St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Hendon

Dear Parents & Carers, Please find attached the Wednesday Word for this week. We hope you enjoy reading through it with your children. School Office

Dear Parents and Carers, Please see attached the latest newsletter with information regarding upcoming trips, Sports Days, VE Day Celebrations and much more. Wishing you a lovely week end. Kind regards, Mrs Ricketts.

Dear Parents & Carers, Please find attached information regarding our upcoming School Nurse drop-in sessions on Thursday 12th June 2025. To book an individual appointment, please speak to the school office. Appointment times still available are: 8.50am, 9.10am and 9.30am Many thanks, Jodie Connolly SENCo

Dear Parents & Carers, Re: BICs Family Minds Workshops Please note that these workshops are primarily aimed towards the parents/carers of children and young people. BICS are inviting you to join our virtual workshops. These workshops aim to increase your knowledge of common wellbeing and mental health difficulties faced by children and young people. They also aim to provide you with strategies to assist you in supporting your young person. We have four topics coming up between April and July. Understanding Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA): This workshop aims to help you: identify what EBSA is and the risk and resilience factors for it, consider how to talk to children/young people about EBSA, consider what you can do as parents/carers to support, and consider what schools can do to support. There will also be opportunities for reflection and discussion. Understanding and Managing Anxiety Workshop: This is a two-part workshop that aims to increase your knowledge on anxiety and provide you with some skills and strategies to assist your young person in coping with their anxiety. Part 1 will focus on: what anxiety is, how anxiety can develop, and what maintains anxiety. Part 2 will build upon this, specifically looking at: understanding anxious thoughts and behaviours, strategies to challenge anxious thoughts and behaviours, signposting, and helpful other resources. Supporting your Child to Manage Difficult Emotions: In this workshop we will cover what our stress response is and how it effects children and young people’s ability to manage their emotions. You will learn skills to help support your child in managing difficult emotions as well as how you can model self-care and emotion regulation. Understanding Low Mood and Self-Esteem Workshop: This is a workshop that will develop your understanding of low mood and low self-esteem. It will teach you skills to help you to support and talk to your child or young person who may be experiencing low mood and/or low self-esteem. It will also introduce you to the CBT-approach to treating low mood, which includes behavioural activation, identifying values and building mastery and includes children and young people’s views on their experience with low mood and self-esteem. As some children and young people with low mood engage in unhelpful / risky coping behaviours such as self-harm, the workshop will address how to respond and encourage the use of safer coping methods. HOW TO REGISTER Please register for each session using the ‘Eventbrite’ links attached. The workshops are being held virtually during lunchtimes to accommodate for childcare and work commitments. If you need a letter to your employer, please ask. Spaces are limited, and places will be offered on a first come first serve basis. We look forward to seeing you at our workshops. Kind regards.

Dear Parents & Carers, Please be aware that dogs are not allowed in the School Playground or anywhere else on School property. Your co-operation is much appreciated. Kind regards. Mrs Zara Keating Deputy Head Teacher

Dear Parents/Carers, Barnet Education and Learning Service (BELS) are re-running our highly successful and free Language Enrichment Programme training course for parent/carers of Early Years and Primary/Secondary aged children and young people in the Summer Term. Full information and dates/times in the attached flyer. The sessions are being run by BELS in conjunction with Wave SLT and are delivered via Zoom both mornings and evenings. I would like to flag up this exciting opportunity to all of our parents/carers. It is a practical 3 session course for parent/carers who want advice on supporting their child’s speech, language, and communication. The parent/carers who have attended previously have found the sessions very helpful and interesting- both listening to the speech therapist present the training and sharing ideas with other parent/carers. Dates of sessions – May 6th, May 20th, June 17th, (evaluation on July 1st) More information about the training and details on how parents/carers can register are in the flyer attached. Kind regards, Jodie Connolly SENCo

Dear Parents/Carers, Subject: Supporting parents to understand the eligibility criteria for both BACE and Positive Activities If your child(ren) has been issued a 16 digit-voucher code for BACE activities, there is NO COST to parents to access the BACE programmes advertised on BarnetYouth.uk as these are funded by the Department for Education. If your child has not been issued a code, you can still access activities through Positive Activities (PA). ALL children living and schooling in Barnet are eligible for a PA funded space. When booking on the PA programme via Barnetyouth.uk parents will note there is no code required and there is also NO COST as this is funded by the London Borough of Barnet Early Help Team. So, win, win. Please note there are some parents who will have children that are eligible and receive a code and siblings who are not, this is the reason why: The voucher codes are NOT automatically issued to children on EHCP plans if their parents do not qualify or are not in receipt of one the above benefits. Codes will only be issued to those who do not receive these benefits and do not receive universal tax credits if the schools/practitioners have identified particularly vulnerable families. There is only a 15% allowance for across the borough for children classified as vulnerable, this may include but is not limited to children across the following: those who are grieving, family conflict, know to early help services, refugee or asylum seeking families, etc. We encourage families who do not receive voucher codes and have access to universal tax credits to book on to programmes who are Ofsted registered and apply to claim funds back as per GOV.UK. Parents must remember the code is specifically for those who are on low incomes, and their income status required to access a code via your child’s school. The following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals as follows: • Since 1 April 2018, all existing free school meals claimants have continued to receive free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This applies even if their earnings rise above the threshold during that time. • In addition, any pupil gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected against losing free school meals until March 2025. • After March 2025, any existing claimants that no longer meet the eligibility criteria at that point (because they are earning above the threshold or are no longer a recipient of Universal Credit) will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (i.e. primary or secondary) If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to BACE please contact me direct or @BACEHolidays if it relates to Positive Activities (PA) please contact @Reid, Jason (LBB) or @byes@barnetyouth.uk Many thanks, Charlene Townsend (she/her) BACE Early Help Services London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, London NW9 4EW Work number: 020 8359 6225

AJ's After School Club. AJ's is pleased to announce extension of After School Club hours to 6pm, from close of school. Should you wish to use AJ's, pop in to the dining hall anytime after 3.20pm, or call Brendan on 07970 883973 to register and make a booking. Please note, AJ's provides snacks for the children at 4.30pm. Come along and have a chat to find out more of what AJ's does. AJ’s is an Ofsted registered organisation, accepting Childcare Vouchers, Student Finance support payments and are able to verify Childcare Tax Credit and Universal Credit applications. Message sent on behalf of AJ's After School Club. Kind regards.