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.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 21^st July 2023

Our year six children have enjoyed their final week at St. John’s. Yesterday’s leavers’ service at St. Peter’s church was enjoyed by many parents, carers and families as well as all the children from reception to year 5. Having started with us in September 2016 these children have spent over half of their lives with us. It has been a pleasure to work with them for so long, they will be missed by all of the staff that they leave behind as they move onto new challenges at secondary school. I’m sure they’ll continue to be the best that they can be. I look forward to seeing them in future years and finding out how they are doing.

As well as saying goodbye to our year 6 children today we have some staff leaving as well. Mrs. Betterton and Mrs Turner who have both worked as teaching assistants for over 30 and 23 years respectively are retiring. We wish them well as they begin this new chapter in their lives. Two teachers, Mr. Keene and Mrs. Littleworth both begin jobs in new schools in Derbyshire and Mr. Collinge, our caretaker, is moving to a school in Derby city. We will also be celebrating wedding bells as Miss Cooper will return to school as Mrs. Kerr. Finally, Mrs. Heer won’t be returning as she begins her maternity leave in September. We wish all these staff well as they begin these new chapters.

This morning’s final celebration assembly of the year was a wonderful way to finish the term. Just under forty parents and carers joined all the children and staff to watch their children get presented with the annual governor award. This is a real highlight of the final assembly of the year. We also gave out just under thirty 100% attendance certificates to children who have attended school every day since Monday 5^th September 2022.

Have a lovely summer, we look forward to seeing lots of you again at 9am on Tuesday 5^th September.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th July 2023

As I write this our year 6 children are hopefully getting ready for their end of year prom. The teachers and I look forward to helping them enjoy their evening at school along with all the parents who have given their time over the year to organise and run this annual event. Many thanks to these parents who have worked hard setting up today and will no doubt be here after the children leave helping tidy up. The memories you have helped the children make today are fantastic. We won’t let the rain dampen our spirits!! The picture below is a sneak preview of the table set up that the children will be enjoying soon.

We were able to finally run our sports festival for the junior children on Thursday morning. The difficulty of fitting this into the calendar and marrying this up with good weather meant that we decided not to invite parents and families as we had hoped to do. We understand the difficulties many parents face in getting time off work at short notice and the problems that the weather forecast caused families on the original planned dates who had organised time off work. We didn’t want lots of children to be disappointed that invited parents couldn’t make it and put pressure on parents to have to make arrangements at short notice. Thank you for your support in this.

We were as upset as many this week when Derbyshire catering announced the prices of school meals from September. We are all aware of the increase in costs for everyone in all areas of life at present, and for a long-time, school meal costs have been protected from larger increases in price, which is why this price jump may seem so sudden. However, the Derbyshire catering team work hard to ensure that their meals are nutritious and adhere to all guidelines with regards to a balanced diet. Our school kitchen staff also work hard with families to ensure that individual diets in place for medical needs are also offered to our children. This high level of service is still in place at St. John’s to provide a healthy lunchtime meal in the middle of the day.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 7^th July

The infant children have enjoyed their sport afternoon today. Many thanks to all the parents and families that came to support and cheer. I know that the athletes of tomorrow enjoyed themselves and judging by the commitment of the parents and carers in the adult races the athletes of today (and yesterday) enjoyed themselves as well. We also enjoyed our nursery sport morning today. All of our nursery children took part in races that were enjoyed by their parents and families as well.

Lots of children were able to take part in making our annual well dressing in school this week. This is now on display at the Memorial Gardens in Belper over the weekend. Please go along and see the work that you children did and the work of other community groups in Belper. A picture of our well dressing can be seen below.

Many thanks to the parents who came to the PTFA meeting on Monday evening in school. I am pleased to share that we have added a couple of events to the calendar for the autumn term. Please check the school calendar for details of these. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 30^th June 2023

If only we’d had the benefit of hindsight at 10.30am this morning. The weather forecast was for rain up to 2pm and then a good chance of drizzle for the rest of the afternoon, however, for most of the late morning and afternoon the weather was probably dry enough, and our junior sports day could probably have gone ahead. I am very sorry to all the families who had made work arrangements to attend today. Today ends a good run, as we have not had to postpone or cancel a sports afternoon due to weather (COVID did get in the way in 2020 and 2021) since before 2017 when our year 6 children enjoyed their first sports afternoon in reception.  I hope that we get to enjoy seeing parents and friends on Monday afternoon on the re-arranged day.

Children enjoyed their transition mornings with their new teachers this week. The new locations of the classes and the teachers can be seen on our website, CLICK HERE. In the summer we say goodbye to two teaching assistants who have worked at St. John’s for many years. Mrs. Betterton and Mrs. Turner will both be retiring, and we wish them well as they begin this new chapter. We also say goodbye to two teachers, Mrs. Littleworth and Mr. Keene, who are moving to other local schools, and we wish them well in their new jobs.

We also have two teachers going on maternity leave in the next few months. Mrs. Heer and Mrs. Higgs will both be leaving in the autumn term. Mrs. Heer will be replaced by Mrs. Girling in year one. We have placed and advert to recruit a teacher to come and replace Mrs. Higgs and will share more information after the summer holidays when we recruit.

Last night we took part in the Amber Valley orienteering competition. There were well over a dozen teams taking part at Eyes Meadow. Our team did very well to finish third. They collected their certificates in assembly today. I think that something was going on behind me when I took the picture of our team celebrating their achievements.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 23^rd June 2023

All of our junior children have enjoyed their house matches today. The event runs every summer and gives all of our children the opportunity to take part in a series of competitive games during the day. The day is especially enjoyable as we welcome back many ex-pupils, who are now in year ten at Belper Secondary School, and who come back for the day to help referee and manage the games. Many thanks to them for helping us today. We look forward to sharing which team has won next week.

On Sunday last week St. Peter’s church held it’s weekly Sunday service on our field. It was a pleasure to host this service and the pictures on our website show how the event was enjoyed by all, young and old. CLICK HERE.

On Thursday morning, our year 1 children walked to St. Peter’s to help them with their RE work. They were able to spend an hour in the church exploring places that we don’t normally get to use during a normal service.

On Monday afternoon our swimmers came second in the Amber Valley Swimming gala at Belper Leisure centre. On Thursday evening our cyclists took part in another round of cycling competitions at Alfreton Leisure centre.

Over the summer holidays we hope to be having some of our flat roof replaced on the main part of the building. We’re really pleased that this will be able to take place over the holiday when children aren’t on site. We may be having some scaffolding put up during the last week of term, and will share any impact that this may have closer to the time if it effects the running of the school.

Finally next week we have our transition mornings, when children will spend the morning with their new, September 2023 teachers. On Tuesday morning reception and year 1 children will spend the morning with their new teachers and on Wednesday morning all our children will spend the morning with their new teachers. I’m sure that the children will be looking forward to coming home those days to tell you who their new teachers will be.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th June 2023

We’ve had three very exciting events since last week's blog, our summer fair, our year six residential and a trip to the Halle orchestra for year 4 children today. I’ll be able to share some pictures and more information about the two-night residential our year six children have just enjoyed next week, as they only returned at 3pm this afternoon. However, I still want to make sure that I say many thanks to the staff who have given their time to help the children have a very sunny three days in the Peak District.

Our summer fair on Saturday was a great success. I look forward to sharing how much money was raised soon, however it was clear that lots of families and children enjoyed themselves in the sunshine. The highlight for many was walking with the alpacas, but lots of other events such as the bouncy slide and ice cream van were also very popular. Lots of parents and staff gave time to make the day a success and many thanks to them all, but special thanks must go to Coral, Becs and Jo who were the parents that were the backbone of the event. The children who performed in the choir and the dance show were also a credit to themselves and enjoyed performing in front of so many friends and families. The pictures below show how much fun was had.

Today our year four children have all been to Derby arena with their brass instruments to play with the Halle Orchestra. This annual fixture in our year four calendar is a great way to end the year of music lessons that they have all had in school with qualified musicians. I hope that the present year three children are looking forward to their music lessons next year when they are in year four.

On Wednesday our upper junior cricket team took part in the Amber Valley competition at Eyes Meadow. It was a glorious summer evening and the team continued to improve, winning their final game of the tournament.  

Our year one children have also been making fresh salads this week. The picture below shows the children with their salads ready to take home for a healthy tea. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th June

The summer term is my personal favourite term. When we have lovely weather, and the children enjoy all the end of year traditions and events in glorious sunshine our school is a fantastic place to work. Tomorrow’s summer fair is an example of this. The weather forecast is great, we have children looking forward to performing and we’ve had fantastic parents, friends and staff work hard to make the day a success. I look forward to seeing you all at school tomorrow at 12pm.

We have won another sport trophy this week as we finished first in the Amber Valley team cycling event. Thanks to Mrs. Taylor who has run weekly cycling clubs and has spent several evenings at competitions with the children.

This morning Belper Cricket club was at school coaching our year 4 children. Links with local sports clubs like this are great as our children get to work with experts in their sport.

Some families may now be signing up for our weekly email who have children joining us in September. Mrs. Richardson, our reception lead teacher, has been visiting local nurseries again this week to get to meet our new children.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th May 2023

Many thanks to the staff at the Black Bull’s Head who have generously donated £100 to help us purchase the suncream for children this summer. This is the second year that they have made this generous donation. One of their customers has once again given their time for free in planting the pub’s summer plants and tubs and has asked that the money saved be spent at St. John’s to help our children.

We’ve had several sporting successes this week that have seen our children enjoy a variety of sports old and new.

• On Monday our infants started the week winning the Amber Valley Football competition.
• On Tuesday our football team finished the season with a 6-0 win and then a 0-0 draw against Oakwood.
• On Wednesday Rammy visited our year 5 pupils to help them in their PE lessons.
• On Wednesday our cyclists took part in the Kilburn Go Ride Amber Valley competition, round one and one of our boys won their race against over 60 other cyclists.
• Yesterday and today every child has taken part in our Tough Runner course, getting wet, muddy and enjoying themselves in the process.

The pictures below show Mrs. Newton’s class looking wet and mucky after their tough runner and Miss. Proud’s class working with Rammy in their PE lesson.

Yesterday afternoon our year one children invited their parents and families into school to watch them lead their first assembly. Over 100 parents and friends enjoyed watching our children share everything they have learned this year in their project work “School Days”. They have learned all about the history of St. John’s and what school was like when their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents went to school.

Have a lovely holiday.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th May 2023

Our football team have played four games this week against Shelton and Gayton Primary Schools. We have won two, drawn one and lost one. Our team are having a great season playing with each other, representing our school. Their last game of the season is on Tuesday next week. I hope they finish the season with another victory.

The chickens that have lived in reception for the last two weeks have returned to the farm today. The farmer has thanked us for looking after them for a fortnight, making sure they always had enough food and water. They will be continued to be looked after on the farm.

Our year 6 pupils that are going to Belper school in September spent an hour with their new year 7 teachers this morning. Other local secondary schools will begin work with pupils going to their schools soon. As Belper get ready to welcome their new year 7 pupils we have started to work towards welcoming our new reception children who will be joining us in September. A welcome letter will be going home in the next couple of days to all the families that will be joining us.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th May 2023

The highlight of the week for our year one children was a trip to Sudbury Museum of Childhood on Tuesday. This was an excellent place for them to go to help with their project ‘School Days’. The children enjoyed the Victorian classroom and the chimney that they were able to climb up to experience what it would like to have been a Victorian chimney sweep.

Our reception children have had some pets for the week. On Tuesday morning some chicken eggs were delivered and over the week the children have enjoyed seeing these hatch. We have then also enjoyed holding the chicks and observing them eat, drink and sleep. The chicks are spending the weekend at Mrs. Richardson’s house and will be back in school on Monday with the reception children for the week. Thank you to the PTFA for funding this project.

Well done to all our year 6 pupils who took their government SAT tests this week, your effort and attitude towards them shows what stars you all are.

Finally, we are pleased to be able to publish our Ofsted report this week. We didn’t receive the report until Wednesday and have therefore shared it as soon as possible. I’m sorry that we have not been able to share any information about the inspection until today. I know that lots of families would have liked the information sooner. We would really have liked to share in February the news that Ofsted agreed with our evaluation that we are a good school. However, we had to wait until Ofsted were able to publish the report themselves, before we could tell families the good news.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th May 2023

We’ve had a lovely day in school recognising the King’s coronation tomorrow. The children all looked great dressed up in red, white and blue today, thank you for your support in helping them with this. Our lunchtime street party on the playground was enjoyed by all, despite a small rain shower for a couple of minutes worrying us as the first few children sat down to enjoy their party lunch. Thank you to the kitchen staff for helping with the day and the midday team and Mrs. Carvell for setting up the playground.

On Tuesday our football team played two matches against St. George’s. Both games were drawn, 1-1 and then 0-0.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 28^th April 2023

On Wednesday afternoon we had a fire practice in school. Parents arriving early to pick their children up at the end of the day may have seen us and heard the siren. We have regular evacuation practices to help ensure that children know how to keep safe at school. Please take this as a timely reminder to have similar practices at home. Do your children know what to do if they hear the smoke alarm go off at home? Do you and your family have a plan of what you will each do in the event of a fire? More help can be found on the Derbyshire Fire Service website. Spending 5 minutes now putting a plan into place could be the best thing you do this weekend. CLICK HERE.

Most of our children have enjoyed a PE lesson this week on our PTFA and sport premium funded outdoor play area, previously known as the bark area. Next week children in years one and up will be able to start using it at playtimes. This is a great new resource for the school and one that we hope children will enjoy for many years. Children have been invited today to come up with a new name for this new play area.

On Monday our upper junior children took part in the Derbyshire athletic finals at Broomfield College. They had a great morning and represented our school well. On Wednesday after school our dance club children took part in the show at the David Nieper Academy. We look forward to seeing them perform at the summer fair on Saturday 10^th June. Finally on Tuesday afternoon over 80 parents came to school to watch and listen to our year four orchestra. All children in year four have been given and a learning how to play a brass instrument this year. Our concert on Tuesday was a great success.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 21^st April

Welcome to the summer term! It was lovely to see everyone back at school after the Easter break.

All our junior children have enjoyed our tough rower today. The picture below shows some of our year 3 children taking part in their row. Each machine was rigged up to a computer, which then displayed the virtual rowing race on the computer screen at the front of the class. This new experience at St. John’s was great fun.

Our week started with year two children having their bikeability training. The team from Big on Bikes, helped all our year two children learn how to ride their bikes happily and safely. We’ve also had staff from Derby County work with our year 5 children this week in their PE lessons and today, Mrs. Taylor started her lunchtime cycling club for children.

On Wednesday Mrs. Richardson invited parents of reception children to come and find out about our forest school lessons that will be taking place this term. We are looking forward to this new outdoor education initiative taking place. Yesterday more parents were in school with year two teachers as we helped share what will happen in the year two government tests that take place later this term. It’s always appreciated when parents come into school for such workshops to help schools and families work together successfully.

Another letter has had to go home this week letting parents know of the impact of the most recent round of national teacher strikes, that will take place on the 27^th April and the 2^nd May. In February when the first strikes were called the school presented our plans for what would happen at school, to governors. This was an essential part of the process to make sure that we were working within guidelines and statutory procedures. I recognise the frustration that some families feel as some children are being affected more than others. However, with different teachers taking different advice from different unions about the national dispute there will be a different level of impact throughout the school. Despite this, we have still had messages of support from families about supporting the strike and appreciate these comments as we try to manage a difficult situation.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 31^st March 2023

I hope that you all get to enjoy some time as a family over the next fortnight. Have a lovely Easter holiday and we look forward to seeing all the children again when we return to school on Monday 17^th April at 9.00am.

Our sporting week has consisted of the Amber Valley, junior, cross country races on Wednesday after school. Over 30 children took part, representing the school and we gave out lots of certificates in assembly today. We found out this afternoon that St. John's came first overall as well, so we are looking forward to getting our trophy and adding it to the trophy cabinet when we return in the summer term. 

We’ve had two church services this week at St. Peter’s. On Tuesday morning Rev. Anne welcomed all our reception children and their families to church for our Reception Welcome Service. This is the first time that our reception children have been to St. Peter’s. This service bookends the year six leavers’ service when our children say goodbye to St. John’s.

Yesterday our second service of the week was our Easter service led by our year four children. Well done to them for speaking loudly and clearly and leading a wonderful service.

Many thanks to all the families that came to our parent and carer meetings this week. I hope that you found the meeting with your child’s teacher helpful.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th March 2023.

A very brief headteacher weekly blog after another busy week at school.

With the lighter evenings now here, our football team have played against Cherry Tree and Walter Evans schools this week. We have played each school twice, meaning that four games have been played in total. The team represented our school with flying colours, winning two, drawing one and losing one game.

On Wednesday afternoon we welcomed some new children to our nursery for one of their induction afternoons. These children will be starting nursery after the Easter holidays. It is very strange to think that they potentially may be at St. John’s until July 2031. For families with pre-school children who are considering joining our nursery at any point please take time to look at our nursery admissions page. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher’s weekly blog – Friday 17^th March 2023

Many thanks for all the support we have had today in enjoying our Red Nose Day Bake Off. It is easy to see that lots of parents have supported children this week in making cakes at home. I hope you have enjoyed doing this, we have certainly enjoyed selling and eating the cakes today in school.  

We've also enjoyed British science week this week in school. Many thanks to all the parents who have given their time to come to talk to groups of children about their jobs in science industries. We've also enjoyed our first science fair on Tuesday evening this week this science fair over 50 children and parents were able to show scientific experiments, models and work that has been done at home. It was a pleasure to see so many children enjoying their scientific endeavours as you can see below in the pictures.

On Tuesday evening our table tennis team took part in the Amber Valley competition at Belper leisure centre. Even though our warm up sessions were cancelled on the snow day last week, our ping pong experts came second, well done to them.

Finally on Tuesday evening our PTFA team had a successful meeting at the Greyhound Inn. Lots of plans were made for the summer fair that will take place on June the 10^th. Please keep this date free in your diary so you can come and support the school. You'll be pleased to know that we have booked glorious weather for the occasion.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th March 2023

Unfortunately the weather has had a big impact on the end of the week for lots of children. On Thursday about half of our children were collected by parents before 3.30 to help ensure that they got home safely and today I had to make the difficult decision to close the school.

Closing the school is never an easy decision to make, and fortunately only something we’ve had to do, due to weather, once before since 2015. This is the first extreme weather day, however, where teachers have been able to provide online learning for children at home and I have been able to see that lots of children have been able to enjoy some snow time as well as keep in touch with their class teachers today. Thank you to all the parents who have been able to help with this and who have had to make any child care arrangements at short notice. I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday morning.

Our reception children have had a couple of lovely treats this week. On Monday the animals from White Post Farm spent the day at school to help them with their Dangerous Dinosaurs project. There were no dinosaurs in school, but the lizards, snakes and spiders caused a different level of excitement to the rabbits and guinea pigs! Then on Wednesday children in Buxton class had their parents or carers join them for dinner in school. Wednesday is nearly always roast dinner day at school and I’m really glad that lots of adults were able to come to enjoy this meal with their children. More pictures and extra information can be found on their class page, by going to week two on the following link. CLICK HERE.

On Thursday morning all of our year 6 children were able to go to Belper Secondary school to watch a dress rehearsal of Broadway at Belper. Lots of our ex-pupils were in this which made it all the better to watch. This is the first time since COVID that our year 6 children have been able to enjoy this annual treat at Belper school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Monday 3^rd March 2023

I hope you all enjoyed a half term break with your children last week. It was good to be back at school this week for the second half of the spring term.

The highlight for most children this week was yesterday's world book day. Many thanks to all the parents who helped ensure their children could come dressed to school as their favourite book characters. We also need to thank the staff who also dressed up for the occasion. Preparations for world book day began in school on Monday evening when teachers recorded the masked reader video. This can be watched below. I hope that you and the children enjoy guessing which teacher is reading which page of Julia Donaldson’s book, The Gruffalo. Finally it was lovely today in celebration worship when the children that won the design a book cover competition were able to stand up and get their applause. Yesterday, on world book day all these children were able to collect their prize.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th February 2022

Many thanks for all of the messages and words of encouragement that came to school this week during our Ofsted inspection. This week has been a fantastic opportunity for your children and our staff to show how good our school is and how well your children work and achieve.

The inspection was a full inspection, this is technically known as a Section 5 inspection. This means that we had four inspectors working with the school from Tuesday morning at 8:00 AM until Wednesday evening at 6:00 PM. The inspection really started at 11:30 on Monday morning when Ofsted rang school to let us know we were getting inspected. Nobody at school knew until then that the inspection would take place. On Monday at 11.30am, Mrs Carvel and I then spent just over three hours on the phone, on a conference call, with the lead inspector sharing information about our school that would help him and the rest of the team on Tuesday and Wednesday. During this phone call it was very clear that the lead inspector had already spent a lot of time preparing for the inspection without us knowing. For example, he had obviously spent a lot of time looking at our website as well as looking at other publicly available information about our school such as, test results for children in SAT tests and the results of our previous OFSTED and church inspections.

On Tuesday the inspection focused on two areas. Firstly, our safeguarding procedures and how we keep children safe and secondly a very vigorous look at half a dozen subjects that we teach. For a lot of the day the inspectors were speaking to these curriculum leaders, looking at teachers’ plans, looking a children’s work and observing these subjects being taught in classrooms across the whole school. On Tuesday evening the inspection team were given the results of the three surveys that took place, that is the parents survey, the pupil survey and the staff survey.

On Wednesday the inspectors began their day by speaking to parents before school. Then, during the day they spoke to representatives from the governing body, different staff from throughout the entire school and our School Improvement Partner from the local authority. The inspectors also spent a lot of time talking to groups of children. All the people that the inspectors spoke to were chosen at random by them. The inspectors also spent time on Wednesday speaking to members of our leadership team about the areas of school that they lead. In these discussions our leaders were able to talk about what was taking place in these areas as well as presenting plans, information and legislative paperwork and procedures that we need to have in place.

At the end of the inspection at 5.30pm on Wednesday evening, our governors were invited into school to listen to the inspectors share their provisional findings and outcomes.

Over the coming weeks the inspectors will now write their report. Hopefully this will be published in about six weeks. We will be able to share the report at this point and not before.

In other news this week on Monday our upper junior children took part in a dodgeball competition after school at Belper leisure centre. They represented our school with good sportsmanship and were presented with their certificates in assembly this afternoon.

On Thursday morning our year five children let our annual lent service at St Peter’s church. All of the children did very well helping us understand the importance of lent in the Christian calendar. Year five children spoke about acts of generosity that they well put in place over the next 40 days and 40 nights.

On Thursday evening hundreds of children enjoyed our friendship disco. Many, many thanks to all of the parents who gave their time to volunteer and help make this event a success. Special thanks also go to the PTFA team who organised the evening successfully and safely.

Finally, children have brought home a letter today about world book day on Thursday March the 2nd. This letter also celebrates the opening of our new library. The pictures below show how smart this new library is and what a lovely environment our children have to enjoy their reading.

Have a lovely half term holiday, we look forward to seeing you on Monday the 27th of February when the second-half of our spring term begins.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th February

I hope that your children enjoyed their three-day weekend. All the teachers and staff were in school on our INSET day on Monday 6^th February. We spent the day planning some curriculum updates for subjects including Geography, History, Art, Technology and Science. Parents can look at all our curriculum plans on our website. CLICK HERE.

Our year five children have been getting ready for the Lent service that they will lead at St. Peter’s church on Thursday next week. All children from year one and up will be walking to St. Peter’s for the annual service on Thursday morning. The service will start at 10am. We will begin walking to church at about 9.20am after we have registered the children. We will be back in school by about 11am. If you are able to help your class walk too and from the church safely on Thursday morning please let your class teacher know. Children in reception will not come to this service, all other children will.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd February

Our year one children took part in their first inter school competition on Monday evening at a dodgeball competition at Belper School. Mrs. Taylor was with them and let me know that all of the children had a great time. It was lovely to give them their certificates in today’s celebration worship.

On Wednesday our year four children went on a school trip to Carsington Reservoir. This was to help them with their project work. The children all had a great day at the education and activity centre and took part in lots of activities, including pond dipping, as can be seen in the pictures below.

On Wednesday schools across the country, and St. John’s, were impacted by strike action called by the National Education Union. The next day that industrial action may affect St. John’s is Wednesday 1^st March 2023. Please do not assume that the impact at St. John’s will be the same on the 1^st March as it was this week. I will try to help families by sharing as much information as possible about what might happen on March 1^st at St. John’s before we break up for half term on Friday 17^th February.

Don’t forget that Monday 6^th is an INSET day and school is closed to children. Teachers are spending the day working on our new knowledge rich curriculum plans, ready for the summer term. I hope that the children enjoy their three day weekend.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 27^th January

On Wednesday over 40 parents came to our afternoon and evening year one phonics meetings where Mrs. Heer, our English lead, shared information about the phonics scheme we use in school and the phonics screening test that children will do in the summer. Resources were given out to help parents support children at home. The presentation used can be found on our website in the curriculum section. CLICK HERE.

On Tuesday evening our upper junior girls took place in the footsall competition at Belper Leisure Centre. They did really well to finish 4^th out of the 8 teams that took part. It was great to give them their certificates in celebration assembly this afternoon.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th January

The picture below shows the trophy won by our boys’ futsal team on Tuesday evening. Well done to them, on Tuesday next week it’s the girls turn. Most of the team were in action again this afternoon at Moor Farm training ground representing the school in the second round of the EFL cup. I look forward to sharing the result of this next week.

The second picture below shows our reception children about to begin their night-time treasure hunt on the school field on Tuesday evening. It was a beautifully clear, cold, evening and the children had great fun finding 10 clues with their torches and looking at the night sky, spotting stars and planets.

On Wednesday evening our year 6 parents were invited into school to find out about the SAT tests that their children will sit at the end of the year. These tests begin on Tuesday 9^th May and will be taken by all year 6 children in the country.

Today the last two temporary storage units were removed from the school following the autumn building work. It’s great to have the front of the school looking normal again.

Finally well done to the children who won our book review competition that took place over the Christmas holiday. All the winners will receive a £10 voucher to spend at Dormouse Books in Belper and will have their winning entries displayed in the shop. CLICK HERE. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th January 2023

Our first week back has been successful for our football team. On Wednesday evening they won a group competition, held at Derby Rugby Club to progress to the second round of a National Competition. Now they face schools from across the county at Derby County training ground at Moor Farm next week. Let’s hope that the team do as well here as they did at the rugby club and progress to the regional finals.

We are slowly getting used to our new classrooms and rooms. Our year three children have enjoyed their first week in their new classrooms. Mrs. Wojcik’s year one children had to spend a few days out of their classroom whilst some building work took place, but they have now returned to their normal room. Our Books at Breakfast club is also now taking place in the main building, making it easier for these children to access library books. We still have work to do to re-allocate some rooms in school, for example the old computer room is now getting converted into our new library after some carpet tiles have been fitted, however, the extra space that we now have in school is now been enjoyed by all staff and children.

Unfortunately, our reception children’s night-time treasure hunt was postponed on Tuesday evening due to the heavy rain. Hopefully it can take place at 5pm next week on Tuesday 17^th.

Many thanks to the parents that supported the school at last night’s PTFA meeting. After a really successful autumn term and Christmas raffle we can now look forward to a family quiz evening, in school, on Friday 10^th March. More details will be shared soon. We also have our friendship disco for children on Thursday 16^th February to look forward to.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 22^nd December 2022

We’ve had a very exciting last week of term. We were very pleased on Monday afternoon when the builders were able to hand over the new classrooms. All three classrooms look fantastic and are a huge improvement on the tired looking 1972 open plan area that they have replaced. Many thanks to the Derbyshire team of builders who have worked hard to ensure that we were able to have them before the Christmas break. This has meant that classes have been able to move into the new classrooms ready for the spring term. This is especially good news for our year three classes who have been working in very small classrooms. These small rooms will now become small meeting and break out rooms for us to use. The new school plan in on our website for parents to look at. CLICK HERE. Pictures of the rooms can be seen on our twitter feed.

On Monday evening our choir and musicians led our annual Carol Concert at St. Peter’s church. This traditional service is a wonderful annual event. Father Christmas keeps it in his diary and he was able to attend again to give all the children a little gift at the end of the service.

Our PTFA have paid for all our children in year one and up to visit the Ritz cinema in Belper this week, for their Christmas treat. Many thanks to the PTFA for funding it and to the staff at the Ritz for making us feel welcome and helping us with this annual event.

Finally, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and look forward to seeing everyone again at 9am on Monday 9^th January for the start of our Spring term.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th December 2022

Many thanks to the PTFA for organising a very successful disco last night. Hundreds of children enjoyed themselves and hopefully came home tired and happy. Special thanks go to Total Hire And Sales who donated the outside lights to the school, for free, for the evening. These outdoor lights and the many volunteers who gave their time meant that we were able to have separate queues for each class to get into the disco, helping us keep queues to a minimum. Huge thanks to the many volunteers who gave time on the evening to sell toys, serve drinks, check names on arrival and tidy up afterwards, helping us take £1,331.75 through ticket sales and at the pocket money shop. The PTFA look forward to sharing how much money was raised as profit once costs are removed. The picture below show that a good time was had by all.

The PTFA have also been busy selling teas, coffees and mince pies at our school nativity plays this week. Well done to all the children who have performed on stage this week entertaining parents, grandparents, families and friends. The nativities this week have been fantastic and have warmed the hearts of everyone watching them. We’re all looking forward to the year two and nursery nativities next week.

Wednesday was another lovely festive day at school. Our brilliant catering team cooked and served Christmas dinner for hundreds of children who were all having a lovely day in their Christmas jumpers. I always enjoy this annual event helping serve dinners with the catering team on the busiest day of the year. Many thanks to all the kitchen staff and midday staff who made arrangements to work longer hours on Wednesday to help our children enjoy themselves.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th December 2022

This week our choir and musicians played to residents at Ada Belfield care home in Belper. The residents really enjoyed the songs and music performed by our children. Thank you to Mrs. Garbutt for organising. The next time our choir perform will be at our carol service at St. Peter’s church at 7pm on Monday 19^th December.

Many thanks to the PTFA members who held a uniform sale after school yesterday. They have offered to run another one on Friday 16^th after school as well.

Next week we have our PTFA Christmas discos. The PTFA have had lots of volunteers offer to help out. This means that they are able to try a new queuing system to get into the discos. There are enough volunteers to have a separate entry queue for each class. Therefore, when your children arrive, they will be able to join a class queue to have their names ticked off against the ticket list. This will hopefully help move children into the disco quicker. Many thanks to the parents who have offered to volunteer to make the event a success. Please note that when you drop your child off you will be asked to take their coat home with you and then bring it back with you when you pick your child up, rather than store it at school. Children that need to have their coat in school, if they are getting picked up by someone else, will be able to put their coat in a classroom to be collected later. However, we have well over 100 children attending each disco and need to keep coats to a minimum to help children leave quickly and happily at the end of the disco.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 2^nd December

As I write this blog our caretaker, Mr. Collinge, is in the process of putting up the stage for our nativities in a few weeks. This stage was purchased by our PTFA several years ago. This week we have had builders on site installing new playground equipment in the bark area. The development of this area has been made possible due to a very generous donation by the PTFA of £10,000. In a couple of weeks all the children in years one and up, are off to the cinema for their Christmas treat. These opportunities are possible due to the generosity and time given by parents and friends for the school. If you would like to get involved and help and give your children, the great opportunities that the PTFA projects can fund then please use the contact the PTFA page on the website. CLICK HERE.

The PTFA are hoping to sell refreshments at the nativities and will be able to do so if we have volunteers to help. Please let them know if you can spare some time whilst coming to school to watch any of the nativities. Use the link above. Thank you.

Yesterday our football team, represented Amber Valley and took part in the Derbyshire finals in Chesterfield. Unfortunately, we didn’t win but the team did very well to get this far and had a good afternoon out, even if it was a little cold for watching parents.

On Monday our Y5 children had an Egypt day in school. A special visitor brought artifacts and spent the day with children helping them understand what life was like when the pyramids were built. Thank you to all the parents who helped children dress up for the day.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 25^th November

Last week we raised £659.61 for Children in Need. Many thanks for your donations and generosity in helping us make this a success.

Last week I wrote about us monitoring cars parking on the zig zags in the morning when dropping off children at the start of the day. I am pleased to share that after this message we have not seen any cars parking here. Many thanks to everyone for helping us to make the beginning of the day as safe as possible. I have been asked if making Laund Nook a one-way system at certain times of day would help keep the roads safer. On taking advice about this we were told that this isn’t supported by the local authority. There is evidence that a one-way system promotes drivers to drive faster, therefore this wouldn’t be encouraged in our situation.

Our assemblies on Monday and Tuesday this week were taken by Abby and Emma from ValleyCIDS. They helped us think about showing courage when we are scared. Abby and Emma are also in school every week now running our new club on Tuesdays after school. Our lighthouse club on Tuesdays is run by Abby and Emma with the help of staff, Rev. Anne and parishioners from St. Peter’s church. This is open to year three children and just under twenty children every week are enjoying the games and activities that are run by the team.

The builders have confirmed this week that they are still planning on completing the work before the Christmas holidays. Therefore, we are making plans for both our year three classes to move to their brand new classrooms on January 9^th, when we return for the spring term.

Finally, enjoy the England game tonight. Let’s hope that we are able to win and guarantee progress through to the knockout stages, later in the tournament. Fingers crossed.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th November 2022

All our children have thoroughly enjoyed our Children in Need day today. Well done to Mrs. Littleworth for organising. I hope that lots of parents are enjoying the new toys and games that children bought at the bring and buy sale this afternoon. There were also lots of cakes eaten at the cake sale. Thank you for your generosity in donating cakes, books and toys to help make these events a success. We believe that we have raised over £600 and look forward to confirming the final amount later next week.

On Monday evening our year two children won the Amber Valley handball competition and looked fantastic wearing their medals to school the following day. I look forward to presenting you with the trophy next week in celebration worship.

We have been made aware of some parents dropping off children by parking or pulling up briefly on the yellow zig zags outside our school. This is not appropriate, it is dangerous, inconsiderate, and selfish. The last time a Civil Enforcement Officer (Parking warden) was able to visit our school at 9.00am I know that penalties were issued for this offence to some drivers. Over the coming weeks I will be noting the children that we see get out of cars that may be parking on the zig zags and ringing parents and families to express our concerns over their behaviour. These won’t be calls that we look forward to making but will gladly do so to help keep our community safe. We will also be inviting our local Civil Enforcement Officers to come to the Laund Nook area in the coming weeks to help us keep our children safe. Thank you to the vast majority of our parents for your support in parking safely and considerately in our community.

On Monday we welcomed Derbyshire’s fire safety officer to our school. He spoke to all our year 2 and year 6 children about safety in the home.  Please ask your children about the lesson he led and what they learned. I hope that the sessions help all our families stay safe.

Thank you to the parents who came to our curriculum meeting on Wednesday. We have been asked to run the event again in school time, to help with childcare. We are pleased to invite parents to school on Wednesday morning, 23^rd November at 9am, after you have dropped off your children. CLICK HERE.  

Headteacher blog – Friday 11^th November 2022

This morning all our children and staff marked two minutes silence on the playground. This annual event is an important part of our year and helps us all to pay respect and think of the brave adults who keep us safe in Belper.

Another annual event that has taken place today is when we had pre-school children, toddlers and babies join us in year 1 for the afternoon to help our children with their Memory Box project. Once again it was lovely to have the support of families by coming into school for the afternoon to allow our children to play with and see how younger children behave.

On Wednesday our year three children enjoyed it when we had some owls visit them for the day. The children spent time with the owls and let the owls fly onto their arm.

Mrs. Littleworth’s year six children have successfully completed their level two Bikeability awards this week. Well done to them and thank you for your excellent and safe behaviour when learning to ride safely on open roads. Next week our year 4 children and Miss Bennett’s year six class work with the bikeability team.

On Tuesday evening the PTFA meeting at the Greyhound Inn was successful with some new parents coming along to help our school. Some dates have been added to the calendar for future events and are on the school calendar.

Headteacher weekly Blog – Friday 4^th November 2022

I hope that you all had some lovely family time during half term last week. For many children we now approach their favourite time of year and I have already heard teachers talk about parts in nativities and which songs will be sung. All of our festive dates are on our online calendar, including nativities, carol concerts, Christmas Dinner day and trips to Ritz cinema. CLICK HERE to check dates. You can also sync our online calendar to the calendar on your phone to help keep up to date with what is happening in school.

On Sunday 30^th October our Choir sung at a very special celebration service at St. Peter’s church where our community celebrated the 200 year anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone. There were many special visitors in the congregation, including the Duke of Devonshire who’s great, great grandparent laid the foundation stone 200 years ago. More information about the service, including pictures and a video of the choir are on St. Peter’s website. CLICK HERE.

Our year six children began their level two bikeability lessons this week with lessons taking place on local roads. These lessons continue over the next few weeks. Thank you for your support in helping children bring their bikes to school on these days.

On Thursday evening a group of year 6 mathematicians and Mrs. Newton, our maths lead teacher, attended their first maths mastery club at Belper Secondary school. Over the coming weeks they will be working with maths teachers from the school, children from other local primary schools and visiting lecturers from the Royal Institute of Maths on areas such as coding, computing and binary numbers, magic squares and curve stitching. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 20^th October 2022

I hope that all of our children enjoy their half term holiday with their extra bonus day tomorrow as we have an INSET day.

Today our year 3 children led our harvest festival. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to St. Peter’s church for this annual event due to the rain, but the parents and community came to us and we had our service in the hall instead. Many thanks to all the families that brought in donations of food for the Padley centre. These were collected today to help the homeless and disadvantaged families in the local area.

Lots of children enjoyed making lines of coins today as part of the PTFA loose change challenge. We’ll share the class with the longest line after the holiday once all the money has been counted. We have also made sure that classes with more children weren’t advantaged as we have divided the length of each line by the number of children in each class to get a fair ‘handicapped’ length per pupil for each class. I can share however that the total length of all the lines of coins made today was 289 metres. Many thanks for all your donations to help make this a successful event.

Finally, many thanks to the outgoing members of our PTFA team. Nicola, Barbara and Zoe have led the PTFA for a few years, helping us enjoy lots of community events and raising money for the school at the same time. You have brought lots of smiles to children’s faces, thank you. We now welcome Coral, Jo and Rebekah to the team and look forward to their first meeting on Tuesday 1^st November at the Greyhound Inn starting at 7pm.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 14^th October

Unfortunately, last week we were made aware of an accident that took place near our school on a road boarding the three-cornered park. Fortunately, no one from St. John’s was involved or injured. The accident happened at about 3.20pm in the afternoon before our children left school. This is therefore an opportunity to ask parents to remind children that accidents can happen anywhere and that we need to be careful at all times when crossing roads.

We will be selling poppies and other merchandise from the British Royal Legion after the half term break.  Children will be told what is for sale, what the suggested contribution is for each item and when they will be sold. Children that want to support this cause by bringing in a donation are encouraged to carry out a job around the house to earn any pocket money. We don’t want children or parents to feel that money should be just given to children to buy a poppy.

On Wednesday we welcomed Rob Bounds to school who worked with our year three children. Rob set up a pedal powered smoothie maker. The children all made healthy fruit smoothies to help with their project work. We also welcomed Big on Bikes to school this week who helped ensure that all our year 6 children passed their stage one bikeability on the playground. After the half term holiday we will move to stage two and cycling on the roads.

Last night our junior athletes won our second trophy of the year when they came first in the Amber Valley athletics competition. Well done to all the children who took part.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 7^th October.

I hope that your children enjoy their three-day weekend. School is closed on Monday for an INSET day. All the staff will be at school. We are spending the day developing our curriculum. Several years ago, we started using Cornerstones projects as the foundation for our curriculum. Over the years we have developed and made some subtle changes to the way that we use these resources to keep our curriculum fresh and exciting. At the INSET day on Monday, we are going to be looking at some new Cornerstone projects and seeing if and how we can bring these new projects into St. John’s from January 2023. Parents and carers are invited into school for a curriculum evening on Wednesday 16^th November at 5.30pm to find out about any new projects that we will be using and to see any new resources.

On Monday this week we took our infant athletes to Belper Leisure centre for the Amber Valley athletics competition. Our children represented the school really well and thoroughly enjoyed themselves representing the school, many of them were doing so for the first time.

Rev. Anne has been in school three times this week. On Monday and Tuesday, she took our Junior and Infant assemblies. On Wednesday she spent time with our nursery and reception children. In our assemblies Rev. Anne helped us think about the gifts and talents that we all have and that we need to use them to do good. Children recognised that we all have gifts and talents that may be different to other children, but that we can use to be the best that we can be.

Headteacher Weekly blog – Friday 30^th September 2022

Well done to our girls and boys football teams who have both played in tournaments this week at Eyes Meadow in Duffield. On Wednesday night the girls finished 3^rd out of 10 teams and last night the boys won our first sport trophy of the year finishing first. The boys are now Amber Valley Champions and look forward to their next challenge. I’m pleased to share that our captain put the trophy in the trophy cabinet today after assembly.  

The boys football team played their first 7 a side competitive game of the season on Monday evening after school and beat Cloudside school to progress to the next round of the cup.

Many thanks to all the parents who have helped in using the carpark gate to get into school at the beginning and end of the day. We will be using this gate for the next couple of months as the building work continues in the old reception classes. We hope to be back to normal, with three shiny new classrooms for us to use in December. The building work that we have had take place over recent years with us now having had two open plan areas developed into classrooms and the new reception classes being built mean that we have been able to reduce average class sizes once again this year. Average class sizes have now gradually reduced every year since September 2017 from 28.4 to 23.3 in September 2022.

Finally, we have already acquired a considerable amount of lost property this year. Earlier this week we returned over two dozen jumpers and coats to children where we could read the names, however we are still left with several bags of jumpers, coats and sandwich boxes with no names on, in the lost property box. When the weather is good next week we hope to put all this out on tables on the playground at the end of the day to help parents come and collect any missing items. Please help us return items to you by putting your child’s names on their uniform, first and last name (we have more than one Sam) and we will try to return it whenever we can.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 23^rd September 2022

Many thanks to the families that came to the PTFA event on Tuesday evening. This is a great opportunity to thank Nicola, Zoe and Barbara, our PTFA team over the last few years. They have worked really well to help our children enjoy some special events and have raised more than £10,000 that has been used to buy treats in school and has allowed us to place an order for new playground equipment. We look forward to getting this installed in the coming months. I am pleased to share that we hope to have a new PTFA team in place in the next few weeks and look forward to hopefully sharing some names as soon as possible.

Please note that we have added some dates to our online calendar for the autumn term, including bikeability dates for year 4 and 6 pupils, the individual and sibling photograph day in November and a special service at St. Peter’s church on Sunday 30^th October. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th September 2022

The children have had a super week at school beginning to get settled back into school life after their summer holidays.

Today we have our first fire drill of the year. All of the children safely evacuated the building in less than 2 minutes and lined up on the playground perfectly. Having done this at school today it may be a good idea to do some fire safety checks at home. Are the batteries in your smoke alarms working? This page on the Derbyshire fire service web site will help families CLICK HERE. One of the options on this page in a home ‘Escape Plan’. Having had a fire drill in school today it may be a good idea to talk about an escape plan at home over the weekend and link the two together so that children know what to do at home and in school.

Unfortunately, this week we have had some neighbours contact school about inconsiderate parking at the start and end of the school day. If parking in the local area, please help other members of our community by parking legally and with consideration. We also ask that car engines aren’t left running when parked, even when it gets cold. For our smaller and younger children, the impact of car fumes is greater than for adults.

Finally, please note that on Tuesday evening you are invited to school at 7pm to our first PTFA event of the year is at school and then next weekend we have our PTFA scarecrow trail around Belper. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th September 2022

There are times when we receive some news that we know we will remember where we were when we heard it for the rest of our lives. Last night will be one of those for many as we learned of the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. We have celebrated her life many times at St. John’s, most recently with our Platinum Jubilee Day and street party on 27^th May this year. During this time of mourning, we will mark our respect as our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends and the many people around the world who respected and loved her. Next week we will open a book of condolence in school and parents and families will be invited to write in it. This book will then be stored in school along with school records, photographs and logbooks that date back to August 1883. I still maintain our school logbook and write daily or weekly entries to continue this historical record  of St. John’s spanning 139 years. This book of condolence will become an important part of our school’s history as part of this collection.

This week at St. John’s has also been about the first day at school for our reception children and the return to school for everyone else. We also welcomed 4 new teachers and 4 new teaching assistants. A full staff list is available on our website CLICK HERE. It was a pleasure to welcome everyone back to school on Monday. I have seen hundreds of smiling faces throughout the week and enjoyed seeing lots of good work as children settle back into their routines.

Today at school we welcomed a planetarium into school and our year 5 children have enjoyed a morning of stargazing to help them with their science and project work this half term. 

We had hoped to ‘welcome’ the builders back to school next week to continue their development of the last part of the original 1970’s building (that is the old reception classrooms). Unfortunately, they won’t be returning until October, but we still hope to be able to take ownership of the three brand new classrooms they’ll be building before Christmas. The completion of this building project will mean that all our classrooms will then be the modern, exciting classrooms that our children deserve. The area of school that will be developed later this term can be seen on this school plan CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd July 2022 

Today we have said goodbye to a wonderful group of year 6 children. In the last 8 days they have enjoyed their leavers’ prom and led their leavers’ service at St. Peter’s church. Today they were a credit to themselves as they enjoyed their last day at St. John’s with their friends. I wish them all the best as they move to secondary school and beyond. It has been a pleasure to work together with them since 2015 when they started in reception. As they leave, they take a little piece of St. John’s in their hearts, that will always be there to help and support them.

We also enjoyed many other activities this week in school. On Wednesday the PTFA organised our first ever colour run after school. Your generous sponsorship of the children and the PTFA’s work has raised over £2,400. This means that we have been able to place the order for our new playground equipment this week. We look forward to this exciting £30,000 project been completed later this year. The PTFA are contributing £10,000 towards this exciting development, many thanks to them.

We have also worked through two of the hottest days on record on Monday and Tuesday. Many thanks for the messages of thanks received for the work that staff did to help keep the children cool and safe and many thanks to you for supporting us. With today’s rain that heat of Tuesday seems a long time ago.

We were all excited at school today as we were able to bring back our annual governor award. Due to COVID, the last time we were able to present this award to children was July 2019. This award is given to the one child from each class that has displayed St. John’s values and positive attitude throughout the year. This afternoon governors gave our highest award to 17 children, and we welcomed 17 sets of parents and carers to school to watch their children receive their award in our final assembly of the year. Our governors then invited the children to a tea party to celebrate this achievement. The picture below shows the children enjoying themselves at the party.

As well as saying goodbye to our year 6 children this week we also say goodbye to Miss Thompson, Mrs. Christie, Mr. Silk, Miss Bailey and Miss Hill. It is a pleasure to be able to thank them for all they have done at St. John’s and wish them well as they begin new chapters. They will all be missed.

Finally, many thanks for all your support again this year as we work together to help your children enjoy their primary school days.  I hope that you all enjoy some family time this summer and find some sunshine to enjoy. We all look forward to seeing each other again on Monday 5^th September when we return to school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th July

I write this just before the start of our year 6 prom this evening and am looking forward to a lovely party with our wonderful year 6 children who have been at St. John’s since September 2015. This prom is a special one for me as it is the first group of children what I was able to welcome into reception as headteacher in September 2015 as I started at St. John’s in January 2015. These children have been at St. John’s for as long as I have and it has been a pleasure to be part of their journey from reception to year six. I hope they all have a lovely evening.

All of our children brought home their annual reports this week, therefore this week we are pleased to be able to share how well our year 6 children have done in their end of year tests and compare their results with the national standards, CLICK HERE. Every child can be very proud of themselves in working as hard as they have done and achieving their best.

On Monday it was great that our infant children finally got to enjoy their tough runner event on the field. Many thanks to Amber Valley Sports for helping us enjoy our day. I think that the huge inflatable slide was the highlight of the course for many children and using the water pistols was the highlight for many staff. Great fun was had by all.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th July 2022

Our year 5 children have returned safely today after their three day residential in Derbyshire. Many thanks to the staff who have given their time to organise and attend the trip to ensure that the children had this opportunity. Within the last month a dozen staff from school have given their evenings and time to help our children enjoy their first residentials in 3 summers. The dates of our planned residentials for summer 2023 are already on our calendar.

Our infants have enjoyed their sport afternoon today in glorious sunshine. Every child has taken part in at least a couple of races and smiled their way from start to finish. Judging by the effort put into the parent races, it was clear that this race was also enjoyed by lots of people as well.

On Tuesday we received the results for the SAT tests that the year 6 children took in May. We will be able to send the results of these tests home with the children in their annual reports on Tuesday next week.

Headteacher weekly blog Friday 1^st July

Tuesday and Wednesday morning were an exciting time for lots of children as they found out who their new teachers would be next year. All children have been able to spend a few hours with their new teachers in their new classrooms. We were able to welcome our four new teachers to school as well. Our new teachers are, Mrs. Littleworth year 6, Miss Price year 4, Miss Martin year 3 and Mr. Keene year 1. Over the next few weeks we will continue to update our website with information about the class locations and year group structures to help families understand what St. John’s will look like next year. Teachers will also be completing their meet the teacher page so that you can see who your child’s new teacher is going to be.

We were really pleased that we were able to run our junior sport afternoon today.  However, we obviously weren’t pleased when rain stopped play with two sets of races to take place. We knew that many families would have made preparations to be at school for the afternoon so really wanted to run the event today, rather than wait until the reserve Monday afternoon. This morning the BBC website was forecasting the chance of showers at lower than 50% so we thought we’d have a go. I hope that all families did get to see their child race. We do hope to be able to give the children the chance to finish the races next week one day when the weather is suitable, but unfortunately won’t be able to invite parents back in again. Fingers crossed that next week we have more luck with the infant sport afternoon.

Friday 24^th June 2022

We’ve had a very musical week at St. John’s this week. It’s a shame that the pictures below don’t carry the sound. Yesterday we had our first music day in school. It was great to see the children and staff dressed up as their favourite pop stars and musicians. We had professional musicians in school playing to all the children and many of our own children and staff played instruments during the day to each other and to families at 3.30pm.

Today our year 4 children have travelled to the Derby Arena to play alongside the Hallé Orchestra. This is a great way to end their year of music lessons with Derby’s music hub. I know that our year three children are looking forward to September when they to learn how to play an instrument.

At the start of the week our year 6 children enjoyed their residential trip to Whitehall Outdoor Centre in the Peak District. Lots of fun was had and judging by how tired the children were on Thursday and Friday I’m not sure how much sleep was had. Our year 6 children that didn’t travel took part in a Derby University online open day on Tuesday. This special day put on by the university is designed to help primary school children find out more about university and motivate them to wanting to go.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th June 2022

Due to the PTFA summer festival on Friday evening I am sharing the blog for last week on Monday morning. Our summer festival was certainly the highlight of the week and a welcome return to this event for the first time since 2019. The weather was also very kind to us, if anything it was too hot and sunny. Many thanks to all the families that came to support us, but a special thanks to the parents, friends and volunteer who gave their time to help make the evening a success. I look forward to sharing how much the PTFA raised as soon as I can.

On Thursday evening our Samba drumming group had their last practice session prior to our music day on Thursday 23^rd June when they will be playing at the end of the day on the playground. Many thanks to the Fleet Art group in Belper for helping us with this and working with a children for over a month getting ready for their performances.

Hopefully lots of parents went to Belper Memorial garden over the weekend to see the Well dressings. We spent three days making ours. Many thanks to Morrisons in Belper for donating flowers and seeds to help us make our Jubilee themed well dressing.

On Tuesday our year 1 children enjoyed their trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. It was great to see the work that they have done about this trip since they returned and see how much they enjoyed their first school trip on a bus.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th June

I am really looking forward to seeing the whole school photograph that was taken today. The weather was kind to us and all of the children were brilliant. The photographers shared that they were some of the best behaved children they have ever taken a photograph of. You can see some of the photographs below that we took. I look forward to sharing details of how you can purchase the photograph as soon as possible.

The picture was taken as part of our 50^th birthday celebrations, we moved into Laund Nook in January 1972 and the school was officially opened in May 1972. We had a special assembly this week where we shared pictures and extracts from the log book celebrating our 50 years in this building as well as our 150 years as a school. We have log books going back to the 11^th August 1883 where at the end of every day the headteacher has written about the day at St. John’s and what has happened. You can see the pictures and extracts that we shared with children – CLICK HERE.

We now have a box of pictures, newspaper cuttings, building plans and lots of other artefacts that our children are enjoying looking at in their classrooms.

Many of you know that every lunchtime we now employ a playground leader. Our playground leader sets up games and then referees or umpires and coaches or helps children enjoy their lunchtime happily and safely. This week we have a sporting first! The picture below shows that we had crazy golf set up on the playground for children to enjoy.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 27^th May 2022

The highlight of the week was our jubilee day today. We had a wonderful time celebrating and enjoyed our street playground on the playground. Many thanks to the kitchen staff for working extra hard today and to everyone else who has put up bunting and made the school look lovely. I am sure that your children had a memorable day.

I am able to share now that we have recently appointed four teachers to come and join our team in September. I have already shared the names of three teachers that are moving and now have to share that we wish Miss Hill all the best as she moves to a school closer to home. Miss Hill has enjoyed her first year in teaching with us and we wish her well as she continues her career in Ashbourne. I will be able to share the names of our four new teachers after the half term holiday, as soon as I can.

I also need to share that after the half term holiday we expect to have builders back on site working to modernise and improve our school. They will be continuing with the project to help increase the number of classes and reduce class sizes at St. John’s. The continued benefit to our children of this project can be seen below.

Just before we opened our three new reception classes in January 2020 our average class size was 28.4 pupils in each class and we had 8 classes with more than 30 children. In January 2022 the average class size was 25 pupils in a class and we only have two classes with more than 30 children in.

Over the summer and into the autumn the builders will be transforming our final 1970’s styled learning environments into three classrooms fit for children in 2022. We look forward to the job being completed in the autumn term. The area that will be developed is the old reception open plan area (A7, A5, A4, A24, A6 and A27) as well as the library (A16) on our school plan. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th May

We had a wonderful Tuesday afternoon in school when a hundred parents and friends were able to come to school to watch their year 4 orchestra. All of our year 4 children have been learning to play either the trumpet or trombone this year with Adam and Hannah from Derby’s Music Partnership. The concert was fantastic. Well done to the children for doing so well in learning how to play a musical instrument.

Yesterday we sent a team of over 30 runners to the cross country race on Duffield Meadows. We have some great individual finishers picking up top three medals in their individual races and I’m pleased to share that over all we finished first. Well done to all the children that took part and thanks to staff and parents that took children to the race.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th May 2022

Today we have been interviewing new teachers to come and join our school in September. We are making a few appointments today and then again on the 25^th May when we will be interviewing again. I am looking forward to sharing the names of the new teachers and the year groups that they will be teaching in as soon as we are able to do so. Families will already be aware that Mrs. Christie and Miss Thompson are leaving us as they retire and take a promotion to another school. Today I am able to share that Mr. Silk will also be leaving us in August. Mr. Silk joined us in January and will have worked with us as a year 4 teacher for two terms. I am sure you join me in thanking Mr. Silk for his brief period of time at St. John’s and wish him well as he leaves us this summer. 

Our reception children have enjoyed looking after their eggs and chickens this week. The eggs were delivered on Monday and throughout the week I have enjoyed hearing updates about the eggs that are hatching and the chicks that are now sharing a classroom with the children.

Our year six children have taken their SAT tests this week. The last time year 6 children took SAT tests in the UK was in 2019. Well done to all of the year 6 children for working hard and doing their best this week.  In previous years, schools and the government have published their SAT results for all parents to see them. You may be aware that the government have announced that in 2022 they are not going to publish or share school’s SAT results. Children will, however, still get their individual results, these will come home with their written reports in July.

Over the next few weeks other children at St. John’s will begin their end of year tests with children in year 1, 2 and 4 taking more statuary government tests. Our year 1 children take a government phonics screening test, year two children take their government end of key stage tests and year 4 children take their government multiplication tests. Teachers have recently led successful and popular meetings for parents about the tests that the children take. The presentations can be found on our class pages – year two CLICK HERE – year 6 CLICK HERE.

Our 7 a side football season finished last night. At present we are top of the league, with teams below us to play some games. Yesterday we finished the season with our 10^th win beating Oakwood. Well done to all the children and many thanks to Mr. Hallam for giving the children the opportunity to enjoy themselves representing the school.

Finally a reminder, our online calendar is always up to date with events taking place CLICK HERE. Please can we draw your attention to the Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) workshops that are taking place on Thursday 19^th May after school. Mrs. Girling looks forward to meeting any parents that want to come to school and look at resources and ask any questions about the RSE lessons that will be taking place in school this term. Our PSHE plan, that can be viewed online CLICK HERE shows families what PSHE units are taught when. After the half term holiday we have projects called ‘Relationships’ and ‘Growing up’ that are taught throughout the school that parents may want to find out about on Thursday evening. A letter went home earlier this month with information about the evening. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th May 2022

It is always lovely when we get messages of appreciation and thanks. This week our year 5 children have continued their project ‘Allotment’. As part of this work they have had Mr. Gerry Stuart, one of the members of Hunter Road allotments come and visit us at school and talk about how the allotments are maintained and what they are used for. They have also visited the allotments, spoken to the gardeners and spent time researching what they can grow this summer. We then received this message from Mr. Gerry Stuart.

Miss Proud, can I say what an absolute pleasure it was to meet up with your Year Five students yesterday. Their attentiveness and willingness to ask (good) questions when I did the classroom talk was first class. The visit to the Allotments - only one word - Perfect.

Well done to you and all involved.

Once again the behaviour and attitude of our children has been exemplary. Well done to them.

Yesterday at the Netball competition our team finished second, out of eight teams. Well done to them and on Tuesday our football team were successful when playing against Shelton.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 29^th April 2022

You may be aware that we have some adverts in the press for two teachers to join our team in September. I shared before Easter that Mrs. Christie will be retiring in July 2022. Today I am sharing that Miss Thompson will be leaving us in the summer as well. She leaves to take a promotion and class teacher role in a local school. She will leave us in July with all our best wishes as she takes her passions for teaching and helping children with her. I am sure you join me in wishing her well as she continues her career in Derbyshire.

We were very pleased to see so many families enjoying our Wednesday afternoon open classroom session. It was great to see so many families in school looking at their children’s work and classrooms. I hope that your children enjoyed showing you their work. All the staff at school are pleased that such events can begin again and we look forward to seeing parents in school more often in the coming months.

Well done to our year 6 children who have had a practice SAT week this week. They have all worked brilliantly and will be able to take what they have learned this week into their real test week on May 9^th. I am pleased to be able to share with them that this week Mrs. Carvell and some Y6 parent volunteers continued to make plans for their end of year prom on Friday 15^th July. As well as this prom I know that there are lots of other events for them to enjoy this term as they continue to prepare for secondary school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th April

Most summers bring staffing changes at schools and this August after twenty year’s work at St. John’s we will say goodbye to Mrs. Christie. The majority of this time has been spent in reception. There are hundreds of children (as well as young adults) in Belper who know Mrs. Christie as their first teacher and many parents who know Mrs. Christie as a friendly face who helped them and their child take their first few independent steps at school. Fortunately it may not be a complete farewell as Mrs. Christie has offered to come and help at school as a supply teacher we may still get to see her in the new school year.

The highlight for many children this week was today’s Spanish Day. We have all had great fun counting, singing, dancing, eating and speaking all things Spanish today. Every child has taken part in a flamenco workshop, I am also pleased to share that teachers took part as well and judging by how much effort was being put in we’d give the team at Strictly Come Dancing a run for their money as well. The pictures below only give a brief taste of the day, I hope that your children have been able to tell you a bit more.

Our children have also had another treat this week with a PTFA funded Easter workshop at the beginning of the week. Many thanks to the PTFA for funding this event and to the team at Valleycids for coming in for three days to work with us. The team spent just under an hour with each group of children telling the Easter story using interactive props and activities.

Finally we’ve had two trips to St. Peter’s church this week. On Tuesday our reception children went to their ‘Welcome to St. Peter’s’ service led by Rev. Anne. This lovely service is bookended by their farewell service that they will be leading in July 2028 when they are in year 6. We’ve also had our Easter service this week. Well done to our year 4 children for leading this service and helping us all prepare for our Easter holiday.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 1^st April 2022

This morning it appears that several teachers were able to enjoy a bit of April fool fun with their classrooms. I gather that some classes were then able to get their own back on teachers with tricks later in the day.

Summer must be on the way as on Monday we had the field grass cut and the sport pitches marked out. The children have also been on the field for some lunchtimes this week. It’s a shame that the weather didn’t continue to get ready for summer later in the week with snow showers reminding us that it was still only March. The snow and weather meant that our cross country race on Wednesday evening was cancelled by Amber Valley Sports. This will be re-arranged and run later in the summer term.

Yesterday some of our artistic children spent time with Mrs. Wayne from Belper arts producing work celebrating this year’s Queen’s Jubilee. Many thanks to Mrs. Wayne for coming back to St. John’s and supporting us with this exciting project.

I am also pleased to share that our year 5 children have won this fortnight’s walk and wheel competition in school. We have been encouraging children to get to school on foot or scooter and year 5 children showed that they did the most journeys to school in this manner.

Please remember that next week out reception children are walking to St. Peter’s church for their Welcome Service on Tuesday 5^th and that all our other children are walking to St. Peter’s for our Easter Service on Thursday 7^th April. Our reception Welcome Service will begin at about 9.45am our Easter Service will begin at 10am. Reverend Anne will lead the Welcome Service and our year four children will lead our Easter Service. Parents and families are welcome to both services. Please let your child’s class teacher know if you are able to help us walk to and from church safely. We also have our Spanish day on Friday 8^th and parent and carer evenings on the 4^th and 5^th. Our PTFA are also selling Easter treats and drawing the Easter raffle prize after school on the playground at 3.30pm on Thursday 7th April. We’ll be ready for our Easter holiday.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 25^th March 2022 

Many thanks to all the families and children that supported us on Monday 21^st when we recognised Down Syndrome Day. It was really nice to see so many children wearing something extra in recognition of the extra chromosome that people with Downs Syndrome are born with. I hope that the day has helped our children understand Downs Syndrome a little bit more.

Our sporting teams have been busy this week. On Tuesday our basketball team took part in the Derbyshire School’s finals. Unfortunately we didn’t get out of the group stages by one basket, but the team showed great sportsmanship throughout the day. On Wednesday evening our two table tennis teams finished first and second in the Amber Valley competition.

Thank you to parents for helping us to use the footpath around school at the end of the day, we appreciate your support in this.

Rev Anne led our junior and infant assemblies this week when she helped us think about ‘learning wisdom from our parents’. I hope that this weekend lots of mums get to enjoy a treat or two on Sunday, even though the day begins with us all turning the clocks forward an hour.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th March 2022

This has been one of the busier weeks of the year so far.

Many thanks to Author Lesley Parr who visited on Wednesday and spent the whole day with our junior children. She helped us understand how she writes books and stories that lots of people enjoy to read. You’re invited to find out more on her website.  https://www.lesleyparr.com/

We also spent time on Wednesday trying to understand and show support for the children and families less fortunate than us caught up in the Russia / Ukraine conflict. Thank you to all the families that helped children dress in blue and yellow with such short notice.

Today we enjoyed Red Nose day and so far know that we have raised over £400 for this worthy cause. School was full of super heroes today and as you can see several teachers joined in the super hero fun.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 11^th March 2022

For most parents this isn’t a normal Friday as we have had an INSET day today so children have been at home. I hope you are enjoying your three day weekends. All staff have been in school today on a phonics training day. Mrs. Heer our English lead has led the day. We look forward to sharing some new teaching ideas and resources that we will be using from September 2022.

On Tuesday evening we played two football matches against Walter Evans. Well done to the team who won both games.

On Monday our reception and nursery children enjoyed lots of visitors from White Post farm.  All the children got to cuddle and stroke various animals. The day was also linked to a forest school day with the children spending lots of the day outside in our forest with Mrs. Richardson. See the photographs below.

On Wednesday and Thursday evening lots of parents from year 2 and year 6 came to school for our SAT evenings. Children in these year groups will be taking stator government tests at the end of the school year and working together as school and family will help ensure that these are successful. Many thanks to the parents that were able to come.

Finally on Wednesday DCFC coaches were in school working with our year 5 pupils, this is taking place for the next few weeks and is an excellent opportunity for our year 5 children.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 4^th March

On Monday morning we had a police visit to help us with an incident that had happened over the holiday. Our year one children discovered what looked like a crash site on the playground. The police had taped off the area and the children had to use their detective skills to try to piece together what had happened. Even though the crash isn’t good news the children have been able to use the event to produce some great writing and work throughout the week.

Many thanks to all the parents who supported us yesterday in helping dress children for world book day. It was a great success. We have also run our first book swap and thanks to the PTFA are giving out £150 worth of book vouchers to competition winners. These children were told they won today and will be able to collect their prizes next week. The book swap shop appears to have been a success, I hope that your children enjoy their ‘new’ books this evening and over the weekend.  In another first we had a book day tea party at the end of the day. Many thanks to the PTFA for organising this event for the children. Many thanks to Miss Proud, our reading lead, for organising these new events for our children.

On Wednesday evening our football team played three football matches against Duffield Meadows. The games were played on the 3G pitch at Belper Secondary school. We won both of the league games and the cup game. Well done to the team for getting 2022 off to a wining start.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th February 2022

Thank you for your support in today’s windy and wet weather. Your children have spent all the day safe indoors and have not had any outdoor playtimes or PE lessons. Unfortunately we couldn’t have our celebration worship this afternoon as we didn’t want classes of children walking across the playground to get to the hall. This means that we haven’t been able to give out our normal weekly celebration certificates. We’ll have a very busy Friday 4^th March as we catch up with this week’s missed celebrations.

Our reception children have had a warm snuggly day in their classrooms today with their pyjama day. The children have all worn pyjamas and enjoyed hot chocolate before scrubbing their teeth. This has been a lovely finish to their Starry Night project that they have enjoyed this term.

Yesterday our year 5 children led our first service at St. Peter’s church with children watching for two years. We are continuously reminded about how much we have had to miss in the last two years. It’s good to be able to give children the opportunities to lead such events again.

Last night we also enjoyed our PTFA disco. Many thanks to the parents for organising this event and ensuring that the children could enjoy themselves whilst raising money for school.

Our year 4 parents were also invited into classrooms yesterday to see work done by children this half term. Once again it was good to see families together again in St. John’s celebrating their children’s achievements. The picture below shows children and parents looking at their work.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 11^th February

We had some heart-warming news from our friends in Kolkata this week. It is hoped that children will be able to return to school soon after a significant period of having to stay away. We were sent a picture of the teachers of Scott Lane school meeting together to begin to get ready to welcome the children back. The teacher in the centre is the headteacher of the fee paying school that give a room to the Cathedral Relief Service. The Cathedral Relief Service then run schools for the ‘pavement’ children of Kolkata. These schools are free for children. Scott Lane school that we have links with is one of these schools and uses the room of the fee paying school. The three teachers either side of the headteacher are the teachers that work at Scott Lane School. I am sure you join me in wishing our friends at Scott Lane a safe and happy return to school. The picture below appears to be taken on the playground of the fee paying school.

On Monday night our lower junior children took place in a dodgeball competition at Belper Leisure centre. We took two teams to represent the school. There were 18 teams there in total and our two teams finished fourth and fifth.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 4^th February

Our year 5 children have started rehearsing for their Lent service at St. Peter’s church. This will take place on Thursday 17^th February at 10am. All parents and friends are welcome to come and watch the service, no tickets are needed. Our year 1 children enjoyed a ‘Fire of London’ drama workshop on Tuesday morning in the hall. Judging by the noise they made they enjoyed it.

Many thanks to all the parents that have returned a parent survey this week. We have begun to look at some of the forms and the answers that you have given us. It is very nice to read the hundreds of positive comments written and see the overwhelming appreciation and recognition of the work of the children and staff in our school. A special thanks to the parents that put their names on forms where concerns were identified. We have already begun to contact families with regards to some of these and are very pleased to be able to speak to families who have identified issues and want us to improve with their help. We look forward to sharing full details of all the survey results next month once we have been able to analyse the information and share it with governors in March.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 28^th January

It was very exciting on Thursday to have children going on a school trip again. All of our year 4 children went to the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham to help them with their project work this half term. I’m so glad that we are beginning to be able to organise such events again to help bring our learning alive. Speaking to the year 4 children today was lovely as they shared what they saw yesterday. The visit also helped inspire some great writing today about the fish, turtles and penguins that were spotted. 

We also had visitors in school on Thursday leading an Egyptian day for our year 5’s and a pirate drama class for our year 2’s. Exciting opportunities such as these have been missed for a long time and bringing them back is really helping us bring school life alive again. 

A busy Thursday also saw us compete with two teams and a local Futsall competition and a PTFA meeting at 8pm at the Greyhound pub. 

Today we have sent home a parent survey for families to complete and share views about life at St. John’s. Such surveys are helpful to us and give us time to consider where to focus our time effort and money. Information about all our previous recent surveys can be found on our website www.stjohnsbelper.co.uk/parent-views/. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 21^st January 2022

Congratulations to our futsal team who won the Amber Valley competition at Belper Leisure Centre on Wednesday evening. We had a second team at the same competition who finished third. Well done to the boys for doing so well. Next week it’s the turn of the girls.

We had one of our regular visitors in school on Monday and Tuesday when Sue from Valley Cids came and took our infant and junior assemblies. Our theme for assemblies this half term is ‘Respect and Reverence’ and  Sue helped us all think about how lucky we all are to live on such a lovely world and what we need to do to show our planet respect.

Finally please could you spend a couple of minutes helping Mrs. Girling our PSHE lead? She has published an online parental survey asking for opinions and views about our PSHE work. Your responses will help her and us understand what is going well in PSHE and where we can put any time or effort to help make it better. Thank you. CLICK HERE to go to the survey.

Headteacher weekly blog - Friday 14th January 2022

All of the staff are very pleased that we have been able to welcome children back this term to a ‘normal’ school with no significant COVID differences. As always throughout 2022 we will continue to ensure that we keep children as safe and happy as possible by keeping up to date with and following government and local authority advice at all times.

Many of our children have enjoyed exciting events at school this week as children begin work on new projects.

On Monday our year 1 children hosted a tea party for the Queen. The morning was spent making sandwiches and preparing for the royal visit in the afternoon. On Tuesday our year 3 pupils had a drama work shop to help them with their Ancient Greek project this half term. On Thursday our reception children all came back to school at 5pm with their torches to enjoy and pitch black treasure hunt around the field and playground to help them with their Star Gazers project. Many other exciting events took place or will be taking place soon in other year groups.

On Wednesday we took two football teams to the Soccer Dome at Pride Park to take part in a football competition with fourteen other teams. Our teams finished sixth and third. Thank you to Mr. Hallam and Miss Whiteman for organising and taking the children.

Today we had our first celebration assembly with reception children in the hall. It was a real pleasure to welcome the youngest members of our school to our weekly celebration of wonderful work and brilliant behaviour. I imagine that parents at the school gates and on the playground could hear how much we all enjoyed singing our end of week song at 3.20pm just before we left school.

Finally we welcomed Mr. Silk to St. John’s this week. He joins us as a year 4 teacher. Unfortunately we will say goodbye to Mrs. Simpson in the school office in February. I am sure many parents will have been helped by Mrs. Simpson as she is often the person who answers the phone or welcomes visitors. We wish her all the best in her new job. We will be advertising for a replacement in the coming days and will share information on our website about the application process as soon as we can.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th December 2021

It was lovely last night to have our children enjoy their Christmas disco. During the week we have all kept lots of fingers crossed that government guidelines didn’t change and that we were still able to give the children an hour of fun with their friends. Many thanks to the PTFA who put extra time into ensuring that the event ran smoothly and thank you to the volunteers on the night for taking LFD tests and helping us keep the children safe and happy.

Money raised by the PTFA at the disco will part fund the trips to the cinema that began this week with year 4 and year 1 enjoying their trips to watch The Grinch and Arthur Christmas. Next week years 2, 3 5 and 6 walk to the cinema to enjoy their films. The dates that they go are on our school calendar.

We have also enjoyed another Christmas tradition that was missed last year with our children performing their nativity productions to parents in the hall. Once again thank you to parents that are taking LFD tests before coming into school. Support such as this means that we are able to continue to offer these Christmas traditions to our community.

On Wednesday, when the fire alarm accidently went off at 3.20 all of our children evacuated the building brilliantly. We have an evacuation practice at least every term, and having two this autumn term, only helps keep us safer. Having an evacuation practice at this time when many parents were already on the playground was a first, and has given us this opportunity of sharing what to do in this position.

• Many thanks to all the parents who recognised that the teachers still had responsibility for the children and allowed their children to line up with their teacher for them to do a register check.
• Please always support the teacher and make sure that the teacher has dismissed the child before taking them home. This is really important in ensuring that we know who is safe and who may be in the building. The teacher will be told what to do by a member of the senior leadership team and will then be able to let parents know what to do. This is what happened on Wednesday once Mr. Averis and Mrs. Carvell had found the problem and were able to share this with teachers.
• Thank you to the parents who moved away from the lines of children and allowed the teachers to make register checks. Should we have all needed to move further away from the building we would have moved onto the field or car park, depending on where any problems or and where the safe spaces were.

Finally we’ve welcomed our new teacher, Mr. Silk to school this week. He joins us in January, teaching in year four, replacing Mrs. Robertson and has been able to spend a couple of days in school this week getting to know the children in his class. He looks forward to meeting parents of children in Norbury in January and getting to know the rest of our community during the spring term.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th December 2021

On Wednesday this week our year three children enjoyed their ‘Owl’ day to help them with their predator project. The children observed, drew and held the owls and all got to see them fly around the hall. We also enjoyed more sporting success on Wednesday when our Basket Ball team won the Area Final Competition after winning the Amber Valley competition a few weeks ago. Well done to all the children who took part in this competition.

Wednesday was a particularly busy day as the volunteers of our PTFA organised our first event in school for many months. Many thanks to all the parents who helped our children enjoy the online pantomime after school. It was fantastic to hear children enjoying themselves, singing and dancing with the actors. Next week we have our discos to look forward to on Thursday evening. Once again, many thanks to our parents and staff who will give the children another well-deserved Christmas treat.

On Monday lots of our children were given their flu vaccination by the school health team. Many thanks to all the parents who supported the school health team in having their children vaccinated against flu this winter.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd December 2021

It was lovely in assembly today to give certificates to our year 3 and 4 handball competition winners who won at Belper Leisure centre on Monday evening. We finished joint first in the competition and our boys gave the trophy to the other school as there was only one available. I’m pleased to share that Amber Valley sports have contacted the trophy makers and have ordered another trophy for us that should arrive in school soon. We’re looking forward to adding it to the trophy cabinet.

All of us are aware of the updated COVID advice from the government, and we have shared updates about how this affects us at St. John’s. As we continue to work together to keep us all safe I again take this opportunity to thank you all for working with our community to keep us all safe.

On Tuesday we held interviews for the new teacher that will start teaching in year 4 in January 2022. I’m pleased to share that we were able to offer a job to an excellent candidate and look forward to sharing information once we have carried out pre-employment checks. We’re very hopeful that we will be able to introduce Norbury class to their new teacher in December. Once again this is a good opportunity to thank Miss McConnachie who has made many personal arrangements to ensure that these children have enjoyed stability in what could have been a very different period of time for them.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 25^th November 2021

One month to go, hopefully we’ll all be full of Christmas dinner and pudding in a month’s time. Our infant children are in full nativity swing getting ready to perform our three nativity plays this year. Hopefully our plans to invite parents and carers into watch them will be able to go ahead, we’ll share ticket details closer to the dates.

Our PTFA have also been busy organising their Christmas events and letters have come home this week with information for these.

On Monday evening our basketball players won the Amber Valley competition at Belper Leisure centre. Many thanks to Mr. Hallam for giving his evening up and taking the children to the event.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is an INSET day – I hope that you all enjoy your three day weekends.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th November 2021

In total we must have run a few thousand kilometres today with our children all running 2km for the Pudsey Children in Need Run. We can see that we have already raised over a £1000 for this online – thank you for all your donations.

We can also see that we have raised over £500 on our just giving page with donations for children who have helped with jobs at home to raise money for children in need. In Celebration Worship this afternoon we asked the children to continue to do jobs over the weekend for any small donations to further help our fundraising. It has been lovely to read about all of the jobs that children are doing.

All of our Children in Need links can be found on our website CLICK HERE. The photograph below is of the playtime disco we had this afternoon after the 2km runs had finished.  

On Monday our infants took part and won all 5 of their handball games at a local Amber Valley competition, well done to them all.

Last night our PTFA had their Annual General Meeting. It was fantastic to welcome over 25 parents and friends who attended to come and help run events and raise money for our children and community. The PTFA’s first planned event of the year for children is on December 8^th when we are hoping to have a digital pantomime in the school hall, starting at 3.30pm. More details will be shared by the PTFA soon.

Finally, the collecting and swapping craze of Pokémon cards is being enjoyed by many children at school.  All of us adults probably remember playground crazes from when we were at school. Unfortunately the hours of fun had by most children looking at, swapping and comparing cards is getting spoilt by some swapping and taking of cards that is causing upset to a few. We strongly recommend that children only bring cards to school that they want to swap. This would help ensure that any accidental or deliberate taking or swapping of cards can be sorted much more quickly by teacher who would far rather be spending our time helping children in lessons, than playing police officer, detective and judge in solving the cases of any missing Pokémon cards.

Headteacher Weekly blog – Friday 12th November 2021

The picture below shows children collecting our Silver Modeshift award today outside our scooter park. The award was given to us as we continue to work towards reducing the number of journeys made by car. We have free scooter and bike lessons for pupils, we have lesson plans showing how we teach about sustainable travel and we take part and encourage children to take part in walk to school week and other such initiatives. Many thanks to Mrs. Newton who organises our travel plan as we continue to work towards going for our gold award.

Yesterday we marked the 11^th November with two minutes silence on the playground. All of the children stood in perfect silence. As parents you can be very proud of how your children showed their respect for fallen soldiers and brave service personal who keep us safe today.

Our year one children had a teddy bear picnic in school this afternoon. All of them made sandwiches for their teddy bears. It was fantastic fun for them all and I think that lots of teddy bears enjoyed their afternoon tea.

On Thursday our reception teachers led two workshops for parents to introduce and share how we use phonics to help teach children to read and how we can work together and school and families to help children develop their reading skills. The children all know that I say that ‘Book Build Brains’ and reading is great exercise for the brain. Helping your children read and build this key life skill is one of the most important thing we can do together. Children need to read regularly at home and encouraging them to read at least 5 times a week is very important. If you missed the information, or have children in another year but would like to find out about phonics the information that we shared is on our website, CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th November 

Welcome back to school after the half term break. I am pleased to share that this week we have made the choice to continue with our Christmas plans to have nativities, carol services and trips to the cinema. We will, as always, be following any government advice at the time, but with last Christmas getting ‘cancelled’ we want to ensure that this year we give the children the memories they deserve. Check our online school calendar for details about nativities and cinema trips. Many thanks to the PTFA for funding the trips to Belper Ritz cinema for this annual treat.

We said good bye today to Mrs. Howis in our office who begins her maternity leave. We wish her and her family all the best in the coming weeks and are looking forward to sharing news with you when we can. With this in mind we said hello this week to Mrs. Allwood who is now going to be working as Jill’s replacement whilst she is on maternity leave. I’m sure that Mrs. Allwood looks forward to meeting our families and getting to know you all.

Enjoy your firework and bonfire celebrations this weekend. In assembly today we asked the children to make sure that they listen carefully to the adults and parents looking after them to stay safe.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 21^st October 2021

Tomorrow is an INSET day so I hope that many families are taking advantage of it and are starting their holiday a day early. Staff will be in school on an INSET day tomorrow. We are going to be spending the day considering our curriculum and adapting it to ensure that it stays fresh and exciting for the children.

Last week’s short blog was written at 4.30pm in between the two iSingPOP concerts that we enjoyed at St. Peter’s church. I can now share that the evening concert was brilliant and enjoyed by all. Chris from iSingPOP was still full of energy and sent us all on our weekends with a spring in our step. Many thanks to Rev. Anne and the congregation at St. Peter’s for helping us to ensure that the day was a success and celebrate our Church of England status and our special friendship with St. Peter’s.

This week I am unfortunately sharing that two staff are leaving St. John’s.

Mrs. Robinson shared with staff last week that she will be spending more time focusing on returning to full health and won’t be returning to St. John’s as she had hoped to do. I am sure you join me in wishing her well in her recovery. Miss Robinson has worked at St. John’s for over twenty years and we hope that we do get to see her before Christmas to say goodbye to her and wish her well as she begins a new chapter in her life. I am very pleased that Miss McConnachie has agreed to continue teaching her year 4 class next half term to ensure stability for the children. We will be able to share information about the teacher for the class from January in December.

We also say goodbye today to Mrs. Holgate in the school kitchen. Mrs. Holgate has been our ‘number two’ cook for several years and I am pleased to share that she will now be her own ‘boss’ and lead cook at Heage Primary School in their kitchen. Well done to Mrs. Holgate on getting this well-deserved promotion.

Thank you for your generous harvest donation today. Staff from the Padley Centre were overwhelmed with your generosity and shared that they are in desperate need of today's donations to help members of our community that don't have as much as we do. 

Finally many thanks to everyone for their support and help this half term. We were all excited to have school return to a period of normality in September with children not having to stay in bubbles all day and work with many other COVID secure procedures that we had to put in place last year. We have all worked together as our school community to ensure that our children enjoy their school days in the way that we all want them to remember. Let’s hope that this continues safely into the rest of the autumn term.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th October.

A very short blog as it’s a very busy Friday. We have had one fantastic iSingPOP concert and we have one more to go. Many thanks to all the people who have helped today, form the kitchen staff who have served meals for an extended lunchbreak to the volunteers who have helped at church and with the walking and everyone in between. Special thanks to Rev. Anne who has looked after the iSingPOP team for the week and spent time getting the church ready for us to all enjoy our concerts.

Well done to our lower junior athletes who won the athletics competition yesterday. That’s two trophies in two weeks for our athletes, a great start to the sporting season.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th October 2021

We’ve won our first sporting trophy of the year! Well done to our upper junior athletes who won the Amber Valley competition on Thursday evening. It was great to present this in assembly today. Next week the lower juniors have their competition, can we make it another trophy?

Thank you to all the parents who have booked parent evening appointments. Teachers will be allocating appointment times early next week and will either be sending a message home with the time of the telephone appointment or will be adding a meeting time to your child’s google classroom page for the google meet.

Yesterday our year 3’s had great fun making bike powered smoothies to help with their science work. The picture below shows how it worked with the children taking it in turns to peddle and add ingredients before enjoying their delicious healthy fruit smoothie. Thanks to Rob Bounds from the Derbyshire sustainable travel team for helping us run this event for free.

Next week is iSingPOP week. We’re all excited about our two concerts on Friday and look forward to seeing you at the church for the afternoon or evening performance.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 1^st October 2021

Our reception children are learning about people in our community and on Tuesday Rev. Anne and I both spent some time in each class speaking to the children and answering questions they had thought of.

I wish I’d asked Rev. Anne what questions she was asked, however I can assure you that my questions kept me on my toes. Questions from the different classes included,

• Do you like helping everyone?
• Did you want to be a policeman when you were little?
• Did you want to be a palaeontologist when you were little?
• Do you work hard?

And the one that made me smile the most

• How many keys do you have for the school?

During the chats the children found out how many keys I have, and that I did want to be a policeman when I was little. It was a pleasure to spend time with our reception children. They all deserve pats on the back as to how well they have settled at school, how hard they are working and how nicely they are playing. Well done to them.

Our sport teams have been busy this week. On Monday our infant athletes were are Belper Leisure Centre and finished 2^nd out of the school taking part from Amber Valley. Our football team beat St. Werburgh’s on Thursday evening.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th September 2021

Our football team have finally enjoyed some games with other local schools. On Tuesday we beat St. John’s Fisher school 5-1 and on Thursday both our teams did well in the AVSSP tournament in Duffield, reaching the final, before getting beaten by Pottery Primary School. On Monday next week our infant sport stars get their first opportunity of the year with an athletics tournament at Belper Leisure centre.

Unfortunately I also need to share with families that a much loved and respected member of staff passed away last week after her long and brave battle with cancer. Mrs. Gemma Smith taught in reception and led our Early Years Team in reception and nursery as a member of the leadership team. Many families will know her as their child’s first teacher. Many children at St. John’s knew her as Mrs. Smith. Many parents knew her as their friend Gemma. Many staff were lucky enough to know her as both Gemma their friend and Mrs. Smith their respected colleague.

Gemma’s star shone very brightly whilst she worked at St. John’s and her impact will be felt by the hundreds of children who will continue to join us in future years as it was Gemma who worked with the architects in designing aspects of our three new reception classes. The picture below shows her in them, whilst they were being built, with Paul the builder, no doubt making sure that the work was being carried out to her expectations. I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to Gemma than knowing that these classrooms will be part of the education for every child that joins us in future years and spends their reception year in them. It is exactly the start to school that she would want for every child in our community.  

Most importantly Gemma is remembered as a loving, fun and friendly mum, wife and daughter. I am sure that you join me in putting Gemma and her family in our thoughts and sending our prayers, love and support to them all.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th September 2021

For lots of children the highlight of the week was our junior tough runner day on Thursday. All juniors enjoyed an hour of ‘tough running’ around a wet, muddy and challenging assault course. As the day went on the grass got muddier and the children had more fun. Thank you for your support in washing the clothes and children that came home at 3.30pm, I can assure you that we all had a lot of fun.

We were asked how we funded this event and why it was free to children. We paid for it with our sport premium money. Our school gets some money every year from the government that we have to spend on developing and resourcing our sport provision and giving children opportunities to take part in sporting events. We also use our sport premium money to pay for all of the after school competitions that we partake in, including the boys sport competition at Eyes Meadow in Duffield next Thursday. During the year we normally take part in up to 20 similar after school competitions.

We're also using this money to pay for the infant tough runner on 5th October and then our y6 bikeability lessons in November. See our online calendar for dates. CLICK HERE. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th September

We had our first fire drill of the year on Thursday. 440 children and staff all vacated the building safely and quietly in less than two minutes. We practise evacuating the building at least three times a year and the children all know what to do and how to stay safe. As we have done this at school this week it may be a good idea to help your children to understand what to do at your house if there is a fire. This information from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue service will help you plan how to evacuate your house safely and quickly in an emergency. CLICK HERE.

We also test all of our fire safety features such as our alarm panel and sirens regularly. Please take this as a gently reminder to test your alarms at home this weekend, it could be the most important thing you do.

Finally this week it was lovely to recognise the work of Mrs. Capewell who is the head cook in our school kitchen. She has been working in Derbyshire school kitchens for 25 years and was presented with her award this week by some children who enjoyed their tour of the kitchen, and their school dinner that day. Well done Mrs. Capewell and thank you for all your hard work.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd September 2021

It has been lovely to welcome the children back to a ‘normal’ school this week. The government guidelines have told school to no longer use pupil bubbles, which has meant that your children have enjoyed a couple of days of ‘normal’ schooling.

The differences are sometimes subtle, but all have an impact on helping us enjoy working and playing at school.

Our excellent year 6 and year 5 children have been able to play with and help our younger children at lunchtimes.

We have had our first assembly in the hall and Mrs. Carvell and I were able to talk to and bring our school together for the first time since March 2020.

Our before school Wake up Club has started for children who have parents that want to drop children off from 7.30am.

I haven’t had a single online teams meeting and have been able to have face to face conversations with more than one or two people in the same room at the same time.

The highlight of the week has been seeing and getting to know our new reception and nursery children who have started their journeys at St. John’s that may not finish until 2029 when they leave year 6. As these new families and children join St. John’s for the first time it has been a pleasure to meet many of you. On Wednesday we had many of these new families come to our open afternoon for new reception parents, it was lovely to welcome back some ex-pupils who are now returning as parents. It is very special for the staff at St. John’s to see this and recognise the place that our school holds in the hearts of our community.

Headteacher weekly blog – Tuesday 20^th July 2021

The highlight of the last 7 days at school was today when we were able to have our first service at St. Peter’s since early 2020. Our year 6 children led a fantastic leavers’ service in front of over 150 parents and carers. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity of taking part in something real and not online for the first time in 16 months. Our year 6 children have had an exciting last few days at school with their ‘Bestival’ prom on Friday afternoon and their leavers’ service today. Most of the last few days have also been relatively normal.

It is always emotional when we say goodbye to a wonderful group of children who have spent 7 years at St. John’s. These children started with us in September 2014 and have spent two thirds of their life coming to our school. I know that they all take a piece of St. John’s away in their hearts and am sure that they will have happy memories of friends and teachers.

We also said goodbye to several staff today with Mrs. Winson-Bushby, Mrs. Gartside, Mrs. Smith, Miss Lemon, Mrs. Badhan and Mrs. McConnachie leaving us. These teachers have helped hundreds of children at St. John’s and I am sure that you join me in wishing them all well as they move onto new challenges and opportunities. I am also sure that you all join me in sending special wishes to Mrs. Smith as she continues to focus on her health and getting better.

In September you will be able to meet all of the new staff that are joining our St. John’s family. Some of your children will have already met our new teachers and support staff.

I hope that you all get to enjoy and safe and happy summer holiday with your family and look forward to seeing you again when we return to school at 9am on Thursday 2^nd September 2021.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th July        

The weekly email this week has lots of information on it, so the blog is very short.

Lots of children and staff enjoyed their ‘Sport dress up day’ at school today. Thank you for your support in helping the children enjoy this.

We’ve also had another year 6 class successfully earn their bikeability awards this week. Well done to all of them.

Finally our infant children enjoyed their sport morning today. Fingers crossed that next year we can enjoy this event with parents.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 25^th June 2021

The best thing about this week is that some children have been out on a school trip. This is the first trip we have been able to have for over 15 months. Our year 5 and year 6 children have all been to Lea Green activity centre for the day. Year 6’s went on Monday and Y5’s went on Tuesday.

The day was successful and all of the children enjoyed spending the day taking part in adventurous activities such as carting. We would have liked it if the children could have enjoyed the residentials that we had planned, however, this one day was a compromise that made everyone as happy as possible. As well as all the staff who travelled, I am sure you join me in giving particular thanks to Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Astell who were responsible for risk assessments and making sure that the children were COVID safe and Mrs. Millington who has spent many hours on phones to residential centres, insurance companies and bus companies as our plans had to change on numerous occasions. Some pictures of the day are below.

Some of our year 6 children had a particularly busy week as Rowsley class have also done their bikeability this week. Many thanks to Big on Bikes in Little Eaton for ensuring that this could take place safely, following COVID guidelines.

We've also had an exciting house matches day at school today. All of our junior children have taken part in competitive sports, whilst remaining in their year group COVID bubbles. We look forward to sharing the scores with the children next week and finding out which house has won. The picture below is of the year 6 children enjoying the tug of war.

It's good to see that even with COVID restrictions in place we are continuing to see children get to take part in more and more activities at school. Fingers crossed that the route to normality continues. 

Friday 18^th June 2021

No one likes it when all of our children can’t come to school and this week has not been what any one wants as our year 6 children have had to spend the week at home. Many thanks to all the families that have supported the school and our community in keeping us all safe by supporting us in this and isolating their children. I am also sure you join me in wishing the family that have had the positive cases well and successful recoveries. I have spoken to them today and am pleased to share that the children are all getting better and they have asked me to pass on their thanks for the support that they have had whilst isolating.

The COVID cases we have had this week need to remind everyone of the importance of remaining careful and that we all follow the government guidelines of isolating and getting tested if we display symptoms.

Well done to all the children at school who have done their end of year tests this week. The teachers are busy marking them all and look forward to sharing how well everyone has done this year in the end of year reports that will be sent home in July.

Headteacher blog – Friday 11^th June 2021

After a lovely half term holiday it’s great that we are still enjoying lovely sunny weather. With this sunny weather in mind can we remind parents that -

• We are not distributing sun-cream this year and that therefore you are encouraged to apply sun-cream to children before they come to school in the morning.
• Children are strongly encouraged to bring a named hat to school to wear at break and play times.
• Children are encouraged to bring a full water bottle to school every day as our water fountains are closed. Bottles from home can be refilled from taps in classrooms during the day. These bottles need to have a sport cap so children can drink from them without taking the lid off to help prevent spillages during the day.

Next week children will be taking their end of year tests in their classrooms. These tests are then marked and used by teachers to help assess how well the children are working against age related expectations and will be shared with parents in the end of year reports. As well as using the test results teachers will also be looking at the work completed by the children all year to help with this judgment.

We hope to be able to share with parents which events we are able to run this summer by the end of next week. We all hope that we are able to enjoy annual events such as sport afternoon, year 6 prom and transition mornings. As always we will follow government guidelines to ensure that we keep everyone as safe as possible. With this in mind we expect to be able to share more information next week as the government clarify what will and won’t be able to happen from June 21^st.

Finally thank you for the support from families and year 6 children as we had to share that we had a positive case in year 6 this week.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 27^th May 2021

Our year two children have all had an exciting week with their bikeability lesson this week. All children have had a few hours a safe cycling instruction with trained staff from Big on Bikes and once again the smiles on children’s faces as they achieve something new for the first time as they cycle without stabilisers or safely turn corners on a balance bike were lovely to see. Well done to the staff from Big on Bikes for their support this week.

In July we say good bye to two familiar faces at St. John’s. Mrs. Winson-Bushby and Mrs. Gartside are both leaving us for new opportunities.

Many children have enjoyed their weekly French lesson with Mrs. Winson-Bushby over the 10 years that she has worked here. Mrs. Winson-Bushby’s love of French and her passion for teaching foreign languages have inspired many children to study the language to GCSE and A level at secondary school and may have helped many families on holiday in the continent with the ordering of provisions from local shops.

Mrs. Gartside has worked as a class teacher in reception, infants and juniors in the 15 years that she has worked at St. John’s and many children will have been in her class. As a qualified swimming instructor she has also helped us with whole school beach safety workshops in July as lucky children look forward to their summer holidays.

Both staff will be missed in September and I’m sure that as they spend their final few weeks with us in June and July we will make sure that they leave with lots of happy memories.

Finally I hope that you have a lovely extended holiday and get to enjoy some safe family time with loved ones.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 21^st May 2021

Unfortunately our y5 and y6 children have learned today that despite lots of work done to try and ensure the residential trips can take place we have had to cancel our visits for the summer. All of us are very upset that this is the case. We are pleased that we have been able to offer a small compensation in a day trip to Lea Green outdoor centre, where the children will be able spend 9 and half hours enjoying lots of activities and have an evening meal with their friends. Children have brought home a letter today with information about this.

We hadn’t shared with parents that once our y6 trip to Whitehall was cancelled a few months ago we had been able to secure a residential at Lea Green for our Y6 children. Another school had chosen not to travel this summer regardless of government advice and therefore we gladly took their dates. Last week the government guidelines were published for outdoor residential centres and Lea Green informed us that they wouldn’t be able to cater for our children at all and could only offer day trips. With Mrs. Millington working hard in our office we were able to secure transport for the day trips and our thanks go to Linburg coaches for allowing us to make countless changes to our original bookings and not passing on any costs to us.

Next week we will be sharing information with our new reception starters about September 2021 and how we hope to help with a successful transition from nursery to reception. If you know of any families starting at St. John’s this autumn please tell them that information is on the way in the post.

Finally don’t forget that next week is a four day week with children breaking up for half term at 3.30pm on Thursday 27^th May.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 14^th May.

We have shared 4 of our INSET days for next year this week. Parents with children at Belper School need to note that we both have an INSET day on Friday 26^th November 2021. Hopefully this will help families potentially plan a long weekend away.

Families that also have looked at our term dates for next year will note that we don’t return to school after the Christmas break until 9am on Monday 10^th January 2022. CLICK HERE. At time of writing Derbyshire’s late return to school has not been noticed by all of the holiday companies and parents may find that there are some cheaper holidays during the first week in January than are normally available when schools are closed.

Parents may also want to note, however, that we aren’t due to break up until 3.30pm on Wednesday 22^nd December 2021.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 7^th May 2021

I hope that you all enjoyed your three day weekend last week, even though the weather wasn’t what we wanted on Monday, at least Saturday and Sunday were nice enough to enjoy the outdoors.  

We had a busy day on Wednesday at school as we interviewed teachers to start working with us in September. I am pleased to share that we have been able to appoint and look forward to sharing the names of the new teachers that will be joining us in September as soon as possible.

Thank you for the positive comments about the new signs outside the front of the school. We like them as well. We always try to use local companies if possible and I am pleased to share that these signs were designed, supplied and fitted by a local Derby firm MX display.

We’ve also enjoyed replacing all the corridor displays in school recently. As parents aren’t able to come into school at the moment you can see pictures of a couple of the new displays below.

Headteacher blog – Friday 30^th April 2021

Our year two children have had another exciting Thursday. Last week they had a Judaism workshop with staff from Derby Open Centre and this Thursday they had a medieval day to help them with their Towers, Tunnels and Turrets project. Lots of children were dressed up in costume for the day and all enjoyed the medieval banquet at lunchtime. Thank you to our brilliant kitchen staff for preparing this food for the day.

We have had some lovely new school signs put up outside of the front of the school today. They all look fantastic with the new sign above the scooter park being my favourite. The signs are the final touches to our new entrance area at the front of school.  

Finally please be aware that we will not be using the school sun cream dispensers again this summer due to COVID safety. A letter went home this week with information about children applying cream in the mornings before coming to school and then bringing their own cream with them. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher blog – Friday 23^rd April 2021

The picture at the bottom of this blog was sent to us by Ada Belfield and shows residents opening the Easter cards that were sent by children at St. John’s. Every class at school sent an Easter card in March and all 17 cards were displayed around the home at Easter.

We welcomed Rob Bounds back to school this week as he delivered another safe scootering session to our year 1 pupils. All of our year 1 and year 2 pupils have now enjoyed a safe scootering sessions with him this summer.

Unfortunately this week I have had to share some upsetting news about one of our teachers today. Despite us all looking forward to welcoming Mrs. Smith back to school when she was well enough to do so, we have published a letter today to explain to parents that Mrs. Smith will unfortunately, not be returning to work at St. John’s as she continues on her road to good health. I am sure that you all join me in putting her and her family in our thoughts and prayers. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th April 2021

We’ve had a lovely sunny first week back for the start of the summer term, which means that after the dry Easter holiday we’ve also been able to begin to use the field at lunchtimes. Like our playground the field will be zoned so that year groups are separated. Each day a couple of year groups will be able to play on the field.

We also welcomed Rob Bounds into school this week who gave our year two pupils a safe scootering lesson on Tuesday. Our year 1 pupils have a safe scootering lesson with Rob next week. The good weather has meant that our scooter park has been almost full every day this week showing that lots of children are scootering to school instead of driving or walking. We expect that our local Civil Enforcement Officers (AKA traffic wardens) will be supporting us again during the summer term by coming to patrol at 9am and 3.30pm. Please ensure that parents that drive to school, continue to do so safely and with consideration to others.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th March 2021

Several members of our community have noticed that we are recruiting at present. We are looking for a midday supervisor to join our team as soon as possible and a class teacher to come and join the team in September. Information about our vacancies are on our website. CLICK HERE.

Today we said good bye to Mrs. Wright, who has worked as a midday supervisor at St. John’s for just under twenty years. I am sure that you join me in thanking her for all of her work and wishing her well as she begins this new chapter in her life.

I hope that you all get to enjoy a safe and happy Easter break as some restrictions are removed and we get to slowly return to normal. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 12^th April.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th March 2021

Many thanks to all the parents who ‘attended’ our virtual parent evenings this week. From speaking to staff we had very few technical gremlins and it appears that nearly all phone calls or online meetings were held successfully. Hopefully in October 2021 we will be able to welcome parents and carers back into school to look at children’s work and enjoy a face to face meeting.

It was great to see all the children in their super hero and red nose costumes in school today. Lots of children shared what pocket money jobs they had done at home to help raise some money as well. I hope that parents have enjoyed some home help for the last few days and potentially over the weekend. Our just giving page is still open and parents are invited to make small pocket money contributions for any jobs that their children do around the home to help this worthwhile cause. CLICK HERE.

Finally it was good to see the support of our local Civil Parking Enforcement Officer (AKA traffic warden) outside school a couple of times this week. All of us are rightfully angry when some families believe that legal, polite and considerate parking rules don’t apply to them. These rules are there to keep all our children safe and the support of all in abiding by them is appreciated. We look forward to the continued support of the team of Parking Enforcement Officers in the coming weeks in the roads around school.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th March 2021

We have just had our first live whole school ‘online’ collective worship for 2021. It was lovely to see all the children on my computer screen again as Mrs. Carvell and I led our end of week celebration worship. It is a year since all of our children were in the school hall together, let’s hope that we are able to enjoy whole school assemblies in the hall again this year at some point.

We’ve also returned to some music lessons in school this week with our specialist music teachers. This means that as well as the sound of children filling school, as it should do, we have also enjoyed listening to the sound of guitar, flute and trumpet lessons again.

It was great to see all the children’s faces on Monday morning as they saw the balloons and banners we had put up to welcome them back. They were all sorely missed. I’ve put pictures below for parents who weren’t on the school run on Monday morning.

I am pleased to share that we received one nomination for our parent governor vacancy and look forward to sharing the name of the parent as soon as I can. We still have one vacancy for a local authority governor. If parents are interested in joining the governing body in this capacity please either visit our website for more information or ring school to speak to me.

Finally many thanks to all the families who are arriving at the correct time in the morning to help us get our children into school safely. Please ensure that if you do accidently arrive early that you maintain social distances from friends and that you allow children arriving at the correct time to get into school safely by not blocking the entrance or gate.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th March 2021

It was great to see on today’s Google Meets how excited lots of children are about coming back to school on Monday. We are also aware that some children and families may be a little nervous and anxious. Since January we have continued to ensure that school remains a safe place by following government guidelines. One of the significant differences between December and now is that staff are testing themselves for COVID twice a week and from this week parents of children that attend school are also been given the opportunity to test themselves twice a week as well. CLICK HERE. We hope that parents and carers at home take this opportunity and join the staff in helping us keep everyone as safe as possible.

Finally, book day on Thursday was a great celebration of reading and a lovely way to unite learning at home and school. Lots of children sent us pictures of their costumes and joined in their google meet lessons wearing their costumes. Many thanks to all parents for helping children enjoy the day with the great costumes that everyone was wearing.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th February 2021

Hooray! It was the best possible news to come back to school after the half term holiday and find out that evening on the news that all children can return to school from March 8^th. I speak on behalf of all the staff that we are looking forward to welcoming every one back and making our St. John’s community complete again.

I trust that those of you that took the week off work last week enjoyed your week off at home and are now enjoying today’s spring weather and warm sunshine. It really does feel as if we have reasons to be hopeful and optimistic about the coming months and a return to normality. It’s great to be a part of this journey and helping your children as we all return to a more normal school on March 8th. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th February 2021

Another short blog as I have recorded a vlog again for all the children at home. Your children can watch this vlog by going to their google classroom.

Many thanks to all the parents at home who are continuing to support us and their children with their home learning. I know that we are frequently telling the children how good they are – but I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the adults.

Mums – dads – carers – adults -. The list below probably recognises some of what you have done

• Home taught for 6 weeks
• Learned how to use google classrooms
• Remembered maths and English lessons from when you were at school
• Laughed and cried
• Felt proud and felt frustrated
• Done your best

Thank you

I hope that you all get to enjoy some time off this half term, you’ve earned it.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th February 2021

I have recorded a vlog this week that all children are invited to watch. It is on google classrooms and can only be watched when your child is logged on with their school log on and password.

I won’t be uploading the vlogs onto the school website and youtube from now on. Using google classrooms means that watching the video is more secure than when it was on the public website.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 29^th January 2021

I am not recording a vlog for the school website this week. Instead, the children that are learning at home have a special ‘invitation’ waiting for then on Monday morning when they log onto Google Classrooms. All children are invited to join and take part. I’m looking forward to Monday morning and hopefully helping children with a new exciting ‘Google Class’ that is waiting for them.

This week we invited all children learning at home to complete a survey questionnaire on Google Classrooms. Well over a hundred children have already responded which is great, but a few children haven’t. If your child hasn’t responded, there was a video and a survey published for them on Thursday morning. They have until Monday morning (1st February) to complete it. Some of our younger children may need a bit of adult help to complete it.

The children in school had some fun in the snow on Monday morning when we were able to have playtimes and lunchtime outside. Many thanks to all of the parents who made special one off arrangements to keep children at home on Monday, this really helped as several staff were unable to get to school.

You will have seen in the press that across the UK all staff in primary schools have been invited to take part in a COVID testing program. This is now in place at St. John’s. We now have lots of staff taking two LFD COVID19 tests every week. This will help us to ensure that we all stay as safe as possible at St. John’s.

Finally I am sure that like me you heard the Prime Minister announce during the week that schools will not be asked to fully open until March at the earliest. I know how hard many parents are working at home as you juggle home learning with working from home and that this news about a March return date will be met with mixed emotions. The same emotions were felt by staff at school. We all look forward to when school is full with 460 pupils again instead of the 220 we have at present. To ensure that this happens as soon as possible I thank you all for staying at home, following COVID lockdown restrictions and staying safe.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th January 2001.

I trust that you all had a safe and happy Christmas holiday. Even though it was only for one day, it was lovely to see all the children back at school on Monday and find out about their holidays. Even though it was a very unique Christmas I am pleased to report that it appears our children all still had fantastic times, and all of them appeared to have been on the good list.

At the end of this week I need to say a huge thank you to our community of children, staff and parents. On Sunday evening we all went to bed thinking that schools would stay open as normal and on Monday morning we all came to St. John’s hoping for a better 2021. At 8pm on Monday evening, most of your children were probably asleep, we all had the rug pulled out from under our feet.

Your children are having to cope with another period of uncertainty. You are having to roll up the ‘home learning’ sleeves again, or/and you are working in a key industry helping us all. Our staff had 13 hours to completely change their plans for the week and alter hours of lessons plans and resources to begin to help children at home whilst still teaching and looking after their classes.

Given the number of messages of thanks we have received – this is a great opportunity for me to recognise the work that you are all doing as well – thank you.

However, I do know that we have some teething problems with google classrooms. We have also had many successes. It has been great to see children at home engaging in lessons with their teachers, whilst the lessons are taking place live in our classrooms.

We are using google classrooms to ensure that our home learning is able to offer what your children deserve and the government expects. We all want home learning to become a two way experience with children at home being able to communicate with their teacher regularly, during lessons. Our web site did not offer this and therefore we had to change. Many thanks to all of the parents that have understood these teething problems as we work through them, we have only been using it for 4 days.

I have recorded a message for the children below. I'm sure the children that get a birthday shout out will enjoy it - I hope that others do to. 

Have a lovely weekend, stay and be kind.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th December 2020

The final blog of 2020 naturally leads us to thinking about 2021 and a hope that we all able to return to some normality. It also prompts us to thinking about the year we have just had. All of us have been tested and challenged this year in ways we never imagined 12 months ago. I never imagined,

• leading a school where I was only allowed to let certain children attend every day and had to refuse admittance to others
• not being able to see parents faces fill with pride as children shine on the nativity stage
• a complete cancelling of our sports fixtures with no competitions for children to enjoy
• An October parents evening – with no parents on site – but with video conferencing ensuring that we were able to talk to each other about your children

The list could go on for a long time. However, there are also other aspects of 2020 that have had an opportunity to come to the front, most noticeably, the feel of community, gratitude and kindness as lots of our St. John’s family have supported and helped each other. This has certainly been prevalent this week with the many messages of thanks and cards we have received in school. They have all been appreciated. Thank you.

There have also been some levels of normality, especially since September.

• Our Christmas dinner day on Wednesday was its normal busy, excited self. Our 5 brilliant kitchen staff cooked and served 400 Christmas dinners to Christmas jumper wearing children.
• Our nursery children enjoyed a Christmas party this morning with Mrs. Gallen and Mrs. Grigoriu.
• Our year 4 children enjoy a weekly music lesson with the music partnership.
• And most importantly of all, our classrooms have been full of children and we haven’t had to turn some away.

None of us know what 2021 will bring, however as I said at the start we all hope it brings even more normality with school trips, parent evenings, sport fixtures and nativities back on the calendar, where they deserve to be.

Many thanks for all of your support and help this year, have a lovely and safe Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 11^th December 2020

Yesterday evening I was able to have an online meeting with teachers from around Derbyshire and staff from the Diocese. The meeting was about our friends in Kolkata, at Scott Lane School and all the other schools that are supported by the Cathedral Relief Service in Kolkata. I was excited to learn two things.

The first is that donations to the Cathedral Relief Service have meant that they have purchased some smart mobile phones for the schools. We hope that this this means that in 2021 we will be able to communicate with Scott Lane School more often and that the teachers and children will be able to use the phone to help access resources and information to help them. The second was that on Saturday 6^th February Derbyshire teachers hope to be able to link with all the schools in Kolkata online. There will not be a Derbyshire visit in 2021 so this online meeting will be a very exciting opportunity to meet some of the Indian teachers from Scott Lane that St. John’s have worked with over the last two years.

On Monday we welcomed some new children to St. John’s nursery for the first time. These children came for an introduction session with Mrs. Gallen and Mrs. Grigoriu before they start in January. It was lovely to welcome these new children to St. John’s as they begin their St. John’s journey that may last until 2029!

Finally Mrs. Heer has as me to pass on her thanks for the lovely messages she received following the birth of her son, Ruben. She has asked me to share this lovely picture of him taken on his '1 month' birthday. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 4^th December 2020

On Wednesday this week is was lovely to be able to welcome Rev. Anne to St. John’s. She was in school to work with year three children and ran a lesson on baptism to help them with their RE lessons for this half term. With our COVID secure measures in place we have not been able to have Rev. Anne come and take an assembly since March. She does send us a weekly ‘virtual’ collective worship for us to watch in our classrooms, but this week it was really nice to see her at school again.

We also had a visitor on Tuesday when a visitor came to school with birds of prey to help the year three children with their predator project. The children all had time in the school hall looking at the birds and learning about them. They also took their sketch books with them to draw the birds.

We have moved our COVID-19 page to parents on the web site this week to make it easier to access. All of the same information is there, but it is now easier to find and is only one click away from the home page instead of two. Several parents had let us know that it was difficult to find sometimes. Some of the links that you had may no longer work so to help out the new links are below.

COVID-19 home page – CLICK HERE

FAQ’s – CLICK HERE

What to do if your child or family member develops symptoms or tests positive – CLICK HERE

Letters published – CLICK HERE

Finally well done to two of our year 6 children, Xanthe and Josie who have been raising money for cancer research. They've raised a huge amount of money for this worthy cause. CLICK HERE. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 27^th November 2020

I am pleased to share that our latest building project at the front of school is progressing as planned. We hope that the work will be completed by the time we break up for Christmas. We are all looking forward to when this part of the school becomes the new main entrance for visitors. Children will continue to come to school as they are at present the new entrance will be used by parents and visitors during the day.

Next week we have a new member of staff joining our team. Mrs. Cooper joins us as our Medical and Welfare Assistant. You may find that your children mention her as she becomes our main member of staff to help with bumped heads, grazed knees and administering medicine. She will also be supporting the welfare of children and will be working with some children to help them enjoy school happily and safely.

Some of your children may have mentioned a member of staff, Mr. Pearce. Since November 9th, Mr. Pearce has been working with us at lunchtimes, on the playground setting up games and activities for the children. Children now have the opportunities to take part in regular organised sporting games and activities every lunchtime. The success of this during the autumn term means that we are going to continue working with Mr. Pearce in the spring term. All of the children enjoy it when Mr. Pearce is working in their playground zone, with the ‘Dinner Time Disco’ he sets up being particularly popular, see below where our reception children are having a boogie. 

Finally it was lovely to have everyone back at school on Thursday after isolating and partial closure. Our school is a much happier place when we are all here together. The smiles of the children who had to miss a few days at school were lovely to see on Thursday morning when I was back on the gate at the beginning of the day.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th November 2020

Thank you for the messages of support in what has been a very different week at St. John’s. Several parents have asked and therefore I am pleased to share that all of the staff that have had to isolate are well at time of writing at 6pm on Friday 20th. This is also an ideal opportunity to apologise to parents of children in years six, three and nursery who have been impacted as we had to close parts of the school due to staff shortages. Teachers of these children have shared with me how much work is being done at home therefore can parents reading this also pass on my ‘thumbs up’ to children that have had to work at home this week and who have done so with enthusiasm and a great attitude to learning.

Throughout this week and last week we were and we have continued to follow all of the advice and procedures that the government and local authority have recommended to ensure that we all stay as safe as possible. As well as sharing all information with Public Health England and Public Health Derbyshire, I have also ensured that all governors are fully aware of the two positive cases in our school community. I am very pleased that the nature of these unlinked cases has not impacted our children and that no children have had to isolate and are therefore not at risk.

 The children that have been at school this week have had a normal week with some of our trusted supply teachers and our Higher Level Teaching Assistants ensuring that the vast majority of classes were able to stay open as normal. Teachers that are at home have been in in regular contact with these staff ensuring that lessons have been able to continue, following our curriculum plans to minimise disruption. Many thanks to all of these staff who have supported us when we needed it.

Finally, it’s great to be able to share that we raised £907 in our Children In Need appeal last week. Well done to the children who were doing jobs around the house to earn some money and thank you to the parents who were able to give them some pocket money for doing so.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th November 2020

We had some lovely news at school this week when Mrs. Heer was able to let us know of the safe arrival of her baby boy on Monday. Mummy and baby Ruben are well and we are looking forward to when she can safely visit school and let us all welcome the new arrival ourselves.

We have supported two charities this week. The picture below was taken on Wednesday morning when all of us at St. John’s observed the 2 minute silence at 11am. All of the children stood in their bubbles in their playground zones and were perfectly silent for the two minutes. It was very humbling again as all our children showed their respect for the brave adults that have kept and keep our country safe.

Today we supported Children in Need. We have done lots of activities this week to recognise the work of this charity. We are especially pleased with the way that children have responded to our request that they are only able to donate money that they have earned. We really want to children to feel that they are contributing by doing some jobs around the home to earn a bit of pocket money, rather than receiving money from generous parents and carers without any action on their behalf. Our just giving page lists lots of these pocket money jobs that the children have done and how much money we have raised so far. CLICK HERE. Thank you.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th November 2020

I hope that you all had a lovely half term break and enjoyed some normality ahead of our second lock down. I am sure that over the coming weeks our community will show how much we can help each other with kindness and support as we work together to help keep us all safe as we did in April and May during our first lock down.

It was very good news for children that the government advice for schools during the second lockdown will mean that children can continue to attend school and enjoy their time with their friends and teachers. Other than the face masks for adults at the beginning and end of the day it appears that we have had to make very few changes at St. John’s to keep us COVID secure. I may be able to share some more information next week as some details become clearer.

You will have noticed that we have some more building work taking place at school as our old staff room is converted into our new main entrance. We are really looking forward to when we are able to use this entrance to school and no longer have to welcome parents with the imposing metal gate and intercom buzzer. Hopefully the work will be completed by Christmas.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 16^th October 2020

This week was a first for St. John’s as we help our first parent/carer evenings with no parents or carers coming to school! School is normally a thriving, busy building on these evenings. It is a huge shame that we couldn’t all see each other face to face. However, in the last three evenings over 400 parents have had the opportunity to speak to their child's class teacher over the phone or face to face via an online video link. We are very pleased that, despite COVID-19 we have been able to spend time celebrating your children's work with you and sharing ideas as to how we can continue to help them throughout the year.

Thank you for your patience if any technical glitches disrupted your appointment. We have learned several lessons ourselves this week and will use this to help us next time.

On Wednesday next week we will have another first as our year 3 pupils lead our annual harvest festival on Microsoft Teams. They will be in their classrooms whilst the rest of us watch from our classrooms around the school. Your support for this annual event is appreciated with all donations welcome. Any harvest donations sent to school on Wednesday 21^st November will be collected by the Padley centre and distributed to families in need in our community.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 9^th October 2020

Many thanks to all the parents that completed the consent form for the flu vaccination programme on Wednesday this week. Over 95% of parents or carers completed the form to help the school health team support families and their children.

Our year four children have had a very exciting potions day in school today. This has helped them with their science topic this half term. You can see form the picture below the fun that they had.

Making decisions to cancel events is never easy. This week making the decision to cancel our Christmas nativity plays was very upsetting. The teachers and children have to do a lot of work before the productions and this normally starts at October half term. Given the information on the news at present we have decided that work done could easily be wasted as we continue to live in a COVID-19 society and would more than likely have to cancel them at a later date, which would cause even more upset. Even trying to have all our pupils and staff in the hall for a practice would go against advice. Let’s hope that in 2021 we can enjoy some of the important traditions that we all want to look forward to.

Headteacher weekly blog. Friday 2^nd October 2020.

Last week I wrote about how nice our school corridors looked with our new displays. I also commented that it was a shame that parents weren’t coming into school to see how smart the school was looking. Thank you for the suggestions about adding some photographs, I enclose some below.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been taking part in some virtual athletic competitions during some of our PE lessons, with other schools. I am pleased to share that out of all the schools in Amber Valley we finished 3^rd. Well done to all our children in year 2, year 6 and Mr. Hallam’s class that took part.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be sending a letter home to parents about a vacancy on our governing body. We are looking to recruit a new parent governor to join our team. Information will come home soon, however, If any parents wants to speak to me over the phone or at the school gate about becoming a parent governor I look forward to speaking to you.

Finally, this morning our year 5 children enjoyed having the mobile planetarium in their classrooms. All of the children enjoyed listening to our visitor and seeing pictures of the planets and solar system that they are learning about at present.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 25^th September.

We have already shared that Mrs. Heer is staring her maternity leave later this term. Mrs. Heer is one of our senior teachers with responsibility for inclusion as our SENDCO. You are also aware that another of our senior teachers, Mrs. Allen, left St. John’s in July as she joined another school as their deputy headteacher.

I am pleased to share that in October Miss Cooper and Mrs. Newton join the leadership team for the rest of the school year as our senior teachers.  Miss Copper will be our SENDCO and Mrs. Newton will lead maths. I am sure you join me in congratulating them on their appointments and look forward to working with them in their new roles this year.

It is a real shame that parents and adults can’t come into school to see our new corridor displays that were put up this week. We have celebrated the full re-opening of school, the friendships we have in classes, the things that we missed about school during the partial closure and our Derbyshire class names. The displays all look lovely. There are lots of pictures of children playing and learning with friends. They are very strong reminders of what we all missed in the summer when we only had 170 children at school every day with 300 at home. It’s really good to have the school full again, and these displays are a celebration of it.

Finally don’t forget to register for the flu immunisation programme. Information about how to register is on our website. It is especially important this winter to help us all stay safe that families take advantage of this and have their children immunised. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 18^th September 

Even though our year 6 pupils have only completed three weeks of the year, parents already need to start thinking about September 2021 and year 7. Applications for year 7 places opened on Monday. CLICK HERE for more information.

Thank you to all the parents who are following the advice on our website about what to do if your child is feeling poorly. I appreciate the difficult position that COVID-19 puts us in as we try to make decisions about our loved ones. We have tried to help with information about COVID-19 symptoms and other health worries such as a runny nose or a sore throat on our website. I hope that in clarifying that children with sore throats do not have to isolate for 10 days help families make these difficult decision. CLICK HERE for our COVID-19 symptoms page.

Well done to our reception children who had their first full week at school this week. I would imagine that after 5 full days at school that a lot of four year olds may be a bit tired this evening. I hope that this means that some parents get to enjoy a lie in tomorrow morning as their children dream about new friends at St. John’s!

Finally, several parents have asked me about what happens if any children or staff are found to have COVID-19 after a positive test. Government advice on this is clear. Schools need to ring the DfE and report it. We then receive support, recommendations and information from our local Public Health Team who support me and the governors in keeping the community safe. Any information about positive cases and the actions the school is advised to take would be published on our web site and shared with parents.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 11^th September

I am pleased to share that landscaping work has finished around our new reception classrooms. There are now only a few fence jobs to finish and then the builders work will be complete.

During the week, Mrs. Carvell and I have noticed how many more parents are helping us by arriving at school at the correct time in the morning. As more members of our community do this, the safer we all are. Thank you.

We have been frequently asked if we will allow children in earlier due to parents work commitments and unfortunately the answer is no. This would not be fair on other families and as we aren’t able to do it for all, we aren’t able to do it for any. However, this has meant that some families are leaving children unaccompanied outside the front of the school in the morning, or dropping children off from cars before the correct arrival time and then driving off to work. It is upsetting that we have families prepared to increase the health risk to others by acting this way. From next week we will be calling parents that have children arriving at school early and unaccompanied and asking them to behave in a more responsible way. We appreciate your support in this matter.

Finally, Sunday 13th September should have been educational Sunday at St. Peter’s church. For a couple of years now we have celebrated our links with St. Peter’s every September. It is a shame that we can’t do this in person this year, however, you are all invited to join in with virtual live online services with Rev. Anne through the St. Peter’s web page. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 4^th September 2020

So many parents have told me this week how lovely it has been to have some normality back for their children. The feeling is the same for teachers. Even though lots of procedures in school are different, having St. John’s full with 460 pupils is very exciting.

We’ve welcomed 50 children to our new reception classrooms. These children will work and play at St. John’s for the next seven years until July 2027 and form hundreds of special memories that will be with them for ever. On Wednesday the St. John’s adventure started for them with all of the parents of our new four year olds coming into school for a ‘stay and play’ session with their children. Our new reception classrooms were obviously loved by all the children and families and in no time at all the children were painting and writing, cutting and counting, building and climbing with new friends that they will still be playing with in 2027. I can’t wait to part of this journey with them.

We were also able to say goodbye to our old year 6 pupils on Wednesday. Everyone was fed up that in July we couldn’t give our year 6 children the send-off they deserved after their seven years at St. John’s. Lock down meant that they couldn’t have their leavers’ service, shirt signing afternoon or evening prom. These children started reception in September 2013 and certainly deserved a leavers’ celebration. Mrs. Carvell, Mrs. Heer and several wonderful parents came to the rescue on Wednesday afternoon and a socially distanced leavers’ celebration with chips, rounders and ice cream took place on the school field. It was lovely to see these children one last time and was another highlight in this week of firsts.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th July

This is my 13^th summer holiday as a headteacher and today it starts as no other has. Saying goodbye to 170 pupils, about 35% of our children, was lovely in the sunshine this afternoon, but 330 children weren’t there to say good bye to. Knowing that the school will be complete again in September when all our children will be back makes me and the rest of the staff at St. John’s very happy. Lots of work has been done to prepare the school for full classes again in September and during the summer holiday staff will continue to move desks and resources as our classrooms begin to return to normal with chairs for up to 35 children instead of 11.

Many thanks for all of the messages of thanks and support we have received this week and over the last few months. They have been too numerous to mention and to reply to individually, but have all been read and appreciated. Thank you for them all.

Congratulations go to Mrs. Allen who leaves us today as she moves onto be the Deputy Headteacher at Herbert Strutt Primary School. Many thanks to Mrs. Allen for all the work and support she has given all the children and staff at St. John’s in the 10 years she has worked here. She will be missed at St. John’s, the children at Herbert Strutt are getting an excellent Deputy Headteacher and their gain is our loss.

Mrs. Gallen return to our nursery in September after her maternity leave. We aren’t saying goodbye to Miss Lemon though, she will still be part of our team in September and beyond and I look forward to continuing working with her.

Finally, the final blog of the year has to focus on the children that are leaving us for secondary school. Most of these children started St. John’s in September 2013 and have had seven years as part of our family. Despite the last few months I am sure that many of them will leave with happy memories of learning, friendship and fun. I know that as these children leave St. John’s, St. John’s will not leave them. The lessons and values the children have learnt at our school will help them as they grow into teenagers and adults in our community. I wish them all the best as they start the next chapter in their life and hope that it is a happy and successful one, they deserve it.

Have a lovely and safe summer holiday.

R. Averis

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th June

All children in school today have come home with their annual written report and many of you with children still at home have rung school today to say that you have received your report through the post. I hope that you enjoy reading and celebrating them with your children. Each report also has a letter enclosed with supporting information to help at this time of year.

All children coming back to school in September are told in the letter who their teacher for next year will be. Unfortunately children have not been able to spend time with their new teachers as they normally do in our July transition mornings. These transition mornings have been very successful in recent years in helping children prepare for September, and not having them this year is very upsetting. We are also aware that for all children who have not been able to see friends or new teachers that there will be higher levels of nerves about September 2020, especially for children who have been home since March. Please assure your children that teachers will be aware of this in September 2020 and will ensure that time is given to getting used to being back in school with friends and teachers.

To help compensate for this teachers have prepared some ‘virtual transition’ pages on our website to help. Please have a look to these pages with your children to help them find out about September and the fun they will have in their new classes.

When looking at the staff lists for next year you will see that we welcome Miss Walker to year 2 and Miss Bennett to year 6 in September. You will also notice that Mrs. Carvell does not have a class next year. Mrs. Carvell is moving out of the class for a year to work as a non-class based deputy headteacher. She is looking forward to this new role as she gets the opportunity to help and support more children across the school as well as in year 6.

We have also shared user names and passwords for our new remote learning ‘virtual classrooms’ that we are setting up for the autumn term. We are still living with COVID-19 and schools have been asked to ensure that they have plans in place to provide blended learning for children where families are able to access work at home should we need to partially close again. St. John’s staff have already offered blended learning via our website since March, however, the remote learning log on information that you now have will help us enhance what we have been doing in the autumn should we need to partially close again.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd July 2020

It was really exciting yesterday to get information from the government to help us plan to re-open in September for all children. The information is publically available for all to read. CLICK HERE. Over the next few days I will be looking at this government advice and the Local Authority risk assessment, and working with Mrs. Carvell and the rest of the school leaders as we plan to open safely on September 2^nd.

I know that you may have lots of questions about how school will look and feel in September, which I look forward to answering over the next fortnight. Please keep checking the FAQ’s where information will be shared as soon as I have it.

Unfortunately no information has been shared yet with regards to how schools should be reducing social distancing from 2m with enhanced personal protection from July 4^th. With this in mind I feel that it wouldn’t be safe to alter what we are doing at present. Therefore next week we will continue to welcome and teach over 160 children at school every day whilst continuing to provide activities for children to do at home. I am sorry for any upset that this causes.

Earlier in the week we shared some information about a small increase in price for school dinners from September 2^nd. The information is on our website. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 26^th June 2020

We’ve all enjoyed another hot week at school and today we’ve had another whole school virtual assembly. Even though the virtual ones are good fun, I’m looking forward to when we are able to safely have the hall full of children again.

Please remember that we are not using the school sun cream dispensers this summer. Children are allowed to bring some named sun cream to school to apply themselves during the day and/or parents are able to apply sun cream in the morning before children come to school. Children are also encouraged to wear hats to school in this weather to help them stay safe during their lunch hour. Parents also need to be aware that we are not using the water fountains in school and therefore children need to bring bottles of water with them.

Several parents have contacted the school with questions about July 4^th and the announcement from the government that social distancing will be reduced from 2m to 1m+ on this date, with the + been enhanced personal protection. Everyone, including me, wants to know how and if this will help school safely open up to more pupils.

Next week we’ll have 169 pupils in school, 34% of our population. Please be assured that I will do everything I can to safely bring more children back to school as soon as possible. However, I will only do this when I have clear and consistent information from the government, the department from education and the local authority about procedures that we would need to put in place regarding many aspects, including -

• Social distancing between pupils
• Social distancing for adults
• Any PPE or enhanced safety features required to reduce any social distancing to less than 2m for both children and adults.
• The integrity of the bubbles in place at the moment, i.e. would we be advised to break them up and start again, or would we need to keep the present bubbles in place and add to them.
•  

At the time of writing no information regarding these four points, or any other, is available. I will share it as soon as I have any.

Finally, do you want to come and work with us? We are recruiting a grade 5 Learning Support assistant to come and work at our school. More information is available on our website. CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 19^th June 2020

What a wet week that was, however the children have still been brilliant in school despite missing some playtimes due to the weather. Today was also very exciting as we had our first ever St. John’s virtual assembly. Mrs. Carvell and I led the assembly with children in nearly every bubble getting involved. We finished with all the school singing a song together at the same time. Even though we were all apart in our bubbles we were together in the song we were singing, it was a lovely part of the day.

Two class teachers have announced some exciting news on their class pages this week.

Firstly Mrs. Heer has shared with her children that she is expecting a baby in the autumn. I am sure that you join me in wishing her and her husband well as they start this new chapter in their life.

Secondly Mrs. Allen has shared that she has a new job. Mrs. Allen’s last day at St. John’s will be on Friday 17^th July when she leaves us to take up the post of Deputy Headteacher at Herbert Strutt Primary School. Mrs. Allen has helped and taught hundreds of children in her time at St. John’s and will be greatly missed. However, I am sure that you also join me in wishing her well as she begins this new chapter in her professional life and wish her well.

Last week Mrs. Carvell and I were interviewing new teachers to come and join us at St. John’s. Unfortunately at present I can’t share names of staff, until the recruitment process finishes, but I will do so as soon as I am able to.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 12^th June 2020

Even though we only had about a quarter of our children in school this week (next week we go up to about a third) it has been lovely to have an element of normality return for some children and the school.

Unfortunately today some parents that applied for places for their children to return on the 15^th June were told that we didn’t have places to admit them safely. Telling parents that St. John’s children can’t come to St. John’s school was very upsetting. For the children that were looking forward to seeing friends it must be very confusing. With this in mind I strongly advise parents that are applying for places for June 22^nd to be very careful what you share with children. We have less than twenty places left and until government advice changes we will not be able to admit any more.

On a different note Mrs. Carvel and I interviewed teachers this week that we hope will be able to come and join our team in September. I look forward to sharing the names of the new staff as soon as I can and the changes that this will have in the school as we welcome new faces to our St. John’s community.

Finally, for parents of children in year 6, don’t forget that you need to complete any leavers’ hoodie order forms by 11am on Wednesday 17^th June. Information is on the year 6 class pages.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 5^th June

Once again I have the pleasure of starting my blog by thanking the many parents who have contacted the school offering thanks and support. Of special note here are the year 6 parents and families who were very upset on Wednesday when we had to share the news that we didn’t have room for them to return on June 8^th. Several parents contacted us sharing their disappointment which is felt by us at school as well.

This week we’ve had over 50 pupils attend school most days, next week this goes up to 150. Parents need to continue to help us at St. John’s as we get used to working safely together in a new situation again. Please can you make sure that you bring your child to school at the correct time for their year group – on Monday June 8^th these are -

• Year 6 and Nursery - 8.45am
• Year 4 and 5 - 9.00am
• Year 3 and 2 - 9.15am
• Year 1 – 9.30am
• Reception - 9.45am

From Tuesday June 9^th they change and they are

• Nursery - 8.45am
• Year 6 and younger siblings – 8.45am
• Year 3,4 and 5 and younger siblings – 9.00am
• Year 2 and younger siblings – 9.15am
• Year 1 and reception – 9.30am

At the end of the day pick up times are

• Year 6 – 2.45pm
• Year 3,4 and 5 – 3.00pm
• Year 2 and reception – 3.15pm
• Year 1 children – 3.25pm

Whilst picking up and dropping off parents need to be prompt, consider social distancing and use the one way system around the school - thank you. 

Finally I have shared some more pictures of what school looks like at present to help you show your children what they can expect on Monday.

See you on Monday 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd May

After two weeks work preparing to welcome 151 children back to school on Monday 1^st June I was looking forward to a holiday and then seeing children back in schools with friends and teachers. I am upset that the work done by staff will not be able to help children on 1^st June but am pleased that clearer guidance has helped me ensure that when we do open we will be safe for all children and staff.

This morning I took a series of pictures to help parents prepare children for what their classrooms will look like. I am still sharing these today, below, for you to see what classrooms looked like following the government guidance that social distancing could be less than 2 meters in a primary classroom. We could get 15 children in each room, with a distance of between 1 and 2 meters between every child depending on the number of children in the bubble and the shape of the classroom.

The advice today that the distance needs to be 2 meters means that classrooms need to be re-arranged, children books need to be re-distributed, bubbles need to be re-assigned, staff need to be re-assigned and timetables for areas such as the dining room need to be re-written. It also means that we won’t be able to get up to 15 children in a room so fewer children will be in each bubble and more staff will be needed.

Over the coming days I will continue to keep abreast of the advice and will, after a few days off, share more information as soon as I can.

Have a lovely three day weekend.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th May 2020

Many thanks to all of the parents that have completed the attendance form for June 1^st. I fully understand that as the government advises us that aspects of lockdown are eased that we will all be both excited at some aspects and nervous and worried about others. It is easy to understand why returning to school fills us with both excitement and worry.

We have already had messages from families and children letting us know that they are excited about seeing their friends and teachers again. The feeling is mutual. I am looking forward to seeing you as well and I’m really looking forward to helping and working as part of the team of teachers and community, that will begin to give children their normal lives back. Your children deserve it.

We have also had messages from families about the difficult decision that you are making and the worries about safety that you have. The feeling is mutual. I am aware of how careful we will need to be and how we need to follow the advice from the government to ensure that your children, our staff and our community stay as safe as possible as the road to normality resumes. We have worked very hard this week to ensure that what we are doing at St. John’s does do this. We are following the government advice. Your children deserve it.

Headteacher weekly blog – Thursday 7^th May 2020

We’ve had to make more difficult decisions at school this week and unfortunately the year 5 and year 6 children that were due to go away on residentials this summer won’t be able to. As always the health and safety of the children is always our main concern and the decisions that we have made have been based on this. As well as cancelling these activities more of the summer one day trips that were due to take place in other year groups have been cancelled as well.

It’s when we remove these events from the calendar that we realise what our children must be going through as the events that they have looked forward to for a long time can no longer take place. It’s a real shame that our year 3 children won’t be able to lead their first service at St. Peter’s later this month and our year 4 children won’t be able to go to the Derby Arena and perform with the Halle orchestra. Lots of other events have been cancelled as well.

In my vlog this week I look at lots of the work that you are doing at home and read a poem written by one of our year 6 children about the lockdown. It’s a beautiful poem and talks about all of the things that we are missing such as the seaside and visits. However, the poem ends with us recognising that one day this will be over and we will be able to play and have fun with our friends again. Let’s hope that we can all do this safely soon.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 1^st May 2020

For this week’s vlog below I have decided to read another poem from Allan Ahlberg. Once again the poem refers to children playing outside and having fun, something that I all know we are looking forward to doing again. I hope that it helps you all look forward to when we can have fun with our friends again.

In the vlog I also talk about our friends in Kolkata. We have had some pictures and information from the Cathedral Relief Service in Kolkata. It’s this service that runs a lot of the slum schools in Kolkata. You can see some of the pictures and information on our Kolkata page online. CLICK HERE. We have also had two videos on YouTube from the Diocese of Kolkata and the Cathedral Relief Service showing how they are distributing food parcels in the slums and how they are trying to help people socially distance in conditions very different to us. You may want to show these to your children at home to help them understand how the virus is impacting us all. CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE for the two videos. Your children may recognise some of the places through pictures that we have shared and talked about at school.

If you want to help the children and friends that we have in Kolkata there is information and an email address on our school website for you to contact the Cathedral Relief Service directly. CLICK HERE.

Stay safe, stay at home see you all next week.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th April 2020

I hope that you are all safe and well. It was lovely to see children at school this week again. I look forward to when all 500 children are able to return safely, rather than the two or three dozen children that we have every day at present whilst their parents work in key industries.

Four weeks ago I had never taken part in a video conference. Today alone I have had five. It is really nice to be able to speak to and see teachers and staff as we continue to work together to keep school working at the moment and prepare for when we are able to open again. Many of the meetings that I have had this week have been about setting the budget for next year. This is normally a really busy time of year as I work with Mrs. Carvell and other senior teachers and the governors to set the budget for the next financial year and school year. This year is no different and I look forward to the governor meetings that we are going to have online over the coming weeks as we prepare for the rest of the year and decide what money to spend where.

It was lovely to finish my week again by looking at the work that children are doing at home and sending to teachers. Our website is alive with lots of great work and busy children carrying on with their learning in kitchens, back gardens and dining rooms. Well done to you all and thank you for working so hard at home with your mummies and daddies.

And finally, yes I did enjoy some crisps again at the end of lent. Well done to everyone else who was able to give something up.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th April

I hope that you have all enjoyed the sunshine over the Easter fortnight. You will all know that earlier this week the government announced that the lock down will continue for another three weeks. This means that St. John’s will only be open from Monday 20^th April for vulnerable children and children of key workers who have to send their child to school as there is no care alternative at home.

Daily Attendance Form

Parents that are sending their children to school during the partial closure need to complete the Daily Attendance form to let us know that their child is coming to school. This needs to be done by 4pm the day before your child is attending school at the latest. CLICK HERE.

From Monday 20^th teachers will be uploading two activities a day onto their class web pages for your children to complete, as we were doing before the Easter holiday. This will continue throughout the partial closure. Many thanks to all of the parents who are helping their children with these activities during our partial closure. Please continue to use the contact the teacher forms if you have any questions about the activities.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 3^rd April 2020

It’s not the end of spring term that we had all planned. Yesterday we should have all been together at St. Peter’s church with our year 4 children leading our annual Easter service. We all know that it’s a real shame that they have missed out in this and that so many other children are missing out on activities and events at school and clubs that they enjoy.

Well done to all of the children that are working at home. It really helps cheer all the teachers up to see what you are doing. You can see in my vlog below that I am also enjoying finding out what you are doing at home.

It would be wrong of me not to say thank you to a very special group of people at the end of the spring term. Many thanks to all of the mums, dads, step mums, step dads, carers and all adults who are home schooling with their children - you are all brilliant. I hope that you all get to enjoy an Easter holiday of sorts over the coming two weeks - you've deserved it. Teachers will begin uploading activities again on Monday 20th April. 

I would normally begin a holiday by wishing everyone a nice time. For this Easter it seems more appropriate to wish everyone a safe holiday. Stay at home, stay safe and be kind.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 27^th March

A unique week calls for a unique blog. I hope that the video blog below brings smiles in what has been a period of uncertainty and concern for many.

School has been open every day this week. We have had up to 40 children attending every day as their mums and dads go to work in key industries.

We have also begun our on line learning journeys as children, families and teachers begin a new way of helping your children at home. Many thanks to all of the parents that have passed messages of thanks for what our teachers are doing every day. Also thank you for the comments that we are getting to help improve what we do. We are only on day 5 and will get better, when working together, in helping ensuring that your children work happily at home. Your children are amazing. They are coping with something that we never did at their age.   

Enjoy the video, I hope you enjoy the poem, it is one of my favourites. I don’t own any copyright for it and am reading it out in good faith crediting Allan Ahlberg for his excellent words.  

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 20^th March 2020

This is the hardest blog I’ve had to write in over 5 years, it’s also going to be the briefest as I’ve already shared so much with parents this week through emails and website updates.

In summary, in the face of adversity and challenge it has been a privilege to lead a school of such wonderful children, staff and parents. At this point I only know that if our community continues to support, help and care for each other as it has done this week we will all come back to St. John’s bigger and better than before.

Emotions have run high as our children have finished school today with so many unknowns. It would be easy to mention so many things however it would be wrong of me not to mention year 6. I have spoken to the year 6 pupils today guaranteeing them that I will do everything I can to let them have the opportunities that their older siblings may have had when they finished at St. John’s so that they can also enjoy shirt signings, parties and other traditions. Don’t worry children you will get your chance at some point in some way.

As my most unique week at school in over 25 years of teaching finishes though I already think of next week and beyond and the new challenges that our children and staff face in the coming weeks. And as I said at the start – with this team we’re ready.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th March 2020

The children’s favourite event of the week was probably sport relief day today. It was great to see the different sports that our children enjoy. It was especially exciting to see how many children get to enjoy playing sports with local clubs and societies. As parents you must all be very busy getting children to various sporting venues around Derbyshire. 

On Tuesday our year two children had a drama day as they welcomed Pirate Steve to school for the day. All children did a number of drama activities around the theme of pirates. 

I understand that many families will be worried about the media reports of how Covid-19 will affect them and their loved ones. I can assure you that as always my first priority will always be the health and safety of the children and staff at our school and during this week and in the coming weeks this will remain my primary focus. We have already introduced several measures in school such as ‘hand hygiene’ and at dinner time today children were watched wash their hands as they came into eat. We have also agreed a new, local authority suggested, cleaning schedule with our hard working cleaning staff to further help us remain safe in school.

Given this unprecedented situation I am continuing to take official advice from the government and the NHS. This advice is being added to on a daily basis and I am therefore monitoring and responding to it as it is published. Links to all the updated information can be found on our website CLICK HERE. These links have been updated today with a new link to a Derbyshire County Council webpage and a telephone number that parents and families are invited to ring with any questions.

I appreciate the support that we are getting from our community as we continue to act on the advice of the government and assure parents that I will continue to do so. As always I will be outside the school at the beginning of most days for any questions or comments that parents may have in relation to this or any matter. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th March 2020

The highlight of the week for most of the children was dressing up on Thursday for book week. Many thanks to all of the parents who helped their children join in this fun day by preparing costumes and props. Book week was started on Monday when we welcomed author Rob Bounds into school. Rob has written several books about birds and animals. He keeps budgies and we were able to look after two of them for the week to help the children with their work in year two. Rob led an assembly and spoke to all infant and juniors children about how he became an author and what he did to make his first book. He then went into lots of classrooms and read one of his stories to the children. Rob’s web site lists all of his books. CLICK HERE.    During the week Mrs. Newton was selling the books to children for £5. Each book came with a free toy bird. If anyone else would like to buy a book still please send a message to Mrs. Newton who will be able to help.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 28^th February 2020

The first week back at school has seen year groups begin new projects. Lots of these new projects have been marked with exciting activities to help the children understand what they are learning about. On Monday afternoon two Viking warriors came to year four and spent half an hour with the children showing them how to live and fight like a Viking! On Monday year 5 children spent the afternoon with a geologist helping them start their Alchemy island work. On Wednesday morning all year one children spent an hour in a mobile planetarium to start their Moon Zoom project.

Our curriculum page on our web site, CLICK HERE, has lots of information about what we are teaching the children. Use this page to find out about what your child is learning at school at the moment. It also has information about age appropriate standards and lists the standards that children need to be working at, at the end of each year. This is useful for parents that are helping their children and want to know what is expected of them.

Finally a newsletter has gone home today. All newsletters for the current year are available on our website, CLICK HERE. All archived and historical newsletters going back to 2015 are also online, CLICK HERE.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 14^th February 2020

The snow at the beginning of the week meant that all of our children had a very exciting playtime in the afternoon. The pictures below show just how much fun was had in the 15 minutes we were on the playground. It was lovely to have such excited children enjoying their brief bit of snow play as within a few hours it had all turned to slush or ice.

With the recent snow fall in mind it is worth reminding parents of our poor weather procedures. You can read it all on our policies and paperwork page on our website, CLICK HERE. Earlier this week when it did snow several parents have asked why we didn’t update our website with information about what was happening at school. Hopefully sharing the link to our weather procedures sheet helps explain that we only update the website if we are closing or if we are authorising parents to collect children early. On Monday we did not update the website as we weren’t closing and we weren’t authoring the early collection of children.

Finally in relation to adverse weather conditions many thanks to the parents that didn’t ring the school to ask if we were still open but that did check the website, your support in this is greatly appreciated.

Also this week we have had two sets of children perform to dozens of parents and friends. On Tuesday afternoon our year four orchestra performed to just over a hundred parents and friends. I was really upset that I couldn’t make this concert as I have been very excited to hear the progress that our trumpeters and trombonists have made since September when they picked up the brass instruments for the first time. 

On Thursday morning our year five children were at St. Peter’s church leading the annual Lent Service. This was a lovely service with the children reminding us of the reason behind Lent and that Christians test their character and will power by giving something up.

Finally yesterday our volunteers on the PTFA ran a very successful friends disco. Hundreds of children enjoyed themselves and money was raised to help the school as well. Many thanks to the PTFA for organising another event for our children.

I hope that you have a good half term break and look forward to returning back to school on Monday 24^th February at 9am.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 7^th February 2020

On Monday our year four children enjoyed a trip to The Sea Life Centre in Birmingham. They all had a great day and have done fantastic work back in school this week. Such trips are a really important part of school life giving children opportunities to experience exciting places like this with their friends and teachers. Many thanks to the staff who organise them and the parents that help with voluntary contributions to ensure that they can go ahead.

After school on Monday our year three and four children won the Amber Valley dodgeball competition. Today in celebration assembly they proudly added the trophy to the trophy cabinet. Thank you to Miss Thompson for going with the children on Monday.

Also on Monday Mrs. Christie and I were out of school at Matlock for the day with teachers from other schools looking at the new Derbyshire Religious Education agreed syllabus that we will be required to teach from September 2020. There will be a couple of changes from what we teach at present as we move towards this new legislative syllabus. The RE agreed syllabus is updated every five years and Mrs. Christie and I are both looking forward to working to the new document for the next few years.

On Tuesday morning we have the Partake Theatre Company come and work with our year three children helping them with their Ancient Greek work.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 31^st January 2020

This has been an exciting week as we have spent a lot of time finding out what Mrs. Winson-Bushby and Mrs. Hodgson are doing in India. As I write (Friday afternoon) they are just leaving Scott Lane School having spent the day with the children and teachers showing them how to use the resources that they have taken with them.

Throughout the week classes throughout the school have had several video chats with Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Winson-Bushby. We have seen the buildings and places they have been to, we have heard the noise of the streets and we have asked questions which have been answered on the spot about life in Kolkata. We have also read the daily blog and looked at the pictures and videos that have been uploaded onto our website. CLICK HERE to have a look at the 2020 blog yourself and then talk to your children about Kolkata and what is happening there.

We look forward to welcoming Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Winson-Bushby back to school on Tuesday 4^th February and listening first hand to what they have done and what the teachers and children at Scott Lane School will do with their new resources.

On Wednesday morning our Y1 children enjoyed a morning with Partake Theatre Company helping them with their project work.

Thank you for your patience during the roof work that is taking place. The roofers are still hoping to have finished by the time we return to school after the half term break. I am sure that like me, you are looking forward to when we have no builders at St. John’s for the first time since October 2018. In March we will welcome the landscapers who think that by then the land outside the new reception classrooms will be dry enough to plant bushes and sow grass seeds to make the outdoor grounds look as nice as the new classrooms themselves.

Finally please can I draw your attention to an important letter that went home this week about term times for school year 2020-2021. CLICK HERE to read it. I am sorry for any problems that have been created with the position we found ourselves in, however, I hope that the holiday arrangements for Easter 2021 now give some parents the opportunity to take a cheaper holiday than normal with us having a week’s holiday at a different time to other schools.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 24^th January 2020

This morning at 8am Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Winson-Bushby left St. John’s on their way to Kolkata. About twenty other Derbyshire teachers are joining them as well as students from the University of Derby and staff from the Diocese of Derby. Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Winson-Bushby have been working hard over the last few months, with children at St. John’s, to prepare resources to take to the children at Scott Lane School. One of the things they are taking with them is lego. It’s lovely to know that hundreds of children at St. John’s have donated a couple of pieces of lego over recent weeks and that as I type it’s in a suitcase on its way to Kolkata. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures of the children at Scott Lane playing with the lego that has been played with by our children in Belper. Mrs. Hodgson will be writing a daily blog of her time in India. She has already written some information about how we have prepared and planned. You can read it on our web site. CLICK HERE.

I can’t believe that it is a year that Mrs. Hodgson and I went to Kolkata and went to Scott Lane School for the first time. I’ve had a look at the blog we wrote every day and the videos and pictures that we took a year ago. CLICK HERE for the 2019 blog and CLICK HERE for the 2019 videos. It’s great to know that with the support of the children and families of St. John’s and the financial support of St. Peter’s church we have been able to continue to help the children of Scott Lane. Thank you.

On Tuesday our girls won the Amber Valley Futsall competition at Alfreton. They enjoyed adding the trophy to the trophy cabinet in celebration assembly today. This afternoon the boys have been playing at Moor Farm where Derby County train. Unfortunately they lost in the semi-final but have thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon at Moor Farm.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 17^th January 2020

Our football team have won two competitions this week. On Tuesday evening our upper junior boys won the Amber Valley Futsall competition at Alfreton Leisure Centre. On Wednesday our A team won the EFL Kids cup competition at the Soccerdome in Derby. Well done to the team. We’ll find out soon where they play next after winning on Wednesday. We think that it will be at Derby County’s training ground at Moor Farm which will be a very exciting opportunity for the team.

Our year two children have had staff from the Open Centre in Derby visit school today and attended a Judaism workshop. The children learned all about the faith and practises of the Jewish religion and got to see lots of artefacts used in synagogues.

We’ve changed all of our corridor displays this week and had a move around in the schools entrance area outside Mrs. Howis’s office. The new space works really well with our new visitor’s chairs getting the thumbs up from people who have used them so far.

Parents of reception children have now been inside our new reception classrooms. I am pleased to say that the builders have all left and that we have our car park back ready to use. We’ve also had the pavement tidied up that runs to the nursery classes and from next week all pick up points will be as normal for nursery parents who can use the normal side gate.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 10^th January 2020

Happy New Year and welcome back. I trust that you all had a lovely holiday and enjoyed time with friends and family. We’ve had a very exciting first week back at school as our reception children have moved into their lovely new classrooms. All 50 children are now working in their new classrooms with their teachers and over the coming days the builders will finish some external work so that we can start to use the new playgrounds and outdoor areas as well. You can see from the pictures below how nice the new classrooms are and how much the children are enjoying using all of the new resources that they have.

Children in reception have taken a letter home today letting their parents and carers know about the new rooms. Unfortunately this letter has some other news in it about Mrs. Smith one of our reception teachers. Mrs. Smith was away from work in December and today I was able to share with parents that she may not be returning until after the summer holiday. I am sure that you all join me in wishing Mrs. Smith well as she goes through the radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment that we hope ensures a full recovery and a return to good health.

Our year two children enjoyed their return to school with a ‘Muck, Mess and Mixture’ day on Tuesday. This was a great way to start their art and design project for the half term. On Tuesday we were also visited by the Queen in year one. The Queen enjoyed a tea party held in her honour and told all of the children about life at Buckingham Palace.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday December 20^th 2019

The final blog of 2019. It has been another lovely Christmas week at St. John’s. All of the children have had a wonderful time enjoying treats such as cinema trips and discos. Parents and carers have had a wonderful time watching loved ones on the stage at our nativity plays and our Carol Concert at St. Peter’s church. Teachers and staff have had a wonderful time celebrating the children’s favourite time of year. A piece of work done this week in year two is a perfect example of this. The children were writing instructions in their English lessons. They were writing the instructions for a perfect Christmas Eve. It was lovely to see all of the traditions that lots of children have and listening to them talk about what they do every year at home. It really is a lovely time of year to work in a primary school

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On Wednesday our kitchen staff exceled again. They prepared and served 400 Christmas dinners that were enjoyed by staff and children alike. A huge amount of work takes place in the kitchen every day and unfortunately so much of it goes unnoticed.  It is lovely to get this opportunity to say a thanks to the team and especially Mrs. Capewell and Mrs. Holgate, both of whom were working away from 7am on Wednesday. The children all looked great in their Christmas jumpers, Christmas songs were playing on the hall speakers, the children sang and ate and the kitchen team welcomed a new apprentice for an hour when serving. Can you spot him below?

A newsletter has gone home this week with lots more information in it.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God bless. See you in 2020.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 13^th November 2019

It was lovely this week to begin our Christmas Nativity plays. The reception children were fantastic on stage yesterday when I got to watch them perform. I am sure that Mrs. Carvell enjoyed today’s nativity that she was able to watch. I am sure that all of the families and friends that came to watch left feeling very festive. Throughout all of the performances next week the PTFA will be selling tea coffee and mince pies to help raise funds for the school. The stage that we use and the costumes that the children wear were all brought by the PTFA in recent years.

Many thanks to all the parents who halve helped us walk children to the Ritz cinema in Belper this week. It’s a lovely annual treat, paid for by the PTFA and it’s great to be able to support one of our local businesses who continue to give us a group discount to help us save a bit of money. Year 6 and year 5 children will enjoy their cinema trips on Monday. I hope that the weather is drier than when the year 4 children walked there on Thursday.

On Tuesday we were able to start to move into our new reception classrooms with lots of new furniture going in first of all. Mr Collinge our caretaker, is working hard to ensure that we hopefully have everything ready for January. I will be writing to all reception parents on Thursday 19^th December with information about what will happen in January when we return to school.

Lots of parents came to our Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) workshop of Tuesday evening, run by Mrs. Girling, and commented on how useful it was to see the resources that we will be using from year one up to year six. We will be teaching RSE in the summer term and Mrs. Girling has offered to run the workshop again in 2020 to help parents that may have missed it this week.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 6^th December 2019

I hope that you are enjoying another three day weekend. We have had another training day in school. We have had a day’s training on some new software to use on the interactive whiteboards that we have in every classroom. Earlier this year we upgraded the facilities in classrooms to make sure that all teachers had the same touchscreens at the front of each class. Today we have been trained to use some of the software that makes the most out of this new hardware. I am sure that your children will notice the difference in lessons, especially as the interactive software will be getting them out of their seats and up to the front of the class more often. 

On Tuesday afternoon our football team won the Derbyshire finals. We are now looking forward to finding out details of the Midlands finals that will take place when the best team from each of the other local counties will play against each other.  This is the first time in many years that our football team has achieved this. Mr. Hallam and the team are rightfully very happy and excited about how well they have done. 

Many thanks to the PTFA who organised and ran a lovely pyjama party and movie night on Tuesday.

Hundreds of children had great fun with hot chocolate, popcorn and Polar Express. It was lovely that Father Christmas was able to visit as well and bring all of the children a bell. I am pleased to report that all of the children could hear their bell ringing. 

Finally and looking ahead to September 2020, please note that children are returning to school on

Wednesday 2^nd September 2020. CLICK HERE for the term dates. It is worth noting that in 2020 and 2021 that children will be returning to school in September after their summer holidays in the same week as the August Bank Holiday. 

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 29^th November 2020

I am very pleased that the INSET day that the children are enjoying today is the first sunny day of the week. I hope that you are all making the most of the three day weekend. I hope that you get to enjoy the three day weekend next week as well. All of the staff are in school today, we are looking at and considering how we teach writing and use the talk for writing resources we have in school. Next week we are spending a day looking at some new software that we hope will help us use the interactive white boards in every classroom more effectively.

Many thanks to members of the PTFA who organised and ran a very successful and enjoyable Christmas fayre last night. Dozens of children visited Father Christmas and we were all entertained by the school choir as well as enjoying the refreshments and cakes. Many thanks to all of those who attended for supporting us.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 22^nd November 2019

We say goodbye to Miss. Rhodes today who leaves us to take up a new challenge. We wish her all the best as she opens up her café and bar in Brinsley. I know that many staff will call in when passing for a cuppa.

You may be aware that Mrs. Gallen is leaving in January as she goes on her maternity leave. Mrs. Gallen is our nursery teacher. I am pleased to share that Miss. Lemon will be taking over and covering the maternity leave. Miss Lemon has already been to school to get to know the nursery children and meet the team and will be visiting us a few more times between now and Christmas to get to know the children. I’m sure that we’ll all welcome Miss Lemon when she begins work with us on Monday 6^th January 2020.

We welcomed 8 new children to the nursery on Monday afternoon. These children will start in January 2020. If you know of any other parents or families with nursery children please share that applications are open for places in April and September 2020. CLICK HERE for more information about how to apply or how to come and have a look around our nursery and see us if you are thinking of applying.

On Monday afternoon our infant handball team played at Belper Leisure centre and finished 4^th our of 8 teams. Well done to them.

On Monday afternoon some of our children worked with a local artist to help prepare art work that is going to be permanently displayed at Belper’s new library on Derwent Street in Belper. St. John’s is working very closely with the team building and developing the library and this is just one of the projects that we are involved with. Next week the winners of the time capsule competition will find out who they are and will get to decide what goes in the time capsule.

Today our year two children have had a great Towers and Turrets day. Children have come dressed as mediaeval Kings and Queens and have enjoyed a mediaeval banquet at lunch time today, with mediaeval food, music and decorations.  Many thanks to our kitchen staff for preparing the food.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 15^th November 2019

On Monday we were able to recognise the minute’s silence at 11am. This annual feature at St. John’s was marked with a huge amount of respect amongst all of the children who were perfectly silent for the minute at 11am. It was, again, a very humbling moment.

On Tuesday we recognised anti-bullying week by all wearing off socks to show that we can all be different and friends at the same time. Mrs. Carvell and I had to go to a meeting in Matlock on Tuesday, my odd socks were worn in a room full of people who must have thought I had left the house in the dark that morning. Other activities have taken place this week to help children understand that bullying is when someone does something nasty to them several times on purpose and help them learn what to do if this does take place.

Today we’ve had a lovely Children in need day and have raised £766.08. Many thanks for all of the support you have given with cake making and donations for the bring and buy sale. I hope that children have done some jobs around the house to earn any money that they brought to school today to help them feel that they were making a difference. We want to ensure that parents don’t feel obliged to give children money on days such as today, but that children feel empowered to earn some so that they know they have helped.

Headteacher weekly blog – Friday 8^th November 2019

I hope you all had a lovely half term break and that you all enjoyed some family time.

We’ve had a relatively quiet week at school this week, however on Tuesday afternoon the school was full of the sounds of preschool toddlers and babies. Our year one project is ‘Memory Box’ and we had over a dozen young babies and children in school to help our year one children try to remember what life was like as a baby. Many thanks to all of those who came to school to help us.

On Wednesday lunchtime parents of children in Mrs. Smith’s class were invited to dinner. Roast Pork was on the menu (Wednesday is always Roast dinner day) and it was lovely to see the excited children show their parents and carers how to carry trays and get their food off the kitchen staff. I hope that the parents that came enjoyed themselves.

Next week we have a couple of exciting events taking place – please check the calendar section to find out more.