We were all deeply shocked to see children of primary age caught up in what were hugely disturbing riots during the summer. The riots were a blatant attack on our fundamental values as a school and community and we feel it is important to take this opportunity to underline our commitment to the safety and wellbeing of all our school community, and to ensuring we provide a safe and inclusive learning environment for all. We have zero-tolerance towards all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including but not exclusive to racist, Islamophobic, or anti-Semitic behaviour. This is set out in our Behaviour, Anti-Bullying and Safeguarding policies, and as a school we recognise the critical role we have in challenging such behaviours. Following our just some of the activities we do/ have done to promote social cohesion: 

All members of staff at JKPS are kept up-to-date with their PREVENT duty, which tackles radicalisation, and a key part of our Safeguarding Training  for all staff on 2nd September focused on how we can safeguard our children from radicalisation, helping staff recognise possible indications that a child may be a victim of, or susceptible to radicalisation, and what they should do in case they suspected this. 

For several years, promoting inclusion, diversity and equity in our community has been a priority in our curriculum planning. Examples of this are as follows:

• At the start of this month, all classes started the year with an identity unit, encouraging children to explore and celebrate their own identity, whilst celebrating our class name heroes, many of whose achievements and resilience have involved them standing up to social injustice and discrimination.
• We also used the unit to help the children better understand the importance of inclusion and equity.
• Through our PSHE curriculum, children are encouraged to challenge prejudice and discrimination.  
• Topics across our humanities curriculum have been carefully chosen to reflect and represent the diversity of the community we live in. 
• Our literacy texts are selected carefully to portray a diverse range of people, countries and cultures.
• Our RE curriculum, is designed to teach the children to understand about and respect all faiths. 
• Through our computing curriculum, we examine the dangers of the spread of misinformation, especially on social media, enabling our students to make informed choices.  

Further, the Anthem national team are currently reviewing how all Anthem Schools can work together to reinforce our commitment to community cohesion.

If you would like to discuss how we could further support community cohesion, please do get in touch. If you feel you or your child has been a victim of any form of racism, or prejudicial behaviour, please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as possible. 

Parental control apps like Google Family Link, Screen Time and Microsoft Family can let you set limits across devices, apps and platforms.

Visit parentsafe.lgfl.net/ for additional advice and tips on settings and controls for all devices

Welcome back to the new school term and welcome to all the new starters at JKPS. We hope you are all settling in well and looking forward to the Oktoberfest celebrations at the weekend. We are members of the Anthem Community Council which supports the local governance of the school and provides a link to the local community. We are a small but committed team who are likely to grow over the course of this academic year with details to follow in the next months. 

We are very proud to be a school in Southwark and to represent a wonderfully diverse and rich school community. Inclusion is at the heart of the school's ethos. We are a school that is strongly anti-discriminatory and anti-racist which is reflected in the school and anthem policies (Anthem Schools Trust - Policies (anthemtrust.uk)). We are conscious that our unsettled world has been tough since the summer and that our vibrant community may have been affected in different ways. Please do reach out to trusted members of school staff should you or your child need extra support.

We very much look forward to Oktoberfest celebrations at the weekend and extend all our thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Friends and our parent community to provide this event. 

Zones of Regulation coffee morning - Tuesday, 22nd October: The school has been working closely with Southwark's Mental Health Support Team to strategise ways of raising and developing our continued support for the mental health and wellbeing of students at Judith Kerr. The Groundwork team, as part of Southwark's mental health services, are going to be running workshops with students, teachers and parents to implement the Zones of regulation across the school. The Zone of regulation is a whole school approach to supporting both teachers and students in identifying different feelings and emotions through colours and ways to regulate behaviours that cause barriers to learning. It is an evidenced based intervention which many schools across the country use.

The Groundwork team are running a parent training session to introduce Zones of regulation, so that both school and home can tackle mental health and wellbeing in a consistent way. The training will be running on October 22nd, 9-10am. The session will be a fantastic way of replicating the work around regulation at school, ensuring both school and home approaches to mental health and wellbeing are consistent. 

Kindness week  National Kindness week is fast approaching. We will be holding a kindness challenge over the October half term. There will be a special assembly for the children before we break up to outline the importance of kindness and raising awareness of the NSPCC charity who are organising the nationwide event. The great news is, is that children can be sponsored for the amazing acts of kindness, all in aid of raising money for NSPCC. 

Details of challenges and how to give money will be given in a letter for children to take home with them at the end of the term. We can't wait to see all of the wonderful acts of kindness from our Judith Kerr children over the October half term. 

Oktoberfest                                                                             Saturday 28th September

Parent/ Carer Teacher Meetings                 1pm -6:30pm, Wednesday, 2nd October 

JKPS Self-Portraits Exhibition                            4pm-6:30pm, Thursday, 10th October

Perform workshops R,Y1,Y2                                                      Thursday, 17th October

Author Visit for KS2                                                                          Friday, 18th October

Y5 Performance: Peter and the Wolves (All Saints Church)   Saturday 19th October

DT Week                                                                                               21st-24th October

Zones of Regulation Workshop for parents              9:00am, Tuesday 22nd October

Y6 visiting Dulwich Picture Gallery                                       Wednesday, 23rd October

Y5 visiting Dulwich Picture Gallery                                          Thursday, 24th October

The Kindness Challenge                                                                October Half-Term

INSET day (school closed)                                                           Friday 25th October

Half-term                                          Monday 28th October - Friday 1st November

Autumn Term ends                                                      2pm, Friday 20th December  

Click here for all this academic year's term dates