St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

Year 2 have been self-isolating this week, hope it's gone well for you. We have not heard of any further infection, we will be welcoming Year 2 back to school on Monday, it would be good to get back to school again I am sure. Thanks to all our parents for your understanding with the COVID-19 security measures.

I am hoping that we will get through to the summer without any further closures, we have done so well this year with just three years groups closing. You can help us by acting straight away if a family member or contact becomes unwell. Please act quickly to test your family and keep your child away from school until you have received your results. This can help us to avoid closures which then affect so many families.

As part of our catch-up plan we are maintaining additional TA support in Years 3 and 4, and we will have an additional teacher in the next academic year to provide enhanced support for core subjects in KS2.

Mrs Duggin, pictured above, has also been appointed as a Speech and Language TA within our SEND department, she will be extending her training over the coming weeks and will be supporting children in KS1 with their language needs from September. With Mrs Gallant as SENDCo and Mrs Foxen as SENDCo Assistant our SEND department is working hard to meet the additional needs of our children. You can contact the team at send@stcecilias.school.

I have had a wonderful week listening to some beautiful music from our visiting music specialists and children. Well done to all the children who have had lessons this week, your music has provided a lovely background to the work of the school. If you are interested in woodwind or strings specialist teaching for your child through the Sutton Music Service please contact Mrs Kolendo, our music teacher via office@stcecilias.school.

We had outdoor learning day yesterday, it was great to see the children outsided enjoying a variety of lessons, from maths to art to zumba. Well done to all the teachers for planning a fun day for the children and for managing to avoid the showers. You can see photos from the day on your Class Story on the Class Dojo app.

We have just one more week of school before the half term holiday, have a lovely week when it does arrive, let's hope the weather improves for us all.

With best wishes,

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

Thanks again to all the parents who have been involved in the decision-making process over the school uniform changes that are being introduced over the coming year. Most recently a group of parents and children have worked with us to develop a uniform guide which clearly shows our new uniform along with some changes to our uniform policy. A big thank you to all of our uniform models for their efforts on photograph day!

We hope that this guide clarifies our position moving forwards, if you need any more information please email in to the office team or have a chat with Mrs Martin or I at the school gates.

Our new PE kit is not available until mid June, we will let you know when it is in stock. Please make sure to purchase the correct shirt as your child's house colour is on the side.

Uniform can be ordered for delivery to the school free of charge. It will arrive with us every other Monday (in term time) all bagged up and ready for delivery to your child just before home time.

Please don't forget that our move to the new uniform is a gradual one over time, we hope that it will be fully introduced from April 2023. Our new pupils entering school this September will be in the new uniform.

We had a PTA Microsoft Teams meeting on Tuesday evening, thanks to all those who attended. We're very grateful to the PTA for all that they do for the school. I know that they are tentatively planning some events for the Autumn term and will confirm dates once we know about our progress with the pandemic and lockdown measures. Unfortunately, our summer fair will not be going ahead this term. Nick Jury, the previous Chair of the PTA is now a Foundation Governor of the school, we thank Nick for his service to the school.

The group elected a new committee for the upcoming year:

Alexander Nokes - Chair

Yordanka Todorova - Treasurer

Alanna Bergin - Secretary

We thank the new committee for stepping forward and look forward to working with them over the coming year.

Our after school activities programme will recommence in September, we will send out information to you on our return in September, this will enable us to take into account the latest pandemic advice. It will be good to get the activities back up and running again.

The admissions process is now complete, we have written to the parents of all our new pupils informing them of induction arrangements. If you have a little one starting with us in September please return your Pupil Information Form (it's a Google online form) as soon as possible so that we can start to make arrangements.

The children will have their usual staggered start in September so that we can settle them in to new routines with success.

We are pushing ahead with plans for our Sports Day on June 30th. The day is for children in Years 1-6 and is dependent upon good weather, you may remember two years ago we had to postpone and have it later in the term.

We are hoping that parents will be able to attend however we will need to verify the latest guidance from our Diocese and the Local Authority nearer the time. With the spread of the new variant rising, it may be that parents will not be permitted and that the event can go ahead with children and staff remaining in bubble groups.

Sports Day takes place at the David Weir Centre, Middleton Rd, Carshalton SM5 1SL.

Car parking is available for parents on the field opposite the centre on Middleton Road.

The gates will open from 08:40 with registration straight away and sports commencing at 9am.

Pick up times for Key Stage 1 and 2 will vary and will be between 3 and 3.30pm. We will confirm these nearer the time once we know about COVID-19 restrictions.

Your child will need to be wearing their school PE kit on the day. They will also need:

• a jacket in case of rain
• sun lotion
• a hat for sun protection, preferably a legionnaires style with cover for the neck
• a water bottle (there are water fountains at the centre for refills)
• a packed lunch (with ice block in case of hot weather)

We will have some coach seats available on buses from school but we do ask that parents drop and pick-up from the David Weir centre. If you can car share, dependent on the restrictions, please do so.

Many thanks for joining our teaching staff online for the parent-teacher meetings last week, we appreciate your time and commitment to the school. Our next meeting will be in the Autumn term, reports will be heading home to you towards the end of this term as usual.

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

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