Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

A real highlight this week has been seeing the Year 6 children take to the stage in their Christ Church premiere of ‘Peter Pan’. This was a super production, and a real team effort to bring it all together. Thank you to everyone who was involved in some shape or form. It will be remembered for a long time!

It feels like we’ve been needing to dodge the weather as best we can this week, but it was great to be able to hold our delayed junior sports day on Wednesday, with all the children participating really well. My thanks to Mrs Hedman and Mr Newman for masterminding the event and well done to Chestnut house for being the victors on this occasion. We’ve also been fortunate enough to see dry weather this morning for our infant sports day. Thanks for coming and supporting!

Also on Wednesday, our reception children also enjoyed their trip to Hampton Court. Indeed, I heard it described as ‘magical’ and it is a great addition to our reception curriculum. Our Year 2S have been in good voice this week with all their rehearsals for their production, which ‘premieres’ next week!

Thank you for your support for our last ‘Charity Tuesday’ of the term. I am pleased to let you know that we raised £236 to support the work of Unicef. Over the year, we have been able to hear more about the work of Oxygen, Momentum and now Unicef and raise money for all of our three chosen charities. As our new Pupil Leadership Team gets started early next term, under the direction of Hayun and Jac, one of their first tasks will be choosing three new charities to be our 2024/25 charities, getting ideas and input from the children across the school.

A big focus for us as we start next term will be setting some ‘norms’ afresh in terms of our high expectations. One of these ‘norms’ will be a focus on uniform, so we wanted to share with you some updates before the summer holiday - and we will revisit this more in the new term. You can read more about this below.

We’re also happy to share our children’s reports with you today and we can all be proud of what they have all achieved! On Monday, as explained below, we turn our attention to staffing arrangements and classes for next year, and we will let you know more then.

Have a great weekend in the meantime and let’s see if it is “coming home”!

MR MEEHAN RECOMMENDS

Outside In Nature Poems by Daniel Thompson

This is a collection of thought-provoking and fun poetry about enjoying the natural world around us. The book has also been beautifully illustrated by Julia Murray, and is suitable for readers 7 years and up. Just right for getting out and about in the summer holidays!

Our School Updates for Parents

Times Tables Rock Stars Passwords

Please note that all Times Tables Rock Stars passwords have been changed and teachers have given the new passwords to children this week.

Reports and Results  

End of year reports, as well as statutory assessment data for Reception, Y1, Y4 and Y6 are now available to parents on Arbor. More information, and details of how to access them, is contained in the letter you were sent earlier this morning.  

Food Allergies & Medical Conditions

While you are looking at your child's report, please check their Student Profile in Arbor. If they have a food allergy, please enter this in the Medical section eg Gluten Allergy and add more details to the Dietary Requirements section eg No white bread, no pasta.

School Trips Payments

Your contributions help us create memorable and valuable learning opportunities for the children. The Payments section of Arbor lets you know if you’ve missed contributing to any of the many trips or events we’ve held this year.

Connect Bookings

Connect bookings are open for the Autumn term. There is currently availability across all sessions. If you would like to set something up regularly or would like to book dates on an adhoc basis, please feel free to set up an account.

Clubs next week

The only club running next week is Infant Spanish on Monday. All other clubs have now finished for this term.

Staffing for 2024/25 

We will be writing to all parents up to Year 5  on Monday with all the details of classes for next year including details of class mixing for the year groups this applies to (this class mixing refers to our present Years 1, 3 and 5 cohorts, as laid out in our class mixing protocol and shared early in the summer term in our weekly update of the 19th April.

Meet the Teacher Meetings This year, parents are invited to the Meet the Teacher meetings for the year their child will be in in September. The meetings will be straight after school on the following days:

• Year 1 (for current Reception) - Thursday 18th July at 3:05pm in Squirrel Class
• Year 2 (for current Year 1) - Wednesday 17th July at 3:05pm in Hedgehog Class
• Year 3 (for current Year 2) - Tuesday 16th July at 3:20pm in Tiger Class
• Year 4 (for current Year 3) - Monday 15th July at 3:20pm in Eagle Class
• Year 5 (for current Year 4) - Friday 19th July at 3:20pm in Gazelle Class
• Year 6 (for current Year 5) - Monday 22nd July at 3:20pm in Lynx Class

Children should be taken to the meetings and they will be looked after in another classroom. If you have an infant meeting and have a child at the juniors, they will be looked after until you collect them.  

Uniform 

Next year, one of our ‘norms’ will be uniform and presentation, as presenting ourselves well is part of being our best, both individually and as a school. As part of this we want to remind parents of some of our uniform expectations (you can read all the details here):  

1. Trainers can be worn, but they must be completely black (including the sole) with no colour logos, this includes for PE. 
2. For PE: Navy blue (not black) football shorts or tracksuit trousers. No tight (cycling) shorts or leggings. 
3. Hair that is shoulder length or longer must be tied back. If a child does not have their hair tied they will be asked to tie it back, with an elastic band if nothing else.

Wider Community Updates

Kingston Adult Education - 2024/25 Prospectus

As part of Kingston Council, Kingston Adult Education provides a diverse range of courses to people aged 19 or over at various times and locations across the week - and has done so for over 74 years!  Click on this link to discover their new programmes starting in September. A number of their courses are government funded, therefore free or offered at reduced rates to eligible learners. As you will see from their prospectus, Kingston Adult Education courses can help you to:

• Gain qualifications
• Enhance your employability
• Boost mental wellbeing
• Explore new interests

To enrol, click on the relevant link in the prospectus or contact them directly on 020 8547 6700 or at adult.education@kingston.gov.uk

Tech Summer Camp

Next Thing Education are running their Tech Summer Camp for two weeks at the Junior Site. 

• Week commencing 29th July - Robotics. 
• Week commencing 5th August - Minecraft & Lego Engineering. 

For more details click here. They have a limited number of funded spaces available for children eligible for free school meals. Please use your unique 17-digit HAF code. The booking link is here.  

Kingston Olympic Sports Day - 20 July

Active Kingston invite you to discover the exciting physical activities happening in your borough. They’re bringing together local sports clubs, partners, and community groups in one place so you can explore all the amazing opportunities for you and your family to get active. Please see the attached flyer should this be of interest to you.

Altitude Cheerleading

Altitude Cheerleading are holding trials for their competitive teams this Sunday 14th July. More details are on the attached poster.

Local Sports Clubs

Please see below some flyers we have been sent for a couple of local sports clubs should they be of interest:

• Hampton Wick Cricket
• Richmond & Kew FC Trials

TMT Summer Sports Camps

We have been asked to advertise the following sports camps taking place over the summer at Corpus Christi should they be of interest:

• Football camp
• Multisports camp

Love The Ball Holiday Camp

Love the Ball are running their summer holiday camp at Coombe Hill Juniors. Should this be of interest, please see the attached flyer.

Rose Youth Theatre Academy

The Rose Youth Theatre Academy have just opened their bookings for the Rose Youth Theatre Academy Autumn term. The RYTA is split into two parts: Act 1 and Act 2. Their Act 1 programme is aimed at children in Reception to Year 6 offering confidence inspiring classes that focus on developing character, learning dramatic techniques and having fun! Courses run for 10 weeks and they hold an informal sharing/open class at the end of the term for family and friends to watch. Recent terms have included work on Peter Pan, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Grimm Tales. Please see the attached flyer for more information.

Summer Arts Competition 

This summer, Kingston Libraries presents the ‘Summer Arts Competition', which aims to encourage children to get creative and produce a piece of art inspired by ‘a book that you love’. Aimed at children aged between 3-11 years and running during the summer holidays, their competition mirrors this year's Summer Reading Challenge theme in celebrating the creative arts. The submitted artwork can be created in a range of mediums and encompassing different art forms. The competition is open between the 20th July - 17th August and there will be an exciting opportunity for the finalists and runners up in each age category to take part in an art exhibition held at Kingston Library, to showcase their winning art pieces. Please see key information below and on the attached poster.

• Please use the form (on Libraries website and accessed by QR code on poster attached) to enter your child into the Kingston Libraries Summer Arts Competition by uploading up to three photos of their work.
• Each Child can enter once
• This competition is only open to Kingston Library users, UNREG accounts will not be accepted as entries so please go into your local library and get a physical card if you don't have one already. 
• They are accepting a range of physical art forms: 
  • Painting
  • Textiles
  • Photography
  • Sculpture
  • Collage
  • If you can take a photo of it you can enter it! 

The photos will be used for shortlisting before the exhibition and prize giving. So please hold on to your lovely pieces of art so you can have the chance to exhibit them! 

Key School Dates 

• Monday 15th - Friday 19th July - Y6 Isle of Wight Trip
• Monday 15th - Friday 19th July - Chums Week
• Monday 15th July - Y2 Production @ 5:00pm
• Tuesday 16th July - Y2 Production @ 2:00pm
• Friday 19th July - Reception Celebration @ 3:30 - 5:30pm in junior hall
• Friday 19th July - PTA Quiz Night @ 7:00 - 11:00pm 
• Monday 22nd July - Y6 Leavers’ Celebration @ 2:00pm (Run by school)
• Tuesday 23rd July - Church Service @ 9:30am 
• Tuesday 23rd July - Term finishes early at 1.05pm (infants) and 1.20pm (juniors). Connect will finish at 5:15pm
• Wednesday 24th July - INSET day (School closed to pupils)
• Monday 2nd September - INSET day (School closed to pupils)
• Tuesday 3rd September - Autumn Term starts