We've had a lovely start to the school year and with just a few days to go can look forward to a lovely Autumnal mid term break from Monday 28th October. I hope that the school year has commenced well for you. Please keep the children reading over the half term, a good chance to finish a lovely long book and develop some new skills with the family.
We have more children than ever receiving a school lunch each day. We do expect all children to use a knife and fork, for selecting food items and cutting. We can clearly see that some children need to develop greater control and skill in eating with cutlery and that some children only eat with their fingers. Please practise over the holiday, it's an important life skill and I do think that we need to work more closely on this to ensure that children can manage appropriately in school.
Students in Years 1-6 will be undertaking some assessments at the moment and attainment in Reading, Writing and Maths will be reported to you on Friday 8th November.
Parent teacher meetings for all year groups are coming up in November, we hope to send you an invitation for these next week, you will sign up for an appointment with the classteacher through the Arbor App or Parent Portal online.
Wishing you all a lovely half term break when it arrives,
Vince Burke
Headteacher
We are excited to announce that a large piece of play equipment is on the way for the front playground. We were hoping that installation would be complete over half term but it has taken us a little longer than expected to work with the company to get the design complete.
We have now heard that work is commencing during half term and will continue into the week when we return from holiday. There will be security fencing around their working area. After the fencing project, we are used to coping with builders on the school site!
Once it is all in place and near completion we will come back to you about safety instructions for the end of the school day. The play equipment is being funded partly from our Governors' Building Fund, for which many thanks.
The KS2 playground has been slowly subsiding into our neighbours gardens. We are pleased to announce that the Department for Education has funded improvement works totalling £160k, this funding comes through our Diocese and we are grateful for their support and guidance on this project. As a Faith School, parents must pay 10% of these works, £16k will be donated from the Governors' Building Fund. These are just two examples of how we aim to put your monthly donations to the Building Fund to good use for the benefit of the children.
The back playground works will take ten to twelve weeks and will start in mid November. They will restrict our movement around the school site and playtimes will be staggered in order for the children to have sufficient play space. It will all be worth it in the end, it is vital that we have a safe, stable and flat play space.
As you will have seen on Class Dojo, congratulations to Chris Suk who joins the Governing Body as Parent Governor in November when we say 'Good bye and Thank You' to Adrian Brookes who is coming to the end of his 4-year tenure.
It's a busy year for Governors as we work to maintain a balanced budget whilst meeting the needs of the school community. We also hope to extend our Nursery building, you may have seen our planning notice has been put up outside the school, good news!
We are also working with the Education Commission of the Diocese to prepare for academisation in accordance with the Archbishop's request for all Catholic Schools to come together as a family of schools in a Catholic Academy Trust. We will have more news on this in the New Year.
Mrs Martin says "A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make the coffee morning a success. To those who baked, helped on the day, and cooked with the children you raised an amazing £1000 for such a good cause."
That's great news, thanks everyone! I hope that you enjoyed some lovely cake and some time with friends whilst supporting the Marsden.
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School
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
October
Mon 21st - Assessment Week in school
Tues 22nd - Sky TV visit for some pupils
Friday 25th - Preloved Uniform Sale in the main playground from 2.30pm.
Mon 28th - Friday 1 November - Autumn half term - school closed.
November
Thurs 7th - School photographer for all year groups.
Sun 10th - Remembrance Sunday
Thurs 14th - Guardian Consultations - all year groups - book online from late October
Mon 18th - PTA - Donate washed and good condition Christmas Jumpers this week
Tues 19th - Y6 World War II Workshop and Y4 Roman Workshop
Tues 19th - Guardian Consultations - all year groups - book online from late October
Thurs 21st - St Cecilia's Day Concert
Fri 22nd - St Cecilia's Day
Fri 29th - PTA Chocolate collection & Xmas jumper sale (drop off and pick up)
December
Sun 1st - First Sunday of Advent
Mon 2nd - ECAs end this week
Mon 2nd - Y5 swimming fortnight begins
Tues 3rd - Flu Immunisation Day
Fri 6th - PTA Bottle collection & Xmas jumper sale (drop off and pick up)
Thurs 12 - Y4 Nativity at 9am - Christmas Readings and Carols - Y4 parents welcome
Thurs 12th - Y2 Nativity at 2pm - Y2 parents welcome.
Mon 16th - Christmas Lunch Day - (Non uniform - Christmas Jumpers)
Tues 17th - Class Christmas Parties (Non - uniform - Christmas Jumpers)
Weds 18th - Candlelit Carols at 6pm.
Thurs 19th - End of term for Nursery
Fri 20th - End of term at Midday, no after school childcare, breakfast club as usual.
January 2025
School reopens for all year groups on Monday 6 January, childcare as usual.
Fri 31st - Years 3&4 Disco - 6.15-7.45pm.