CCI Newsletter 6th - 10th October 2025

Cheam Common Infants' Academy

Weekly Newsletter

Monday 6th - Friday 10th 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

Thank you to everyone who attended our early years coffee morning this week; I hope you found it a useful opportunity to connect with other parents embarking on their children's school journey. This week, we successfully held our first daytime and evening tours of the school. We have several more daytime tours planned, if you know of anyone that might be interested in joining our school community – please help us spread the word! It was definitely a week for our early years, with Mrs. Woods leading a successful Reception curriculum meeting. I was delighted to pop in briefly, but sadly missed the engaging 'Drawing Club' and 'Tales Toolkit' audience participation.

On a different note, a polite reminder to please ensure your children do not ride their bikes or scooters inside the school gates, at both Balmoral and Kingsmead entrances. We had an avoidable incident this week which has highlighted the need for everyone to be on their feet rather than wheels in the playground. As an additional word of caution: we also had an accident just outside the school gates caused by the uneven pavement due to tree roots. We have written to the council about this and would encourage you to do the same if you or your children have experienced trips due to this issue.

Unfortunately we seem to have fallen prey to a sickness bug which appears to be circulating in school at the moment. We are actively encouraging children to be vigilant with handwashing, but these bugs do regrettably spread quickly in infant schools. If your child has been sick we request that you follow our guide lines and keep them off school for 48 hours after the last bout of sickness.

Finally, a polite reminder that we encourage book donations to be shared with the class for birthday celebrations, rather than sweets. We have had several parents ask that we not give out sweets to the children. I want to make it clear that if your child comes home with sweets, they have been given to them by other parents, not school staff, outside of the school building, contrary to our reminders.

Mrs Hughes

Parent Workshops

Seesaw Workshop Slides

Phonics Workshop Slides

Coming Soon

Friday 17th October (9am) - Phonics: Yellow Group and Beyond

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

School Updates

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.

Harvest Festival donations

On Friday, members of our CCJ School Council travelled to Epsom and Ewell Food Bank to drop off our Harvest Festival donations. Children loved the trip and were able to talk about what happened with these donations. Some members of our School Council helped load this food onto the minibus!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated.

Important Safeguarding Notice: 'Spy' Books

We want to make you aware of a recent issue affecting some popular children’s books by Andrew Cope, including the Spy Dogs, Spy Cats, and Spy Pups series.

Some editions of these books include a printed web address at the back. This link used to go to the author’s website, but the domain is no longer under his control. It has since been taken over by another party and now leads to inappropriate adult content.

The publisher, Puffin, has paused sales and distribution of the books and is working with schools, libraries, and retailers to remove copies from circulation. They have stressed that the website has no connection to the author or publisher.

What this means for you:

If your child has any Spy Dog, Spy Cat or Spy Pups books at home, please check the back for website links and make sure they do not try to visit the site.
It is safe for children to continue reading the stories themselves — the concern is only with the outdated link.
We recommend talking with your child about the importance of not following web addresses in books without checking with an adult first.

We will continue to share updates from the publisher as more information becomes available.

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 15 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.

Wellbeing Woofers

Universal Breakfast Club

Fuel up for a bright day CCI!.pdf

Schoolwear Inc - Uniform Update

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

We've been learning all about Pete the Cat and the way his shoes keep changing color. We've enjoyed singing his song, "I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes," and had so much fun singing and reciting how his shoes turn red, blue, brown depending on what he steps in! We have been busy artists making our own puppets, drawing the fun characters and splashing lots of color onto the page by painting beautiful rainbows and pictures!

Reception

We have continued our learning about Splat the Cat and explored the different settings in the story; school and home. We thought about what our homes looked like and described them to our Talk Partners. We also thought about our favourite places (setting) and explained why we like it. We have enjoyed learning about numberblocks 1-4 and began to look at some basic composition of number and adding numbers to equal 3 and 4.

Year 1

Year One have really enjoyed all their learning this week. In English the children enjoyed writing about the problem and solution of Beegu. We are very proud of how much more independently they are writing and they are constructing clear sentences. In Maths, the children have been identifying objects that are whole and not whole and finding part of a whole. In Geography, the children thought about where they lived in a house or flat and wrote a simple sentence about. In R.E the children learnt about langa plates and created their own. In Science, the children carried out a simple investigation comparing height and age. They found it interesting that you can be older in age but smaller in height.

Year 2

Year 2 demonstrated their curiosity about the lives of ‘Nurturing Nurses’ in the past as they researched the life and sacrifices made by Edith Cavell. They were moved as they learned that she risked her life to help soldiers escape during World War 1. She demonstrated kindness and compassion towards all who needed her help.

The children were highly motivated to finally become authors. They used their story plans to craft engaging tales of a lost sea creature and lonely child who became friends. Extra effort was spent on beautiful handwriting as they all hoped for a coveted space on our ‘We are Writers’ display, where their stories can be showcased to all of Year 2.

In Maths, we have been exploring efficiency when adding or subtracting two addends. Children recognised that they could partition an addend or subtrahend when bridging 10, which enabled them to use their numberbonds to 10 to simplify the calculation.

In Art, the children were delighted by the magical effect of the wax resist technique. They demonstrated keen focus when carefully observing the detail and variety of leaf form and were inspired to create impressive watercolour paintings of autumnal leaves.

What a week, Year 2! You are amazing!

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!

Kiaan (Year 2)

Sienna (Year 2)

School Achievements

🐝 Weekly 3 Bees Certificate 🐝

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's Explorer Value is 'Curious'.

🐝 Nursery 🐝

Cygnets - Elira

Ducklings - Aileen

🐝 Reception 🐝

Badgers - Gus

Foxes - Maya

Hedgehogs - Dylan

Squirrels - Rory

⭐️ Nursery ⭐️

Cygnets - Louis

Ducklings - Teddy

⭐️ Reception ⭐️

Badgers - Raffie

Foxes - Luca

Hedgehogs - Suhasini

Squirrels - Storm

🐝 Year 1 🐝

Finches - Izzy

Robins - Sophia

Sparrows - Harvey

Wrens - Haadi

🐝 Year 2 🐝

Eagles - Luna

Falcons - Thomas

Kestrels - Leia

Owls - Marnie

⭐️ Year 1 ⭐️

Finches - Gareth

Robins - Rai

Sparrows - Kabir

Wrens - Oleane

⭐️ Year 2 ⭐️

Eagles - Jack

Falcons - Hana

Kestrels - King

Owls - Joshua

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!

Jensen (Year 1)

On Sunday Jensen took part in his first triathlon, in Devon. He swam 25m, cycled 1500m and ran 650m, and finished 25th out of 62 in the 5-7 year age group. Fastest 5 year old there!

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

Wednesday 15th October: School Tour 9:30am (for new starters in 2026)

Friday 17th October: Phonics Parent Workshop (Yellow Group and Beyond) - 9am

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

Friday 21st November: Bingo Night

Wednesday 5th November: Bonfire Night Lunch

Tuesday 16th December and Wednesday 17th December - 9.15am KS1 (Y1 and Y2) Christmas Performances

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