Dear parents and carers,
A Tuesday newsletter this week as I am with the Year 5s on their PGL trip from Wednesday to Friday.
Welcome to the last half-term and Summer 2, and hopefully the summer weather will come back next week!
This is actually one of the busiest half-terms with so many events. It was great to see Year 2 and Reception start their forest school learning last week, and we have had some other unique school trips taking place – please see below for these.
We are already beginning to turn our thoughts to the new children coming into Reception at the start of next academic year. The first 'Stay and Play' event for them is on Tuesday 16th June.
As you can see from below, there are numerous PSA and school events coming up in the next few weeks, really highlighting the community feel of our school.
SCHOOL FUND REMINDER
Staffing
Please see attached our class teacher announcement for September 2026. The class allocation will be emailed to parents on Friday 3rd July – when the children will also be told which teacher they will be having, before the 'Moving Up' morning on Monday 6th July.
Girls Football – National Champions!
There is no better place to start this week than our amazing girls who, on the last day before half-term, represented Brentford Football Club in a national tournament. Having progressed through three other stages, the girls were given the opportunity to play at Wolverhampton Wanderers Stadium against 15 other teams who had qualified for this national event. After a draw and three victories, they made their way through the group stage. In their semi-final, the game finished 2-2 and the dreaded penalties awaited.
Having lost two tournaments on penalties, the girls had been practising hard and this paid off with a 3-2 win. In the final, they played with great confidence, winning 3-1. What an experience and what a win! We are very proud of their teamwork, resilience and hard-work; rumour has it there were a few tears flowing from Mr Brown.
Article from Brentford- https://www.brentfordfccst.com/en/news/article/sheen-mount-primary-school-take-glory-at-premier-league-primary-stars-national-girls-football-tournament?mc_cid=41e20d22e2
School Improvement Work
The final piece of last year's fundraising from the cycle is happening the w/c 22nd June with the re-surfacing of 'the cage.' It has taken us a long time to find the right contractor, but we are finally ready. We have already installed new fencing in the half-term to make the area safe.
We have also requested the PSA to fund an exciting 'Dream Mile' course around our playgrounds. The idea of this is for children not to have to change into PE kits, but get some daily exercise around this track. We have added some exciting activities around the trail to make it more interesting. We are looking for this to be installed on the w/c 29th June. Please see attached for the full plan.
School Events
Chess Tournament
Congratulations to our chess team who competed in the semi-final of the national championships on Sunday. They won more than half their games and thank you to the parents and our chess club for their support.
Annual Music Concert
This will take place on Tuesday 23rd June from 6.30pm-7.30pm. All parents and children are welcome. Opportunities for those to play have already been sent out on a Google form.
Science Trip to St Mary's University-Phoebe and Jamie
Last week on Friday, a group of children from year 6 went on a trip to St Mary’s University for the engineering and robotics workshop. Arriving 15 minutes early, we got a head start on the starter activities, including making a house of cards, a marble maze and a tower of toothpicks and Blu Tac. There were three main activities: one group looked at American delivery robots and used BeeBots with carriages to transport marbles; another group made a prototype to solve the problem of space debris damaging the ISS (International Space Station); and the final group made a robot car to go to Giza pyramids to discover what was in a shaft where there was no entrance big enough for a human. Our highlights were when the BeeBot group I was in (Jamie) made an entire enterprise and mine (Phoebe) was when we did the presentation and demonstrated what ours did.
NPL Science Trip-Doga and Athea Y6
On the 3rd of June, a group of 19 children went on a science trip to NPL (National Physical Laboratory). The first activity we did was making a rocket with two empty plastic bottles, tape and a tennis ball, then launched it by pumping air using a bike pump and pulling a string to blast it off. The next task we did was a science themed escape room (we weren’t locked in for safety reasons) where we completed different science questions. The answer gave us a symbol and at the end there was a code that we used to escape. After that, we saw some professional scientists display an experiment with liquid nitrogen. After some safety briefing, some children were picked to smash some flowers on the table after dipping into the nitrogen. Finally, we were led to a room where different scientists helped us do some experiments, such as optical illusions! My highlight (Doga) was when I won a prize for guessing how many mini robots were in a jar (answer: 700) . My highlight (Athea) was when someone smashed a flower that had been in nitrogen onto a table. We all had lots of fun learning new science related things at The National Physical Laboratory.
Intergenerational Music Event for 4B from Mrs Boa, 4B class teacher and Music Lead
On Friday, 4B went to the Sheen Lane Day Centre to participate in the first session of a 6-week music project called Intergenerational Music Making. This is a wonderful way of using music and song to enable different generations to connect with each other. 4B met elderly members of the Sheen Lane Day Centre community. This is the first time we have been invited to take part in a project like this, which allows the same group of children to develop empathy, communication skills whilst bringing joy and companionship to the elderly. It was wonderful to observe the kindness and care 4B showed and the response of the people there was heartwarming. It really demonstrated the positive impact music can have on our own lives and the lives of others. We are looking forward to our next session on Friday.
Florian - I think it was good because we met some old people who might not have anyone else to be with.
Aiden - It is a very good way of learning how older people work in different ways. I was surprised how many could play the music. I can tell they enjoyed it because they were laughing and smiling a lot.
Dominic - I liked how they were putting their emotions into the music. They were smiling and it made me want to smile back.
School Film
Thank you for the positive feedback on the new school film, it will shortly be posted on the school website. The version I emailed out was the proof, so the community could see a version as soon as possible. The one on the website will not be different in content.
Ambassadors – Language-Miss Herring
The language ambassadors are enthusiastic about their role, and have suggested many great ideas about how to celebrate languages in our school. They are looking forward to conducting their own school survey in a few weeks to find out how many children speak another language, so look out for a display of their findings! They have shared why they enjoy languages and why they wanted to become a language ambassador.
George- I enjoy learning languages because it helps you communicate with people from different parts of the world, in a language other than English.
Adam- I like languages because they allow you to communicate with people from different countries.
Defne - I wanted to become a language ambassador because I know some different languages and I know how it feels to learn a new language.
Careers week w/c 15th June
Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help with this week. Mrs Sroka, our Enrichment Lead, is organising the event and the timetabling can get very complex; so thank you to her as well.
We had our first careers week two years ago, and it was incredibly successful and a unique, exciting experience for our children.
New Sound System in the Main Hall
After many years of squeaking speakers, we have a fantastic new sound system and speakers in the hall. The PSA have paid for the equipment and many thanks go to Mads Hauge for advising us and installing the equipment on a very warm Bank Holiday Monday.
PSA events
Thursday 18th June PSA Disco. In school for Reception and after school at staggered times for Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6.
Friday 19th June PSA Parents' Party at school.
Saturday 4th July Summer Fair
Community
'Families together' coffee morning with a range of guest speakers and organisations. Please see notification of this event-
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfw5PNLqvCudUXqfgYq0d3gJ40x-1HxbC5LGkT3nCC6k7SoZQ/viewform
Young entrepreneurs event in Twickenham on Sunday
Please see below for a new young person's once-a-month market. Please let us know if any budding entrepreneurs attend the event.
https://configuracademy.com/young-founders-market
Celebrate bike week. Sunday 14th June. Please click on the link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SL7vIkdkcCR0vv093ZuWddiDTkBaBJ_Q/view
Should you wish to contact me directly, please do so on headteacher@sheenmount.richmond.sch.uk
Best wishes
Tom Holmes - Headteacher
