Dear Parents,
I hope you are well. Time moves quickly at this time of year and this is the penultimate newsletter of the term.
School trips/events
All the Year 1 children (and a headteacher) went to the Brooklands museum for their topic on transport. As well as enjoying all the various areas, they made a moveable car from a peg and a Sheen Mount grandparent re-enacted her career as a VC-10 air stewardess in full uniform!
Our Year 5s enjoyed a STEM day last Friday; it was a nationwide event and we were lucky to be able to take part. For more information, please see the Year 5 section below.
All the Year 6 children used the teaching kitchen last week to make their pasta sauce, a strong smell of garlic and herbs infused the corridor!
Year 3 have visited Richmond museum as individual classes this week, connected to their history topic on the local area.
Arts week-next week
All classes will be enjoying two arts activities next week. There will be a dance workshop with an outside provider and each year group is carrying out an art project during the week, based around the 'Take One Picture' project. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/take-one-picture/key-dates
End of term finish time
A reminder we finish early on the last day of term - Friday 31st March.
Reception and KS1 finish at 2pm and KS2 at 2.10pm.
Sports Results
Congratulations to our boys and girls football teams who both had substantial wins over Darell this week. They also played East Sheen where the boys fought out a 0-0 draw and the girls suffered a loss.
Following the girls team victory in the borough event last term, they have the honour of representing Richmond in the London Youth Games on March 21st against the other 31 London Boroughs. We hope they enjoy the chance to test themselves against the best in London.
Our netball team continue to show great progress from last year and had a very narrow one goal loss to St Mary Mags last week.
Chess competition
On Sunday 26th February the Sheen Mount Chess Club entered two Under 11 and two Under 9 teams in the regional heats of the National Primary Schools' Chess Championships. Despite some tough opposition they had a fantastic result. The Under 9 A team came 3rd and along with the Under 11A (4th) and Under 11B (5th) teams qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament, which will be held in the early summer. The teams are eagerly awaiting to find out if it's a weekend trip to Ashford or Bristol!
KS2 Cross Country
We will be holding this event on Sheen Common on Friday 24th March. Parents are welcome to come and watch. There is a competitive element with the first three children in each race (separate medals for girls and boys) receiving medals, but ultimately we want everyone to enjoy some exercise with their year group and class. Approximate race timings:
2pm Year 4
2.15pm Year 3
2.30pm Year 5
2.45pm Year 6.
The Y3/4 children will run approx 500m (l lap) and Y5/6 2 laps (1000m)
The event is subject to dry weather and we will inform parents if we have to postpone the run.
Staffing news
We sadly say goodbye to our PE teacher, Mr March at the end of this term as he relocates to Kent. We thank him for all his hard work both in and out of the curriculum over the past two years and wish him all the best in his new role, which is again as a PE teacher.
We have recruited Craig Brown to work with us for the summer term for two days a week and we will use our own in house expertise and passion for sport for other areas. We have ensured we have entered all the summer tournaments such as borough sports and the cricket competitions.
An introduction from Craig:
Hi everyone! My name is Craig Brown and I will be joining the staff this summer term as your new PE teacher. I’ve worked in sport for over fourteen years and pride myself in ensuring lessons are engaging, friendly yet challenging. I cater for diversity and differentiate for all so everyone can have a fun positive experience.
I started my own business last year as a sports coach teaching PE, mentoring and running sports sessions through the week and on weekends. I spend most of my days working alongside children to develop their social, emotional, physical and personal skills. My aim is to give the children the skills they need to develop and progress in life and in sport, making their experience a positive one through fun themed sessions that aim to get maximum engagement.
Red nose day
We will not be having a formal way of celebrating red nose day this Friday. This is due to so many events happening recently: World book day last week, teacher strikes for two days this week and the fundraising campaign around 'Forest, Field, Fun'. The school will continue to review its charity days and commitment to helping those in need.
If you wish to donate to Comic Relief, the link is here-https://donation.comicrelief.com/
Birthday cakes/sweets
A reminder that children are not to bring in cakes and sweets for their birthday. They can instead donate a book to the classroom/library should they wish to. Birthdays are celebrated in different ways within the classes.
Forest field fun-children contributions
We will be shortly sending out the sponsorship forms for the children to be sponsored to cycle to make a smoothie (Reception will do a cycle challenge in their area) and for each child to run two laps of the school field. By achieving the second part, the children will have run the distance from London to Paris (270 km). All the sponsorship money will be paid in individually online by adults and then the fundraising project can maximise its Gift Aid intake. This is a crucial part of us reaching our total, so please ensure you tick the box if you are eligible. The vast majority of donators will be. Gift aid allows us to increase donations by 25%.
Several children have asked about cake sales or handmade items to raise funds for the project. We will have designated days for children to have these and they will occur in the summer term.
'Air up bottles'
There has been a sudden influx of these into the school and I wanted to raise two issues around them.
Firstly, they are being brought into school, unnamed. At a considerable cost I would strongly advise they are named.
Secondly, the level of distraction they are providing to some children. If adults feel they are being a distraction to learning, their use will be restricted to certain times in the day.
I'm not entirely convinced of their need in school, however for the moment they will be allowed.
Message from our mental health lead Mrs Teeling
Sarah Burrell will be hosting another coffee morning to discuss children's wellbeing and mental health next Tuesday morning (21st) at 9am. She will be focusing on developing resilience. It will take place in the teaching kitchen on the year 4 corridor. All parents welcome.
SPARK! Book award update from Miss Breckon
After a successful year last year, we have decided to join the SPARK! Book Awards again this year. The shortlisted books in each category reflect the exciting and diverse nature of our local area - they look fantastic! Children from each KS2 class will be reading and reviewing the books - KS1 classes will share the books as a class - and the final votes will be collected (the deadline for review entries is 5th June) in time for the award ceremony in June, where the winners will be announced.
The awards categories are:
We look forward to joining in with some of the live author videos and other exciting activities as the awards progress.
New coffee morning date for Multi lingual families.
The date for this will be Thursday 4th May at 9am. This is more of a community/networking event, but there will be a short presentation at the beginning.
Message from PSA. Amazon smile-no longer. Please use Easyfundraising.
As some of you may be aware AmazonSmile have closed their charity portal. We benefited from over £10k of funding last year so we will notice the loss. Can we therefore please encourage you to sign up for easyfundraising instead? It’s easy to do and it‘s FREE. Easyfundraising donate when you buy from other retailers.
Please see the attachment for three easy steps.
Singathon at Christ Church
Please see the information attached about a singathon on Monday 3rd April for children aged 7-14
Have a good weekend
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
Maria O'Brien - Deputy Headteacher
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