Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

It was a fantastic start to the week at the juniors, with our orienteering day, led by Mrs Burkinshaw. Despite the cold and, later in the day, the rain as well, each junior class had their chance to hone these skills in a range of activities.

It was also a delight to see members of our Pupil Leadership Team becoming the World Book Day ‘decorate the door’ judges, and big congratulations to Eagle and Kipling classes for winning this competition. Thanks to the PTA, these classes win a £100 voucher to buy new books for their book corners! I know the children will enjoy selecting some new books. Thank you to all teachers and children for their creative door dressing! Lower down the school, there were many creative wooden spoon book characters to see as well in our celebrations of World Book Day.

Yesterday, Owl class entertained the infants and their own parents with their class worship and they all did well in ‘taking to the stage’ for the first time in this way.

Battling the elements again on Wednesday, our Year 5 & 6 girls' football team had a great result at the football competition at Fulham FC Training Ground. They played three games, winning two of these and only narrowly losing the 3rd. Well done to all!

The week has ended as well as it started with super soloist concerts in the junior hall this morning with some inspired performances from many of our musicians. Well done to all contributors, to Mrs Bae on piano and to Mrs Bond for masterminding the concerts. One of the items was Zoe and Radha’s rendition of ‘Firework’ which reminded me again that we all have that ‘spark’ and can have our moment to shine; certainly, we had lots of children shining on stage this morning!

Everything we are and everything we do at school, like all these things mentioned above, from day to day, week to week and beyond, is built on the foundation of our school vision, ‘becoming the people God made us to be’; with this in mind, if you have a heart to pray for the work of the school, you may be interested in coming to the new joint school/church prayer group meeting for the first time at Christ Church (church) next Wed 15th March between 8-9pm. Rev Stephen and myself would love to see you there!

PLEASE also read below our item on the Governors’ fund. In these times of increasingly stretched schools’ funding, we need your help to ensure we have enough resources to keep making all these wonderful school experiences happening for our children at Christ Church!

Our School Updates for Parents

Class Mixing Protocol  

From this year, we are introducing to parents the expectation that class mixing during their child’s time at Christ Church is something we will be doing for each cohort during their time at Christ Church at least once. You can read our class mixing protocol to understand more about the rationale and the processes involved in this. There will be more about this shared early next term for specific cohorts in the summer term if they are mixing for September. 

Have you given to the Governors’ Fund yet?

Please also look today at our new informative flyer regarding our Governors’ Fund. The flyer gives you more detail about how this fund has the power to transform our school further and details of how you could be part of it. We know these are challenging times for many of us, but in order to ensure we can make our school the best that it can be, then please do consider carefully what and how you could contribute. As you will know from the current series of teacher strikes and new coverage, these are clearly difficult financial times for all school budgets, including our own one at Christ Church, so every little (and large) helps! 

Infant Orienteering Morning

Due to the weather forecast for next week, the Infant Orienteering Morning, originally scheduled for Monday 13th March, has been postponed until the summer term.

Learning Look 

Like last term, as well as next week’s parents evening, we are also providing an ‘in-person’ opportunity for the children to show off their learning, when you are invited into their classrooms and to look at work in their books. This will be on Thurs March 30th between 4.30pm - 5.30pm. Please note that this begins strictly at 4.30pm and we cannot accommodate entrance into classrooms before this time. We know the children will enjoy showing you their learning!

Singing Opportunity and Easter Egg hunt at St James New Malden

The children in the Junior Choir have been invited to sing "Amazing Grace" at St James New Malden for the Easter Service and Annual Easter Egg Hunt. If they would like to participate, the children are requested to come at 9.10am for the 9.30am service on Easter Sunday, 9th April. They will also be invited to join in the chocolate Easter Egg Hunt. Please contact kristin.polman@gmail.com, one of our parents, to participate or ask any questions. Please note there will be no Christ Church staff members present and parents will be responsible for their own children. If you and your family are already celebrating elsewhere on Easter Sunday, then please do worship with your usual congregation and enjoy your usual Easter celebrations! 

Wider Community Updates

OKHC Easter Hockey Camp and Summer Hockey

The Old Kingstonian Hockey Club is a small, local community club and will be offering hockey sessions this summer for members and non-members, starting with their Easter hockey camp, followed by summer hockey. Please see the Easter and Summer flyers for more information.

Easter Swimming Crash Course at Grand Avenue Primary School

Grand Avenue Primary School are running swimming courses during the Easter holiday. Please see the attached flyer for details and how to book.

Easter Holiday Touch Typing Courses for 7 - 16s

St Joseph's Primary School, Kingston are running touch typing courses in the Easter holiday.  Please see the attached flyer for details.

Key School Dates - Spring 2023

• Monday 13th March - Y6 Trip to Kew Gardens
• Wednesday 15th March - Church/School Prayer Group - 8pm-9pm
• Thursday 16th March - Y1 ZooLab African Safari Workshop
• Thursday 16th March - Lion Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Friday 17th March - PTA Quiz Night @ 8:00pm (doors open @ 7:30pm)
• Tuesday 21st March - School Concert @ 7:00pm
• Thursday 23rd March - Fox Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Saturday 25th March - Easter Egg Hunt
• Tuesday 28th March - Y3 Trip to Butser Ancient Farm
• Thursday 30th March - Learning Look - 4:30pm - 5:30pm
• Friday 31st March - Easter Service @ 9:45am
• Friday 31st March - Term finishes at 1.15pm (infants) and 1.30pm (juniors)