Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome back to the Autumn Term at Cardinal Newman and an especially warm welcome to all our new families, including our youngest children starting school next week!  It has been great to see the older children back in school and settling so quickly back into friendships and school routines.  They are truly ready to fly next week as we begin our new learning in earnest!  We are also looking forward to welcoming our new Reception children into our community of learners, believers and friends – they begin their half-days next week and will be in full-time from Friday! 

School Routines

We are continuing our new Phonics scheme this term and that has caused some changes for the structure of our school day.  The start and end times remain the same (8:40am to 3:15pm) but we will begin activities more quickly with Collective Worship starting at 8:50am on Mondays and Fridays and Phonics beginning at that time on other days.  Thank you for your support to enable the children to be in school and ready to start their learning in good time!  Parents may be interested to know that Whizz Kids are now running from 7:30am in school and there are morning slots available on a regular or ad hoc basis if this is useful to you.  Please contact: wraparoundcare@cardinalnewmanschool.co.uk

Uniform

Our children look very smart with their new haircuts, new shoes and new uniforms!  Thank you for your support with this!  At the beginning of the Autumn Term, children are welcome to wear either winter or summer uniform, as the weather dictates.  By 1^st October, all children are asked to wear smart winter uniform until the end of the Spring Term.  There will be a Preloved Uniform Sale running alongside Partners in Learning if you would like to buy any additional items.

Please support our smart uniform policy by ensuring hair accessories are school colours (red, white or navy blue) and that children are not wearing wristbands/nail polish etc during school time.  School shoes should be smart black shoes (not trainers please!) – if you need any support with the purchase of items to support our uniform policy, please get in touch with me and we will do our best to support.

Partners In Learning

A separate letter is coming out explaining the schedule for Partners in Learning on Wednesday evening.  Class teachers are looking forward to meeting parents and sharing the information for the new academic year, so do come along if you possibly can.  This is an opportunity to see your child’s new classroom and ask any questions you may have.

Reading

We had excellent Reading results for Y1, Y2 and Y6 in the national tests at the end of last year, achieving significantly above national results in all areas! This year, we will continue our focus on making every child a fluent reader by the time they leave Cardinal Newman.

At Partners in Learning, there will also be a leaflet coming out about our updated reading books for Early Years and Key Stage One and how this will be a significant change to the previous reading scheme.  We will be using both e-books and hard copy books, as well as the children’s library books / story sacks.  There will be a separate workshop session about Phonics and Early Reading, planned 13^th October.   

For Key Stage Two, we will continue to use Accelerated Reader to encourage children to read at an appropriate level and to celebrate children’s reading progress.  Year 5 and Year 6 especially are encouraged to read widely in preparation for secondary school!

We were delighted today to celebrate the children who completed the “Surrey Libraries Reading Challenge” over the summer holidays!  Well done to all of them!

 Queen Elizabeth II RIP

In our collective worship this morning, we reflected on Queen Elizabeth’s long life and we prayed for her and for her loved ones.  The children recalled celebrating her long years of service at the Platinum Jubilee in June and we looked at the books they received then, which tell them the story of our Queen.  They might like to revisit these stories at home.  We reminded the children that although the country is sad about the situation, as a Christian, Queen Elizabeth described God as her “hope” and we prayed that she is now at peace with her husband in heaven.  May she rest in peace.

Schools have not yet received any specific information about plans for the funeral date, but we will keep you updated when we know anything more.

Start of Year Family Mass

On Sunday 18^th September, there will be our start of year Family Mass (outdoors weather permitting!) at 12 noon at Cardinal Newman.  All families are warmly invited to attend – bring along grandparents, godparents, aunties and uncles etc if you would like to!  We will be celebrating with our children who made their First Holy Communion this summer and we will also commission our new Prayer Council.  After Mass, we will have a family picnic on the school field.

Here’s to a great start to the new academic year!  We are looking forward to lots of fun and learning with our children!

God Bless

Catherine Burnham

Headteacher