Dear Parents
We have had another busy and exciting week at Cardinal Newman. It has been great to see our exciting “broad and balanced curriculum” really coming to life with lots of visitors, themed days and topic work. Below is a round-up of just some of these:
This week has been Yellow Class Mission Week – congratulations to Yellow Class on a lovely assembly this morning all about People Who Help Us. The children had reflected on all the special people in their lives and produced lovely pictures of their “special” people. They wrote postcards of thanks to people who help us, like the dinner ladies, the police and even Father Bill!
On Tuesday, you may have noticed Y6 children (and staff!) arriving dressed in wartime costumes, complete with gas masks and evacuation labels! They carried their lunch wrapped in paper bags / greaseproof paper and enjoyed a range of linked activities both on and off the “Home Front Bus.” Thank you to parents who supported with the “ration book” cooking activity. The Y6 children were certainly inspired by the whole day and have produced some great writing so far!
Also on Tuesday, we hosted an “Able Writers” workshop with a guest author Robin Price (author of the Spartapuss series of books among others). Some of our Year 4 children joined children from other local schools and they enjoyed a day of challenging writing, eventually producing their own “Greek” myths. It was great to see the children so inspired by the opportunity of meeting a real-life writer and we look forward to more creative opportunities in Book Week in a few weeks time.
Chertsey Museum visited Cardinal Newman’s Y1 classes on Wednesday and they enjoyed a wonderful workshop in the school hall. The museum’s outreach programme is very helpful, allowing artefacts (Toys through the Ages) to be brought into school to be handled and explored, rather than the children having to take a coach journey to Chertsey! Y1 certainly had fun in the workshops!
Today has been the third “Day in Nature” experience, this time for Y5 Sapphire Class. So far, the feedback from these days has been extremely positive from children, support staff and teachers. Year 5 were very absorbed in their activities today and came in with glowing cheeks and broad smiles – a sure sign of success!
Two final thoughts:
A group of parents came together on Thursday morning for coffee and conversation – we discussed some questions raised by parents as well as the Mental Health questions and future plans for reporting to parents. The minutes for that meeting will be sent out in the mailing next week, so keep an eye out for those. Thank you to those parents who attended – and to all who support our school in so many ways!
Fr David King came in on Monday to talk about the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. His talk was very well-received and he shared very openly the joys and challenges of his own Lourdes experiences. For anyone who missed his talk or who wants to find out more, I really recommend looking at the pilgrimage video clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrSmdUgF99c&t=32s . This was shared with the children in Collective Worship on Monday, when we reflected on Sunday’s Psalm response, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.” There are a small number of staff members and their families joining the pilgrimage this year and any families or individuals from school who would like to join this group would be most welcome. Cost should never be a barrier to going to Lourdes and the diocese have suggested that there may be some funding available for families. If you would like to come, please do sign up online here http://www.ablourdes.org/ and let the school office know.
I wish you all a lovely weekend. All the best
Catherine Burnham
