We have published a letter this evening sharing information about some recent Scarlett Fever cases in school that gives some help and support to families to help keep children safe and happy. CLICK HERE. 

We have been asked to share this message from Derbyshire County Council. 

You may have heard that the Government have awarded further Household Support Fund (HSF) grant monies to Derbyshire County Council to support local households facing financial hardship over the winter (October 2022 to March 2023). We are pleased to announce that we intend to distribute free grocery vouchers to families who are eligible for benefit related free school meals.

The vouchers will be distributed in early January 2023. 

With this in mind we will be sharing information with the Local Authority to confirm the names of children who have benefit related free school meals. Please note that this does not include children in reception, year 1 and year 2 who have universal free school meals. 

If you have any questions relating to this please don't hesitate to get in touch with the school. If you are eligible for these free vouchers and would rather not receive them please contact the school by Wednesday 7th December at the latest. 

For many years we have published our school uniform information on our website. CLICK HERE. Parents have always shared that this information is useful. 

However, the Department for Education have shared some statutory guidance that schools should consider when producing a uniform policy. One of these requirements is to allow parents to help in the production of a policy. CLICK HERE. With this in mind we are pleased to invite parents to read our draft policy and then have the opportunity to complete a short online form to share any thoughts on the uniform at St. John's and our draft policy. The DfE state that 

By creating a common identity amongst all pupils, regardless of background, a school uniform can act as a social leveller. It can reduce bullying and peer pressure to wear the latest fashions or other expensive clothes. If, however, the uniform is too expensive it can place an unreasonable burden on families. Furthermore, if a distinction can be made between those who can afford it and those who cannot, this can reduce the benefits of a uniform and has the potential to negatively impact attendance, access and participation, and lead to bullying.

Please be aware that we have no plans to alter our uniform, our suppliers or our guidance that we have had published on the website for several years. This draft policy and parental survey is to ensure that we act on the Department for Education guidance. 

If any parents have any questions please don't hesitate to speak to Mr. Averis any morning or afternoon when he is at the school gate. 

Finally, in the run up to Christmas we are inviting children to wear novelty hair bands in the final week of term and on Christmas jumper day (Wednesday 14th December) only. Please can children continue to wear normal hair bands until then, thank you. 

Draft policy - CLICK HERE

Parental uniform survey - CLICK HERE

We are pleased to share information about a free holiday camp for pupils in receipt of pupil premium funding taking place from the 3rd to the 6th January 2023.

Lunch is provided. 

To book a place on the course you need to 

• Read the letter CLICK HERE
• Follow the bookings instructions on the letter.

Bookings open at 9.30am on Thursday 1st December.

The club is run by Amber Valley Schools Sport Partnership (AVSSP). AVSSP are a company that we use at St. John's and our children may know some of staff that may be at the holiday camp. Please do not contact the school about your booking, please contact AVSSP, details are on the letter. 

We have received a request from Derbyshire Police for help, please read the message in italics below. If you are able to help please ring 101

We are seeking the public’s help to identify a man who was found unconscious in Belper yesterday.

We received a call at 4.30pm on Monday (28 November) relating to a man who had become unwell in Kirks Lane and had been found by a passer-by.

The man, who we believe was out jogging, did not have any identification on him and despite enquiries we have been unable to find out who he is.

He is described as white, 6ft tall and of large build, with brown, greying hair.

He is believed to be aged in his fifties or sixties and was wearing red Asics trainers, black tracksuit bottoms, a grey hoodie with a blue Bud Lite logo, black gloves, a blue camouflage snood, and black-framed glasses.

If you recognise the description of the man or have any other information which may help us identify him, please contact us quoting reference 22000696898.

The Department for Education have announced today that the published dates for the year 6 SAT tests in May 2023 have been altered. Originally they were due to start on Monday 8th and finish on Thursday 11th May 2023.

Due to the extra Bank Holiday on Monday May 8th 2023 the year 6 SAT tests will now take place on the four days of Tuesday 9th May to Friday 12th May 2023. We have updated our online calendar with this information. 

All other statutory tests that children in years 2 and 4 take this summer will continue as planned. 

If any parents want to speak to us about the impact of this change please contact the school to speak to Mr. Averis. 

Thank you

Infant children have brought home a letter today with information about tickets for out nativities in December. Tickets can be ordered by clicking on the links in the letter from 6pm on Friday 25th November to 9am on Tuesday 29th November. 

CLICK HERE. 

Each family is initially able to order two tickets. 

Once first choice tickets have been distributed we will distribute any spares. Families are able to request spare tickets at the same time they place their original order. 

Derbyshire police have asked us to share this message about a PayPal payment request scam that they are aware of in our area. Please see the picture below for details. 

At 5.30pm on Wednesday 16th November we ran an open evening for parents to come and find out about our new curriculum plans for January 2023. 

We are pleased to be able to run this event again on Wednesday 23rd November at 9am in the morning to help parents that may have had child care difficulties last Wednesday. 

If you would like to come and find out about our new curriculum plans for January 2023 please come along into the hall on Wednesday morning after dropping your child off where Mrs. Astell looks forward to meeting you. The meeting will take about half an hour. 

We all enjoyed our England Football day in July 2021 when England reached the final of the Euros. Children dressed in red and white and the day was football themed. We hope to be able to enjoy similar success in the next few weeks and reach another final in December. If this is the case we will be able to celebrate reaching a final in school again with non uniform. 

I'm sure we all want England and Wales to get off to a good start on Monday 21st November when they both kick off their world cup campaigns. However, at this stage in the competition we will not be inviting children to dress in red and white and children will not be watching football matches in their classrooms.

Let's hope that we get to celebrate getting to the final on the 18th December and get to mark the occasion with a football themed day in school again.