Cheam Common Infants' Academy

Weekly Newsletter

Monday 2nd - 6th March 2026

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

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

Message from the Principal

This has been a fantastic week, starting with a long-held ambition finally realised on Tuesday. For many years, I have wanted to establish intergenerational activities at Cheam Common Infants, and this week Mr Raney and I were delighted to take eight of our Year 1 and Year 2 children to the local community hub. The children had a wonderful time sharing their work, talking about what they've been doing, and enjoying reading time, both reading to and being read to. There were huge smiles all round, and the children are already looking forward to their next visit!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at parents' evening, which provided a valuable opportunity for teachers to share the fantastic progress your children have made since the start of the academic year. If you were unable to attend your appointment please contact the school and we will arrange an alternative appointment for you to speak with your child's class teacher. If you have questions about anything raised please do not hesitate to contact the year lead or a member of the leadership team to discuss this.

We are continuing to celebrate the National Year of Reading, and on Friday, the school was filled with colour as the children dressed up as their favourite book characters, celebrating World Book Day. They had a great day engaging in a range of fun activities, including costume parades, reading outside, and being read to by different teachers. A big thank you to everyone who supported the book sale at the end of the day. The money raised will go towards purchasing new books for our libraries at CCI and CCJ.

Edurio Parent Survey: Your Feedback Matters

Our 2025-26 parent survey, run through Edurio, is now live. I was extremely proud last year when Cheam Common Infants won both the regional and national 'Parent Choice' awards. Crucially, it was your feedback that led to the following positive changes: a more streamlined newsletter, an increase in parental workshops, the introduction of our Heritage Day, and increased involvement from our Family Support Worker to provide parents with targeted advice on areas such as potty training support and emotional coaching.

While I appreciate there are a lot of questions (a point I raised with the Trust last year), we would be extremely grateful if you could take the time to fill in the form. Your honest feedback is vital to help us celebrate our successes and identify areas for improvement, ensuring that Cheam Common Infants continues to be the very best school it can be.

The link has been sent to you all via Seesaw, emailed and can also be found here: https://edurio.com/poll/3a9w12

Mrs Hughes

Parent Workshops

Seesaw Workshop Slides

Phonics Workshop Slides

Phonics: Yellow Group and Beyond Slides

Reception Curriculum Meeting Slides

English as an Additional Language - how to support your child Slides

Maths Mastery Workshop Friday March 20th 9am CCI School Hall

World Book Day

Thank you to everyone who supported Word Book Day 2026.

What a wonderful day we all had celebrating the joy of reading and reminding ourselves that reading makes us better thinkers by improving our critical thinking and problem solving skills, boosting our general and specific knowledge and developing our social and communication skills.

Intergenerational Reading at the Community Hub

When visions become reality.

I have been reading about the benefits of intergenerational activities for several years and have always hoped that this is something that we could establish at Cheam Common Infants.

Finally, after many discussions and training, on Tuesday Mr Raney and myself took eight of our Year One and Year Two children over to the local community hub to share their work and read to members of our local community.

The children had such a fabulous time sharing their work and reading with older members of our local community. Their smiles,conversations and excitement about returning again are testament to all of the benefits that intergenerational activities claim to have!

Eat Them to Defeat Them

Eat them to Defeat Them!

The veg-invasion has officially begun! This week, the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign kicked off, and our first formidable foe is none other than the mighty Pea.

They might be small, and they might come in pods, but they’re plotting to take over your plate. There is only one way to stop them: we have to eat them!

Mission: Encourage children to try more vegetables through a bit of "battle-themed" fun.

The Tactic: Don't just eat your greens—defeat them. Crunch them, munch them, and clear the plate to save the day.

This Week’s Target: The Sweet Pea. High in protein, fiber, and stealthy vitamins, they are the perfect warm-up for a week of healthy victories.

Spring 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 2nd March: Eat them to Defeat Them starts

Tuesday 10th March: Toms Talking Reptiles (Year 1)

Friday 13th March: Quiz Night - SOLD OUT

Thursday 19th March: Rocksteady Concert (timings to be confirmed)

Thursday 19th March or Friday 20th March: Eid Celebration

Monday 23rd March: SEND Coffee Morning

Friday 20th March: Krispy Kreme Sale

Friday 20th March: Red Nose Day (Crazy Hair Day)

Friday 20th March: 9am Parent Workshop Maths Mastery

Friday 27th March: last day of Spring Term: 2.00 pm finish

Monday 30th March - Friday 10th April : Easter Break

Monday 13th April: Inset Day

Tuesday 14th April: First day of Summer Term

Monday 25th May - Friday29th May: Half Term

Monday 1st June: INSET Day

Tuesday 30th June: Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Sports Day

Wednesday 15th July: -Year 1 Assembly to parents CCJ Hall 1.45-2.30

Thursday 16th July: Y2 transition celebrations Assembly to parents in the hall 1.15-2pm (inflatables after assembly Y2 children only)

Friday 17th July: End of term finish at 2.10pm

School Updates

Easy Fundraising

easyfundraising is a free UK charity cashback platform that allows users to raise money for a good cause by shopping online with partner retailers. When you shop through the easyfundraising website, app, or browser extension, retailers donate a percentage of your purchase to your chosen charity or good cause at no extra cost to you

Scan this QR code to sign up - at no cost to you!

Gate Times

Just a gentle reminder that universal breakfast club runs from 8.10-8.40 am at Cheam Common Infants. The Office reception area gate opens at 8.10 am and children are welcomed in through this entrance until 8.30am. At 8.30 am the main entrance gates on Kingsmead Road and the Nursery Gate on Balmoral Road open. These close at 8.40am so children can start their phonics lessons at 8.45am. This is different from the gates at the Junior School as their day runs from 8.45am to 3.15pm so their morning gates close at 8.45am.

🚗 Kingsmead Avenue 🚗

A reminder that, although Sutton Safe Streets are in place on Kingsmead Avenue, the road is still open to those with a permit. We have seen an increase in children cycling on the road, or families walking up and down the road, and not noticing cars (which can be incredibly quiet now).

Please ensure that your children are being safe on the roads when travelling to and from school.

Drive Safe, Park Kind 🚗

We all want the school run to be as smooth as possible, but we need your help to keep our students safe and our neighbors happy. Please remember:

Don’t Block Drives: Keep driveways clear so our neighboUrs can get to work and appointments on time.
Slow Down: Our gates are crowded. Maintain a low speed and keep your eyes peeled for little ones.
Mind the Lines: Avoid parking on zig-zags or near corners; visibility is key to preventing accidents.

Thank you for choosing safety over speed!

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.

Labelled belongings

It would be appreciated if all children's belongings were labelled clearly with their name, especially jumpers, coats and water bottles. We have a lot of unnamed items in our lost property cupboard already.

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.

IMPORTANT

Changes to Wrap Around Care

Thank you to everyone who has registered on our new system and booked their current sessions.

To ensure your child's current sessions are secured for the Summer Term (starting 14th April 2026),

please take the following two actions by 10th March:

Book Current Sessions: Log in and re-book the sessions your child is currently attending. Your child's place has been reserved for you, but you must complete this booking to secure it.

Important Dates & Deadlines:

10th March: Deadline to register and book on the new system. Failure to do so may mean your child's reserved place cannot be guaranteed.

27th March: All outstanding Arbor balances must be paid in full. Arbor will continue to invoice for Spring Term 2 until this date.

For more detailed information, please refer to

CCI & CCJ Parent Letter - Booking system launch

Support & Queries: If you have any questions regarding the booking or payment process, please contact the CBfS team directly:

Email: enquiries@childcarebookings.co.uk

Phone: 01444 5233352

CBfS Transition Flyer

School Lunches

Spring Term - Themed Lunches

Weekly School and Sporting News Stories

Early Years

Nursery

This week in Nursery we continued our journey through the magical world of fairy tales! We have been enjoying classic stories such as Cinderella and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children especially loved bringing Goldilocks and the Three Bears to life through a variety of fun and creative activities. In Drawing Club, we practised drawing our very own bears, while continuing to work hard on name writing — focusing carefully on pencil grip and correct letter formation. Our sensory play with porridge oats was a big hit, giving everyone the chance to explore textures just like in the story! We made bear hats and had lots of fun reenacting the story together. The children have been learning about size (big, medium and small), writing party invitations, and designing beautiful crowns and princess dresses inspired by Cinderella. They thoroughly enjoyed singing “When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears” with great enthusiasm. What a wonderful week of storytelling, creativity and learning!

Miss Alder, Mrs Badea and the Nursery Team

Reception

This week Reception continued their exploration of people in our community who help us. We focused on naming and discussing the jobs that make up the emergency services. The children worked hard on mastering a very important life skill: learning and practicing the emergency number 999. In our writing sessions, the children showed off their creative flair by drawing detailed emergency vehicles and practicing their phonics to write descriptive sentences about them. We also looked at dentists and discussed how important it is to take care of our teeth! In Maths, we’ve been busy comparing numbers up to 8. We’ve been focusing on using the terms "more" and "fewer" to describe groups of objects. We then played interactive games where items were added or taken away. The children were encouraged to explain their thinking—not just guessing, but reasoning why there is now a different amount. We ended the week with an exciting World Book Day celebration. It was so lovely to see all the children in their super costumes and share some of their favourite stories!

Mrs Woods and the EYFS Team

Year 1

What a wonderful, sunny week we have had in Year 1! The children have been busy becoming authors, creating their very own non-fiction books all about Tigers. We have explored everything from writing introductions and labelling diagrams to researching how tigers hunt, what they eat, and their surprising love for water and quiet time! The children are incredibly proud of the facts they have recorded. In Maths, we have been diving into the world of numbers, exploring consecutive odd and even numbers and finding the difference of 1 and 2.

Our Science lessons took us under the sea as we learned about the features of fish, discovering how gills help them breathe and how they lay eggs. In R.E., we began our journey through the Easter story by looking at 'Maundy Thursday'; the children had a fantastic time re-enacting the Last Supper. We ended our week on a real high celebrating World Book Day—it was a joy to see everyone dressed up and sharing their favourite stories together!

Mrs MP and the Year 1 Team

Year 2

This week our young artists have been exploring the fascinating world of primary and secondary colours, and experimenting with mark-making using a variety of unconventional tools. From the textured imprints of cotton reels and LEGO bricks to the bold strokes of forks and even tyres, the children were thrilled to see the colourful and unique results of their creative exploration. The classroom was a burst of colour and a testament to their imaginative spirit!

In writing, we delved deeper into the captivating story of "Ossiri and the Bala Mengro." To enhance their descriptive writing, the children have been mastering the art of similes and expanded noun phrases. They've been working hard to create vivid character and setting descriptions. Next week, they'll put these skills to the test as they retell the story from the Ogre's perspective, promising some exciting and imaginative narratives!

Our budding mathematicians have been busy learning about division by practically dividing amounts into equal groups. They were introduced to the vocabulary of dividend, divisor and quotient and what began to understand what each part of a division equation represents.

The children thoroughly enjoyed their Lego Spiking coding lesson this week. It was wonderful to see them working together to debug their codes and create stunning light displays on their ‘Cave Car’ creations.

What a busy week we have had!

Mrs Harris and the Year 2 Team

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!

Happy Birthday

⭐️ School Achievements ⭐️

🐝 Weekly 3 Bees Certificate 🐝

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's Explorer Value is 'Empathetic'.

🐝 Nursery 🐝

Cygnets - Louis

Ducklings - Lorik

🐝 Reception 🐝

Badgers - Abeer

Foxes - Carter

Hedgehogs - Dennis

Squirrels - Milo

⭐️ Nursery ⭐️

Cygnets - Aian

Ducklings - Emma

⭐️ Reception ⭐️

Badgers - Maya

Foxes - Amelie

Hedgehogs - Siyana

Squirrels - Lucy

🐝 Year 1 🐝

Finches - Felicity

Robins - Joshua

Sparrows - Leon

Wrens - Adonai

🐝 Year 2 🐝

Eagles - Deniz

Falcons - Sophia P

Kestrels - Millie

Owls - Rudhran

⭐️ Year 1 ⭐️

Finches - Gareth

Robins - Lochlan

Sparrows - Kayla

Wrens - Haadi

⭐️ Year 2 ⭐️

Eagles - Sienna

Falcons - Christopher

Kestrels - Tehillah

Owls - Zuri

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!

Wilf was very excited to receive a Blue Peter badge for trying his best at 3 different sports and completing 5 parkrun events.

Spring 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.

Nursery 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.

Sutton School Nurse details

School Nurse leaflet 5-11.pdf

Attendance

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

Attendance Update 📢

You can check your child's current marks anytime via the Arbor app.

Class teachers will be available to discuss attainment and "catch-up" support for any gaps caused by absence during the Parent Consultations next week.

Please remember that persistent absence or 10+ sessions of lateness can result in Local Authority fines. We look forward to working together to support your child’s progress!

Appointments

We ask for your continued support in ensuring our students get the most out of every single school day. While we understand that some specialist or emergency medical visits are unavoidable, we are seeing an increasing number of students being collected mid-day for routine check-ups. In line with our attendance policy, please try to book non routine appointments outside of school hours. Where an appointment is booked during school hours we ask that you provide written confirmation of the appointment.

Why this helps:

Learning: Every missed hour makes it harder for students to keep up with new lessons.

Focus: Mid-day departures disrupt the entire class.

Staffing: Frequent collections create extra administrative work for our team, pulling teachers and office staff away from their duties.

DFE resources

Supporting School Attendance: A Role for All Healthcare Practitioners

Education Hub Blog: Reducing the spread of illness this winter: Seven steps to healthier schools and higher school attendance – a helpful blog for parents and staff.

NHS Guidance for Parents: Is my child too ill for school? – a useful resource to help parents decide when children should stay at home.

Preventing and Controlling Infections Guidance: Includes advice on vaccination, ventilation, and good respiratory hygiene.

A–Z of managing Infectious Diseases: Practical guidance on managing specific illnesses.

Extra Curricular Activities During School Hours

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.

Quiz Night - SOLD OUT

Krispy Creme Sale

Friday 20th March

Summer Fair

Request

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 Parents - NHS Wellbeing Workshops

The Education Wellbeing Service March webinars for Primary

We have the Supporting common child anxieties and worries including around exams on 24th and 26th March 2026

The SWLSTG Education Wellbeing Service is offering lunchtime and evening parent Webinars across the year to help support your child’s wellbeing and mental health.

You can sign up to any of their free webinars by copying these URL’s:

Early Years:

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/early-years-parents-nhs-wellbeing-workshops-3573849?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=creatorshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

Primary Years:

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/primary-parents-nhs-wellbeing-workshops-682309?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=creatorshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=escb