St. John’s Catholic Primary School Newsletter 4 – 9th October 2026

Adapted from Matthew 22:1-10, The 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like when a king held a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants to summon those who had been invited, but they didn’t want to come. He sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared the meal, everything is ready, come to the feast.’ Some of those invited took no notice, but others seized the king’s servants. The king was very angry and sent his soldiers. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go out into the streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’ The servants went out and gathered together everyone they could find, both bad and good alike. The wedding hall was now filled with guests.”

Attendance Award – Year 4 -99.1 % – Well done!

Whole School Attendance -95.8 % (Target at least 95%, well done keep it up!)

Superstars of the Week!

Y1 – Cassandra for always trying so hard in all areas of her learning!

Y2 – Sophie for collaborating effectively during group activities and being confident to ask for support when needed.

Y3 – Pippy for always participating enthusiastically during class discussions.

Y4 – Hannah for her positive, cheerful and enthuisiastic attitude to school and her excellent manners.

Y5 – Eloise for her great effort in our fitness circuit especially her wall sits.

Y6-  Riley for a fantastic week. We are all really proud of you! Keep it up!!

  Proud Work: 09/10/2026

 Y1 –  Daisy for working hard in phonics to sort and read real and alien words with the split e-e digraph.

Y2 – Evander for his poster informing and warning the public about wolves. He used a range of sentence types to create his poster.

Y3 – Erin for writing exciting sentences starting with an ’emotion’ adjective. This hard work shows across all her writing.

Y4 – Megan…Tres Bien!  Excellent francais Megan, tres bonne memoire de vocabulaire! Madame Curtis

Holly for getting 40/40 on her first attempt at the challenging Silver level of times tables test- thanks to her hard work and focus.

 

Y5 – Blu, Huey, Lucas and Nicholas for collaborating together to compose a piece of music, using instruments of their choice. They used rhythm, dynamics and change of tempo and worked very well together. The music was set in a forest. Well Done! Mrs Curtis

Y6 –  Flynn for his focus during our classifying plants lesson. He answered questions and showed a keen interest.

Spelling Shed Certificate of Achievement

Y1 –  Leo W W

Y2 –  Emily

Y3 – Sofia

Y4 – Adam  .. Excellent Progress!

Y5 – Teo

Y6 – Cailyn

Times Tables Rockstars

Breakthrough Artist:  

Gigger :

Wannabe:

Unsigned Act : Toby

Breakthrough Artist: 

Headliner : Ariana, Erin

2026/27 Term Dates and key info!

Tuesday 13 October: 9:15am – Open Morning for September 2027 starters

Wednesday 14 October: Harvest Festival – please see below for details.

Monday 26 – Friday 30 October: Half-term

Wednesday 4 November, Thursday 5 November: Parent’s Evenings 3.45 – 6pm

Thursday 12 November: Dress Down for Resources Day – more info to follow

Sunday 15 November: PTA refreshments sale after the 9:15am Mass at church

Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 December: 2pm KS1 Christmas Play

Thursday 10 December: 10am KS1 Christmas Play

Thursday 17 December: KS2 Advent Service at church 2pm

Friday 18 December: end of term

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

Harvest Festival

Donating food is one of the most direct and meaningful ways you can support people in our local community. But with so many options on the supermarket shelf, it can be hard to know what to pick.

Horsham Matters runs 15 weekly foodbank sessions, and every single one relies on the generosity of people like you. Without donations from the community, they simply could not keep their shelves stocked or doors open for those who need them most.

Most needed items right now

They always need donations — but certain items run out faster than others. The following are the items needed most at the moment, and why they matter so much to the people that they support:

• Children’s snacks– Snacks for children are always in high demand and make a real difference for families.
• Coffee– A simple comfort that means a great deal — coffee is one of our most requested items.
• Long life milk— A versatile essential used in drinks, cooking and cereal — and easy to store long term.
• Tinned potatoes or instant mash— A filling, affordable staple that helps people put a proper meal on the table.
• Tinned veggie options (not pulses or beans)— Tinned vegetables help people eat a balanced, nutritious diet.

When choosing items to donate, look out for long shelf lives and easy preparation, these are the things that help most when someone is struggling. Even a single tin or packet can go a long way.

We will celebrate harvest with the children by having a special assembly and ensure that they understand why they are donating and what a different it can make to our community.

Please bring any donation in for harvest on Wednesday 14^th October. 

Many thanks for your support!

Under the new Free School Milk provision, if you are entitled to Expanded or Targeted Free School Meals funding,  your child is also eligible for free milk at breaktime. 

Milk will no longer be provided at lunchtime, due to the removal of parents ordering this and with allergies, we feel it is safer for milk to no longer be provided to all children. 

If you are not on Free School Meals, you can still order milk for your child at breaktime via Cool Milk: Cool Milk – Little Sips, Big Adventures

💚💛 World Mental Health Day

This week, we celebrated World Mental Health Day by inviting our children to come to school wearing green and yellow. It was wonderful to see the school filled with such bright and cheerful colours!

World Mental Health Day provided a lovely opportunity for us to talk with the children about the importance of looking after our mental health and wellbeing. We encouraged the children to think about their feelings, the importance of talking to someone they trust when they are worried or upset, and how small acts of kindness can make a big difference to someone else.

We wore yellow to represent brightness, warmth and hope for the future. And green to represent hope, strength and support.

Thank you to all our families for helping the children get involved and for embracing our green and yellow theme. It was lovely to see everyone coming together to promote kindness, positivity and the importance of looking after ourselves and each other. 💚💛