Dear Parents
We have been very excited to welcome our new Reception children into our school community full-time from this week. They have enjoyed their induction sessions and are starting to make new friends and new beginnings within our community. Thank you for making them and their families very welcome.
Start of Year Mass
Our Reception families will be warmly welcomed into our community at our Start of Year outdoor Mass on Sunday, where we are also looking forward to celebrating with our First Holy Communion children and to commissioning our new Prayer Council for this academic year. In previous years, it has been a lovely relaxed family Mass followed by a picnic and we are looking forward to having everyone together to sing some familiar hymns and to ask God’s blessing on our new school year. Please do come along and bring your nearest and dearest. Mass will begin at 12:30pm and families are invited to arrive from 12 noon.
Harvest Worship and Class Mass Dates
We have a busy schedule in school next week and we are delighted to be able to invite parents back into school to join with us in our usual prayer celebrations for this time of year. Please note the following and do come along if you are able to:
- KS2 Harvest Worship (Opal Class Assembly) – Thursday 23rd Sept at 9am
- KS1 Harvest Worship (Led by Y2) – Friday 24th Sept at 9am
- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (School Chapel) – Friday 24th Sept 8 – 8:30am (Drop in for a few moments of peace and reflection, or stay for the whole half hour – parents and children welcome)
- Y5 Emerald Class Mass (School Chapel) – Friday 24th September at 2:15pm
Please also note from the parish newsletters, that Fr Ruslan (New Parish Priest at St Erconwald’s) will have his Induction Mass celebrated by Bishop Richard on Wednesday 22nd September at 7pm.
Fr Bill’s Farewell Mass with the parish will be on Sunday 10th October at 10:30am. All are welcome.
Partners in Learning
As notified previously, Partners in Learning will take place in person this week on Wednesday in school. Partners In Learning is our annual event to meet your child’s new class teacher, to understand the learning for the new academic year and to answer any questions arising as the children settle into new classroom routines.
Year group times will be as follows:
YR – 8:40am
4-4:15 – Year 1
4:20 – 4:35 – Year 2
4:40 – 4:55 – Year 3
5 – 5:15 – Year 4
5:20 – 5:35 – Year 5
5:40 – 6 – Year 6
There will be crèche provision during the hall presentations for children who can’t be looked after elsewhere – please drop them off with staff at the KS1 adventure playground gate and then make your way to the hall entrance by the school entrance doors. The hall schedule is quite tight, so please try to be prompt. Masks are not compulsory in school but may be worn or not, according to personal choice. Parents will be asked to sanitise hands on entrance to the hall and again to the classrooms – thank you for supporting us with this small measure to minimise transmission within school.
School Development Plan
Our new School Development Plan for the year focusses on 5 key things to deliver the best outcomes for our children in 2021-22 and enable all within our community to know themselves “uniquely created and loved by God for a definite purpose”. These are:
Robust safeguarding practice and strong family support
“Flourish” programme develops toolkit of social/emotional /life skills
Developing key skills – Speaking and Listening, Phonics and Times Tables
Opportunities for success and challenge through our LOVE curriculum
Teamwork to achieve accelerated academic progress so that all reach their full potential
We are looking forward to working in close partnership with families to give our children the best possible experience during this academic year.
Clubs and Homework Club
The lists for teacher-led clubs are now out here. As previously, there is a nominal charge for these clubs (£25/term) which covers staffing and replacement of equipment. In order to support children’s healthy activity levels, there is no charge for children’s PE clubs and all children are strongly encouraged to participate in one active club per week in addition to their school PE.
Homework Club will begin on Monday and run 3:15 – 4:15pm. All KS2 children are welcome to attend at a cost of £5 per session. KS2 children who are already paying to be in Whizz Kids after-school club will attend for free to complete their homework. Pupil Premium children are also invited to take up free places at the club. Please email the school office to book a daily or weekly space for your child.
Mission Weeks
School Mission Weeks are beginning again, with Y4 Opal Class starting the ball rolling in the coming week. We are delighted that our children will once again be able to walk to church for Mass during their Mission Week and that they will be free to mix across year groups as they perform their acts of service to the school and to our local community. Opal Class are taking Harvest as their theme and will be collecting donations for the Hersham Foodbank from Wednesday next week. Thank you for your support for this vital local charity.
All best wishes for the coming weekend! Please keep the prayers going for fine weather on Sunday! We look forward to seeing you then!
Catherine Burnham
Headteacher
This year my team, Gael Londain were picked to play in the All British Championship. It is the biggest Gaelic football event of the year. Teams from all over England play each other with specially picked teams. There were also some other people from our school at the tournament, Finn, Cillian and Aoife played with me in the U9s and Muireann who played for the U7s team. My U9s team won all our matches with only 1 challenging match. At the end, our whole team got medals and Meal Vouchers which got us free food. (Written by Joseph, Yr4)
