Newsletter 2 w/c 11th September

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR - PAGE SIX

VIEWING OUR NEWSLETTER ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE

We are keen that you do not miss out on any of the wonderful stories carried in our weekly newsletter. Don't forget that when viewing on a mobile, you will need to click on the bars at the top of the FIRST page to view additional pages. Happy viewing ...

FOSS UPDATE. LAST YEAR FOSS RAISED AN INCREDIBLE £60K. FOR ALL THE LATEST FOSS NEWS TURN TO PAGE THREE. DON'T FORGET TO BOOK YOUR QUIZ NIGHT TICKETS!

DATES AND REMINDERS

Wednesday 20th September - Year Six swimming group assessments (further details to follow)

Wednesday 20th September - Parent Curriculum evenings - Reception (6pm), Year Two (6.30pm), Year Four (7.00pm), Year Six (7.30pm)

Wednesday 27th September - FOSS AGM - 8pm - The Studio

Thursday 28th September - Year Six - Junior Citizenship (further details to follow)

Monday 2nd - Tuesday 3rd October - Year Four residential to Thames Young Mariners

Thursday 5th October - Kamkwamba class assembly

Tuesday 10th October - Harvest Festival (tbc)

Wednesday 11th October - Year One trip to Bocketts Farm (further details to follow)

Monday 16th October - Anti-Prejudice Week

Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th October - Online parent consultations

Tuesday 17th October - Individual photographs

Wednesday 18th October - Individual photographs

Thursday 19th October - Year Five - National Archives (further details to follow)

Friday 20th October - FOSS Favourite Top Day

Monday 23rd - Friday 27th October - Half-term

Thursday 21st December - End of term. School closes 2.15pm

SAFEGUARDING AUDITOR SAYS OUR STAFF ARE 'DEDICATED AND COMMITTED'

This week we had a safeguarding audit and the inspector was impressed with our staff's knowledge of the subject and our commitment to procedures. Liz Bachour, our headteacher, explains: "The inspector spent time walking around our school, talking to our staff and children and examing all our safeguarding procedures in depth. She was very impressed with the speed staff pick up on any concerns and follow up with actions. Our children also told her they felt safe in our school and knew who their trusted adults were. Safeguarding is our number one priority and it is so important that the work we put in is recognised in this way. We are delighted with the inspector's findings. However, we never rest on our laurels and are constantly reviewing our procedures and ensuring we incorporate the latest guidelines and thinking."

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS

We believe that one of the major assets of our school is our parents and carers. Their support and help is invaluable and enables us to enhance and enrich our children's education in so many ways. The work of our wonderful FOSS is legendary (see page three for the latest update) and volunteers who help on trips, in our library or working on reading and maths with our children make such a difference. We cannot thank you enough.

We are recruiting volunteers!

To work in school our volunteers need to be DBS checked. If you would like to join our team of volunteers, we would love to have you. Please log on to the e-teach form to register your interest: https://www.eteach.com/job/parentcarer-volunteer-1368775

We are offering coffee, a catch up and training to our current volunteers:

If you are already a St Stephen's DBS-checked volunteer we are holding a short coffee and training session for volunteers on Friday 29th September at 9am-10.15am: 'How to support children's early reading and maths.' Please reserve you place here: https://forms.gle/JxqteRgcu5ZD4Gm68

We do hope that you can attend.

Finally, if you are one of the above mentioned DBS-checked volunteers we would love some help with checking books into our system. We use the Little Wandle scheme of books and they all need to be logged. If you are interested please email info@st-stephens.richmond.sch.uk FAO Mrs Morrison with your availability.

Many, many thanks.

IMPORTANT REMINDER FOR PARENTS

School Emails - Please ensure your email account approves emails from our school mail server, otherwise important information may go to your junk folder.

Emails will appear in your inbox/junk folder as ‘St. Stephen’s School’ however, the email domain behind this is schoolmail@sesl-education.com

Pick up from school - Please can we politely request that parents and carers depart the school playground as quickly as possible once children are collected, we have after school sports clubs that are waiting to start and hanging around causes unnecessary delays for the club leader and the children. Thank you

Reception are in the building

One of the most exciting times for us at St Stephen's is when we welcome our new Reception children. Watching them begin their academic journey is a pure joy. After individual visits by our Reception team, the children started school this week. A staggered entry ensures they all get the time and attention they need to learn their new routines and settle in. They are all in now and we will bring you lots of news about their first year in school. Good luck Reception!

The welcome was all the warmer when our wonderful FOSS team greeted each child with a goody bag. Thank you FOSS.

Year Six Go Over The Top

And at the top end of the school, our Year Six scholars are enjoying a residential school journey at Hooke Court in Dorset. Lashings of outdoor learning, based around their World War One and Two topics, is giving them a feel for trench life - there has even been some formation marching and drilling. The military theme continues with meals in the mess, where their home cooked rations are based on produce from the site's organic farm. We will bring you more pictures and news from their trip in next week's newsletter. See our Twitter page for more shots of their adventure.

Page updated

Report abuse