School website = www.stluke.sch.je
Facebook = St Luke’s School Jersey
Dear Parents/Carers,
Last week while the children were enjoying the Battle of Britain display our teachers joined 7 other
school teams for a learning conference focussing on how we can impact on learning and “Mastering the
new curriculum”. It was led by UK educationalist Chris Quigley and everyone has come away with a
wide range of ideas and plans that we intend to put in place to ensure that the children at St Luke’s
have the best possible opportunities to succeed.
It was great to see so many of you attend our “Meet the Teacher” sessions – as this was a new way of
us holding these we know there will be some areas that we could improve on. Please do make use of
our websites feedback section (General Enquiry Form) and let us know what you thought.
Pets As Therapy Dog
We are at the early stages of investigating
the Pets As Therapy approach and the benefits to
children’s well-being and the impact on their
learning.
This is a well-established approach, used in the UK as
well as in several primary schools on Jersey. The
animals used are specially trained (in the same way as
Guide Dogs or Dogs for Hearing Impairment),
registered and insured. Training for these dogs starts
when they are puppies – initially coming into the
school away from the children to get used to the
noise and smells. Over time they are introduced to
the children as guests in assemblies and finally (once
fully trained) work with an adult and small groups of
children. There is evidence to prove the positive
impact on children who have a fear of dogs,
concentration or behaviour difficulties, find areas of
learning difficult, etc. A questionnaire will be coming
home to survey your thoughts on this, as well as
asking if your child has any fears or allergies to dogs.
Date of next Newsletter:
Friday 7th October
Our amazing PTA met this week. It was
brilliant to see some new faces come along
and add their support and ideas. The PTA
are planning on producing their own
newsletter but here are some of the key
points discussed:

Interactive White Boards – the PTA
have begun their programme of
replacing our class whiteboards.
Reception and Year 4 have been the
first to benefit (due to their original
boards coming to the end of their
usefulness). At this weeks meeting
PTA members agreed to continue
the roll out – It has taken our PTA
years of saving to be able to do this
for our children and we thank them
for their generosity.

Bingo Night – Friday 14th October
6pm till 8pm

Christmas Movie Night – Friday 9th
December 6pm till 7.45pm

Next meeting – Tuesday 8th
November 7pm
French Trip
Our Year 6 are starting their long trip home today – they have had an amazing time away and had some
great experiences. Photos are on display on our website/Facebook and on display in our main entrance.
A huge thank you to Mrs Jones, Mrs O’Connor and Mr Belsey who have given up their own time to
provide this opportunity. Year 6 will hosting their community assembly to showcase their French Trip
experiences on Friday 14th October at 9am. Year 6 parents are welcome to join us.
Attendance – inc. holiday requests
Harvest Festival
Today in assembly we spoke to the children
about Harvest. We will be working with St
Luke’s Church to collect perishable goods for
those less fortunate who live in our parish.
Packets and tins will be collected over the next
few weeks and stored on the table in the front
entrance – please help if you can.
Rights Respecting Schools
We have a new Rights Respecting Schools
Steering group – made up of children and
members of our community. As part of our
work we will be auditing how the UN Rights
of the Child are impacting on our community
and the children at St Luke’s. We are being
reviewed in the next couple of weeks to help
us in our quest of achieving level 1 status
(one of the only schools on Jersey that has
this). Reminder from Mrs Flett - If you
have not already done so, please return
your Rights Respecting Schools parent
questionnaire. Those parents
interested in joining the Steering
Group, please see Mrs Flett.
A reminder that we monitor attendance, lates and
holiday requests very tightly here at St Luke’s.
Requests for holidays or days off in term time need
to be on the official form (available either in the
school office or can be completed on our website)
however please be aware that approval for these
requests is rare and dependant on exceptional
circumstances as well as your child’s attendance. A
total of 10 days “holiday’ can only be request once
in the child’s primary school career. For more
information please see our attendance policy –
available on our website www.stluke.sch.je
School Council Elections
The children are very excited to develop a school
council with the aim of working with the Senior
Leadership Team to problem solve day to day
issues that affect all the children. Children that are
keen to be voted in as their class representative are
busy writing their manifestos and we will be inviting
local politicians to speak to the children on our
Election Day.
Pupil Survey/Book Bingo & Parent Forum
We are very keen to involve the children and yourselves in how we develop and grow as a school. An
important aspect of this is having the opportunity to discuss specific areas (for example the quality of teaching and learning, developing feedback to children and parents and issues around safeguarding such as bullying). We have recently launched “Book Bingo” with the children – this is an opportunity for small groups of
children to talk to Mrs Hepworth and myself about what life is like at St Luke’s while also having the chance
to show each other pieces of their learning that they are very proud of. This replaces the previous “Pupil
Survey” questionnaire as we were keen to find out details rather than simply gauging opinion. After half term
we will be relaunching our Parent Forum. However this will be conducted differently to the previous version.
We will be issuing invites to parents to come and discuss specific issues in an evening session. Every parent
will receive an invite to attend but we are keen to have small groups so the invites will be coming to you at
some point through the year. For individual questions, worries or concerns please do make use of our open
door ethos and come and see Mrs Hepworth or myself. Alternatively our website can also provide an
opportunity for parent voice through our contact us page.
Play-based learning – Early Phase
We are very proud of the work being done in our Early Phase (Reception and Year 1 classes). Using latest
research and practice we are providing high impact learning through a play-based/experience led
approach. We are doing this in partnership with the Jersey Early Years Advisory Team, training from the
UK as well as constantly monitoring the quality of learning that is provided to ensure that the children are
making at least good progress, but on the whole outstanding progress. We now have one of the best
Early Phases on Jersey, and although you may think “when are they going to start sitting down and
working” it is important to remember that the traditional model of worksheets and sitting down for long
periods of time has been proven to actually slow learning and put younger children off (especially boys).
School website = www.stluke.sch.je
Facebook = St Luke’s School Jersey