St. John’s Catholic Primary School Newsletter 12 – 5th December 2025

This Sunday’s Gospel : JOHN THE BAPTIST’S CALL TO REPENTANCE
In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message: ‘Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said: “A voice cries in the wilderness:
prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.” This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather belt round
his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to
him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. But when he saw a number of Pharisees and
Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you
are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father,” because, I tell
you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which
fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me
is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is
in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’

Attendance Award – Year  6 – 96.4% – Well done!

Whole School Attendance – 89.7 %

Superstars of the Week!

YR – Lily for her participation and enthusiasm in our nativity rehearsals. We have cast the right person to be our star!

Y1 – Emily for always coming into school ready to learn and always trying hard!

Y2 – Zeph for being aspirational in his learning and seeking new opportunities to challenge himself.

Y3 –Tymon and Olivia for preparing and delivering a thoughtful and inspiring class worship.

Y4 – Evie-Rose for her work for the Common Good and her Solidarity with others.

Y5 – Santi for his enthusiastic engagement in class discussions. 

Y6 – Aurelia for consistently scoring highly on her end of unit Maths assessments, demonstrating a solid level of focus and determination.

Proud Work: 05/12/2025

YR – Deon for his careful painiting of an Advent wreath.

Y1 – Natan for trying super hard in his spelling test this week, scoring 9/10!

Y2 – Theo for creating a stunning piece of digital artwork in the style of Piet Modrian.

-Sandy for her participation during group work recording factual statements and showing Stewardship in caring for our Earth.

Y3 – Hannah for writing an excellent letter to Pere Noel in perfect French with beautiful handwriting – tres bien Hannah!

Y4 – Alice for writing about herself and her pet in excellent French, no errors and in beautiful handwriting! Tres bien Alice!

Y5 – Charlotte for producing a very informative poster about Mercury as extra homework.

Y6 – Therese, Aria, Tilly, Mia, Grace, Samuel B and vincent for working extremely well as a team planning their rice salad recipe collaboratively (agreeing and compromising on ingredients), also making it in an organised way, using sharp knives, peelers safely! Well done! Mrs Curtis and Mrs Lee

Bronze Reader

YR -Sophia, Jhanella, Daisy, Rafael

Y2 – Oliver

Y4 – Alex

Y3 – Ayda

Y5 – Jayden, Hope

Times Tables Rockstars

Headliner: Alex M, Evelyn F

Support Act: Blu D

Breakthrough Artist: Aiden M, Tymon Z, Annie G

Wannabe: Connie R

Busker:  Marianna V

On Wednesday the 3^rd of December a group of Year 6 children went to St John’s Church Hall to help and support the SVP soup lunch. This is the second group who have done this over the past two weeks. This week all six of the children were new to this role and it was their first time helping at this event. They were nervous and excited on the walk down as they did not know what to expect. However, you would not have known during the event, as they were self-assured, confident and a delight to be with.

All the children that have helped should be so proud as comments were made to me about how wonderful they were, polite, attentive and serving all the guests with a smile! Well done children, you were a credit to the school. I was so proud of you

Mrs Clough

Chartwells Order Deadline Dates

Please order by the dates below to ensure your child has a hot lunch in the Autumn Term.

Tennis is a fantastic sport for kids – it’s fun, active and it’s a sport they can enjoy for life. It helps kids develop a wide range of skills, whether it’s running, throwing or catching, that they can use both on and off the court.

This Christmas treat your kids to a racket and ball set, for just £4.99 and watch them fall in love with tennis.

For just £4.99 you’ll get:

> A junior tennis racket

> A set of tennis balls

> Access to free taster tennis sessions (Barclays Free Park Tennis and / or Barclays Big Tennis Weekend)

> An LTA Advantage membership – with a wide range of exclusive discounts and benefits

The LTA have 10,000 rackets and ball sets to give away – to get yours and start your kid’s tennis journey today, all you have to do is sign up below:

www.lta.org.uk/play/parents-area/kids-tennis-how-to-get-started/

2025/26 Term Dates!

Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 November: Parents’ Evening

Wednesday 19 November: Friends Movie Night 3:15pm – 5:30pm

Wednesday 19th November: Non School Uniform Day

Tuesday 25 November: Open Morning for 2026 reception starters

Friday 5 December: Christmas Fair 4:30pm – 6:30pm

Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 December: Reception Nativity

Friday 12 December: Teacher-Led clubs end

Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 December: KS1 Nativity

Tuesday 16 December: KS2 Advent Service at Church

Thursday 18 December: School Christmas Lunch

Thursday 18 December: Stage to School Theatre Group – Whole School Pantomime

Friday 18 December: Christmas Jumper Day

Friday 19 December: Last day of Autumn Term

Christmas holiday: Monday 22 December—Friday 2 January 2026

Spring Term 2026

Monday 5 January: children return to school

To keep up to date with future school events, please visit the school calendar which can be found on the parents page on our website.

Parents – St John’s Catholic Primary School

Christmas Jumper Day- Thursday 18^th December

£2 donation to St Benedict’s Catholic Primary in Kenya please!

If your child would like to wear a Christmas jumper on Thursday 18th December, please can they bring in £2 per child for our link school in Kenya. This will help them to buy basic school resources that they desperately need.  If you wish to donate more than £2 that would be very kind. St Benedict’s are so grateful for all your support! It is the same day as our Christmas school lunch and Panto! What a jolly day it will be!!!!

Year 6 carols for the SVP

This week Year 6 sang carols in Horsham town centre to raise money for the SVP (Saint Vinvent de Paul Society.) They sang beautifully with many shoppers commenting on their song choices and upbeat singing despite the weather. They raised £76.64 for the charity. The SVP have long supported families at our school so we are delighted that we are able to give a little back to them this Advent season.