Newsletters

Friday 20th October, 2023

We look back today on a really good half term and look forward to a timely week for the children to recharge batteries ready for the push towards the Christmas holidays. At Christmas, we will be using St Cuthbert's for some Carol Concerts once again - please find the dates below. 

We've enjoyed having parents in school this week for the coffee morning and for the Year 4 lunch yesterday. I hope you enjoyed coming in to spend time with your children. We've had around 60 parents or carers in total for coffee mornings this term which is fantastic. 

We hope that your child has enjoyed the first half term and can look back on the term feeling that they've enjoyed the curriculum so far. We hope that those who have signed up to 'Marvellous Me' have enjoyed seeing how the children have been getting on, and we hope to continue adding more content as the months go on. We now have 150 parents and carers signed up, which is great. If you haven't done so yet, please take a few minutes to do it. 

We continue to have a good link with the Norwich foodbank and some of our Year 6 Ambassadors have enjoyed going to visit this afternoon. We will be joining in with the Christmas collection for the foodbank, and we will let you know the details when we return after half-term. 

We hope everyone has a good half-term. It's not started very well with the atrocious weather, but I'm sure it will improve as we head into the back end of the weekend. 

Kind regards

Matt Walton, Headteacher

October 

Tue 31st Oct - Greek Day - Year 4

Tue 31st Oct - Girls' Football - Dray Cup tournament (Yr 5/6)

November 

Thur 2nd Nov - Cross Country @ North Walsham (11am)

Mon 6th Nov - Year 3 visiting Norwich Cathedral

Tue 7th Nov - Parents' Evening (3:30pm - 6pm)*

Wed 8th Nov - Year 5 visit to Norwich Central Mosque

Wed 8th Nov - Parents' Evening (5pm - 7:30pm)*

Fri 10th Nov - Bikeability - Year 4

Mon 13th Nov - Anti-Bullying Week

Mon 13th Nov - Year 3 celebrating Diwali 

Wed 15th Nov - Salhouse science lesson at Sprowston Community Academy

Wed 15th Nov - Yr 2 Open Day @ 9am & 3:30pm 

Thur 15th Nov - Yr 2 Open Day @ 9am & 2:15pm

Wed 22nd Nov - Salhouse science lesson at Sprowston Community Academy

Mon 27th Nov - Year 5 science session at Norwich High School for Girls (1/3)

Thu 29th Nov - Norfolk Panathlon Games at UEA Sportspark

*Some teacher times vary from the above

December 

Mon 4th Dec - Year 5 visit science session at Norwich High School for Girls (2/3)

Tue 5th Dec - Friends' Christmas shop

Wed 6th Dec - Year 5 Reading Cafe - 2pm 

Mon 11th Dec - Year 5 visit science session at Norwich High School for Girls (3/3)

Tue 12th Dec - Year 3 and 4 carol service at St Cuthbert's - 1:45pm

Wed 13th Dec - Year 5 and 6 carol service at St Cuthbert's - 1:45pm

Tue 19th Dec - Christmas Disco

Wed 20th Dec - End of term and start of Christmas holidays

* Timings may differ slightly for some teachers 

International Day 

We need to say a massive thank you to the parents who gave up their time to come into school to talk to the children about a different country. The children loved listening to the different talks and were really interested to hear about all the fascinating information shared with them. The whole idea was to share all the family links to other countries that Sprowston Junior children have. The children listened to talks about Ukraine, South Africa, Bulgaria, Holland, Canada and St Lucia. 

The children researched and shared information about countries linked to the children in each class and presented information on posters. Some classes learnt how to say hello in different languages too.

The morning was a great success and we hope to do it again in the future. 

Cross Country 

Last Friday, children from Sprowston Junior joined children from schools across Norwich to take part in the first race of the Norwich Primary Schools Athletic Association cross-country season.

The first race is traditionally held here at Sprowston Junior. The course, which is just over a mile, takes place over two laps of the rec, including going through the wooded area behind the tennis courts. We had the perfect weather for the runners and for the crowds of spectators.

The girls started things off with their race and the boys followed once all the girls had finished. 

Our runners for this event were: Ani, Freya, Talia, Caitlyn, Phoebe, Eliza, Carissa, Theo, Olly, Nathan, Dexter, Jacob, Ethan and Jasper. Well done - you did us proud!

Thanks to all the parents/carers who came to cheer on our runners.

Special thanks to Molly, Olly and Jack from Sprowston Community Academy who were the race 'hares' and helped the runners navigate the course.

A huge thank you as well to the race marshals who helped set up the course and make sure that things went smoothly. Our race marshals were: Jack, Darcie, Mollie, Lexi, Imogen, Francesca, Rachel, Filip, Max, Daniel, Morgan, Blake, Indigo, Lexi, Ben, Bella, Ava, Libby, Yni Hei, Amira, Max and Jackson.

The next race of the season is at Falcon Junior School on Fri 17th Nov.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up to Marvellous Me. We currently have 150 parents & carers who have downloaded the app and are making the most of being able to find out what their children have been up, receive 'thumbs ups' and other notifications as well as receiving messages from classes.

Here are links to a parent walk through guide and a 'parent app explained' video with some useful information about how to get started.

If you have any questions, or need some help, please let a member of the year group team know. You can also email Mr Arthur: deputy@sprowstonjunior.norfolk.sch.uk who will be able to get you up and running.

Uniform Shop

Every Friday, we are opening our uniform shop - anyone is welcome to come in and take items of second hand uniform. You are most welcome to come along at any time on Friday morning. All items are free. 

We appreciate any donations of uniform. Thank you to everyone for your help. 

Football Report 

The Year 5/6 football team are through to the next round of the cup having beaten Spixworth 2-0 with both goals scored by Ollie. The latest league match was against Poringland and the team found themselves 3-0 down at half-time. In the space of a few mins, the team recovered to 3-3 in the second half (Ollie hat-trick) before eventually losing 5-3. 

Earlier this week, we entered the 7-a-side Jack Ramm trophy competition and managed to make the semi-finals before unfortunately losing 1-0 in a tight game against Firside. 

Well done this half-term to Ollie, Leo, Caleb, Theo, Solomon, Jack, Phoebe, Ethan, Leo & Dexter (Year 6) & Ethan, Jasper & Alfie (Year 5)

Halloween Disco 

I think the children certainly enjoyed themselves last night at the Halloween disco. There were many fantastic costumes and I hope they all had a fantastic time. Many thanks as always to the Friends Association for putting the event on for the children,  and to all who helped at the event. 

Snacks and Lunch boxes

Please can we send a reminder that we are a nut free school with a number of children across the school having allergies to nuts.

Please can we also send a reminder that we encourage a healthy snack and would ask again that children do not have sweets or chocolate bars for break-time snacks (except wafer bars). 

Last year, the eco-team encouraged healthy snacks during the year to support healthy living and to reduce plastic waste. We hope the eco-team will run a similar initiative later in the year. 

Food Bank

Today, this year's Pupil Ambassadors visited the Norwich Foodbank to carry on the great work that previous Pupil Ambassadors have done over the last few years.

They met with Hannah, manager of the Norwich Foodbank and had a look round the Foodbank and got an insight into the amazing work that the staff and volunteers do to help others. 

After the half-tem holiday, the Pupil Ambassadors will be organising a collection for the Foodbank. Watch this space for more information.

New Library Books!

We've spent a good amount of money on new library books covering all levels in Accelerated Reader. The staff are busy sorting them all out and we hope to have them all out on display soon for the children to read!