Dear Parents
Happy Easter! Today we have celebrated our Easter Mass in school, led beautifully by Father Bill and our Year 2 children. It was really joyous to hear “This is the day that the Lord has made!” and “Sing it in the valleys!”. We look forward to the day when we are not relying on Zoom (!) and are able to sing together again all in the same room, whether that will first be the church or our new hall!
As you will have seen, the new hall is progressing well and is beginning to look great! There is some work still to be completed in the interior of the hall and I am pleased to report that the Parent Association and the Governors’ Hall Extension Fund authorised the purchase of our new tiered seating over the Easter holidays! This will be installed at the end of August and should be ready for use from the Autumn Term onwards. The seating is retractable, so both hall spaces can be used together with the hall seating, but we will also be able to fold it away to use the hall spaces separately as individual halls! Thank you to the Parent Association and to the Governors for all their hard work organising the funding of the seating and of course, a huge thank you to all the parents who contributed! We are looking forward to having the seating in use next term!
We are delighted that Forest School has started again in the sunshine of the Summer Term and Year 4 Coral Class have been out today, getting up close and hands on with some trees! We hope there will be opportunities for all our children to have worked with Mrs Coleman in the Environmental Area by the end of term, so look out for your child’s turn if they haven’t already had Forest School this academic year!
The Summer Term dates will be sent out next week – we have similarly tried to include every class in a Mission Week, so that all children have had an opportunity to present in a Class Assembly this academic year. Sadly the class assemblies will still be via Zoom for the Summer Term, but we are looking forward to welcoming all parents back into school at some point this term to see the classrooms and inspect at first hand the works that have been taking place while we’ve all been outdoors keeping COVID-safe! Keep an eye out for this date (which is dependent on the hall completion date and on Government guidance and is likely to be the latter part of the Summer Term).
Thank you to all parents who have dropped their children off before school for Sports Clubs or who have picked up after school! It has been fantastic to see the amazing take up for clubs this term – although the PE clubs are optional, most children have opted in and this is great for their mental wellbeing and for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. If you are dropping off for early morning clubs, please do be on time – it can be logistically difficult to ensure children reach the club if they are dropped off late and it also disrupts the club for the other children. Thank you for your support with this.
Our school “Wrap Around Care” – Whizz Kids – offers before and after school care for children between 7:50am and 6pm. We have this term expanded our Friday afternoon provision and have a few more spaces available if you are interested. For parents who are on the waiting list for Whizz Kids, it is worth being aware that according to our admissions criteria, additional spaces are first offered to those with children already in Whizz Kids, so if you are hoping to get a child into Whizz Kids in September, it is worth taking a Friday afternoon space now to increase their chances of other available spaces for September. September allocation for Whizz Kids will take place after half-term. If you have any queries about Whizz Kids, please contact Mrs O’Halloran on wraparoundcare@cardinalnewmanschool.co.uk.
Walton and Hersham Foodbank have been in touch to thank our community for the wonderful donations of food during Lent. When we delivered the food, they had received very few donations that week and they were delighted to receive so much food from our St Joseph’s Day collection. They were also very thankful for the letters from Year 4, who had written to thank the Foodbank volunteers for all their hard work looking after families in our local community! Well done to our community of Learners, Believers and Friends for so generously supporting others!
Finally, please do take note of the London Irish Open Day for children aged 4-18 on Sunday 27th June (information below). This is being held in conjunction with a local children’s mental health charity “Bee-lieve” and aims to promote children’s health and wellbeing in the community.
Wishing all of you a very happy weekend ahead.
All best wishes
Catherine Burnham
