Dear Parents
This Week in School:
I am delighted to tell you that Teaching and Learning has been really positive in school this week! I have had the pleasure of meeting with lots of children (at a social distance of course!) who have done really great work – not necessarily those who always do great work (though some of those too!), but children who have made great strides of progress in their own learning! From a child in Year 1 who wrote a great description of the big bad wolf to some children in Year 6 who created their own myths, based on Perseus and Medusa, it has been great to see how children across the school are getting back into the rhythms of school life and progressing so quickly, as if to make up for lost time! There have been many well-earned Headteacher’s Awards this week – not only for Writing, but also for Maths, RE and Art, while others have been earned for service to the school or for being kind to others! We enjoy celebrating the small individual successes of our school community and we know there will be many more to come this half-term.
This week in school, we celebrated Remembrance Day on Wednesday, with all classes stopping at 11am to observe a two minute silence to remember those who had died. The children, even the youngest children, showed good understanding of the Poppy symbol and why we were stopping to remember. Especially this year, we felt it was important to maintain this tradition.
During their Mission Week this week, Blue Class have been exploring the theme of “Thank You!” and creating thank you cards for people who help us. They spoke beautifully and we were very proud of them for presenting their first class assembly via Zoom! Well done Blue Class! Next week is Violet Class’ turn for Mission Week!
Thank you to families who supported the PA Textile Collection on Wednesday, enabling us to turn your textiles into cash for the Parent Association to put towards exciting projects which benefit all of our children. The next PA event will be our first ever “Virtual Balloon Race” – adapted for real-time weather conditions! We are looking forward to seeing whose balloon wins – do join in if you can! Info attached. Thank you too to those who brought coats for the Coat Collection – these will be donated to the charity “Wrap up London” who are collecting them for the homeless in London over the winter months.
Next Week in School:
Please remember that Monday is “Odd Socks Day” – the collective worship theme for the day will focus on preventing bullying in schools and we will be supporting the children to remember the strategies to use in school if they see any repeated unkind behaviour. Violet Class will take this as the theme for their Mission Week and will share their reflections about preventing bullying on Friday in their Class Assembly.
Next week is also Road Safety Awareness Week. Parents have made me aware that there was a very near-miss on Arch Road this week, where a child who was cycling without a helmet wasn’t seen by a driver (parent) performing a three-point turn in the road. This was very nearly a very nasty accident and we must all take steps to ensure that we keep our children safe. Please remember:
- No-one should drive down Arch Road at pick up or drop off times – it isn’t safe for our children.
- Children cycling to school, whether accompanied or not, should wear a cycle helmet for protection. If you have any difficulty supplying a cycle helmet, please speak to school about this.
Our children need to be trained to be aware of traffic dangers. As you’ve already heard, over the next week or two, all of our classes will be completing work on road safety awareness and all (except Reception) will be going out on the local roads to practise their skills. Do talk to your children about what they have learned and help them to practise their awareness if you’re out and about over the weekends.
Y6 Garnet Class Mass had to be postponed this week and so Fr Bill will be coming in on Friday to celebrate a year group “Class Mass” for Amethyst and Garnet Classes together. Parents will also be able to join us via Zoom at 2:30pm.
Two further Zoom events this week:
Prospective Reception Parents Zoom Q and A – Tuesday 17th 4-5pm – If you, or anyone you know, is planning to apply to Cardinal Newman for Reception next year, do join this Zoom call to ask any questions you may have. If you haven’t already received it, the Open Morning presentation is available via the School Office.
Coffee and Conversation Zoom Q and A – for current parents on Thursday morning at 9:15am. Please submit any general questions or ideas in advance to the school office office@cardinalnewmanschool.co.uk
Further Ahead:
We are planning a Newman Art Gallery in the school corridors and wondered whether any parents might have picture frames which are looking for a new home. The frames should be big enough to take an A4 piece of work, but can be any shape, size or colour. The more old-fashioned or quirky the better! All donations welcome – please send them in with your child and we will quarantine them before use. Thank you!
We are looking ahead to the Christmas season (you may already have heard some tunes – sorry about that!) and we will have more news to share with you in due course. As best we can, we will try to maintain our traditions while adapting to the new way of the world! Watch this space!
And..it wouldn’t be a 2020 newsletter without any mention of a certain virus! Just to say a huge thank you to all of you for all your support and compliance with the new arrangements for pick-up and generally around school. We know it is a real challenge in many respects – it is challenging for staff as well as for parents – but we are so delighted to have our children in school learning and thriving. Their smiling faces and their leaps of progress make all the complex logistics worthwhile and we are so pleased to be able to keep going through the second lockdown.
Thank you for your continued patience and support. All the best for the weekend.
Catherine Burnham
