Welcome to our weekly newsletter!

Welcome to the end of another busy term! It seems only yesterday we were welcoming back their smiling faces after the Easter holiday, and yet here we are, ready for a well-deserved break. I'm incredibly proud of all our children for their dedication and enthusiasm throughout these past weeks. Year 2 particularly impressed with their recent assessments.  But of course, the joy of learning has been evident both inside and outside of every classroom!

Today, we said goodbye to one of our teaching assistants, Mrs Hamasaki.  Mrs Hamasaki has worked at CCI for 17 years helping hundreds of children across the school.  As well as a teaching assistant, she has also been one of our midday supervisors.  She has been a loyal member of staff and we are going to miss her.  We wish her every success as she joins the radiography team at Epsom hospital.  

Have a restful half term filled with fun and relaxation! We look forward to welcoming you all back for the final term, which promises to be filled with exciting trips, school shows, and celebrations.

A reminder that Monday 3rd is an INSET day and we look forward to seeing the children on Tuesday 4th June.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Walk to School Week.  We hope you all learnt about the benefits of walking, scooting or biking to school.

After half term, for the rest of this academic year, we will be launching the WOW challenge, where children will need to record daily how they come to school.  Those children who walk, cycle, scooter or park and walk at least 5 minutes will be rewarded with a WOW badge at the end of each month.

So go on - get walking!  

On Friday 24th May, Early Years, celebrated Elmer Day.  This year we were helping Elmer celebrate his 25th birthday!  Our Nursery children dressed in their colourful clothes and both Nursery and Reception spent lots of time thinking about what makes them unique and celebrating their differences.  

Thursday 23rd May was outdoor learning day.  We all had fun being outside for some of our learning.  From fossil hunting in the sandpit, to a bug hunt in the Nursery garden as well as obviously enjoying a bit of reading.    

Wow, what a busy last week of the half term Nursery have had!

This week, they have been reading the book The Enormous Turnip.  They developed their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pull out the turnips!  Showing off their artistic nature, they painted their own turnips.  Developing their reading skills they sequenced the story.

In maths they explored 3D shapes, matching the shape to the outline and even having a go at naming the shapes!

They have also had great fun in phonics learning the sound 's' and practising forming the letter correctly.

They have had lots of fun sensory play, including constructing with blocks and shaving foam and painting with ice cubes!  What a lot of fun.

Developing their fine motor skills, they have been following the exercises on 'Dough disco' as well as having fun rolling their own creations.  

They thoroughly enjoyed going on a mini beast hunt as well as using their new 'Get Set Go Blocks!'

You have done a fantastic job this half term and we cannot wait to see all you can do in the final Summer term!

This week Reception continued to read 'The Bog Baby'. The children wrote about what a bog baby needs to be happy and healthy. This is linked to our science learning where we thought about what different pets need and why their needs might be different. We are continuing to raise our tadpoles into tiny frogs. We have released over 100 so far!

In maths, we learnt about subtraction using the song '5 little speckled frogs' to support our learning.

In art we learnt how to print continuous patterns with paint and rollers.

This week we used Seesaw to practise our maths, word and sentence building, typing and  matching rhyming words from the book 'Oi frog'.

We also started to look at how we could programme a Lego train by using different coloured block.  It was great fun!

Please talk to your child about why they are so special to you.

Well done Reception you have worked so hard this half term, we are so proud of how far you have come since September. 

Have a fantastic half term!

Wow the first half of the summer term has flown by. Finches and Wrens had great fun at Forest school this week, using their science skills of investigation and exploration. They categorised evergreen and deciduous trees and recapped insects. The children really enjoyed showing their teachers lots of different mini beasts they found including earwigs, beetles and lots of worms!

In English, the children have retold the story of 'Little Red and the very hungry lion'. They used tales toolkit and wrote about the main characters, the setting of the story, the problem of how the hungry lion disguises himself as the Auntie and the solution.  The children produced some lovely pieces of work remembering to use adjectives and conjunctions. Some children even explored and used directed speech. We were very proud of them.

As mathematicians, the children have been learning to use positional language. They practically explored with a partner putting a teddy on top of the table, under/ below, to the left/ right, in between, beside and behind. 

Can you play with your children describing positions? 

Put batman in between two toys? Next to, under, on top etc

As scientists, the children have reviewed all their learning this term. Using seesaw they labelled the parts of the plant, they named some common plants and flowers. 

As geographers, the children have reviewed their learning about the United Kingdom. They used Seesaw to review what is an island and a capital city. They named the four countries of the UK and their capital cities. They named the seas and plotted the seas on a UK map.  

Can you ask your child to sing the UK song to you? 

In art, the children continued creating their final fauna and flora piece of artwork. The attention to detail is just amazing and they were very proud of their finished pieces.

We hope you all have a wonderful half term. Please continue reading with your child and practise their phonics words - underlining dots and dashes and reading real and alien words. 

What a busy week Year 2 have had.  

In maths, they investigated 3 dimensional shapes, recording themselves, using the correct mathematical vocabulary, using Mote.  They also had a go at constructing their own 3D shapes. 

Can you ask them what mathematical vocabulary we use to describe 3D shapes?

 In computing, they developed their skills of using Google forms to make quizzes and surveys.  

Working as geographers, they continued to research Beijing in China and make comparisons with London in the UK. 

Can they tell you one similarity and one difference between Beijing and London? 

As artists, continuing to work collaboratively they completed their finished mythical musical instrument pieces.  We can't wait to see some of them displayed at Sutton Library for the LEO Arts festival.

They also completed their Key Stage 1 assessments this week.  We are incredibly proud of how they have approached these showing perseverance and a positive attitude.  They have all done very well and should be very proud of themselves.    

Please remember to pay and give permission for your child to attend the Year 1 trip to Hampton Court and Year 2 trip to The Tower of London via Arbor.  Thank you 

Please check the dates section regularly as dates may change and new dates will be added.

Click on the image above to find a range of different apps to support your child's mental well being.

There are many different views about physical chastisement, but it is widely accepted there are much more effective ways to teach children right from wrong. 

As a local authority, Sutton has seen a number of children coming to the attention of police and social care due to the use of physical chastisement and as such has worked with other local authorities on an initiative to reduce this number. 

In line with this initiative, we agree that anything that causes harm to a child is unacceptable.

As a school, we have a duty to report incidents of suspected or confirmed physical chastisement to social care and the police and this can be with ot without visible bruising, grazes, scratches, minor swelling, cuts as well as stress injuries from prolonged standing, position holding as these are banned by law in the United Kingdom.

Smacking or chastising that does not leave a mark is now illegal in Wales and Scotland, and there is currently pressure being placed on the Government to make it illegal in England and Northern Ireland too. It is therefore important to understand that even if a child has been smacked but no injuries are visible, social care or the police may still choose to take further action.

If you would like support on how to manage your child’s behaviour at home, please do not hesitate to contact us, we are here to help. 

Safeguarding Team

My name is Cassim and I’m the South West London engagement lead for Kooth, covering Wandsworth, Croydon, Sutton, Merton, Kingston and Richmond. Kooth is commissioned by NHS. I will be running a number of Parent and Carer's virtual sessions in June and we’d love to invite as many parents as possible to find out how the school and Kooth are working together to support your young person. The session/s will be on how we work with schools to support your young people's mental health and wellbeing. 

As you may already know, At Kooth, we offer free support with no waiting lists. Kooth is a safe and anonymous space for young people to talk about their wellbeing without the fear of judgement. We have clinical practitioners on hand to offer one-to-one support through text-based counselling, operating after school hours, on weekends, and during school holidays. Your child or young person can access the immediate help they need without a formal referral.

Which virtual session would you like to attend?

10:00-10:40 Sunday 2 June 2024
16: 30-17:10 Sunday 2 June 2024
18:30-19:10 Tuesday 4 June 2024
18:30-19:10 Thursday 6 June 2024
 

If you’d like to secure your Parents & Carers Kooth info session - London spot, please complete this form. I understand the limits that parents/carers have in attending work day sessions, so I have organised the sessions to be in the evening and on a Sunday too. I have tried to make these times as accessible for parents and carers as much as I can, so you know how schools and Kooth are working to support your young person/s.

If you have any questions at all before then, please feel free to pop over an email. 

All the best,

Cassim

Sutton Community Uniform 

As some of you will be aware the Council runs a Community School Uniform shop to support families with the costs of living and as an effective way of recycling clothes that children quickly grow out of. 

It was originally established as a response to Covid but has since grown and has proved to be something that families really appreciate and value.

The service is provided through LBS Family Information Service and runs out of Tweedale Family Hub. 

If you are able to donate old uniform through to the community shop please use the contact details here

This is a free service and they do not charge parents for anything. 

More information can be found here

Sutton Dyslexia Association

The next meeting of Sutton Dyslexia Association is on

 Tuesday 11th June 2024 at 7.30pm at

The Friends Meeting House, 10, Cedar Road, Sutton, SM2 5DA

The talk will be on "Spelling". There will be tea and coffee afterwards and the opportunity for parents to meet each other and committee members. Entry is free.

Surrey County Council encourages residents to foster

Fostering is an incredibly rewarding experience that can transform the lives of both the children being fostered and the foster carers themselves. Children who enter the care system have often experienced trauma and instability in their lives, and a caring, stable foster family can make a significant difference in their wellbeing and development.

Nationally, there are currently over 70,000 children living with foster families in the UK. However, there is still a significant shortage of foster carers, with around 9,265 new foster families needed in the next year alone. In Surrey, there are over 1,000 children in care and Surrey County Council have just under 400 foster families.

Foster carers come from all walks of life and backgrounds, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to fostering. Whether you are single or married, young or old, own your own home or rent, you can still become a foster carer. The most important thing is a willingness to provide a safe and loving home for a child in need.

This is the message that Surrey County Council is promoting in national recruitment film ‘Any of Us’. The short film has been jointly funded by over 80 councils across England and aims to raise awareness about fostering, particularly among those people who may not have previously considered themselves suited to fostering. The film looks at the potential of three people from different backgrounds to become foster carers, and the potential of children they care for to grow and thrive. ‘Any of Us’ will be available to watch from 26 September.

If you have ever thought about fostering, now is the time to take that first step and find out more. The more people who consider fostering, the greater the chance of finding loving, stable homes for children in Surrey who desperately need them.

You can contact Surrey County Council Fostering Service on 0800 096 9626, via email at fostering.recruitment@surreycc.gov.uk or by visiting the website; www.surreycc.gov.uk/fostering

You can watch ‘Any of Us’ via Any of Us - YouTube and connect with the Fostering Service on social media via @surreyfostering

Dads' Football

Some Cheam Common School Dads get together on a weekly basis to play football and have a good chat. 

Join us in our WhatsApp group! ( https://chat.whatsapp.com/FwN7SksNXnBIxanYRJ9TEc) 

See you on the pitch!

Keep up to date with all the news, events & opportunities from across @LEOacademies. You can now follow us at: