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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.

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!!!

WORLD THINKING DAY- FRIDAY 22^ND FEBRUARY

Some of our children wore their uniforms with pride in school today to celebrate World Thinking Day on the 22^nd 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.

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.

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!