Newsletters

Dear Parents,

I hope you are well. We are looking forward to the last few weeks of this half-term and it is great to be able to write about the range of topics covered below, both from a child's and parent's perspective.  

School Events

Year 6 visited Kew Gardens to support their science learning about plant evolution and adaptation.

Year 4 had an Ancient Greek day in school today.  The day kicked off with an artistic adventure, where they learnt to make collagraph Greek pots – modelled after the iconic Hydria – using rubbing techniques and charcoal. 

Next, they entered the arena for their very own Ancient Greek Olympics, competing just like the original athletes! They discovered who was allowed to participate in the games and the reasons behind it. We then dived into the world of architecture, sculpting Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian columns out of clay.

Throughout the day, Year 4 learnt all about the city-states of Greece, like Athens and Sparta, discovering their core beliefs, traditions, and rivalries -giving them a real taste of the culture and spirit of Ancient Greece.

Year 3 had a Stone Age Day in school yesterday with an outside visitor, learning all about how archaeologists work and how discoveries have helped us understand pre-history. A highly interactive with all children involved.  

Maths Wizard Competition from our maths lead, Mrs Sroka

On Tuesday 1st of October, our team made up of four Year 5s visited Hampton School to enter their Maths Wizard competition.  We competed against 21 schools where we completed five rounds: the numerical challenge, true or false, always sometimes or never, symbols and the last one was the group challenge.  

After refreshments, we were invited back into Hammond Theatre where the winners were announced. Sadly, we were not in the first three but the most important thing is that we had fun, which we all did. We left with a packed lunch, some goodies and a certificate for participation.

Children's quotes:

"All of the rounds were tricky but my favourite one was the always, sometimes or never and I think that was the one we were most good at.      

 "My favourite part of the day was when we got the results because, even though we didn’t win any of  the top three places, I felt really excited as I wanted to win."

"My favourite round was sometimes, always, never because we really worked  as a team in that round and it was extremely fun. All in all, the day was amazing and such a special experience."

 "My favourite part of the day was when the awards were presented. Although we didn't come in the top 3, I was still happy that we participated. "

Ambassadors

We kick off our ambassador section of the newsletter with some new roles this academic year. 

Hello, we are your Year 6 Inclusion Ambassadors and we are working with Mrs Jeffery our Inclusion Leader. We are here to help you feel included, welcome and valued. We aim to promote and make everyone aware that we are unique and united as a Sheen Mount Family. 

Please find below some links to useful information about Dyslexia Awareness Week and ADHD Month:

Dyslexia Awareness Week:   https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/support-us/awareness-events    https://simplebooklet.com/daw24parentspack#page=1

ADHD Month: https://adhdembrace.org/   https://www.adhdawarenessmonth.org/

Dyslexia awareness course

Please see below a link from our English lead via AfC around an awareness of dyslexia course

Please see an attachment of a range of courses from AfC entitled 'Helping parents with...."

Mobile phones and electronic devices-parental controls

You will recall I wrote previously to parents in Year 4 & Year 5 last year around smartphones. I have become aware of a further campaign through the Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC), where you can sign up and pledge. It features school names but does not identify parents or children – and would help “in those moments of reckoning, when it comes up with children in the household”.

https://parentpact.smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/

Just as strong a method is by having consensus in your class and year group. As mentioned in the letter at the time, if the vast majority/all parents stick to the same ethos (in this situation not letting your child have a smartphone), then they have nothing to compare with it. 

Parental controls

A reminder of this very useful one-page overview of parental controls for new (or existing) electronic devices. 

Communication from parents

We appreciate parents being busy during the working day and the evening might be the time to write an email, but I would like to emphasise the value of a personal conversation (face to face or over the phone) rather than a long email. Experience shows us that various aspects can become misconstrued in an email and the true messages are lost. Therefore, emailing asking for the relevant member of staff to give you a call and with a short explanation is usually a far more productive way for the staff to respond to you. If you need someone to give you a call immediately, you should state this. Otherwise, a class teacher would hope to get back to you within 48 hours - before school, at lunchtime or at the end of school.

Messages for the office around medical appointments/various administration or minor aspects connected with your child/ren are better sent via email and/or short emails that are just for information for the class teacher or office. 

Trees

You may have seen a tree being taken down on Thursday morning. There were questions about this from parents and for transparency, this is the process.
We have a tree survey once a year and 152 trees are surveyed. They are RAG rated with criteria that we have a responsibility to follow. The recommendation for this tree was for it to be felled. We then employ a tree surgeon who has to notify the council. The council then send someone to quality-assure the report and the recommendation.

Having completed the astroturf without removing a single tree, it is a great frustration when we are given these recommendations, but our health and safety and insurance regulations mean we obviously need to follow them. The cost all has to be absorbed by the school as it is on our grounds. Therefore, for many reasons, we would not take down any trees unless we absolutely have to.

One positive aspect to this is that they have taken down to a minimal level the dangerous log stakes that the children played on at play times. They can still walk across them, but they are at a safe level now.

8am Sports Clubs and gate and parent visitors

Please note the blue gate will now be locked a few minutes after 8am every day for those taking part in morning sports clubs. Those running the club can't manage the gate after this period and therefore, we need to close it. If your child arrives and the gate is locked, just go through reception and they will send you through to the club. 

Equally, all parent visitors to the school need to sign in. This includes those helping with reading first thing in the morning. Once you are here after the gates are closed at 8.55am, we need you to sign in for safeguarding purposes. Therefore, please do not walk into the school buildings after drop-off without signing in. 

We have new visitor lanyards as well. Yellow means that a person is DBS checked whilst red means they are not. Red lanyard visitors are allowed in the school but need to be accompanied by one of our staff. The children have been told this and how to report someone wearing a red visitor lanyard if they are on their own. Our staff wear the Sheen Mount green lanyards. 

AfC visitors

To make you aware, we do have visitors from AfC to the school on a reasonably regular basis. They tend to join us at the gate to watch the morning drop-off. We would very much let you know if it was Ofsted! One of these visitors, our School Improvement Partner (SIP) was here today.  He comes in once a term and meets the leadership team and subject leaders as well as watching teaching and learning. He then produces a report for the governors on what we are doing well and what we could improve on. 

Scooters/bikes

A reminder please, they are not to be ridden on school property from any age group. This does include the moment you come through the gates via West Temple Sheen. We have had reports of people being run over in these narrow pathways before and after school. Please help us to keep the drop-off and pick up safe for everyone.

Toilets update

These are on track and the cubicles have been going in this week. We will bring you news of their completion, as we will be reverting to the blue gates and the brown gates (on Christchurch Road). We may have to wait until after half-term to start using them.

2025 Fundraising cycle

The plans have been made for this year and two fantastic options have been offered for the Lands End to Sheen Mount cycle. From the school's perspective, we are indebted to these fundraising campaigns and the swimming pool and astroturf would not have been achieved without them. We have plans to improve the outside areas in both playgrounds and the presentation will share some of the initial plans.  The plan is to have these built during the summer of 2025. 

There is a meeting in the school hall on Wednesday 16th October at 8pm, followed by a visit to the Victoria next door. For those who can or can't attend the meeting, here is the sign-up sheet- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVukUiCCvZsCIz9h2pg6MAlM6y9mPUHmsA2isn9ipNWhx7FA/viewform

PSA 

Messages from the PSA: 

PSA Poster:

Hello! We are the PSA Committee - here to bring our school community together and raise money whilst having some fun. Please reach out at any time if you want to get involved in an event or just have a chat clarazmnelson@gmail.com haugekath@gmail.com. 

Odd Jobs day: 

• Odd Jobs Day is this Saturday 12th Oct 1pm-5pm, fancy helping spruce up the school? We are looking for volunteers who would consider lending us a bit of their time from 1pm @ School. Sheen Mount and the PSA would be very grateful for any parents who could help with some painting, jet-washing, and clearing around the school. Even if you can only spare an hour, that would be a huge help. 
• Please join us from 1pm to be assigned a task. There will be music and beer to make it more fun! To get a sense of numbers here is a sign up sheet, please put your name and number, and there is a box on the right in case you have any tools or spare paint! 

Sheen Mount Quiz: 

It's that time of year again. The annual Sheen Mount Quiz will be back on Friday 22nd November 7:30-10:30 at School. The lovely Anushka Asthana will be our host this year. Tickets will go on sale on Monday from 8pm on classlist! Details are in the attached poster. 

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