Welcome back. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your families and it was filled with lots of love, laughter and happiness.

It has been lovely to see you all back in school, ready to embrace what 2025 has in store for us.

 

St Bernadette Class Liturgy

Parents of the children in St Bernadette class, you are invited to join us for your child’s class Liturgy on Wednesday 15^th January at 9,15am.

Please join us and be part of this act of worship.

Bad Weather

With all the reports of snow and ice in and around the country at the moment I thought we should be prepared in case the snow hits Croydon.

If for any reason the school needs to close due to bad weather you will be informed by text message and email. We will also update the school’s website and post it on Seesaw .

Staff will post the learning for the time the school is closed on Seesaw, so please ensure you have your child’s log in details and are able to access it. This is our online learning platform and it is essential that you and your child are able to use it to access their learning.

Attendance and Absences 

I wanted to inform you about new guidance we have received regarding attendance and absences. This information is intended to help you make an informed decision when considering taking your child out of school during term time. The guidance has been provided by the Education Welfare Officer from Croydon Council, and as a school, we are expected to adhere to it

New attendance framework:

Please be mindful if there are ten sessions of unauthorised absence recorded within a ten-week period a referral could be made to the local authority and a penalty notice may be issued to you. For a first referral the amount being £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days. There would be no reduction for a second referral within a three-year period.

Unauthorised absence includes absence without justified cause, including medical evidence not been provided when requested / no communication with school regarding absence / term time absence / lates recorded after registration has closed.

A reminder that the school day is 8.55am to 3.25 pm

Please ensure that your child is bought to school by 8.55am and collected at 3.25pm

The gates will be closed and locked at 9.05am, after this time you will need to go to the school office to sign your child in as they are late. 

If you are going to be late, please phone the school office to prevent your child being marked as absent.

If you are going to be late collecting your child at the end of the day can we please ask that you phone the school office to let us know, so we can tell your child as they sometimes get upset.

After school the gates are locked at 3.35pm, after this time you will need to go to the school office to pick up your child and sign them out with the reason for late collection. 

If you are going to be considerably later that 3.25pm we may have to put your child in our after-school club and charge you, as staff often have meetings after school that they need to attend. 

“Baptism gives strength and it gives light.”

Pope Francis

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for the gift of Baptism. Please help us to live like you can to spread God’s love throughout this new year.

Amen

Golden Table

I had the pleasure of having lunch with another 6 children with wonderful table manners.

This week I was joined by:

 Daisy-Sharon Okonji-Akubianudo in St Andrew Class

 Bree Johnson in St George Class

 Annlyn Sherin in St Bernadette Class

Jonas Valyi in St Therese Class

Chidalu Chika-Achi in St Francis Class

Jaydel Enade in St Martin Class

It was clear that these six children have good table manners- they were telling me what they like to eat at home & who does all the cooking in the house.