Headteacher's Newsletter

30 September 2022

Dear Parents,

Bishop Mark’s Visit to St Vincent’s

We were delighted to welcome Bishop Mark to St Vincent’s today. Bishop Mark held an assembly for the junior department and also had a tour of the infant department where he met the children and saw the children at work. Bishop Mark was very complimentary about our school and in particular liked our displays of Noah’s Ark and of our parishes St Vincent’s and Holy Angels.

Our Mini Vinnies and Prayer Leaders also played their part in talking to Bishop Mark about their important roles in school.

Rosary Retreats at St Vincent’s Church 7 - 9 October

St Vincent’s Church warmly invite you to join us at St Vincent’s church for a three-day series of retreat talks given on the Holy Rosary.

Friday 7 October: 6pm Talk; 7pm Holy Mass; 7:30pm Recitation of the Holy Rosary

Saturday 8 October: 10am Talk; 11am Adoration; 11:20am Recitation of the Holy Rosary; 12:15pm Holy Mass

Sunday 9 October: 3:30pm Talk; 4:30pm Recitation of the Holy Rosary

The talks are given by Joseph, a Seminarian on placement at St Vincent’s, Canon Jonathan and Father Robert. "Join us to grow in your love for the Holy Rosary and of Mary and her Son Jesus."

Holy Angels Parish Book Club

Do you like reading? Would you like to discuss books with others? If so, do come along to the Holy Angels Parish book club. Their next meeting is on 10 October at the Bull’s Head at 6:30pm. If you would like to join then please contact office@holyangelscatholicchurch.co.uk  

Books to discuss are:

October - Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

November - The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

December – Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Harvest

Next week we will be collecting food for the Harvest. We will be donating to Cornerstones Homeless charity and South Manchester Food Bank. With the rising cost of living, Cornerstones and the food bank need our help more than ever. Please give what you are able to so we can help those in need. In order to help the foodbank with foods in demand, please can each year group bring in the following:

Our harvest collection will take place from Monday to Friday. On Friday morning, our Mini Vinnies will help to take our harvest donations to Cornerstones in Salford and the foodbank in Timperley. We are looking for parent helpers to transport the donations on Friday morning after drop off. Please contact the office if you can help transport the donations: admin@stvincents.trafford.sch.uk

 Curriculum Information

Thank you for attending the curriculum meetings this week. The presentations for each year group can be found on the school website under Curriculum Information. Please click on the year group and you will see the presentation under Curriculum Evening. If you have any questions about the curriculum, please do ask.

Wellbeing Update

St Vincent's are proud to be the first school in Trafford to be awarded the Wellbeing Award for schools in recognition of our commitment to prioritising wellbeing for pupils, parents and staff. The award is an evidence-based programme, which ensures that mental health and wellbeing sit at the heart of school life. We will shortly be seeking re-accreditation of the award. 

Our vision statement demonstrates our commitment to developing our wellbeing provision; please take a look here: http://www.stvincents.trafford.sch.uk/page/school-vision-2022-2025/30399

We provide a carefully planned PSHE curriculum and have nominated Wellbeing Pupil and Staff Champions. We ensure that our children are emotionally literate so that they can look after their emotional and physical mental health. Maintaining wellbeing is the responsibility of the whole school community, and we want to work with you to help promote wellbeing for all. We have a strong pastoral care team who are available for your child or for parents should you wish to discuss any aspect of your family's wellbeing. We run frequent pastoral drop-in sessions: the next one is Tuesday 11 October from 2pm to 3pm with Mrs Gee. Please visit https://stvincentscatholicprimary.schoolcloud.co.uk  to book your appointments.

If you need more information about the work that we do, or how to talk to your child about wellbeing, please pop in for a chat or refer to the information on our website: http://www.stvincents.trafford.sch.uk/page/wellbeing-at-st-vincents/49441. 

Soon, we will be sending out a survey to gather your feedback on this important part of our work and we would ask that you take a moment to complete it and help us shape our provision in this vital area.

Open Morning

We will be holding an open morning on Wednesday 19 October for prospective parents. If you would like to come along, please email admissions@stvincents.trafford.sch.uk to book your slot. Please share this information with family and friends who might like to attend our open morning.

Parent and Teacher Association

Thank you to all of the parents who came along to the PTA AGM. Following our covid recovery, it is going to be an exciting year as we relaunch our PTA. It was lovely to see parents come together to share ideas. We have lots of ideas for the children to have fun, bring parents together and raise funds in the process!

There have been some changes to the committee roles. Mrs Hetherington will step aside from the chairperson’s role. I would like to thank Mrs Hetherington for being the chairperson and for leading our PTA in the most challenging time of covid recovery. Even though many of our events were remote, we continued to raise important funds for our children. Thank you to the parents who put themselves forward for committee roles, we have been delighted to have so much interest. The committee roles are as follows:

Co-Chairpersons: Ben Williamson, Sara Cheung, Jen Judge

Secretary/ Publisher: Dia Barrett, Elise Perrine

Treasurer: Sarah Webster, Sarah Smith

Every parent who joins St Vincent’s becomes a member of our PTA. One way you can help is to attend our events. Our first event will be a Parent Quiz night which is taking place on Friday 14 October, so please put the date in your diary and look out for further details.

Dates List  Autumn 1

Attendance

Please note we do not authorise holidays in term time.

We offer an open door to parents. If you have any questions about school life, please liaise with your class teacher.  Mrs Farrell (infant department deputy head), Mrs Sutton (junior department deputy head), and I are also available to work in partnership with you.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Harrop

Headteacher