The school is extremely well supported by its enthusiastic ‘Friends of St. Joseph’s’. Working tirelessly alongside staff and children they not only raise valuable funds for the school but also strengthen links between school, parish and the wider community.
FOSJ Roles
The roles for the Friends of St Joseph’s for 2021-22 are:
- Chairs – Sarah Marshall, Katy Barraclough and Fiona Ellis
- Treasurer – Aisling Kelly
- Secretary – Kathleen Alderson
The committee thanks all of the current post holders for their hard work this year which has been much appreciated.
The FOSJ is a great way to meet new people and be involved in the school community. If you’d like to be involved, please contact one of the parents listed above, or alternatively, contact Fiona on 07793277129 or email the FOSJ at friendsofsj@outlook.com
FOSJ Facebook Page
Please like our new FOSJ face book page.
This is solely an additional way of advertising upcoming FOSJ events.
(Please note – it is no way related to school and all posts and comments will be monitored and controlled by admins.)
FOSJ News
We would again like to start with a huge thank you for your continued support. Our fundraising total for this year so far is £9 120, which is brilliant! We really couldn’t have done that without the kindness and generosity of you all.
If you work for a large company, please let your class rep know as we may be able to get Match funding for future events. This really boosts our fundraising efforts and doesn’t cost you any extra.
We are currently planning Jo-Fest, which will take place on Saturday 2nd July. Please let your class rep know if you would like to sponsor a stall for £25, have a gazebo or marquee that we could borrow for the event or if you work for a company that would like to be involved as a sponsor.
School Disco – Thursday 19th May
We held our first school disco we have had for a number of years on Thursday 19th May in the school hall/ICT suite. We had a fantastic attendance with 160 children coming along to enjoy the event! We are extremely pleased to announce that we raised an incredible £1083.50!!! Thank you to all families that supported this event and also to Shuffles Entertainment who was our Disco DJ for the event. What a huge success!
Dates to look out for…
Spring & Summer Term
Autumn Term
| Dates | Event |
| Friday 20th November | Christmas Card orders due |
| Friday 26th November | Get in touch with FOSJ if you have raffle prizes. |
| 29th November and 1st December | Christmas Wreath Making Evenings – St James’ Church at 7.30pm |
| Tuesday 14th December | Christmas Wear/ Non-Uniform Day |
Christmas Card Orders
Christmas cards, mugs and thank you notes – Make sure you place your order by 20th November using the code on your child’s artwork.
Christmas Raffle
Can you help with prizes? Please get in touch with your class rep by 26th November to let them know if you would like to donate a prize. Tickets on sale soon!
Buy a Christmas Tree
Buy your Christmas Tree from Boston Road Christmas Trees and they will donate £5 to FOSJ.
Christmas Wreath Making Evenings
Under the expert tuition of Jilly Cole we are inviting you to a wreath making workshop. These will take place on 29th November and 1st December at St James Church Hall at 7.30pm. For £55 you will have a welcome glass of fizz, festive nibbles and everything you need to make a beautiful fresh wreath with an expert florist on hand to guide you. Numbers are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. To reserve your place please email friendsofsj@outlook.com.
If making your own wreath isn’t your cup of tea then why not order a fresh or faux wreath from Birch and Willow for £25? They have also kindly offered to donate a % for every wreath purchased. To order please call 07792384570 or email sandyrock@hotmail.co.uk Check out their Facebook page for designs. All orders can be collected from school on Monday 6th December from 2.45pm.
Class Representatives
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to be a class rep:
- FS1 – TBC
- FS2 – Fiona Ellis & Vicki Anthony
- Year 1 – Claire Airey & Aisling Kelly
- Year 2 – Jocelin Shirley Price
- Year 3 – Kathleen Alderson and Sarah Marshall
- Year 4 – Marie Pellizzon & Katy Barraclough
- Year 5 – Laura Arthur
- Year 6 – Natalie Tiernan
Anyone can be a member of the FOSJ. You don’t have to join as a committee member or even as a class rep but just helping out no matter how small would be great.
Could you sell raffle tickets, help at discos or on a stall at the Christmas Fair or even just help setup or promote the events?
Is anyone a graphic designer, in marketing or advertising that could help us, can you face paint or make lovely crafts? Please let us know.
If not, just your support and attendance at events we hold would be great!
My message to the new committee and to you busy parents is Family, Work, FOSJ. We have to strike a happy balance and the more volunteers we have the more we can share the load.
Congratulations!
Stephanie Auld
£9.60
Ways to help…..
Have you joined the school lotto yet??
The more people that join the bigger the jackpot! Join now by going to www.yourschoollottery.co.uk
You can join for as little as £1 a week and one person at school is guaranteed to win a weekly prize. At the moment the prize money stands at £10.80. You will also be entered into a national prize draw worth £25,000.
We currently have 24 supporters in school – the more supporters we have the more prize money there will be! 40% of all ticket sales will be given back to the FOSJ!!!!!!
Easy Fundraising
All you need to do is register online at www.easyfundraising.org.uk
When you go to purchase something online go via the easyfundraising page or app and shop as normal.
In return the retailers will make a small donation to the FOSJ.
Currently we have 72 supporters and they have raised £436.91 just by shopping via easyfundraising!
School Projects
All of the funds raised through the FOSJ events goes directly back into school. We work closely with the Head Teacher and Chair of Governors to support the school with their key priorities. This year we are continuing to fundraise for new ICT equipment. This has already included supporting the 64 new iPads school currently have. We have also committed to continue to support the range of workshops that the pupils at St Joseph’s access to support and further enhance their curriculum.
Lockdown Tapestry
Back in June, during the lockdown we all found ourselves in from March, our families, pupils and staff came together to create a ‘lockdown tapestry’ to capture all of our experiences during this strange time. Our pupils and staff were invited to make a creative square that visually represented their lockdown experiences for them and their families.
A huge array of textiles and techniques were used to create these mini masterpieces! The squares are absolutely beautiful and during the summer, over 100 squares were sewn together around a centre piece celebrating our school and our community. The final tapestry is bright, full of love, energy and hope, showing how we all stayed connected and together during the lockdown. The tapestry is now on display in our ICT Suite for everyone to see.
We couldn’t have done this without our wonderful families, our pupils and staff’s contributions with their lockdown squares. Thank you to all of you who created a lockdown square. We also have to give a huge, heartfelt thank you to Zoe Phillips, who coordinated the whole tapestry project as well as Clair Cook, who worked on sewing it all together and Bryony Robinson who created the beautiful centre piece. Thank you to everyone involved. This is a wonderful piece of art that has captured the lockdown experience of all of those at St Joseph’s.
In the Autumn term (September 2019-December 2019), we have already raised an amazing £5000! Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraisers and events!
In the spring term 2020, we have donated £2000 to support school in purchasing their new reading books across FS1, KS1 and KS2. We hope everyone enjoys reading these fantastic new books!
ICT Suite
The FOSJ have recently been in discussion with Miss Milivojevic and the school governors and we are wanting to support the school in developing the ICT suite. It will enable the school to continue to provide the very best facilities and learning experiences through technology.
We have already started to fund workshops in school, such as the Lego Workshops. This was a great way for the children to learn Design and Technology alongside Computing – building the models and programming them to run. It also helps them develop team working, collaboration and their problem solving skills.
Both classes really enjoyed this workshop and other year groups really want to take part in future workshops.
The Nursery Garden
Recently the FOSJ completed a years fundraising with the local COOP community funding. All of our families and the local community have been raising money whilst shopping. We raised a fantastic amount of money which was to be used to develop the Nursery garden – providing them with a natural and stimulating area to develop their learning. Discussions between the FOSJ, the Head Teacher and the nursery team ensured that we created a space that was perfect for our youngest pupils. Mrs Airey and Mrs Alderson then got to work and created a space where the children could express themselves through stories and use of their imagination! Here is just a glimpse at some of the new equipment! Our youngest children have already been accessing their new space and are loving it!
