St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to the new school year, it's great to see the return of all our year groups and a sense that life is returning to normality, even if it is the "new normal" that we are all hearing about so often. We are doing all we can to keep the school community safe

A very special welcome to all of our new children and families joining us this term, in Nursery and Reception and throughout the school in other year groups as well, it's lovely to have you on board and a shame not to have met you at a proper welcome meeting! Youtube isn't quite the same! the children are settling in well, we look forward to a long, happy and rewarding experience here at St Cecilia's.

This monthly newsletter is sent to both main email contacts registered with the school.

If we imagine that coronavirus was in the school community, would you act differently at the school gates at the start and end of the school day? If so, please start to behave in that way now, we really do have to work together to prevent an outbreak. Please make sure to maintain social distancing at all times and keep children from different year groups, unless you are family members, apart.

We have a number of children receiving tests for COVID-19 today and we await their results. How can you play your part in reducing the risk of transmission between families at the gates?

We are working hard during the school day to keep year groups apart, if a child in a year group contracts COVID-19 it is likely that the year group will be sent home for two weeks and we do not want that to happen after the long closure for many years groups. We must also prevent the virus spreading from year group to year group.

You must help us when lining up to enter the school site by:

• arriving close to your allocated time, do not block the entrance by lining up too early.
• maintaining two metres distance from other families, or one metre distance with masks.
• lining up safely, especially near the road, please try to help other families pass safely by keeping buggies in against the wall.
• not allowing children from different year groups to mix in the line.
• not line jumping, please be fair to all parents and line up fairly, do not join the lines with friends for example, please wait your turn.
• being organised in the line, be ready for handover/collection and keep moving.

In order to be ready for an outbreak:

• homework will continue to be set on Google Classroom and Class Dojo, Year 2 will be moving to Google Classroom in the next week or so. We need to maintain online learning skills!
• we will keep you updated on COVID-19 positive test results within year groups.
• we will notify you as soon as we hear that closure of a year group has been determined by the London Coronavirus Response Centre.
• please prepare for your children to be at home with you for at least two weeks if a year group closure is determined.

Each day over the winter period up to 20 children can be absent from school with coughs and colds, I would imagine that this winter will be just the same. For children with a small simple cold it is fine to continue to attend school.

Children should not attend school however if they have any of the symptoms of coronavirus:

The main symptoms of COVID-19 are:

1. high temperature,
2. new, continuous cough,
3. loss or change to sense of smell or taste

If a child develops any of these symptoms during the school day we will isolate them in quarantine and ask you to collect your child and siblings from school. You will then need to seek a test through Track and Trace and we will await the result before your children return to school. We will provide full details of the process when we need to, we can also support families in gaining a test from the NHS.

If your child develops these symptoms at home, please keep your child and siblings at home and contact Track and Trace on 119 or through nhs.uk/coronavirus

Please inform us of all absences as usual through the Pupil Asset App or our absence line on 020 8337 4566. Please give us plenty of detail, we need to know if your child has any of the symptoms of coronavirus - a temperature, a new continuous cough or loss or change to sense of smell or taste.

Children with simple coughs or colds who do not have the symptoms above will not trigger a coronavirus process response from our staff.

We have a few spaces left in both breakfast and after school clubs, we are limiting spaces this year as we must ensure that groups maintain social distancing. Both childcare clubs are fully operational, please contact Mrs Cahill at childcare@stcecilias.school for more information.

We will have after school clubs for netball and football this term for Years 5 and 6. All other clubs are currently suspended during the pandemic.

We will be holding our parent teacher meetings after the October half term as usual. To prevent issues with technology for some families we will be having telephone surgeries rather than face to face meetings with bookable appointments as usual. We will have more information about the appointment system closer to half term.

As we start the school year may I remind all parents that we aim to be a nut free school, please bear this in mind when packing snacks and lunches. We have a number of children with severe nut allergies.

We are reopening our library for years 2-6, children have been taking books home this week. Please return all the books that were at home during the lockdown so that your child's account can be in order. We are currently permitting each child in Years 2-6 to have two books from the library. Please do all you can to return books on your child's next visit to the library. Books need to be returned to the library desk on the allocated day.

Each year group will attend the library on a fixed day each week, this will help us to quarantine the books and prevent year groups mixing in the library.

Monday - Year 2
Tuesday - Year 3

Wednesday - Year 4

Thursday - Year 5

Friday - Year 6.

New library account stickers have been sent to each class for the child's reading record card. We will be in touch with parents if books remain overdue on the library account after the next round of visits.

As your child moves up to a new year group, as librarian I will be encouraging them to broaden their range of authors and extend the complexity of their books. I do feel mean at times, however Years 5s, for example, need to move away from Tom Gates and Captain Underpants an on to some meatier texts, I will be encouraging them!

We are spending around £5000 on books each year, we have just received over £1000 of new paperbacks, they are working their way on to the shelves. More news about our new Year Group Reading Lists over the coming weeks!

Mrs Long has asked me to remind you to update your mobile phone and email address contact details with us if you have made any changes.

We have made some changes to how we manage the administration of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in school so that we can support Mrs Gallant in the very heavy administrative load of this vital aspect of the school's work.

Mrs Foxen is now working within the SEND department, supporting Mrs Gallant. Parents can now contact the department directly via a new dedicated email at send@stcecilias.school.

We are using a new online system called Provision Map within SEND, this will hold all of our paperwork and will help us to co-ordinate SEND matters including pupil study plans (formerly IEPs) and annual reviews. The new system also links across to Sutton Local Authority.

Parents of children with SEND will gain access to the new system towards half term, once it has been fully setup and the first round of study plans are available. This is a great step forward in supporting our aim to enable parents to have as much information as possible through electronic means.

Mr Fowler has been working so hard over the summer to prepare for our reopening. We have 15 lovely new sinks around the building to reduce pressure on toilet area sinks.

We also have a lovely new boiler which was commissioned and went live during the holidays. Whilst the Department for Education funded the majority of the boiler cost, as a Catholic School parents must fund ten percent of the cost. We are very grateful to our the Catholic Schools Commission at the Diocese for their support and management of this project.

We have therefore received a bill for close to £12,000 for the parent community to pay.

We are using our Governors Fund payments for this, for which many thanks! Without your donations we would have a very cold school this winter!

We will be sending out a reminder to all parents about the Governors Fund for this year over the coming weeks. We are still progressing with our plans for a new building to replace the hall, offices and Key Stage 1 classes,

We have invested £36,000 over the summer on new super large Ultra 4k 86" interactive screens across 6 classrooms. This project was funded by the IT budget and by an annual grant made to schools for their building infrastructure by the Department for Education.

The new height adjustable screens will be installed across all of our classrooms over the coming years. They are so much brighter and clearer for the children to see and will help us to maintain an outstanding quality of teaching and learning for our community. I've included an information video for you below so that you can see some of the features of the new screens.

As with any new system, the first few weeks can be difficult and I am very grateful to our teachers in Years 1, 5 and 6 who are pioneering our use of these screens, thanks also to Miss K. Moore who leads on Digital Learning and Innovation. Miss Jack is shown above, she was mid-lesson talking about skeletons with Year 1 when I popped in this morning.

We welcome Mrs Smyth to Year 1 and Miss Buddin to Nursery, both as teaching assistants, it's lovely to have them on the team!

Mrs Kyriacou leaves us next month after 14 years of service, working as a classroom TA and as a one to one support to children with special educational needs. We will miss her incredible expertise and lovely manner with our children, she has been so kind and caring to so many hundreds of children over the years and wish her well as she leaves us to have more time with her family.

Mrs Kyriacou says, "it has been so wonderful to work and watch the children at St Cecilia's flourish over the past 17 years. I have enjoyed working across all the year groups and wish everyone at St Cecilia's many happy years ahead. I will miss you all."

Mr Bill Fuller has come to the end of his term as Parent Governor, and what a tremendous Governor he has been to the school, we are therefore looking for a new Parent Governor for another 4 year term. I have provided some advance warning so that you may think about it, Sutton Governor Services conduct the election on behalf of our Governing Body. Once arrangements are in place you will receive information on the nomination process.

Governors meet in full committee three times a year with an additional subcommittee each term. If you would like to know more about the role please contact the school office or see me at the school gate.

The First Holy Communion programme was postponed due to the pandemic lockdown and the cessation of religious services. I understand that St Cecilia's Parish are having their celebration of First Holy Communion over the coming two weekends. We wish you all well, the weather is certainly on your side this weekend, God bless for a wonderful celebration.

Best wishes for a lovely, warm sunny weekend!

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

Email: office@stcecilias.school
Website: www.stcecilias.school
Phone: 020 8337 4566