Reception 2026–27: welcome letter, summarised

Key points from the school's start-of-term letter to Reception parents

Settling-in days

• Thursday 3 September — children new to St John's only. Arrive 9:15am via the Folly Pathway entrance, for a quieter, later drop-off.
• Friday 4 September — all Reception children, arriving at the usual time.

For the first two weeks, children are grouped alphabetically rather than in their final class:

• A–K: Miss Cook — Beech Class
• L–Z: Miss Bogush — Sycamore Class

Staff use this settling-in period to get to know each child before allocating permanent, balanced Reception classes.

Daily times

• Morning: gate opens 8:35am, closes 8:50am when the register is taken; classroom door opens 8:45am. Walk your child to their class — if the gate's shut, sign in at the office instead.
• Afternoon: school finishes 3:20pm, gates open from 3:10pm for pick-up. Nursery children finish at 3:15pm and should be collected first. Running late? Call the office.

Parking

No parking on site. The school suggests leaving cars at Phillimore Recreational Ground and walking or scooting in via the alleyway. If parking on Folly Pathway, keep to the school-fence side and the right-hand side of Folly Close, facing away from the school, to ease congestion.

Uniform & PE kit

Full school uniform expected, including black school shoes; long hair tied up in school-colour ties. PE kit is navy tracksuit bottoms or blue shorts with a plain white t-shirt (PE days to be confirmed). Only plain stud earrings. New uniform and book bags: uniform4kids.com — second-hand uniform is available through the PFA.

Water bottles

A reusable, named bottle each day, filled with water only — a sports-cap style top is preferred to cut down on spills, such as this school-colour water bottle from uniform4kids.

Breakfast & After School Club

• Breakfast Club: every morning, 7:45–8:40am (breakfast served until 8:30am). Sign in at the main office and hand over to Breakfast Club staff.
• After School Club: Monday–Thursday, 3:20–6pm. None on Fridays. Collect and sign out via the Gills Hill Lane main entrance; book via your Arbor account.

Lunches & snacks

Reception–Year 2 children get a free hot school meal daily, with allergies taken into account from your application form — contact the office for specific dietary needs. Free fruit/veg snacks are available at school; home-brought snacks must be fresh fruit or veg only. The school is nut-free.

Playground, valuables & birthdays

• Please don't let children (or siblings) use the playground equipment at drop-off/pick-up — it's unsupervised at those times.
• Leave valuables, toys, games and cards at home; the school can't be responsible for loss or damage.
• Birthdays are celebrated in class and at Friday Celebration Worship, and children may wear own clothes on the day. For health and allergy reasons, cakes, sweets, party favours and fruit platters can't be handed out.

Celebration Worship

Most Friday mornings at 9:05am in the hall — parents are welcome when their child is invited as "Star of the Week" (notice comes via email and book bag).

Getting in touch

The school runs an open-door policy but asks that longer conversations wait until end of day, given how busy drop-off is. For anything during the day, email the school office or speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team at the gate.

This isn't the official St John's PFA site — it's unofficial, run independently of the committee, and exists because the original site had gone unmaintained. For official PFA matters: stjohnspfa@gmail.com. Enquiries about this site: admin@stjohnspfa.com.