Weekly Update from Mr Meehan

What a great day we all had yesterday for World Book Day.  It was wonderful to see so many fabulous costumes … so many famous characters turned up to school, including quite a few Mr Men and Little Miss characters. It was a wonderful celebration of reading. My thanks to Mrs Honeybone for masterminding the day.

We had a good level of interest in our Nourish food taster on Tuesday, and thank you for all your feedback. We are working closely with Nourish to ensure a good, improving picture for our lunch provision, and we are pleased with progress being made.

Well done to Tiger class yesterday, who wowed us all with their class worship, and gave us a wonderful insight into all their learning in recent weeks, including their ukelele playing and rehearsals for the country dancing festival. We also had the next in our series of ‘STEM lunches’ on Wednesday at the juniors, which are all organised by Mrs Coltman; about 30 children attended and it was great to welcome Kristin Polman, who talked with the children about how we grow, including how we build our ‘learning muscles’.

Our Year 2 choir were on tour this week to the Christ Church widows’ group. I hear they were in good voice and my thanks to Mrs Burrowes for organising this. Some of our pupils from Year 1 and 2 also got out and about this week, participating in a football festival in Richmond. They had lots of fun and won a few games along the way as well!

This morning, Mrs Brooks and myself took our PLT (Pupil Leadership Team) to visit the work that Oxygen do in their charity shop in the high street. Oxygen is one of three charities we are supporting over this year. Later in the term, the CEO of Oxygen, John Trend, will be visiting collective worship to talk to the children about the work of Oxygen, and we’ll be having the first of our ‘charity Tuesdays’ on Tuesday 26th March - more details to follow soon! It was great for our PLT to see first hand this morning the ‘inner workings’ of the Oxygen charity shop and hear about the work of the charity with young people in New Malden and throughout the borough.

This exciting term continues next week, with it being ‘World Week’ (get your last jetpunk quiz practice in!), which will include round the world celebrations and our workshops from EarthSong over Thursday and Friday. Additionally, we also have our visiting paralympic athlete on Tuesday, Nerys Pearce. Children should wear PE kit on this day. It’s looking like it will be another inspiring week!

MRS ROE RECOMMENDS

This is a series of books following Tom's time-travelling adventures in the quest to find hidden treasures which have been sent across history.  

This is a great series of books for reluctant readers in Years 3 and 4. I enjoyed reading them to my youngest son. We loved to talk about what might happen in each adventure as well as finding out a little bit about history at the same time!

Our School Updates for Parents

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. Following our very successful ‘World Day’ last academic year, we are repeating this and expanding it to celebrate the diversity of language and culture around the world. The week will include:

• A world wide celebration day, on Wednesday, in which children can:
  • wear traditional dress of a different country or the colours of a flag of a chosen country, and 
  • bring in cultural food to share with their class - with a list of ingredients. If your child has any allergies or you do not want them to take part in the food tasting activities please complete the google from sent via email.
• A ‘round the world’ carousel morning or afternoon, learning the geography and culture of different countries from different teachers
• Singing songs from different cultures and countries
• A visit from multi-cultural group Earthsong, bringing world music to the children of CCNM in workshops
• Enjoying stories and tales from different cultures and languages

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 the form sent via email. 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.

Clubs for Summer term 2024

The timetable for clubs running next term is now available on our website.

• For externally run clubs, please follow the link on the timetable for details of how to book with them.
• For school led clubs, booking will be available from Monday 11th March at the times shown on the timetable. Places are limited for clubs and are on a first come, first served basis, and payment will confirm your child’s place. Unfortunately Arbor does not offer a waiting list facility like Parentmail did. If a club is showing as full, please email office@ccnm.uk to say you would like to go on a waiting list for the club.
• Infant dance is held at the Junior site and children are walked to the Infant site after the club.
• Recorders for next term has been split into two groups as follows:
  • Bronze recorders - open to all children in years 3-6 (unless they have been invited to Gold). It is for children who are complete beginners or who have a little experience already.
  • Gold recorders - invited children only.
• Orchestra - your child should speak to Mrs Bond first if they would like to join the orchestra so she can discuss with them the instrument they play and how long they have played.

Clubs will start w/c 15th April and continue until w/c 1st July, except for:

• Judo - start w/c 22nd April - w/c 8th July
• Monday and Friday clubs - start w/c 15th April - w/c 8th July (due to bank holiday 6/5 and INSET 23/6)
• Choirs - start w/c 15th April - w/c 8th July

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO CLUBS AT EITHER SITE W/C 13th MAY DUE TO Y6 SATS

Please note that even if your child attended one of the clubs this term, you will need to book again as clubs are termly.

Wider Community Updates

Netball Coach UK Easter Camp

Netball Coach UK are running a netball camp in Richmond over Easter open to children from school years 3-10 . Netball Coach UK is an organisation run by netballers for netballers, aiming to develop and enhance netball provision across London. Please see the attached poster for more information.

Footy Fun 4 Kids Easter Camp

Join Footy Fun 4 Kids during the Easter Holidays for an Ofsted registered Football and Multi Sports Activity Camp for boys and girls aged 4-15 years old in Chessington. The Camps give children and young people the opportunity to develop their football and sports skills, and try new activities in a fun, safe and sociable environment. Prizes are awarded each day, from PS5 vouchers to brand new football boots! Please see the attached poster for details.

Richmond Volleyball - Free training sessions for under 10s 

This April Richmond Volleyball are launching a new Beach Volleyball programme aimed at boys and girls aged 5-10 at the Beach Courts at Teddington Sports Centre. This programme is particularly targeted at children from local primary schools in Richmond and Kingston. Sessions take place on Wednesdays 4-5 pm (from 17th April) and/or Saturdays 8:30 - 9:30am (from 20th April) and they are holding a free taster event on Saturday 6th April at 3-5pm. Spaces are limited and all sessions require prior registration via their website. For more information and to register for the taster event and/or the training sessions please see the attached or visit https://www.richmondvolleyball.co.uk/beach/u10

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.

Key School Dates 

• 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 (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