St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

I hope that the Spring term is going well for you and the family, lovely to have some sunnier and warmer weather, especially for the children at playtimes.

We received some good news from the Secretary of State last week, we have been granted permission to become an academy school as part of the Sancta Familia Catholic Academy Trust.

We have been a "voluntary aided" school since their inception in the 1944 Education Act, just a few years after St Cecilia's was built. As an academy school we will have a different set of regulations and guidance to follow at times and our financial processes will change considerably. We are fortunate to be joining a strong and vibrant trust with all the Catholic schools of Sutton, Merton and Lambeth along with some from Croydon. The first five schools have already joined the Trust, we aim to join on 1st September. We are having lots of meetings at the moment to ensure that any land issues are resolved. We are also working with the Trust on finance and HR to ensure a smooth transition.

Our pupils and staff will benefit from closer relations with a wide range of schools. As Sutton Catholic Schools we have been working together as part of the Sutton Catholic Schools Alliance, that will continue with additional groups forming within the Trust schools.

I will keep you up to date on developments with the Trust in future newsletters.

It has been lovely to see so many of you at the recent Guardian Consultations, thanks for your support, we hope that you found the evening useful. A reminder that the second evening is tomorrow night, Arbor does not have a facility for me to send you a reminder of your appointment so please check your email. Don't forget that for Nursery appointments you need to come through the yellow gates and cross the playground.

We have started our Lenten journey. Father Ben celebrated Mass for Years 5&6 at St Cecilia's and then came along to school in the afternoon to distribute the ashes for our younger pupils in a service led by our school chaplaincy team.

We have a busy Lent ahead of us with lots of time for reflection and prayers in assemblies, we will also be welcoming CAFOD, our Lenten charity, for a special assembly next week.

With best wishes for Lent,

Vince Burke

Headteacher

We have asked the children not to play on the castle after school, it is unsupervised at that time. We can see that some parents are allowing little ones to play on the castle without supervision. We can see some parents busy chatting with friends whilst toddlers are on the castle, please keep children off the castle, It is not safe without due attention and care.

Our neigbours in St Mark's Court have asked parents not to park on their property, even for a short while. We value our neighbours and we ask that you park considerately in available spaces locally. Please avoid the end of Clarkes Avenue on the yellow lines, I understand that an ambulance had to cancel a blue light call the other day due to congestion at the junction.

Many thanks to all those who attended guided tours this year and have applied for Reception 2025. We await the National Offer Day and will be in touch once we have news from all Merton, Kingston and Surrey County Council, this can take a few days.

Congratulations to our school community, through working together on achieving the best for our pupils, we have made it into the Times Top 500 English schools for another year.

It's a great achievement and it shows that our curriculum and quality of teaching really works well for our pupils. Thanks for your ongoing support with learning at home and for the work that takes place in the classroom.

We had a wonderful joyous day on World Book Day, thanks so much for all the wonderful costumes, the children thoroughly enjoyed the day too! The travelling book fair was well attended, thanks for all your support, your purchases help us with a commission which we spend on core books for the library and classrooms.

Our literacy ambassadors were busy with a competition, many thanks for all the entries, we hope to announce the winners soon.

We need YOU to help us bring the magic to our school events!

Our PTA is at the heart of creating wonderful experiences for our children and families—from exciting discos to fun-filled fêtes. But right now, we’re facing a challenge: our team is down to just two members, and without more volunteers, some of our much-loved events may not go ahead.

We don’t want to cancel these fantastic celebrations, but we simply can’t do it alone! That’s why we’re reaching out to our amazing parents and guardians—this is your chance to get involved, make a real impact, and have some fun along the way!

• Events at risk without your help!
• Year 1 & 2 Disco – May/June (Friday date TBC)
• Summer Fete – Sat, 7th July (tentative)

Whether you can help with planning, ticketing, setting up, or running activities on the day, every little bit makes a huge difference. More hands mean lighter work—and more fun for everyone!

By joining the PTA, you’ll not only be supporting your child’s school, but you’ll also become part of a fantastic team of parents, all working together to create joyful memories for our children. Plus, it’s a great way to meet new people and feel even more connected to the St Cecilia’s community!

Can we count on you? If you're interested or have any questions, please reach out—we’d love to hear from you! Together, we can keep the spirit of community alive and ensure these events continue to bring smiles to our children’s faces.

Email us at stceciliaspta@ymail.com to connect with us and register your support.

Thank you so much for your support—we can’t wait to welcome you to the team!

With gratitude,
Your PTA Team

Many parents attended a meeting a little while ago when we discussed international diversity. We do not hold accurate records on our database to inform us fully about the heritage of our pupils, many of our pupils come from a mixed international heritage.

The PTA have developed a questionnaire to capture this information, we hope that you will be able to contribute so that we can get an idea of the scope of our work in this area. We are hoping to recognise and celebrate more international events as part of our work to provide the best possible education for our students, we live and work in a much more interconnected world. We are also working towards renewing our International School Award.

There's a link below to the questionnaire, it will only take a few moments of your time.

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

March

Thursday 13th - Guardian Consultations from 3.30pm.

Friday 14th - Y6 Football v Avenue

Monday 17th - CAFOD Assemblies, St Angela's Mission Week, Y4 Easter Experience at the Baptist Church, Borough Cup v All Saints Carshalton

Thursday 20th - The Big Lent Walk

Friday 21st - Girls Football League v All Saints Benhilton

Monday 24th - St Augustine's Mission Week and assembly at 0900

Wednesday 26th - KS2 Panathlon for invited pupils

Thursday 27th - Y2 Space Day, Y6 League match v Abbey school

Friday 28th - Nursery and Reception - The Magic Tree Show

Friday 28th - KS2 House Point Wear Your Own Clothes Day (Winners to be announced)

Monday 31st - Y3 Easter Workshop

April

Tuesday 1st - Y5 Walking the Stations of the Cross

Wednesday 2nd - Y6 Boys Sutton and Cheam Cup Semi Final

Thursday 3rd - End of Term for Nursery

Friday 4th - End of Spring Term - School closes at Midday

Tuesday 22nd - Start of Summer Term, Y3 Swimming Fortnight begins

Thursday 24th - Reception Height and Weight Check

Saturday 26th - Y6 Netball Rally

May

Monday 5th - Bank Holiday, school closed

Tuesday 6th - St Monica Mission Week

Friday 9th - Y1&2 Disco

Monday 12th - Y6 SATs Week

Tuesday 13th - Y5 Tower of London

Monday 19th - Y6 Bikeability Cohort 1

Monday 26th - Friday 20th - May half term

June

Monday 2nd - Bikeability Cohort 2 and Y4 Multiplication Check Week

Thursday 5th - Y1 Visit to the Lookout, Bracknell

Thursday 12th - Sports Day 2025

Friday 13th - School closed INSET Day

Monday 16th Bikeability Cohort 3

Friday 20th - Y5/6 Borough Sports in the afternoon

Friday 27th - Annual reports published via email

July

Tuesday 1st - Proposed date for Communion Going Forth Mass
Wednesday 2nd - Secondary Transition Day

Monday 7th - Y6 Residential

Thursday 10th - Reception Class to Bocketts Farm

Friday 11th - Y2 visiting Wisley

Thursday 17th - End of Year for Nursery

Friday 18th - End of Year for Years R to 6 at Midday, no after school childcare

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