Ripon Cathedral School Update

On Wednesday, Key Stage 2 took part in this year’s Christingle service at the Cathedral. We were delighted to hold the service during Advent this year and – as the Year 5 and 6 readers explained during the service – find out how the Christingle itself can help to explain the true meaning of Christmas. In the morning, many of the children in school made a Christingle with a group of volunteers from the Cathedral. They started with an orange, representing the world, and placed a candle in the orange, to show Jesus as the Light of the World. They tied a red ribbon around the orange to represent God’s love for the world and Jesus’ sacrifice. Four cocktail sticks represented the four seasons, and the sweets on the sticks symbolised the fruits of the Earth and God’s gifts to the world. At the service, we sang a series of Christmas carols and listened to readings and prayers. While the choir sang the Calypso Carol, the children of KS2 arranged themselves into a large cross in the centre of the Cathedral and the Christingle candles were lit. The children sang ‘Silent Night’ with their candles lit, giving a moment of peace and calm in the middle of a busy day, at a busy time of year. We hope that everyone who attended appreciated the chance to pause and reflect on the joy of Christmas. Thank you to all the volunteers from the Cathedral who helped with the production of the Christingles, to Sue Gill our piano accompanist, and to Canon Matthew and Beth Wickenden for leading the service along with the children.

Unfortunately, earlier in the week, we suffered a large water leak in the school kitchen which has affected the flooring in the school hall. We have been liaising with our facilities management team throughout the week on minimising the impact on the running of school, and as a result have continued to be able to provide school lunches in the main hall. Our nativity dress rehearsal went ahead as planned this morning. However, due to the damaged flooring and the number of areas impacted by this, we are unable to use the hall for PE lessons next week. Class teachers will communicate with classes directly via Class Dojo regarding whether their PE sessions will go ahead either in the classroom or on the playground (weather permitting), or whether they will be cancelled. Our after-school sports clubs with Miss Haslam, as well as Schools Out will unfortunately be cancelled for the week. We apologise for the inconvenience and will provide further updates in due course. As Rugby Tots is a smaller group of children, Mr Steel is planning an alternative session of more static ball skills in the chapel. This room is not large enough for the other clubs, apologies for the inconvenience that we have to cancel, but we feel it is better for parents to know in advance.

Please remember that unless you notified us by the final deadline of Monday 1st December that your child would be bringing a packed lunch on Wednesday, all children have been ordered a school dinner for Wednesday. For children in KS1, Reception and economic free school meals, this lunch will be free as usual. For all other parents, the charge is the same as for normal meals and is payable on ParentPay please.

Whether children are eating a packed lunch or the school meal, everyone will be sitting together in their classes with their teaching staff. We are sure it will be a festive occasion! To add to the fun, the children may choose to wear a Christmas or festive top on Wednesday (with uniform).

Please note that we have switched the menu choices for Monday and Tuesday as this enables the cooks to have more oven space for preparing for Wednesday's Christmas dinner the day before.

We are delighted to announce that Mrs Perkins is expecting a baby, due in April 2026! She has told the Year 4 class the exciting news today. We will be in touch with Year 4 parents and carers in the new year with details about Mrs Perkins’ maternity cover and would like to extend many congratulations and warm wishes to Mr and Mrs Perkins.

We have a vacancy for a Midday Supervisory Assistant. The working hours are 11.35am-1.25pm. We need someone for every day but would be prepared to arrange a job share for the right candidates. You would mostly be assisting in the dining hall but there is the opportunity to supervise children playing outside also. The advert will be published next week but Mrs Rich would welcome an email from anyone who is interested - admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk. Thank you.

Monday 15th December - 1.30pm Nativity Performance 1 at the Cathedral – EYFS and KS1

Monday 15th December - 4pm Nativity Performance 2 at the Cathedral – EYFS and KS1

Wednesday 17th December - School Christmas Lunch - and optional Christmas Jumper/Top (with uniform)

Friday 19th December - School closes for Christmas holidays (no Oscar's after school)

Monday 5th January - Staff Training Day

Tuesday 6th January - School re-opens for the Spring Term

The Friends of the School would like to thank everyone again for all their support at the Christmas Fair last week. The raffles were drawn on Tuesday and all winners have been texted to collect their prizes. Congratulations to them and better luck next time for everyone else!

Huge thanks too for the sponsors who donated generous raffle prizes:

Hill Interiors

Stockeld Park

The Scott's Arms

The Old Swan

Hemingways

Self Beauty

Rudgate Beers

Thank you to Wayne for organising the personalised Christmas cards and gifts. Please remember to collect your orders from the school office.

The governing body have approved two policies for the 2026-27 school year. Please note that there will be an increase of approximately 4% on our charges. This is in line with recently published inflation figures and under the statistics for average growth in earnings. The increase in fees will ensure we are able to maintain staffing quality and sustain the level of care and provision expected, while keeping the rise as modest as possible. These increases do not come into force until September 2026.

Nursery Charging and Admissions Policy School Year 2026-27

Charging and Remissions Policy School Year 2026-27