girls Football
On 17th March St John's played a friendly away match against Theydon Bois on a very chilly afternoon. The girls played brilliantly and showed some real grit, playing uphill in the first half and passing the ball well between players. A big thank you to Mr Lachanah who has been coaching the girls. It was a comfortable win, 7-0. Well done girls. The next game is a friendly home match against White Bridge on Wednesday 2nd April.

Netball
The matches have come thick and fast in recent weeks. Starting with a home win for our team against Leverton on 5th March. It was wonderful to witness the improvement in the children's skills, confidence and desire to win the ball.

5th March
SJBH vs Leverton - 12-9 to SJBH 

14th March 
White Bridge vs SJBH - 11 - 8 to White Bridge 
Hereward vs SJBH - 18-8 to Hereward

21st March
Team A Theydon vs SJBH - 29 -1 to Theydon 
Team B Theydon vs SJBH - 9 - 2 to Theydon

Dance Festival
In addition to these events, the school also performed in the Dance Festival at Epping St John's on 12th March led by Miss Marbe. The dance troop performed their dance to the school in our whole school celebration worship and the children were certainly enjoying their moment on stage after weeks of practice.

Aquasplash
This event took place at Davenant on 26th March. This was a lovely event enabling children to participate in a completely different sport. The children had a wonderful time. Well done Mrs Radley and Mrs Fernandez for taking the children.

Once again, the team at St John's have organised and led such a broad range of sports in which children can enjoy and compete. Not only is this key to driving maximum opportunities for children to participate in sport but it maximises the number of children who have represented St John's. An enormous thank you to Mrs Aarons and the staff and volunteers who have organised, entered and prepared the children well for these competitions.

SELECTION PROCESS
In recent fixtures across a range of sports, a considerable amount of time has been given to responding to parents who have questioned and challenged decisions made by coaches, teachers and organisers about why their child had not been selected for events. I have to say that I have been appalled by some of the approaches made and the language used towards staff and volunteers and I will not accept it.

I understand that parents have a desire for their child to represent the school; a passion that we all share too. We work hard to try and include every child who wishes to represent the school although for some events children are selected for specific reasons, i.e. for being the fastest following in-school cross-country heats.

I have taken onboard views from parents and as a result we will be writing a policy which makes it clear to everyone what the selection criteria is so that we can be more transparent with you. In the meantime, please remember to show the respect and appreciation, as many of you already do, to the staff and volunteers who work over and above to make sure that we continue to participate in sporting events and give children the best opportunities.

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NEWS FROM THE PTA

A month ago, I mentioned that both the PTA secretary and treasurer are standing down this year and to invite parents to step forward to take on these positions. Currently I am not aware of anyone coming forward which is disappointing. I know that we are busier than ever but unless someone is able to take on these roles we will not be able to run any of the PTA events. I would be open to two parents sharing each of the roles if that meant the workload could be shared across two people. I remain confident that we will be able to fill the posts with parents and as a result continue to organise fantastic events. Finally, thank you to both Natalie and David who have brought such incredible organisation and energy to their roles.

If either of these two roles are something you feel you would like to take on or would like to find out more information about in terms of time commitment, please speak to Sue Moody, Mrs Vincent or Mrs Pharoah in the first instance. You can also email pta@stjohns.efspt.org

Join the Challenge: Let’s all raise £25 (or more) !
We’re calling on every child to get creative and try to raise £25 (or more) in any way they like! Want to make it even more fun? Team up with friends and multiply your impact!

This is a wonderful chance for kids to launch their own fundraising projects, explore their creativity, and see how their efforts can make a big difference for our school.

⏳ The challenge runs until Friday 4th July !

We’d love to hear about your amazing projects—share your ideas with us so we can help promote them, and don’t forget to send us photos of your efforts once completed! Email us at *pta@stjohns.efspt.org**

PTA Golf Day
We’re arranging a PTA Golf Day on Thursday 5th June.

Chigwell Golf Club

12pm Tee off

18 holes plus hot meal after

£65 per person.

If anyone is interested please email 

pta@stjohns.efspt.org

St John's Lucky Bar
The excitement was enormous as children bought lucky bars in the hope of being a Golden ticket winner. This event raised over £450! Thank you for supporting us.

    

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WHOLE SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPH, CLASS AND TEAM PHOTOGRAPHS

On the 23rd April, the team from GEM photography will be in school setting up the gantry from the whole school photograph. We will also be taking class and sports team photographs as well. All children must arrive in school in full school uniform including jumpers and cardigans and looking their best. If you child usually has PE on Wednesday, they will need to bring their sports kit to change into at school.

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GET INTO TEACHING WITH WEST ESSEX SCITT

Are you interested in training to become a Primary School Teacher?

We have Initial Teacher Training vacancies to begin training at the beginning of September 2025. We are looking for people who have a degree, a passion for education and teaching and want to inspire young people to fulfil their potential.

We would be very interested to hear from you if you are thinking of becoming a teacher, or know someone who is. 

This is not a drop in event so please book your place now by emailing vsmullen@efspt.org

We welcome the opportunity to meet and talk to you about the exciting teacher training opportunities available. Susan Marbe, the West Essex SCITT Director can be contacted at smarbe@efspt.org or please call one of our team on 02085042934 option 6. We can also provide you with support and guidance on your DfE APPLY application form

For any further information on what becoming a teacher might involve more generally, you can visit http://www.westessexscitt.co.uk/ or https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

You can find and apply for our Initial Teacher Training courses via DfE FIND

AND FINALLY....

Friday 4th April is the last day of the Spring term and school will finish at the following times:

EYFS and KS1 - 1.10pm
KS2 - 1.15pm.

School resumes on Tuesday 22nd April at the usual time of 8.40am.