Gallery
Adventurers started their litter picking around the school premises today to take part in the Keep Britain tidy, Great Big School Clean. We managed nearly 4 bags of rubbish! Well done Adventurers!
A fabulous Easter Service today celebrating God’s love for us all. Year 6 told the Easter story from the donkey’s perspective, Discoverers did a dance to show Jesus had risen, Inventors did an acrostic poem about Easter and Explorers sang a spring song
Well done to the choir from St John’s Thornham for performing at the Spring Markets at Smalley Hall today. You brought a smile to everyone’s faces!
This afternoon Teams Thornham and Tandle Hill enjoyed cakes and shakes for winning the most house points this half term! I wonder who it will be next?
A busy book club this morning with children reading to themselves, each other and with an adult! Some wonderful fiction and non fiction books were read and two girls were reciting poems about World War One!
Lighthouse Crew led worship today focused on the school value of love. They retold the crucifixion story in the form of a play to show us how Jesus showed his loved to us all. Your reflections on the story were fabulous! We sang our school song My Lighthouse together.
It’s the Sponsored Bunny Bounce! Adventurers are the over all winners! It was very competitive! It was tricky to get a clear photograph with them all bouncing so much! Look on the newsletter for the indivudual winners!
Look at the beautiful chandeliers displayed in our main corridor! Each class created a chandelier of a book from a different culture! They are amazing!
Well done for representing St. John’s in the Rochdale Spelling Bee! It was a tough competition and you did extremely well which was even recognised by the headteacher at Matthew Moss who gave a special badge to congratulate your amazing effort.
It’s a wrap! Our WOW groups and choirs have worked on a collaboration with @praisealong on a creation/diversity song which will be shared with 600 schools across the country. They sang beautifully and with real passion. We can’t wait to hear the finished song!
Don't they sound great!
Rev Alison led worship showing photographs and asked us if there was a common theme! It was getting ready for something! During lent we get ready for things! Jesus was tempted during his 40 days/nights in the wilderness but he said no! What have you been tempted by during lent?
The new displays in the hall are fabulous and creative. Each class has used their class name to research exciting explorers, discoverers, inventors and adventurers and shared their experiences, inventions and discoveries! There are some courageous advocates recognised too!
Governors, with children from Earth Stewards and BASC, have made biodegradable hearts for our families to plant to encourage wildlife into their gardens. They gave them to parents today to show the love for each other and love for our planet.
Well done to our winners of the Recycle a tie competition! Some fantastic ideas including an angel, a snake, a mini skirt and a portrait along with some redesigned ties with different patterns, textures and pictures!
The children in Thornham all enjoyed their cakes and shakes this afternoon for earning the most house points last term. Congratulations team Thornham!
Our children love coming into school to share and enjoy reading books together during book club every Monday and Friday morning. It’s lovely to see our older children reading to our younger members sharing their love of literacy.
It was our KS2 boomwhacker concert today and they did not disappoint. They have worked incredibly hard this half term to learn to play the different notes for each of the 7 songs in their programme. A huge thank you to Mr Genty from Rochdale music service for teaching us
Our theatre group performed last night acting and singing songs from The Nativity. They were absolutely brilliant. They only had 6 rehearsals but gave it their all! Thank you to Fearne for giving our children this opportunity!
Adventurers delivered random acts of kindness this morning around the local community. Each child designed a painted a wooden Christmas decoration. Were you lucky enough to have one put through your door?
Buy a tag for 50p to hang upon the Wishing Tree. If Mrs. Hunter chooses you, she will make your dream come true. There were some fantastic Christmas Wishes and it has been very hard to decide whose wish to make come true! I was tempted by –Be the headteacher for the day and wearing silly costumes! Not so tempted at the thought of having to do a handstand or coming to school in a full-length evening dress! It was a difficult choice, but I have chosen Layla and Brae and in the New Year we will have a Teddy Bears Picnic wearing PJ’s!
Thank you Miss Robertson and Miss Walsh for a wonderful, tasty, delicious Christmas Dinner. It was a fabulous festive dinner. The children enjoyed singing a Christmas Dinner song about Brussels sprouts and turkey wishbones to say thank you to the cooks!
What a wonderful nativity our Explorers children performed today! A Miracle In Town told the story of Jesus’ birth. The children learnt their lines brilliantly, said them loud and clear and sang beautifully! Looking forward to tomorrows performance!
We have had a very famous visitor at SJT who came to check if we have been naughty or nice! He brought treats for everyone and the children told him what they would like for Christmas!
Our choir performed beautifully at the Carols with Molly community event at Smalley Hall today! Everyone got up dancing and singing to their final song Feliz Navidad! A well earned chocolate treat at the end too!
Our children sang brilliantly at the Castleton Light Switch on! They Rocked Around the Shops, were Wise Men and everyone joined in as they sang Feliz Navidad! They all looked very festive too!
One of our pupils won Oldham Councils name the gritters competition. She named one of the new gritters Mark Snowen after the famous Oldhamer Mark Owen from Take That! What a great idea!
We have been gifted a dinosaur from Touchstones which was used in the Dippy Exhibition. Well done to our winner of the name the dinosaur competition. Our Triceratops is called Doug. Welcome to the St. John’s family Doug.
Lot's of donations of your pre-loved Christmas jumpers have been added to the rail to help us to reduce, reuse and recycle! Why not pick one up for our Christmas Dinner Day and the Reindeer Walk which will happen on two consecutive Friday's in December. Have you any pre-loved jumpers to add to the rail?
Our year 6 children walked to the cenotaph at St John’s Church to lay the wreath made in Forest School. We had out minutes silence at 11am followed by the children reading their Remembrance Sonnets. We then went into church to look at the fallen soldier’s from Slattocks/Rochdale
Some of our children made plastic poppies with a few of our governors today. They reused the end of plastic bottles and painted them. They are going to the Middleton Cenotaph ready for the Remembrance Ceremony this weekend.
We were delighted to attend the Britain In Bloom North West Award’s event today and received an Outstanding level 5 Award in the ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ category for the work in school and locally in Slattocks and Castleton. Well done everyone at SJT!
What a wonderful Wiggle Worship led by Jo today. The children enjoyed finding out about the creation story and celebrating all the different creatures god made. They sang and danced, popped bubbles and prayed. Miss Callaghan will lead Woggle Worship every Thursday with Explorers class.
Emergency Services Day and competition winner. Here he is with his certificate for winning the 999 Emergency Services competition. He had a fabulous day at Riverside with the other winners.
A huge well done to one of our Inventors children who made the Lancashire tennis championships and got to finals day placing 8th overall for her age group in the county! Fabulous!
Reception had lots of fun on Friday afternoon getting to know their Year 1 & Year 6 buddies
Look at us exploring our new tree house where there is a new texture kitchen and space for us to read in the trees. We are trying out the new cargo net! It’s fantastic!
What a treat! Breakfast club have come back to freshly grown strawberries which they picked, washed and had with their breakfast this morning. We are so lucky the rabbits didn't eat them all in the holidays!
As the church service finished a loud tractor horn playing tunes could be heard and outside was a tractor and trailer waiting to take our children to a gathering at the local pub. The horns could be heard across Slattocks and Mrs Browne joined them on their journey!
Adventurers participated in a reflection morning at church, focusing on our school values and how they have helped them during their time at primary school.
What a wonderful whole school treat to have an inflatable assault course at school. Well done to all the children for working so hard. Each class got a session on the inflatable playing team games and having races!
This afternoon Adventurers enjoyed a picnic, play and orienteering session up at Tandle Hill. Obviously Team Browne completed the course the fastest, whereas Team Hill got a little lost!
We welcomed the judges from Middleton In Bloom this afternoon. The children talked through the different areas around school including the Bird Cafe, the wildlife bed, the growing bed, King Charles garden, Forest School and the sensory garden. Well done team SJT!
What a fabulous day at the farm. The adventure started on the train as they travelled to Lancaster Farm. The children loved feeding all the animals, learning about them and their habitats, playing on the park and having an ice cream too! What a fun day for EYFS and KS1.
Key Stage 2 performers were fantastic in our summer production “ I’m an 11 year old, get me out of here!” A big well done to all involved 👏🏻👏🏽👏🏾
Our theatre group performed their songs from Hansel and Gretel at to the residents of Meadowview this morning. The children were fabulous and the residents clapped along as they sang. #spreadinghappiness
Some of our our WOW group attended the Rochdale Synod this morning at St. John’s Heywood. It was wonderful to see their video about plastic pollution shared and to see the commitment from our church St. John’s Thornham and across the deanery too!
Discoverers Class performed their production of ‘You Are Special” today in front of their parents. They were amazing and sent out a vital message that regardless of what other people think,we are loved and valued, just as we are!
Our fabulous theatre group performed Hansel and Gretel alongside other schools in Rochdale. They sang beautifully and their acting was amazing too. Well done for learning your lines, actions and song words. Huge thanks to Mrs Howarth and Mrs King-Wilson for all their hard work!
Some of our Inventors have been working with Mrs Abbott to create a tea party for the birds in our Bird Cafe. They have used recycled materials, make fat balls to go in the cups and chosen trailing plants too! It is looking great with a freshly painted wall too!
Our reception class enjoyed a play date with the residents at Meadow view this morning. They played skittles, beanbag toss, musical statues and enjoyed a snack too! They love chatting with the residents too. Thank you they had a lovely time!
Our year 6 joined Pat and Councillor Billy at Slattocks gardens to get it ready for Middleton In Bloom. The children worked hard digging and planting. Great team work and collaboration in the community. It looks great!
Well done to our busy team of workers who helped to create a bug hotel down at church. It was the idea of our WOW group to work with some of the congregation at St. John’s on an eco project! What a brilliant job you all did! I am sure the bugs will move in, in no time!
Some of our children had green finger’s yesterday when they helped Councillor Billy and his Rochdale in Bloom team plant up Castleton Train Station for the 13th year! What a fabulous job the local primary schools did working together. It’s is blooming!
After the service we enjoyed a Pizza Hut lunch. It was lovely! The joint winners who ate the most slices of pizza are... they actually had to have a truce at 15 slices! Wow!
A wonderful and special Year 6 Leavers Service this morning at Manchester Cathedral. We loved the I-sing pop songs, sharing our prayer boxes and receiving our Planet Savers Award. Thank you to all involved
Some of our children wen to Nelson Street Church for The Rochdale Great Science Share! It was wonderful to share our experiment with other schools and also have a go at their investigations too!
Well done to team Thornham, who enjoyed their reward of cakes and shakes, for gaining the most amount of house points last half term receiving them for living out the school values and showing they are good learners with a growth mind-set!
Adventurers preparing our plant and flower boxes with Mrs Stanley this week during a gardening session. They will really make the old entrance more attractive! Great job everyone!
The children wanted to do another Random Act of Kindness as they like how happy it makes them and others. Lots of time dedicated to making tissue flowers, wrapping and adding the tag. They wanted to gift them to the residents of Meadow view who were so happy to receive them!
Our BASC club have been creating a wonderful fairy garden. They have included plants, little houses, a fairy door and have been collecting pebbles to create a path. A few of them have decided to sprinkle some glitter to see if they can get the fairies to come into their garden.
Team Slattocks have enjoyed their cakes and shakes this afternoon! Well done for collecting the most house points this half term for living out the school values.
Explorers have had a fantastic afternoon experiencing a Circus Workshop with Skylight Circus! They have been balancing feathers on their fingers, spinning plates and using the flower sticks to make them spin
Our Lighthouse Crew have enjoyed teaching the children a new song in worship today~ Give it all you got! The song talks about us being proud to be part of St John’s School, learning together and having fun! The rap is very fast!
Some of our children sang the song Our King which the whole school have learnt in Worship this week at Smalley Hall’s coronation party today. It was wonderful. One of our children also sang three solo’s and was outstanding
Wow what wonderful crowns you have designed and made for the King. I wonder which one he would chose. You walked down the catwalk with sass and swagger and had such a fun afternoon together.
A wonderful day celebrating the Kings Coronation in school. We wore red, white and blue, ate a celebratory lunch with an ice cream station, created a Kings garden and finished with a cat walk showing our crowns fit for a king.
Our choir sang beautifully today at Smalley Hall’s Spring Fair. They sang about spring, new life and Easter chocolate entertaining the visitors whilst they browsed and bought goodies at the lovely stalls
It’s a busy book club this morning! Children are enjoying reading on their own, to each other and with a grown up too. They have chosen lots of different books from poems to science books, atlas and picture books. There is a reading buzz in the air!
Children in Explorers and Discoverers have had a fantastic play in the snow ❄️ They made snow castles, snow angels, snowmen and were even painting in the snow ☺️ we all had so much fun!
Our choir are busy learning some new Easter songs and hymns ready for our Easter service. They sound beautiful and are full of excitement and energy!
Each month new books come through the post for our school library. The books are placed in our special book box and children are chosen to open them. It is so exciting to see what the books are for each age group and if there are new authors we have not come across before.
It Christmas Party time and alongside our usual party games and dancing we had a very special visit from the Elf. The Elf did lots of dances with us as well as a game of follow the leader. It was a fabulous surprise.
Santa I know him! He came to SJT today, parking his sleigh on the roof! The children loved seeing him and he talked about the history of Christmas. He gave them a little present and asked them to be kind, thoughtful and pass on the gift of a smile this Christmas!
Year 6 have been out spreading Christmas cheer to the community leaving jars of mini mince pies in jars on local doorsteps. We hope you enjoy your Christmas treat. Thank you to GIFT group for making the mince pies with and year 6 for decorating the jars!
It’s behind you. Oh no it isn’t! We all went to an online pantomime of Sleeping Beauty. It was very funny. We enjoyed the traditional tale with a twist! Miss Robertson served popcorn cups with gingerbread biscuits in the interval as we sung along to Christmas songs!
Christmas dinner day! The food was yummy and the children enjoyed singing their Christmas song of thanks to Miss Robertson and Miss Faria. The children looked wonderful in their Christmas jumpers and we enjoyed entertaining Councillor Billy too.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Elves have been busy sprinkling Christmas spirit around school and doing the hard graft of putting up the trees and nativities. Can’t wait for the children to put their decorations on the tree in the hall following their TASC project!
We are supporting reducing, reusing and recycling this Christmas and are starting with our preloved Christmas jumper sale. Send in your Christmas children’s jumpers that no longer fit them so they can be reused. Come and buy one for a minimum donation.
What a fabulous time we had at Castleton light switch on. Eva pressed the button to turn on the lights and our choir sang brilliantly. Lots of festive songs with actions which really got us in the festive spirit. Thank you Councillor Billy for inviting us to sing.
Explorers were very happy to see England win 6-2 today! Come on England 🏴
It has been wonderful to have lots of different secret readers in school over the last week. Have a look at some of the stories their chose to read!
We are so proud of everyone in our school who helped to prepare our school for the Middleton In Bloom competition in the summer. School did bloom, we learnt lots of new skills and we welcomed lots of birds and animals into our school grounds. We won an award. Well done team SJT!
This afternoon we invited another secret reader into Explorers! This week Hope’s Mummy came to read us ‘There’s A Rang-Tan In My Bedroom’ and brought Hope’s cuddly orangutan along too. What a beautiful story with a very important message
“What we doing?” “Crucial Crewing!” Our year 5 and 6 pupils participating in an informative afternoon of workshops all related to children’s safety.
Discoverers class had a special visitor today - a secret reader. The children loved listening to Oscar’s mum reading ‘The Runaway Pea”. She even had some runaway peas of her own that joined is in the classroom!
Thank you to our Secret Reader who came to read ‘The Frog Prince’ to Explorers on Monday! The children loved sitting and listening to someone new read them a story
Thank you to our adults who attended our Play and Stay session yesterday with Reception. It was so lovely to see you all and enjoy taking part in the activities your children love to do in the classroom .
Thank you St. Anne's Academy for providing a fantastic STEM day, year 5 and 6 have engineered vehicles, coded computer games and participated in different science experiments! Future engineers, these stars won best overall design and best design appearance.
Adventurers have had a secret reader ... Mrs Martin, we enjoyed the story of Mr Stink. Thank you to our secret reader and we can’t wait for the next secret reader.
Inventors are taking part in a new course called ‘Be Rooted’, which has been designed to help pupils think about their place in the world as well as draw upon the skills, virtues and actions that will help them stay strong when facing challenges.
There are so many things a stick can be from a wand to a fishing rod, a wind chime to a sword. Some of our children have used their imaginations to make a stick into something special. Can you tell what they are?
A big thank you to our secret reader who came to read a lovely (and pretty funny) poem from Dirty Beasts by Roald Dahl. Inventors were very excited and surprised, listening intently.
SJT Scarecrow Trail. Do you want to experience our Scarecrow Trail? Take a walk around our school grounds, what characters can you see?
SJT staff and children are saddened by the news that Queen Elizabeth II has passed. We thank you for your service to our country, for your continued dedication to the commonwealth and for being the great in Great Britain. Rest in peace. Our families started the day tying ribbons to our gate in memory of The Queen. The children have written prayers of thanks and asked God to keep her safe in his care.
Delivering our Cheer Up jars to the community
One of the last jobs for our year 6 children was leaving cheer up jars GIFT group and year 6 made together on the door steps for our local community. We hope the little jars filled with fabulous comments and drawings will bring joy, hope and smiles to the faces of our neighbours!
Year 6 Refection Day
What a fabulous afternoon with year 6 children at church reflecting on the school values and how they have helped them to become the children they are today. Eagles were the theme for the activities and we hope our year 6 children soar when they move onto secondary school!
Fairy Garden
Some of our year 6 children have been busy this morning creating a garden to attract the fairies. They have made this special garden for our younger children to create awe and wonder about the world! Let’s hope the fairies come and stay very soon. You have inspired the Explorers to create their own gardens too!
God and the Big Bang
SJT together with St. Edward’s year 5, engaged in workshops with God and the Big Bang. Interesting debates with Scientists exploring links between science and faith. We asked lots of questions about God and the universe. It was so interesting.
Toy Swap
Our first toy swap was fabulous. Children brought in their preloved toys to swap for something different. We want to look after our world and recycle rather than throwing away and buying new! What toys do you have at home that you do not play with which you could gift?
Wasted space to Bird Cafe
Our GIFT group are eco warriors and have planned to turn this unused and not so lovely space into a Bird Cafe. They have cleaned the walls ready to paint, dug out the weeds and planted some flowers. They are painting birds on wood slices and collected things to attract the birds!
Thank you for changing a wasted space into a lovely area.
Castleton In Bloom
Each year we support Castleton In Bloom and with the other local schools plant up the railway station to brighten up the days of the commuters. What a fabulous afternoon we had planting up the railway station planters and hanging baskets so they bloom all summer!
World Eye Web second meeting
A wonderful second World Eyed Web meeting chaired by Ava from All Souls and minuted by Monroe from St. John's.
The children contributed to discussions brilliantly and enjoyed designing a logo. We will adapt it to combine the children’s ideas and produce a digital version. The next meeting will focus on actions for our churches focusing on wildlife and will be held at St. John's.
Art displays
Our art displays really showcase the skills our children have been learning over the last few weeks. The children have really enjoyed finding out about the different artists, their backgrounds and looking at the art they are well known for!
Year 6 Leavers Service at Manchester Cathedral
We really enjoyed our visit to Manchester Cathedral for the year 6 leavers service. The focus on faith, hope and trust helped us to think about transition to secondary school. Our school song ‘My Lighthouse’ was played, we held our banner with pride and shared our prayer box! After the service we enjoyed a buffet lunch at Pizza Hut and played together on the park before getting the train home. We had a wonderful day together!
World Eyed Web
We have two SJT World Eye Web leaders to work with two other church schools in Rochdale to focus on how our churches can become carbon neutral. We did a democratic vote to choose from all the volunteers for the role.
Our SJT representatives met the rest of the World Eye Web team who will be working hard to ensure the churches linked to their schools become carbon neutral. St. John’s, All Soul’s and St. Peter’s CE enjoyed meeting each other, eating afternoon tea and exploring St. Peter’s school grounds.
Bishop Mark tweeted- "There was a wonderful Rogation Sunday service at St Chad’s
with the launch of World Eyed Web. The council, drawn from 3 schools in Rochdale Deanery will challenge the Deanery synod & beyond about care for the world, our common home. They were superb today. Thanks to all there."
Well Done Year 6
A HUGE well done to our year 6 for being amazing during SATs week. They have shown determination and resilience and it was wonderful to celebrate the end of a hard week with an afternoon tea with parents and grandparents! We are proud of you all!
The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be
We read a wonderful book in Collective Worship which is called The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be. We talked about how we all look and think differently and how we all have different gifts and talents. We are all one of a kind and together we make St. John’s a special place!
Lighthouse Crew
Lighthouse Crew led worship today with a focus on togetherness. They told us the story of Ruth, a story from The Old Testament and we sang our togetherness song. We shared the class prayers and gave out the ribbons for the prayer tree! We continue to pray for the Ukraine.
Prayers, love and hope to Ukraine
St. John’s sends love and hope to the people from and living in the Ukraine. We created a wall of hope with messages and prayers written on sunflowers. We have also added yellow hearts containing prayers to our love tree! We are thinking of you and stand with you.
Easter Bonnet Parade
Look at our Explorers, they have created such beautiful Easter Bonnets and enjoyed their parade around school singing Spring Chicken! It was difficult to choose a winner but Lillianna's design won she also got a kindness heart from Mrs. Hunter for making a spare one in case someone didn't have one.
Eggstravaganza Easter Competition
What ‘eggcellent’ entries for our Easter Egg Decoration competition. Some very clever and creative entries including ‘’NH eggS’ ‘Les mis’egg’rables’ and ‘Minecracked’. It was so hard to choose a winner but "Nh egg'S' created by Theo was a firm favourite amongst the staff. Thank you to the PTFA for his wonderful prize.
House Point cakes and shales half term treat for winning team
Tandle Hill have had their ‘Cakes & Shakes’ reward this afternoon for earning the most house points last half term! Congratulations!
Year 5 and 6 visit St. Anne's Academy
Year 5 and 6 visited St. Anne's Academy to watch the schools performance of Aladdin. It was fabulous. The children stayed for lunch and experience PE and home economics lessons in the afternoon too. Thank you St. Anne's this really helps our children feel what secondary school is like.
The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be
We read a wonderful book in Collective Worship which is called The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be. We talked about how we all look and think differently and how we all have different gifts and talents. We are all one of a kind and together we make St. John’s a special place!
Our tree of love has been filled with messages of love to people the children love who are near and far and to those who are resting in heaven. We have read some lovely picture books this week about love and know that showing love, sharing love and receiving love is so special!
Robinwood residential for our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils!
Click below to see some of the photographs and videos of our amazing residential this half term!
HO HO HO!
We had a very special visitor in school today! He was checking that the children had all been very good and gave them a little present too! Thank you Father Christmas! We hope we are all on the good list!
Spreading kindness in our community has brought the children and staff such joy. Painted pots with violas left on doorsteps with a poem for our lovely neighbours. Thank you for all you lovely messages in return they have brought smiles to our faces today!
The Christmas Story- performed by Explorers
What a beautiful nativity our Explorers children performed over the last few days. You told the 'biggest story ever' brilliantly and we are so proud of you all. Your singing was amazing and you smiled the whole way through. Super loud voices and super proud teachers and parents!
Elfie was watching you too and he sent you a well done surprise of hot chocolate and marshmallows! Yummy!
Christingle with a donkey
It was a wonderful Christingle service today with the whole school. We thought about the true meaning of Christmas for Christians and looked at the Christingle’s we made whilst we thought about God’s world. The children sand the new Christingle song they had been learning in Collective Worship beautifully and our GIFT group read their very thoughtful prayers out. It was so exciting as we followed Poppy the donkey up the lane and listened to our choir sing festive songs.
Castleton Light Switch On 2021
Wow choir you were fabulous last night singing at the Castleton Light switch on. You sang beautifully and looked brilliant with your festive accessories and lights. Thank you for representing our school so brilliantly and spreading Christmas cheer for all the community to hear!
St. John's Remembers Them!
Inventors performed their World War I class assembly today. The children undertook many roles to
inform all about the events of The Great War. All Inventors did themselves proud. Well done.
We will remember them! We have created our own poppies out of paper, felt and recycled bottles. We have written prayers of thanks and remember all that served including the animals with great respect.
Our Year 6 created a wreath in their Forest School session this week. We walked to the cenotaph at church and laid the wreath from all of us at St. John’s to show our respect to all that have served in wars. Together they performed their WW1 poem.
It’s Harvest Time!
We were sad that we couldn't have our usual Harvest Festival at church with our parents watching but we are hopeful that we will be able to have our festivals all together very soon. We did have a wonderful celebration as a whole school in the hall. We had written prayers of thanks and our Year 6 children shared these at the start of our Harvest Festival. We all said thank you for the food we eat and thought about those who are not as lucky as us. We sang our favourite Autumn hymns and songs- our favourites are Conkers and Cabbages and greens!
Each class performed a song, or poem and Adventurers did a rap! Have a look at these on the class blogs. Our GIFT group also created a wonderful Autumn display, drew beautiful Harvest posters and write Harvest poems and prayers.
We also had a Autumn pumpkin decorating competition! The designs were fabulous. Have a look at the winning designs below.
The amount of food you gifted to the food bank was amazing and I was so proud of our contribution. Your generous donations will help out lots of people and families who need a little support.
Wendy Moore, the Fairy God Mum, was in school for two days to help us to create a wonderful wall display sharing our school values. All our children created their own letter or heart for the wall. Wow what an amazing job the children have done. Our ten St. John’s schools values we encourage our children to live out are sparkling and shining in our new entrance hall! We are super pleased with it!
The whole school have been looking at and researching Courageous Advocates in history and who are living now and doing amazing things to make our world a better place. Each class chose one figure from their scrap books to create a display about! Do you know who they are?
Our Global Goal this half term is to make people aware of how important Honey Bees are! In Collective Worship we read The Flight of the Honey Bee which helped us to think about how important bees are for our eco system. We are busy creating our own posters and making little bees!
Our new build is finally finished and the classrooms are ready and waiting for our children to return! Yippee we cant wait!
Down Syndrome Awareness Week- Rock Your Socks
We ROCKED OUR SOCKS in school today for Down Syndrome Awareness Week. Look at our funky and odd socks.
We learnt more about Down Syndrome in our assembly and Mrs. Squibbs boys explained how Down Syndrome affects their little brother Tommy in a lovely video they created a s a family.
Mrs. Squibbs is running 21 miles every month to raise awareness and funds for Down Syndrome. Thank you for your donations and good luck Mrs. Squibbs! #RockYourSocks
We learnt more about Down Syndrome in our assembly and Mrs. Squibbs boys explained how Down Syndrome affects their little brother Tommy in a lovely video they created a s a family.
Mrs. Squibbs is running 21 miles every month to raise awareness and funds for Down Syndrome. Thank you for your donations and good luck Mrs. Squibbs! #RockYourSocks
Welcome Back
Welcome back to all our children and families who have been remote learning.
A HUGE well done to you all for working so hard.
It has been delightful to have the whole school back and thank you to everyone who created a lovely heart for our railings.
LOVE and HOPE to you all from St. John's x
RIP Captain Sir Tom Moore
We will remember you for your commitment to the Army during WW2 and the bravery you showed. We will also remember you for your determination and dedication towards raising money for our NHS. 100 laps at 100 years old was a huge challenge but you didn’t give up. Thank you for the hope you gave to us all and for bringing our country together. You are a British hero and you will be remembered.
At the going down of the sun, we will remember him!
Christmas Parties
Look who Santa sent to our Christmas parties this year! Elfie! We enjoyed playing lots of games and dancing with the Elf. She is Elftastic and we had Selfies with her too! ! The staff and the children loved it!
Explorers Nativity
Bundle of Joy is this years Nativity and our Explorers were amazing! The nativity shows us that even when things are bleak, with generosity and a bit of ingenuity, miracles can still happen. We hope our parents enjoyed their nativity pack with USB, hot chocolate and a mince pie.
Well done to the Explorers team who work so hard putting this together! You are fabulous!
It's Panto Time
A little surprise treat for the whole school this morning- a live performance of Cinderella! Oh no it isn't! The children loved watching the live performance and joined in with Bubbles heckling and booing! Thank you to the PTFA for paying for this and for the snacks too!
A Special Visit from The Boy in Red!
What a busy and wonderful day we have had! This afternoon our cheeky elves took the children to our outside classroom which had been transformed into a grotto.
Guess who was their waiting for them? Yes Santa himself!
Christmas Dinner and Jumper Day
What a busy and wonderful day we have had! Thank you to Miss Robertson for creating a wonderful Christmas Dinner for us all! We took part in Christmas Jumper Day & raised lots of money for Save the Children by wearing our Christmas jumpers which were all fabulous! Miss Robertson even cooked dinner for the builders who ate theirs in their cabin!
It's Break the Rules day! There are lots of wacky hair styles, faces painted and non-uniform! A few little elves and superheroes too! Thank you for your hamper donations! The raffle will be drawn on Monday, make sure you have your tickets and good luck. Which class will win the prize for the best hamper?
St. John's remember them. We wore red today to show respect for the fallen soldiers and the soldiers who protect us too! We decorated our wreath with plastic bottle ends and made small wreaths in Forest School from willow and wooden discs! We each donated £1 to #BritishLegion Andy the site manager from B&E Boys joined us wearing red too!
Look at the wonderful displays each class has created linked to the books we focused on during our well-being weeks!
Video (4).mp4
We are looking forward to... a video using your photographs which you have sent in and some taken in school with a few pictures of the rainbows we have created and the whole school tying ribbons on the fence on the last day!
The music used is 'Looking to the rainbow' which we have been learning in school and at home and hope to sing in the first church service we can have, hopefully in the autumn term.
We love this video and hope you do too!
The music used is 'Looking to the rainbow' which we have been learning in school and at home and hope to sing in the first church service we can have, hopefully in the autumn term.
We love this video and hope you do too!
We will miss you year 6!
Lots of fabulous home learning activities have been completed, thank you for sharing them with us. It is also lovely to see you out and about on new adventures as well as having fun in your gardens too!
A message to all our St. John's children from the staff- We're All in this Together #missyou #seeyouallverysoon
We're All in this Together
VE Day Celebrations and activities
More home learning to share with you!
Look at what some more of the creative things our children have been doing at home!
Well done your Eggstravaganza creations are amazing! The staff's children have also got involved with this too!
A little message from all the staff
Look at the wonderful things we have been doing at home!
SPORT RELIEF
It has been Sport Relief Day today. Thank you to all the children who have bought one of the official Sport Relief wristbands to raise money for this worthy cause.
We had lots of sporty outfits in school today! The children took part in the Sport Relief Mile during the day and learnt a new dance too, they were also lots of additional activities at lunchtime too. Luckily we had a lovely sunny day!
TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
Well done to our new team of Traffic Controllers who have been out on patrol this week with their Hi-Vis jackets & clipboards to note down any “parking offenders”.
Their role is to stop parents/carers parking in the turning circle and encouraging parents/carers to park considerately & safely on the lane.
Traffic Controllers will help to ensure-
- parents/carers do not park in the turning circle
- parents/carers do not drop off in the turning circle
- parents/carers do not park at the red and white bollards
- parents/carers park considerately
Thank you to parents/carers who have respectfully followed our rules this week to ensure we are keeping our children safe and are limiting the amount of pollution at our gates.
WOW WALK TO SCHOOL
Well done to those children and parents who are continuing to walk and brave the cold weather. Children received their WOW badges for November & December last week in recognition of their efforts. In order to receive January and February’s badges you need to try to walk from at least the bottom of the lane at least 1 day a week.
In March when the warmer weather comes this will be increased in order to gain a WOW badge for March and the following months up to July you must walk to school at least 2 days a week. We want to be as physically healthy as we can and enjoy the lovely surroundings we are lucky to be situated in- walking in the fresh air and in the countryside is good for our well-being.
Our KS2 choir were out singing their festive songs again to spread Christmas cheer! Wow KS2 choir you sang amazingly well at the light switch on in Castleton last night! Not everyone could join us as they were at the Christmas Cracker music event but the 10 of you who were there sang everyone's socks off! Super proud of you all! Mr Mayor commented 'What super singers you are and with beautiful smiles too!'
Our KS2 choir wowed everyone with their amazing singing on Friday evening. You were fabulous and made us so proud! They have worked hard to learn four new Christmas songs /hymns and sang them with great energy and enthusiasm along side their favourite Wise Men and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Smiling, singing and dancing (even in the cold) to open the Christmas Markets at All In One, it was a delight to see!
What a wonderful Harvest Festival we had down at Church! Explorers sang about a Big Red Combined Harvester, Discovers about Conkers and Inventors and Adventurers about Weird and Wonderful food! Thank you for your food donations which will be sent to Rochdale Food Bank. We also learnt a new song called Everywhere Around Me and sang our favourite Harvest Song The Harvest Samba- our Samba band were brilliant! Mrs. Hunter talked to us about planting seeds to grown food as well as planting seeds of kindness. Some of the year 4 and 5 children acted out a story called Sharing Soup which helped us to focus on sharing at Harvest Time. Rev Pete led a blessing and our GIFT group led us in prayer. It was a wonderful celebration.
LOOKING AFTER OUR BODIES AND MINDS
Thank you to all the children & staff who wore something yellow on Thursday for #Hello Yellow to support and raise awareness of children and young people’s mental health on World Mental Health Day. We had some very bright items worn with their uniform! We had a whole school assembly which focused on having a healthy body and a healthy mind too! #Hello Yellow
CRUCIAL CREW
Year 6 attended this year’s Crucial Crew Event at Rochdale Football Club on Tuesday. This is a multi-agency safety event aimed at Year 6 children (10 to 11 year old's) designed to provide children with life skills that will enable them to keep themselves and others safe. It is generally accepted that children start to become more independent at this age and are often expected to cope increasingly on their own and deal with changes in their lives, such as a move to Secondary school. The aim of our Crucial Crew event is to raise each participant's awareness of threats and dangers, in a fun and interactive way.
MACMILLIAN WORLD’S BIGGEST COFFEE MORNING!
Thank you to all the parents/carers who attended this morning’s Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning at St John’s Church. Well done to our Year 6 children who attended the event as helpers and served cakes to the visitors. They then all enjoyed their very own slice of cake! It was a pleasure to hear such lovely comments about how helpful and mature our Year 6 were. t John’s Church for hosting this event. lovely comments about how helpful and mature our Year 6 were. Thanks to St John’s Church for hosting this event.
YEAR 6 LEAVERS SERVICE AT MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL
We went by train to Manchester to take part in the Year 6 leavers service led by Bishop Mark, Cannon Maurice Smith and the education team at Manchester Diocese.
It was a wonderful service with schools from across the diocese preparing our year 6 for life after primary school! We shared our prayer box with others and brought home St. Luke's to reflect on their prayers! Before coming home we had a lovely picnic on the grass outside the Football Museum and had time on the park too!
I almost forgot Rev. Jason, Rose and Jacob represented our school in a relay race around the Cathedral passing on the baton and sharing Christian Values to all! Watch out St. John's dad's you have competition at sports day!
PLANTING AT SLATTOCKS COMMUNITY GARDEN
Some of our Explorers did a fantastic job helping to plant flowers in Slattocks Community Garden on Wednesday! Tracey, who works with Councillor Billy (now Mayor), plant up Castleton ready for Rochdale in Bloom. This year Slattocks is part of the display. They worked really hard with the help of Andy & Blanca; the garden looks beautiful! Please take a look when you are passing!
RETREAT TO WHALLEY ABBEY
Years 5 & 6 spent a lovely day at the beautiful Whalley Abbey near Clitheroe on Tuesday. They were joined by staff, Governors and Rev Jason. The theme of the day was reflecting on the Christian values that the children have learnt whilst being at St John’s and how they live them out now and in the future. The children took part in an opening service about the work of st John. They were then involved in a range of workshops and activities which focused on school values through crafts, treasure hunts, discussions. The children also had time for some meditation too!
ROCHDALE ANGLICAN FEDERATION – FAIRY GOD MUM - CREATIVE CROSSES
This year all 19 Church of England Schools who are part of the Rochdale Anglican federation (RAF) met over the course of 3 days to work together to create creative crosses using the gems and jewels we have been collecting in school with The Fairy God Mum- Wendy Moore.
We chose five of our Year 5 children to attend the event at Holy Trinity School in Littleborough on Wednesday to create our cross- they did an amazing job. They were very creative and our cross is beautiful it contains the five values- love, courage, forgiveness, faithfulness and respect which are the values we all used when making our ‘We are one’ film last year. We also decorated a structure for our worship table which shows a mirror, window and door. This is how we help to develop children’s understanding of Spirituality here at St. John’s-
ROCHDALE SCIENCE SHARE
What an amazing time we had sharing our experiment with children from other schools as well as being wowed by Science Investigations at Rochdales Science Share on Tuesday. A group of Science ambassadors shared our experiment which answered the question-How does the amount of washing up liquid applied to a wooden skewer affect if the balloon pops? Our Science Ambassadors shared information about our experiment as well as helping visitors to our table have a go of it for themselves. They had to try to get a wooden skewer through the two ends of the balloon without popping it- they could use washing up liquid to help.
Have a go yourselves and see if you can do it. If you are successful can you explain why using some of the following words- stretch, force, pressure, barrier. The children also enjoyed testing and trying out other Science investigations and experiments too! We look forward to going next year when Dippy will be in Rochdale!
Rochdale in Bloom- Planting at Castleton Railway Station
Councillor Billy Sheerin invited our school, along with other schools in Castleton to help to plant up Castleton Railway Station ready for Rochdale in Bloom on Monday. Four of our Year 3 children were chosen to help with this event and they worked very hard alongside children from other Castleton schools. Thank you also to Andy Turner, Mrs Purser’s partner, for all his hard work this week; he planted more plants at school which were donated to school by Rochdale in Bloom. We had a lovely feedback from one of the organisers:
“Could I say a big thank you to you all, from the Mayor of Rochdale (Councillor Billy Sheerin) and myself, for allowing your pupils to take part in the eighth annual planting-up of Castleton Station. Special thanks to Les Masters at Bowlee, for allowing his team the time to come and help out again. The behaviour and enthusiasm of the learners was outstanding. They did Castleton proud.”
Many thanks Billy and Roy.
Spring Festival
Thank you to Cllr Billy Sheerin for planning a wonderful Spring Festival in Castleton. Our KS2 choir sang beautifully in the sunshine and enjoyed watching Maypole and Morris Dancing too. They sang Together, Diamonds and True colours and represented school brilliantly.
Rochdale BIG Sing
Our Year 4. 5 & 6 “choir” took part in the Rochdale Primary Schools BIG SING this morning in the Great Hall at Rochdale Town Hall.
The children have been rehearsing very hard for Big Sing at lunchtimes and have been sounding very tuneful and in harmony. The song that was chosen was Rhianna’s “Diamonds”. The song has been reverberating all around school amongst most of the other children and staff!!!
The children loved the warm up!
WORLD THINKING DAY- FRIDAY 22ND FEBRUARY
Some of our children wore their uniforms with pride in school today to celebrate World Thinking Day on the 22nd February during the half term holiday. The day focuses on International Friendship and encourages the children to think about guiding and scouting all over the world. Our children can be the ones who bring about positive change in the world and belonging to other groups outside of school who encourage charity work and focus on global issues allows the children to think more about the role they can play.
It's snowing!
What a beautiful place our school is in! We have had fun playing in the snow building snow people and taking part in our Forest School sessions. The fire pit really kept us toasty!
gulp (Give up loving pop)
The whole school is doing the 30 Day water Challenge as part of gulp, the new campaign from Food Active which aims to raise awareness of the health harms associated with over consumption of sugary drinks. Has your child been swapping sugary drinks for water?
Last week Mrs Hunter started an experiment in assembly where she placed 3 eggs into liquids- one in cola, one in orange juice and one in water- here are the results.
gulp is a new campaign from Food Active which aims to raise awareness of the health harms associated with over consumption of sugary drinks. While many people are aware of the negative impact that sugary drinks have on teeth, fewer are aware of the link between the over consumption of sugary drinks, weight gain and diabetes which can cause the loss of limbs in later life. Lots of sugary drinks do not contain natural sugars- manmade sugars are not good for our bodies. Gulp seeks to change this by educating our children to make the right choices. Today your children will come home with a water bottle- from MONDAY they are encouraged to STOP drinking sugary drinks for 30 days and replace it with drinking more water. Children need to be taught healthy routines and lifestyles- why not join in the challenge with your child and give up POP for 30 days. Please tick off each day your child does not drink sugary drinks and replaces it with water- track their progress and return it to school after the 30 days- TUESDAY 12th February! Good luck everyone!
Our display in the school hall shows us how much sugar is in drinks! Mrs Hunter started an experiment in assembly where she placed 3 eggs into liquids- one in cola, one in orange juice and one in water- we will share the results with you next week!
Our display in the school hall shows us how much sugar is in drinks! Mrs Hunter started an experiment in assembly where she placed 3 eggs into liquids- one in cola, one in orange juice and one in water- we will share the results with you next week!
Thank you to a team of busy knitters including members of the church congregation and school staff who have been bust knitting 95 angels and their beautiful wings since February. Cheryl Almond brought the angels to school on Monday- each one truly unique and different. The knitters set about on this task to ensure every St. John’s child would go home with one to both keep and hang on their tree or to share with a member of their family or a neighbour or friend who may be in need of hope, peace, joy and love this Christmas. Thank you so much for all your hard work- I know the children will treasure these handmade angels and they will help to warm hearts over the festive period. Please make sure your child looks after their angel which has been made with love and care.
Thank you to everyone who bought an extra Christmas present for the HITs radio Mission Christmas appeal. Mission Christmas is all about bringing children in poverty across Greater Manchester some Christmas spirit at a time when they need it most.
Organisations across Manchester have nominated children who they know will not have a present under their tree this Christmas. I am so pleased that St. John’s could be involved in this appeal and be part of spreading Christmas cheer across Manchester.
What a lovely Christmas lunch we had today- it was yummy! Thank you to Miss Robertson and Mrs Greenwood for cooking our lovely lunch as well as decorating the tables beautifully. We listened to Christmas carols, pulled our crackers and enjoyed traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings with festive biscuits and ice-cream to follow.
On Tuesday our KS2 choir visited Meadow Bank Nursing Home. They sang festive hymns and songs and entertained the residents with their movement and actions too! They took each resident a handmade Christmas card and handed them out. The children and the residents had a drink together before singing traditional Christmas songs whilst the residents played along with musical instruments.
Thank you to the children & their families who joined us on our Nativity Walk- this is a joint event with school and church and it is a wonderful experience for our community. Thank you for joining us in the school hall to think about the true meaning of Christmas before following the donkey down the lane to church. This was followed by our special Christingle Service. The children had been very busy in the morning making their Christingles and our thanks goes to the Co-op in Castleton for donating half the oranges, the raisins, sweets and sticks and to Tesco in Rochdale for donating the rest of the oranges! The service was filled with hymns and poems and it was beautiful when the lights went out to see all the candles flickering around church!
Thank you to church for the mulled wine and to the PTFA for the potato hash- compliments to the chef were given by many!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Each week we will unwrap a gift of advent as we wait for the coming of Jesus. We will share hope, joy, peace and love as we celebrate together!
Thanks to all the children who wore their ties to school on 22/11/18; we had some very funky ones! Thanks also to all those who donated chocolate in aid of the PTFA Christmas Fair; the chocolate tombola stall will be amazing!
"Wear your Dad's/Grandad's Tie to School Day!
Welcome to the gallery! Please enjoy browsing our photographs.
Remembrance- Children from every class have worked hard to produce remembrance crosses. They are on display in our outside reflective area. Our 100 crosses mark 100 years since the end of the First World War. We will remember them.
We were involved in the BIG SING in Rochdale with others schools- we sang 'This is me' from the film The Greatest Showman
We are very proud of our dance troupe who performed an 80's medley at Middleton Arena and the St. Anne's dance competition where we won the trophy for the 3rd year running!
