Use the buttons to change class or area:
Yesterday afternoon, the Early Years children were asked to draw lots of beautiful patterns in bright colours on some filter paper. Then they folded the points of the star into the middle of the paper. After that, they put it in the water that was coloured with black food colouring. The firework then exploded open and we could see all of their beautiful firework designs! We learnt that if we didn’t fold the stars up quite right, the water would get on top of the paper and then it would sink!
Welcome to our new St John the Baptist school newsletter, produced by the Owl Class Journalist Team: Lowry, Matthew, Evan, Harry & Ella. We will update you on what has been happening this past month. You will be hearing about Funfest, Acorns and much more! Therefore, we will start with some of our highlights for September…
Funfest, the great event of the year when the community get together and enjoy our grand festival. This year we are thrilled to announce that we have raised a whopping total of:
£2635!
We had the traditional tug-of-war matches where parents, kids, and even Corbet pupils participated! Did anybody notice the big football match on the side pitch? Pupils and ex-students were having the time of their life playing a match and Miss Whit (Owl class teacher) even let her dog play! Go Nelly!
We had a BRILLIANT day and we must say a big thank you to the friends; you have brought this village together and made everyone smile. Helpers: you where fantastic organisers and role models to all so please come and join us next year. In addition, where would we be without our fabulous bands. We enjoyed Mr and his mum performing together – you were great! Thank you for entertaining us. The other performance came from our very own Selman family; you all have a gift for music and it was lovely to see our Year 6, Matthew, on stage. We would like to give a BIG thank you to the ‘Friends of St John’s’ team and everyone who helped them set up on the day. We appreciate what a tremendous effort it took to make the day happen. We can’t wait for next summer’s Fun Fest 2022! (By Lowri & Ella)
Library & Books
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Friends for our new library (in the Shared Area) which arrived last summer. Also, Owl Class have received a fantastic selection of new books to read in-class; there are loads of great recommended-reads. Andreas told us, “I’m so glad the Friends of Ruyton bought them for us.” We agree Andreas!
We also had a great response to our request for preloved book donations from the families and friends of Ruyton. We had so many donations! A big thank you to the Corbet School too for your incredible donations. A huge thank you on behalf of all the children.
Our new librarians will start library-club up again soon so we can fully enjoy our new library and books!
———————————————————————————————————
School Councils 2021/22
Congratulations to our new school councils, voted in-class by the children.
Fun & Games: Toby W, Harrison K, Amelia E, Charley O, Sebastian T, Phoebe F-B
Worship: Matthew S, Arthur D, Skyler B, Lily T, Sebastian W, Ruby R
Eco-Team: Elliot I, Evan M, Mille J, India I, Archie E
Teaching & Learning: Max C-M, Andreas D, Amber A, Alice R-G, Isaac W, Oscar P
Healthy Helpers: Lowri A, Ella C, Elsie M, Lottie J, Archie R, Isaac H
The School Councils will begin meeting soon; we will keep you updated with developments.
———————————————————————————————————
Class Updates
(catch up with our class pages for more…)
Nursery
In nursery, Mrs Hughes and Mrs Ferrie have just loved getting to know this year’s group of children. One highlight has been the visit from a policeman! Luckily, everyone has been behaving and PC Viner had come specially to talk to the children about his job and staying safe. Robin was very proud: “I made a police car!” whilst Lila told us, “ I made a police car with Robin and I made an elephant.” As ever, it sounds like great fun in Nursery!
Hedgehogs
Hedgehogs visited Chester Zoo this month as part of their learning about animals and their habitats. They also took part in a workshop about the rainforest habitat and learned about “micro habitats”. Isaac (age 5) told us, “I loved the elephants!” whilst Aoife (aged 4) said, “I really like the lion and giraffes!”
Hedgehogs have also been getting to know our new Student Teacher, Miss Morris, who is on her final placement as part of her PGCE with The Marches. Miss Morris will be with us until Christmas when she will be ready to get her first job! Good luck Miss Morris!
Dragonfly
Dragonfly Class have been making a Nature Table this month. India says “It’s going really well,” whilst Percy reported: “It makes me feel calm”. He also said “It makes me want to explore!”. Lottie said she was really interested. We can’t decide who is enjoying it more – the teachers or the children!
Dragonfly Class have also been reading a book called ‘Troll Swap’ – we’ve heard all sorts of funny noises coming from the class next door! Lottie said, ” Troll swap is amazing. It is really fun.” Mrs Hollis and Miss Horton have been really impressed by the writing that has come from their work so far.
Owls
We’re pleased to announce we have some new friends in Owl Class! We have 4 goldfish: a pure-black one named Hydra, a mango-orange one named Bubbles, an orange one with white fins named Fire ball and an orange one with black spots named Pheonix. They were purchased with help from Percy Thrower’s Gardening Centre in Shrewsbury – thanks team!
George told us, “Having fish is amazing but naming them was hard!” Arthur reports, “During the school day they watch us work and they admire Miss Whit!”
We’ve also had two of three sessions of ‘Purple Leaf’ where a lady named Jess came in with Karina from Women’s Aid. They are teaching us about our rights and how to deal with a situation where somebody might feel uncomfortable. It’s really making us think!
———————————————————————————————————
September Acorns
Congratulations to the following children for receiving ‘Acorn Awards’ during September. These are awarded by class teachers in recognition of class work, attitudes to learning, behaviour or values.
Hedgehogs
Seb – “brilliant spellings” ; Ruby – “working hard all week” ; Otto – “a brilliant attitude to everything”
Isaac H – “amazing writing”
Dragonflies
Millie – “super attitude towards her maths” ; Alice – “for always being ready to learn”
Thomas – “for super diary writing as Tabitha the troll” India- “a super effort with her handwriting”
Owls
Luke – “for an amazing lightbulb-write” ; Evan – “for meeting expectations every day”
Matthew – “for constantly sharing ideas” ; Evan – “for hard work and progress”
School Values
Hedgehogs
Phoebe – “for friendship – she is a good friend to everyone” ; Isaac – “for wisdom in always making the right choices ; Isaac W – “friendship: for sharing the last chocolate biscuit with Charlie”
Dragonfly
Evie – “for showing perseverance in P.E” ; Charlie – “Friendship: helping someone if they fall over”
Amelia and Alice- “for showing respect to adults and children all week”
Owls
Noah – “for showing perseverance to complete all work to a high standard” ; Harry L – “for improving in respect shown on the football pitch” ‘ Luke : “perseverance with extended writing”
School Value Award of the Month – TRUST
This month the School Value we have focused on has been ‘Trust’. We have explored this value in-class, during Worship and around our school day. Congratulations to the following children for achieving this month’s School Value Award for Trust:
Reception – Dougie M Year 1 – Pheobe F-B Year 2 – Evie H Year 3 – Devon H
Year 4 – Alice R-G Year 5 – Arthur D Year 6 – Noah W
Thank you for reading September’s update! For October, we look forward to bringing you news of football tournaments, trips to Carding Mill Valley & Chester, tag-rugby, a “Hello Yellow” Mental Health day plus lots more Acorns & news from our School Councils. The start of term is jam-packed! Thank you for reading!
The Owl Class Journalists: Matthew, Evan, Lowri, Ella & Harry
Reception, Year 1 & 2 had an absolutely fantastic day at Chester Zoo today! We got to see lots of the animals in their habitats and the children were interested to find out what each animal needed in their habitat to survive. We talked about which animals belonged to each animal group (reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish, birds and invertebrates). It was brilliant to be able to see the animals in real life as we talked about them. We did a lovely workshop where the children found out about the rainforest habitat and we even introduced the word “micro habitat”. It was amazing to be able to go out on a school trip again to do some learning! The children were brilliantly behaved and we were all really proud of them! ⭐️
We’ve had some visitors arrive in Hedgehog Class today! 🐛 Over the next few weeks, the children will be keeping a really close eye on our caterpillars to see what will happen to them. They’ll be making regular observations as well as helping them to grow 🦋
Look at how much fun the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children had at forest school last week! While the new Reception children familiarised themselves with the site with the Year 1 children’s help, the Year 2 children took some time to observe what the site currently looks like. They will compare what the site looks like now with what it looks like later in the season when they visit again after half term.
This week, the Year 1 & 2 children started their Design and Technology topic for this term – “Food Glorious Food!”. We kicked it off by having a really close look at some different vegetables in class. The children had to make some careful sketches of the vegetables. Then I cut them in half so that the children could see what the vegetables looked like inside. We also spent some time using our senses to explore the vegetables.
Over the next few weeks, the children will learn lots of cookery skills including peeling, cutting and grating. They will also do some tasting of different vegetable products followed by some research to find out which foods are the most popular. Based on all of this information, they will then use everything that they have learnt to design, make and eat their own product! We can’t wait to see the final results already! 😋 
It was a pleasure to welcome Reverend Lucinda Burns back into school today for our daily Worship. With plenty of audience participation, we learned about Abraham for Reverend Burns’ fortnightly Worship. Worship Council members, Arthur and Matthew, helped lead the Worship as we all came together in the School Hall. Well done everyone!
Welcome back! Follow the links below to find out what the children in Hedgehog Class are going to be busy doing this term!
Newsletter Hedgehogs Autumn 2021
Autumn 2021 Hedgehogs Overview of activities
We are all so proud (but not surprised!) of Miss Whit being named as a ‘Lockdown Hero’ by The Pearson National Teaching Awards. She goes above and beyond for the school and every day it’s clear to see that children have her heart. Congratulations Miss Whit – you’re an absolute star and we’re all very lucky to work alongside you everyday!
Today we said the first of our ‘big goodbyes’ this week as we finally wished a very happy retirement to our long serving music teacher, Mrs Hindson.
Mrs Hindson has worked at St John’s for an incredible 24 years! She had her first day of music teaching at our school back in 1997 and it is an honour that she spent her last one here too.
We held a farewell performance in our school fields this afternoon; it was wonderful to hear all the children sing together again after such a long time.
From all of us at St John’s, a huge thank you a good luck to Mrs HIndson; you will be very missed but have left a musical legacy at Ruyton that we will endeavour to continue. Mr Butler – no pressure!
Use the buttons to change class or area:
Church Street
Ruyton XI Towns
Shrewsbury
Shropshire
SY4 1LA
