Our OFSTED Report is now available online, as a PDF and as a web page. Our own page on the DfES site has a map, and older reports.

I'm sure that you will agree that it is a very encouraging report and just reward for everybody associated with the school. Well done.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 10/10/07; 2:14:57 PM to the Notices News Flash dept.
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OFSTED REPORT

BUILDING EXTENSION
We have made an application to the Birmingham Archdiocese and Education Walsall for funding to extend the school building in order to improve security, safety and accommodation. We have now received confirmation that funding is in place for this work. The work involved is substantial and will take a period of between 4 and 6 months. This, of course, will have an effect upon the running of the school and plans are in place to minimise any disruption.
In order to fully brief everybody about all the plans and issues regarding this work we will be holding two meetings on Tuesday 16th October at 9:00 a.m. and at 3:30 p.m. in the School Hall. These meetings will explain the build and all of the plans to continue running the school effectively during the work. Please try your best to attend.

COFFEE MORNING
Thank you to those who attended the coffee morning last week and I’m glad to here that there was a desire to make it a regular feature. The next one will be on Friday 16th November at 9:15 a.m., which is Children in Need day, and all are welcome to join us.

SCHOOL DINNERS
Some of the parental feedback we have received recently has regarded the school meals served in the kitchen. I think I need to clarify that the contents of school meals are very heavily prescribed and there are now strict regulations about what can be served and how often. I know that Margaret and the staff in the kitchen work hard to present a varied and healthy lunch for the children but they are working within the strict guidelines given by the School Food Trust.

BOOK WEEK
Next week we are holding our Scholastic Book Week based upon the topic of Enchantment. There will be books available to buy from Monday to Thursday after school. The school receives commission from the sale in terms of books for our libraries.
As well as the book sales children’s work on the theme of enchantment will be in the hall and each class will be putting on Enchanted Performances on the following days at 2:45 p.m.
Monday October 15th          – Years 1 and 5
Tuesday October 16th         – Years 2 and 6
Wednesday October 17th    – Years 3 and 4
Please join us for these performances if you can.

FOUNDATION WELCOME MASS
Our annual welcome mass for our children in the Foundation Stage is on Tuesday 16th October at 10:00 a.m. in the Reception classroom. Please join us to welcome our youngest children during this mass.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 10/10/07; 1:58:16 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Parents Letter October 10th

Dates for your Diaries
Now we’ve settled into the Autumn Term here are some dates for meetings and events for this term.

Sports Days
You may remember that we had to cancel the sports days last term due to the weather. We will try again next week to give the children a chance to show their athletic prowess.

We will hold a Sports Day for Years 1, 2 and 3 on Wednesday 19th September at 9:30 a.m.
On Thursday 20th September we will hold it for the children in Years 4, 5 and 6 at 9:30 a.m.
If you are available to come and support please join us and of course they are both arranged weather permitting.

Curriculum Meetings
We have a series of meetings to give guidance and help you to help us develop the children’s skills.

Meeting for Parents on Raising Boys Achievement
Tuesday September 25th at 3:30 p.m.
One of the issues we are currently looking at is how boys learn. Research shows that boys and girls learn in different ways and that there are ways we can work together to improve the way we work with boys to raise their attainment.
We would like to share these ideas with you so we have arranged this meeting for any parents who are interested, but principally those of you who have boys here. We will be able to look after any children who attend St. Joseph’s during the meeting in order to help with childcare issues.

Year 6 SATS Meeting
Tuesday October 2nd at 3:30 p.m.
This meeting is for the parents of children in Year 6 and will give details on how we work to help the children to achieve their best during the Year 6 tests. It is an important meeting so please try your best to attend as we need to work closely together to achieve the best results for the children.

Year 2 Assessment Meeting
Tuesday October 9th at 3:30 p.m.
This meeting is for the parents of children in Year 2 and will give details on how we work to help the children to achieve their best during the Year 2 Assessments. It is an important meeting so please try your best to attend as we need to work closely together to achieve the best results for the children.

Harvest Masses
These will be held on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September.

School Photographs
The photographer will be in school on Thursday October 18th in the morning.

Parents Evening
This will be held on Thursday 1st November from 4.00 to 6.30 p.m.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 13/9/07; 12:05:47 PM to the Notices Important Dates dept.
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Autumn Term Dates for Your Diaries

Happy Easter

As we break up today may I wish you all a happy Easter and I hope that you all have a holy and restful time during Holy Week and Easter week.

Summer Term Dates

 We return to school for the Summer Term on Monday 16th April.

We break up for Half Term on Friday 25th May

We return on Monday 4th June

We break up for the Summer Holiday on Friday 20th July at 1:15 p.m.

We are also closed on the following days:

Thursday 4th May Local Election Day / Staff Training
Monday 7th May Bank Holiday.

Breakfast Club

From the Summer Term we will have to increase the cost of Breakfast Club from £1.20 per day to £1.50 to meet expenses.

Please note that there will be no breakfast club on Monday April 16th to enable us to clean and sterilise all the equipment.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 30/3/07; 12:48:40 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Parents Letter 30th March

EcoGirl made a flying visit to St. Joseph's yesterday. Her environmental message helped us all to remember our responsibility to look after our planet. # Posted by Steve Hooker at 20/3/07; 4:17:42 PM to the Notices News Flash dept.
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EcoGirl Visits St. Joseph's

Parents Evening

A reminder that the Spring Term Parents Evening is this Thursday (22nd March) from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 pm. If you haven’t already done so please sign up for a time on the sheets in each classroom. Joining us on Thursday will be the Extended School Coordinator, Miss Donna Magher, who will be looking at Parent’s views on the Extended Services you would like to see at St. Joseph’s and in Darlaston generally.
Also here will be Jaginder Rattan from the Children’s Information Service who will be able to give advice on a range of services available to children and parents throughout Walsall. Please feel free to have a chat with either of them on Thursday.

Lenten Charity

Thank you for your continuing support for or Lenten Charity work. We have a number of activities this week.
This Friday (23rd) we will be having a MUFTI day and we ask that each child bring in £1 to help with our grand total. Thank you.

Confirmation

Well done to all of the children who were confirmed earlier this month. We will be having our Confirmation Thanksgiving Mass tomorrow in school at 10:00 a.m. The children will receive their certificates and all are welcome to join us.

Lenten Assemblies

We have been delighted with the support that you have shown the children by joining us for our Lenten Assemblies. We have three more to go:
Year 5 on Friday 23rd at 10:15 – David
Foundation Stage Wednesday 28th at 10:15 – Zaccheaus
Year 6 on Friday 30th at 10:15 – St Paul

All are welcome to join us.

Term Dates

We break up for the Easter holiday on Friday 30th March and return to school on Monday 16th April.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 19/3/07; 11:45:42 AM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Parents Letter 19th March 2007

Welcome Back
Welcome back to the new half term, I hope that you have had a good break and are ready for the run up to Christmas.

School Photographer
The school photographer is in school this Thursday (2nd November). Family group photographs can be taken first thing in the morning. The children who are visiting the theatre during the afternoon will have their photographs taken before they leave.

School Parking / School Travel Plan
Thank you to those of you who have completed the school travel questionnaire which was sent home before the holiday. If you haven’t already sent in your replies could I have them by Friday so that we can start collating the results. Thank you

Foundation / Key Stage 1 Reading Evening
A reminder that we are holding a meeting for all Foundation and Key Stage 1 parents on Wednesday 8th November at 6:00 p.m.

INSET Day
In order to undergo further staff training on our new reading scheme we will be closed for pupils on Friday 10th November.

Parents Evening
This will be on Tuesday 14th November between 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Appointment sheets are available in the classrooms.

School Meals
We have a number of children who are not paying daily for their school meals. We ask that children pay each day for their dinners, we will provide each child with a new dinner bag today for their dinner money today and if they could write their name and class on it and bring this in every day it will help the kitchen staff greatly.

Money in School
If you are sending money into the school office could it please come in in a clearly marked envelope with the child’s name, class and the reason why the money has been sent in. This will help us greatly with the administration.

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 1/11/06; 2:59:00 PM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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Letter 31st October 2006

Our Breakfast Club is continuing this year. It now begins at 8:00 a.m. and we welcome children from Reception through to Year 6. The cost is £1.20 per day and weekly payment may be made on a Monday morning.

If any of you have any recent comics or magazines that are in good condition we would be grateful if you could donate them for use at the Breakfast Club and generally throughout the school for wet playtimes as we go through the term. Thank you. 

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 11/9/06; 1:05:19 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Breakfast Club

A reminder of the information that was sent out at the beginning of last year regarding holiday leave.

As a school we recommend strongly that children are in school as often as possible so that they can get full access to their educational rights. Our level of attendance is good compared to many similar schools. We do however have a small number of children who have relatively low attendance rates.

Although I have sympathy with the economic reasons for taking holidays in term time holiday leave has a great effect on our attendance levels.

If a child misses 2 weeks a year from Reception to Year 6 that is the equivalent of more than a term lost. In national curriculum terms that time is worth a third to half a level of progress for that child. In terms of school it makes it more difficult for us to meet our targets for achievement.

Head Teachers have discretionary powers to grant leave of up to 10 days per year per child. This is not a right it is entirely at the discretion of the head.
This is known as authorised absence. Any holiday leave that has not been authorised or is over the 10 days authorisation will be regarded as unauthorised absence.
Any unauthorised absence has to be reported to the LEA and they will issue a fixed term penalty of £50 per child, per parent. (£100 if paid after 28 days).

During 2005/2006 we found ourselves in a position where a fixed term penalty was imposed due to a child taking unauthorised holiday absence and obviously we do not want to have to do so again.

Any child whose attendance is 85% or less in the course of the academic year or, in the autumn term, the preceding year will not be authorised for holiday leave.

Any leave over the number of days which been authorised will automatically be liable to a fixed penalty notice from the LEA.

 

# Posted by Kevin Mee at 11/9/06; 1:00:17 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Holiday Leave / Attendance

Term dates for this year are as follows:

 

Autumn Term
Wednesday 6th September to Friday 20th October
Monday 30th October to Wednesday 20th December

 

Spring Term
Wednesday 3rd January to Friday 9th February
Monday 19th February to Friday 30th March

 

Summer Term
Monday 16th April to Friday 25th May
Monday 4th June to Friday 20th July

 

We have a further 3 teacher days within these times. You will be informed of the dates as soon as they are finalised.

 

Year 6 SATs week Monday 14th to Friday 18th May 2007 # Posted by Kevin Mee at 11/9/06; 12:55:45 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Term Dates 06.07

It is nice to see the children coming in looking so smart at the beginning of the year, but just to remind you that we do not allow the children to wear jewellery in school. If they cannot remove ear rings then they must be taped up in school and taken out as soon as practical. We also have a policy regarding hairstyles where we do not allow the children to come in with tramlines or excessively spiked hair. These policies have been in place for many years and I hope that we have your continued cooperation in these matters. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 11/9/06; 12:44:11 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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School Uniform

Those of you who went past the school during the holiday will have noticed the building work going on. During the summer the tiled roof over the hall was completely replaced along with some of the fascias. New windows and blinds have been fitted in Years 1, 2, 4 and 6 and the school has had cable fitted throughout which has enabled us to completely revamp our ICT provision.
We currently have a bid going through the system with Walsall and the Diocesan Schools Commission for an extension to the administration area of the school which will improve our entrance and security, disabled facilities, toilet facilities and give us some extra meeting rooms. This is dependant upon funding being approved. Approval and work will, hopefully, be during this academic year and as things progress I will keep you informed.
# Posted by Kevin Mee at 11/9/06; 12:39:21 PM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Building Works

Each year the staff receive many Christmas Cards from children and families, for which we are very grateful. As part of our tradition of charity I have asked the children to help us raise money for CAFOD by giving us the money they spend on staff cards instead. This means that we can buy, through CAFOD, various ‘gift’ items on behalf of the school to help people throughout the world have a happier Christmas. I have only asked them to save the money on staff cards; they will still be able to give cards to each other. If you wish to offer us money rather than cards please send it into school in an envelope marked CAFOD. Full details of the CAFOD World gifts can be seen at www.cafod.org.uk/worldgifts. Thank you. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 15/11/05; 11:41:19 AM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Christmas Cards

Here are the dates we have for this year’s Christmas activities. Further details of each event will be sent nearer the time.
 
Friday 18th November    MUFTI Day / Bring a Bottle for the Christmas Bazaar

Saturday 19th November    Christmas Bazaar 2:00 p.m.

Saturday 26th November   Advent Mass in Church 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday 29th November   Advent Mass at School 10:00 a.m.

Tuesday 13th December   Carol Service in Church 2:00 p.m.

                                         School Disco 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (Junior Classes)

Wednesday 14th December    Nativity Production a.m. and p.m.

Thursday 15th December    Christmas Dinner

Friday 16th December    Christmas Parties

Tuesday 20th December   End of Term / Christmas Mass 10:00 a.m.

Wednesday 21st December     Break up 1:15 p.m. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 15/11/05; 11:38:28 AM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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Christmas Dates and Events

Thank you for all of the questionnaires that have been returned over the last few weeks. We have had in total 52 returned and having gone through them here are the main findings from the responses and what we are proposing to do regarding school meals and food in school generally.

Responses to Multiple Choice Questions (Percentages)

3. If your child has school dinners can you tell us if you consider whether they are value for money. 
65% Yes
35% No
4. In line with national and local changes we are trying to provide a healthier school meals service. Do you support these changes? (1 strongly support, 2 moderately support, 3 don’t support) 
83%  1
12%  2
4%    3
5. How supportive do you feel your children are to these changes? (1 strongly support, 2 moderately support, 3 don’t support) 
53%  1
33%  2
14%  3
9. If we changed from a cafeteria system to a system where we offered set meals would you support this? 
63% Yes
37% No
10. The government is stating that there will be a requirement for healthy lunchboxes in school from September 2006. Do you agree that this should be the case? 
88% Yes
12%  No
14. If the school kitchen provided a healthy packed lunch option would your children choose this? 
73% Yes
27% No
15. If we offered toast or cereal for breakfast from 8:30 a.m. would your children choose to have this? 
62% Yes
38% No

A Summary of other Responses

• In response to question 8, ‘What sort of healthy meals would you or your children like to see on the menu?’ there were a selection of foods that were regularly mentioned; rice, pasta, roasts, fish, fruit, potatoes. A lot of these foods are now available on the menu as it has developed over the last few months. It seems that we haven’t let you know the content of the new menus regularly enough.

• All of the processed foods that were being used have now been completely phased out and are no longer part of the dinner menus. As a result of the questionnaire feedback Friday’s ‘Burger in the Bag’ has been removed.

• Fizzy drinks are not part of the drinks options for the children except for carbonated water.

• The issue of a vegetarian option was mentioned several times, the kitchen offers a vegetarian option every day.

• The question about the packed lunch options (question 11.) was not written as clearly as it could have been, for which I apologise. The responses were pretty clear though that the vast majority of you would not like to see chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks as part of their children’s packed lunch.

• The majority of you would like to see us sell fruit or cereal bars at playtime instead of crisps.

Future Changes

As a result of your feedback we are proposing the following:

• To keep parents up to date of the dinner menus through letters or the school website

• To hold a meeting for parents early in the new year to look at food options for the children in the school and to consult further with parents about what is regarded as a healthy lunchbox for the children of St. Joseph’s

• To continue to improve the quality of the food offered to the children

• To begin from January a Primary set menu instead of a cafeteria system for a trial period

• To begin from January to offer from the school kitchen a packed lunch option for a trial period

• To begin from January to offer the option of a breakfast of toast or cereal served at school for a trial period

• To change what we sell children for playtime tuck to a healthier option during the course of this academic year

Thank you for your time and effort in responding to this questionnaire, it is obviously an area that many of you feel strongly about. It was difficult to try and condense all the responses into a 2 sided letter, but I hope that you feel that I have succeeded and that the proposed measures are appropriate for your children. If you have any concerns, issues or ideas about school meals, food in school or healthy eating please contact me so that we can discuss them. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 15/11/05; 11:29:21 AM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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No subject

On Wednesday morning the Foundation area had a visit from Officers Rob and Sarah who came to talk with the children about 'Crossing the road'  safely and 'Keeping safe when watching Fireworks'. After the discussion and some role play each child was presented with a certificate and had their photo taken with the Officers. Before they left the Foundation classes the Officers gave the children police play hats to use in school, stickers and sweets. Everyone had a lovely time and on Friday Officer Rob returned to school with some printouts of the photos taken at the visit, they are on display in the Foundation corridor.

Before leaving St. Joseph's Officers Rob and Sarah came to have a talk with Year 4 about how to behave around Fireworks. Together they made up some very sensible rules, which if followed will  keep us safe and able to enjoy the Firework parties this weekend.
# Posted by Sue Harris at 5/11/05; 10:31:16 PM to the Notices Neighbour Relations dept.
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Visit from Officers Rob and Sarah

A reminder that we break up this Friday for the Half-Term holiday.
The children return to school on TUESDAY 1st NOVEMBER.
Monday 31st October is a staff training day. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 18/10/05; 10:18:28 AM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Half-Term Holiday

Thank you to those of you who have already given to the school building fund in previous terms. The school is liable to pay 10% of capital building projects for the school and the school building fund helps the school meet this cost. At this time we have two main building priorities. We are in the process of making a bid for an extension to the junior side of the school which includes a more secure main entrance and we are looking to improve the image of the front of the school including replacing old fascia boards. All building fund donations will contribute directly to these projects. As well as the envelopes we also have standing order forms available if you wish to make a regular donation to the building fund account. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 18/10/05; 10:16:31 AM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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School Building Fund

The first Parents’ Evening of the school year will be on Wednesday 9th November between 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. Please select a time on the appointment sheets in the classrooms. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 18/10/05; 10:13:22 AM to the Notices Admin Staff dept.
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Parents' Evening

I believe that, yesterday evening, there was a suspicious incident outside the school involving a man in a car. As the nights are getting darker please be vigilant for your child’s safety, if you see anything suspicious please report it to a member of school staff and/or the Police. Please remember also that it is the school policy that ALL children are dropped off and collected from school each day. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 18/10/05; 10:10:05 AM to the Notices Head's Letters dept.
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Take Care

Well done to the children from Year 6, Liam Avery, Katie Naughton, Rose Waller, Raje Singh, Anika Loi, Demi Wellings, Skye Owen, who represented the school at the annual Walsall Deanery Mass for Vocations at St. Mary's the Mount last night. They were excellent ambassadors for the school in the way they behaved and took part in the mass. Well done. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 14/10/05; 12:48:05 PM to the Notices Awards & Mentions dept.
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Vocations Mass

Since my last letter regarding school meals there have been further developments and changes to what we can and can’t do with effect from next September. These changes will also affect the children who have sandwiches and the tuck that we offer the children. In order to make these changes I am going to send a school meals questionnaire out next week to ask for your views on what you feel is being offered and what should be offered in the light of the new changes. When you receive it please try your best to respond as the more replies we get, the more we can do to try and create a service that people are happy with. # Posted by Kevin Mee at 14/10/05; 12:41:26 PM to the Notices School Meals dept.
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School Meals

Congratulations and welcome to your new school site. This first news item is set as yesterday, your next new one will be today.

• To start posting and editing this site please log in. Your email address and password are the same as the ones used to create this website. Or, you will have received an emailed invite with those details.
  
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• To create a new post, click the News command in the Editors only menu at the top of this page (only logged in editors can see the Editors only menu).
• Common newbie warning: in Editors only: don't use pictures, you want to use thumbnails, they're better. And, to add some thing to the front page, you need a new news item, not a new discussion group topic. Different things.
  
• This is your site. You can change almost everything about it, including its name, appearance, membership and bulletin features. The Prefs command in the Editors only menu is the place to start.
• There's also a PDF for you to download. It's a handbook, tip sheet and fast start. Training Manual at 100 pages.
• Finally, please bookmark this page. Be sure you can find it again. Any problems call me on 01952 271 671

# Posted by Sue Harris at 17/9/05; 4:51:43 PM to the Notices Website dept.
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Welcome to your new Walsall Schools site