Contact:
Christ Church C of E VC Junior School, Pendennis Road, Downend, South Glos. BS165JJ

Telephone: 01454 866516  
Fax: 01454 866518
e-mail: head@christ-down-jun.s-gloucs.sch.uk   
website: www.christ-down-jun.s-gloucs.sch.uk 

Headteacher: Alex Wilkinson: M.Ed 

Sources of information about the school. Here
1. OfSTED:  Jan 2009
2. Church Inspection Report 2009 : 
3. What do parents think of the school?
4. SATS & targets 2005-9    
5. June 2009. New  Yr 2 parents for Sept 2009
 

Christ Church@ Downend
Next School Service:
Easter Service
Tuesday March 30, 2010
at 1.30pm
All Friends and Family welcome

Our Vision
a thinking and caring  community of learners 

Thinking:
Making learning an active challenge  and encouraging   reflection on personal choices and  their consequences for self and others.

Caring:
The Christian message of care: for self, family, other people and all of creation; is the core value underpinning the work of the school.

Community:  
The school as a community and working with parents, the Church, the Infant school and other local providers of services

Learning:  
Meeting new challenges through a culture of  high expectations, support and recognition of personal achievement. Everyone, children, parents and staff , as a learner!

  Last Newsletter Online     No 20   March 10  2009

Newsletters will now be fortnightly but website updates will be weekly.
 

The Chernobyl Children's Lifeline Charity arranges for groups of children to spend a month in this country, away from the suffering and pollution caused by the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster. CCJ hosted a group for the day in 2009 and will do so again this year. For many of us it was one of the the most special days of the year

Chernobyl Children's Lifeline  arrange the flights and leaders/interpreters for the visit, as well as organising a whole range of outings, activities and visits during their stay.

Chernobyl Children's Lifeline are looking for more host families who could look after one or two children (aged 10-12) for two, or four weeks this summer.

If you think you might like to know more, we are holding a recruitment/information session in the North Street Hall on Friday 12th March from 6.30pm onwards. Please come.

Buildings Links:
Mrs Elliott, Ms Pickering, Mr Robbins (chair of Governors) and the Church team are in South Africa week making links with Dihlabang Primary School.South Africa.

Mrs Elliott & Ms Pickering sharing the Story Sacks and the new banners!
 

Pedal Power!
How fast do you need to pedal to boil a kettle? We’ll be finding out!

The Highwayman:
Year 5 Literacy groups gave two, dramatic readings of the poem-story ‘The Highwayman’ to an audience of children and parents

 Jan  2010 Maths lesson in the snow! (more here)

See here for up-date, focussing on Christmas in the Christ Church Community 2009 Updated Dec 17

Monday 14 Dec: The Church was packed and the singing was uplifting and full of Christmas joy. Many thanks to children, parents the choir & Revd Jo Vickery.

Safe use of the Internet
Social Networking sites.
Cyber- bullying

Presentation for parents & carers

Monday 14^th December
2:30 –3.00. School Hall 
The core message was........

E-safety

· A recent school survey of yrs 5&6 pupils in South Glos reported that 48% of children had unsupervised access to the internet in their bedroom (a recent parent survey put the figure at 14%). 42% of children had lied about their age to get access to social networking (and other) sites.

· Do you have a computer at home?

· Is your child confident with using it independently?

· Do you know exactly what they are doing on the Internet?

· Do you feel sure you are able to protect them and guide them to use the Internet safely?

Recent Letters Home: NEW

Yr 3- 4 Hockey Club
Tea-time concert  3 Feb
Class 3MM Swimming 29 Jan

Recent Website updates:

March 2010: Year 6 Revision page
Feb: Dihlabeng School, South Africa NEW
Feb: Pedal Power Science:NEW
Feb: Community Page 2: NEW
Jan: Snow-fun in school: Monday Jan 11 Dec: Governors: Chair's review of the year
Dec: Christmas in the Christ Church Community.
Nov: Community Cohesion, Rights & Rules +

Dates for your Diary
March 11: 6KE assembly 3.00
March 12: Cake Sale 3.00
March 19: Sport Relief
March 22: Yr 6 to PGL
March 30: Easter Service 1.30
March 31: Last day of Term 4
April 1: School shut INSET
April 19: First day of Term 5

Yr 6 Sats Week May 10-14

Friday  March 19 2010

Sport Relief Mile

3.00pm onwards (till 5.00)

Walk, run or jog, a mile (with or without children!) around the school grounds.
 All Welcome!
Parents + children, Infant School Children & parents, Staff, Governors and anyone from the local community who would like to take part.

                  INSET DAYS 2009-2010
                        Same as Infant School
               April 1 2010      June 25 2010
Dates for 2010/11 here

                      Modern Childhood.
With so much 'doom and gloom' about modern childhood in the media and so much nationwide parental anxiety about behaviour, politeness, safety etc, please take a few minutes to read the full OfSTED report, and especially the letter the Inspector sent to all of the children. As well as the ‘content’ (which says some wonderful things about your children; their attitude, the way they speak to and respond to each other etc) all classes looked at it as a model example of how to write a letter (e.g. style, think about the audience etc) which is one of the things we teach in Literacy!

Please! Please! Take a  few minutes to read the full report. It is so very positive about your children (the Inspection Team spent far more time with them than they did with adults!) and about  the actual impact on children of all the adults' hard work to make school enjoyable and worthwhile for all your children.

….so..please... no crisps or chocolate for  children’s playtime snacks!

This was agreed after extensive consultation with (and   pressure from!) parents a couple of years ago.

Healthy Snacks ( fruit, toast etc) are sold daily from the kitchen at playtime, Still only 15p!