HOME SWEET HOME and what a FANTASTIC week we’ve had! Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make this transition run so smoothly. The children are in their element and have enjoyed being back in their classrooms and playing on the field. We’ve all enjoyed having our lunches together and being all under one roof again. Home really is where the heart is at St James

Be vigilant in monitoring phone activity

We have been made aware of a WhatsApp group called ‘Add your friends’ which is circulating in the South Tyneside area. It is believed to be aimed at Y4, Y5 and Y6 children.

This group may or may not contain inappropriate content. We want you to be aware that children can be added into WhatsApp groups by people who are not in their contacts. It is important that parents and carers check their child’s phone to make sure that they are not talking to people that they don’t know online.

Below are a set of instruction to ensure that your child’s phone settings do not allow them to be added to any groups on WhatsApp by people they do not know.

1. Tap settings
2. Tap Privacy > Groups
3. Select the following option > My contacts

Now only contacts in your phone’s address book can add you to groups without your approval. If a group admin who is not in your phone’s address book tries to add you to a group they will get a pop-up which says they can’t add you. They will then be prompted to tap invite to group or press continue, followed by the send button to send a private group invite through an individual chat. You then have three days to accept the invite before it expires.

On International Dance Day sports leaders from St Joseph’s led a dance session with  Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 as part of our aim to gain the Artsmark Award. This session was based around emotions. The children explored a range of emotions through dance and then choreographed their own dance pieces.

***AS A SCHOOL WE HAVE BEEN ASKED TO CIRCULATE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM NORTHUMBRIA POLICE***

WhatsApp group encouraging self-harm in young people.

CNTW NHS Trust has made us aware of a WhatsApp group called “everyone you know x” which is circulating in North Tyneside. It is aimed at Y6 students.

There are currently 500 members, and the group encourages members to self-harm.

Three young people (two from Gateshead and one from Northumberland) are in hospital following overdose and they have disclosed that there is a social media trend whereby young people are being encouraged to take overdoses on a points scoring system eg, if admitted to hospital, if a liver specialist has been contacted etc.

As these young people are not from the North Tyneside area, and there is potential for this to affect other year groups, we are making all schools in our force area aware.

Please consider making your students’ parent/carers aware of this group/trend and follow your school’s safeguarding protocols should you be concerned about individual students.

The NSPCC website has information about helping children who may have been affected by such content Content promoting self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk

A fantastic opportunity for our children in YEAR 5 & YEAR 6

Children’s Info Sheet Holy Island 2023

A message from the organisers…

The donation payment for the week is £150. To secure your child’s place at camp a £50 deposit must be payed within one month of completing this application. If anybody is having difficulty with this payment, please contact us and we can make arrangements for a payment plan. Our email address is holyislandapplications@svp.org.uk

Click here to fill in the application form Application form 2024

On Friday 7th March all of our children were invited to come into school dressed in non uniform… with a twist!

We held a whole school ‘fashion TRASHION show’ where children showed off the fashion accessories they’d created with only recycled materials .We were absolutely blown away with all of the efforts, the ‘trashion’ accessories were truly and honestly exceptional!

Thank you to Author Claire Donald for judging our ‘trashion’ show and choosing the winners. Each winner received a personalised signed copy of Claire’s book which was at the heart of our World Book Day, ‘Mother Earth is Weeping’ is a story which focuses on how we can better our world and become more environmentally friendly.

Today we took part in the sponsored Big Lent Walk together in aid of CAFOD and what a fantastic time we had.

A huge thank you St Joseph’s Sports Leaders, St Joseph’s Transition Buddies and St Joseph’s School Staff. Well done to our Year 6 children for taking care of their special friends and holding their hands during the walk. We are always so proud of ALL of our children and today is no exception.

The money we raise by taking part in the Big Lent Walk will enable CAFOD and SCIAF to continue fighting global poverty and to bring real life change to communities overseas. Please return all sponsor forms and monies by Monday 25th March.

CAFOD and SCIAF are the official relief and development agencies of the Catholic Church for England and Wales (CAFOD) and for Scotland (SCIAF), and are both members of the global Caritas Internationalis family.

CAFOD and SCIAF believe that a green and just world, free from poverty is possible. They are teaming up this year because they know that working together means that we can make an even bigger difference.