Dear Parents,
It has been very enjoyable continuing to get to know the school over the past two weeks. We had our final open morning for Reception 2022 entry this Wednesday and our Year 6 ambassadors conducted excellent tours and the feedback was very positive. Having been here for the open mornings last term, I could now confidently walk around knowing where everything was located!
Despite Covid, it has been great to see the children enjoying a full school experience - from swimming at the pool, to clubs running, the Year 6 visit to the local air raid shelter and the KS2 author visit on Wednesday. Just today Year 6 enjoyed an excellent STEM science day in the hall.
Whilst we all look forward to the (hopefully soon) reduction of cases and other measures, it is pleasing to see the children enjoy so much of school life.
I look forward to continuing to engage with current parents over the coming weeks, including updating you about various curriculum areas, and we will bring some news of this in our next newsletter.
Curriculum Bulletins
The curriculum bulletins for each year group will be emailed out on Monday. These contain all the information about what your children will be learning between now and Easter.
Sheen Mount 100 Club
We are delighted to announce that the first winner of the 100 Club draw is:
Number 34: Dre Kaimakamis
Mr Holmes did the draw before school today and it was witnessed by Mrs O'Brien!
Celebration assemblies
We have re-started these online today and we very much look forward to having them back in person in the hall when allowed. Reception, Year 1, Year 2 & Year 3 will be in one assembly and Year 4, Year 5 & Year 6 in another.
One person or group from each class will share some work from the week and then one child from each class will be nominated for the celebration book. This could be for any matter connected with school life; children in the celebration book will receive a sticker. As a headteacher, seeing children talk about their work is one of the highlights of the week and is a very positive school community moment.
Staff News
Congratulations to Mrs Nesbitt and her husband who are expecting a baby in July. I know the Hedgehogs children are very excited and we are also delighted that Mrs Bojkovic, who also teaches Hedgehogs, has agreed to cover the class full time until the end of the academic year.
Communication
Parents are able to communicate with me via the headteacher email address - headteacher@sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk. However, I would like to remind you of the chain of communication for any concerns you may have regarding events linked directly with your child’s education: class teacher, phase leader and then SLT (including the headteacher). I would also like to emphasise that I am happy to speak at drop off and pick up and on many occasions this is the most effective form of communication. Please contact the office if you wish to arrange a meeting with me and they will provide you with a time and date.
We have begun posting items on the twitter feed and hopefully you will enjoy this extra information about school life. You will shortly be able to scroll through the embedded feed on the website.
COVID 19
The school’s cases are steadily increasing with a total around 35 at the moment. Unfortunately there were 13 positive cases just today; we clearly need to be very cautious and hope the numbers do not continue to increase at this rate. You will no doubt have seen the news yesterday of isolation periods potentially being cut to 5 full days. If your child tests negative on an LFT on the 5th and the 6th morning after the positive test, then your child can come back to school.
Staffing all the classes is continuing to be a challenge for the school, however we will continue to do everything we can to maintain normality for the children. Several times Mrs O’Brien and Mrs Jeffrey have taken classes this week and I thank them for their efforts with that.
One way systems and leaving school
I would like to emphasise the routines the school has in place in order to help the whole school community on drop off and pick up.
- Please do not walk back out of the brown gates in the morning, but follow the flow around to the blue gates. This tends to be more of an issue if adults who are not regularly involved with the drop-off are at school. Please ensure if someone different is dropping your child off they are aware of the procedures.
- Please do not use the blue gates (West Temple Sheen) to enter the school in the morning, but enter through the brown gates. If you are doing so because you are late (after 8.55) you need to enter via the office since the registers will already have been taken.
- Children are generally excellent at getting off scooters/bikes when entering the school. However, after school some children are using them to scoot down the passageway before coming out onto West Temple Sheen. Please be considerate of other parents and ensure your children do not do this.
- There is no playing on any of the school equipment (including using the football goals) after school.
- Please remember to wear a mask on the school grounds.
Term dates
I have this week set the term dates for 2022-2023; these were available on the Richmond borough website, but I have now set the Inset days. It is posted on the website here:
https://www.sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk/page/?title=Term+Dates&pid=29
Reminder of closing date for reception entry
A reminder for any current parents and those in the wider community that the deadline for applications for Reception admissions for September 2022 is 15th January.
https://www.richmond.gov.uk/primary_school_admissions
PSA Corner
Welcome Back from the PSA
Now that we are hopefully all back in the swing of things, the PSA Board wanted to extend a welcome back to everyone and, in particular, Mr Holmes!
As we start the current term, the PSA is beginning to plan for our upcoming events. We intend to have a PSA meeting in the near future, at which we will provide an update on our planned activities for the coming term and on recent fundraising. It will of course also provide another opportunity for parents to meet and hear from Mr Holmes.
Finally, you will have read we are very excited to announce that we have our inaugural 100 Club winner!!! Congratulations to Dre Kaimakamis on winning the first ever prize draw from our recently initiated 100 Club lottery. Dre has won £100 from this month’s pool!! A big thanks to Tamsin Bryant for all the effort in setting up the 100 Club lottery. For those not yet signed up, please get involved and both support Sheen Mount and put yourself in with a chance of winning like Dre!
As always, if you have any general PSA-related questions or want to get involved, please contact us via email (smpsachair@gmail.com) or through the class reps. Have a great weekend!
Hope you have a great weekend.
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
Maria O'Brien - Deputy Headteacher
