CCI Newsletter 20th - 24th October 2025

Cheam Common Infants' Academy

Weekly Newsletter

Monday 20th - Friday 24th October 2025

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

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

Wishing all of our families a safe and happy half term.

A reminder that Monday 3rd November is an INSET Day.

We look forward to seeing your children on Tuesday 4th November.

Message from the Principal

What a busy and rewarding first half term it has been! I am incredibly proud of the children this week; despite their tiredness, they remained engaged in their learning. We even received a lovely comment from a prospective parent during our tour, noting how happy all the children seemed.

It was wonderful to see some of our children wearing traditional celebratory clothing for Diwali. Thank you for braving the torrential rain and sharing stories about how Diwali is celebrated at home.

A big thank you once again for refraining from scooting or cycling in the school playgrounds. When I spoke to some of the children this week, they shared that it made them feel much safer without others "whizzing towards them."

Half term provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on all the successes of the past term and look ahead to the next. We've had successful parent tours, visits from leaders from other schools, parent workshops, harvest celebration performances, drama workshops, and our Year 1 children enjoyed a walk in the local area. The children are making excellent progress with their phonics and oracy. We also have a whole-school focus on handwriting, so a huge thank you to everyone who is practising letter formation with your children at home. Developing muscle memory for correct letter formation is incredibly beneficial, as it builds a strong foundation for legible handwriting, improves writing fluency and speed, and enhances cognitive skills like reading, spelling, and memory. It can also significantly boost a child's confidence and motivation by reducing frustration with writing.

Looking ahead to next half term, please remember to book time off to watch your children’s Christmas performances. I've noticed that Sainsbury's already has Christmas jumpers on the shelves for Christmas Jumper Day, but don’t forget to check out local charity shops first!

But for now, it's time for me to wish you all a very happy half term break from school. We look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday, November 4th.

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

Sutton United: Thank you!

A message from Sutton United: We wanted to send you all a huge thanks for your support for this past weekend. There were 60 attendees from Cheam Common, our most ever through the Team Up For Tickets initiative. 50% of these ticket sales have been donated to our Friends of Cheam Common group - an incredible £262.08!

Additionally, we were so happy to see over 120 supporters from Cheam Common schools at our match against West Ham U21 on Tuesday night. These tickets were donated to us free-of-charge as a thank you for our support.

We are proud of our partnership with Sutton United and hope that it can continue into the future!

Year 1: Victorian Toy Workshop

Thursday 20th November

Next half term for our history learning, the children will be learning all about the world of toys and the role that they play in entertaining us, educating us, and stimulating our imagination. As historians, they will be finding out about the ways in which toys have changed over time. To enhance their learning we would like the children to participate in an interactive Victorian drama workshop. After learning some well-known Victorian parlour games, the children will have the opportunity to handle and examine a large selection of wooden, tin and cloth replica toys, to discover how they work and how they are made. Thus bringing their learning to life! The cost of this workshop is £4.50 per child. We would be grateful if you could make this payment via your Arbor account by 6th November, under the trip section. Please note that refunds cannot be made if your child is absent on the day. If you have difficulty in affording the above amount, please come and see us privately.

Odd Socks Day

Monday 10th November

On Monday 10th November 2025, we will be celebrating and taking part in Odd Socks Day! We are looking forward to seeing all of your colourful socks next week as 'Odd Socks Day' marks the start of Anti-Bullying Week.

Odd Socks Day is designed to be fun, however the main focus is to raise awareness of Anti Bullying Week and it is an opportunity to encourage people and children to express themselves whilst expressing their individuality and what makes us all unique!

All you have to do to take part is wear odd socks to school on Monday, November 10th! Please note that children must still wear their full school uniform; only the socks should be mismatched.

Children in Need

Friday 14th November

On Friday 14th November, we are celebrating Children in Need! Your child can wear MUFTI if they’d like and are encouraged to wear clothes that are yellow, colourful, spotty or Pudsey-themed. If you would like to donate then one option is to support our Just Giving Page to support this charity. We would encourage a donation of £1 per child, however this is not required.

This year, the official theme for Children in Need is "Challenge Yourself to 25." We're encouraging all participating children to take on a sponsored challenge and complete it 25 times—whether that's walking 25km over the course of the week, reading 25 books, or even baking 25 tasty cupcakes! To celebrate their efforts, we would love to include your child's challenge and achievement in our school newsletter or to their class, so please feel free to send in photographs/ videos! (Please note, taking part in the challenge or sharing the achievement for the newsletter is completely optional).

Christmas Pyjama Campaign

As we quickly approach the festive season, we have decided to run our pyjama fundraiser again, similarly to last year . Our chosen charity for the festive season is ‘Children’s Hospital Pyjamas’. This amazing charity donates brand new pairs of pyjamas to poorly children in hospital over the Christmas period. The charity’s vision is to ‘spread love through comfort during the Christmas season’ to children who unfortunately have to spend their Christmas holidays in hospital. In line with the LEO outcomes, we aim to encourage healthy and active learners who care about our world and we feel this would be a great way for our students to give back to our local community.

If you would like to help us support this charity, we are asking for either donations of brand new pyjamas or money that will go towards buying new pyjamas.

Due to the location of our school, we have decided that we will be donating our pyjamas to our local hospitals. We are donating to:

- St George’s Hospital (Tooting)

- Kingston Hospital (Kingston Upon Thames)

To confirm, we are only able to accept BRAND NEW pyjamas due to the vulnerability of the children who will be receiving the pyjamas. Unfortunately second hand pyjamas are not accepted. The pyjamas can be any size ranging from baby sizes - 10 years old. Alternatively, monetary donations are also welcomed and will be used to purchase new pyjamas to go towards our donations.

The deadline for all donations is Friday 5th December. Please hand pyjamas into the school office or to your child's classroom.

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.

You can see Autumn Term options here.

Weekly School and Sporting News Stories

Early Years

Nursery

Nursery have had lots of fun learning about Diwali! We made rangoli patterns using the light box. We’ve also explored signs of Autumn and been collecting leaves.

Reception

We have had a fantastic final week of the first Autumn half term! We started the week celebrating Diwali and learnt about some of the things that happen during this festival. We made diyas, rangoli patterns and firework pictures using different materials. It was also interesting to learn about how some members of our school were celebrating Diwali with their families and friends. We’ve also continued to celebrate Black History Month. We learnt the song Che Che Kule and looked at the colours and shapes that are typically found in traditional African style patterns. We had great fun painting colourful backgrounds and then adding different patterns using pen to make the patterns stand out.

Year 1

Year One has had such a great first half term, we are so proud of how well they are progressing and are enjoying the structure and routine Year One brings.

In English, the children have been learning about capital letters, learning how to form them and use them correctly when writing pronouns.

In Maths, the children have been learning how to write the numbers in words one to ten and spelling them correctly. They have been matching the digit to the word and spelling the word. This week we have assessed all their wider curriculum subjects to ensure they have learnt the sticky knowledge that has been taught this half term in Science, Geography and Art. We are very pleased with their recall and ability to retain taught information.

In Art, the children enjoyed using fine line pens, to draw over their water colour shells. We hope you all have a wonderful and restful half term. Please ensure the children complete their paper homework and practise reading the common exception words. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Year 2

We finished the half term with a fantastic final week filled with enriching opportunities and fabulous demonstrations of how much the children have learnt so far this year. The children were treated to a fabulous interactive drama workshop on Friday morning which was highly entertaining. They also attended an NSPCC workshop where they learnt about their right to speak out.

In maths this week we developed our fluency in addition and subtraction by identifying doubles and near doubles which could be used to calculate equations efficiently. The children played matching pair games and worked together to identify the most efficient strategies.

Our budding writers produced excellent instructions for ‘How to care for Guinea Pigs’. They incorporated time adverbials, modal verbs, adverbs, and imperative verbs to ensure their instructions were concise yet precise. Their hard work was rewarded by having a visit from Mrs Hughes pet guinea pig!

Oracy skills were developed this week in History through lively debates. Drawing on their knowledge of ‘Nurturing Nurses’, the children proposed strong arguments to determine the most significant historical figure among Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell. They compared the similarities and differences of their lives, identifying who had demonstrated the most positive characteristics, who had faced the greatest challenges and who had the largest impact on the lives of other people.

We have been blown away by the progress the children have made in just eight short weeks! Great work Year 2. We hope you all have a wonderful half term and a well earned rest.

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!

Chi-Tung (Year 2)

Seb (Year 1)

Aurora (Year 1)

School Achievements

🐝 Weekly 3 Bees Certificate 🐝

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's Explorer Value is 'Reflective'.

🐝 Nursery 🐝

Cygnets - Maria

Ducklings - Keshav

🐝 Reception 🐝

Badgers - Leeyanah

Foxes - Henry

Hedgehogs - Sienna

Squirrels - Hamza

⭐️ Nursery ⭐️

Cygnets - Lily

Ducklings - Lorik

⭐️ Reception ⭐️

Badgers - Ellie

Foxes - Zaki

Hedgehogs - Maya

Squirrels - Gunav

🐝 Year 1 🐝

Finches - Elena

Robins - Adam W

Sparrows - Thea

Wrens - Oliver

🐝 Year 2 🐝

Eagles - Heidrun

Falcons - Chloe

Kestrels - Nora

Owls - Brendan

⭐️ Year 1 ⭐️

Finches - Hugo

Robins - Tvesha

Sparrows - Archie

Wrens - Leila

⭐️ Year 2 ⭐️

Eagles - Kiaan

Falcons - Freddie

Kestrels - Gordon

Owls - Amelia

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!

Luna (Year 2)

Luna won this amazing medal for dancing, and brought it in to share with the rest of her class!

Niya (Reception)

Luna won this amazing medal for dancing, and brought it in to share with the rest of her class!

Joshy (Year 2)

Joshy shared his football trophy with the rest of his class!

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 27th - Friday 31st October: Half term

Wednesday 5th November: Bonfire Night Lunch

Friday 7th November: Year 1 Toy Dress Up Day

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

Monday 10th November: Odd Socks Day

Friday 14th November: Children in Need

Thursday 20th November: Year 1 Victorian Toy Workshop

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)

Thursday 11th December: Rocksteady Concert (9:30am)

Thursday 11th December: Christmas Jumper Day

Thursday 11th December: Christmas Lunch

Friday 12th December: Elf Run

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.