St. John’s Catholic Primary School Newsletter 7 — 24th October 2025

From the Gospel of Sunday 19th October Cf. Luke 18:1-8

Jesus wanted to teach his disciples that they should always pray and never give up. So he told them a story. Jesus said, “There was a judge in a certain town who had neither fear of God nor respect for any other person. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, ‘I want justice from you against my enemy!’ For a long time the judge refused, but at last he said to himself, ‘Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for any other person, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will continue coming and worry me to death.’” Then Jesus said, “If even the unjust judge eventually helped this woman who didn’t give up, then how much more will God, who is good,help those who pray to him every day”.

Attendance Award – Year  3 – 99.6% – Well done!

Whole School Attendance – 95.9%

Superstars of the Week!

YR – Rehma for her participation and perseverance and coming into school with a smile on her face each morning this week!

Y1 – Kilian for always being a super sensible member of year 1 and always trying his best. 

Y2 – Sandy for being Aspirational in her learning in Maths this week. Sandy was able to explain her thinking to the rest of the class.

Y3 – Hannah L for always working hard, being kind to others and being a role model to her peers. Keep up the good work! 

Y4 – Izak for the courage and confidence he has shown settling in and the good choices he has been making. 

Y5 – Zenata for helping organise and tidy our class without being asked. 

Y6 – Samuel M for taking responsibility for his own learning by taking his frec=nch book home and writing out his letter to his French penpal in his own time, because he knew he would miss the lesson! This is so mature and very commendable Samuel! (All written in excellent francasi aussi!) 

Proud Work: 24/10/2025

YR – Ralphie for a fantastic attitude to phonics and forming his letters correctly. 

Y1 – Ashton for trying super hard in maths this week and completing his fact families independently. 

Y2 – Alora for being Aspirational in her learning working independently investigating Artic Wolves in her fact file. 

Y3 – Joshual for participating on our Greek Salad lesson this week. Working for the common good and showing solidarity and thinking about disruptive justice by sharing some of his ingredients with another class member. 

Y4 – Henry for his explanation of Agape love – written with focus and dedication he shows to all his learning.

Y5 – Santi for his story inspired by ‘the lost thing’. He structured it well and used effective editing.

Y6 – Aria for writing out her letter to her French penpal in excellent francais and beautiful handwriting and presentation. Tres bien!

Numbots

Tungsten: Y2 Rory, Y6 Anthonia

Kevlar: Y6 Anthonia, Samuel

Aluminium: Y6 Anthonia, Samuel

Steel: Y4 Nuhan, Y5 Ava, Kian

Glass: Y2 Toby, Mia, Y4 Lucas, Y6 Anthonia

Tin: Y2 Ariela, Y3 Hannah S, Y4 Nicholas, Y5 Eden, Y6 Maisie

Rust: Y2 Ariela

Iron: Y1 Killian, Orla, Y2 Kateryna, Ariela, Y4 Vinny

Bronze: Y6 Mia, Samuel

Chrome: Y4 Megan, Aaron

Titanium: Y6 Mia, Samuel

Brass: Y4 Alexander

Carbon Fibre: Y6 Mia, Samuel

Gold: Y6 Ziona

Times Tables Rockstars

Headliner: Y5 Elizabeth

Wannabe: Y3 Annie

Garage Rocker: Y3 Jacob M

Breakthrough Artist: Y3 Lewis

Unsigned Act: Y3 Daniel, Joshual

Harvest Festival

On Tuesday 21^st October we celebrated Harvest Festival in school.

All the children took part by either singing a class song, reading poems, prayers and showing artwork all related to the theme of Harvest time.

Thank you so much for your generous donations of food, Christmas items and toiletries that will be collected by Horsham Matters and distributed to those families in need, in our local community,  over the coming weeks.

We were amazed at the amount of donations we received, which shows how important this cause is to our school, our children, and our families.

Learning about Catholic Social teaching, has enabled our children to appreciate the importance of why we support charities, through learning about The Common Good, Solidarity, Distributive Justice, and Preferential Option to the Poor, we know it is right to give to others.

All your donations will make such a difference to those who need it.

Thank 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.

RESPECT – Stranger Danger

This week’s RESPECT assembly was about ‘Stranger Danger’. We discussed what a stranger is and what to do if they feel uncomfortable, worried, scared or not safe. 

The children were given information about what to do if approached by a stranger and were told to ‘yell, run, tell’.

We also talked about looking for a ‘safer stranger’ or a ‘safer building’ if they are ever lost or need help and they are not with their grown up. 

A message was given to children about being aware of tricks and temptations e.g. sweets and presents from strangers. Children were reminded to never accept anything from a stranger and to never get into a strangers car. If a stranger genuinely wants to help, they would not need to do this and would find a safer way to help. 

Finally, children were also reminded that if taking part in activities over the half term period, to only accept sweets if they are wrapped in the original wrappers, kept outside and not inside the stranger’s house, and to always check with their grown up first. 

Please reinforce these messages at home with your children, particularly with half term approaching and different activities they may take part in. Children have also been tasked to learn one parent or guardian’s phone number off by heart over half term. They can tell this to their teacher to check and they can then come to me for a house point and respect sticker. 

Thank you for your continued support with our safeguarding curriculum. 

Miss Miles

Gardening Club

This terms Gardening Club have been working really hard this term making the outside of our school safer and prettier with weeding, planting bulbs as well as moving LOTS of woodchip to prepare the Laudato Si area. They worked as a team, supporting and encouraging and looking after each other.

Well done all of them. 

Good News!!

We are very excited to tell you that we have had funding agreed in principle from the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton to replace our hut on the back playground. The current structure is old and tired and in need of being replaced. This area is very important to us as we use this for many reasons such as holding music lessons and small group work away from the classroom.  It is also used by ZigZag for the wrap around the school day childcare they offer as well.

We need your help!

As a Volutary Aided school 90% of building costs are funded by the diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Therefore we need to raise the remaining 10%!

Any contributions you make to the Capital fund will go towards funding the 10%.  All your contributions are much appreciated and will be directly used to complete this project.

For more information about the Capital Fund please visit the website to view the governor’s letter which has been previously sent out and can be found in the Important Documents section of MCAS. If you wish to make a one off donation please click on the payment option in School Gateway.

Your support on improving our school environment is very appreciated and we look forward to sharing further updates with you in the future.

Huge Thank you from St Benedict’s Catholic Primary in Kenya!

Our link school in Kenya, St Benedict’s have sent a huge thank you for the funds raised by current Year 3 and Year 1 in the summer term! Together they raised £1,160.17, an incredible amount! Year 1 sold ice pops and Year 3 did sponsored laps round the track, amazing efforts to raise so much money!

The Headteacher, Mr Kasili, and all the staff, parents and children are so delighted and overwhelmed. They are extremely grateful. Mr Kasili asked the parents and children how they wanted the money to be spent and he also had a meeting with his Board of Governors. They all voted for new desks for every child in the school which is a huge task as St Benedict’s is much bigger than our school. It will make such a difference for the children! We will try to get some photos once the new desks have been made and are being used by the children.

We will continue to raise funds each year to help St Benedict’s. Huge thank you again for all your very generous support, Year 1 and Year 3 children and parents!

Huge Thank you from St Benedict’s Catholic Primary in Kenya!

Our link school in Kenya, St Benedict’s have sent a huge thank you for the funds raised by current Year 3 and Year 1 in the summer term! Together they raised £1,160.17, an incredible amount! Year 1 sold ice pops and Year 3 did sponsored laps round the track, amazing efforts to raise so much money!

The Headteacher, Mr Kasili, and all the staff, parents and children are so delighted and overwhelmed. They are extremely grateful. Mr Kasili asked the parents and children how they wanted the money to be spent and he also had a meeting with his Board of Governors. They all voted for new desks for every child in the school which is a huge task as St Benedict’s is much bigger than our school. It will make such a difference for the children! We will try to get some photos once the new desks have been made and are being used by the children.

We will continue to raise funds each year to help St Benedict’s. Huge thank you again for all your very generous support, Year 1 and Year 3 children and parents!

2025/26 Term Dates!

Tuesday 21 October: Harvest Festival and Food Donations

 Friday 24 October: children break up for October half-term

Half-term: Monday 27 October—Friday 31 October

Monday 3 November: children back to school

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

Friends of St John’s

Christmas fair planning meeting Nov 6th. All welcome to come along. Need some ideas and help to arrange stalls. Please also sign up to help set up from 2pm to when the fair starts at 4.30. To help on a stall for 1/2 hour to an hour  (spending how many volunteers and stalls we have) and help pack away at 6.30-7.30pm. Fair date is Friday 5th December. Go to the friends website to sign up!

Movie night tickets are now on sale! Tickets currently limited to 42 based on the number of volunteers. We currently have 5 volunteers so would be good to have a few more and we could open up to more children. Please sign up on the Friends website. closing date for tickets is 14th November.

Thank you to those who have given orders in for Rudolph cards. We will send the order off shortly.

We hope you have a great half term week.

The Friends of St John’s