News

• Tuesday 24 February 2026 HEALTHY LUNCHBOXES Ensuring that your child brings a healthy lunchbox to school each day plays a vital role in supporting their learning, concentration, and overall wellbeing. Nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein‑rich snacks help children stay energised throughout the day and ready to engage in their lessons. By providing balanced, healthy options, you are helping to build lifelong good habits and giving your child the best possible foundation for success in school. Please see the separate leaflet about a healthy lunchbox. Thank you for working with us to promote positive choices and a healthy school community.
• Tuesday 24 February 2026 Dance This term we have Miss Katie in every Thursday to work with all of the classes in dance. She leads fun, fast- moving street dance style lessons and children can't wait for their turn each week! Year 5 are busy preparing to perform on the stage at the Dome for the Let's Dance festival with lots of other schools across the city.
• Tuesday 24 February 2026 SJB TALENT SHOW The SJB talent show was a wonderful celebration of all of the gifts and talents that God has given us. All of the classes had auditions in their music lessons and a selection were chosen to show their act to the whole school from Y1-Y6. We had singers, dancers, actresses, gymnasts, artists, comedians, choir and the school band. The whole event was compared brilliantly by a group of year 6s. Thank you to Mrs Woodcock for organising and to all of the children who took part.
• Tuesday 24 February 2026 NATIONAL YEAR OF READING This year is the National Year of reading and each fortnight we will be sharing some recommended reads. If you have got any good recommendations for children or adults, please let Mrs Carden know!
• Tuesday 24 February 2026 Sport Well done to the girls' football team who beat St Marks 5-2 yesterday in their cup run. The team were brilliant, working together as a team. Bella scored three goals and Leah had an outstanding performance in the match, scoring two (although one was disallowed). Now they are through to the next round of the cup, watch out for future results. Well done to Ralph for receiving a trophy in his football team.
• Tuesday 24 February 2026 House Team Morning The children had a wonderful house team morning on Thursday where they worked with children from Y1-Y6 in their house teams to learn about Saint Carlos Acutis, a teenager who was made a saint for the wonderful work that he did before he died. We made crosses to help us pray more during Lent and talked about how we can use our talents to help others like Carlos did. It was so much fun.
• Monday 2 February 2026 Refugees An appeal was sent out to our families asking for donations of women and children's clothes, toys, and baby essentials, for refugees who were left with nothing after a fire at their residential home in December. Our families really come together when it matters, and showered us with lots of donations, the photos only show a small portion of the donation we received. Dr. Manal Ahmed Managing Director of We Are The Tree, says a very big thank you to all who donated, they were overwhelmed with the generosity of our families.A very big thank you.
• Monday 2 February 2026 Sports SPORTS - Football MatchesOur boys and girls football teams took part in matches against St Margaret's Primary School, last week and played some amazing football. The girls played with great effort, determination and team work, although they didn't get the win this time, they showed great promise for further games. The boys also had an amazing game, they showed great team work and good communication skills throughout the match producing a win for SJB.Well done to both teams!
• Monday 2 February 2026 Class Assemblies Over the last two weeks we have begun our class assemblies and have had a great start from year 3 and year 5. It was wonderful to hear about their learning in so many different areas of the curriculum and I learned some great new facts!
• Monday 2 February 2026 Kindness At school, we try to live out the words of this week's Gospel in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This reminds us that when we follow Jesus' example of kindness, respect, and courage, we help bring others along with us. Every day in our classrooms, playgrounds, and at home, we aim to be role models—showing friendship, including others, and making choices that spread goodness. By working together, lifting one another up, and welcoming everyone, we become a community that “fishes” for others, not with nets, but with love, compassion, and positive actions.
• Monday 19 January 2026 Makaton Workshop You may have noticed your child using Makaton signs at home or seen them during school assemblies. Makaton is becoming part of everyday life at SJB, and the children are really enjoying learning it! Makaton is a unique communication programme that uses symbols (pictures), signs (gestures) and speech to enable people to communicate. With Makaton, signs are used, with speech, in spoken word order. This helps provide extra clues about what someone is saying. Using signs can help people who have no speech or whose speech is unclear or new to learning a language. We will be hosting a Parent's Makaton workshop on Tuesday 20th January @ SJB at 1pm . If you feel your child or someone in your family could benefit from the use of Makaton or you are just curious to find out more about the sign and language the children learning in school, then please come and join us on Tuesday 20th January at 1pm.
• Monday 5 January 2026 HOUSE TEAMS We had a wonderful house team morning where children spent the morning in a different class with members of their house teams: Adur, Arun, Cuckmere and Ouse. It was lovely seeing the older children supporting the younger ones and getting to know those in different year groups. The whole school looked at the work of Eric Carle and some of his lovely books. They produced gorgeous artwork, their own mini books and some great teamwork! This term Ouse won the house team treat and they enjoyed a lovely session in the hall with lots of sports, games and climbing equipment to play on.
• Monday 5 January 2026 CHRISTMAS SHOWS The Christmas Nativities from reception, year 1 and 2 were absolutely beautiful. The children sang, acted and read so well.
• Friday 5 December 2025 Christmas Raffle
• Monday 17 November 2025 Trips Year 6 visited the Downs' air-raid shelter last week and they found out about what rationing was like and where the local gun was fired! ‘The best bit of the trip was going into the actual shelter because we experienced what it was like when it was shaking. It felt really scary.' by Leah
• Monday 17 November 2025 Stunning Start Reception, year 1 and two had a wonderful start to the half term with their fun, firework activities on the first morning back after halfterm. There were pumpkins, firework music, firework PE and some lovely craft activities!
• Monday 17 November 2025 House Team Day We have our next House Team Day on 27th November. Children can come in wearing a shirt or jumper of their house team colour. Please wear normal school clothes on bottom half. For this day, children are streamed and spend the morning with children from reception-year 6 completing fun, story-based activities.
• Monday 17 November 2025 ANTI-BULLYING WEEK This week we have been taking part in AntiBullying Week with the theme being ‘Power for Good', with children engaging in a range of activities to learn about kindness, respect, and the importance of standing up against bullying. Through discussions, creative tasks, and roleplay, pupils have explored how their words and actions can make a difference. It has been inspiring to see their thoughtful contributions and commitment to making our school a safe and welcoming place for everyone. We encourage you to continue these conversations at home, reinforcing the message that every child has the right to feel safe and valued.
• Monday 17 November 2025 Remberance We were deeply moved by our Remembrance Day service this week, where the whole school came together to honour those who have served and sacrificed. As part of our reflections, we have created a special Remembrance Tree. Children have been writing the names of loved ones who are no longer with us and we continue to pray for them through the month of November. This has been a beautiful way for our community to remember those who have passed, fostering a spirit of gratitude and hope.
• Monday 17 November 2025 Cross Country 2025 The four cross-country teams from Y5 and 6 ran brilliant races across a gruelling 2km distance. It was long, muddy and needed a lot of determination. Outstanding performances of the day came from Ivy who came 30th and Oriana who came 56th (out of about 200 runners). Well done everyone!
• Tuesday 23 September 2025 Library Trips Year 1 and 2 have both had a wonderful trip to the library, enjoying choosing and reading books. Miss Smith and Mrs Jeffery have said they were brilliantly behaved so well done! Thank you to all of the parents carers who came with us to help out.
• Tuesday 23 September 2025 Sport The girls' and boys' football teams had a great first match against Queens Park. We were so impressed with the way the teams worked together and supported each other as a team. Thank you to everyone who stayed to support and cheer them on. We look forward to today's match against St Martin's for both teams.
• Friday 5 September 2025 Year 2 Fire Engine visit Year 2 have had an exciting start to the year. A fire engine turned up in our field so the children can learn about about the fire service through a hands-on visit and learn how the engine works, as well as trying out the equipment and getting in the cab. All ready for their Great Fire of London topic.
• Thursday 4 September 2025 Welcome Back to School
• Monday 7 July 2025 Health Walk to raise money for a new wheelchair for Nicola Staff at SJB took part in a healthy walk last weekend to raise funds for Nicola, an ex pupil, who needs a new wheelchair as she has outgrown her previous one. Please read her story here.
• Thursday 26 June 2025 Good Shepherd mass We have been to Arundel Cathedral to celebrate the Good Shepherd mass with all of the other Diocesan schools. We took our pledge for the Jubilee year.
• Thursday 26 June 2025 Year 6 Residential Trip Our year 6s are loving their residential camp. They have just come back from a wet and muddy adventurous walk. They started out clean but definitely didn't end that way!
• Tuesday 13 May 2025 Summer Uniform We are now in our summer uniform so all children should be wearing blue polo-shirts (no white polo shirts thank you). Don’t forget that shoes should be all black with no white or other colours at all.
• Tuesday 13 May 2025 School Dog Bailey will be visiting for a short time one day a week to start to get used to the smells and sounds of SJB so that she can then begin her therapy dog training. Children are starting to say hello to her.
• Tuesday 13 May 2025 School Disco DISCO We had a wonderful school disco just before the Easter break. A big thank you must go to Michaela and Chris for their excellent DJing and to Mrs McKenna for organising and all of the parent helpers for making the event possible.

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