​A local group of parents and residents in Aldgate are planning to present a national petition to the Prime Minister to convince her to act on air pollution. As you will know, our area of central London suffers from poor air quality and the school is very supportive of any action to help things improve.
 
You can support this local campaign by visiting: http://www.wecanwin.co.uk/my-son-cant-wait.
 
The group are also making a film on air pollution in the City of London with Munsur Ali, an ex student from Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School and resident on Mansell Street. They aim to launch this in the new year.
 
There are lots of measures we have in school to help mitigate the effects of poor air quality. We monitor the air with stations around the school site and inside the school building. This helps us to make decisions about physical activity in the outdoor spaces. We’re also fortunate to have the support of the City of London Corporation who have recently made available a grant of £50,000. We plan to use this to install air filtration systems into the basement among other measures.
 
Ultimately, the only way to really improve things is to improve air quality across our City. I strongly encourage you to get involved.
 
Our children have been making their voices heard recently by writing to Sadiq Khan about this very issue. You can see some of the writing on the head’s blog.

It has been such a busy term and year so far– but one filled with much learning and exploration in all of our class groups. It’s interesting at this time of year reading through all of the termly reports, getting a picture of how children are grasping the demands of their curriculum in each year group and mastering new skills or having new experiences.
 
Reports
We’ve updated the formats of our reports once more. I realise for parents, it may seem like we are continually revising the way we give information to you about learning and progress. In a sense we are, but with all the curriculum, assessment and testing changes in recent years it’s necessary to keep on our toes. We’ve set the most challenging targets for each of our year groups this year because we want to continue to improve the excellent performance of every child at our school. I do hope you read the report carefully and spend time with your child’s class teacher to discuss in greater depth how you can work with us to support learning at home. I encourage you to read our guide to understanding your child’s report carefully. It’s available on our school website: http://www.sirjohncassprimary.org/key-information.html
 
One key thing to remember about the new curriculum is we monitor children's mastery of the curriculum in the year group they are in– we don’t use artificial levels any more which are separate from the knowledge and understanding in each age group. It’s perfectly normal for children to still be emerging or developing their understanding of the curriculum at this stage of the academic year.
 
Happy Christmas!
We’ve had so many lovely Christmas events this year. It has felt like a very special time. The children have been out and about singing around the City, but we’ve also enjoyed the Christmas Market, the Nativity, an activity morning, lessons and carols, Christmas lunch (right) and more! Our Christmas Market– run jointly by the school and the PTA raised over £1,500 this year. Thank you so much for your generosity. This is the most we’ve ever raised at this fundraiser! Every penny will be used to support extra curricular activities and other special things in school.
 
I really do hope that all of you– children and adults alike- have a joyous, relaxing and peaceful Christmas break and I look forward to welcoming you back in the new year. We’ll see parents and carers on Wednesday 4th January, 2017 for progress meetings and children on the day after.
 
Happy Christmas!

​For several years the governing body and the City of London have been actively pursuing one-form entry expansion and a major capital building project to invest over £5 million into the school site.
 
The City of London have worked with us to try to secure the necessary permission from the Sir John Cass's Foundation, the school’s trustee for the project to go ahead. At their board meeting in October the Sir John Cass’s Foundation considered the representation made by the City of London and have decided not to consent to grant a licence to build on the school site to enable it to expand. They have decided to await the opening of the new City of London Primary Academy Islington before re-visiting the situation in the 2017/18 academic year.  
 
The bulge class admitted this academic year, at the request of the City of London, has been a great success, but governors did not feel able to open the school to a further bulge class in 2017.
 
The governing body remains keen to secure the long term future of our school and is enthusiastically committed to providing outstanding education for our children 
 
If you'd like to find out more about this topic or have further questions or comments please don't hesitate to speak with a member of the leadership team.

BBC Newsround filmed a debate about homework at school earlier last week. The team were joined by some of our pupils and representatives from the ATL and the Campaign for Real Education who were presenting their arguments for and against homework in schools.

​You can find out what our children thought after the Christmas holidays when this will be featured on Newsround. 

During our Holiday Playscheme, we ran a workshop with the children exploring the sounds that can be found in different spaces around the school. Children recorded footsteps, claps, bells and rhythms to create a unique piece of music reflecting the building. The music inspired them to create a strange story to accompany it, about a Lion and a Horse on the loose in the school.

The music, story and sound effects were performed and recorded by the children involved:
Isabella, Harrison, Joshua, Mary, Ilka, Ryan, Veronique, Ossie, Arthur, Florence, Oliver, Fermin, Marley,  Amanda, Matas and Iris

During both Holiday Play schemes and term-time Playcentre, we have been running a Stop Motion Animation workshop using whiteboards, plasticine, models and 3d objects. The children's animations were made independently and they also learnt to use Dragonframe software to capture their work.


Thanks to the following children for their brilliant animations: 
Raya, Yasmin, Fermin, Oliver, Ravi, Kush, ​​Lily-Rose, Niya, Layth, Amelie, Maya, Freddie, Philip, Bradley, Georgia, Joseph, Gabriel, Romilly, Harper, Tristan Archibald, Veronique Seymour, Nicole, Harrison, Fermin, Joshua, Zackand Harvey.

Wow! A tight deadline but you have really risen to the challenge, Sir John Cass! Here are some of the entries to the Christmas Card competition.. 

Cakes made, buttercreams whipped, icing piped- we held our fist Bake Off today. Wow! What an amazing effort and contribution from so many children. It was so difficult to judge the contest- Ms Caunter and I  were joined by Roberto, our Chef Manager. These are some of the children's amazing creations. 

​We have recently made some adjustments to the booking arrangements for the breakfast club and Play Centre. It's important that we know who is coming each day so we can plan for them and ensure we have the right amount of staff. Breakfast club and after school Play Centre are not drop-in provisions, you need to book to use them.

We ask parents to book a half term in advance. We do not accept booking on the day unless you have an emergency in the family. It may also be possible to arrange childcare on a regular basis if your circumstances at work change and you need to set up a regular pattern. Claire in the school office will be happy to assist you.

Paying by standing order 
Did you know you can pay by standing order for childcare service provided by the Children’s Centre and after school Play Centre? This helps you budgets more easily and spread out the overall costs. Just speak to Tanya or Mark in the office if you would like to discuss setting up a standing order.

Paying for school lunches
It's important that families keep up to date with payments for school lunches. We would encourage all parents and carer to pay via SIMS Agora,
however, we also accept cash and cheque payment.
 
As you may be aware the Government’s Universal Free School Meals program entitles all pupils in Reception Class 1 and class 2 to a free school meal. It is important that all parents/carers sign up for the Government’s Free School Meal program as registering could also raise extra money for the school. We want every family to register for this scheme as this will ensure the school receives the maximum possible from the government.
 
Parents and Carers are encouraged to complete the online form at www.myfreeschoolmeals.com to determine whether their child is eligible for Free School Meals. You only need to complete this form once and it will last for the duration of your child’s time at their current school.
 
In all other year groups lunches are chargeable at a bargain price of £1.90 per day. We’re so proud to have one of the highest uptakes of school meals in the country. We’re looking forward to welcoming parents and carers to school to share food with the children over the next few weeks!
 

We’ve had a packed agenda this term of trips out and special visitors in school. The youngest children in Explorers, Discoverers and Investigators have been making good use of our minibus and have been out and about all over London. The children have particularly enjoyed visits to parks and playgrounds around London. Not only do these trips make an excellent contribution to their physical development they also help enormously with children’s language skills.
 
Reception enjoyed a trip to Victoria Park to learn all about autumn. They played in the leaves and collected some conkers which they have used back in class on their investigation tables.
 
Class 1 and 2 have been taking part in an art project in relation to the Great Fire of London. An artist has been working with the classes over the last few weeks creating an amazing animation which will be shown early in the new year. Next week, the whole key stage is off to the Peacock theatre to see a production of ‘The Snowman’.
 
Class 3 enjoyed a trip to the Natural History Museum. The children engaged in lots of activities relating to their science learning on rocks and fossils. 
 
Class 4 visited All Hallows By The Tower last week to learn about the Romans in Britain.  The children took part in an interactive workshop and had a great time finding out about this significant period in UK history.
 
Class 5 have been working with an artist from the City Centre.  They’ve been studying sculpture on a project related to Religious Education (Buddhism) and the work of the famous artist, Anthony Gormley. They’re looking forward to the grand unveiling of their work next week—you’ll see it in school very shortly afterwards!
 
Class 6 are due to visit the British Museum next week as part of their learning about Ancient Egypt. They’ll be investigating the Egyptian galleries and rounding off their term of learning in History.
 

We're strating a major new partnership with the Anna Freud Centre after the Chrismtas holiday. We'll be running a parent and toddler group with a specific focus.

​What we help with

• The usual types of issues that the parent-toddler group can help with include:

• Trouble sleeping or eating
• Difficulties communicating and playing
• Finding it hard to share at home or when out
• Feeling isolated, frustrated or angry
• Worried about your relationship with your toddler
• Difficulty separating
• Developmental delays or concerns

 
How we help
 
You will meet with a member of the Anna Freud Under 5’s team who will discuss the parent toddler group with you and see if you would like to attend. The small informal parent toddler group will meet weekly for one and a half hours from January 2017 to January 2018. We ask parents and carers to try to commit to coming to the parent toddler group for one year.
 
There will be 8-10 children in the group with their carers all living in the local area. Parents and carers can get advice and support from experienced professionals.
 
We aim to build your relationship and support your toddler’s development through talk and play.
 
We think together about your child’s feelings and behaviour, try to understand what she/he is communicating and explore ways of responding.
 
We aim to encourage your child’s self-confidence and independence in preparation for nursery school.

​What parents say
 
"A regular place to come with continuity, focus and respect for the children and the importance of the parents' relationships with them. Skillful and informed help from the group's leader and assistant. Thank you very much, my son and I have loved the group".
- Parent who attended a Parent-Toddler Group