St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

I hope that you are having a good Lent with your family. In school the children have been learning about Pilgrimages in assembly and we are having a very simple talk around the Pilgrimage to the Cross in assemblies each Monday morning. We use resources from Diocesan approved Ten Ten in our assemblies details below:

The Ten Ten Year of Pilgrimage

We have lots of exciting plans for Collective Worship this year, but something we’re particularly excited about is the Ten Ten Year of Pilgrimage. This is a series of assemblies within our regular Collective Worship programme which will take children on an exciting virtual pilgrimage journey from the comfort of their very own schools throughout January – December 2022. Aside from Lent and Advent which are entirely pilgrimage themed, one Collective Worship assembly per month will be a Ten Ten Year of Pilgrimage assembly, with ‘stopping place’ destinations across the year such as the cross, Santiago de Compostela, Rome, a local pilgrimage site of schools’ own choosing, Walsingham, Lourdes and lastly the manger in December 2022.

Our CAFOD prayer for Lent is:

Loving God,

Help us to work together

to share what we have

so that everyone has what they need.

Help us to build a better world

where each of us can become the best person we can be.

Amen

As part of our plan to reduce cross infection between year groups, our assemblies will remain online until after Easter.

Whilst our numbers of children that are infected are quite low at the moment we have seen an increase in staff cases over the past few weeks, I have been off with the virus as well. We are very grateful to Mrs Martin who manages the staffing schedule to ensure that we have staff cover and can keep classes open, supply agencies are very low on staff as well as covering classes is particularly challenging. We hope that as the warmer weather arrives that the pandemic eases once again and we can return to a greater normality.

In line with the latest regulations, parents do not need to wear a mask in the school grounds, we will also start to have parent events in the hall once again.

I hope that your Lent is going well, I've attached a Lenten calendar for you below, it contains some lovely ideas to help a family prepare for Easter.

Have a lovely weekend with the family, it was lovely to see so many of you at the gates today, enjoy the sunshine!

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

Well done to our Panathletes who competed in Sutton today at this Borough event. It's lovely to report that they achieved second place - a remarkable achievement and another amazing trophy for our cabinet.

Many thanks to Mrs Foxen who arranged this event and to Miss Moore who supported the team today, we are so proud of you all!

Farewell Mrs Foxen after 11 years!

It is with great sadness that we will say goodbye to Mrs Foxen, our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant at the end of term. Mrs Foxen began working in classrooms supporting learning over 11 years ago. She is infamous throughout the school for her enthusiasm for dressing up and for bringing learning to life. Unfortunately, her cooking skills are also infamous but for other reasons notably, the pancakes dropping on her red shoes, she certainly brought the Pudding Lane Bakery to life. For the past few years, she has been working in a pastoral role. Her dedication to supporting so many children and their families is a real testament to her love for the children.

It's amazing that she achieved second place at the Sutton Panathlon today with a team from KS2, she is pictured with some of our winning team above.

We know her team spirit and great dedication to the school community over the past decade will be greatly missed by the children, their families and her colleagues. Mrs Foxen has always brought so much fun to the school community, especially her cheery nature and love for activities with the children. We wish her good luck in her new post in education and would like to thank Mrs Foxen for all that she has given to St Cecilia’s.

Goodbye Mrs Hunt

Mrs Hunt has worked with us in Y5 on Fridays and on Catch Up Interventions since the Autumn term. Mrs Hunt is moving on to another school to further extend her work in forest schools and outdoor learning. She is leaving us on a high, with Joshua from one of her writing groups winning a national competition, see below. We are grateful to her for all her efforts in the intervention programmes. Miss Fry will be moving to full time work after Easter, taking the class on Fridays as well.

Welcome back Mrs Seehra!

We have good news that Mrs Seehra is back in Y3 on Monday, we have really missed her!

Earlier this year Mrs Hunt's writing class entered a national competition organised by the Royal Mint to create a short story around the theme of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

We received the wonderful news this week that Joshua from Year 6 won the first prize in the competition which was judged by a top judging panel including the Welsh Children's Literature Laureate.

Joshua's prize includes £5000 for the school library - that's a lot of books! He also gets a beautifully illustrated version of his story and a tour of the Royal Mint. Her Majesty will also be presented with his story as part of her celebrations.

Joshua will be presenting his story to our school community as part of our Jubilee events during the week of the 6th June.

Great news - well done Joshua, we are so proud of you and well done to Mrs Hunt too!

Please don't forget to request your child's places in our ECAs by 9pm tonight when the system will close for reservations. Across the school, there are 27 clubs available for the Summer term. The office team will process the requests next week and we will then come back to you with information about allocated places before the Easter holiday.

Thanks again parents for your support for our Ukraine fundraiser, we know that the children had a lovely time and they made such a great effort. During Lent we are called to think of others, to think of ourselves less and to do more for charity, what a great example of faith in action we had that afternoon.

Many thanks to Mrs Martin and the School Council for making all the arrangements.

We have donated the money raised to CAFOD who are working in Ukraine and surrounding countries. CAFOD is one of the approved members of DEC working in the area. They wrote to us this week:

Dear Children,

Thank you for your gift of £3,000.00.

Thank you for your gift to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. With your support, the staff and volunteers of our sister organisations can continue to provide meals, shelter and protection to the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine.

Caritas Spes is a charitable mission of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine.

Its director, Father Vyacheslav Grynevych (featured in the video above, said:

‘My colleagues are working day and night. We prepare projects and coordinate activities even when we’re hiding in bomb shelters. We are trying to respond to this situation as fast as we can. Thank you for your support. It is very important for us as humanitarian organisations that we see that we are not alone in this terrible situation.’

Please keep the people of Ukraine and all our brothers and sisters affected by conflict in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you again for sharing what you have with those in need.

Yours sincerely,

Michelle Oakford

Head of Supporter Relations

Y6 recently had a week focussing on the reasons for homelessness, they also spent an afternoon being homeless within the school grounds, taking on the roles of characters that they had developed.

It's our second year having this event, it is an eye opener to hear the children speak about homelessness and to see how easy it is for young people to fall into difficulty.

The children "begged" during their experience and raised an amazing £515 which we have donated to the Cardinal Hume Centre in London. They wrote to us earlier this week:

Dear Mrs Buckley and Year 6,

Well done to all the kids and staff that took part in the sleepout recently. Thank you for your donation of over £515, that is remarkable. Your school has loyally supported us since 1993, and we are so pleased it is continuing.

Best wishes, and please pass on our thanks to all.

Your support enables us to do incredible work with young homeless and vulnerable families.

Regards

Stephen Currid

Fundraising Relationship Manager

Cardinal Hume Centre

Parents will receive an email on Monday afternoon with login details for Schoolgrid. We have appointed them to manage our school lunch orders and payments after Easter.

With an online ordering system all meals need to be ordered and paid for in advance, parents can change menu choices online and all payments will go through Schoolgrid. The school office will have minimal input to the system. For parents who pay for lunches please remember that there is not a credit facility.

There isn't a need to rush to order meals straight away for next term, we will come back to you with details of the advance order period. Some of our summer term events and class visits may change menu options, so please wait a little while until the system is fully ready.

Schoolgrid works with one parent account per child, we have entered that as the first contact on our Pupil Asset system. If you wish to change the adult who will order and pay for lunches you will need to contact the finance team at finance@stcecilias.school.

You can find more information about lunch ordering and the summer term menu on the Parent section of our website, I have also included a menu for you below.

Sutton Local authority and Cognus, their Education partner have launched a new website, link below, which contains more information about the Local Offer for children with additional and special educational needs.

I have contacted Y5 parents via Class Dojo today to let you know of a change of date and accomodation for the Y6 visit in 2023, we have been able to move the visit from April to July, a much better option for us. We will go through the visit in more detail as part of the Year Ahead meeting in September.

March

Monday 21 March - ECAs for this term end this week.

Tuesday 22 March - World Water Day

Wednesday 23 March - Y2 Space Day (Dress Up)

Monday 28 March Y4 Mission Week (CAFOD)

Friday 1 April - End of Term - School closes at Midday.

Saturday 16 April - Reception Class places are announced by the local authority.

April

Wednesday 20 April -

Start of the Summer Term 2022 and Y3 Swimming begins

Friday 22 April - Earth Day

Monday 25 April - Summer Term ECAs begin

Wednesday 27 April - Y2 to Royal Observatory, Greenwich and Y2 to the Philharmonia Concert.

Thursday 28 April - We have a Diocesan Education Officer to look at RE throughout the school.

May

Monday 2 May - school closed for the Bank Holiday

Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 May, Dan Dan the Skipping Man is here - lots of skipping fun!

Monday 9 May KS2 SATs week

Monday 16 May - Year 3 Mission Week - Mary and the Rosary

Thursday 19 May - May Procession, donations of flowers welcome.

Monday 23 May - Year 6 residential visit to Dorset, assessment week in school.

June
Week of Monday 6 June - Y1 phonics check and Y4 multiplication check.

Y6 swimming fortnight begins

Monday 13 June - EYFS Mission Week - Our community and special people

Monday 20 June - World Refugee Week

Thursday 23 June - Sports Day at David Weir Centre for Years 1-6.

July

Monday 4 July - ECAs end this week. Y5 swimming fortnight begins.

Tuesday 5 July - Parent Teacher Meetings in school

Wednesday 6 July - Artsmark Day

Thursday 7 July - Parent Teacher Meetings in school

Friday 8 July - Y6 Campfire and BBQ

Tuesday 12 / Thursday 14 July - Proposed Y6 Performance

Wednesday 20 July - School ends at midday.

We have Mass in the morning and the clapping out ceremony at 1140.

We return on Friday 2nd September 2022.

Other events will be added as the term gets underway and details are confirmed, we will keep in touch with you via Class Dojo, we are still awaiting details on many events.

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

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

News from Cheam Cricket about their cricket club with sessions available at the weekends.