St Edmunds News
Week beginning 19.2.24- 25.2.24
Headteacher's Welcome
Dear Families,
I hope you all had a fun and restful half term holiday. During the break, Ash Wednesday marked the start of Lent, which holds significant importance in our faith as a period of spiritual preparation, reflection, and repentance leading up to Easter. Spanning 40 days, it symbolizes the biblical journey Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. With this in mind, this Wednesday, children from Year 4, 5 and 6, who have made their first Holy Communion, visited the church for the sacrament of Reconciliation in which they confessed their sins to the parish priests. There was a prayerful, solemn atmosphere throughout this important service.
During Lent, we should all engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Fasting, often involving abstaining from certain foods or practices, is a way to identify with Christ's sacrifice and redirect focus from worldly concerns to spiritual matters. Prayer deepens our connection with God, fostering a sense of humility and dependence. Almsgiving, or acts of charity, shows the commitment to helping others and promoting social justice. Therefore, on Thursday, we were visited by Brenda from the charity Cafod. Brenda led a whole school assembly to launch our Lenten fundraiser - 'The Big Lent Walk'. This is part of our school's almsgiving and links into our whole school focus for this half term, which is 'Care for Others' and our new Catholic Social Teaching theme 'Community and Participation'. All of the children will be participating in 'The Big Lent Walk' by taking turns to do the daily mile. The target is to walk 200km as a whole school and there will be a letter and a sponsorship form sent home next week to explain how you can help raise money and how this will help Cafod's efforts.
It has been great welcoming the children back this week and, as always, there has been plenty happening. On Monday, the Year 4 teachers and some pupils delivered an assembly telling everyone about their class saint - Josephine Bakhita whose feast day was on February 8th and I spoke about in the previous newsletter. It was wonderful for the Year 4 team to share their knowledge with the rest of the school about what an amazing woman St Josephine Bakhita was.
On Tuesday, KS2 were treated to a wonderful assembly by Apollo Music. A string quartet performed a range of songs collectively and individually, introducing the children to the violin, viola and cello. It was fantastic seeing the range of expressions on the faces of the children, which included amazed, happy and intrigued. I would like to thank Miss Virasami for arranging this wonderful opportunity for the children to experience live, classical music. After the assembly, Apollo Music remained to deliver some workshops to Year 4, in which they performed more pieces of music, discussed them and taught the children specific vocabulary such as pitch, tempo and mood. These workshops are preparing the children with the knowledge and understanding, as well as a love for music to attend a symphony orchestra performance in London.
I hope you have a great weekend. Let's hope the rain stays away!
Mr Abrahams
The string quartet performed a range of classical music both solo and in an ensemble in an assembly for KS2 on Tuesday. The children were inspired listening to and learning about the different stringed instruments and it was a wonderful experience for them to hear live music.
Students of the Week
Class 1.1: Papa Adu - For an amazing first week at St. Edmund's. We are so lucky to have you!
Class 1.2: Everly - For producing excellent independent writing.
Class 2.1: Thomas - For excellent behaviour all week
Class 2.2: Ezeora - For noticing on his own that multiplication is commutative.
Class 3.1: Bitanya - For improving her sentence structures.
Class 3.2: Janice - For her amazing ability to recall facts that she has learnt in previous lessons.
Class 4.1: Kenaya - For being amazingly considerate to her classmates and always shwing the St Edmund's way!
Class 4.2: Samuel - For a hugely improved attitude towards his learning across all subjects. Well done! Keep it up!
Class 5.1: Nevaeh - For excellent work in English, when researching for information to write a newspaper report.
Class 5.2: Nana Kofi - For exemplary maths work this week! You have learned loads and I could not be prouder of you! Well Done!
Class 6.1: Emmanuel - For improving his mathematical and writing skills most impressively. He has gained so much more confidence and independence.
Class 6.2: Diane - For excellent behaviour and consistently working very hard in all subjects by focusing and completing tasks within the stipulated time.
News
Parents Evenings:
You would have seen on the calendar on this newsletter that there are Parents' Evenings in March. On Tuesday 19th March, school will close early at 1.00pm to allow for the consultations to take place that afternoon. The second evening will take place on Thursday 21st March where appointments will be available up to 7.00pm. All consultations will be face-to-face and there will also be the opportunity to look through your children's books.
Details on how to book appointments will be communicated soon.
Music Lessons:
Please see attachment below on how you can register your child for music lessons with Enfield. The closing date is March 10th for the Summer Term.
EMS - Music Lessons Open - Summer 24.jpg
Catholic Life
Once again, the academic year will follow the three words which make up our school motto - 'Love, Care, Share'. In order to bring the motto to life, I have divided its three words into the three terms of the school year. Therefore, our assemblies contribute towards the focus of the term, which can be seen in the diagram below. As we move into the new term, we shall focus on 'Care for Others', which will link into the Lenten season.
Catholic Social Teaching:
This year, St Edmund's are raising the profile of Catholic Social Teaching. According to CAFOD, Catholic social teaching (CST) is rooted in Scripture, formed by the wisdom of Church leaders, and influenced by grassroots movements. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world. Our faith calls us to love God and to love our neighbours in every situation, especially our sisters and brothers living in poverty. Following in the footsteps of Christ, we hope to make present in our unjust and broken world, the justice, love and peace of God.
At school, we follow the Rooted in Love programme and we will dedicate the first lesson every half term and an assembly towards the Catholic Social Teaching theme. You can see these themes below.
As you can see, the theme this half term is Community and Participation. You can read more about this on our website on https://www.st-edmunds.enfield.sch.uk/page/?title=Catholic+Social+Teaching&pid=111
Attendance
Whole School Target: 95%
This Week: 94.66%
This Year: 94.75%
Class R.1: 91.14%
Class R.2: 90.98%
Class 1.1: 98.41%
Class 1.2: 92.78%
Class 2.1: 90.31%
Class 2.2: 97.01%
Class 3.1: 95.2%
Class 3.2: 95.93%
Class 4.1: 96.55%
Class 4.2: 91.98%
Class 5.1: 97.44%
Class 5.2: 96.3%
Class 6.1: 94.66%
Class 6.2: 96.95%
At the moment, we are just under our target of 95% for attendance. Let's hope, as the weather gets warmer, and the bugs begin to disperse, we can start to meet that target. If you need more information and health advice to know if your child is unwell and what with, you can use the QR codes below to help.
NO NUTS OR SEEDS
Please remember we are a NO NUT SCHOOL. This is also extended to seeds. Some members of our school community have severe allergies to nuts and seeds, and food products containing them.
Your child must not bring in any products containing nuts and seeds as a snack or as part of their packed lunch. This includes seeded bread, hummus (which contains sesame), pesto (which contains pine nuts), peanut butter and chocolate spread (which often contains nuts).
CHANGES TO DINNER MENU
Please see below, the BRAND NEW school dinner menu which will rotate over three weeks for this half term starting on Monday 19th February.
Please remind your children of the importance of eating their lunch: mainly to ensure that they are nourished and energised for their afternoon of learning but also to teach them the importance of not wasting food.
St Edmunds - Spring - Summer 24 STIR Primary.pptx HALAL (2).pdf
St Edmund's Way Certificate
Last year, we launched a special certificate that can be awarded to both children and staff if they show that they are truly living ‘The St Edmund’s Way’ by going above and beyond to show they are living out our motto and displaying selflessness, love and care for others. This week's winner was Raphaella in class 2.1 for always going above and beyond for everyone and taking time out of her lunch to help children practise for their poem!
Safeguarding and Family Support
Troubles With Sleep?
We know that many children have difficulty getting to sleep and that this can happen for a variety of reasons. Please see the image above to find the National Sleep Helpline for any questions or advice you need to help your child getting to sleep.
Enfield Directory of Services:
Enfield Council have launched an Early Help Directory for all. They have put together a directory of community services and organisations for children, families, community members and professionals to enable you to access information you need in one place, at your fingertips. The directory is categorised under simple headings to help you find what you're looking for. The directory can be accessed in a variety of languages. You can access the directory here: https://enfielddirectory4all.co.uk/
Housing Support:
Shelter is a UK charity dedicated to supporting people who are struggling with housing issues or are at risk of homelessness. They can offer one to one, personalised advice online and by telephone and free legal advice and support with court attendances should it be required.
"We (Shelter) exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything"
The link to there website is here: https://www.shelter.org.uk/
If you need advice relating to benefits, housing or debt issues Citizens Advice may be able to help. You can find them here:
https://www.citizensadviceenfield.org.uk/
If you need a translator to access the advice that these services offer, just ask the person who answers the phone. Or use Google Translate to make an initial contact online, explaining that you require translation services.
Ponders End Youth & Family Hub:
Ponders End Youth and Family Hub Flyer.pdfEach week, we will share a guide from National Online Safety, which will give you advice about how you can keep your children safe online at home. But did you know they had an app? In preparation for Internet Safety Day, which is next Tuesday 6th February, I recommend that all parents download the app. This week, the page tells parents and carers what you need to know about age ratings.
Thought of the Week:
