Dear parents and carers,
A busy time of year in a very short half-term. I hope you found the parent consultation evenings useful last week – they are an important part of the link between home and school. It was also great to see a high turnout at the food tasting event on the same date as sharing our learning. We also had World Book Day last week, which all the children enjoyed.
We look forward to the PSA quiz tomorrow night with a record sell out and new rounds!
SCHOOL FUND REMINDER
Staffing news
Congratulations to Mrs Humphreys who is pregnant, with her baby due in September. She will be with us for all of this academic year.
School events
Music – Orchestra from Mrs Boa and Mrs Wrigglesworth
Our orchestra had a wonderful afternoon when they took part in the Richmond Schools Ensemble event at the Exchange Theatre in Twickenham. This was a fantastic opportunity for our musicians to play, rehearse and perform alongside other musicians (children and adults) from around the Borough. At the end of the day, each school ensemble played on the stage in a concert for parents. Our orchestra gave a fantastic performance of Pirates of the Caribbean. We were extremely proud of them. Mrs Boa and Mrs Wrigglesworth thought it was brilliant and loved joining in the ensembles with the children!
Our talented music ambassadors all took part in the event. Lyla, percussionist, said, "I loved being there and playing in one huge orchestra and loved listening to other groups play.“
Paula, violinist, said, “I loved seeing different instruments which I hadn’t heard before.”
Emilia, clarinettist, stated, “I like playing the pieces and hearing other instruments which we don't have in our orchestra.”
Kit, the clarinettist, enjoyed listening to the drum kit and Kingsley liked learning the pieces alongside cellos, double bass violin and viola!
Girls Football
After finishing as runners-up in the Brentford tournament for regional schools, the team went and represented the club in a regional Premier League tournament at West Ham's training ground. They successfully negotiated their way to the semi-finals, by remaining unbeaten against primary schools representing Millwall, Leyton Orient, Crystal Palace, Tottenham, Charlton and QPR.
In the tight 9-minute matches they went to the dreaded penalties in the semi-final where they were on the wrong end of a golden penalty loss. However..... the top four teams qualified for the national finals in June, at a Premier League ground yet to be announced!
Y4 & Y5 St Paul’s Tournaments
It is great to be invited to these tournaments with 8 local schools at St Paul's senior school. The Year 4 team had an excellent run last week but, unfortunately, they lost on penalties in the semi-final. We managed to send two teams to the Year 5 event, which meant that 15 children took part. Neither team managed to progress to the semi-finals, but great effort and enjoyment was had by the team.
Many thanks to parent and football coach Cameron Daniel-Murphy for taking some of these teams and volunteering his time. It greatly helps with the capacity within Mr Brown's role.
Netball
The team had their borough tournament last week. After sailing through 8 games, they found themselves in the semi-finals where, unfortunately, their run came to an end. A fantastic achievement by the team to win 8 games in a row, and they will now turn their attention to the league. They have already won their last 16 matches and are through to the quarter-finals.
Basketball
Our Year 4 basketball team went to the Richmond Knights tournament this week. The team competed very well and finished a strong 3rd out of 9 schools. Well done to the team.
Ambassadors
National Careers Week from our news ambassadors – Alona, Anna, Mina, Lois, Monty
Last week was National Careers Week and Year 6 participated in several live webinars to learn about green jobs in nature. The aim is to help young people become more aware of their career choices and help them identify any support they need on their journey.
Agro-farming – Claire Byers talked to us about the importance of trees. This webinar was really great because we now all know about the danger trees are facing and how we can help them. Trees play a very important part in our lives and we should all try our best to save them. Even if you do a very small thing, it will help.
Ecologist – This webinar was hosted by Marie McAvan. Being an ecologist makes a great impact on the natural world. People who work in the field keep wildlife unharmed and try their best to keep the natural environment and the animals in it safe and protected. Being an ecologist strengthens your teamwork, problem-solving, communication, physical fitness and data analysis skills.
Conservationist – On Thursday, we had a webinar about steps to become a conservationist and loads more. We were told about the skills that you need to become a conservationist. They were: communication, talking, teamwork, listening, being active, confidence and knowledge of many different subjects.Also what you can do to support this job are:start wildlife gardening, build a bug hotel, start an eco-club, clean up litter and tell your friends. You can visit Camley Street National Park and Walthamstow Wetlands to learn more about and support the London Wildlife Trust.
It was interesting to hear all about the different professions, what they involve and how to train in these careers. Mrs Sroka will be sending out information about Careers Week at Sheen Mount very soon. We are very excited to help organise this in the summer term.
Parking
As per the separate email sent to all parents, please be considerate of our community on Christchurch road and please park in the right places.
Spring Concerts
A reminder, these are coming up before the end of term for R, Y1 and Y2. The Reception Concert will definitely be in the school hall on Thursday 19th March at 2.30pm.
The plan for the Y1/2 concert is to always be outside for the spring concert. We can no longer have two year groups of parents in the hall for one performance under health and safety guidance. The date is Wednesday 25th March at 2.30pm. If there is poor weather, we will have to put two performances on in the hall, at 2pm and 2.45pm – we will make a decision at the beginning of that week.
Payment for meals/swimming
The amount the school has taken in for this payment has dropped by nearly 50% this year. We have listened to feedback and put it altogether as a bundle in order to help with ease of payment. The other slight surprise is the uptake of payment is a lot higher in the younger years than the older years. The costs to the school are obviously the same regardless of age!
As you are no doubt acutely aware, costs and prices are rising the whole time and this area is no different.
We will have to increase this voluntary requested amount next year as the gap between government funding and the catering costs per meal widens. When they use the term 'free 'meals (universal across the country in R/KS1 and in London for KS2) this means they are giving schools a set amount of money. Now, the money received through these schemes does not cover the cost of the meal.
Originally, we were also trying to cover our costs of the equipment in the kitchen and the utilities costs within the swimming pool; both of which are our responsibility.
The option to pay is on Arbor and thank you for your support with this matter.
Red Nose Day
This is next Friday 20th March.
Children can come to school dressed in one red item of clothing and a red nose (not to be worn in the classroom!) and a joke or two. The link for fundraising will be sent next week.
PSA-new committee members needed
The PSA need new committee members – please see their note below. We have had incredibly successful PTAs over recent years, working in close conjunction with the school. We have worked together to have phenomenal fundraising projects, enriching the children's education and purposeful community events.
If you're interested in joining the PSA committee from the autumn term this year, or would like to find out more about what the committee does, please do email Clara (clarazmnelson@gmail.com) or Kath (haugekath@gmail.com).
Should you wish to contact me directly, please do so on headteacher@sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk
Have a good weekend
Best wishes
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
