CCI Newsletter 24th - 28th November 2025

Cheam Common Infants' Academy

Weekly Newsletter

Monday 24th - Friday 28th November 2025

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

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

Message from the Principal

There is a definite feel of Christmas in the air at CCI! With December starting on Monday, we decided to put up and decorate the tree in the office. It was magical listening to the children's excited responses to seeing it as they left after school club. Marjorie visited the school on Friday and spoke to the children about their upcoming Elf Run. The children are very excited to be rehearsing for their Christmas performances. I know that there has been some confusion about performance dates and times, but hopefully the emails sent by the office this week have clarified everything.

Thanks to your amazing generosity, I have now received 424 rewards to spend on new books, which I am very excited about! Hopefully, these will arrive in the new year and can be enjoyed by all. Reading is so important for children because it is the primary gateway to developing their language skills, expanding their vocabulary and fostering their imagination and creativity. The birthday books that the children bring in are such a wonderful way for the children to share that love of a book with their friends and once again I would like to share our appreciation for your kindness.

As the holiday season is fast approaching, I would like to take this opportunity to provide a gentle reminder about absences from school. At the end of September, we sent out a letter reminding everyone about our school attendance and punctuality expectations and procedures.

As many of you will be aware, there have been significant changes to the statutory attendance guidance, which came into effect on 19th August 2024. Our Attendance Policy has been revised to reflect these changes. As a school, we must follow advice from the local authority, and it is the local authority that issues fines for taking children on holiday during term time, not the school. While I appreciate that the seasonal break is an opportunity to visit family members abroad, please remember that the local authority makes it clear that Headteachers cannot authorise absence for a holiday unless there are exceptional circumstances. Please complete this form to request any exceptional absence in advance. Once you have completed this, each circumstance is considered and you will be notified of the outcome via email.

Of course as winter creeps up on us, so do the germs. Some of the teachers were sounding a little croaky on Friday and I have heard a few sneezes coming from the classrooms this week. If your child is unwell and is not going to be in school, please let us know by completing this form with the reason for their absence. Hopefully as many of us will be able to stay as healthy as possible we still have three weeks of excitement and learning to enjoy before we break up.

Mrs Hughes

Parent Workshops

Seesaw Workshop Slides

Phonics Workshop Slides

Phonics: Yellow Group and Beyond Slides

Reception Curriculum Meeting Slides

Coming January 2026

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

School Updates

🎵 Christmas Performances 🎵

We hope you have these dates in your diary for our festive performances:

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

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

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

Year 1 and 2: Tuesday 16th December (9:15am) - Year 1 parents invited @ Christ Church with St Philip

Year 1 and 2: Wednesday 17th December (9:15am) - Year 2 parents invited @ Christ Church with St Philip

🎄Christmas Jumper Day 🎄

We are welcoming all children to wear a Christmas jumper to school on Thursday 11th December.

As Christmas is a busy and expensive time of the year, we will be splitting any cash donations received on Friday 12th December between Save the Children and the Children's Trust. We hope that this helps us to continue supporting out families.

This day coincides with our Christmas Lunch, so we're hoping it can be a festive day all round!

Please do not feel that you have to buy a Christmas jumper for this occasion. Any red, green or sparkly jumper (or even school jumpers) will be perfect,

Elf Run

Friday 12th December

We have been invited to take part in the 'Elf Run' to raise money for the Children's Trust later this term. On Friday, we welcomed Marjorie, from the charity, who spoke to the children about the good work that the charity does.

On Friday 12th December, children will taking part in our Elf Run: they will be given elf hats to wear, and we will take time out of our school day to spend some time running in the playground, listening to festive tunes.

To raise money for this cause, you can donate here or bring in £1 on the day. You can find out more about the Children's Trust here. Please note that any cash donated will be split between Save the Children and the Children's Trust.

⚽ Sutton United vs Shrewsbury Town ⚽

Fixture Highlight: Sutton United vs Shrewsbury Town - Emirates FA Cup - Sat 6 Dec, 15:00

This is a huge game for the club as we look to progress to the next round of the FA Cup, where we could face some of the biggest names in football! This could be the start of our next historic FA cup run and we would love for you to be a part of it. Under 14s tickets are just £2 and an adult and a child can attend for only £20, so let's fill the stands with as many fans as possible.

Tickets can be purchased directly via this link: https://suttonunitedfc.ktckts.com/product/SUTFACUPROUND2

We hope to see you there cheering the team on, it promises to be a fantastic atmosphere and a great day out for young fans, teams, and community groups.

👂Year 1: Routine Hearing Screening 👂

Please note that we will not be offering free routine hearing screenings in Year 1 this year.

If you are worried about your child's hearing, you can book a free hearing test at Boots. Click here for more information.

🏥 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!

Important Information: Nursery Applications

Academic Year 2026/2027

Crucial information for parents apply for the Nursery for September 2026, January and April 2027 intake. If you have already submitted your application or this does not relate to you, please ignore.

It is imperative that you submit an application, directly to the school.

Key Information & Resources:

Application Deadline: The deadline is 15th January 2026 (no later than 3.30pm)

Nursery Application Form 2026/2027

CCIA Starting Nursery Guidance 2026/2027

Nursery Admissions Policy 2026/2027

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.

When should my child come back to school?

My child is unwell (1).pdf

Universal Breakfast Club

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

This week in Nursery we’ve been enjoying the story The Gruffalo’s Child. The children loved exploring the characters and joining in with the repeated phrases as we followed the little Gruffalo’s brave adventure through the deep, dark woods!

Our winter theme has also begun, and we have been busy learning about the signs of the season. The children created their very own playdough snowmen and painted beautiful snowy pictures.

We’ve also been practising our Christmas songs for the upcoming performance—there’s already lots of festive cheer (and a little sparkle!) filling the classroom. We can’t wait to share it with you soon!

Reception

This week in Reception we have been reading the Gingerbread Man! We have had great fun joining in with the repeated phrases and learning makaton signs for the different characters. We have painted Gingerbread Men and written lists of the characters in the story. In our Science lessons we have talked about the signs of Autumn and thought about how the season is changing to Winter. In Maths we have looked at different arrangements of 4 and 5 blocks and then discussed the parts we can see using our stem sentences e.g: 2 is a part and 3 is a part, the whole is 5.

Year 1

Year One have enjoyed sequencing the story of ‘The Egg Box Dragon’ and wrote some clear sentences about each part of the story.

In Maths, the children have been learning one more and one less to 10, using a number line. They have been using the template five a bit structure for part part whole, fingers, bar models. They are becoming very confident with numbers one to ten.

In D.T, the children enjoyed designing their slide and labelled their design. They are excited to make a slide next week. In Science the children practically sorted a variety of materials hard and soft, identifying what the objects are made from and describing their properties.

In R.E, the children have begun learning about the Christmas story and the true meaning of Christmas. It has been a lovely week of learning.

Year 2

On Monday, Year 2 had a surprise! Their whiteboard pens had quit, claiming they felt unappreciated and exhausted. Following the story, 'The Day the Crayons Quit', the children wrote fun replies as an introduction to informal letter writing.

In Geography this week, we investigated land use by exploring the local area using Google Earth. We looked at plan perspective maps and compared them to aerial photographs to see which gave a clearer representation of residential, commercial, or recreational land. We then compared land use in Worcester Park (concluding it is a suburb) to the more rural land use in Shere.

We developed our oracy skill in Science this week by completing our science dictionary. The children used scientific vocabulary such as protein, carbohydrates and vitamins to explain how food groups help us to grow and stay healthy and why it is important to eat a healthy balanced diet. They then created their own ‘healthy plates’ to visually represent a balanced diet and how much of each food group is needed.

Rehearsals for our Christmas Performance are well underway! Everybody knows their lines, song words and actions. We can’t wait to show you how amazing the children are.

Well done Year 2 for an excellent week of hard work and fun!

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!

Samuel (Year 1)

Aliya (Year 1)

Vianna (Year 1)

Dylan (Year 1)

Ava (Reception)

Riley (Year 1)

⭐️ School Achievements ⭐️

🐝 Weekly 3 Bees Certificate 🐝

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's Explorer Value is 'Resilience.

🐝 Nursery 🐝

Cygnets - Lathen

Ducklings - Darcey

🐝 Reception 🐝

Badgers - Rosie

Foxes - Carter

Hedgehogs - Thomas

Squirrels - Max

⭐️ Nursery ⭐️

Cygnets - Shreya

Ducklings - Delphi

⭐️ Reception ⭐️

Badgers - Abeer

Foxes - Noor

Hedgehogs - Robbie

Squirrels - Anbine

🐝 Year 1 🐝

Finches - Kyle

Robins - Thor

Sparrows - Milo

Wrens - Julia

🐝 Year 2 🐝

Eagles - Lucy

Falcons - Alice

Kestrels - Darsh

Owls - Aarav

⭐️ Year 1 ⭐️

Finches - Dylan

Robins - Lily

Sparrows - Imogen

Wrens - Connor

⭐️ Year 2 ⭐️

Eagles - Kabir

Falcons - Dylan

Kestrels - Heidi

Owls - Joel

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!

Jack (Year 2)

Jack brought his swimming medal into school to show his class - well done!

Felicity (Year 1)

Felicity swam 5m independently front and backstroke.

Thea (Year 1)

Thea got a medal and certificate for swimming 5m unaided - what an achievement!

Rudy (Year 2)

Rudy achieved his 10m swim award - well done!

Leon (Year 1)

Leon completed Stage 2 swimming lessons and is now is Stage 3!

Autumn 2 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 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: SEND Coffee Morning

Friday 12th December: Elf Run

Tuesday 16th December: 9.15 Christmas Performance (Y1 and Y2 performing) Y1 parents/carers invited

Wednesday 17th December: 9.15 Christmas Performance (Y1 and Y2 performing) Y2 parents/carers invited

Friday 19th December: End of term, early finish 2.10pm

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!

Sutton Dyslexia Association

The next meeting of Sutton Dyslexia Association will be via zoom. It is a 2 Part course for parents, entitled "How to help your child with Dyslexia"

Monday 1st December 2025, 8-9 pm

Monday 26th January 2026, 8-9 pm.

The first session deals with the experience of dyslexia for child and parent and how to give support.

The second session is looking at reading, spelling, and writing, and how to help. It also looks at the school structure and the exam process.

The course will be led by Louise Selby, who is a teacher with a level 7 specialist qualification in teaching and assessing learners with specific learning difficulties and dyslexia. She has written a program called Morph Mastery.

If you would like to join the meeting, please send your first name, surname and email address to

admin@suttondyslexia.org

You will be sent access details the morning of the meeting , so that you can join the talk from 7.45 pm.

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