Dear Parents
Thank you for all your support through another busy week at Cardinal Newman. It has been so lovely to continue to welcome parents and wider family into school to join us for school events once more. Children and staff really appreciate all your support for the below events – thank you.
Welcome Assembly
This morning, Year 6 Garnet Class welcomed our new Reception children to Cardinal Newman School. It was great to have the little ones in the school hall with us once more and Garnet Class shared their memories of their first days in school and some advice for how to settle into our school family. We sang our traditional “Welcome to the Family” song and enjoyed poems and role plays from Year 6. Reception children were very brave, coming into the big hall and waving to their Mums and Dads who were there to see them.
Y6 Mission Week
As part of their Mission Week, every class chooses an Act of Service. For Garnet Class, this time they chose “Welcome” as their theme and they baked / bought cakes and biscuits to welcome the Reception parents and children. As part of their service to the school, they led tours of the school for new parents and served cake, as well as going out onto the Reception playground to reminisce and to enjoy playing with the newest members of our school family! Well done Garnet Class! Photos here
Y3 Mass and Breakfast
Year 3 families were the first to participate in the “First Friday” Mass celebration at St Erconwald’s at 8am this morning. It was wonderful to see all the children and their siblings and friends come forward to Fr Ruslan for a blessing. Well done to the children for their lovely singing and reading at Mass. For many of the children it was the first time they had been physically inside a church for a little while, so they were very excited to be back. Fr Ruslan asked the children to pray for their parents and their teachers and to say thank you to them for all their efforts to make them happy. We are looking forward to next “First Friday”(Fri 5th Nov) when it will be the turn of the Year 6 families. Year 3 enjoyed breakfast in school after Mass, prolonging both the celebration and the excitement (not least when the fire alarm went off)!
Prayer Council – Foodbank
Thank you to all parents who sent in food for the Walton and Hersham Foodbank – they were very grateful and they took receipt of 95.1 kilos of food on Wednesday! Well done to the Prayer Council members from Y5 who sorted and delivered all the donations for us!
Coffee and Conversation
Thank you to parents who attended Coffee and Conversation on Wednesday morning after drop off. It is always helpful to have the opportunity to chat and discuss future plans for the school. A summary of the Coffee and Conversation meeting can be found here – parent consultations, COVID guidance and diversity were discussed, among other things!
Covid Guidance
Just briefly to make all parents aware of the COVID guidance and any further changes which may be necessary. All of us very much hope that we can continue full steam ahead as we currently are, but it is always wise to be prepared and with that in mind there are documents on the school website sharing both the school’s current risk assessment and the “outbreak management plan.”
At present, there is only one case of COVID among our school population and all other PCR tests have come back negative. Staff continue to test using Lateral Flow tests twice weekly and we encourage all visitors to school to test before coming into school if they can do so. Prevention is preferable to the alternative!
Some schools locally have already had to implement their “outbreak management plan” due to having numbers of cases in a specific class or year group. In that case, it might be necessary to make specific changes to our current freedoms, e.g. around school lunchtimes, school assemblies in the hall and around mixing between classes. It is not foreseen that there would be any need to send children home unless they are symptomatic, but it might become necessary to limit visitors (including parents) to school.
Please be assured that we will keep you informed as to the situation in school and about any changes which may be necessary. Let us hope and pray that will not be required! Thank you for your continued support as we work together to do the best for our whole community.
Live streaming
We would like to make parents aware that our local parishes live stream their Masses from time to time. St Erconwald’s live stream all Masses said for the wider parish – this allows those who are housebound / shielding to attend Mass virtually, so do let friends and neighbours know if this may be of interest to them. The links can be found for St. Erconwalds’ here and for St. Barnabas/All Saints click here.
Please be aware that this also means that when our children join the parish for Mass during their Mission Week or at another time, the backs of their heads may be seen on screen and they may be seen briefly receiving Holy Communion. If you are uncomfortable with this, do let us know and we will ensure that your child remains out of sight of the camera for the duration of Mass. This does also mean that you can join the Mass virtually if you are unable to attend with your child’s class in person – grandparents and relatives who live further away have been especially keen to be involved in this way.
Music Mark
Congratulations to Mrs Kareem and all of our staff who deliver Music teaching – Cardinal Newman has been re-awarded the national Music Mark Award, recognising the fabulous music provision which is on offer at Cardinal Newman!
Inspection
Thank you to all parents who completed the questionnaires and those who met with our Catholic Schools Inspectors in person. They were most impressed with our wonderful children, especially with their impeccable behaviour and their excellent religious literacy. We hope to be able to share the final report with parents before the end of this half-term.
INSET next Fri
Next week there is no school on Friday, as it is an In-service Training Day for all Xavier staff. We hope you will be able to take advantage of public places being quieter locally during the week and perhaps enjoy some time together as a family. Let’s hope the weather cheers up!
Feast Day Mass – All welcome!
Next Thursday – 7th October – is therefore the closest day (when we will be in school) to St John Henry Newman’s feast day (Saturday 9th Oct). We will celebrate the feast day all day in school, beginning with Mass said by Fr Ruslan and supported by Year 4 children at 9:30am in the school hall for the whole school. For the first time ever, we are delighted to welcome parents to join us for our whole school Mass (we now finally have space!) and for refreshments afterwards. Please do join us if you would like to!
Bishop Richard visit – Thursday 14th October
Looking ahead to the following week, Bishop Richard will be coming to school to bless our new school hall and to bless our school family. Year 5 (Emerald) will lead collective worship on that day and all are most welcome.
Thank you again for all your support! Please remember all of our school families in your prayers, especially those who are facing difficulties at the current time.
We wish you all a very happy weekend, despite the rain forecast!
Catherine Burnham
Headteacher
