Dear Parents and Carers,

We have lovely news to share with you today - Mrs Goldsmith has had a baby girl! The baby was born on Thursday evening and weighs 8lb 3oz. We wish Mrs Goldsmith and her husband all the very best at this very special time and look forward to meeting the new baby soon!

This week in school

Y2 BrightSparks Schools’ concert at Royal Festival Hall

Our Y2 class visited the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday to participate in a special orchestral concert for primary aged children. Elliott, Emma and Elijah said:

"It was the first time that we have seen a real life orchestra. The musicians acted out a story and used their instruments to make animal sounds. Our favourite was the bassoon”.

CAFOD Lent Family Fast Day

Thank you for your donations towards CAFOD Lent Family Fast Day today. The money will be used to support CAFOD’s work with those in need around the world. Donations can also be made through the QR code attached.

Sports update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

This week, the Sports Committee led a fantastic assembly celebrating sport in school. Together we congratulated our swimming team for winning the Small Schools Trophy at the borough swimming gala, as well as many individual medals and ribbons.

Children in all year groups showed us their medals and trophies that they have been awarded in football, swimming, running, judo and triathlon races. It was wonderful to hear the children articulate how proud they were of their achievements.

Unfortunately, there was not enough time to hear from all pupils who brought in their certificates or medals. If your child wishes to share their sports achievement, the Sports Committee will be leading another assembly next Tuesday afternoon. All medals and certificates will be returned next week.

This week, our Netball team were in action with an away match at The Vineyard School. After an early lead, it became a close game and St Elizabeth’s just missed out on a win! We are looking forward to a re-match!

Next week in school

Parents’ Meetings

Thank you for booking your parents’ meeting appointments which are taking place on Tuesday 27th and Thursday 29th February. The format is the same as the Autumn Term, with Y1, Y2 and Y3 meetings taking place in the school hall and Reception, Y4, Y5 and Y6 meetings taking place in the classrooms. The meetings are scheduled for ten minutes and you will have a chance to look at your child’s workbooks before or after the meeting. We ask parents not to take the books home as they are needed in lessons.

Whole School Maths Problem Solving Day

On Monday 26th February we are holding a whole school Maths Problem Solving Day. All classes will be having sessions led by ‘The Problem Solving Company’ which will develop their problem solving skills in active and fun ways. The hall is always full of excitement as the children work in groups and against the clock to solve puzzles.

Blessing of the Food Technology Room

We are thrilled with our new Food Technology Room, which was funded by the PTA last year. This room enables all classes to have food and nutrition lessons in a spacious, dedicated environment. It is very rare to have a space like this in a primary school and our children will benefit from this for years to come.

Next Friday 1st March, at 9am, Mgr. Bill will be blessing the Food Technology Room and a plaque will be unveiled. After the blessing there will be refreshments and songs from our Schola Choir.

All parents are warmly invited to join us for the blessing of the Food Technology Room. It is a chance to come together to celebrate the work of the PTA and all your contributions to creating this wonderful resource.

Please find attached a flyer with Spring term dates for school and PTA events.

Information for parents

Helping children with sleep webinars

Bed-times can be tricky for many children and we all know how important a good night’s sleep is to children’s well-being and learning. To help with this, the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) are running two free webinars next week on ‘Helping children to sleep’. All St Elizabeth’s parents and carers are invited to attend one of these sessions and they come highly recommended. Please follow the link below to make your booking by Sunday 25th February.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fQwTZTju5TMAUF_6couYjIZtu20ptb5pqIBhiW_7l70/edit

Upcoming events in school

February

Monday 26th Mathematics Problem Solving Day – all classes

Tuesday 27th 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Parents’ Meetings

Thursday 29th 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Parents’ Meetings

March

Friday 1st March 9am Blessing of the new Food Technology Room

Tuesday 5th 9am Y6 Parents’ Meeting: PGL residential

Thursday 7th 9am Y1 Parents’ Phonics Workshop

Thursday 7th am Reconciliation Service for KS2 children only, followed by the sacrament of Reconciliation

11th – 15th Book & Arts Week

Monday 11th Book Character Dress Up Day – start thinking about your costumes now

Wednesday 13th Whole School Author visit: Cath Howe

Thursday 14th PTA Quiz Night – Save the date! Details to follow

Friday 15th 9:30am Y6 Junior Citizen Safety Event at Holly Lodge

Friday 15th Well-being Coffee Morning in school – all parents invited. More details to follow.

Tuesday 19th Y3 EV to Chiltern Open Air Museum

Wednesday 20th to 22nd Y5 School Journey to Sayers Croft

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

Tuesday 26th am TBC Holy Week Mass prepared by Y5 – parents invited

Tuesday 26th 2:00pm Well-being Workshop for Y6 pupils only

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

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

Values Awards this week

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

Reception Ellen

Y1 Lottie

Y2 Sophie

Y3 Lucja

Y4 Jack

Y5 Zoe

Y6 Lorenzo

Million Word Readers

Congratulations to Sebastian in Y4 and Angie and Olivia in Y5 who have read an amazing 1 million words.

Attendance this week

Whole school attendance this week is 97.66%. Congratulations to Reception for having the highest attendance at 98.33%. This is closely followed by Y2 with 98.12% attendance.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

Kind regards,

Jane Hines