Call us: 0 1922 682583

Email us: postbox@st-francis-p.walsall.sch.uk

WORDS OF THE WEEK

‘Word of the week’ sentences should be handed in by Thursday each week.

This week’s winners are:

Thomas Stanley (Key Stage 1); and Aaron Moseley (Key Stage 2 winner)

Winning sentence (KS1): Thomas: “When I go on holiday to Belgium, I travel

through the Channel Tunnel”.

Winning sentence (KS2): Aaron: “The boy over-exaggerated how well he had

done in his test.”

Here is the target word for Key Stage 1 pupils to use before Thursday 27th November:

squirrel

The Key Stage 2 target word to use is: confidential

Good luck, everyone!

Holiday Dates 2014

Term Dates 2014/15

Fri 19th

Dec 2014 – Fri 2nd

Jan 2015 Christmas Holiday Fri 13

th Feb – Fri 20th Feb 2015 Half Term

Fri 27th

Mar –Fri 10th

Apr 2015 Easter Holiday Mon 4

th May 2015 Bank Holiday

Fri 23rd

May – Fri 29th

May 2015 Half Term

School closes for Summer Holiday - Mon 20 Jul 2015.

21st November 2014

Diary Dates

Thursday 27th – 1.30 pm Year 4 Mass

Fri 28th November Mufti Day

Fri 5th December School/Parish Christmas Fayre 5.30 pm

CLJ WEEK – 8th

December

THEATRE VISITS

KS2 Monday 15th Dec

KS1 Wednesday 17th Dec

Nursery Visit to Cadbury World Thursday 18th Dec

Message from the Acting Head Teacher

Children in Need Thank you for supporting the annual Children in Need Appeal so

generously again this year.

The total sum raised for the day was £315.10.

This is magnificent. Thank you again, everyone.

Christmas Nativity Plays Please see overleaf for important information about our Nativity Plays.

Ofsted

As you know, we are expecting our termly Ofsted monitoring visit

before the end of term. All members of staff are working flat-out to

get the school out of special measures as soon as possible.

If we can, we would love to beat Ofsted’s expectation of being

subject to measures for between 18 and 24 months.

Given the above time-frame, the school would normally attempt

release from special measures sometime between March and

September 2015. We would love to be released earlier, but it will

happen only when we are ready for it to happen.

Thank you for your help, understanding, and support, as parents,

carers and families, as we attempt this feat.

Staff absences

We apologise for some unavoidable staff absences this week, due

to sickness. Hopefully, full business will be resumed next week.

WRITING TASK (6)

Here is Point 6 of our weekly writing tasks series*:

“Use writing partners to help children HEAR what they have written - understand the effect that their words have had,

and reflect on whether the writing does what they set out to do”.

*These points are taken from Wrigley, S: National Writing Project (NWP), National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE):

http://www.nwp.org.uk/1/category/national%20curriculum/1.html

This weekend, can you set up an opportunity for your child/ren to sit and talk to you about what they have

written (as above), and then enjoy the results?

Thank you for helping us to improve the standard of writing at St Francis Catholic Primary School.

PLEASE SEE OVER

STARS OF THE WEEK As you know, the two best pupils in every class from

Reception to Year 6 are rewarded in assemblies every Friday.

This week’s ‘Stars of the Week’ are:

Reception - Jodi Clarke and Leo Millard

Year One - Candice Andrews and Ellis Bradburn

Year Two - Lilly-Mae Lester and Annrose Joseph

Year Three - Harry Mills and Isabella Lyttle

Year Four - Aaron Moseley and Fabian Skripko

Year Five - Emily Simms and Amy Peakman

Year Six - Jacob Locke and Aoife Carr

Congratulations to them and their families!

Junior Leadership Team Nine members of the JLT and two Year 3

pupils visited the Mayor of Walsall’s Parlour

and the Council Chamber on Tuesday 18th

November.

The focus of the visit was on democracy and

leadership.

The pupils were a credit to their families and

to the school. They took care to ask

intelligent and thought-provoking questions,

always showing exemplary standards of

respect and politeness.

The Mayor was really kind to us. He spoke in

ways that educated, amused and entertained

the pupils. Everyone learnt a lot about local

government, the role of the Mayor,

democracy, and leadership.

The mayor’s team treated the pupils to

biscuits and squash at the end of the visit

and gave each child a pack of writing

materials labelled, “Presented by the Mayor

of Walsall”.

You may like to look out for newspaper

articles about this visit that may appear in

the local press this weekend.

PiXL update

Improvements continue to be made by the children in the groups. In Maths, they have focused on calculating the angles in a triangle, as well as using a protractor accurately. In English, the children have been focusing on sentence structure. They have paid particular attention to the use of connectives, as well as the different types of connectives, e.g. time, addition, causal. The PiXL core group will attend a meeting on 26th November. This will be an opportunity for staff to develop their ideas on how to use PiXL even more creatively in order to impact further on the children’s learning.

For more information, please see

www.pixl.org.uk

Christmas Nativity Plays

We are happy to announce that the school’s

Christmas Nativity Plays will take place as follows:

Nursery & Reception:

Monday 15th December, 2.15pm

& Wednesday 17th December, 9.15am

Year 1 & Year 2:

Tuesday 16th December, 2.15pm

& Thursday 18th December, 9.15am

As usual, you would need to pre-book tickets for

these events and we warmly encourage you to book

early.

MUFTI DAY There will be an ‘own clothes’ (non-uniform) day on

Friday 28th November in aid of the Church Christmas

Fayre. If they can, children should dress up as a

character from a Roald Dahl book for the day. Big

Friendly Giants, Giant Peaches, Oompa-loompas, and

Charlies (for example) are all welcome. There will be a

minimum charge of £1 per child, payable on the day.

VISIT SANTA

Santa will be visiting the Christmas Fayre. Anyone

wishing to see him and receive a present should fill in

the form and return with correct money to school in an

envelope by Friday 28th November.

MY MATHS

Please note the password for access to My Maths will be

changing this weekend to ‘Blue’.