Newsletter 24

w/c Monday 10th March 2025

FOSS UPDATE PAGE THREE

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🔔IMPORTANT MESSAGE - LUNCHES 🔔

First and foremost, a huge HURRAH and thanks to the The Turks Head and our school kitchen team, today our new oven had first day nerves and unfortunately was unable to complete the job of cooking fish and chips for everyone. Half an hour into cooking the lunches, a technical issue caused the gas and electricity supply to the kitchen to cut out. The Turks Head kindly came to our rescue and cooked the remainder of the lunches for us.

The fault has been identified and will be worked on Monday.

**We kindly ask you to provide your child with a packed lunch on Monday 17th March**

School will provide a packed lunch to our children in receipt of the pupil premium/free school meal grant.

Thanks you for supporting us.

DATES AND REMINDERS

(Dates may be subject to change. For a full list of our yearly dates please check our 'Summary of Dates' page on our website)

Friday 14th March - FOSS Bounceathon

Friday 14th March - Class assembly - Year Three - Mandela

W/c Monday 17th March - Neurodiversity Week

Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th March - Parent consultations

Friday 21st March - Year Three Trip to Richmond Synagogue

Thursday 20th March and Friday 21st March - FOSS presents 'St Stephen's Got Talent' shows

Friday 21st March - FOSS second hand uniform shop - school playground - 3.30pm (including summer uniform for the following term)

Wednesday 26th March - Easter Service - Year Four Easter Performance - St Stephen's Church - 10 am

Thursday 27th March - Richmond Music Trust Ensemble Day (Orchestra)

Friday 28th March 2025 - Let’s Talk About Online Safety - 9am (Studio)

Wednesday 2nd April - Richmond Music Trust Singing Festival (Choir)

Thursday 3rd April - Term ends 2.15pm

Friday 4th April - Staff Inset Day

Friday 4th April - St Stephen's Stars open for Inset Day

Tuesday 22nd April - Children return to school

Friday 25th April - Let’s Talk About PANTS (KS1 focus) - 9am (Studio)

(This will highlight early talk about consent and the NSPCC Underwear Rule which supports children to keep themselves safe from physical abuse)

Wednesday 30th April - Reception Trip to The Polka Theatre

Friday 2nd May - FOSS Crazy Hair Day

Monday 5th May - Bank Holiday

Friday 9th May - Class assembly - Year One - Pankhurst (tbc)

W/c Monday 12th May - SATS - Year Six

W/c Monday 12th May - Staff Appreciation Week

Friday 23rd May - Let’s Talk About Diversity

Monday 26th - Friday 30th May - Half term holiday

Monday 2nd June - Children return to school

⭐STARS⭐

SIBLING PLACES

Please let us know your sibling booking preferences ahead of Stars bookings opening next week. You should email us on stars@st-stephens.richmond.sch.uk and let us know the dates of bookings you wish to place that require additional sibling places added. Please also let us know the sibling name when you email. Please email us before Wednesday.When bookings open, you only need to book a place for one child and we will add the sibling to the bookings from your email.

PRICES

Reminder of new prices: Breakfast Club £9.00, After School Club £22.00

EASTER CAMP

We would like to run a Camp at school during the school holidays, please fill in this quick Google form by the end of the day Tuesday 18th March to let us know if you are interested. We will confirm before the end of the week if the camp will go ahead and the days it will run.

Thank you

SWIMMERS MAKE A SPLASH FOR ST STEPHEN'S AT BOROUGH CHAMPIONSHIPS

Huge congratulations to our Key Stage Two Swimming squad who swam their hearts out at the recent borough championships. They came back bearing shields: winning the Boys Medium Schools Award, notching a fabulous fourth place in the Girls Medium Schools section and an amazing third place overall for boys in the borough. A wonderful achievement and thank you to Mrs Easton and Miss Cooper for heading up the squad and giving lots of poolside encouragement.

ALL TOGGED OUT FOR WORLD BOOK DAY

There were witches, wizards and super heroes aplenty at last week's World Book Day. Mingling in the playground were James Bonds, fleets of fairies and a veritable zoo of animals of all descriptions, some fantastical and some who would have been quite at home in your nearest zoo. World Book Day is a wonderful excuse for us to encourage our young. We were also thrilled to welcome in Kitty's Mum who shared her wonderful book, complete with illustrations, Pablo the Cat. Encouraging young readers and writers to explore storytelling is such a wonderful way to nurture creativity. Here are but a few of the costumes on show ... more book-based dressing up on page five. Head to our Instagram page for a fab reel of our St Stephen's staff on World Book Day 2025!

YEAR ONE HUNTS FOR BUGS IN TURNER'S HOUSE

When the house of a world famous artist (JMW Turner, no less) is practically on your doorstep, you have the easiest and one of the nicest school trips within walking distance. Year One braved the March winds and took the very short walk to Sandycombe Lodge to find out about Turner's time in the property and how it is maintained for today's, art loving visitors. First up was a lovely workshop on artefacts from the period of Turner. This gave our young learners a feel for how people lived around 1813-26 when the artist and his father occupied the house. The childen then got their sketch pads out and had a go at drawing said artefacts - well the trip was about Turner, so some artistic endeavour was called for.

Afterwards they learned about the bugs they may encounter in the house. Some are perfectly fine, like spiders, but others, such as woodworm, can cause irreparable damage to this precious location. Plastic versions of both the harmless and unwanted bugs were scattered around the premises and Year One were tasked with tracking them down. They loved the whole trip but we have a sneaky feeling the bug hunt was their favourite activity. If you have not been to Turner's House, we heartily recommend a visit, although we cannot promise they will get the plastic spiders out for you to track down. That was just for our lovely Year One children.

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