CCI Newsletter 13th - 17th October 2025

Cheam Common Infants' Academy

Weekly Newsletter

Monday 13th - Friday 17th October 2025

Cheam Common Infants' Academy: Balmoral Road, Worcester Park, KT4 8SS

Email: ccioffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk https://www.cheamcommoninfants.com/

Message from the Principal

This week, I want to extend a huge thank you to all the children for remembering not to scoot or ride bikes on the playground. It has been great to see how respectful and considerate everyone has been in adhering to this request, making the playground a much safer place for all.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Phonics workshop this week, 'Yellow group and beyond, the pathway to fluency.' The slides from this workshop have been linked below.

I am absolutely delighted to share the news that Cheam Common Infants has been awarded not only the regional but also the national Edurio award for being a top 'parent choice.' This incredible recognition is based on national survey data from the 2024/25 academic year. Edurio's national awards celebrate the top 10 performing schools in the country, and their regional awards celebrate the top performing school in a region based on a key question for the award category. As Principal, this news fills my heart with immense pride as we continually strive to be a school of choice, not only for parents but also for the children. I love to see the children come into the school gates every day with their beaming smiles, although I anticipate that by the end of what will be an eight-week half term next week, they may be dragging their feet a little and will be very ready for the half-term break! A gentle reminder that next week starts and finishes with a slight adaptation to the uniform as we invite those members of the school community celebrating Diwali to come to school on Monday wearing traditional clothing and everyone to come in on Friday wearing Mufti (their own clothes) in return for paying a pound to the Friends who are raising money for resources for both schools. We are very thankful to all of the amazing time and effort that the Friends put into raising money for our schools, they truly make Cheam Common a better place to be.

Mrs Hughes

Parent Workshops

Seesaw Workshop Slides

Phonics Workshop Slides

Phonics: Yellow Group and Beyond Slides

Coming Soon

Date TBC: English as an Additional Language - how to support your child

School Updates

MUFTI Day information

All children are invited to come to school in mufti clothes on Friday 24th October for a £1 donation. See flyer attached for more details.

You can donate online here or pop your £1 into the buckets that will be available at the school entrances on the day.

The Friends team are already working closely with the school to plan our next projects, which include:

Fencing improvements around the Reception and Year 6 classrooms
New outdoor play equipment for the Infants (grass steps and sensory tactile panels)
Outdoor and wet play games for the Junior classrooms

Your continued support makes all this possible, so please show your support and help make this Mufti Day a fun one for everyone.

MUFTI Day - next Friday

Religious celebrations

At Cheam Common, we are committed to celebrating the heritage and cultures of all of children.

As we have done for the previous three years, children are invited to wear traditional clothing to school on the following dates, if they are celebrating:

Diwali - Monday 20th October

Spring Term: Lunar New Year, Eid

If you feel we have missed a religious date for children to wear traditional clothing, please let us know!

Breakfast and After School Club: How to change, book or update

Please email cciwac@leoacademytrust.co.uk or phone 07739360621.

Email communication

If you are emailing in with a message about your child, please include their name and class (ideally in the subject line). Collectively, this will save our office staff a huge amount of time.

Sutton School Nurse details

School Nurse leaflet 5-11.pdf

Important Information: School Place Applications for September 2026

Crucial information for parents regarding applications for both Reception and Year 3 Junior school places for September 2026. If you have already submitted your application or this does not relate to you, please ignore.

It is imperative that you submit an application, as current Nursery and Year 2 children do not automatically receive a place.

Key Information & Resources:

Application Deadline: The national deadline for both Reception and Year 3 is 15th January 2026.

Where to Apply:

For both Reception and Year 3 Junior School Places: You must complete the application for the Local Authority (LA) you pay your council tax to, regardless of where your preferred schools are located. If your LA is not the London Borough of Sutton, please refer to your own LA's admissions section.

London Borough of Sutton Rec Guidance Booklet: Primary School guidance booklet (for reception applications).

London Borough of Sutton Junior Guidance Booklet: Junior school guidance booklet (for Year 3 applications).

Primary Reception Key Dates Junior School Key Dates

Online Application System: https://www.eadmissions.org.uk/

Video Guide: A video with screenshots to walk you through the online application process is available on YouTube.

Upcoming School Open Days

Local schools will be holding open days throughout the autumn term.

CCI open day dates are advertised on our website: https://www.cheamcommoninfants.com/720/admissions.

Please sign up for a specific tour time using the Google Form link provided on that webpage.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Labelled belongings

It would be appreciated if all children's belongings were labelled clearly with their name, especially jumpers, coats and water bottles.

Family Support Worker - referral form

If you would like to explore ways that our Family Support Worker could support your family, please complete this Google Form.

Rememberance Day poppies

Children can bring in their money and buy poppies when they are brought around to be sold. Some teachers may collect in money and keep this in their desks for safekeeping.

After half-term we will be selling poppies and some other ‘poppy related’ products (rulers, rubbers, sharpeners, bracelets, wristbands and pencils), as shown below, to raise money for the British Legion. These will be on sale from Tuesday 4th November 2025 until Tuesday 11th November 2025.

The poppies will also be on sale at break time and lunch time throughout the week and this will be managed by our School Council members. Although it is a donation for the poppies, the recommended amount is a £1 donation and £1.50 for snapbands.

When should my child come back to school?

My child is unwell (1).pdf

Universal Breakfast Club

Fuel up for a bright day CCI!.pdf

Occupational Therapy Workshop

5th November: Bonfire-themed lunch

School lunches

Here are the lunch options for next week. Please note the change to Thursday 2nd Oct which is part of our themed menu below

You can see Autumn Term options here.

Weekly School and Sporting News Stories

Early Years

Nursery

This week nursery have been busy exploring the signs of autumn! We've used colourful autumnal objects like leaves and conkers to practice creating repeating patterns. We had lots of fun outdoors trying our best to catch falling leaves! A highlight was definitely getting messy and making delicious pumpkin soup.

Reception

Reception have been reading Ruby’s Worry this week. We drew Ruby and wrote a description of her in our Drawing Club books. We talked about what to do if we have a worry and how we can make ourselves feel better again. We had some great ideas! We have also been celebrating Black History Month and learnt about the inspirational Wangari Maathai who was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In our maths lessons, we have been learning about patterns. We created repeating patterns using colours and shapes.

Year 1

It has been another busy week in Year One and the children are appearing very tired, please ensure they get a good night's sleep.

In English, the children really enjoyed the new story ‘I want my hat back’ and they wrote some lovely sentences describing the bear and used adjectives! They enjoyed creating and drawing their own hat and described it. We are very pleased with them all.

In Maths, the children have been learning part, part whole and partitioning numbers to 5 and to 10 both practically and completing work in their Maths folders.

In Science, the children learnt about internal organs and external parts of their body. They sorted them confidently and could all verbally say a fact about their internal organs e.g The lungs help you to breathe or our heart pumps blood around the body.’

In Art, the children used water colours and really enjoyed painting their shell observational drawings. It has been a fun week of learning :)

Year 2

This week, Year 2 became instruction experts! We started by identifying the key features of concise instructions: chronological order, time adverbials, and imperative verbs. We immediately put our new knowledge into practice by following steps to draw a rabbit, highlighting just how important precision is.

In Maths this week, we focused on the practical skill of finding the difference between two amounts. After hands-on exploration, children applied their new skills to solve a variety of word problems, pictograms, and bar charts. They discovered important rules, like how the difference between consecutive numbers is always 1, and the difference between consecutive odd or even numbers is always 2.

Our Science lessons were full of enthusiastic research into the life cycles of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds, and amphibians. The children confidently used Thinglink to carry out their research, created fantastic posters, and presented their new knowledge to the class.

In Financial Literacy we explored future careers. Full of aspirational ideas our future paediatricians, engineers and scientists explored which qualities, values and qualifications might be needed to land their dream jobs. With motivation and determination the Year 2 teachers have every confidence that you will reach your employment goals! Keep up the hard work Year 2! We are so proud of you everyday.

Birthday celebrations

Polite reminder...

As you know, we are a healthy school and therefore ask if your child would like to celebrate their birthday, they donate a book to a library instead of bringing treats. This also ensures there are no concerns over allergies.

We will share any photos of children and their birthday books here every week!

Giacomo (Reception)

Sid (Nursery)

Millie (Year 2)

Evie (Year 1)

Kian (Year 1)

Happy birthday, Kian, and thank you for your birthday book!

School Achievements

🐝 Weekly 3 Bees Certificate 🐝

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's Explorer Value is 'Motivated'.

🐝 Nursery 🐝

Cygnets - Aian

Ducklings - Asher

🐝 Reception 🐝

Badgers - Adelaide

Foxes - Hinar

Hedgehogs - Imaan

Squirrels - Fraser

⭐️ Nursery ⭐️

Cygnets - Paige

Ducklings - Emma

⭐️ Reception ⭐️

Badgers - Felix

Foxes - Vedant

Hedgehogs - Aiden

Squirrels - Kianna

🐝 Year 1 🐝

Finches - Kingdavid

Robins - Kian

Sparrows - Yusuf

Wrens - Louis

🐝 Year 2 🐝

Eagles - Sebastian

Falcons - Mark

Kestrels - Arthur

Owls - Hannah

⭐️ Year 1 ⭐️

Finches - Lola

Robins - Joshua

Sparrows - Mollie

Wrens - Lottie

⭐️ Year 2 ⭐️

Eagles - Joshua

Falcons - Chi-Tung

Kestrels - Sophie

Owls - Reuben

Out of school achievements

If you would like to share your child's achievements outside of school with us, we'd love to hear them! Please complete this short form to tell us all about it!

Dylan (Reception)

Dylan swam an amazing 180m in half an hour during distance week.

Well done!

Shreya (Year 2)

We are delighted to let you know that Shreya has been selected as a winner of the Summer in Sutton Challenge! She has successfully completed the challenge and has won a gift voucher towards the purchase of a bike. Congratulations to Shreya on this fantastic achievement!

Autumn 1 Curriculum Newsletters and Home Learning

Click on the links below to read our curriculum newsletters. On these, you can find out the topics that your children will be learning about, as well as information about home learning, PE days and general reminders for their year group.

Reception Year 1 Year 2

Important information

Communication

To help us assist you more efficiently when you email the school office, we kindly request that you include your child's class along with their name in your correspondence.

While we know all our students very well, having the class information readily available helps us to quickly identify your child and address your queries without any delay or guesswork.

For example, please consider writing: "Regarding [Child's Full Name], [Class, e.g., Year R - Squirrels]" in the subject line or at the beginning of your email.

Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated and will help us continue to provide the best possible support to you and your children.

Thank you for your understanding.

Moving address

If you have moved address, it is imperative that you inform the school office as soon as you have moved. It is a requirement that the school has up to date details particularly in case of an emergency.

Please email the school office ccioffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk if your details need updating. Alternatively you can update them using the Arbor App.

Reporting Attendance

We ask that you use one of the google forms below to report absence.

Request for Exceptional Absence form in advance for future appointments and exception absence.

Cheam Common Infants' Absence Form for sickness and same day medical appointments.

They are also available to complete on our website using the parent tab.

We do not authorise holidays during term time. If your child is going to be off school due to an exceptional circumstance, then please complete this form:

You can also log same-day absences for your children directly through the Parent Portal or Arbor App. Simply navigate to the Attendance section, click "Log Absence," and fill in the details. You can adjust the start and end times if it is not a full-day absence. Once submitted, school staff will review and either approve or reject the request. You will see approved absences in the Attendance tab.

Please note, this feature is only for same-day absences; for any extended or future absences, please continue to complete and submit the request for exceptional absence. We will also continue to use the same day absence google form. If you need to change an unapproved absence request, you will need to delete it and create a new one, as editing is not possible. Once an absence is approved, it cannot be deleted through the app, so you will need to contact the school for any further modifications

Autumn Term Dates

Please find below all the key dates and times for the Autumn Term.

PTA events are shown in this colour. Please see below for more details.

New dates

2025 - 2026 Term dates

Monday 20th October: Diwali - children are invited to dress in traditional clothing to celebrate Diwali on this date

Thursday 23rd October: NSPCC Year 2 Workshops in school

Thursday 23rd October: School Tour 1pm (for new starters in 2026)

Friday 24th October: MUFTI Day

Monday 27th - Friday 31st October: Half term

Wednesday 5th November: Bonfire Night Lunch

Friday 7th November: Year 1 and 2 Disco (3:30-4:30pm)

Monday 10th November: Odd Socks Day

Friday 21st November: Bingo Night

Monday 8th December: Badgers and Foxes Christmas Performance (2pm)

Tuesday 9th December: Squirrels and Hedgehogs Christmas Performance (2pm)

Wednesday 10th December: Nursery Christmas Performance (9:15am)

Tuesday 16th December: Year 1 Christmas Performance

Wednesday 17th December: Year 2 Christmas Performance

Friends of Cheam Common - Updates

The Friends of Cheam Common now has Facebook group, where you can follow any updates on upcoming events or how you can get involved.

Secondhand Uniform

A gentle reminder, please only donate the items listed below.

Logo jumper

Logo cardigan

Logo fleece

Logo waterproof jacket

Logo PE tshirt

Logo polo shirts

Junior PE black quarter zip top

Ties

Red PE shorts

Please do not donate, shirts, or grey uniform items; we have very limited storage space and we can’t store those items currently. We will let you know when we are able to accept these items again.

Thank you so much for supporting the second hand uniform sale on Friday. We are delighted that good quality school uniform can be reused and help families.

Going forward, we need to reduce the uniform service that we offer unfortunately. We will no longer be taking uniform email requests for the foreseeable future. The uniform service has expanded immensely with donations and requests over the past year. Whilst it has been absolutely wonderful to offer this service to the school community; sadly, we don't have the volunteers to sustain the huge amount of time this service requires.

However, we are very happy to still offer a termly uniform sale, where we'll have plenty of uniform on offer to stock up for the term ahead.

Please leave donations at either the Infants’ or Junior’s office.

We hope you understand the decision we've had to take, and we thank you, as always, for your continued support.

SEND & Inclusion Updates

Click the image above for further information!

Keeping Safe Online

DIGI Safe - Keeping Children Safe Online

LGFL have launched a wonderfully informative and practical website full of resources to help keep children safe online. With videos, informative guides and top tips, there is lots to explore to help keep your child safe whilst online. To visit, click here.

Family Support

Family Support Workers

Please click here to access our Family Support Workers portal with lots of information and resources to support you.

CCI FSW introduction flyer

Primary Age Parent Group - Supporting your child with Anxiety - September 2025.pdf

Anger Management in children

Please click the image below for more information.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Update

Local Activities and Events - General Information

Sutton United are excited to announce that we will be holding an open training session at the VBS Community Stadium on Tuesday, 28th October.

With the event taking place during the half-term break, it’s the perfect opportunity for young fans to come along and get a closer look at the club’s First Team players in action under new Head Coach, Chris Agutter – with tickets completely free.

Agutter will put the squad through their paces ahead of the U’s home game against Eastleigh (Wednesday, 5th November; 7:45pm KO), and will no doubt be an experience to remember as we open the doors to the VBS to give fans a rare behind-the-scenes look at the drills, tactics, and pre-match preparation that takes place under the watchful eyes of Agutter and his staff.

Fans will be able to watch the session from the main stand, which will take place from 10am until 12pm, with the team expected to train for around two hours before spending time meeting supporters. After training, there will be a chance to grab autographs, take photos and chat with your favourite players.

Refreshments and snacks will be available throughout this family-friendly event — perfect for young supporters who want to see their heroes up close and learn what it takes to play at the professional level. Please note that under-14s must be accompanied by an adult.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to get closer to the team and enjoy a great day out during half-term. With the event being free, all you have to do is secure spot by visiting our ticketing site.