Dear Parents and Carers,

We are entering a very busy period of the school year with many Educational Visits and Advent events. Please do take a look at the upcoming dates at the bottom of this newsletter.

Anti-Bullying Week

It was lovely to see so many children coming into school today wearing odd socks to round off Anti-Bullying Week. The School Councillors are busy collecting the children’s Anti-Bullying pledges and sock designs. They will be using these to create a display in the school hall to remind all children of the Anti-Bullying message throughout the year, that: ‘Bullying is not welcome in our school and that children should speak to a trusted adult if they see or experience bullying.’

Around the classes this week – Y5

In Y5, the children are half way through their six-week programme of equality and diversity workshops delivered by the ‘Together as One’ organisation. These sessions aim to develop the children’s understanding of differences and promote mutual understanding through fun activities led by a team of young leaders.

Also in Y5, the children were very excited this week to receive a letter from Rishi Sunak’s office, thanking them for the letters they had sent him regarding the plight of refugees. The children were inspired to write their letters after reading ‘The Boy At The Back of The Class’ which tells the story of a refugee child arriving in England.

Children’s Commissioner ‘Big Ambition’ Survey

The Children’s Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, has written to all schools encouraging all children to take part in a survey ahead of the General Election. She writes:

“It is vital that all children have their voice heard through this survey because, as Children’s Commissioner for England, I have a statutory duty to protect and promote the views and interests of children. The Big Ambition provides a much-needed opportunity for the children of England to tell political decision makers what is important to them ahead of the General Election. I will be sharing their responses with Government to ensure that children’s voices are heard.”

Please do encourage your child to complete the survey at home. The survey can be found here: www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition .

Mufti Day on Friday 24th November and Hamper Donations

The PTA are creating wonderful hampers for the Christmas Hamper Tombola for our Christmas Morning on Friday 1st December, 9:00-11:00am.

Next Friday, 24th November, there will be a ‘Mufti-Day’ in school where children can come to school in their home clothes and in return we kindly ask for an item of food or drink suitable for a Christmas hamper, such as relishes, chutneys, wine, Prosecco, chocolates, Christmas pudding, mince pies, crackers, fudge, jam and biscuits. All items must be new, unopened, nut-free and with an expiry date after Christmas. Please see flyer attached.

Please could each child bring their donation on Friday at drop off. There will be boxes inside school where items can be placed. Thank you very much for your support and generosity.

Sports News from Mr Sagar

Our Boys’ football team had their second league football fixture this week and played against the Russell School. Despite many opportunities, including hitting the bar, the boys just missed out on a win. The boys worked fantastically as a team right until the final whistle!

On Tuesday, our Y3 Girls’ football team braved the oncoming storm Elin to play in a football festival against other Borough schools. We managed to play two 7-a-side games before the heavy rain arrived and the remaining matches were cancelled. The team are already looking forward to their next festival. Disappointingly, the Girls Borough Tournament for our Y5 and Y6 Girls football team was postponed due to the water-logged pitches.

Values Awards

Congratulations to the following children who have received a Values Award for living our School Values this week:

Reception: Lara

Y1: Oliver

Y3: Pavle

Y4: Alice

Y5: Lily

Y6: Haiden

Million Word Readers

Congratulations to Claudia in Y6 who has read an amazing 1 million words!

This week’s attendance

Whole school attendance this week is 97.61%. Congratulations to Y4 for having the highest attendance at 98.81%, closely followed by Y3 with 98.57% attendance.

Upcoming Dates

Tuesday 21st November am – Y2 educational visit to Richmond Museum – WW1.

Wednesday 22nd November – Y6 will be having an Evacuee Day. They will be dressing up as evacuees and walking to Richmond Museum to learn about the local area during the Second World War. In the afternoon, they will be having a WW2 Dance Workshop in the school hall.

Wednesday 22nd November – Reception will be having a Dance Workshop in the school hall.

Friday 24th November Mufti Day - children can wear own clothes today and bring in an item for the Christmas Hamper Tombola.

Friday 1st December Christmas Morning in the hall. A chance to buy Christmas gifts to raise funds for the school and hear children in every class singing Christmas carols.

Tuesday 5th December - Schola Choir to St George’s Cathedral Advent Service.

Thursday 7th December 9:30am - Reception Class carols around the Christmas Tree.

Thursday 7th December all day - Y4 Roman Day (see separate email sent this week).

Friday 8th December 10am - KS1 Nativity.

Friday 8th December 2pm - KS1 Disco in school hall.

Friday 8th December 6pm - KS2 disco in school hall.

Wednesday 13th December pm - KS2 to Rose Theatre. KS1 Christmas Panto in hall.

Thursday 14th December - KS2 Carol Service.

Tuesday 19th December - Christmas Lunch.

Wednesday 20th December 9:30am - Advent Mass.

Wednesday 20th December 2pm - end of term.

Please note that the last week of clubs is the week beginning 27th November, with Monday clubs only running up until Monday 4th December. NSSport and Breakfast Club will continue as normal.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Jane Hines