Dear Parents and Carers,

The half-term holiday is here and the children have a week to relax and refresh before the last half-term of the school year.

Please note that school will re-open on Tuesday 4th June. School is closed on Monday 3rd June for staff training. NSSport holiday club will be open from Tuesday 28th May until Tuesday 4th June so please do visit their website to book a place for your child.

The first item in today’s Weekly Update is a message from our PTA following the May Fair and Paris Cycle Ride last weekend. The totals raised are absolutely incredible and testament to the amazing hard work and generosity of our school community. Thank you to Liza and Susannah, the PTA Chairs and the PTA Committee, the Cyclists Team and all of you who helped to make these events so successful.

Message from the PTA

Our annual May Fair took place last Sunday in glorious sunshine, the perfect backdrop to an afternoon where our school community came together to not only raise funds but also to have lots of fun.

We are delighted share our initial figures, showing that we have exceeded last year’s total and made an astonishing £12,806 supplemented by our cyclists sponsorship total which is currently at an incredible £15,078.

This would not have been possible without the hard work of our PTA and May Fair committee, who donated their time, fantastic negotiating, organising and creative skills, while still managing some laughs along the way.

To our Class Reps, Parents, Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Staff and everyone who donated their time, money and energy to this collective effort, including the very welcome return of past St Elizabeth’s pupils and parents - an enormous thank you for your unbelievable generosity! The legacy from this wonderful weekend will live on for a while to come.

We will celebrate this achievement in our upcoming sponsored walk (date TBC) and gather again at the school BBQ (Friday 12th July) - details to follow and we look forward to seeing you there.

A special thanks also to our local businesses who took our ad space or sponsored a prize. Please mention our school the next time you use their services - you can find all of our local supporters in our online brochure -

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGAJXpS2Kg/Nksx6qDFcAtiF8md1fqIdQ/view?utm_content=DAGAJXpS2Kg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

Our wishing tree remains in the online shop and our cyclists JustGiving page is open too.

Wishing Tree: https://st-elizabeth-s-school-richmond-pta.sumupstore.com/category/may-fair-wishing-tree

Cyclists: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/r2p2024

Many Thanks

PTA and May Fair Committee

This week in school

It has been a very busy week in school. On Monday Y5 visited the Rose Theatre to hear Joseph Coelho the Children’s Poet Laureate talk about his work, on Tuesday the Junior Choir performed brilliantly in the Richmond Music Trust Primary Singing Festival, and on Wednesday our Reception children had a wonderful time on their visit to Bocketts Farm. We have also had a number of events related to RE and the Catholic Life of the school this week.

May Procession and Crowning of Mary

Yesterday the whole school participated in a special liturgy celebrating Mary as the mother of Jesus and the mother of the church. We listened to the Luke's Gospel account of Mary’s song of praise 'The Magnificat'.

Mary is a great role-model. Her perseverance, care, and joyfulness are some of the reasons we honour her in May. To honour Mary, the whole school walked in procession singing 'Hail Mary' and we crowned Mary with a floral crown. Children laid flowers in the 'Mary Garden' to show their love and respect for her.

Other Faiths Week

This week we have had a whole school focus on Hinduism and the children in all classes have been finding out about Hindu prayer and traditions. The children shared their learning in assembly this morning and Mrs Singh talked to the school about the celebrations of Diwali and Holi. The study of other faiths is an integral part of our RE curriculum and so important in developing children’s knowledge, understanding and respect. Y4 and Y5 will be continuing their study of Hinduism when they visit the Hindu Mandir in Neasden later this term.

Y1 Class assembly

Thank you to Y1 who led the school in prayer yesterday. They spoke and sung with maturity and reverence as they explained how the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Sports Update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

This week, two Y6 teams took part in the Richmond Borough Cricket Tournament at Barn Elms Sports Trust grounds. Both the boys and girls teams played three closely contested games in the morning. In the afternoon, the teams combined to play in one further match, which St Elizabeth's won in the final over by a single run! The children enjoyed putting bowling, batting and fielding skills they had learned in PE lessons into practice in games against other primary schools and were excellent ambassadors for the school, showing good sportsmanship. We are very grateful to the parents who helped to transport the children to and from the venue.

Upcoming Events

Half-Term Week Monday 27th May – Tuesday 4th June

June

3rd Inset: School closed for staff training

5th – 7th Y6 School Journey to Osmington Bay, Dorset

11th a.m. Y2 visit to Holly Lodge Richmond Park: Plants Workshop

13th 9:15 a.m. Assembly led by Reception - Parents & Carers invited

13th 11:00 a.m. Y6 & Y3 swimming sessions second half term

19th 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Y6 Orange Tree Theatre Shakespeare workshop

24th a.m. Y6 Choices workshop

28th 1:30 p.m. Y6 visit to Orange Tree for performance of Hamlet

We wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable half-term break.

Kind regards,

Jane Hines