St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

You will have noticed that we have sent out COVID letters this week to all classes. We are required to inform the whole school if a single year group is sent home. We also have to send a special COVID letter out to year groups that are sent home.

We have some families with COVID where the children have not been in school within the infectious period, where parents had kept them home as a precaution, this has prevented whole year groups being sent home.

It does seem that there are more cases about at the moment, I can see local schools are closing year groups as well.

Please try to keep your children at home if you suspect that a member of the family may have COVID, this can help prevent us from sending year groups home. If your child has symptoms please arrange for a COVID test as soon as possible. There are reports of different signs in very young children and these include diarrhoea, please bear this in mind.

We have just three and a half weeks until the end of term, let's hope we can get through without too much difficulty. Thanks for keeping in touch with us about COVID if it affects your family, for your continued patience with our dropping off and collection processes at the start and end of the day and for wearing your masks on site, we really appreciate your support.

Teachers are busy with reports at the moment, we are facing a computer failure with Pupil Asset and this may delay the delivery of reports at the end of term. We have raised a complaint with Pupil Asset, they have been working on our reports for close to ten weeks now, to say that we are disappointed is an understatement. I am very grateful to the teachers for their flexibility at this time. Hopefully Pupil Asset will be able to sort the issue soon.

Have a good weekend,

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

Earlier this month, Year 5 elected 6 Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) for 2021/22. The JTAs have already started on their mission to help organise activities to promote ways in which to help us travel to school safely, improve our health and wellbeing and reduce school traffic.

They assisted in formulating questions for the parent travel survey which is included in the newsletter below - see the link. Next week they will be judging the KS1/2 Comic Strip Competition and delivering a road safety presentation for EYFS.

St Cecilia’s Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) are:

Riya Ragulan, Rebecca Oladimeji, Annabel Krige, Lena Farrell, Teddie Newman, Rory Van Winklehof

Please complete our survey!

We are currently building a timetable of activities for our after school clubs for the Autumn term and hope to come back to you before the summer with details. We are renaming these clubs as Extra Curricular Activities or ECAs for short. This should help us to avoid confusion with our childcare clubs.

If you know of a good provider locally that can provide services to schools please ask them to get in touch with Mrs Long at office@stcecilias.school.

We will have a special Mufti Day on Friday 9th July in aid of a Children's Cancer charity - Neuroblastoma UK.

Neuroblastoma affects around 100 children each year in the UK. It usually affects children under the age of five, and can occur before a child is born. It is the most common solid tumour in childhood after brain tumours.

A voluntary contribution of a £1 would be appreciated, many thanks for your support.

It's great to see that our new uniform is coming in to school, it's looks very smart, we hope that parents are pleased with the quality of the items they are receiving. Thanks again to all the parents who took part in our pilot projects to find a supplier.

Can I remind all parents that trainers are not permitted in school, they are only permitted for sporting activity. Please work with us to ensure that your child has the correct footwear, black shoes only in Years 1-6.

Class teachers will be in touch regarding our sporting events in school. These will begin from Monday 5th July, each year group has chosen different days or times in order to have enough space on our school playgrounds. As always, please make sure on warmer days that your child has a school hat, sunscreen and a water bottle. We will be distributing medals and certificates as usual.

The children will be participating in sports activities within their year group bubbles.

If possible, please could you provide your child with a t-shirt in their house colour. They may also bring coordinating accessories such socks, hairbands, sweatbands etc! Please put these items into your child's school bag, so that they can change into them at school.

Sports Week Timetable

Monday 5th July - Year 5 and 6

Wednesday 7th July - Year 1 and 2

Friday 9th July - Year 3 and 4

When the sports activity session is complete, each year group will gather together to celebrate with stickers and certificates! We would also like to treat each child to a fruit ice lolly.

If your child cannot have a fruit ice lolly please Class Dojo your child's class teacher.

We are being inundated with applications for admission at the current time and we have long waiting lists for year groups. If you are leaving us this July please let us know so that we can allocate your child's place to another family in plenty of time.

We are unable to host guided tours at the moment, we hope that they can resume in the Autumn. Parents of children joining Reception have been sent a Zoom invite for a meeting on 29th June.

For any questions on admissions please contact admissions@stcecilias.school

We say farewell to three members of staff at the end of term.

Sadly Mrs. Jordan, our Reception Teacher, leaves us after 8 years at St Cecilia’s.

Every year group in the school has been touched by her fun-filled approach to learning. Having provided a wonderful start to primary education for so many of our pupils, Mrs Jordan’s passion and creativity have inspired even our youngest learners. We are sure that they will always have a place in their hearts for her.

Our school family will miss not only her thoughtfulness and creative talent but also her friendship. I know you will join us in wishing her every happiness as she begins an exciting adventure in her new home in Northern Ireland.

Mr Stephens, our sports coach and after school performing arts tutor, is leaving us to work full time in a local school. Having worked here part-time over the past four years, we will miss his commitment to the school, sporting prowess and his acting ability! We wish him well in his new position.

Mrs Nash has been with us since Christmas teaching Year 5 as Mrs Everton enjoys her maternity leave. We are so grateful to Mrs Nash for her dedication to the school over this short period of time and for her care for our pupils. We wish her well in her new school.

We will have more news on new staff appointments in our next newsletter at the end of term.

Robotics and Coding
We are very grateful to our PTA for their support in purchasing our new Wonder Robots. We are slowly introducing them to classes as we train ourselves up on how to teach with them. Teachers are currently adding robotics and coding with Dash to their IT curriculum for the new year. So far, the children are having great fun with Dash, they are very quick learners and will keep all of the teachers "on their toes."

Relationships and Sex Education

We have adopted the curriculum from "Life to the Full" and will be using this alongside "Bounceback" and "Choicez-Things are a Changing" to provide our wellbeing and RSE curriculum.

We would normally meet with parents to discuss these changes, instead we are scheduling a meeting for September and we hope that we will be able to meet with you then.

In the meantime, we will be writing to you before the end of term with an online link to the "Life to the Full" curriculum.

You can find more information about the RSE curriculum in our policy below. This policy is taken from the model policy of the Archdiocese of Southwark.

Our end of year events which involve parents will be affected by the continuing lockdown.

Our Year 6 play will now be performed without an audience, it's such a shame but we will send home a recording to parents. We will keep in touch with parents about arrangements for the last day of school and the clapping out ceremony.

News from West Sutton Little league below.

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

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