Welcome back to a new school year to all our families from last year. A big welcome to the many new families who have joined us in Reception and throughout school. We hope that parents and children will very quickly feel a part of the St John's family. The weather has been so poor this summer; we hope that you managed to find some sunshine and had some good times over the last few weeks. As we start what we hope will be a positive and productive year for us all, we pray for the people of Beslan in Russia whose term has begun so tragically.

A review of last half term

Our end of term newsletter gave you a flavour of our One School One World week that we all thoroughly enjoyed. In addition to that every class went out of school at least once on a visit, some year 5 children took part in music days at the West Park Centre, years 4 and 6 had road safety and cycle training, years 4 and 6 had music and dance workshops in school and children from many classes enjoyed a variety of club activities at lunchtime and after school.

Behaviour and rewards

During last half term the staff reviewed the behaviour policy and made a small number of changes to it to reflect changes in practice. We will soon be duplicating copies of this policy and you may request a copy from the office if you wish.

A number of you have told us that you feel that the Super Star awards no longer serve the purpose for which they were designed. This term we are hoping to develop a new system for rewarding consistently good behaviour and improving behaviour. This will involve our extending the use of the team system that was used on sport's day with children earning house points for their team. In addition there will be class certificates and class reward systems appropriate to different age groups. There will no longer be Super Star awards.

We are proud of the high standards of behaviour of the vast majority of our children, but recognise that this comes as a results of much hard work by children, parents and staff. We take incidents of bad behaviour seriously and deal with any incident in a way that best suits the incident and the child. We encourage any child who feels that they have been badly mistreated by another child to tell a class-based member of staff. Of course, the hard thing is to help children to distinguish between telling tales and telling us what we need to know.

Roundhay School

Parents in years 5 and 6 may appreciate a reminder that Roundhay School has its open morning on Saturday 9th October from 9.30am. All parents will be very welcome.

Parent returns last term

Thank you to the large number of parents who returned the questionnaire with the annual report and to the parents from certain classes who completed a Healthy school questionnaire. We are greatly encouraged by all the positive comments and working on the areas where you would like to see changes. Class teachers will inform you of homework expectations for the class, but all classes have a spelling test on a Monday.
Spelling books should be kept at home during the week so that you can support the learning and brought into school on Mondays.
Extra-curricular activities vary from year to year depending on staff availability. We welcome parental support with any of our clubs.

Book Fair

We were disappointed with the quantity and quality of the book fair that we had last term. So this term we are using a new company, "Primary Books". They will visit school for one day only on Thursday 4 November. Each class will have a time in the hall with a representative of the company. Key Stage 2 children can buy a book at this session if they wish. The books will be available for parents to see and to buy after school on that teatime only. No book costs more than £10.

Safety in school

The safety and welfare of every one of our pupils is very important to us. Please help us to keep your child uninjured in school by making sure they have indoor shoes so that they don't slip or walk on something sharp unprotected. You may also remember that the only jewellery that is safe in school are studs in pierced ears. Larger earrings or things around the neck can cause injury in PE or the playground.

Prayer Group

A group meets regularly to pray for the school. The next meeting is at Gill Maffey's house, 17 St Margaret's View on Thursday 16 September from 9.15 - 10.15 am. Please ring David or Julia Thompson (240236) for more details. Everyone is welcome.

Training Days

As you know, we used 2 of our training days at the beginning of this term leaving 3 for the remainder of the year. 2 have been planned as follows:
Friday 15 October
Monday 7 March

There is one more training day to plan.

Extra-curricular activities

Extra-curricular activities vary from year to year depending on staff availability. We welcome parental support with any of our clubs.

So far the following clubs have been arranged for this term with the starting date as shown.
Monday Lunchtime Chess club - year 6 this term
Monday White Rose soccer for years 5 and 6 starting on
13 September. 3.15 - 4.15 (fee to White Rose)
Tuesday ICT - year 6 at lunchtime
Tuesday Colouring club, year 3 at lunchtime.
Tuesday White Rose soccer for year 4 and under, starting on 14 September. 3.15 - 4.15 (fee to White Rose)
Tuesday French conversation for year 5. 3.15 - 4.15 (letters have already gone out)
Tuesday Young Inventors society for year 4 and 5. Starting
28 September. Letters will come out.
Wednesday Ocarina music group. Years 2 & 3 at lunchtime. Starts15 Sept.
Wednesday Card club, key stage 2. Lunchtime from 29 Sept.
Thursday Cross country, key stage 2 - lunchtime from 30 Sept.
Thursday Banner / sewing group - key stage 2. Lunchtime.
Thursday Soccer for years 5 and 6. Starting 16 September.

Dinner money

Many of us had forgotten the new dinner money rates:
Reception to Year to 4 - £7.25 a week
Year 5 and 6 - £7.50
Please send dinner money on Monday mornings.

We are delighted to be able to tell you that Mrs Lee has just been given the Divisional Supervisor of the Year Award by City Services Department. Congratulations Mrs Lee.