Dear Parents and Carers,

The Christmas Morning was a great success today! Thank you to the Reception and Y1 parents and the PTA for their fantastic organisation. Thank you too, to Savills for their sponsorship and to our children for adding to the Christmas spirit with their wonderful singing! It was lovely to see so many parents and family members there. This is the first of many Christmas activities taking place in school over the next two weeks. Please see the upcoming dates at the bottom of this newsletter for details of other events.

School this week

Following the inspection this week, the Ofsted report will be published in the Spring term, and we will share the report with parents once it has been received. The report will also be published on the school website.

Thank you again to the parents who completed the Ofsted Parent View Survey and to those who spoke with the Ofsted inspectors on Wednesday morning in the playground.

Y5 Local Educational Visit

This half term in Geography, Y5 children have been looking at the Alps with a particular focus on leisure activities there. To support their learning, on Wednesday, Y5 took part in a field study walk in Richmond to observe and take pictures of recreational activities in our local area. The children will use the information gathered to make comparisons between the two different areas.

Sports Update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

This week, the Y5 and Y6 boys football team represented the school at the borough tournament. They played 5 games over the day, working very hard for each other as a team and scored some great goals. Well done, boys!

Beginning of Advent

'Las Posadas'

The prayer packets have started their journey to children's homes this week. Please remember that each child has the prayer packet for one night and this should be returned to school the following day.

Advent Calendar

An Advent calendar has been uploaded onto Google Classroom. The Advent calendar will help each family to prepare themselves to celebrate Jesus' birth at Christmas.

We are encouraging children to carry out 'Acts of Kindness' during Advent in their families, which can include for example undertaking jobs at home, praying for those in need, helping a neighbour etc. Please help your child to annotate the 'Acts of Kindness' on the Advent calendar.

Applications to Reception 2024

For parents with younger siblings who will be 4 years old by 1st September 2024, the closing date for applications for a place in Reception Class 2024 is January 15th 2024. If you know of families in the area who are interested in their child attending St Elizabeth’s, please do encourage them to contact the school office to arrange a tour of the school. Our Admissions Arrangements are available on the school website. Priority is given to baptised Catholic children living in our four parishes of Richmond, Kew, East Sheen and Ham but applications for children living in other parishes and those of other faiths and none, are very welcome.

Upcoming Dates

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.

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 Pantomime in hall.

Thursday 14th December 7pm - 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 this week, with Monday clubs only running up until Monday 4th December. NSSport and Breakfast Club will continue as normal.

Good News!

Congratulations to the following children who have a received a Values Award this week:

Reception – Sara and Annabel

Y1 – George

Y2 - Ximena

Y3 - Hugo

Y4 - Jack

Y5 - Kate

Y6 – Matthew

Million Word Readers

Congratulations to Kate in Y4 who has read an amazing 1 million words, and to Michael in Y6 who has read an incredible 5 million words!

Attendance

Whole school attendance this week is 97.22%. Congratulations to Y4 for having the highest attendance at 98.81%, closely followed by Y3 with 98.53% attendance and Y5 with 97.5% attendance.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Jane Hines