A big thank you to all parents who are respecting our request not to park on Arch Road and thereby making the environment of the school safer and more pleasant for everyone. If you haven’t yet tried it, please do consider leaving home a little earlier and parking and walking from either Coronation Rec or the other side of the railway line in Hersham Station car park. There have been one or two parents – especially those arriving late – who are still coming down Arch Road and parking on the pavement or across driveways. Please avoid this at all costs as it is dangerous to our children as well as upsetting for our neighbours. It makes such a difference when we work as a whole school community to keep our children safe. Thank you.
Well done to our Reception children who performed so beautifully in their first school nativity play on Thursday! It is amazing to think that these 60 little people have only been in school since September and yet are already able to entertain us with all their wonderful singing, speaking and acting! It is a huge achievement to stand up and perform in front of so many grown-ups and we are very proud of all of them! As previously noted, the dress rehearsal was recorded by a professional videographer (one of our parents) and copies of the recording will be made available electronically early next week - please look out for information about this. We are looking forward to the Y1/2/3 productions next week!
Congratulations to the Y4 sports team who competed in a tournament at Xcel Hub run by Chelsea FC this week. They represented the school very competently and returned with medals to mark their achievement! We have had very many KS2 children representing the school in a range of sports this half-term, while all children have had the opportunity to compete within school in our multi-skills competitions. Well done to all who have competed so well.
This week we have had some lovely feedback from St Peter’s Hospital, where our
Y4 (Opal) children wrote to thank the medical staff for being “heroes” during their recent Mission Week. One letter from the children said: “You inspire me to care about others. … From you I have learnt that a hero is someone who always takes care of people. In future, I hope to be like you by living the way you are now.” The note we received in response commented that the staff loved the letters and it made their day.
During the course of this term, six classes have already had their Mission Week for this year. In Mission Weeks, we give the children more opportunities for reflection to explore their relationship with God, as well as choosing a focus for their “Experience of Service”. As I said at our Open Morning this week, the Mission Week is one way that we support our children to remember that being “uniquely created and loved by God” (from our school Mission Statement) is not only a tremendous privilege for us, but also a responsibility to make a positive contribution to our community through our actions. This term the positive contributions have included “random acts of kindness” within school from Violet Class, contributions to Hersham Foodbank from Blue Class, donations to Cancer charities from Year 6 classes and raising awareness about care for creation (plastic reduction) from Coral Class. We are looking forward to seeing the fruits of the other classes’ mission weeks as we go through the year! Thank you for your unstinting support of the children’s service for the community - school, local and global!
Thank you too for all your donations towards the Parent Association Christmas Fair tomorrow – we have had a wonderful response and I know the fair will be a fantastic opportunity to catch up with friends, have some fun and buy some additional Christmas presents! (see below). Do join us for a great family event!
Finally, a huge thank you and a sad goodbye to Mrs Bates whose last day in the office will be today. Mrs Bates has been a huge asset at Cardinal Newman and we wish her every success in her new venture. We are recruiting to replace her and our new Administrative Assistant will start in January. Until then, please be patient with our school office as they will be short-staffed and doing their best to make things run as smoothly as usual at this busy time of year!
All the best
Catherine Burnham
