Dear parents and carers,
I hope you had a good half-term break. The sun has made a welcome appearance for spring 2, at least for this week! We hope you found the parent consultation meetings purposeful over the last two days; they are an important part of the education process for all of us. There are many whole school events coming up over this half-term. We have tried to keep aspects as simple as possible for parents so that you are aware of them.
Today was World Book Day, then on Friday 21st, we have Red Nose Day and finally, on Wednesday 2nd April, we have the children's sponsored school bounce.
World Book Day
The children have enjoyed a range of activities today, both in class and with their paired class from another key stage in the school. Miss Breckon and I led an assembly at the end of the day, where the children had to guess the adult from our favourite childhood book and current reading book. We then ended with a parade, so all of R/KS1 saw each other and all of KS2 saw each other.
Red Nose Day - Friday 21st March
Children can wear an item of clothing that is red and a red nose (they will be asked to take this off in the classroom).
Two ideas from the school council:
- There will be an opportunity in every class for a child (with a friend if they wish) to teach the class for 30 minutes and for the class teacher to become a child. Any child who wishes to volunteer can do so through their class teacher. There will be a random draw on Friday 14th and parents will be informed.
- There will also be a comic/magazine sale after school where children can buy second hand comics/magazines for a £1. Please bring the donated items in on Thursday 20th or Friday 21st and there will be a place for donations outside the office.
I am also getting my 'dad jokes' ready for the celebration assembly and will take some from the children.
Sponsored Bounce - Wednesday 2nd April
This will be the main way children will raise money for the playground project we are fundraising for this year. We look forward to all the children getting involved in this initiative and many thanks to Caroline Hinds and Anushka Jones for organising this event.
The overall target of £80,000 for the new playground equipment is very aspirational, and we have the cycle ride to come later in the year, but this will be a way for the children to contribute towards this. The letter sent via class reps is also attached.
Toys at School
A reminder please that no toys are allowed to be brought to school. We sent this message out last year as it just provides too many moments in the day for difficulty. Hopefully, by stating this, it will allow you to reinforce it if there are challenging conversations at home.
School Events
Year 4 Roman Day
Year 4 enjoyed an interactive day at school. Thank you as always to our parent volunteers for their invaluable help throughout the day.
Children's quotes-
Hugh 4BH- I really enjoyed the feast because I had to have a little extra because I was a slave! (I was acting as a slave).
Quinn 4S- I really enjoyed the workshops where we made ink and mashed up the crystals. We got to use the ink on papyrus paper with a sharp stick and my mum was the volunteer on this table!
Naledi 4C- I really enjoyed acting at the feast because everyone thought our story (The Golden Egg), was really funny. My role was the wife.
Inter-School Quiz competition-Quiz Club
Two teams took part in this online competition this week, against many other teams (over 50) and we have made it through to the semi-finals. One of our teams was leading until the last question, which would have put them straight through to the final!
In this unique general knowledge quiz, in your team of four you are required to have a member from each year group from Y3 to Y6. They can confer, so there is a lot of negotiation to be had between the children.
Choir
Five other schools joined us last week in the afternoon for a practice for the Richmond Schools concert later in the term at the Rose Theatre. It was great to see all the children working together from different schools and thank you as always to Mrs Adams and Mrs Boa.
The Y5/6 choir are off to perform at Ibstock School next week.
Relationships and Sex Education
Please see an attachment from the DfE around this provision in schools.
Sport
Netball
Our netball team had an excellent day at the borough tournament yesterday. They successfully negotiated the group phase but after winning one and losing two of the next phase, they did not make the semi-finals. With half the team from Year 5 we look forward to them building on this next year. Their efforts now turn back to the league, where they are unbeaten. Many thanks to our two parent coaches, Vanessa Westlake and Nikki Price.
Football
There are three consecutive St Paul's tournaments on the next three Fridays and last week was the turn of Year 4s. In some of their first competitive games for the school, they won half of their games and had a couple of draws and loses, just missing out on the semi-finals. Thank you to a parent - Cameron Daniel-Murphy, for taking the children, as we were unable to staff internally.
Basketball
The Y5/6 team attended their termly tournament last week. This group has had lots of success in the past and continued to do so with an excellent set of results. Some big wins took them to the final, where they lost in a very tight match. Well done to the mixed team for their effort and participation.
Online/social media guidance
I hope you found the overviews useful that were sent out last week. Please continue to refer to them when the appropriate moment arrives in your child's online journey.
Judo
Please see an attachment from the Judo club that has been leasing our school hall in the evening over the last year. They are now setting up a new session. The organiser has represented Great Britain and the provision is of a high quality.
Table Tennis
Please see an opportunity for table tennis on Saturday mornings in our school hall. This is being run by Darius Knight (an ex-GB international) who delivered an assembly to the children a few weeks ago and will be running a club at school during the week in the summer term.
An opportunity from Hampton School. JUNIOR SCHOOLS MUSIC WORKSHOP DAY
On Sunday 27 April, Hampton School is hosting its 25th annual Junior Schools Music Workshop for local Junior School pupils in Year Three and above. On the day, we will be running a series of workshops for string, wind and brass players. In addition to this, we will be running a choir session for singers.
The Workshop will start at 10.00am (registration from 9.30am). We will break for lunch and activities at 12.30pm. At 2.30pm there will be a concert in the Hammond Theatre presenting all the music prepared during the workshops.
The day will be suitable for brass, woodwind and string players of at least Grade One standard, and for singers of all standards. The course, including lunch and refreshments, is free of charge.
The following online form should be completed as soon as possible and at the latest close of business, Monday 17 March.
Application Form: https://tinyurl.com/HamptonSchoolJMWapply
Click here for a flavour of this event: https://hamptonschool.org.uk/gallery/junior-schools-music-workshop-day-4/
Have a good sunny weekend. Should you wish to contact me directly, please do so on headteacher@sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
