Dear Parents,

WORLD BOOK DAY – THURSDAY 5TH MARCH

As you will probably be aware World Book Day is to be held on the 5th March.

In celebration of this event, we have arranged many exciting activities based around drama and script reading with a focus upon performance and voice projection.

All children will be invited to dress up as their favourite book character on Thursday and to also take part in a book cover design competition. (The results of the competition will be shared at our Golden Assembly on the following day).

At 2.40pm the day will conclude with parents being invited into class to share reading a favourite book with their child, followed by a ‘Come to Tea’ in the hall where a £1.00 book sale will be held.  Pupils will also be able to spend their £1.00 book vouchers at the book sale too.

Thank you for your support.

Yours sincerely

Mrs. S. Hyner / Mrs. J. Rogers

Literacy Co-ordinators

On Tuesday 10^th February, schools around the country celebrated Safer

Internet Day (SID) for the twelfth year running.

At St Thomas’s Catholic Primary school in Canterbury, members of the ‘eSafety Crew’ conducted a special survey of the online behaviour of all pupils in the school and made some surprising discoveries. The outcomes were delivered in the schools special eSafety assembly.

Key questions that were asked included, ‘How often do you use the internet?’ and ‘Do you need to ask anyone’s permission to go on the internet?’ Almost half of the children were found to use the internet every day and (surprisingly) more than half did not have to ask for permission to use the internet at home. Most children said that they stayed online for between one and two hours per day, although a minority admitted to much longer periods of up to 3-4 hours each day.

A key findings of the survey was that most primary aged children did not use social networking sites, such as Facebook. The vast majority prefer online gaming and YouTube in particular. Pupils have become more familiar with ‘Vlogs’ (or ‘video blogs’) and ‘Vines (comic short videos that have gone viral). They love computer gaming – but do not always understand the PEGI age ratings.

Mr Blomfield, Assistant Headteacher at St Thomas’s said, “We are really proud of our eSafety Crew. They are helping to spread the message about safer use of the internet around the school and into homes. This is a vital part of our new computing curriculum in school.”

The assembly homed in on advising children to go online with their families, in shared rooms rather than bedrooms. The eSafety crew also encouraged pupils to help teach their parents more about PEGI ratings and how to keep all of the family safe online.​

School Council members from St Thomas’ and other the ‘EduCant’ schools in Canterbury have come up with a survey to find out which British Values are the most important to different age groups in our local community.

The outcomes of the survey were presented at a special schools’ council meeting at the Guildhall in Canterbury in February. In addition pupils created display boards about their favourite British values. The venue was provided by Matthew Archer of the Democratic Services Team, Canterbury City Council. Mr. Archer presented to the school councils who attended. He said how impressed he was by the results of the survey and the contributions made by the students.

Participating schools included: St Thomas’ Catholic Primary, St Peter’s Methodist Primary School, Blean Primary School, and Chartham Primary School.

Miss D’Agostini said, “We have been overwhelmed by the response to the pupil’s survey. It is clear that different age groups prefer different values – but the enduring ideals still hold true.”

The survey asked anonymous participants to vote on a wide selection of values including: democracy, politeness, tolerance, hard work, freedom speech and many more. Early results indicate that top of the list for adults is the NHS – a free national health service for all, closely followed by family values and good manners. The age and gender of the participants has also been recorded in order to give an intergenerational comparison of the values. The DfE has launched a consultation to promote British values in schools around the country.