Dear Parents,
I hope you are well. We have already arrived at the mid-point of this term, school trips have started and I can hear the practices for the harvest assemblies from my office.
Parent Presentations
Last Wednesday we had over eighty households on the PSA online meeting, which was an excellent turnout.
Last night we had the secondary school presentation online with over fifty households attending; the slides are attached to this newsletter in case you missed this. Next Wednesday (2nd October at 8pm) is the Headteacher Vision Presentation which will take place online. I will talk about our achievements from last year and then notify you about our priorities for this year. There will be time to ask questions at the end. I will re-send the link for this meeting via email.
We look forward to the drinks for Reception parents in the school hall tonight.
Harvest assembly singing performances
A reminder, these are on the w/c 21st October. The KS1 and LKS2 performances are very busy - if only 1 adult per child attends, this will make more room for others.
KS1 (Y1 & Y2): Tuesday 22nd October 9.10am
LKS2 (Y3 &Y4): Wednesday 23rd October 9.10am
UKS2 (Y5 &Y6): Thursday 24th October 9.10am
Reception: Thursday 24th October 2.30pm. Children may go home straight after the performance, which will finish at approximately 2.50pm.
Open morning and school numbers
Our total numbers on roll have increased since last year, which is bucking the local and national trend. Maximising our numbers on roll does bring more income to spend on the children's education.
We had our first open morning of the school year for prospective parents this morning with over sixty people attending. The highlight for most is the tour of the school from our Year 6s. During the open mornings, every child from Year 6 has the opportunity to show prospective parents around.
If you are aware of anyone who may be interested in a place in the future, the link to sign up is here -
www.sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk/admin
Please note, the catchment areas of all primary schools in Richmond (and London) have changed significantly in the last few years and there may be parents who thought we were out of their 'catchment' area, but who might get a place now.
Ambassadors
Contributions from our Year 6 ambassadors start in the next newsletter. Every child in Year 6 is allocated an ambassador role. They give three preferences and the Year 6 team has the very difficult task of assigning the roles.
The ambassador roles this year are in - English, maths, art, music, science, history, RE, languages, geography, D&T, computing, PE, wellbeing, school council, inclusion and news editors.
School grounds
I am pleased to say the cage area is now reopened as the due diligence work on the cedar tree has been completed. We had a substantial meeting about the toilets yesterday and everything is on task for us to re-open them before half-term. The new ventilation system is very impressive, and we seem to have gone from having no ventilation to a state of the art system!
I am aware the car park gate option is very popular, but we will be returning to the blue gates and Christchurch Road when the toilets are complete. We can't run three entrances and exits every day, plus we need use of the car park during the year during pick up and drop off.
Whilst the astroturf has been fully functional since it was completed, we have had issues with drainage and we hope the final works will be completed in the October half-term. Therefore, Mr Brown will be running his multi-sports club, for Years 4 to 6, on the Orchard; this club will include basketball, dodgeball and football from Monday to Thursday. He will email more information soon. JAG will be running their holiday programme during half-term as well.
There have been a few questions around the chickens.....they are very much in mind and various planning stages are in operation!
School events
Year 6 enjoyed their three class trips to the fabulous local air raid shelter at St Leonards Court and had a tour by the volunteers.
We have said numerous times how we want to make the most out of our space and the staff led the way in the last week. In our weekly staff professional development session, Mrs Adams (borough and Sheen Mount science lead) took our teachers through a range of activities they could carry out in the woodland area and the pond; this culminated in a bit of pond dipping to end the session!
Uniform
Thank you for your help with our uniform requests from the previous newsletter. A reminder particularly for Year 5/6 children if they go to a club before school. They must then bring their school uniform with them if it is not a PE day.
Wellbeing coffee morning-From our mental health lead Mrs Teeling
The first wellbeing coffee morning of the school year will be on 11th October from 9am. The focus will be on emotional regulation in Reception and KS1. Please see the link and attached (it's the same document). There is no need to sign up.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1M22_-Jwcwucdcj2FVkMu8LZiW17ESPkB/edit#slide=id.gd769b8d6b0_0_0
Volunteer/s needed for Christmas charity boxes
Last year we collected donated gift bags for Richmond Good Neighbours and it would be excellent if we could support this worthy initiative again. The school can send out the information and be the holding point for when the bags are donated in November. We would just need a volunteer or two to coordinate taking them down to the main centre. Please let myself or the class rep coordinator know.
PSA Odd job day-Saturday 12th October 1-5pm
We will be liaising with the PSA committee for a range of jobs to be carried out at the school on the date above. These days always bring good community spirit and are an invaluable help for the school and maximise our inside and outside space.
PE t-shirts
We have been informed that the new style PE t-shirts are back in stock at Sheen Sports.
A reminder, the previous style can be worn for this year, but the cycling fundraising t-shirts can no longer be worn.
Have a good weekend
You can contact me directly on headteacher@sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk or see me at the school gates before and after school.
Best wishes
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
Maria O'Brien - Deputy Headteacher
.jpg)
