St Cecilia's News

Dear Parents,

Governing Body

Congratulations to Mrs Carol Riha who has been elected uncontested to the position of Parent Governor for a period of office of 4 years. We are really grateful to Carol for coming forward and offering her skills to the Governing Body. We have other new governors this term, more news about them once we have met them all in the next half term.

Half term and training day

We close for the half term holiday next Friday, how the half term has flown by! Please don't forget that we are closed on Monday 30th for one of our staff training days, we do try to attach them to holidays when possible.

With best wishes, have a good half term when it arrives,

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

Notifying us of absences

Now that we are fully settled in to the Arbor management system can we ask that all absences are notified to the school office via email at office@stcecilias.school.

Whilst there is an in-app function to message the school, we prefer an email from you as we can easily forward this on if required.

Class teachers cannot edit attendance information, there is no need to contact them on Dojo. You must however notify the office via the office email, we can then update the system and the teacher will see the reason for absence on Arbor.

Requesting absence from learning in advance

To simplify matters, if you are requesting absence from school for your child you can now request this via email to office@stcecilias.school as well. There is no longer a requirement to complete a form. Don't forget that we are unable to authorise most absences in term time. Whilst sickness and medical appointments can be authorised, most other requests are not. The Government policy is that all holiday must be taken in holiday periods, even if your family are a long haul flight away.

We must follow guidance from both the Department for Education and Sutton Local Authority.

Please keep an eye on your child's attendance on the Arbor app. We expect all children and families to be aiming for 100%, most children gain 96%+ over the year. Children with attendance below 90% - that equates to twenty days of absence over the school year - are deemed to be persistent absentees. Currently, 15% of our students are Persistent Absentees, hopefully this will improve as the school year progresses!

Updating your details

Whilst in Arbor please make sure to check your details and provide us with at least two contacts per child just in case we need to reach out to you in an emergency.

Thanks to all those who came along to the PTA Annual General Meeting this week, we truly appreciate the support that the PTA provide to the school in so many ways.

A reminder of events coming up:

Doughnut Sale

Friday 20th October, after school. £1 per doughnut.

Race Night for Parents

Friday 3rd November, starts at 7pm and first race at 7.30pm. A fun and sociable night with 8 races, see the poster below. To book a ticket at £7 please visit the PTA online booking system at yourpta.square.site. There is a link to the site below. All funds raised come back to supporting the school with extras to support the children's wider school experience.

Christmas Fair

Saturday 2nd December - please save the data and if you can volunteer or help out in some way please get in touch with the PTA directly at stceciliaspta@ymail.com.

Children's Christmas Cards

Each year the PTA arrange for the children to design their own Christmas Card at home, parents can then arrange through the PTA for the design to be professionally produced. The design sheet will come home to you with instructions next week. Artwork must be returned with payment by Monday 6th November.

London Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM3 9DL

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

October

16th - Y1 Mission Week

18th - Netball match at home v Nonsuch

23-27th - Half term - We get new gates and fencing!

30th Training Day - School Closed

November

1st - Parent Teacher Meeting booking opens at 20:00 - we expect this to be on Arbor.

1st - All Saints Day Mass for students in Y3-6 at 2pm.

3rd - Attendance, Reading Writing and Maths attainment report published for Y1-6

3rd - PTA Race Night

7th - Parent-Teacher Meeting for all classes N-6

9th - School Photographer

16th - Parent-teacher Meetings for all classes N-6

20th - Y6 Sutton Junior Citizen at Sutton Life Centre

22nd - St Cecilia's Day Concert - 1:45pm.

27th - Y5 swimming Fortnight begins

27th - Y3 St Augustine Class Assembly

December

2nd - PTA Christmas Fair

4th Y6 Mission Week

7th Y6 Sleepout

12th Y2 Nativity 2pm.

20th - Candlelit Carols

20th - Term ends for Nursery

21st - Term ends at Midday, no afternoon childcare.

21st - Attendance and levels for all national Curriculum subjects published Y1-6, EYFS levels for Reception and Nursery.

You can find our term dates for this year and next on our website, link for you below. We have just one training day left for this year, this will be notified after Christmas, in will be in the Spring or Summer terms.

https://www.stcecilias.school/News/Term-dates/