Dear Parents
Wow! What a week! It has been truly wonderful for the whole school community to see so many of you in our school buildings – some for the first time! – this week. Thank you for all your support for the many events and celebrations we have enjoyed this week – we know how busy you are, but it is lovely to see so many parents and grandparents at all of our events.
It was truly a blessing to have Sunday Mass in school last weekend and we were delighted that Fr Richard came to say our Family Mass for the start of the school year. Despite the torrential rain, we went ahead in the school hall and enjoyed singing and praising God together at Mass. The First Communion children enjoyed being together in their outfits and receiving our Lord in Holy Communion together with the school community. The Prayer Council received their special blessing and a “cross” lapel pin as a sign of their ministry within school. Thank you to all those who sang, who read, who helped to put out or put away (wet!) equipment and most especially to those who brought their little ones to the table of God. It was lovely to celebrate Mass as a community and we were delighted with the turnout. Thank you for your support. There are some photos from the Mass here.
The next Family Mass opportunity will be on Friday 1st October when Year 3 children and their families and all those who would like to take part will be at Mass at St Erconwald’s at 8am. We will then walk together from church back to school and the children can enjoy breakfast in school before we start our school day.
Thank you to all who attended our Partners in Learning event on Wednesday evening. It was great to see so many of you come to visit the classrooms, meet the teacher and share the curriculum information to support your children during this academic year. If you missed the evening, the powerpoints will be on the website from Monday. An email will be sent out.
It has been great to enjoy the facilities of the newly extended school hall this week and we are so pleased that the children have enjoyed having their parents and grandparents in to enjoy Harvest Celebrations for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. It was impressive to hear them sing and speak so clearly in that larger environment and they did so well! Thank you too for your generous contributions to the Walton and Hersham Foodbank (photos here) – our donations are always gratefully received and during the pandemic, we have also been supported by the Foodbank to alleviate need for some of our families with changing circumstances. Thank you for your continued support!
Governors were onsite during the Partners in Learning event, to promote the Governors Fund. All parents in Catholic schools are asked to make a contribution if they have the means to do so, as the school itself must fund 10% of the cost of capital projects (e.g. the hall). Following the expenditure on the hall extension, our Governors Fund is limited and it is important that we continue to develop the school facilities not only for those children who are in school now but also their siblings and those who will follow. Our current children are reaping the benefits of family contributions in the last year or two and we would ask that those who have the means to do so might consider a regular monthly contribution to support the development of our school premises over the period your child is in school. The standing order forms are available on the website here. Thank you for your support with this if you are able to.
Looking ahead to the coming weeks, we are delighted that we are now able to run trips in a slightly more straightforward way. Year 4 have already enjoyed a wonderful trip to Cowey Sale (photos will be on the website Monday) and Year 6 will be starting the ball rolling on the swimming lessons, which will later filter through to Year 4 and Year 3. It is great that our children now have these opportunities – thank you for your support with volunteering to facilitate this.
Just a reminder that volunteers in school are most welcome (and indeed needed!) to help with reading, literacy sacks, craft activities, filing, baking and much more! If you would like to volunteer, please contact the school office. As part of our safeguarding process, you will be asked to get a DBS check and to complete Safeguarding Training prior to starting in school.
Finally, you will be aware that the school is expecting the Catholic Schools Inspection team onsite on Tuesday morning. They will be in school all day and we look forward to celebrating all the wonderful things about our school community with them. They would love to hear from parents about the events you have been invited to in school and how your child enjoys being part of our Catholic school community. If you haven’t already done so, do please complete the survey – the link is here!
We wish you a very happy weekend – let’s hope the sun keeps shining!
Catherine Burnham
