Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

It’s been a busy week at Christ Church, and definitely feeling festive! There are so many wonderful Christmassy jumpers in school today and there has been a lovely atmosphere for our Christmas dinner. My thanks to the PTA for providing Christmas crackers for the event to make it extra special. Thank you too for your generosity in supporting our Christmas charities KCAH, Crisis at Christmas and Compassion at the gate this morning; there is another chance this afternoon if you missed the buckets. Our ‘reverse advent calendar’ collections will also be appreciated so much by Kingston Foodbank - again, thank you so much for the generosity of our community!

A big well done to Seahorse and Turtle classes who were all stars in their ‘Wriggling Nativity’ show yesterday; the singing, dancing (and wriggling!) was also very impressive. It was lovely to accompany the choir as well, as they sang their hearts out at the widows’ group at Christ Church on Tuesday, very much enjoyed by the gathered audience there. Next week, we are looking forward to the junior production and Year 1 and 2 leading us in the Christmas service. Additionally, our choir are ‘on tour’ again, singing at the Methodist Church.

As well as all the Christmas celebrations, I know there has been lots of great learning going on as well, with many children coming to show off their learning this week for headteacher stickers, including writing, maths, RE and geography tasks to name but a few. Year 6 of course also enjoyed their trip to the Imperial War Museum trip this week to support their history learning.

Hot off the press, I have had the pleasure today of pulling out the hat the winners of our lovely PTA Hampers. Our parent community have again been so generous in putting these together, and the lucky winners will no doubt enjoy these extra Christmas gifts.

Wrap up warm out there and have a lovely weekend!

Key Updates for Parents

Christmas Parties 

Next Thursday afternoon, every class will be having their Christmas party. It will be a fun packed afternoon and a lovely celebration of Christmas as well as a recognition of all the hard work they have put in this term. On that day, children can come dressed in their party clothes, but they must still be wearing sensible, supportive shoes. All the food at the party is provided, but parents are asked to make a £3 contribution, per child, on ParentMail for the cost of the food and drink.

Bells Ring Out - Junior Christmas Production - Wednesday 14th December

If you have booked tickets for the Junior Christmas production these will be sent home with children on Monday (2 per family). Please make sure you ask your children for the tickets, as these will be required to attend the performance. Further details about the final arrangements for this will be sent out on Monday.

Christmas Service 

All parents are warmly invited to come to our Christmas Service, at 9:45 a.m. on Friday 16th December. There will be priority seating to parents in Year 1 and Year 2, as those year groups are taking a bigger part in the service. 

Countries of the World Competition 

Well done to all those who have been working hard to name the countries of the world using JetPunk. It has been great to see some scores already being submitted. Don’t forget that to enter you must fill in the form that has been sent via ParentMail. A reminder that the winners and runners up will be contacted by Mrs Burkinshaw and required to email her with a screenshot of their best score before claiming their prize! All entries must be submitted by Tuesday 13th December. Children on the Junior site will be doing the competition during school hours, on Monday and Tuesday. Winners and runners up of the parent, sibling, family, child and staff competitions will be announced in the final bulletin of term. 

Early Finish

Do remember that school closes early next Friday, the 16th December:

• Infants @ 2:15 p.m.
• Nursery @ 2:20 p.m.
• Juniors @ 2:30 p.m.
• Connect will start at 2:15 p.m. and run until 5:15 p.m.

Clerk to the Governors Vacancy

We are looking for someone to provide administrative support to the governing board and its committees: four meetings per term in term time plus preparing and circulating documents, checking information for governors, maintaining records and attending Local Authority briefings. For more details see our website.

Christ Church New Malden Christmas Services

Please see below for details of the Christmas events at Christ Church New Malden:

• Sunday 18th December isn't just the World Cup Final - it's also the day that we 'kick off' our Christmas celebrations! (see what we did there?!). Join us at 9:30am for an all-age, family-friendly, interactive retelling of the Christmas story, like you've never experienced it before. Come dressed as your favourite character from the nativity story!
• Then at 6:30pm, we'll be holding our annual 'Carols by Candlelight' service, with a blend of choral and congregational singing, and some Christmas readings.
• Our Family Cinema Club will be screening a family-friendly, festive film at 2pm on Christmas Eve. There will be drinks and snacks available, as well as a colouring activity. (For licensing reasons, we're not able to publicly advertise the title of the film, but you can sign up to our mailing list for more info: www.ccnm.org/cinema)
• Our Christmas celebrations also include a Midnight Communion Service at 11pm on Christmas Eve, and a Christmas Day Service at 10am. 

Everyone is welcome. There's no need to book in advance - just turn up! Please also see the attached for more details.

St John’s Christmas Services

Please see attached for details of St John’s Christmas services. The Christingle service at 5pm on Christmas Eve will particularly appeal to children.

Keeping Your Home Warm 

The council has been supporting the Mayor of London’s Warmer Homes programme, which provides free heating, insulation and ventilation improvements for eligible low income Londoners who own their own homes or rent privately. Over 100 applications have been submitted by Kingston residents and 15 homes have already completed the retrofit process, the most out of any London borough so far. If you would like help completing an application to the Warmer Homes programme, contact Thinking Works on 0800 118 23 27, or email enquiries@thinkingworks.co.uk.

Online Safety Tips for Christmas

Please see the attached poster for guidance on setting up new devices for children which you may find useful over Christmas.

HENRY Newsletter

Kingston School Health team have asked us to introduce parents to their termly newsletters, the first of which is attached, with updates and information about the service they provide.

Key Dates - Autumn 2022

• Tuesday 13th December - Y2 and 3 Choirs - Singing at the Methodist Church, New Malden at 10:30 a.m.
• Tuesday 13th December - Y4 Trip to Rose Theatre for "A Christmas Carol"
• Wednesday 14th December - Y2 to “The Christmas Journey” at Baptist Church, New Malden @ 9.30am
• Wednesday 14th December - Junior Christmas Production @ 2:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.
• Thursday 15th December - Christmas Party Day
• Friday 16th December - Christmas Service at the church led by Years 1 and 2 - 9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
• Friday 16th December - Last day of term - School closes 1 hour early:
  • Infants @ 2:15 p.m.
  • Nursery @ 2:20 p.m.
  • Juniors @ 2:30 p.m.
  • Connect will start at 2:15 p.m. and run until 5:15 p.m.
• Tuesday 3rd January is an INSET day. Spring Term begins for children on Wednesday 4th January.