PTA News
February was a great month for fundraising by the PTA with the end-of-term doughnut sale raising £270 net profit and the recent Year 2 & 3 disco adding £960 net profit to school improvement funds. Following the success of the Christmas fair, £6,000 has been allocated to the Children’s School Council.
Working with School Council to enhance break times
School Council representatives from Years 3 to 6 have been involved in a Dragon’s Den-style project, where they researched ideas and pitched them to Mr. Burke, Mrs. Bharkhda, Mrs. Martin, and PTA committee for approval.
Following the ideas received from the pupils, the first phase of money allocated will be used to
- build a traverse climbing wall - if we can fit it in!
- add extra basketball stands
- add ping pong tables and picnic-style game/activity tables in the playground
All of these will greatly help the children enjoy their break times even more than they do now.
Following feedback from the School Council representatives, the PTA are pleased to announce the launch of “St Cecilia’s Gardening Club”. The aim of the gardening club will be to create and maintain calm outdoor spaces, a sensory garden, allotment areas for the growing of vegetables, and to add some colour and life to the existing planters around the grounds. The gardening club will work in conjunction with the children’s School Eco Club, our local Scouts group and we hope will comprise of parents, grandparents, and relatives from our school community.
The children have expressed a desire for more flowers and greenery around the school, and this is our opportunity to deliver that for them. We would like to invite any keen gardeners, anyone looking to learn new skills and develop a new interest, and those looking to give back to their local community to join this project.
We have already started, have a look at the Virgin Mary memorial garden which has had a Spring Clean and we have also added some bird feeders. The pots leading to the office entrance have also been planted.
If you are interested in joining the gardening club, please contact stceciliaspta@ymail.com. We look forward to sharing the results with you in the weeks and months to come.
Year 2&3 Disco
The Year 2 & 3 Junior disco was very successful, with the children being entertained by the amazing Mr. Lolly, along with an offering of incredibly creative face painting, temporary tattoos, lucky dip joy, sweet cones, homemade popcorn, photo booth, and glowsticks.
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to make this event so special for the children, many of which were very excited to be attending their first disco!
Easter Eggstravanza
We will be hosting an Easter Eggstravaganza for our Year 1, Reception and Nursery children on Saturday 25th March from 10am to 12pm. This event will include an Easter Egg Hunt, crafts, a bouncy castle, and an Easter bonnet parade. A letter relating to the event has been sent home this week. If you are able to volunteer on the day please email stceciliaspta@ymail.com.
Finally also in the calendar is a PTA parent & teacher Quiz Night on Friday 28th April which we hope will raise more funds but most importantly community spirit. More details nearer the time, for now, please save the date!
Computing update
At St Cecilia’s we are really proud of our Computing Curriculum. When speaking to the children about their Computing lessons last week they all spoke so enthusiastically and confidently. It was wonderful to hear them use subject-specific vocabulary such as ‘algorithms, decomposition, and nested loops’, to name a few!
When asked about their Computing lessons they responded:
‘I love Computing!’ - Y4 student
‘The brain twisters challenge me, but it’s really fun.’ - Y1 student
‘I like that we learn about computers because technology is becoming more advanced every day and we need to keep up.’ - Y6 student
Progression in knowledge and skills
It was great to see such a range of Computing skills being taught, the Year 3 children in particular were really enjoying polishing their BFG movie trailers. The progression of skills was very impressive throughout the school; from the Year 1 children enthusiastically programming the BeeBots, up to the Year 6 children using Python - a complex programming language.
We are currently updating our Computing curriculum to embed the use of the DASH Wonder robots throughout KS2. This will help to deepen the children’s knowledge of Computer Science and programming skills further.
Our children are online safety experts - are you?
Online safety lessons are taught in the first week of each half term across the school and we follow the Internet Legends scheme of work by Google. Even our youngest children are able to give top tips on how to stay safe online. For more information on this please visit Parent Zone, where they help families to become safer and more confident explorers of the online world.
ECAs
Our Computing themed ECAs have also been very successful this year. Children across the key stages have been really enjoying their various ‘Coding Clubs’, which are helping them to become more confident in lessons.
Digital Leaders
Finally, I’d like to say thank you to our Digital Leaders from Year 6, pictured below. They have been taking their role very seriously and becoming more actively involved in the wider school community. It has been lovely to have them visiting some of the younger classes, where they have offered support and encouragement in our Computing lessons.
Miss Moore
Subject Leader for Computing and Digital Innovation
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School
Email: office@stcecilias.school
Website: www.stcecilias.school
Phone: 020 8337 4566