Dear Parents and Carers,

This week in school

Book and Arts Week

We have had a wonderful "Book and Arts Week" this year! The theme was "Read, Grow, Inspire" and we celebrated how we can be inspired by books. The children discussed inspirational people and explored how we can be inspired to create art or writing.

To start the week, the children and staff dressed up in fun and creative costumes for ‘Book Character Day’. On Monday and Tuesday, Rachel Labovitch, a visiting artist, lead the children in creating pop-up artwork. On Wednesday, author Cath Howe spoke to all the children about writing and led workshops inspiring children to create their own stories.

Thank you to all the parents and carers for supporting this amazing week and we hope that everyone will continue to celebrate books and arts even after Book and Arts Week has finished! Thank you too, to Mrs Briggs and Miss Bolger, for organising the week and to our Y6 pupils who led assemblies this week reading stories in their home languages.

Y6 Junior Citizen

Our Y6 children visited Holly Lodge in Richmond Park this morning for the Junior Citizen event. The children took part in a range of activities to help them prepare for their move to secondary school. Matilda said “It taught us a lot about safety in really fun and interesting ways. I really enjoyed the police activity. We acted out scenarios that we may encounter and practised how to respond to real-life situations”.

Next week in school

Y3 Visit to the Chiltern Open Air Museum

Our Y3 children will be visiting the Chiltern Open Air Museum on Tuesday 19th March. This is a unique opportunity for the children to experience what life was like in the Bronze Age and Iron Age through reconstructions of houses. Some of the guides are in character as people living at the time. As the name suggests, the museum is outdoors so please make sure that your Y3 child has the right clothing for the weather.

Y5 residential school journey to Sayers Croft

The time has arrived for our Y5 children to head off on their first school residential visit to Sayers Croft Outdoor Centre. The children will stay for two nights in the village of Ewhurst in the Surrey Hills, where they will be carrying out a rope course, a climbing wall and orienteering, amongst other activities. This is an unforgettable experience for the children and one which builds their independence, problem solving and resilience. We wish the children and the staff team a wonderful time!

Y2 Class Assembly

On Thursday 21st March at 9:10am Y2 will be leading prayers for the school. Parents and carers are invited to attend.

PTA Pre-loved Uniform Sale (second hand) on Thursday 21st March

The PTA will be holding a Pre-loved Uniform Sale (second hand) on Thursday 21st March in the morning after school drop off. If you have any school uniform that you wish to donate, could you please bring this into the school next week. Please do not send in any white shirts as we will not be accepting these for any future uniform sales. If you have any spare hangers while sorting out your donations, we would be grateful for these to be donated too. Thank you in advance for your donations.

Information for Parents – Please read

Extra-curricular Clubs for the Summer Term

Summer Term Club Schedule – Booking from Thursday 21st March at 2pm

The Summer Term 2024 extra-curricular clubs schedule will be shared by ParentMail on Thursday 21st March at 2pm so that parents can start to sign up to school clubs for next term.

We review our extra–curricular clubs provision each term so please check the schedule carefully for any changes. Our wrap-around care provider NSSport does not change and continues to offer parents after-school care every day of the school year.

Please note that registrations for both school clubs and clubs run by external providers will not be accepted before this time, as this will ensure that all clubs operate under the same ‘first come, first served’ basis. We have also communicated this with our club providers for them not to accept any registrations before the ParentMail with the club schedule has been sent. As a reminder, places in school-run clubs will be allocated once payment has been received. For clubs run by external providers you must contact them directly to arrange booking and payment.

Exciting news! There will be an after school Baking Club on Tuesday, Bake with Rana, for children in Y3 to Y6 which will be held in our Food & Technology Room. There is a maximum number of places for this club. Details of how to sign up will be shared in a ParentMail next week. Please see flyer attached for more information.

‘Sponsor a brick’

Thank you to the families who sponsored a brick to be placed on the wall in the KS2 playground. We have now secured a construction company to cement the bricks in place and you should be able to see the new bricks on the wall on our return from the Easter holiday.

Children’s Movie Night – Wednesday 27th March

The Y6 parents are organising a Movie Night fundraiser on Wednesday 27th March from 6:00 to 8:15pm. Children in all year groups are invited and more details will follow shortly. This is a children only event.

March

Tuesday 19th Y3 EV to Chiltern Open Air Museum

20th to 22nd Y5 School Residential visit to Sayers Croft

Thursday 21st 9:10am Assembly led by Y2 – parents invited

Tuesday 26th 11:00am Holy Week Mass prepared by Y5 with Canon John Weatherill – parents invited

Tuesday 26th Well-being Workshop for Y6 pupils only

Wednesday 27th 9:30am Passion Play prepared by Y4 and Y3 – all parents invited

Thursday 28th Term ends. Children to be collected at 2pm

April

Monday 15th April School returns for Summer Term

Thursday 25th April NEW DATE - PTA Quiz Night for parents – details to follow

May

Friday 3rd May INSET Day – school closed

Monday 6th May Bank Holiday

Sunday 19th May School May Fair – Save the Date!

Values Awards this week

Congratulations to the following children who have received Values awards this week.

Reception Hunter and Ela

Y1 Vidhaan

Y3 Eureka

Y4 Alianna

Y5 Sam Sam

Y6 Zeynep

Million Word Readers

Congratulations to Naia in Y3 and Kai in Y4 who have read an amazing 1 million words. Well done.

Attendance this week

Whole school attendance this week is 95.86%. Congratulations to Y3 for having 99.67% attendance this week, closely followed by Y4 with 97.33% attendance.

And finally, we wish all of our families who are celebrating, a very happy St Patrick’s Day this weekend. Children are welcome to come into school wearing a green accessory on Monday.

Kind regards,

Jane Hines