Headteacher Blog - Friday 6th December

Good evening everyone.

As we begin this special season of Advent there has been an air of excitement and joy around school as the children are busy rehearsing their nativities and singing their songs with enthusiasm and infectious smiles. Our stage was also put up on Monday ready for their performances which has also caused a bit of a buzz.

Our week began with us welcoming the Archdeacon of Derbyshire Peak and Dales, The Venerable Nicky Fenton, to St John’s who joined us for our Collective Worship, introduced herself to the children and spent some time around school. 

There have been several memorable activities across the school throughout the week - Year 6 children were invited to Belper School to attend a live theatre performance of Shrek which they thoroughly enjoyed, Year 1 welcomed Gabbie Peterson from Guide Dogs for the Blind and Jane Charters an advisory teacher for the deaf to support their project work and our Year 5 experienced the awe and wonder of astronomy, space, and the night sky with a planetarium visit.

It was a pleasure to see so many of our Year 1 children engaging in a charity shop drop by donating their toys to ValleyCids. It was absolutely pouring down with rain, but this didn’t deter them! Thank you to the children and parents for the donations and support.

Our choir is currently rehearsing for their upcoming visit to take Christmas to the residents of Ada Belfield next week and are also looking forward to our Carol Concert at St Peter’s Church on Monday 16th December. 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend before another fun-filled school week of Cinema visits, nativity performances and more to enjoy.

Mrs Carvell

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 29^th November 2024

Well done to all of our year 6 pupils who have completed their bikeability training this week. It was a pleasure to see them rewarded in assembly today for there achievements and their excellent attitude and behaviour when working with the cycling team. Thank you to Miss. Proud for organising this annual training.

Parents that come onto the playground will notice that we’ve had the fencing and gate work completed around the bark area today. It looks really smart and will make using the area much easier. Many thanks to the PTFA who have helped fund it.

The infants and reception children have started learning their Christmas nativities, lots of adults are already humming the catchy songs that they are learning. On Monday we are putting the stage up in the hall. We have shared information in the latest news section about the Christmas celebrations at St. John’s. CLICK HERE.

Finally, well done to the children that took part in the handball competition on Monday evening. It was lovely to give you your certificates in assembly today.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd November 2024

Although it seems a long time ago, we had an INSET day on Monday. Since then, the week has been taken over with snow.

Firstly, well done and thanks to Mr. Kelby our caretaker for keeping paths clear this week and today. I can’t remember having snow like we’ve had this week, in mid-November before, and therefore Tuesday morning presented us with a problem we don’t normally get until later into winter. Many thanks to those that contacted us with the offer of snow shovels on Tuesday to help us get school ready, this was really appreciated. Closing a school is one of the most difficult decisions we have to make and doing this in a timely manner to help parents and families in the morning makes this time critical decision even more difficult.  Again, today we were faced with a similar position and the decision to open was almost as difficult as the decision to close was on Tuesday. Many thanks to the families and staff who had to make extra effort to get to school safely today. It was interesting to hear from staff who live near Chesterfield that there was no snow there and it wasn’t until they reached Belper that their journey became difficult.

The decision made to open or close on days such today and Tuesday is always one that I am challenged with by families. I am sorry that some parents were upset on Tuesday and other parents were upset today. This is never the intention when the decision is made. The intention is to always use the information I have, including weather forecasts and local knowledge, to make the best and safest decision. Children deserve to come to school every day, and we need to ensure that we can allow them to do so as safely as possible.  However, this is my seventeenth winter as a headteacher and unfortunately my experiences show me that my decision to open or close will always lead to relief for some and frustrations for others and I apologise for this. My personal hope is that we get to enjoy the rest of the winter open and that we get to enjoy any snow at weekends and holidays.

Thank you for your understanding this morning when we came into school through a different door. We were managing resources to get the school as ready as possible and in using this different door were able to make sure that walkways and paths between buildings were cleared.

Finally on the snow theme we updated our closure procedure on Tuesday. There are some minor tweaks that you may want to make yourself aware of for the future. CLICK HERE. For example we are no longer using our X (or twitter) account.

Headteacher Weekly Blog -  Friday 15th November

Good evening to you all at the end of another busy week which has been enjoyed by everyone.

We began on Monday with Remembrance Day with all of our children, including Nursery, standing together in silence at 11 a.m. on our playground as a mark of respect for the fallen and injured in the service of our country. This was incredibly moving and respectful, with the children wearing their poppies with pride. Thank you for your donations to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal again this year.

Some of our infant children represented St John’s at a handball competition at the end of the day with Mrs Taylor. A huge well done to all the children who took part and came a very proud 2nd!

It was brilliant to see everyone wearing their odd socks to school on Tuesday for Odd Socks Day and the children really understanding and appreciating what this meant and why they were taking part in this during Anti-bullying week.

On Thursday we had our PTFA Rags to Riches collection which raised £66.34 – your donations were really appreciated to support this fundraising event for school.

Today is Children in Need Day and what a fun way to end the week. The children looked brilliant and enjoyed their cakes this morning with Pudsey activities for them to end the day on. Thank you to those that brought cakes to school and to everyone for your donations to make the day the success it always is. The full amount raised will be revealed next week.

And finally, don’t forget that Monday 18th is an INSET day for staff, so it is a long weekend for the children.

Best wishes to you all for a lovely weekend ahead, and we look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday.

Mrs Carvell

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th November

I hope that you enjoyed any family time together over the half term break. The second half of the Autumn term is always a lovely time to be in school and I can confirm that this week I heard teachers in the infants have discussions about nativity plays. With less than 5 weeks to go until our nativity plays start, we will soon be humming Christmas carols and songs as we walk around school.

The PTFA agreed a few weeks ago to fund the annual Christmas trips to the cinema in December and I’m really pleased to share that the Ritz in Belper is again able to host this annual Christmas treat for lots of our children. Many thanks to the PTFA for working to make sure that our children get to enjoy this opportunity.

The dates for the cinema trips and the nativity plays are on our calendar. CLICK HERE.

Thank you to everyone who supported the recent PTFA raffle. They drew the prizes today and raised £643. 

Our school photograph day yesterday was as busy as usual. All of your children should have brought home and order form for you to use to order any photographs that you may wish. These orders are easily placed directly with the company and not through the school office.

Headteacher weekly blog - Thursday 24th October

Even though staff are in school tomorrow it felt appropriate to send the weekly email and information out today as many families may be beginning their holiday a day early. 

This week Mrs. Girling was told that we achieved the BERT bronze award and Miss. Proud was told that we received the AVSSP gold award.

The BERT award (Building Effective Relationships Together) is given to school who are working with the local authority to improve and enhance the provision of Personal, Social and Health Education as well as Relationship and Sex Education. MRs. Girling is now looking at how we can continue to move towards the silver award.

The gold Amber Valley Sports Partnership award was awarded to us in recognition of the level of sport provision we give children in after school sport events and lunch time play leader provision and lots of other offers and opportunities such as tough runner days.

Mrs. Richardson ran a successful workshop for reception parents yesterday helping explain how we can work together as home and school to help with the teaching of phonics.

Finally, have a lovely holiday – we look forward to seeing you on November 4^th when we return to school at 9.00am. When we return to school children will be invited to purchase poppies in order for us to help support and recognise reembrace day on November 11^th.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th October 2024 

Our year three children led a beautiful harvest service at St. Peter’s today helping us all appreciate the workers who ensure we have enough to eat. From farmers who grow it, to our parents and carers for preparing it. We also thanked God for having enough food to eat every day and recognised how lucky we were for this. The picture below shows the generous donations that many families have sent into school this week that will be collected by the Padley Centre and Hope for Belper in the coming days. Many thanks for all of your donations, enabling us to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Our year four children enjoyed their Viking day on Monday. Thank you to all the parents who helped the day be successful and dressing up your children. The picture below shows four fantastic children and the Viking who visited us for the day.

On Tuesday evening a dozen of our children went to the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanick with Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Richardson. These children are our Kolkata companions. They help Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson celebrate our friendship with children at Scott Lane school in Kolkata. They helped organise our India day in July and have helped with lots of other little jobs and duties in building our links. On Tuesday evening they took part in an assembly at the Hayes Conference Centre at the annual Derbyshire Diocese clergy conference. They told all of the attendees about our links with Kolkata and how we learn about life in Kolkata and the differences between Kolkata and Belper. I’m pleased to share that due to the generous funding of St. Peter’s church that Mrs. Richardson will be travelling to Scott Lane in January 2025 to meet our friends. Over the coming months our Kolkata companions and all the children and staff at St. John’s will be making plans to make this a successful trip to further help us learn about life in India.

Finally, our year 5 and 6 athletes took part in an athletics competition at Alfreton leisure centre last night. We will be able to give the children their certificates in celebration assembly next week. Thank you to Mrs. Proud for taking them.

Headteacher Weekly Blog - Friday 11th October 2024

What a busy week it’s been!

It began with a day of flu immunisations and a very excited group of reception children as they looked forward to a visit from a vet and a police officer. To add to this excitement they then enjoyed another treat the following day – a fire engine visit!

Our Kolkata Companions have been busy preparing for a very special event as they have been invited to proudly represent our wonderful school next week at the annual Derbyshire Clergy Conference on Tuesday evening.

Some of our Year 2 children took part in an athletics tournament after school on Monday and some of our Year 2 children are also in training to become our first ever St John’s infant sports leaders.

In other news, we look forward to our Harvest Celebration at the end of next week led by our Year 3 children and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for any donations you are able to give to support the local community as proud courageous advocates supporting those in need.

If you would like to find out more about Courageous Advocacy at St John's (CLICK HERE).

Finally, I wish you all a very good weekend.

Mrs Carvell

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 4^th October 2024

It was lovely to see so many families at St. Peter’s church on Sunday afternoon for Revd. Anne’s farewell service and the celebration of 200 years since St. Peter’s opened. Many thanks to Mrs. Garbutt and Miss Bennett for supporting our choir who sang at the service and well done to the children who were brilliant. I know that lots of children enjoyed the cakes a treats after the service. I am sure you all join me in wishing Revd. Anne well in her retirement and in thanking her for her 14 years of love and support for our community and school.

Our upper junior girls took put in a football competition on Wednesday night. Mrs. Horwood said that the girls were brilliant, winning all their games apart for one that they drew. They finished 5^th out of 17 teams. It was lovely to given them all their certificates in assembly today.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 27^th September

At last night’s PTFA meeting we said goodbye to the outgoing committee. Bec, Jo, Coral and Verity who have all had a great two years supporting our school as they have led the team. I am really pleased that four new parents have agreed to help support the school this year. Many thanks to Jo, Elaine, Ellener and Claire for agreeing to lead the PTFA into the new school year. The new team look forward to getting set up and letting you know of plans and ideas for this year.

Rev. Anne led her final assembly at school on Monday. As she retires next week we had the opportunity to thank her for over fourteen years of love and support at school. She has been a key figure at school events, governor meetings, services at St. Peter’s to name a few of the ways that we will miss her. I am sure that you all join me in wishing her well in her retirement as she finds new challenges and rewards to keep her busy. All are welcome to her final service at St. Peter’s on Sunday afternoon, Sunday 29^th September at 2.30pm, where our choir are singing.

It was lovely this week to welcome parents and carers of our reception children into school for dinner and a stay and play session. All the activities in the classrooms featured the toy mouse that each reception child has been given. It was a lovely hour for children and parents alike.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th September 2024

Our year 4 children began their weekly music lessons this week with the music partnership. For many years now we have provided all year 4 children the opportunity to learn a  musical instrument with professional tuition. The children also get to keep the instrument for the year. Last year our children all learned brass instruments and had trumpets and trombones for the year, this year we have strings, and all the children will be given a violin for the year as well as weekly music lessons.  

Many thanks to all the parents that came to the parent evenings this week. Once again, we received positive comments that it was a nice way to get to know the teacher and the classroom over 30 minutes, in a more relaxed manner than the 5 minute meetings we used to have in the autumn term. Our next parent evenings are on February 3^rd 4^th and 5^th when we will offer the private 5-minute meetings with your child’s teacher.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th September

We’ve had two whole school health and safety practises this week. On Monday we had our safe outside practice, often known as a fire evacuation. All of the children were able to get out of the school in well under two minutes and were lined up perfectly on the playground with their class teachers. Today we’ve had our safe inside practice, sometimes known as a lock down and once again all our children were brilliant and were able to get safe inside with adults.

We do these to ensure that children are as safe as possible at school. With us doing a fire drill in school this week it may be a good idea for you to consider what to do at home if one of your smoke alarms goes off in the night. Do your children know what to do when they are at home? Have you and the other adults in your house every discussed a plan? This Derbyshire Fire Safety web site might help you plan what to do CLICK HERE.

Many thanks to all the parents and adults who are helping us at the end of the day with the picking up of children. We have noticed that with parents using the pickup points on the map we published last week, CLICK HERE, that the playground is clearer in the pinch points where the paths are narrower.  Thank you.

We have been asked what type of food children that bring pack up lunches from home are allowed to bring to school. In summary, they are allowed to bring cold food, that they are able to eat on their own. We do have middays that are gladly able to help with annoying yoghurt pot lids and other fiddley food packaging, however, it helps us if this help needed is kept to a minimum. Therefore, please spend time at home with your children helping then learn how to open packets or peel fruit that may be in their lunch boxes, thank you. We also don’t allow pack lunch children to bring hot food to school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th September 2024

We’ve only had a three day week, but it was lovely to see school full again with children. I hope you all enjoyed a summer holiday and found some warm sunshine and enjoyed some family time.

A warm welcome to the 45 new children and new families who joined reception this week. I trust that you all enjoy your years at St. John’s and make new friends in our community. We also welcomed new staff. Miss. Redfern will be teaching in year two and Mrs. Allen, who will be working in the office.

I trust that families have all used the information we published at the beginning of the week to help at the end of the day when collecting children. CLICK HERE. We encourage parents of junior children to wait at the front of school, to help children gain a bit of independence. However, this is a family decision and parents that want to pick up on the playground are able to. We do ask, however, that groups of secondary school children who are picking up younger siblings do not come onto the playground. Elder siblings, on their own, picking up infant brothers and sisters are able to come onto the playground, but not with groups of friends. Thank you for your support in this.  

Finally, I remind you about what electrical equipment children are allowed to bring into school. CLICK HERE. This link includes information about watches, fit bits, smart watches and other electrical devices that children may have.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th July 2024

It’s great news to share that we raised £155 on our India day last week from all of the children that had a henna pattern. Many thanks for your support in this. We have sent the money to the Cathedral Relief Service (CRS) in Kolkata. The CRS is the organisation that runs several schools in Kolkata, including Scott Lane School, for pavement children. Hopefully we’ll be able to let you know what the money was spent on soon.

Our year six children led a wonderful leavers’ service yesterday at St. Peter’s church. Well over 100 parents, friends and families came to watch the service and celebrate the 7 years that most of these children have spent at St. John’s. I wish them well as they begin secondary school and hope that the memories and love they take with them live long in their minds and hearts.

We also say goodbye to a few staff today who move onto new challenges and schools. In the classrooms Mr. Hallam and Miss Price leave and Mrs. Kerr begins her maternity leave. We wish them well and offer thanks and appreciation to Mr. Hallam for all the opportunities he has given children over the 10 years he has worked at  St. John’s. Outside the classroom, Mrs. Tranter retires today after cleaning our school and looking after us all for well over twenty years. Many thanks to her for all of the work she has done keeping us clean and tidy over the years.

I wish you all a lovely summer break and look forward to seeing many of you again on September 4^th when we return to school after the summer holiday.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th July

 I write this email as parents and friends are preparing our hall for the year 6 leavers’ prom. Everything looks lovely and I am looking forward to the evening and helping our children enjoy their farewell party at school. Many thanks to the parents and the prom committee who have given their time to help make this evening a success.

On Thursday afternoon we welcomed several musicians from Belper school, who came and played to our children. It was lovely to see these grown-up students come to St. John’s and help inspire the next generation of musicians who enjoyed the concert.

Our India day on Tuesday was a great success. The children all enjoyed the dance workshops and the activities that took place during the day and lots of children were able to have a henna pattern. It was a great way to celebrate our link and friendship with Scott Lane school in Kolkata and through the henna patterns raise some money that will be sent my Mrs. Richardson to Scott Lane. We’ll let you know how much was raised and what Scott Lane used it for as soon as we can. Finally our well dressing was on display in the river gardens recently and this also celebrated our links with Scott Lane with Indian patterns and the Indian flag featuring on our dressing.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th July

We’ve just enjoyed a lovely infant sport afternoon on the field. It was lovely to see so many friends and families enjoy the afternoon in some lovely weather. All of the children earned at least one sticker and several children are going home with a chest full of well-earned stickers.

This morning it was the turn of our nursery children who enjoyed their first sports day on the field. Well done to Mrs. Gallon for organising this for the and their families to enjoy.

Our year 5 children have got back from a successful three-day sunny residential visit to Lea Green. Many thanks to the staff who have travelled with them to help them enjoy their trip safely.

On Tuesday we interviewed candidates for the office vacancy. Mrs. Allwood enjoyed her last day with us today and we wish her well as show moves onto new challenges and a promotion at a local school. I look forward to sharing the name of the new colleague that will join our team in September as soon as I can.

On Tuesday evening Mrs. Taylor took our cyclists to Charles Hill for the go-ride competition. We have their certificates to give out in assembly next week.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 28^th June 2024

Many thanks to all the parents and families that came to enjoy our Junior sport afternoon today. It was great to see our school field full of friends and families enjoying the afternoon and cheering the children. We look forward to next week and the infant sport afternoon that will take place on Friday 5^th July. Due to sports day there was no celebration assembly this afternoon, so we have not been able to give any hero, heroine or star certificates.

All of our children spent time with their new teachers this week in our transition mornings. The weekly email gives families links to the new teacher class list for September 2024. Nearly all of our year 6 children have also enjoyed transition days at their secondary schools this week. We plan on annual reports for the school year to go home on Tuesday 9^th July.

Lots of children have helped produce our Well Dressing that will go on display in Belper next week. The picture below shows the theme as we celebrate or friendship with Scott Lane School in India.

 On Monday evening our football team took part in their final league games of the season finishing 4^th in the League. Many thanks to Mr. Hallam who has helped the children enjoy the competition this year.

On Wednesday evening Miss. Walker took our orienteering team to Eyes Meadow in Duffield for the annual Amber Valley competition. Well done to the children who took part, we have your certificates ready for our next celebration assembly.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 21^st June 2024

Mrs. Carvell and I have both said how lovely it was to receive so many positive comments for the road closure yesterday when we were outside. Many thanks to parents who made arrangements to support the day and make it a success.  As I was working at the road closure point at the top of Laund Nook near the park it was also lovely to see how busy the Three-Cornered Park is at the beginning and end of the day. We are really lucky to have such a lovely resource so close to school.  Parents and residents are invited to give feedback on the day via links in today’s weekly email.

As I write our year 6 children are on their way back from Whitehall after three days in the Peak District with lovely weather. Many thanks to the staff who have given their time to help the children enjoy themselves and to parents for paying for the children to go. I hope that the children bring back lots of positive memories.

Next week we have our transition mornings when children will find out who their new teachers will be. On Tuesday reception and year 1 children will spend the morning with their new teachers on Wednesday all children will. Transition mornings are always exciting days, and we know that some children and families may get a little nervous about it. We always find that nearly all of these nerves are removed as soon as the children move to their new classroom with their new teacher and that children are greatly helped by the transition mornings in removing any nervousness ready for September.

Parents will be able to find out who their child’s teacher is when their children get home, please do not ring school during the day. Next week we will publish a list of teachers and which year groups they are teaching in, in the weekly email.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 14^th June

Last week I shared some information about teachers and staff who are leaving this summer, and that we were interviewing for a new teacher on Monday. I'm pleased to share that on Monday we we're able to provisionally appoint a new teacher to join our team in September. I look forward to sharing who this is as soon as I can. The children that will be in their class will meet this new teacher on our transition mornings on the 25th and 26th of June.

In assembly this afternoon we gave certificates to a year five and six cricketers who took part in a competition on Wednesday evening after school.

On Thursday evening this week over one hundred parents and carers Enjoyed our music concert in the school hall. Our choir sang half a dozen songs and we're joined on stage by recorder players, violin players and guitarists in a wonderful evening. Thank you to Mrs. Garbutt for organising.

We have continued with some end of year tests this week. All of our year one children have done the government phonics screening test with Mrs Richardson. Parents will be told how they did in the end of year report. Children in the juniors have also carried out some end of year tests to help teachers right the annual report that will go home in July.

On Monday morning our year three children worked with a local artist to help produce some work for the ‘Belper In Bloom’ displays that will go up in Belper this summer. The work they produced looked fantastic and I'm sure will be enjoyed by many when it is displayed in the memorial garden off the High Street.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 7^th June 2024

We are in a position to be able to share information about some of the staffing changes that will take place over the summer break.

• Miss Kerr is beginning her maternity leave
• Mr. Hallam and Miss Price will be leaving for new challenges
• Miss Bennet will be joining the leadership team as our SENDCO
• Mrs. Heer and Mrs. Higgs will be returning from their maternity leave and Mrs. Horwood continues with us after covering Mrs. Higg's maternity leave. 
• Mrs. Allwood will be leaving the office on July 5^th as she begins a new role at a local school
• We are interviewing for a new teacher to join the team on Monday 10^th June and a new administration assistant to join the team on July 2^nd.

I’m sure that you join me in wishing our leaving staff well in their new roles and that we will welcome the staff who will join us at St. John’s.

We received the news today that we have been given permission to run the School Street program on Thursday June 20^th and close Laund Nook to school traffic at the beginning and end of the school day. More information is in the weekly email that has gone home this week.

On Wednesday evening, our PTFA had their final meeting of the year. Many thanks to the team for supporting the school again. Please remember that Coral, Bec’s and Jo are stepping down from their PTFA roles at the end of the year and therefore we hope that other parents feel they are able to support in the role of chair, treasure and clerk to ensure that disco’s, carol concerts, cinema trips and proms continue at St. John’s. Without a PTFA supporting and fundraising we will not be able to have these events that are enjoyed by so many. Please come and speak to me or any of the PTFA team if you are keen on supporting in one of these roles.

On Thursday evening, our cyclists took part in the Go Ride competition at Kilburn. It was great to give them their certificates in assembly today.

Finally, well done to George in year 6 who won our first TT Rock Stars most valuable player award today in assembly. Every holiday this year, Mrs. Newton has set up a TT Rockstar challenge that children can take part in at home. This half term she decided to award a trophy to the most valuable player in the school. Well done George.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th May 2024

On Monday evening we had two football teams taking part in different competitions. Our infant football team were playing at Belper Leisure Centre. They played seven games and won 4 of them to finish third overall. Well done to them. Our upper junior team were at the University of Derby playing league games.

On Wednesday evening our year 6 parents were in school finding out about the Whitehall trip that their children will be travelling on in July. I hope that the weather improves by then.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday the poor weather meant that the cycling competition we were due to take part in was postponed.

Lots of children enjoyed their golden time this afternoon. On the last day of every term, before a holiday’ all of the children that have behaved get to enjoy golden time with their friends, choosing activities themselves. Children that we have had to send multiple sorry slips home to parents don’t get to enjoy golden time and instead have to spend time with senior teachers.

We have now published term dates up to August 2026 in the calendar section of our website and have confirmed some of the INSET days. More INSET days will be added as soon as we are able to.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th May

Well done to all our year 6 pupils who have all completed their government SAT tests this week. All of the children have worked very hard to ensure that they have tried their best. We  have sent all of the papers off for marking and will be able to let families and children know how they have done in the annual reports that will go home in July.

The chicks that have spent two weeks with our reception children have gone back to the farm today to be looked after by the farmer.

You may have noticed that we have an advert out for a teacher to come and join our team in September. After the half term I will be able to share details about staff changes that will be taking place as we get ready for our transition mornings on 25^th and 26^th June when children spend time with their new teachers and class friends.

We’ve had a couple of parents contact school this week due to drivers causing problems blocking when parked or driving on pavements. Please be careful if driving a car around school at drop off and pick up time. The consequences of what could easily happen when a busy driver doing the school run and trying to park up and mounting the pavement, who can’t see a small child happily waiting on the pavement for their parents to catch up don’t bear thinking about. You may not be able to see the small child on their own through the window.

Headteacher weekly blog - Friday 10th May 2024

On Tuesday morning our reception children had 10 chicken eggs delivered, along with an incubator, straw, food and a basket. Over the week all 10 eggs have hatched and the children have thoroughly enjoyed watching the chickens break out of their shells. The picture below shows all 10 of them safely cuddled up in their basket.

I have been informed by the children that next week the chickens will be big enough to come out of the basket and be cuddled, therefore I’m looking forward to going to their classrooms next week and seeing if I can get a cuddle with a chicken. Next Friday the chickens get collected by the farmer and will go back to the farm, this weekend Mrs. Wojcik is taking them home to look after them. Many thanks to the PTFA who fund this activity. 

Yesterday our year 1 children enjoyed a trip to Sudbury museum of childhood. The excellent weather helped them enjoy the visit and the experiences that will help them with their work in class.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd May

Last week we sent out a message about a proposed temporary road closure on parts of Laund Nook next month. The half  a dozen responses we had were all positive and therefore we hope to be making our application next week for the road closure in the morning and afternoon on Thursday June 20^th.

Yesterday evening, Mrs. Taylor took our enthusiastic tennis players to a tennis festival at Alfreton Leisure Centre. It was not a competitive event but one for all children to take part in a variety of activities and games to develop their tennis skills. All the children that went got a certificate in assembly today.

On Tuesday afternoon all of our year 4 children welcomed their parents and carers into school to watch our ‘Last Night of the Proms’ concert. All 50 children in year 4 entertained us with a twenty-minute concert playing their trumpets and trombones. It was a real pleasure to watch the smiles and enjoyment that the children brought to the faces of all the visitors.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th April 2024.

Many thanks to the parents and friends that came to the PTFA meeting on Monday evening. Coral, Bec and Jo all shared that they are going to be resigning from their posts at the end of the school year. The colour run on July 17^th is going to be the last event that they run. Without volunteers in these posts, we would not have enjoyed many events during the last two years, including, discos, a summer fare, evening tuck shops, trips to the cinema, Christmas carol concerts and many more. I am sure that when you realise what our children have enjoyed because of the PTFA since September 2022 I am sure that you will join me in thanking Coral, Bec and Jo for the work that they have done. If you would like to see such events continue, please get in touch with the PTFA to express an interest in helping out and the outgoing team and I look forward to welcoming and supporting you in the new role.

Rev. Anne took our infant and junior assemblies on Monday and Tuesday this week. She only has one more assembly visit to school before she retires in September 2024. She will continue to provide the weekly online assembly that she prepares for us until then and will still be in school to give all the support that she gives to us over the summer term. We will be sharing more information about how we will be thanking Anne for all of her support for St. John’s over the years soon, but wanted to make sure that everyone knows that she will be retiring soon.

Finally, you may have read the letter about the Safer Street campaign that we hope to run on June 20^th. The letter we have sent to local neighbours, and extra information,  is on a special page on our website, CLICK HERE. We are pleased to be involved with the first Derbyshire trial of such an event and hope that we are able to work with all members of the community in running the event happily and safely. At present we have given notice to local neighbours and the community of the intentions. Next week we will apply for permission to close the road. If we are successful in this, we will then be asking for parental help and support to marshal the closures on the 20^th June. Watch this space.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th April 2024

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter break and have enjoyed the start of, the summer term. I’m sure that sunny days will arrive soon and that the weather will match the time of year.

Our year three children enjoyed themselves on Tuesday with their Roman day. A local Roman expert came into school for the day with resources to use and activities for the children to take part in. It was a successful day, as the picture below of Mrs. Astell’s class shows.

Our regular TT Rockstar holiday competition was keenly contested this Easter. Every holiday, Mrs. Newton, our maths lead teacher, organises a competition for all children (in year two and above) to take part in. Children can then log on at home and join in. Well done to George in year 6 who won the TT rock star player of the school and to the year 2 children who were able to take part in the competition for the first time this Easter. The next competition will be during the May half term.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 28^th March 2024

Many thanks to the PTFA who ran a very successful tuck shop this afternoon, to help us start the Easter holiday with a smile, and for running the Easter raffle that was drawn on Monday evening. Congratulations to the winners of the raffle and thank you to everyone who bought tickets.

This afternoon we’ve also welcomed our year 1 parents to school to have a look at the year 1 art gallery. It was great to have the children excited to show their work off to friends and family.

Last night our junior cross country runners took part in the Amber Valley competition at Eyes Meadow in Duffield. The rain didn’t put them off and they all ran brilliantly representing the school.

We are now able to share that we raised £252.45 on Red Nose day a few weeks ago.

Today our year 4 children led our Easter service at St. Peter’s. They all spoke loudly and clearly to help us all enjoy the service. Many thanks to all the parents who helped us walk safely to and from church.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd March 2024

On Tuesday morning our reception children walked to St. Peter’s for their first church service. Rev. Anne welcomed them and their parents to St. Peter’s and led the Starters’ Service. This Starers’ Service is bookended by the Leavers’ Service that these children will lead at the end of year 6 in July 2030 as they leave St. John’s and move to secondary school.

Rev. Anne helped explain the link between St. Peter’s Church and St. John’s School and that our school was started by the parishioners of St. John’s church. As Belper continued to grow, the population outgrew the small church and the school and both had to move to bigger buildings. The church moved and changed its name to St. Peter’s, the school is now on it’s third location but has kept it’s name. Without the foresight of the parishioners of St. John’s in the 1800’s there would be no St. John’s school in Belper and therefore our links to the church are still recognised as important today. Families that want to further understand the link between churches and schools are invited to watch this brief 6-minute video – CLICK HERE.

Last week I shared that I would be spending time monitoring the parking at the front of school, particularly with regards to cars that parked on the pavement opposite the yellow zig zags. We’ve had our parking signs there for the week, making parking difficult and I have spoken to four families that I saw blocking the pavement. I hope that these parents support us all in parking safely and considerately in the future.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th March 

Many thanks to all the families who have helped us support red nose day today. Hundreds of children donated some money to come to school dressed in red. I hope that these children did some small jobs around the house to earn this pocket money and that parents weren’t obliged to donate without the children earning the money. We’ll be able to share how much money we raised next week.

In assembly today we were treated to the best joke from each class. The children that read them out did so brilliantly and had lots of children and staff in giggles.

On Monday our year three children enjoyed a trip to Magna in Sheffield. Whilst here they found out about lots of earth sciences, including volcanoes, to help them with their work in class. Pictures of the trip can be found on the website – CLICK HERE.   

On Tuesday our year 6 children took part in a table tennis competition at Ripley Academy. Well done to them for taking part. It was great to give you your certificates in assembly today.

Finally, I have been asked this week about reporting poor and dangerous parking to relevant authorities. It is particularly concerning that some parents are still parking half on and half off the pavement on the bend opposite school and the yellow zig zags.  I look forward to supporting safer parking opposite school next week. I have also requested for some parking enforcement support in the coming weeks and look forward to welcoming their staff in the neighbourhood at the beginning and end of the school day. I would also remind any parent that wished to report any dangerous or illegal driving themselves, that you are able to do so to the Derbyshire Constabulary. CLICK HERE.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th March 2024

Our reception and nursery children had an exciting day in school on Wednesday. Local company Zoolab came to school with dozens of animals to look at and hold. The animals included snakes, lizards and reptiles. As you can imagine some staff and children were less keen to hold and touch the animals as others were, however the pictures below show that the occasion was enjoyed by all.

World book day yesterday was a success with hundreds of children coming to school dressed as their favourite characters. Lots of staff also dressed up, the picture below shows some of us in our costumes. Mrs. Newton organised a successful book swap on the day. Lots of children took part bringing in books that they had already read and swapping them for books that they are now looking forward to reading.

On Monday evening our PTFA met at the Grapes Inn. At the meeting they were able to agree some funding requests from school for some nice ‘luxury’ resources that we are looking forward to purchasing. Watch this space on the PTFA website to see them when they arrive.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 1^st March 2024

Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson took our Junior and Infant assemblies this week. The first assemblies of every half term are when we think about our friends at Scott Lane school in Kolkata and our new value for the half term. This term our value is Friendship. Therefore, it was a great opportunity to celebrate our friendship with Scott Lane and that Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson travelled there last month.

Our reception children have re-commenced their Forest school lessons again this half term. These will take place weekly.

On Tuesday all of the children in reception and year 6 were measured and weighed as part of a government health monitoring exercise. This project has run for many years and in taking part your children help inform the government with regards to health advice and programs. Thank you for your support.

We have worked with RS coaching this week to help set up a Holiday club to run during the Easter holidays. RS coaching have run popular clubs last summer and October half term at school that were used by many parents.  I am pleased that we can offer RS coaching areas for the club to run, and that RS coaching will run a club for 9 days from Tuesday 2^nd April to Friday 12^th April from 9am to 3.30pm. Unfortunately, at this moment, we can’t guarantee that they can have the hall, as we may have some work carried out in there to repair some water damage. Therefore, to begin with spaces will be limited and filled on a first come first served basis. We will let parents know when bookings can be made on the RS coaching website. https://www.rs-coaching.co.uk/holiday-camp-bookings/ If the hall becomes available, RS coaching will be able to open the club up to more children at a later date.

Red Nose day is on Friday 15th March. We'll send a letter home next week with information about how we will get involved. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th February

We did have our double celebration collective worship this afternoon. Last week we had to cancel it at short notice as we had workers in the hall. I’m pleased that this week we were able to applaud our wonderful workers and brilliant behaviour with our star and hero or heroine of the week awards. We also added a trophy to the cabinet as our lower junior dodgeball team were finally able to collect their trophy.

On Monday our year 4 children enjoyed their trip to Carsington reservoir. They were brilliantly behaved, had an excellent day and parents can see what they got up to by looking at the pictures on the year 4 class pages.

On Tuesday our year 5 children led the lent service at St. Peter’s church. Many thanks to them for helping us all welcome this part of the church year. As always, I will be giving up crisps for lent and am already looking forward to Easter when I can enjoy my favourite snacks again.

Many thanks to our PTFA team for organising last night’s friendship disco and the dozens of volunteers we had help ensure that the children had good fun. It’s great to see the hall used for such events and something that couldn’t be done without the support of our great parents.

Have a lovely half term week – see you on Monday 26^th February.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th February 2024

The weather has had two impacts at school this week.

Firstly, the snow yesterday morning led to us sharing a message at 12pm that we were continuously reviewing the situation but could not see we needed to close the school partially or fully. What to do for the safety of everyone is always a difficult decision to make and one that we take in consideration to many factors, for example we were aware that some local schools had decided to close. We always consider this and the impact that it has on the community. However, yesterday we knew that we could safely stay open and that the weather was set to improve, and no snow was forecasted to fall in the afternoon but would turn to sleet and rain. We recognised that not closing would be well received by some families and not appreciated by others. This was indeed the case with us receiving a few phone calls criticising our decision and some parents praising the decision when they spoke to me at the gate.

Secondly the wet weather has led to us having to cancel this afternoon’s assembly. Unfortunately, it appears that the rain and snow has found a new leak somewhere in the hall roof. We’ve had workers in school on the roof this morning and this afternoon, to help make good any problems. With this in mind, we needed to allow access to the hall for the work to take place. I’m very sorry to all the children who were looking forward to celebrating their achievements today in assembly, we have been able to recognise some of these in classrooms this afternoon. I’m looking forward to next week’s assembly when we’ll hopefully enjoy a ‘double’ celebration.

On Monday evening our year 3 and 4 dodgeball team took part in and won the Amber Valley competition at Belper Leisure Centre. Well done to them, it was lovely to see them wearing their medals in school this week. We’re going to have to wait until next Friday when we can give the team their trophy in assembly.

Thank you to all the parents who came to Parent Evening this week. I trust that the time with the class teacher was productive.

Finally, Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Richardson returned safely from Kolkata on Sunday 4^th Feb and have been in school all week beginning to share details of their trip with us. It has been great to begin to find out what they have done and how they have helped our friends at Scott Lane school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 2^nd February 2024

We’ve had a great week keeping in touch with Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson who are in India. They’ve sent us a video and a blog every day letting us know what they have been doing. It has been wonderful to see our friends at Scott Lane school again after so long, the last time we had staff there was in 2020.

Scott Lane School is a charity school for pavement children in Kolkata, it is run and funded by the Cathedral Relief Service. Scott Lane is very lucky as they are given a room to use by St. Paul’s Infant and Junior school. This is a fee-paying school. The children that attend St. Paul’s have parents who pay for them to go, in a similar way to private school in the UK. Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson have been in St. Paul’s school and have shared pictures of this school in their online blogs.

Some of the other children who attend other charity schools run by the Cathedral relief service in Kolkata are not so lucky as our friends at Scott Lane. Some of the other charity schools are located on patches of ground under main roads. There is a picture of one of these schools on our website from our visit in 2019. CLICK HERE, to read to entry for Wednesday 16^th January 2019.

Rev. Anne led our infant and junior assemblies on Monday and Tuesday morning. She helped us consider, compassion, our theme for the half term. We considered compassion for the elderly and how we can help and care for people older than us.

On Monday evening our year 1 children took part in their first ever afterschool competition, taking part in the Amber Valley dodgeball competition at Belper Leisure Centre. Well done to them and thank you to Mrs. Wojcik for taking them. They received their certificates in assembly today.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th January 2024.

The PTFA have begun to sell disco tickets for the friendship discos that will take place on Thursday 15^th February. Families that wish to are invited to ‘forward’ a purchase and buy a second ticket for a child that may not be able to afford to go. These forwarded tickets will then be made available to children on benefit related free school meals. If you would like to ask about using one of these forwarded tickets for your child, and they are in receipt of benefit related free school meals, please contact the PTFA (CLICK HERE) who will let you know if one is available.

Information about the PTFA disco, and a link to purchase tickets can be found on their page on the website – CLICK HERE.

At the recent PTFA Christmas fair on December 14^th we were supported with many generous donations from the Belper Morrisons and Aldi, Bookers in Derby and Tesco’s in Alfreton. There generous donations of food and supplies for some stalls led to us raising £1,663.45. This includes the money raised by the raffle.

Trip to Kolkata

Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Hodgson have set off to India today. They took off today from Birmingham airport and will be travelling for just over 12 hours before landing in Kolkata, turning their clocks forward five and a half hours and making their way from Kolkata airport to the city centre for a busy weekend.  

They are travelling with teachers from several other Derbyshire schools. They will be spending a week in Kolkata with our friends at Scott Lane school. The school is run by the Cathedral Relief Service in Kolkata and provides help, support and lessons for the pavement children that attend. Every day they will be sending information, pictures, videos and stories about what they are doing and how they are helping the school and teachers. We also hope that we will be able to video call them during the week and speak to them whilst they are in the school.

The trip has been funded by parishioners at St. Peter’s church.  If you would like to follow them and keep in touch with what they are doing CLICK HERE.

This week we’ve also had two sporting teams represent St. John’s in competitions after school. On Tuesday evening our junior girls’ footsall team competed and on Wednesday evening our year six indoor rowers competed against other local schools. Both sets of children had a great time

Headteacher Weekly blog – Friday 19^th January 2024

The picture below shows the thank you card we received this week from the Royal British Legion. Your generosity in the poppy appeal led to us donating £291.37 to this cause.

On Wednesday Mrs. Richardson ran a parent workshop for year one parents, sharing information about the phonics screening check. All year one children in England will take this check in June 2024. The information that Mrs. Richardson shared is on our website . CLICK HERE.

On Thursday evening Mr. Hallam took our upper junior Futsal team to Alfreton Leisure centre to take part in the Amber Valley competition. The children that took part received their certificates in assembly this afternoon.

On Tuesday evening we had our first PTFA meeting of the year at the Grapes Inn. Many thanks to all the parents that came and took advantage of the Tuesday night drink offers. We have confirmed dates for future events that are all published on our website. CLICK HERE.

• Friendship disco – Thursday 15^th February.
• Easter raffle – to be drawn on Monday 25^th March
• Easter tuck shop – after school on Thursday 28^th March
• Year 6 prom – Friday 12^th July (this isn’t actually a PTFA event but is funded by the PTFA and is run and organised by year 6 parents).
• Colour run – after school on Wednesday 17^th July.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th January 2024

Welcome back to school for our Spring term 2024. We’ve had a lovely week with the children as we’ve begun new projects and topics in our classrooms. Information about the projects and work that your children are doing is on our curriculum page. CLICK HERE.

The road works and various holes that we’ve had dug up at the front of school have caused a few problems, but thanks to the support of families we’ve been able to ensure that children continued to get in and out of school safely. I can now report that the second, and hopefully the last, hole is filled in and the pavement and road is fully open. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that this remains the case over the weekend and that we don’t have “Hole 3” next week.

On Tuesday evening our reception children all came back to school at 5pm for a night time treasure hunt on the field and playground. We had great fun with glow sticks, lanterns made in class and torches from home as we completed the treasure hunt in the pitch black. Thank you to the parents who brought children back to school to join in with the fun.

We’ve welcomed our new caretaker Mr. Kelby to school this week. Parents will get to see him at the end of the day as he unlocks the gate every evening. A complete staff list is on our website. CLICK HERE.

Next week we have a PTFA meeting at the Grapes Inn at 7pm on Tuesday 16th. All are welcome and we look forward to seeing you there.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd December 2023

Our children have had a really lovely Christmas week at school. The PTFA funded trips to the cinema have all taken place. Many thanks to the cinema for helping us re-arrange the visit that we should have had yesterday afternoon, but couldn’t go due to the strong winds. They moved it to this afternoon at no cost. Our reception and nursery children have all enjoyed a PTFA Christmas party where Father Christmas came to give them all a present. On Monday evening we enjoyed our annual Christmas carol concert at St. Peter’s church and once again Father Christmas visited us to give some chocolate to all the children.

On Wednesday hundreds of children also enjoyed their Christmas dinner and Christmas jumper day. Our hard-working cooks prepared over 650 Christmas dinners as we are also cooking food for two extra schools as well at the moment. We are cooking for Duffield Meadow Primary School, as their school is closed due to recent floods and they are in temporary accommodation with no kitchen. We are also cooking for Muggington Primary School.

We’ve also finished our run of seven nativity plays with the year two children performing the last nativity on Wednesday afternoon. It has been lovely to see the families and friends in school every afternoon who have come to watch the children.

Year one children in Findern class took a letter home this week letting them know about Miss Bridges. Unfortunately Miss Bridges won’t be returning to St. John’s as she focuses on returning to full health. We wish her a speedy recovery and thank her for her work at St. John’s. This means that we welcome back Mrs. Christie who will be working in Findern class for first half the week. Mrs. Girling will teach the class for the second half of the week. We also welcome back Miss McConnachie who will work with us on Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays and Fridays as a cover PPA teacher. Miss McConnachie will be covering the lessons that Mrs Girling can no longer teach as she moves to Findern class.

Finally I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and look forward to seeing all the children again when we return to school on Monday 8^th January at 9am.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th December 2023.

Many thanks to all of the volunteers and friends who helped make the Christmas fair last night a success. It was lovely to see the excited children enjoy the visit of Father Christmas and listen to the choir entertain us with their singing. The PTFA have shared with me today that £2,134.12 was raised last night which will be used to fund the Christmas visits to Ritz cinema next week and the party for the reception and nursery children. The picture below shows Father Christmas just after he arrived from the North Pole before the first children arrived.

Our Christmas nativities have started this week and our reception and year one children have already enjoyed their time on the stage. Next week we look forward to our final year 1 performance and our two year two performances. From all of the positive comments passed on as friends and family left the nativity plays and the smiles on faces during the production it is obvious that the hard work your children have done with their teachers in the last few weeks has paid off.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon Mrs. Gallen welcomed our new January nursery starters for their taster afternoons. We had over 15 new children join us for the afternoons. This means that our nursery is full for some sessions now from January 2024. If you have any pre-school children or know of any friends who have children and are considering joining our nursery please be aware of the importance of applying for places to help ensure you get the sessions that you want. CLICK HERE.  

On Wednesday morning Mrs. Garbutt took our school choir to Ada Belfield care home to sing to the residents. This was the first Christmas gig of the year for our choir who are touring with three performances this December. The second performance was at the Christmas fair and they finish the Amber Valley tour with their performance at our carol service on Monday evening at St. Peter’s church. The service starts at 7pm and we have let Father Christmas know that he is welcome to join us if he has time. See you then.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th December 2023

Our year 6 children in Rowsley class had a very cold three days of bikeability training this week. Many thanks to the team from Big on Bikes in Little Eaton for delivering this training and helping our children learn to use their bikes happily and safely.

On Wednesday our football team took place in the Derby County competition at Lees Brook School. We did really well, winning our first three games and then drawing the fourth. Unfortunately, we then lost the penalty shoot out in the fourth game. In celebration assembly today, Mrs. Taylor, who took the team, thanked them all for playing so well and showing great sportsmanship throughout the evening.

Wednesday started for our year 5 children with the exciting visit of the planetarium. This huge inflatable classroom filled just under half of the school hall. All of the children spent a lesson in the inflatable dome with the night sky projected onto the walls. It was an excellent way to celebrate the work they are doing in class.

All of our year 6 children enjoyed their Wednesday morning at Belper School. We were invited to go and watch the dress rehearsal of their production Matilda. Earlier in the week students from Belper school came to teach our children how to sign one of the songs. Well done to the children and staff at Belper school for putting on such an excellent show.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 1^st December

On Monday evening Mrs. Taylor took our year three and four handball team to Belper Leisure Centre for the Amber Valley competition. We finished 5^th out of the 15 teams taking part. It was lovely to give the children their certificates in assembly today.

On Tuesday evening our PTFA team met at the Grapes Inn to continue work planning our Christmas fair. This will take place on Thursday 14^th December after school, starting at 5.30pm.

Yesterday fire officers from Derbyshire fire service were in school and spent a lesson with all of our year two and year six pupils. Children were taught about fire safety procedures in the home and how they and you can make your homes as safe as possible. CLICK HERE.  

Yesterday the stage went up in the hall for the nativity plays that will take place later this month. We have published information about the run up to Christmas on our website. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th November 2023

Both our year 4 classes have had their bikeability lessons this week on the school playground. Unfortunately, due to staff illness at Big on Bikes we had to postpone the lessons for Rowsley class in year 6. We are pleased to share that they have been re-arranged to the 6^th 7^th and 8^th December. A letter will come home for these year 6 children next week.

On Monday evening our year 1,3,5 and 6 children were able to enjoy the iSingpop concert that we had to postpone in October due to local flooding. Once again, the concert was enjoyed by hundreds of parents, families and friends. Many thanks to the iSingpop team who ran the re-arranged event at no cost to the school or church.

As the weather cools down this winter, we need to remind some parents who drive to pick up or drop off children about leaving car engines running. We have many parents who park with consideration for neighbours and our children by parking carefully on the road with engines turned off. Please don’t leave your car engine running whilst waiting for any children at the end of the day. The pollutants that come out of the car are particularly harmful to younger children. This article published by Staffordshire County Council clearly shows the damage that can be done to children from cars who have their engines running outside of school gates. Please do your bit. CLICK HERE.

Finally, we are pleased to share that last week we raised a fantastic £4,485.35 for Children in Need. Thank you for your support. We have contacted Children in Need who have shared that they will begin to distribute medals for the children who took part in the run Pudsey event and raised more than £10, soon. We will give these to the children as soon as we have them.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th November

The highlight of the week for many children was Children in Need today. Many thanks to all the support from parents at home and to the children who got involved today. With he ‘Run Pudsey’ event this afternoon and the cake sale this morning we believe that we may have raised over £3,000. We look forward to sharing the amount as soon as we have it. The picture below shows some of our reception children enjoying their cakes this morning.

Our infant handball team took part in the Amber Valley competition on Monday evening and finished second. They only lost one game and this was to the eventual winners. Well done to the children that took part and thanks to Mrs. Taylor for taking them.

As well as Children in Need today lots of children enjoyed the PTFA winter disco last night. Both infant and junior discos were a success and lots of money was raised whilst children were enjoying themselves. Lots of thanks to all the parents who helped out on the evening and to the parents that set up and ran the event. Special thanks to the PTFA team and to Coral, Becks and Jo who worked to ensure that we all had a safe enjoyable time.

Bikeability training continued at school this week with another one of our Y6 classes learning how to ride bikes safely on the road. The Big on Bikes team from Little Eaton have had another good few days at St. John’s with Tissington class. Next week, year 4 children get to take part in some bikeability lessons in school and then our third and final year 6 class, Rowsley, get to take their bikes out on the road with the Big on Bikes team.

Headteacher Weekly Blog - Friday 10th November

Good evening everyone, Mrs Carvell here!

I have the privilege of writing this week’s blog for you and what a busy week it’s been.

I hope you all enjoyed the half-term break and although it’s cold, damp and dark at the moment as the nights draw in, this week’s been full of exciting opportunities and fun for us to be able to celebrate and be proud of.

I begin today by sharing some exciting news with you all as Mrs Higgs had a baby daughter last week. We welcome Emily to the world and send our love and congratulations from us all.

This week our Y6 children in Quarndon class have had their Bikeability sessions out on the road all week to equip them with the skills to stay safe now and in the future.

On Tuesday, our EYFS children enjoyed ‘Once upon a time dress up day’ – a fun day full of activities including painting their favourite character. This theme will also be continuing throughout the term. The children looked absolutely amazing in their costumes – thank you parents for helping to make this day such a success!

Staff have attended and enjoyed a workshop to explore how we can enhance and strengthen our existing links with Scott Lane School and develop a deeper awareness and understanding of Kolkata, India for our children through our curriculum and other opportunities throughout the year.

On Thursday, the children were all looking super smart with their best smiles for their photographs which means you can look forward to some lovely pictures to add to your photo albums and to share with family.

The excitement and busyness doesn’t stop there with lots to look forward to next week including Odd Socks day on Monday to start our Anti-bullying week, the PTFA Winter disco on Thursday evening and Children in Need to end the week when we will be particularly thinking about positive relationships and caring for others.

And finally……we have ended the week on a more poignant note by observing a two-minute silence together as a school today - a time for reflection and to show respect and gratitide to the armed forces for their sacrifice and service to protect our freedoms and our way of life.

It was incredibly moving and the children were an absolute credit to you!

Wishing you all a great weekend ahead!

Mrs Carvell        

Headteacher weekly blog – Wednesday 25^th October 2023.

Our school football team started their league games on Monday evening playing three games at Belper leisure centre. The team won one, drew one and lost a game. There are 6 more league games to play.

We are still trying to work with iSingPOP to organise a new date for the postponed concert, sorry that we aren’t able to share a date yet.

Even though your children have now begun their half term holiday all the staff still have two training days tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow we are all having our regular first aid training, led by British Red Cross and then on Friday the focus of our training is digital security as we receive mandatory Department for Education cyber security training for schools.

I hope that you all enjoy a half term break and that we all return to school safely on Monday 6^th November ready to enjoy the second half of the autumn term and the run up to C********.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th October 2023

Hundreds of children and parents had a great evening last night at our iSingpop concert. The picture below shows a full St. Peter’s church with happy children singing new songs and parents and families enjoying the entertainment. As families left it was clear how much fun was had by all. Many thanks to St. Peter’s for hosting and getting everything ready and for the staff who stayed late to help the children enjoy themselves.

We were all looking forward to the second concert this evening, however, the weather and flood warnings have caused us to change our plans. We hope to be able to rearrange the concert for a date in November, please watch this space and we’ll share information as soon as we are able to.

Cancelling or postponing events is always a really hard decision. On this occasion the decision was made for two main reasons. The first was the safety of people travelling in an amber weather warning and with localised flooding. As well as considering the journeys of families and parents I had to consider the journeys of staff who would have attended tonight and who live as far away as Chesterfield and South Derbyshire. The second reason was for the children who wouldn’t have been able to attend tonight due to the weather. In postponing it, we will open the event up again to as many children as possible.

Last night Mrs. Taylor took our year 3 athletes to the Amber Valley, lower junior athletic competition, at Alfreton Leisure centre. The team finished runners up, which was a great result given that all the other schools were competing with year 3 and 4 children. We couldn’t take our year 4 children as they were enjoying iSingpop. Well done to our team, It’ll be exciting to see how we do in this competition next year.

Finally, we’ll be selling poppies at school next week. If your children want to purchase one with some pocket money, please encourage them to earn the money by doing a job, rather than just giving them some money. It’s important to us for the children to understand that the support they give charities is from them (by helping at home with a job) and doesn’t just come from their parents. Thank you.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th October 2023

We wish Mrs. Higgs well today as she begins her maternity leave. I look forward to sharing any updates on new arrivals as soon as I can. We received good news this week when Mrs. Heer let us know that she had a baby girl on Tuesday afternoon. We have had a lovely picture come to school of Shaan and look forward to meeting her in the flesh as soon as we can.

Our reception children are continuing their work thinking about people who help us. This week two parents helped us and came into school to talk to children about their jobs. As you can see in the pictures having a Vet and a Police officer in the classrooms were the highlight of the week for the children. Many thanks to the parents for helping us.

All of our year 6 children have completed their first Bikeability workshops this week. These workshops took place on the playground. After half term they continue their bikeability work and take their bikes out onto local roads to learn about riding safely on roads.

On Tuesday evening we had a PTFA meeting at the Grapes Inn. Thank you to the parents who came to make this meeting a success. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 28^th November, and all are welcome to come along, help the school and potentially take advantage of the £2.80  a pint deal that the Grapes has on Tuesday evenings.

Finally, yesterday Miss Proud took our year 5 and 6 athletes to Alfreton Leisure Centre for the Amber Valley athletics competition. Well done to the children for taking part and enjoying themselves.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th October 2023

On Monday evening we took our year 2 athletes to the Amber Valley indoor athletics competition at Belper Leisure centre. It was lovely to give these children their certificates in assembly today. For some of the children it was the first time they had represented the school in an after-school competition.

 It looks like the builders are coming to the end of the roof replacement program. Hopefully the scaffolding will be removed this weekend. There will still be a few little jobs for the team to finish and tidy up, but it appears that the end of the two and a half month project is coming to an end.

Many thanks to the reception parents that came to the reading and phonics workshop on Wednesday evening led by Mrs. Richardson. From the conversations after the evening, it was great to hear that parents found it useful and helpful. Mrs. Richardson has added all the information she shared and resources mentioned on her class page. CLICK HERE.

Next week we say farewell to Mrs. Higgs as she begins her maternity leave on Friday 13^th. On Monday 9^th the children in her year 4 class will get to meet their new teacher who will be starting with us on Monday 16^th. We’ll share information with parents after the children have met them. Mrs. Higgs and the new teacher have already started working to help make the transition as smooth and successful as possible.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 29^th September 2023

Our year 4 children had a great start to the week on Monday with an ‘Invaders and Settlers’ day in school. A history expert was in school for the day helping the children and enhancing their project work for the term. Many thanks to the families that helped their children with dressing up. As you can see below the costumes were excellent.

Three of our football teams have played in competitions this week. Our girls played on Tuesday night and on Thursday night we took a year 5 team and a year 6 team to a competition at Broomfield College. The teams all had great fun playing for the school, with our year five team finishing 3^rd out of a dozen teams last night.

Many thanks to all the parents and families that brought donations in on Thursday for the Padley Centre. Your generosity has helped us look after families and children less fortunate than us in the local community.

Our reception children have had their parents and carers come to dinner this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Thank you to the kitchen staff for helping make this event a success.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd September 2023

Many thanks to the PTFA team of committee members who have agreed to continue supporting our school for another year. Without the help of Coral, Beccy, Jo and Verity we wouldn’t be able to look forward to the events that they are going to help organise this year. Please remember that every parent, carer and grandparent of a child at St. John’s is part of our PTFA. If you are able to spare any time in helping run these events, please use the contact the PTFA page on the school website to drop them an email. CLICK HERE.   

We hope that parents enjoyed our new style parent evenings this week. We have run the event like this to enable us to spend more time with parents and carers. We hope that after the meetings you had a bigger understanding of what takes place in your child’s class every day and how school and home can work together to help your child be the best that they can be. In Spring 2024 we will carry out a parental survey and give families the opportunity to feedback on them. Our last parental survey was in spring 2022, the results are on our website CLICK HERE. In 2022 parents asked for us to consider the way that we reported to families. It was with this in mind that we altered our report format in 2022 and introduced this new style of parent evening.

We began our introduction tours to St. John’s today for parents who will have children joining us in September 2024. If you have any children who will be joining us then or know of anyone who will have children starting school in September 2024, please let them know about our welcome tours. We are taking bookings for families to come and join us. The dates are on our website. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th September 2023

Mrs. Carvell and I have been interviewing today, as we recruit a teacher to take over in Mrs. Higg’s year 4 class, when she goes on maternity leave later this term. We look forward to sharing more information as soon as we can about who we have invited to join our team.

We had our first safe inside practice of the year this week. Last week we had our first fire practice, where children and staff safely exit the building. Our safe inside procedures are when we keep staff and children safe inside their classrooms. We may need to use this if a dog has got onto the playground, and we want our children to stay inside.

Thank you to all of the parents who have returned slips to attend our new style parent evenings next week. The teachers are looking forward to seeing you and spending the longer period of time really helping families get to know about your child’s new classroom and teacher. This meeting is ideally for parents and carers only and not for children. CLICK HERE.

Finally, we are pleased that just under 70 of our children were able to attend the summer club run by RS coaching in August. Due to the success of this we are pleased that RS coaching will be able to run the club over the October half term. Details of how to book places and the special activities on offer, will be published by RS coaching next week and we will share them as soon as we can.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th September 2023

We’ve had a lovely, and very warm, first week back at school. It has been a pleasure to welcome all the new children to school in reception. Mrs. Wojcik and Mrs. Richardson have had very busy, fun week helping these new children settle into school. It always amazes me when our new children start, how long they will be with us for, our new arrivals will be with us until July 2030.

We had our first fire practice of the year this morning. This is an important part of the first week every year. All the children now know what to do if they hear the fire alarm at school. This is a timely reminder to families to check to see if you have made a fire plan at home. CLICK HERE to go to the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue service web page that helps families put together an escape plan at home.

Lots of children have been walking into and out of school safely using the footpaths. We regularly remind children not to walk across the carpark at the front of school and appreciate the support that parents give us walking along the pavements yourselves. We also have lots of children safely scoot to school every day, don’t forget that our scooter park is open and ready to store scooters throughout the day. Unfortunately, we cannot store bikes, due to space. We have however acquired a white child’s bike that no one has claimed since before the summer holidays. If you are missing a bike, please come and collect it.