​​​​Dear Parents and Carers,

The half-term holiday is here and we wish all the children and staff a relaxing week before they return to school on Monday 4^th November.  NSSport will be running the holiday club every day during half-term and you can book your child’s place at www.nssport.co.uk

This week in school

Bingo Night

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Bingo Night on Wednesday.  Thank you to the team of Y4 parents for organising this fantastic event.  Thank you, too, to all of you for joining in the fun and helping to raise funds for our school.

Reception Introductions

This week our Reception children were introduced to the whole school in two special assemblies.  The Reception children were invited to say their names and tell the rest of the school what they enjoy playing.  On Tuesday the Reception children were joined by their older siblings in assembly and on Wednesday the children were joined by their Y6 ‘buddies’.  They really have made a brilliant start to their school life!

Christ the Redeemer Catholic Education Trust Meeting

Tuesday’s meeting was a valuable opportunity for parents to meet the CEO and Chair of Directors of the Christ the Redeemer Trust.  This is an exciting time for St Elizabeth’s as we will be joining a family of Catholic schools in our diocese.  The Trust is committed to ensuring that individual schools maintain their own unique identities, while enhancing the experience for our pupils through collaboration with other schools.  Our parents raised a number of questions in person and online and these were all addressed in the meeting.  We will be sending a copy of the presentation slides and the answers to the questions after the half-term break.

Y1 Campaign for Fair Trade

The Y1 children have been learning about Fair Trade in their RE lessons this week.  They explained in assembly that buying Fair Trade products enables communities to have a better life and is living Jesus’ call to ‘Love your neighbour’. As well as putting posters up around the school they have written to the staff requesting that we buy Fair Trade coffee and tea for the staff room!

Sports Update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

St Elizabeth's sporting year truly began this week, with football league matches and a Tag Rugby Tournament.

On Monday, both boys and girls teams played a league football game against Meadlands School. The girls played a very talented Meadlands team and, despite losing, showed some excellent defensive and supportive play. The boys team came back from 2 nil down and were drawing 3-3 before ultimately losing. Both teams showed great promise for the season ahead and it was particularly pleasing to see players from Y5 and Y6 working so well together. Nyah and Noah were voted players of the match.

Toby, Colton and Freddie of the Sports Committee commented, "The boys lost 6-3 but they put up a big fight. The most important thing is that all of us had fun. We hope that next time we’ll win."

On Wednesday, the Y6 Tag Rugby Team played in the Richmond Borough Tournament. The children played 7 matches over the day and finished their afternoon pool in 2nd place, just missing out on a semi-final place. The children were fantastic ambassadors for the school and really enjoyed working together as a team.

Save the date: Richmond Rugby will be hosting a Community Mixed Tag Tournament for Year 5/6 after school on Friday 8th November. A separate email will be sent to Y5 and Y6 parents with further details.

Foodbank Collection

Richmond Foodbank collected the Harvest donations today, ably assisted by Y6 children.  They asked us to thank the school community for the donations and let you know that all the items will make a real difference to people in our local area.

Information for Parents

Nut – allergy awareness

We would like to remind parents that food in your child’s lunch box must not contain nuts in any form and that any snacks should be fruit and vegetables only.  If your child has a snack at the end of the school day, we ask that they eat this once they have left the school site.  We have a number of children with allergies in school and we thank you for your co-operation.

School lunches - new menu after half-term

Our school meals provider, Caterlink, has produced a new menu for school lunches starting after the half-term break.  Please do take a look at the menu attached and discuss with your child the meals they would like.  We do our best to give children their choice of meal everyday however occasionally there are unforeseen changes to the menu.  When this occurs we always work with Caterlink to find suitable alternatives.

Poppies

The Y6 children will be selling poppies on the Infant and Junior playgrounds at drop off and collection in the week after half-term.  The money raised goes to the Royal British Legion to support ex-service personnel and their families.  We would suggest 50p to a £1 for a poppy but all donations are welcome. We encourage children to wear poppies to school during this week and especially for the Y6 Remembrance Assembly on Friday 8^th November.

Secondary School Applications

A reminder for Y6 parents that the closing date for applications for secondary school is in half-term on Thursday 31^st October.  Please make sure that you have submitted any supplementary forms or Certificates of Catholic Practice to schools that require them.

Save the date – Thursday 14^th November

The Y6 parents will be organising a Movie Night for St Elizabeth’s children on the evening of Thursday 14^th November.  More details to follow.

Y1 Cake Sale

Y1’s Cake Sale last week made £271.24.  Thank you for all of your support.

Christ’s School Fireworks Friday 8th November, 6.00 – 9.00pm

Bring your family and friends along for what promises to be a night of entertainment, live music, with DJ, festival face glitter, glow sticks, great food and drink and of course the fireworks!

This year is expected to be another sell out event! Tickets are available to be purchased online only up until 7th November. You will receive an email confirmation of your tickets, which has a QR code to gain entry on the night.

To purchase tickets: Christ's PSA Firework Festival 2024 or search “Christs fireworks” online.

St Elizabeth's PTA will receive 5% on tickets sold, and so please identify St Elizabeth's during the online booking process.

Values Awards

Congratulations to the following children for receiving a Values Award for living our School Values this week.

Reception - Julia

Y1 – Leo

Y2 - Makary

Y3 - Elijah

Y4 - Harriet

Y5 - Simon

Y6 - Kahmall

Half-Term Reading Challenge

Congratulations to Y4 for winning the Reading Challenge this half-term!  Keep up the reading!

Upcoming dates – please do check these each week as new dates are added

November

Monday 4^th Children return after half-term break

Tuesday 5^th Y6 World War 2 Day

Wednesday 6^th Y2 visit to Richmond Museum

Friday 8^th 9:10am Y6 Remembrance Assembly

Thursday 14^th Movie Night organised by Y6 – details to follow

Attendance this week

Congratulations to Y5 for having the highest attendance this week with 98.1%, closely followed by Y6 with 97.7%.

Wishing you a lovely half-term break,

Jane Hines and the staff of St Elizabeth’s