Dear Parents and Carers,

This week in school

Happy Lunar New Year!

In Wednesday’s assembly we celebrated Lunar New Year.  Mrs Briggs, our school librarian, treated us to a retelling of the story of the origins of the Chinese Zodiac and children brought in artefacts to show to the rest of the school.  We would like to wish all our families who are celebrating this week, a very happy Lunar New Year or ‘Gong hei fat choy’.

Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Thank you to Mgr Bill for celebrating our Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord for us yesterday.  This feast day is also known as Candlemas and during the Mass the children brought up the candles they use in their class liturgies to be blessed.  Thank you to the Y4 children who wrote the bidding prayers and led the readings and offertory beautifully.

We are Guinness World Record Breakers!

On 3^rd October 2024, Year 3 and Year 5 joined in an online poetry workshop with poet Laura Mucha to co-write a poem "What do you think counts?" in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest poetry lesson (multi venue). We are pleased to confirm that the attempt was successful and a new record has been set for 43,516 people (enough to fill a football stadium)! Well done to Year 3 and Year 5 for helping to break the record!

Read the report about the record on the CBBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/clye0r2vx2do

Sports update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

This week, the Y5/6 netball squad were very busy taking on two local schools with plenty of children having the opportunity to represent St Elizabeth's in competitive sport. On Monday, after the torrential rain, a team played away at Meadlands School. In an exciting, end-to-end game, St Elizabeth's led several times only for the home team to level the score just before the final whistle.

On Tuesday we hosted the Vineyard School. The team played some great netball, scored several fantastic team goals but couldn't quite catch up with the Vineyard's early lead. Dylan was named player of the match.

Over the two games, the children put into practice some great technical skills and understanding of the rules they have been learning in PE lessons and Netball Club. The teams showed tenacious teamwork and great enjoyment of the competition. Well done to all the players!

Stained Glass Window Competition

As part of our Jubilee Year celebrations, we are going to be creating a school chapel in our upstairs classroom.  This will be a special space for classes to hold liturgies which can also be used for Prayer and Bible Club. 

We expect the chapel to be completed and dedicated in the Summer Term and we are involving the children in the design.  Their first task is a competition to design stained glass windows for the chapel.  Details of the competition were shared in assembly today and can be found here:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1071JXHaF5CVOrcLvdJ1tXT4Nu7PVoB94/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117523969287903982490&rtpof=true&sd=true

Please do encourage your child to take part!

Next week in school

Y2 Class Assembly

Parents are invited to Y2’s class assembly on Thursday from 9:10 to 9:30am.  Please can we remind parents that as assemblies are acts of worship, no filming or photography is permitted.  Thank you.

Y1 Visit to Holly Lodge

Y1 will be visiting Holly Lodge, the nature education centre in Richmond Park, on Thursday 6^th February.  If you are available to accompany this visit, it is not too late to offer.  Please contact the school office or speak to Miss Lopez.

Children’s Mental Health Week

Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week and Mrs Compton, our Well-being lead will be leading an assembly on Wednesday with a theme of ‘Know yourself. Grow yourself’. 

Parents’ Coffee Morning

All parents are invited to the coffee morning on Friday 7^th February at 9am in the Food Technology room.  Mrs Compton and Mrs Diver will be hosting and will be presenting on the theme of children’s mental health.  These coffee mornings are a great way to meet other parents and share tips on how to support your child at home.  Please do come along if you can.

Family Bollywood Night - Friday 7^th February, 6:30 to 8:30pm

Join us for the first family social event of 2025 - a vibrant and thrilling Bollywood music and dance night with the entire family. Let our very own Y1 and Nursery parent, Sandia, teach you some fun dance moves! Have a night to remember with friends, drinks and Indian cuisine, while the kids can have fun getting henna tattoos or picking out bindis.  Buy your tickets at https://st-elizabeth-s-school-richmond-pta.sumupstore.com

Upcoming Events

We have a number of exciting educational visits planned.  These visits are only possible with parental contributions.  Please make your payments in Arbor pay as soon as possible to enable these activities to go ahead. Thank you.

FEBRUARY

3rd  All week  Children’s Mental Health Week

3rd  10:00 a.m.  National Storytelling Week: Y3 and Y5 online workshop

6th  9:10 a.m.  Y2 Class Assembly – parents invited

6th  10:00 a.m.  National Storytelling Week: Y1 and Y2 online workshop

6th  10:30 a.m.  Y6 & Y5 last swimming session

7th  9:00 a.m.  Parents’ Coffee Morning hosted by Mrs Compton and Mrs Diver – all parents invited

7th  6:30 p.m.  PTA Bollywood Night – family event

12th  a.m.  Y2 ‘Great Fire of London’ Freshwater Theatre Visit

13th  p.m.  Borough Swimming Gala

13th  9:10 a.m.  Y5 Class Assembly – parents invited

14th  a.m.  Y6 Light workshop with Explorer Dome

14th  a.m.  Y5 Space workshop with Explorer Dome

14th  p.m.  Y4 Sound workshop with Explorer Dome

14th  3:15pm  Half-term holiday begins

24th  a.m.  School returns after half-term holiday

Values Awards this week

Congratulations to the following children for being noticed for living our School Values this week:

Reception – Havana       

Y1 – Zofia

Y2 – Alexander

Y3 – Mary

Y4 – Naia

Y5 – Emily

Y6 – India

Attendance and Punctuality this week

Whole school attendance this week is 97.1%.  Congratulations to Y4 for having the highest attendance this week with 100%!  This is closely followed by Y6 with 99%.  

Congratulations to Y5 for having the best punctuality this week with the lowest number of latecomers, closely followed by Y1. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Jane Hines and the staff of St Elizabeth’s