Issue 3
St John Baptist (Southend) Primary School
Beachborough Road
Bromley, Kent
BR1 5RL
Tel: 020 8698 3059 Fax: 020 8695 1249
www.sjb.lewisham.sch.uk
News Letter
July 2017
Balance Bikes and Scooter Training
This term, Reception class undertook their balance bike training. We were also lucky enough to have been given 5 balance bikes of our own, from Lewisham Road Safety Team, so I am sure training will continue. Furthermore, Years 1 and 2 undertook scooter training. Well done everyone!
Please remember: Free copies of cycle maps detailing routes in Lewisham are available from the TFL website.
St John’s has signed up to the recently launched Sugar Smart Lewisham.
Lewisham’s vision is to be a Sugar Smart borough, where our community is supported to make healthier, lower-sugar choices.
Lewisham’s aim is to increase awareness of and reduce sugar consumption across all age groups and communities in the borough.
zig zag road markings
As most of you will have seen, the Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) were out monitoring the zig zag lines before school. Unfortunately they witnessed many people stopping on the zig zags to drop off their children. It might seem like a convenient place to drop off but it is illegal and irresponsible.
The JTAs witnessed how unsafe many drivers are; they are stopping on the zig zags to drop off children and also stopping in the middle of the road to drop off children too! They witnessed a child cycle out, into the road, without stopping to look. They handed out notices; advising why not to stop there. They noted registration numbers and could see a pattern of repeat offenders! They have since noticed that these same offenders are continuing to do so, on a daily basis. STOP!
A competition was launched for the children to design a poster to stop people parking/stopping on the zig zag lines. The winner is Jayden Cameron, from Year 2. His poster will now be made into a large banner, to be hung outside of school.
15th – 19th May 2017 was walk to school week. Every child was asked to make a special effort to walk, cycle or scoot to school during this week. Each class kept a log of how many children made this huge effort and the class with the most pupil participation won a prize. The winners were Year 6, who won road safety prizes and every child received a sticker.
Air pollution
The Junior Travel Ambassadors were unable to tackle air pollution around our school. Although they came up with some possible ideas of filling old wellies or large milk cartons with plants and hang them around the schools perimeter on the ‘green wall’ (the tree lined fence on Whitefoot Lane).
To help them to achieve this they asked for YOUR help, with some donations of: garden plant cuttings, pots, soil, old wellies, 4 or 6 pint clean milk cartons. Unfortunately only a small number of donations were received, so this project has been put on hold.
Do you have anything to donate or any other ideas?
Whole school trip to Beckenham: empty classroom day
On 15th June, there was a whole school environmental trip to Beckenham Place Park to investigate various topics for Geography that included: air quality, water quality, map reading and designing.
Every child will learnt about their local environment by visiting their local park.
A good news story…
The School Council, together with the Junior Travel Ambassadors, wrote to Sir Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham requesting road signs for the geese that cross the Bromley Road. Although we haven’t yet heard from the Mayor, Councillor Alan Hall has written to say that he, and Phoenix Community Housing Coop, have also raised this issue with Transport for London. Together, we hope to get some new road signs up soon. Watch this space…
JUNIOR TRAVEL AMBASSADORS