The Salford Diocese School for

Children & Young People with SEND

Headteacher’s Message: Dear Parents/Carers,

I do hope that you and your family had a pleasant break last week. The children came back to school this week full of energy and keen to tell of the events of their week and the things they had been up to. It is clear that many benefited from the excellent weather we had during the half term break, which pleasingly continued into this week. It has been lovely to see to so many children outside at break and lunchtimes enjoying the early February sunshine. The chil-dren have certainly quickly settled back into the routines of School.

This half term is almost 7 weeks long; it takes us right through Holy Week, with us breaking up on Maundy Thursday (18th April) for a short Easter break. With Lent almost upon us the Chaplaincy team this week were engaged in a retreat day where they were planning the liturgical programme of Lent for our children. The first event to mark the start of Lent will be our Ash Wednesday service in the Chapel, next Wednesday at 9:30 am. The team have also been busy preparing how we will get the whole School to embrace the Lenten period and have come up with a number of ex-citing ideas, not only about what they can give up but also about what they can do more. I look forward to sharing their ideas with you over the forthcoming weeks.

Could I remind parents of the really important Parents’ Evening event, which will take place in School on Tuesday 26th March from 5-7pm. It is imperative that parents and carers do all they can to attend on the evening to discuss the progress being made by their child.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Mr A Moloney

@StJohnVianneySc

Reminder from Miss Nesbitt: Please could parents of all KS3 pupils return the Parent

View and Professional Link paperwork for the EHCP Reviews to Miss Nesbitt as soon

as possible. Reviews are taking place throughout March. Thank you!

PARENT GOVERNOR ELECTION: RESULTS Thank you to all parents and carers who returned their ballot papers for the parent governor

election. We are pleased to announce that Mr Isherwood-Smith has been elected as the

new Parent Governor. Congratulations to Mr Isherwood-Smith! The new role will start in

his new role in the forthcoming Governors’ meeting at the beginning of April.

SJV pupils having a great time in the sunshine!

Introducing... Miss.Murphy

Role in School: I’m the teacher in Orange Class (Class 1). What I’ve been doing this week: This week in Orange Class we went

swimming on Monday – we love splashing about in the pool in our weekly

sessions. We’ve also started a new topic called Grow It, and we planted

some sunflower seeds in pots. The children are looking forward to seeing

them grow – maybe we’ll have a competition to see whose grows the

tallest! I’ve also been to visit another school called Pictor Academy, where

I saw some super lessons and enjoyed gaining some new ideas for Orange

Class.

What is best about being in SJV? For me, the best thing is the staff at

SJV. Everyone wants the very best for the children we work with, and

everybody is so supportive of one another. I also think we’re really lucky

to have such open and spacious classrooms, where there’s plenty of space

for children to get focussed in a workstation, but also be able to work

around a group table too.

It would be even better if… We had some more onsite facilities like a soft

play room or a hydrotherapy pool – Orange

Class would make very regular visits to these!

Hopes and dreams for the future: I’m looking

forward to continuing my teaching journey at

SJV, with hopefully more training like PECS and

the TEACCH approach. I’m looking forward to

meeting more children at SJV over the coming

years and seeing them blossom into well-

balanced, kind young adults through effective

teaching and specialist support.

Christmas Fair

A Day in the life of… Zack

What I've been doing this week: Swimming. I

went swimming in the deep end with Thomas this

week. And then we had pasta bolognese for lunch.

We also planted sunflower seeds outside in the sun.

What is the best thing about being in SJV? Swim-

ming is the best thing, and the lunches. The best

lunch is pasta bolognese and rice pudding.

It would be even better if… I could bring my dog

Alfie to school.

Hopes and dreams for the future: I want to be a

taxi man. I would drive to

Farnworth because there’s

an Asda there. I would buy a

melon and some kiwis.

Our Catholic School It’s wonderful to be back and to see everyone again and catch up all that’s been happen-

ing in and out of School. The Chapel is looking particularly smart having been painted

and the School’s Chaplains have helped give it a good tidy up. It’s been a busy start to

the term with the full team going out on retreat on Wednesday morning to the Spiritan

centre with Mrs Garfin and Father Pat. Here we have been planning for Lent at SJV, and

rehearsing for our upcoming Ash Wednesday Service.

SJV’s scripture focus this week has been Matthew 5:16, ‘Let your light so shine before

men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father in heaven.’ One of

our favourite songs at SJV is: ‘This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine’. Jesus said

that we (His disciples) are the light of the world. We must not hide that light under a

bushel or in a church building. We must let it shine. How will people see that light?

Through our good works. SJV is planning on doing lots of good works throughout Lent,

so watch this space! In Religious Education we have been looking at what we can do to

‘let our little light shine’ by coming up with ideas for our charity appeals and planning the

acts of kindness we will do throughout Lent. It’s going to be a wonderful run up to East-

er at SJV with our children and young people leading the way with good works and kind-

ness, showing how much SJV lets them shine .

My name is Katharina Pauly, and I’m from Germany. I’ve spent the past

year as a volunteer in Manchester. I lived at the Spiritan Centre, together

with the Just Youth Team which collaborates with schools, parishes and

action groups. I worked regularly at St John Vianney School, and found it to be a very enriching experience. The strong

team spirit of the School staff, their friendliness and their devotion to their work, are very impressive and inspiring.

I enjoyed being a part of the School community because of the School’s strong religious ethos and close relationship to the

charity organisations Revive, Conerstone and MacMillan Cancer Support. Working with the Chaplaincy Team, preparing

and participating in the School’s religious classes with Father Pat, attending worship services, staff reflections and welfare

events really helped me to grow in faith. Thanks to all the staff, especially Mrs Garfin for your guidance, encouragement

and selfless support. I’m very thankful for that and wish the School and the future volunteers all the best.

Chaplaincy Team

We are all excited in School about taking part in World Book day 2019 on the 7th March. The theme this year is 'story telling' and we will be celebrating in the following way: pupils in Rainbow and class 5 are all looking for-ward to coming to school in their pyjamas ready for a bed-time story theme. Pupils in classes 6 - 12 are wel-come to dress as favourite characters or authors or bring in one of their favourite stories to school. Lots of story telling activities will take place throughout the day. A letter is going out to parents and carers this week with a £1 book token attached and instructions for how you can use it. Go to https://www.worldbookday.com/ for ideas and more infor-mation.

Literacy

Corner

Rainbow Building

Green Class have been studying the UK in Topic, and recently focused on Wales. The stu-dents painted these amazing Welsh dragons using their hand prints for the body and painted the rest using brushes. - what beautiful artwork!

City in the Community

Mr Cassidy would like to re-

mind all parents and carers

about our fantastic partner-

ship with Manchester City in

the Community, which pro-

vides our pupils with regular

opportunities to get active,

play football, and even watch

some matches! Now we have

a great opportunity for par-

ents and carers to get in-

volved too. There will be a

Football Festival taking place

on Saturday 9th March 2019,

which is FREE to join in. For

your free tickets and further

information, go to:

mancity.com/samegoals.

The children in the Rainbow

Building have had a fantastic

first week back in School. In

Science we have been looking

at plants and the children went

outside to find different plants,

trees and flowers. All the chil-

dren had fun at swimming this

week, and Szymon got his 25

metre certificate - well

done! Our attendance prize

winners this week are Thomas,

Jordon, Patrick, Nesrine and

Ethan.

Class 5 have had a great first

week back after the holidays

and have picked up some eggs

from Farmer Dot. In Science

we have been learning about

the life cycle of chickens, and

put the eggs into the incubator

to help them grow from egg

into hatchlings (chicks) in about

3 weeks! We will keep you up-

dated on their progress.

Class 5:

Farm Visit

Class 9:

First Aid

Training

Class 9 are learning about First Aid. Today we were doing CPR. Class 9 have done tremendous-ly well and have completed this topic with great enthusiasm and a profes-sional approach. They will soon be getting certificates. Well done Class

Post-16 Visit:

Media

Museum

Post-16 visited the Media Mu-

seum in Bradford this week. The

trip was thoroughly enjoyed by

all, and they particularly en-

joyed the Wonderland science

and animation exhibitions.

The students who attend

Gorse Hill have been working

on art projects and scenery for

their media film. They have

produced some amazing work

and always work really hard.

Well done Ellie, Anas, Owen,

Ceiara and India. Ms Lord.

In Work Skills this week, the

students had to work in

teams, and allocate differ-

ent roles to each team

member: ‘thinker, workers,

and quality checker’. The

aim was to see who could

build the highest tower

with the resources they

had. Connor’s team built a

huge tower but Alex’s team

worked better strategically.

Well done Class 10!

Ms Lord.