Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

I hope you all had a great week last week and are now noticing those first daffodils of spring beginning to appear. Hopefully, you may have also done a bit of the jet punk quiz ahead of World Week - great fun for all the family!

As we begin this second half of the term, which leads up to Easter, our new iShare Learning theme is ‘Communion’; this is, of course, the term given to the act of Christians remembering Jesus’ death and resurrection, but in a wider sense the word ‘communion’ literally means a coming together of people and this week we’ve used this image in collective worship of ‘coming to the table’ to consider our own community and communities beyond, together with this prayer. 

Later in the term, we’ll be beginning the first of three 'charity Tuesdays’ between now and the end of the year, revisiting our chosen charities from the end of last term, Oxygen, Momentum and Unicef.  More details to follow. 

We’re also looking forward to a visit from a Paralympian athlete later in the term, and we’ll talk more about this with the children on Monday and write to you then with more details. There are also events like World Book Day and our World Week to look forward to later in the term.

There’s already been lots of exciting learning going on across the school this week, as the children return to school after the break. Two highlights have been our Year 6s out at Kew Gardens yesterday, where they learnt about how different plants adapt to their environment, whilst braving the torrential rain! Our Year 2 children enjoyed a fantastic concert at the Royal Festival Hall, where they learnt about the different instruments in the orchestra, and learnt a song which they sang with other schools, also yesterday.  Congratulations also to our Year 6 netball team, who following their 7-5 win against Latchmere School on Tuesday are now through to the finals. 

We are really excited that we have been able to refresh our ‘Look Out’ area, part of the Ark, at our infant site over half term; this is now how it looks. This refurbishment of our infant entrance area was courtesy of our Governors’ Fund. Thank you so much to our parents who pay into this, and make this kind of thing happen to improve our school environment. For more details on how you can support this fund for future projects, please see here for the recent message from Robert Shrimpton, our Chair of Governors.

In the meantime, may you and your family have a lovely weekend!

MISS MAHONEY RECOMMENDS

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers

I enjoyed sharing this book with Rainbow Nursery this week. “Here We Are”  is a heartwarming exploration of life on Earth and how we live on it. From land and sky, to people and time, this book answers many questions about our wonderful world. It ends with a reminder that the most important thing is to be kind and know that there’s enough for everyone: on Earth, you can never be alone.

Our School Updates for Parents

Come and be part of our working party!

We are hoping to put a bit of a working party together for a day in the Easter holiday to begin refreshing the area on our infant site which was the old ‘pig pen’. We would eventually like to make this into an outdoor nurture garden with benches, planters and a new fence around it, which will be a lovely relaxing quiet place for children to play and meet others. In order to get going on this, we first need to start ‘preparing the land’ and removing the old shed. Any offers of help, please speak to Mr Duncan or Mr Allum.

We also are looking for expertise amongst our parent community to help us begin to plan a re-vamped look for the front of our infant site, which can then become a more usable area once we have our new boundary fence in place. Please let us know if you’d like to get involved in either of these projects. 

World Book Day Thursday 7th March

Across our school for this year’s World Book Day, our theme is poetry and our chosen author, Benjamin Zephaniah.  We have plenty of exciting activities planned. If you would like to get involved on the day, perhaps to read aloud to your child's class, do let your class teacher know as we'd love you to be part of this memorable day.  

As World Book Day focuses on books, we have decided that whilst pupils may dress up as their favourite book characters, there is absolutely no expectation to do so.  So, our World Book Day will be a mufti-day with pupils having the option to dress up only if they'd like to.  We are encouraging all pupils to decorate a toilet roll (card only) as their favourite book character, which could be a nice half-term activity!  On the day, pupils bring in their homemade character and their favourite book.

Finally and excitingly, we have invited our local and award winning Parrot Street Book Club to school on World Book day. They will be running a pop-up bookshop at the juniors from 2:45 to 3:45 - do take the opportunity to see what wonderful books and book subscriptions they offer. As a school, we have already signed up for every class!

In addition, Nourish are offering a special Let the Tiger come to Tea! World Book Day Menu including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Pasta and Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Cake! For the full menu please see the attached.

World Week Monday 11th - Friday 15th March

As you know, we are also going on an exciting journey for our CCNM “World Week” coming up in March. 

If you would like to come in and share something of your country/culture with the children as part of the week, whether it is food, artwork or a bit of language teaching, please fill in this form. More details about this exciting  week to follow!

You may also want to ‘warm up’ by taking  part in the annual JetPunk countries of the world quiz which we shared just before half term.

Reminder – Rainbow Nursery Applications 

For any parents making Rainbow Nursery applications for September 2024 entry, the closing date for applications is Friday, 1st March 2024.  Please submit your application and any supplementary information forms by this date.   Application forms are available from the Infant Office.

Join the team

We are looking for an enthusiastic teaching assistant with a passion for learning, dedicated to putting the needs of our pupils first.  Please see the vacancies page of the school website for more details. If you’d like more information or an informal chat about the role, please let the office know.  

Wider Community Updates

Lifting Young Voices Concert

David Condry, the music director of All Saints Kingston recently took an assembly at our school to show the children how important singing and rhythm are to our lives and to let them know about All Saints junior choir which is on Fridays at 4.15pm and their Main choir which has links to Tiffins and Oxbridge.  Should your child be interested in joining either of our choirs, please contact choiradmin@allsaintskingston.co.uk.  Their Lifting Young Voices next concert is Tuesday 19th March at 5pm and all are welcome, please see the attached leaflet for details.

Kingston Music Service - Ensemble Experience

Please see the attached posters we have received from Kingston Music Service regarding bands and ensembles that your child may be interested in joining.

Perform Easter Holiday Courses

Perform drama school are running Easter holiday courses based on ‘Rapunzel’ for 4-10 year olds in Wimbledon. Please see the attached flyer for details.

Our Camps - Free Athletics

In partnership with Kingston Council and Places Leisure, Our Camps are delivering FREE athletics clubs for all participants. Please see the attached flyer.

Free Tennis Sessions in Kingston

We have been asked to advertise free fun, game based tennis sessions in partnership with Bright Ideas for Tennis and supported by Kingston Borough Council, designed for families as well as adults and children with learning, sensory and physical disabilities and for those experiencing mental ill health, however these sessions are open to everyone so please join us. They are aimed at children aged 4 – 10 (not exclusively) and parents/guardians are asked to take part and help out.

Where? CWLTC, Galsworthy Road, KT2 7BS

When? Every Saturday 1.10pm – 1.50pm

How? Book now @ www.tenproject.org.uk/book

HENRY Newsletter

Please see the attached HENRY newsletter for February from the Kingston School Health team, with updates and information about the service they provide.

Key School Dates 

• Monday 26th February - Y4 Trip to Natural History Museum
• Tuesday 27th February - Nursery & Reception Mobile Farm Visit
• Thursday 29th February - Lion Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Tuesday 5th March - Parent Taster Session
• Thursday 7th March - World Book Day
• Thursday 7th March - Tiger Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Monday 11th - Friday 15th March - World Week & Wellbeing Week
• Tuesday 12th March - Paralympic Athlete Visit
• Wednesday 13th March - Y1 Zoolabs Workshop
• Wednesday 13th March - Y5 Easter Experience at the Baptist Church
• Thursday 14th March - Owl Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Thursday 14th  March - Earthsong Workshops (Juniors)
• Friday 15th March - Earthsong Workshops (Junior site for Infants)
• Monday 18th - Friday 22nd March - Chums Week
• Tuesday 19th March - Reception & Y6 - National Child Measurement Programme
• Thursday 21st March - Y3 Trip to Butser Farm
• Thursday 21st March - Hedgehog Class Worship @ 2:45pm
• Thursday 21st March - Learning Look @ 4:30-5:30pm
• Friday 22nd March - Spring showcase for orchestra, recorders and bells @ 9am
• Tuesday 26th March - Year 5/6 choir at Cluster Concert in the Rose Theatre (pm)
• Wednesday 27th March - Infant Easter Bonnet Parade
• Thursday 28th March - Church Service @ 9:30am
• Thursday 28th March - Term finishes early at 1.05pm (infants) and 1.20pm (juniors). Connect will finish at 5:15pm
• Monday 15th April - Summer term starts