It’s with a heavy heart that I announce I’m leaving the school at the end of the year academic year. I’m heading over to South Australia for a few years to be closer to our family over there. I want to reassure you that the decision to move is primarily for personal reasons– it’s just the right time for us to make the move. 
 
It’s a very difficult decision moving on from a school like Cass– a school which ultimately is so exceptional because of the strength the relationships between children, staff and parents. I love this school and I’m very proud of every child in it. I’m also pleased the staff and governors have moved the school forward and modernised it in the last few years. My departure as Headteacher is merely one small chapter in the long history of our very successful school. We approach the next stage of the future with a very strong teaching team in place, with talented middle and senior leaders who I know will continue to work exceptionally hard and be doggedly focussed on achieving exceptional outcomes for every child.
 
The interesting thing about working in any school is that while you can change the school, the school also changes you. This is an institution with a big personality! I’ve personally developed and grown in so many different ways working with you over the last few years and I hope you feel you’ve gained something from working with me. The main thing I will miss when the time comes to sign off for the last time is the children. It’s an honour being  Headteacher of a school where every child wants to learn and achieve their best. It’s been my pleasure serving them for the last few years. Their talents and skills are remarkable.

As parents and carers you may not know a great deal about the governing body; but let me assure you our governors are an incredibly committed group and have already started the work of recruiting a new Headteacher. Matt Piper, the Chair of Governors, has written to you today to explain more about the process over the next few months. We would really appreciate your active involvement in the process.  This announcement is rather early in the term, but we felt it was necessary so we could find the best possible new Headteacher.

I have been appointed as an Education Director in Adelaide, South Australia where I’ll be helping to improve their school system and working with a number of schools across the state.  I will no doubt use many of the lessons learnt at Cass to help shape the experience for young people in a different part of the world!

Try not to fear change. Our school is about to begin a new chapter and it’s in good shape to have every success in the future. I can assure you it is very much business as usual for the rest of the year. We’re unflinchingly focussed on the hard work of delivering consistently outstanding provision for all children.
​
If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can contact Matt Piper: chair@sirjohncassprimary.org.
With thanks
Mr T Wilson | Headteacher
 

​The Governing Body of the school met last week for its termly meeting. Among topics for discussion were pupil progress, residential trips, and new initiatives in mathematics.
 
Governors also approved a new policy on Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) that had been proposed by Mr Wilson and the Senior Leadership Team. The policy emphasises the importance of safe and healthy relationships and brings forward the teaching on body changes during puberty to ensure children within the school are adequately prepared for these.
 
The review of this policy is well timed as Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education, recently announced proposals that will make elements of SRE mandatory in all schools from 2019.
 
We are aware that SRE has the potential to be a controversial subject amongst parents. The new curriculum has been designed to sit within the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) programme and makes use of the PSHE Association scheme of work, which teachers have already begun to use in other areas. It has also been the subject of extensive consultation with governors and parents, through discussion groups and a questionnaire. We hope you were able to contribute to that.
 
Parents expressed a range of views during the consultation process. There was general and broad support for the new curriculum and a clear feeling that the subject should be taught in the same manner as other topics in the PSHE curriculum. Parents also requested that faith and cultural contexts be explained and that teaching should be sensitive to these. The teaching team already considers such sensitivities in its delivery of the Religious Education curriculum and we are confident that topics within SRE will be delivered in the same manner.
 
If you wish to contact the Governing Body on this, or on any other matter relating to school strategy, you are very welcome to do so via the school office.
 
Mr Matt Piper
Vice Chair of Governors
 
 
 

​Feedback forms
Thank you for attending our recent Parent Conferences. Please ensure you have completed your feedback forms and sent them back to the school office. You can also fill them in online: https://goo.gl/forms/cCEVFuRNbv7seSfh1 . The teaching and leadership teams read every comment you make and the governing body curriculum committee analyse the results very closely. This helps us to continually make improvements.
 
Class two
The teachers in Class 2 have changed around the days they work. Ms Pak will now be working on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning. Ms Lucas will be in school from Wednesday to Friday.
 
French teacher
We welcome Moira Colletta who will be assisting with French teaching until the end of the academic year. This will free up a little of Ms Pak’s time to focus on her own Class. Ms Pak will continue to lead modern foreign languages at school and will return to French teaching next year.
 
Our Term Dates
We always look to Tower Hamlets when setting our term dates. It’s come to our attention that while our term dates follow the pattern suggested by Tower Hamlets Local Authority one or two of the schools near to us have chosen different term dates for the spring term. Many schools are now free to set their own dates and don’t have to follow Local Authority advice. You can find out our term dates for the rest of this academic year on our website.
 
Clubs
Our clubs and out of hours tuition typically start back on Week beginning 9th January, 2017. If you would like to check a date or time, please contact the school office. 

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!

​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!
 

Christmas Card- Request from the Mayor of London
​​Sadiq Khan has been in touch early today to ask if children at Sir John Cass would make a Christmas Card for him. He apologised for the short notice but had remembered how much he enjoyed visiting the school earlier in the year. 

He's looking for a nativity scene which he wants to use on the front of his Christmas Cards this year. He'll be sending them to important people at home and overseas. If you want to create something for him- it could be a drawing, painting or collage- you just need to complete your work by no later than Wednesday 7th December, 2016. It should be just an A4 page- you don't need to fold it to make a card.

​If you want to make something in school, Ms Jones will be around to help on Monday and Tuesday at lunchtime. 

New menus for Spring 2017
We'd love your views on the new school menus which will start after the Christmas holidays. Thank you to all of the parents and carers who recently joined us for one of our tasking sessions. We had great feedback about the quality of the food served. 
​http://www.sirjohncassprimary.org/heads-blog/views-on-the-spring-menu​

Cass Christmas Bake Off
If you've entered the Christmas Market Bake Off Competition​ you'll need to bring in your creation at the start of the day on Tuesday 6th December, 2016. The judging starts at 9.15am.

We can't wait!

​Christmas Market
We hope to see you at the Christmas Market this year. The fun starts straight after school on Tuesday  6th December, 2016.

Admissions
Don't forget- if you're applying for a Reception of Nursery place at Sir John Cass your application must be in by January 15th, 2017. For Reception you need to apply using the e-admissions website: https://www.eadmissions.org.uk/eAdmissions/app

In Nursery you must apply using a paper form available in the school office or for download on our website: ​http://www.sirjohncassprimary.org/admissions.html

We believe education is a partnership. We do try hard to take account of your views and support parent and carers in any way we can to hone and develop the skills of your child.

I thank all those parents and carers who attended parent conferences during the last couple of weeks. We've had great feedback from teachers, parents and children about the excellent start to the year our children have had. We shared targets with you at these meetings. You may be aware but primary school assessment has been subject to many changes over the last few years and a new and more challenging curriculum has been introduced. We've gradually developed the way we assess children. We're refining our simple 5 point scale for assessment this year. We're also going to be reporting percentage correct in test scores. This follows on from feedback last year in the annual parent surveys. More information on assessment will be available shortly in our revised guide– Understanding your child's report.

There are lots of family activities and adult education events coming up over the next few months. Firstly, we have a programme of sessions for parents of children in the early years looking at supporting your child with early reading, phonics, mathematics and providing more information about our play-based learning environments. In the latter parts of autumn and early spring we'll be hosting some sessions to support parents and carers with the demands of the mathematics curriculum. We're working hard this year to develop number fluency with children in our mathematics lessons. We've had lots of requests for these sessions to restart so we pleased to be able to make arrangements for this to happen.

We're very pleased to announce a partnership with the Anna Freud centre in Camden. Anna Freud are a leading institution dedicated to helping children and families. They'll be leading a family and toddler group in the children's centre on a weekly basis after school. This session is open to all with under 5s but it will be really helpful if your dealing with any tricky behaviour between you and your child at home. More information on the initiative will be available shortly on the Children's Centre pages of the website or you can see Alex or Georgina for further details.
I look forward to working with parents and carers over the coming year to achieve excellent and enjoyment for your child at our great school. 

Have a restful half term holiday. See you back at school on Monday 31st October, 8.55am. 

We are very proud of our inspection report! Read it here...

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back! It is my pleasure to be writing to you in what is my first letter as Headteacher of Sir John Cass’s Foundation VA Primary School. I am very excited to be leading our great school into the next phase of its development.

My thanks to those parents, carers, governors and members of the local community who were able to join us today in St Botolph’s for my installation service. I look forward to serving the school as best I can to continue its fine traditions and deliver an exceptional education for every child. I also look forward to meeting you over the coming weeks and months, learning more about your children and working together with all parents and friends in this vibrant community.

All the staff have been working hard during the first two days of September to organise their rooms and plan the programme for the year ahead. We were very pleased to welcome back many of our children today- safe, sound and ready for work after their summer holidays.

The purpose of this letter is to draw your attention to a few important matters.

-       You are warmly invited to meet your child’s class teacher and learn more about the routines in class for the year ahead on Monday 8th September, 2014 at 9am.

-       The school administrative team have been moved to one location during the summer holidays. There is now no separate reception/office in the Cass Child and Family Centre. All questions, enquiries, dinner money and letters should be sent to the main school office. You should also use the main school telephone number to get in touch if you need to: 0207 283 1147.

-       You have been sent two forms today. A data collection form about your personal details and a form which enables you to give permission for different activities which take place in school such as local outings. Please fill them promptly and return to your child’s class teacher via the book bag or to the school office by Monday 8th September, 2014.

-       We are moving over to a new system for dinner money and an online payment system for all school fees and charges. This will take some time to implement. We ask that you do not send any money to the office until Monday 8th September, 2014 by which time we hope to have some of the systems up and running smoothly. We will keep you posted!

-       Our website – www.sirjohncassprimary.org – has been updated over the summer holidays. We are currently working on a separate website for children to access. Please take a look and let us know what you think by using the comment facility online.  

I look forward to working in partnership with you and wish you and your children all the very best for the term ahead. Should you wish to talk with me about any matter, please don’t hesitate to see me in the playground or make an appointment at the school office.

With thanks,

Mr T Wilson

Headteacher