Dear parents,
I hope you are well. A child declared to me on the gate this morning "Happy Winter Mr Holmes!" which seems very apt.
Our minds now are very much turning towards Christmas with our first performances on the w/c 9th December. We also have one of the highlights for our community next Saturday 7th December, with the Christmas Fair from 11-3pm.
We welcomed all our governors into school yesterday. As well as having our termly board meeting, they also spent time in the classrooms and meeting staff and children, to further their understanding of the school.
Our official open mornings for prospective parents finished last week. We had over 220 families through the door, which is an increase of 60 from last year. We are always very proud of Year 6 tour guides and every time we receive verbal and written feedback on how well they did. Thank you also to our parent representatives who volunteered to join the tours to provide a different perspective.
Instagram
We are closing down our X (Twitter) account and moving over to Instagram. Please follow us for extra content @sheenmountprimaryschool
A reminder, we will never interact and post key messages through this forum. It is more to share extra content.
We took the decision at the beginning of the academic year and have been sorting all our background information out. Many thanks to two parents for guiding us through and creating some content for us to use - Laura Starbuck & Hanna Bain.
Book Fair
The book fair earned the school a fantastic £565 to spend on books for either the classrooms or the library-thank you!
Many thanks to Miss Breckon our English lead, for setting this up and all the staff who volunteered to run the stall after 3.30pm.
Chickens naming...!
The chickens are arriving this weekend and we hope they can be visited during the Christmas Fair. Please see information below on naming the chickens -
NAME THE SHEEN MOUNT HENS
It's almost time to welcome the new chickens, but they need names! Please can you ask your child to select their three favourite names from this survey link below. If you have more than one child at Sheen Mount you can re-click the link to enter a new submission. Thank you!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSH9_C8q1SQa8ylNSu68x3ywkWJ2pO2Vg_sT_SZZRt8t0fdQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
Be yourself Day - bring a bottle: Thursday 5th December
Children can wear their own clothes to school on Thursday 5th December and in return bring a bottle for the tombola at the Christmas Fair.
Christmas Jumper day, Thursday 12th December
We will have our Christmas jumper day on Thursday 12th November. This is the same day as the Year 1 concert, and they can wear their jumpers to the event.
We are asking for a minimum £1 donation for wearing a Christmas jumper to school.
We always emphasise how you do not need to go out and buy a new jumper but be creative and upcycle your Sheen Mount (or any other jumper). I am pleased that the national campaign for Save the Children is very much getting behind this message this year. You can even just buy a sew-on badge from their webpage.
Sheen Mount Fundraising page
https://www.justgiving.com/page/sheen-mount-primary-school-1732635852989?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fsheen-mount-primary-school-1732635852989&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share
Save the Children extra information
https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-jumper-day/about/partners
Sew on badge
https://shop.savethechildren.org.uk/product-category/shaun-the-sheep/?_gl=1*1ipb430*_gcl_au*NDQwNjIzMDYwLjE3MzE1NzIxMjMuMTA5NDE5NTQwNS4xNzMyNTQ2NzU3LjE3MzI1NDY3NjU.*_ga*NjcyNzk3OTg1LjE3MzE1NzIxMjQ.*_ga_GXWTYMDL9D*MTczMjcxNzUwMi41LjEuMTczMjcxNzYxNy44LjAuMA..
Christmas Fair from the PSA
Staff raffle
A Sheen Mount Fair favourite....the teacher's raffle.
The PSA will start selling teacher's raffle tickets before school on Thursday and Friday next week at drop-off and pick up.
Teachers will also sell tickets at the fair. Exciting prizes include a Taylor Swift party, a teachers v children dodgeball match and the chance to be headteacher for the day!
There will also be a chance to skip the queues on the day by pre-paying your entrance fee and buying tokens for the fair at drop-off and pick-up on Thursday and Friday.
Teacher raffle and tokens will be available outside the Year 1 classrooms.
Ahead of next weekend’s school fair we just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the class reps, who we know are working incredibly hard with the PSA to put on a brilliant event. There will be a fantastic grotto, crafts, games, a bike “Ride Zone”, silent auction, bouncy castle, delicious food and drink and much more. Your efforts are hugely appreciated.
They are still looking for generous donations for the Secret Santa, chocolate and sweet tombola and Silent Auction - as set out in notes to parents. Please remember that Thursday 5 December is Be Yourself Day when children can wear their own clothes in exchange for a bottle or cake.
End of term events
A reminder of the key dates coming up.
Art Ambassadors by Mrs Wigmore
This week we would like to introduce you to the Sheen Mount Art Ambassadors. They are Vivian, Darcey, Hazel and Frank from 6AD and Seren from 6S. In their role, they would like to inspire children to make their own art out of anything. They plan to make a collaborative piece of art together and share this in assemblies and would like to create an ‘art working wall’ in Sheen Mount to showcase the schools' art and artistic creativity.
Library
Three years ago, the English ambassadors helped raise money for books and supplies for the library. Last year the English ambassadors helped choose wall decorations with part of the money that was raised. This year, our wonderful English ambassadors finally got to put up these beautiful and inspiring decorations in the library! Thank you to three years of ambassadors and Miss Breckon for their hard work.
Sports
Congratulations to all the 12 runners who represented the school last Friday on a sunny, but very chilly morning at Bushy Park for the Borough Cross-country. 
The 2km run against around 100 other runners is a challenge, particularly with a 5 metre funnel after 20 metres! Pride of place goes to Lottie and Charlie for their top ten finishes. We await the exact positions of the other team members and the overall team position.
Netball matches
Our netball team have had a flying start to their fixtures with three victories over local schools, 13-2, 6-3, 13-2 (and hot off the press 19-1 this afternoon!)
Here is Monday night's team-
Many thanks to our parent volunteers, Vanessa Westlake and Nikki Price, for their significant involvement and commitment to this. There are four netball clubs running across the week from UKS2, LKS2, KS1 and a squad event.
Trip to Twickenham
21 lucky year 5s and 6s went to Twickenham on Sunday to watch England play Japan. We enjoyed some close to the action seats and plenty of tries scored at our end. Many thanks to Mr Brown and Miss Hiller for joining me on the trip.
Bronze Award - house points
Some children have reached the first milestone in their house points for the academic year. 25 house points equates to a bronze award. All the names of those who achieved the award for that week are announced in celebration assembly, the children stand up and we give them a round of applause. The class teacher presents them with a certificate.
Local Volunteers
We are always grateful to our parents and any other volunteers who come into the school to give up their time. Additionally, there are currently three retired teachers who come in once (or even twice!) a week to help the children. If you know of anyone retired or has spare time on their hands who would like to volunteer, please encourage them to email the office or come in person and speak to us.
Good Neighbours
Thank you, we have had an excellent response and all the items will be heading to the charity tomorrow.
JAG
Please see the attached information in their newsletter and events they hold on Tuesdays.
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
