Dear Parents
The wonders of a short week – the time really has flown and life in school has been very busy as we’ve rolled 5 days of activity into the 4 days available! It has been great to see the sun shining today as we have had so many outdoor activities going on at the end of the week!
Crowning of Our Lady
Well done to our Year 4 classes who led the rosary in the Prayer Garden this afternoon and laid flowers at the feet of Mary. We crowned the statue with flowers 
, to the age-old hymn, “Mary we crown thee with blossoms today.” As Catholics, we pray to Our Lady, that she may take our petitions to Jesus, just as she did for the wedding couple in Cana. Hard to say no to your Mum!
It was lovely to hear Year 1 reciting the prayers of the rosary so confidently this week – as they missed May in school last year, this is their first experience of the month of Mary and they are participating enthusiastically! Year 1 will also lead our whole-school Mass for the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday (13th May at 2 pm) and everyone is very welcome to join us via Zoom for this special feast day.
Cricket Taster Sessions
Children across the school have been fortunate in the last couple of weeks to have enjoyed Cricket lessons with Surrey Cricket. As detailed elsewhere in the newsletter, they are keen to recruit new talent and so children who have enjoyed the sessions are encouraged to sign up to train with them. We hope we will be able to continue to work with the team, who have also shared some great cricket coaching tips with our teaching staff!
Forest School
Today’s weather really allowed for Forest School at its finest and Y3 Topaz Class were the lucky children enjoying time in the outdoors in their wellies! Educational research shows that outdoor learning is beneficial not only to children’s academic outcomes, but also to their emotional and physical wellbeing, so we are very lucky to have the space and capacity to continue this exciting provision! This term’s focus is “Trees” and the children’s learning is cross-curricular including music, clay and folk tales, in addition to doing some planting and conservation of our environment.
Mission Weeks
This week, Year 3 Ruby Class have had their Mission Week, with a focus on planting for pollinators. They led this morning’s Collective Worship via Zoom and it was good to hear them leading the singing so beautifully, as classes joined in from all corners of the school. Well done Ruby Class! In the coming weeks, YR Red Class and then YR Orange Class will have their first ever Mission Weeks and we are looking forward to sharing in those too.
Bikeability
Well done to Year 4 who have begun their Bikeability (Cycling Proficiency) training this week – it was great to see them riding confidently on the playground and growing in confidence with signalling and manoeuvring. Year 4 Bikeability will be completed later in the term and Year 6 are looking forward to their training on the local roads in a couple of weeks too.
Hall Extension Update
Having met with the contractors this week, I am pleased to share that the hall is likely to be ready for use by the children soon after half-term. They are more or less finished with the construction and now laying flooring and completing the internal decoration. The partition doors are being fitted today, which will enable the space to be divided into two teaching spaces when we don’t need to use the whole space.
We hope to have the opportunity to invite parents and donors to informally view the improved facilities in the second half of the summer term, with a more formal opening after the tiered seating and final works are complete in the Autumn Term. Once updated Government guidance is available for these dates, we will be in touch with more details.
Wishing all of you a lovely weekend.
All best wishes
Catherine Burnham
