St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a very eventful few weeks in school as we make the transition to academy status. It was a little like moving house, as we waited for all the various representatives to sign their agreements within deadlines. We were delighted when we finally got the agreement confirmed and made the transition on 1 December.

Mr Feely, the CEO and Mrs Burley-Burton, Head of People and Culture joined us for a lovely assembly in which we celebrated the long tradition of St Cecilia's here in North Cheam and looked forward to the future as part of the Sancta Familia Catholic Academy Trust. We dope that the children are enjoying their keyring torches, a little souvenir to mark the change of status for the school.

John Austin, pictured above next to me, continues as Chair of our Local Governing Board.

We have had a good Advent in school and the children are well prepared for the arrival of Christmas. In the last week of term we have more celebratory events, with Christmas Jumper Day and school lunch on Monday to class parties on Thursday afternoon. Our carol service is next Thursday at 6.30pm, we do hope that you can join us.

Thanks and congratulations to Emilia Sikora, one of our school chaplains, who designed our Christmas Card for this year. Thank you parents for all the cards and gifts that I can see coming in for staff, it is very generous of you.

School closes at midday next Friday afternoon. The staff and I wish you a very happy and Blessed Christmas and some lovey quality time with the family,

Vince Burke

Headteacher

We gather at 6.30pm. next Thursday for our Christmas Carol Service, with readings and carols to mark the end of the school term and arrival of Christmas in your family homes. Our Year 6 pupils and school choir will be leading the singing and the staff choir will sing for the first time!

Please do come and join us.

A big thank you to the PTA who have provided the mulled wine and mince pies for this lovely event.

We have had some beautiful nativities in Years 2 and 4 this week along with a joyful Reception Class singalong. Thanks to all those parents and grandparents who came along to be such great audiences. Where we have videoed the performance, password protected links to the videos have been sent through Class Dojo.

What a lovely Christmas fair we had this year, a very special thanks to our PTA Committee and their team of volunteers who created such a special afternoon for us all. It was a lovely opportunity for us all to catch up and have a chat without the usual rush of the school day. The stalls were lovely, I hope that you are all enjoying the new stuffed animals and teddies and have saved some of the chocolate for Christmas! We are very grateful for your time and commitment to this event and for coming out in such numbers! There are some lovely images of the fair, taken by the PTA, shown above.

Big congratulations to our Boys Football team who have just won the Sutton Borough Seven-a-side Championship Competition and they are going through to the County round of this National Competition at Dorking FC in January.

Miss Fry, subject leader for PE and Sport writes:

"This morning the boys played the Borough Finals against Cheam Common, Dorchester and High View.

They drew against Cheam Common, then beat High View and Dorchester. At the end, we were joint points with Cheam Common. We also had the same goal difference so it came down to goals scored and we won by one!!

Every single member of staff congratulated our boys on their respect and attitude throughout the tournament and we could not be prouder.

Well done boys - you played as a team throughout and fully deserve this victory. Next stage is the Surrey County Final at Dorking FC in January. Bring it on!"

We are pleased as always to welcome Initial Teacher Training students from St Mary's University this year, you will notice at times that new additional adults are working with small groups of children and teaching classes across the school. It is very much part of the Archbishop's wish that Catholic schools work with our local Catholic University to train up the next generation of teachers and education specialists for the future. It's great for us to have extra support in the classroom, it also helps us to build confidence in our pupils as they experience working with a wider range of people.

Thanks to all those who have returned the Cut Your Carbon survey form already! We hope that washing at a lower temperature and batch cooking has managed to save some money and cut carbon emissions.

Our Eco Committee are meeting next week to tally up our surveys and work out how much carbon we have managed to cut this month. Please complete your surveys and send them in to school on Monday and Tuesday next week. Thanks to all those who have returned the survey already.

A pdf version of the survey form is attached below in case you need one.

At the end of the summer term many parents donated shoes that were still in good condition to a school in the Gambia. We have received a lovely letter from the Head Teacher and some photos of some very grateful children. You can see how desperate they were for new shoes from one of the images below. Thanks to you all for thinking of them and to Mrs Serena Carroll for making all the arrangements to get the shoes to the school.

Children in Years 1 to 6 will receive a data and attendance report from the Arbor system at the end of next week.

Class teachers make regular assessments throughout the year. Reading, Writing and Maths attainment levels are recorded each half term. Results are recorded in the Arbor school management system and are immediately available to parents through the parent app. We use the 5 element Point In Time Assessment grades below in order to track pupil attainment over time.

Below (BLW Just Below (JBLW) Expected (EXS) JABV (Just above) Greater Depth (GDS)

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

Contact us:

General queries - office@stcecilias.school

Report an absence - absence@stcecilias.school

Anything finance - finance@stcecilias.school

Extra Curricular Activity booking - eca@stcecilias.school

Childcare - childcare@stcecilias.school

Special educational needs - send@stcecilias.school

Admissions - admissions@stcecilias.school

Website www.stcecilias.school

Phone: 020 8337 4566

December

In December we prepare for Christmas with Advent.

Monday 15th - Christmas Lunch (Christmas Jumper Day) and the Y6 talent show.

Tuesday 16th - St Angela's Class Nativity at St Raphael's and Y5&6 at Mass at St Cecilia's Church.

Tuesday 16th - Eco Committee count up our Cut Your Carbon surveys

Thursday 18th - End of term for Nursery

Thursday 18th - Nursery singing Nativity, 2.15pm.

Thursday 18th - Class Christmas Parties for Years R to 6.

Thursday 18th - Candlelit Carols Concert - Mince pies and mulled wine - in aid of the Catholic Children's Society - Children may come in Christmas jumpers.

Friday 19th - School closes at Midday for Years R to 6 - no childcare after school, breakfast club as usual.

Friday 19th - National curriculum levels report published for Years 1-6 through Arbor via email.

Friday 19th - Please note that the school phone lines will be down after school as electrical works are being carried out the moment the children have left the building.

January 2026

Monday 5th - return to school all year groups - Spring Term begins!

Tuesday 6th - Y6 Height and Weight Measurements

Tuesday 6th - Epiphany Mass for children in Years 3 to 6, 2pm.

Monday 12th - RSPB Big Schools' Bird Watch with Eco-Committee

Monday 12th - ECAs begin this week

Wednesday 21st - Y1 Creation Treasure Hunters with Sutton Schoolsworks.

Monday 26th - Wednesday 28th - Artist Steve Porter in School - Funded by our amazing PTA

Thursday 29th - Perform Theatre Company for Reception and Nursery pupils

Friday 30th - Sancta Familia Catholic Academy Trust Annual Mass

February

Wednesday 11th - Y1 to the Polka Theatre (morning only)

Spring Half Term - Monday 16th to Friday 20th

March

Monday 2nd to Friday 6th - Book Week and travelling Book Fair

Monday 2nd - Y4 at the Easter Experience (afternoon)

Thursday 5th - Book Character Day - costumes needed!

Monday 23rd - Friday 27th - Eco Committee Big School Clean!

Monday 23rd - ECAs end this week

Tuesday 24th - Y3 Easter Workshop with Sutton Schoolsworks

Thursday 26th - Y5 Stations of the Cross from 9am.

Thursday 26th - EYFS - PTA Funded Easter event (afternoon)

Thursday 26th - End of term for Nursery

Friday 27th - End of Spring Term - school closes at Midday, no after school childcare

You can find our term dates for this year and next on our website, link for you below.