Dear Parents,
We have arrived at the penultimate newsletter of the year and with lots of events still to take place from sports day to moving up morning. Now, our attention begins to turn towards our Year 6s and their send-off after their time here at Sheen Mount, as primary school draws to a close for them. Events for Year 6 involve their production, assembly and party.
However, before all that, I look forward to seeing lots of the community at the Summer Fair on Saturday.
Reports - new report format
Please see attached a letter and a sample copy of the new reports.
Reports go out on Thursday 13th July and Friday 14th July. As each one is individually sent with password protect, we need two days to do this. This means you may get one of your children's reports before the other. Please be patient and the reports will arrive by the end of Friday.
Moving up morning
Classes for 2023-2024 will be emailed out tomorrow afternoon and the children will be told their new class in school before they leave on Friday.
Monday morning will be moving up morning from 9.15 - 11.45am, therefore drop off and pick up will be from the classrooms from this academic year. We have extended the moving up morning, in order to provide greater transition. Alongside this, we have included a range of initiatives to greater aid transitions between classes - from buddy classes giving top tips, to teachers watching their new class being taught, to having more time to discuss and pass on information about their current class.
Cycle ride to Paris
Firstly, thank you to all the school community for the wonderful send - off we received; there were a fair few emotional cyclists as we re-grouped in Richmond Park.
As you will have seen, we all successfully made it and despite the various speeds between the groups, we all met outside Paris within 30 minutes of each other. We managed to cycle the last 2km as a group of 50 right up to the Eiffel Tower.
Special thanks go to the 12 parents who performed the role of group leaders with patience and care. Extra special thanks go to Cara MacGregor who has managed to ensure 50 people followed all the right instructions from all the necessary admin to training routines over a number of months.
From the four staff members who took part (myself, Miss Bolton, Mrs Kate Jeffery and Patricia in the office) we were delighted to be involved in a school community event with the PSA. It was a real whole school and collective event.
If you or anyone outside our community would still like to donate, the link is here - https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/smride2paris
Until next time......
Sports day: KS2 Thursday 6th July and KS1 Friday 7th July
Timings - 9.30am start - 11.30/12pm. On Sheen Common - near West Temple Sheen Road entrance.
We are trying a new format with half the amount of rotation activities than last year and then children competing in a sprint against others from their class and a colour team shuttle relay within year groups. The KS2 tug of war remains and kick-starts everything off!
Could I please ask all parents to keep behind the cones at each rotation and then at the sprint track. Dogs should be kept well away from children. You should not need to have any contact with your children - this all helps us with our safeguarding and health and safety procedures.
Strikes
You will have seen the email from yesterday. Please note no school events are having to be re-arranged at this time.
Summer Fair
We look forward to welcoming everyone to the Summer Fair on Saturday 1st July from 11- 3pm. Thank you in advance to all those who are helping on the day or have given their time up to organise events.
Scooter amnesty
There is a second hand bike sale at the fair and any scooters still on site on Saturday morning will be put into the sale. We constantly have scooters left in the school over a period of months; please take any home on Friday evening.
Artist wanted
We would like to renovate the 'tunnel' between the older part of the school (Y1/2) and the new block (Y3/4). The school will clean and paint it, and we would like to put a mural or equivalent on the white walls. Ideally, someone would give their time up for this, either a parent or a contact. Please let me know if you are aware of anyone willing to do this.
Requests please: parking/football in the playground before and after school/taking care with belongings in cars
Parking - Please be more respectful of our own school community and our wider neighbour community with your parking. I stood on Christchurch road yesterday morning and in 10 minutes, 8 cars blocked local drives and 2 stopped on zigzag lines. West Temple Sheen suffers from the same issue. As this is a frustrating minority, I feel my only future action is to take pictures of the guilty vehicles and post them in newsletters.
Football in the playground - Please support the school in ensuring football or other ball sports are not played in the playground after or before school. A KS2 parent was hit this week by a flying ball. It is frustrating when myself or Mrs O'Brien wander over to see parents watching their children playing ball sports. A reminder that children should not be on playground equipment at these times either.
Also, I am informed a car was broken into on West Temple Sheen at 5.50pm this week due to a bag being left on the front seat. Please be careful with what you leave on show.
JAG - Wrap around care
Wrap around care has become an important part of a school's general offer and in the past year I have had over five substantial meetings with JAG (Junior Adventure Group) previously known as FitForSport. Typically, this has been with managers who oversee numerous venues, rather than just the manager of ours.
At the beginning I believed the service they were providing the children could be improved. The two key elements of this were greater engagement from their staff and better resources/provision. I am pleased to say they responded to this feedback with honesty and a 'can do' attitude. I can see (the window from my office looks directly onto their provision) that substantial improvements have been made. We have also discussed a desire for an improvement in the quality of the camps that run in the holidays.
Whilst we want, and need, the provision to be the best it can be for your children, the school also gains income from JAG. Some of this income is related to the number of children who attend. Please see attached a leaflet with their new summer camp programme which takes place at school.
Coding enrichment opportunity
Please see information below for a coding event in London on Sunday for children 10 and above.
https://events.bafta.org/event/view.php?id=1618:d448-9f2c
Have a good weekend.
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
Maria O'Brien - Deputy Headteacher
