Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

Our week ended in great success last Friday, with the news that our netballers performed brilliantly in the borough netball tournament, coming 3rd out of twenty schools competing. Also a success was our second hand book sale at the Infants last Friday. Thanks to the PTA for organising and raising a fantastic £130!

This week, it’s been all systems go with a trip to the Natural History Museum for Year 4 on Monday, which I know the children really enjoyed. On Tuesday, we had a mobile farm visiting nursery and reception and the children really enjoyed handling the tortoises, the guinea pigs, lizards and rabbits - and showed all the creatures lots of love and affection! 

Congratulations also to a super class worship yesterday, led by Lion Class - teachers and parents were very proud of your performances, with some great acting! You can see photos of these and more in this month’s newsletter.

Earlier in the week, we shared with you and the children regarding our exciting athlete visit that we are looking forward to in a couple of weeks time, and there is a real buzz about this around the school. We’re also getting ready for World Book Day next week, which is very timely at a time when we have been really ‘getting the reading bug’ at school.

As we know, great readers make great writers. Recently, with other senior leaders, I’ve been looking at some of our English books across the school to see the quality of children’s writing - their presentation and technical knowledge of writing, but also their composition skills. One of the best, most profound examples of creativity I have seen recently is a very thought-provoking poem entitled simply ‘Us’ by Elsa Warris; here it is for everyone to enjoy - she was very happy to share with this with everybody.

It was great for myself and Mr Burkinshaw to meet our parents reps earlier in the week and hear and discuss some parental feedback. Meeting minutes have been emailed out. We touched on topics like school meals, developing our reading culture, homelearning, sports opportunities and lots more; we appreciate all your views and are always looking to bear these in mind in improving all we do. 

I do hope you have a great weekend! Whether you’re inside curling up with a good book (like the one I discovered recently - see below!) or getting out and about in some (hopeful) Spring weather, have a good one. 

MR MEEHAN RECOMMENDS

Stitch by Padraig Kenny

This is not only a very creative, engaging book, it also contains some thought-provoking messages around friendship, celebrating difference and dealing with loss. It is suitable for children about seven or eight years old upwards.

For junior children - here is the quiz question on the book. Write the answer and give to me next week and one lucky winner will be pulled out of the hat to win this book for their class book corner next week.

How old is Stitch at the very beginning of the book?

Our School Updates for Parents

Nourish Parent Food Taster & Feedback Session - Tuesday 5th March @ Juniors

During pick up time, Nourish's Local Operation Manager, Nicola Payne and Head of Operations, Keighley Ridler will be present to provide you with an opportunity to sample some of the food that is offered to the children. You can also share your feedback and opinions on the quality of service provided. Please take advantage of this opportunity. If you have any further comments or concerns, you may also contact them directly through their email address at office@nourishcc.co.uk or by phone at 020 8778 1111.

The new menu for the Summer term is also attached here.

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 or email office@ccnm.uk.

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. Emily and Sarah have sent a brief video introducing their 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! They are donating 20% of all books sold to the school, so every book you buy will help the school, too.  

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.

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.  If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you! 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.  

Lost Property

We currently have a large amount of unnamed uniform in our lost property at both sites. If your child has misplaced any of their uniform/belongings please feel free to have a look through next week.

Wider Community Updates

MMR Vaccine

Cases of measles are rising in London. Ensure your children are protected with two doses of the MMR vaccine. Measles spreads very easily among those who are unvaccinated and can be a very unpleasant illness. In some cases, it can be serious – 1 in 5 children will need hospitalisation. The best way to protect children against measles is to ensure they have had two doses of the MMR vaccine. To see if your child is up to date with their MMR vaccines, check your child’s red book or contact your GP practice. If your child is not up to date, you can either book an appointment: at your GP practice, or at a local vaccine clinic.

Helping Children with Worries Webinar

Please note that Helping Children with Worries webinars are next being offered on 7th March at 6pm and 8th March at 9am.  Sign up will close 2 days before each date.  Please see the attached flyer for details and how to sign up.

Next Thing Education Easter Tech Holiday Camp

Please see the attached flyer for details of Tech Holiday Camps being run by Next Thing Education during the Easter holidays, one of which is being held at our Junior site.

Key School Dates 

• Tuesday 5th March - Parent Taster Session @3:10 @ Juniors
• Tuesday 5th March - Y2 choir singing at Christ Church Widows Club @ 1:30pm (NEW)
• 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