St. Michael's CE School

End of Year Newsletter

Summer 2022

Create, Equip, Partner

Message From Mrs Grant,

Headteacher:

Dear Parents and Carers

At the end of a very hot week and a very action packed year it is my pleasure to reflect with you all that has taken place since September 2021.

You will see from the Phase Reviews that it has been particularly special to be back doing school trips again at last, as well as performing to (and meeting with) parents again in person like the good old days!

We are also though mindful still that Covid is on the increase again and appreciate you letting us know if your family is unfortunate enough to be struck down again.

The newsletter below is jam packed with updates, news and reviews from all areas of St Michael's School life and I urge you all to read it to the end.

Please see the message below from our new Co-Chairs of Governors and I join them in paying tribute to Sarah Marshall, our outgoing Chair. I too thank her for all she has done for us during her tenure.

I also want to thank our fantastic PTA for all they have done for the school this year. They are phenomenal.

And thank you to our Head Boys and Girls for their sterling work this year.

Finally, the last word goes to all of Year 6:

....Good luck in your new schools, go and shine like we know you will and come back and visit us in your new uniform soon please! We always love to hear how you are getting on.

Refreshing the memory of those Covid times.... "Until we meet again...keep safe" - and I look forward to seeing the rest of you back here on Monday 5th September for a fresh start to the Autumn term.

Best wishes for the holidays ahead.

Ann-Marie Grant (AMG)

Headteacher

Message from Sarah, David and John

Co- Chairs of Governors:

July 2022

At the end of the year we would like to thank the whole school community for the continued support and contribution that makes St Michael’s school such a special place. To all the staff, Governors, PTA, parents and carers and the amazing children.

It’s been wonderful to be back to normal following an unprecedented few years, to be able to go into school and see wonderful displays of work in corridors and classrooms, and to be there to witness the many shows and activities. The highlight was the lovely celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and watching the whole school get so wrapped up in this amazing milestone.

The school continues to flourish with great success at all levels and we are particularly delighted with the progress that has been made in this year's phonics and SATs results.

We say 'goodbye' to the Year 6 children and wish them all the best for the next stage of the school journey. We also say 'goodbye' to a number of teachers and of course, Sarah Marshall who has given so much as a governor and Chair over the last twelve years. We thank each and every person who is moving on for all of their contributions to the school over the years.

You can find out more about the work of the governors here:

www.stmichaels.wandsworth.sch.uk/board-of-governors

We wish you all a very happy summer break and we look forward to the new year starting in September.

Best wishes

Sarah, David and John

Notices and Reminders:

Term Dates:

Please follow the links below for the confirmed Term Dates for:

2022-23

2023-24

Please be reminded that we do not authorise trips outside these dates and anyone taking holiday during term time will have this noted on their school records.

Thank you.

Our Phonics and SATS Results!

Follow the link for a celebration of our wonderful achievements in Year 1 Phonics and Year 2 and Year 6 SATS:

Link to results

Second Hand Uniform:

The PTA have asked if any unwanted/outgrown uniform can be brought along to the front playground at 2pm pick up on Wednesday 20th July.

These can then be donated to the Second Hand Uniform Sale next term.

Many thanks

Jubilee Canvas: Final Reminder:

This is to remind you that the paid for canvases are coming home with the children on Monday.

You can still purchase your child's artwork via Parentmail.

50 Things To Do This Summer:

Follow the link for some money saving ideas of how to enjoy the forthcoming holidays:

www.netsupportsoftware.com/20220711discover-our-new-50-things-to-do-this-summer-guide/

School Lunches:

This term the costs are as follows:

Per Day: £2.75

Per Week: £13.75

Per Half Term: £93.50

Per Term: £189.75

All children should stick to either a school lunch OR a packed lunch for the whole half term unless there are exceptional circumstances. Please do not send in any sweets, chocolate or NUTS. Thank you.

Attendance:

Our target for the year was 97.5%

This year we have achieved:

96.6%

This is a great result considering how much illness we have experienced throughout the school this year.

Well done and thank you to everyone.

Next year's attendance target remains the same.

School Uniform:

Please remember to label everything clearly, including PE kit, shoes, water bottles and lunch boxes.

Walking Unaccompanied:

Year 6 and Year 5 only:

If your child has permission from you to walk to/from school unaccompanied please email the school office or complete the appropriate form on the website.

St Mike's Youth team are planning to run on the 8th, 9^th & 10^th August between 10am - 2pm for any local Ukrainian children. The club will be held at St Michael's Church Field & Pavillion on Viewfield Road in Southfields and will be run by our Youth team. All adults will hold DBS certification.

The clubs need a minimum of 8 children per day to run and sign ups to celia@stmikes-ststeves.org.uk are needed by Wednesday 20^th July to give us time to plan and prepare.

Phase Reviews

EYFS and Nursery:

This has been a very busy half term for Reception! The assembly was a great way to showcase all of our wonderful learning via a beach theme! It also gave us the opportunity to sing and perform to an audience, supporting our expressive arts early learning goals.

This half term, there have been "show and tell" sessions for the Reception class’. In addition to teaching their classmates how to be a good listener and ask relevant questions, they have offered the children the opportunity to develop their public speaking confidence.

A particular highlight of our year in Green Class was meeting an international weight lifting champion during sports week. We enjoyed having a go at some of the exercises and movements which she showed us, that are part of her training regime. Green Class also had the opportunity to ask questions and learn about her training routine and the importance of exercise.

We also enjoyed learning lots of new art techniques. For example using printing with foam and a toothbrush to splatter paint when creating our own versions of The Great Wave by Hokusai.

As we count down to the end of term, we have taken a moment this week to reflect on all the learning that has taken place in Nursery this term.

We kicked off the summer term with an exploration of all things creepy and crawly. The children enjoyed a fantastic visit from Zoolab, where they very bravely explored a variety of different animals, including a Giant African Land Snail and a tarantula called Rosie.

We have also watched caterpillars change into butterflies, made homes for pet snails and made our own mini worm farm. We discovered all sorts of mini beasts in the sensory garden and in the Nursery playground, and always remembered to search with our eyes. We loved celebrating at our Ugly Bug Ball at the end of the half term - thank you to all those that came along.

During the second half of the term we have been exploring larger wildlife. We loved reading 'Oi! Get off our Train', and discussing the reasons we need to look after our environment in order to protect animals. As well as 'Walking in the Jungle', where the children have enjoyed performing with various instruments in the outdoor stage area.

The children have all grown in confidence so much over the course of the year and are all well and truly ready for the next stage of their school journey. The team at Mini St Mikes would like to wish all our families a peaceful Summer holiday! Thank you for all your support over the course of the year.

Angela Harris

Lower Phase:

As the year comes to an end, it is with pride that I reflect on what an exciting and eventful year it has been! The children have continued to make us proud with their resilience and drive to learn and grow as individuals, as classes, as a year group and as a phase.

Our final term in KS1 has been bright, colourful and full of fun learning opportunities through our most recent ‘Land Ahoy’ and ‘Rio di Vida’ topics. The children were captivated by all things South American in Year 1. They used the story of “Jabuti the Tortoise’ to explore feelings of kindness, jealousy and unkindness, looking closely at the different characters in the story. The children used the story as a stimulus for their next Big Write, which was a letter from Jabuti to Volture asking questions about his behaviour. They developed their understanding of letter structure and used varied conjunctions to ensure their writing was detailed and exciting. In their Geography lessons, they consolidated their learning of the 7 continents and used this knowledge to help them locate Rio on a world map. They also worked hard to compare the features of hot and cold countries.

Our Year 2’s embarked on a learning journey on the high seas; they dressed as pirates as they searched for buried treasure to kick start the topic. They thoroughly enjoyed our DT project where the criteria were to design and make a pirate-themed hand puppet. The children worked hard to develop their sewing skills, by learning all about running stitches and how to join material together. The end results were fantastic! They used the story book ‘The Pirates Next Door’ as a stimulus for their narrative writing, using prepositions and apostrophes for possessions and contraction...shiver me timbers, they really are clever landlubbers!

As always at St Michael’s we have had a number of amazing events taking place, these included sports week and sports day, move up day; where we got to meet our new teachers and spend some time in our new classrooms and of course Fun afternoon with the all the exciting inflatables. WOW, what a Year!!

Gemma Jennings

Middle Phase:

As we come to the end of a busy, hot Summer term, we reflect on all the fun we have had in Middle Phase throughout the year. Early highlights included the Year 4 trip to the Buddhist temple, the spray painting street art workshop for both year groups to create artwork representing our growth mindset goals, dressing up as Romans and enjoying a pretend Roman feast in Year 4, Maths Mission morning and Number Day and both of our year group assembly performances to parents. In addition, we enjoyed a virtual visit to the Wimbledon Synagogue in Year 3 to enhance the Judaism unit in RE.

Since then, Year 3 had lots of fun exploring the remains of a real life Iron Age hill fort at Danebury in Hampshire. That was a fantastic trip which really helped the children to understand what life might have been like in prehistoric Britain. The beautiful location and the size of the fort was impressive and the children enjoyed learning about foods and Iron Age jobs and skills before playing some exciting invasion games, trying to creep uphill to attack the opposing ‘tribe’ whilst being pelted with beanbags! The outings to the Tate Modern were also really great to consolidate the children’s learning about different art styles, sculpture and urban architecture. We particularly enjoyed spotting the miniature paintings on chewing gum embedded in the Millenium Bridge as we approached the Tate.

Just this week, Year 3 took a trip to see the River Wandle. Along the way we learnt about how our water usage can affect how much water there is in rivers. We found that 'low flow' can damage the river environment. We recapped vocabulary and learnt new river vocabulary too - do you know what a ‘riffle’ is? Ask a Year 3 child! We looked out for wildlife, spotted a dragonfly and learnt about why a river makes a good habitat for lots of different animals.

In Year 4, history has been a very popular subject and, following on from the Romans, we have had a great time learning about the Saxons and Vikings and, just last week, putting all our knowledge of the events of 1066 to good use as we spent a whole day dressed as Saxons and Normans, examining artefacts, learning to play traditional board games, discovering typical foods and reenacting the Battle of Hastings itself on the MUGA, complete with helmets, shields and swords (sticks). Our Big Writes are testament to the innovation of the children as we have tacked new grammatical concepts and been inspired by a range of absorbing class reading texts. This year, twice weekly Whole Class Reading sessions have been a big success and all the children can tell you how they use their VIPERS skills for comprehension. We have also enjoyed lots of practical investigations in Science lessons.

We are so grateful for the expertise that we can draw on from colleagues across the school to enhance our RE learning. This term, Year 3 has been learning about the many different books in the Bible. To enhance their understanding, Mrs Constable led a workshop of Bible journaling for them at St Michael’s Church. Harinder (from Key Stage 1) kindly took the time to share her knowledge and experience of the Southfields Gurdwara with Year 4 as part of our learning about faith in the local community.

We also reflect with gratitude and joy upon the Jubilee Week earlier this term. The children really enjoyed the celebrations and worked hard on their musical contributions, singing and ukulele playing, very much appreciating the sense of occasion and history that it entailed both for our country and the school. Years 3 and 4 enjoyed creating the special artwork for our amazing Jubilee exhibition. It was wonderful to see the whole school’s pictures hanging side by side. Sports week was also really memorable and involved all the children having a go at some new sports and exercises such as soft archery and zumba. As always, the children were inspired and empowered by listening to the stories and examples of two visiting GB athletes.

As we finish this academic year, I would like to say a huge thank you and bid a fond farewell to Miss Hatton. As a Middle Phase team, we wish her all the very best as she moves away from London and embarks on new ventures. To all the staff in Middle Phase, my heartfelt thanks for all your hard work, care and commitment this year. To all the children, thank you too for your persistence, collaboration, innovation and reflection and for brightening each and every day!

I hope that you and your families have a wonderful summer break. Keep reading!

Rachel Lee

Upper Phase:

What a busy term it’s been in Year 5.

Our topic, Beast Creator, has had us studying all sorts of plant and animal life. We even took a trip to one of our pupil's garden to learn all about keeping bees.

We went to St. Cecilia’s for a taster day, learning all about life at secondary school, while in English we’ve been studying and performing poetry and having great fun making up nonsense words in the style of Lewis Carroll.

Sports week was another highlight, with a visit from team GB athletes, an introduction to rhythmic gymnastics and running training from Miss Hotten, to name but a few activities.

One day we dedicated a morning to French. This included making our own baguettes.

We’ve loved every moment of this term and can’t wait for more of the same in Year 6.

What a final term our Year 6 pupils have had at St Michael’s!

Sports Week, our Leavers Services and obviously, our fantastic “Pantastic” production. The children were all superstars, learning their lines quickly and following stage directions carefully. They worked extremely hard in both their dance and music lessons to ensure that everything came together seamlessly for our final performance - it was a very proud moment for parents and staff alike.

This term, play scripts have been our focus in our English lessons and the children have been writing dialogue using inverted commas ensuring that they are using the correct punctuation.

In Maths, the children have been applying their learning to a real life bakery project. We have recapped many areas of the curriculum including ratio and proportion, 3D shapes, money and even considered profits and losses.

We have continued with our Light topic in Science and the children conducted and wrote up a thorough investigation into shadows, including drawing their own line graph - an important skill for secondary school.

In RE, we have continued researching holy places featuring in different religions and why a person would undertake a pilgrimage.

We have been very impressed with how maturely the year group have approached their PSHE sessions this term as we have considered areas such as puberty.

It has been a wonderful final half-term with the year group and we have made many more special memories which will be treasured.

We wish all of our lovely Year 6 cohort the very best as they move onto the next phase of their education. They will be missed dearly.

Hayley Bostock

Inclusion Review:

Reflecting on the past academic year, the Inclusion Team has much to celebrate. We have opened the wonderful Sensory Garden and seen our children really enjoying this calm and reflective space.

After consultation with parents, staff and children, we are renaming Special Educational Needs to Additional Educational Needs to encourage everyone’s acceptance and understanding of how diverse and unique our children are.

We have produced termly newsletters with focus topics: ASD, ADHD and the summer term will be Mental Health and Wellbeing. We also hosted a coffee afternoon with Carol Hill from the Local Authority to discuss the provisions available to St Michael’s children.

We want to thank parents for engaging with us on the Inclusion survey and parent consultations. We want to continue to grow and build on the home/school partnership in the year ahead when planning and reviewing the ways we can best help our AEN children.

Thank you also to our wonderful outside agencies (SALT, EP, OT) and reading volunteers who have worked with our children. Special mention to Nelson, our therapy dog (and his owner Justine!) for bringing joy the moment they step into our school!

Inclusion Department

SHINE Girl:

The aim of the SHINE Girl course is to help girls develop an understanding of personal worth, strength and purpose.

We have spoken about our value, being one-of-a-kind and completely unique.

I hope the girls take these life lessons into secondary school and continue to grow in confidence and have a positive influence on their world.

Michelle Grigg

Extra-Curricular Reviews:

Faith Faculty:

(Did you know that RE stands for Really Excellent? The RE Faculty is really excellent…..but don’t tell the Maths or English Faculties!)

We have had another wonderful year of learning in Religious Education.

Over the academic year, each year group has studied six or more key areas covering a range of faiths. The purpose of this is to enhance understanding about faith, belief and the people in the world around us. We hope that during a child’s time at St Michael’s they will develop an informed and respectful attitude to religions and world views in their search for God and meaning.

The Big Question topic titles for each year group this term have been:

EYFS: Why do Christians believe Jesus is special?

Year 1:Why is it good to listen to and remember the stories Jesus told?

Year 2: Why did Jesus teach the Lord’s prayer as a way to pray?

Year 3: What is the Bible’s Big Story? And what does it reveal about having faith in God?

Year 4: Understanding Faith in Southfields

Year 5: How has the Christian message survived for over 2000 years?

Year 6: Who decides…..? (A thematic bridging unit to aid transition to secondary school)

We are now preparing for September, sorting resources, lesson plans, action plans, meeting with new staff and doing all of the end of one year, beginning of another year teacher things so that the children will have another fabulous year of learning.

While you are out and about over the summer, keep an eye out for various places of worship and how faith is lived in different places and communities. Send in any photos of things you do or see linked with RE.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful summer

SHARON CUNNINGHAM

The School Library:

Warmest wishes from the Library!

It has been a wonderful end to our school year, with lots to celebrate – including school life returning to normal; many fun and informative assemblies and productions to get involved in; a host of special guests and sporting figures who have inspired and spoken with passion to our school community as well as the brilliant and much-loved street party celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee!

We have been keeping the library in tip-top condition as we have seen the return of all classes across the school making their weekly visits to the library! As well as our delightful Reading for Pleasure afternoons where many families have spent time with us reading in school! It has been a pleasure to display the flags of the Commonwealth nations in our library windows and to set the table for the royal garden party complete with picnic baskets, bunting, fairy lights, and fun photos of our very own St Michaels street party on the MUGA.

A very special and heartfelt thanks goes to our passionate and dedicated Year 5 Junior Librarians this year: Ethan, Hania, Harry, Lawrence, Meredith, Mila, Sophia, Szymon, Vincenza, Zachary and Zara. All of whom have worn their Junior Librarian badges with pride and have helped immensely with keeping the library a tidy, welcoming place to visit. The JLs have also had many brilliant suggestions and have taken much responsibility in the smooth running of their own class library visits. So, a final WELL DONE and good luck wish from me as you move up into Year 6. You’ve set the standard high and I wish you every success in your final year at St Michaels. I now look forward to welcoming our next team of Junior Librarians from our current Year 4 students.

Once again, thank you to all the St Michaels students (and their parents) who have remembered to return their books each week and have made the most of our beloved Library! Our doors will be open again in the Autumn term, until then, happy summer holidays and keep on reading…anywhere and everywhere!

Natalie and the Library Team

SAS Review:

This year, as well as making use of the Library and 'The Retreat' for colouring and craft activities we have also enjoyed spending more time outside. It has been great to be able to include the Mini St Mikes members when playing in the outdoor playground and Garden of Wonder.

This week we reprised our annual SAS Tea Party when we welcomed the children and their parents to an outdoor cream tea to mark the end of the year and to send two of our cohort on their way to pastures new.

We will miss them, but wish them well as they move to new homes and schools and hope they will keep in touch.

But for now, happy summer everyone and we look forward to welcoming some new families to the SAS fold in the Autumn term!

CAROLINE JOPP

Display Faculty: A JubileeReview:

Wow! What wonderful celebrations we had during this Platinum Jubilee.

The team had great pleasure in creating two different regal displays:

‘The Longest Reign' shows the thoughts of children on what the Queen does for our country and what they would do if they were the Monarch.

‘Jubilant Jubilee' was a selection of photos from our amazing Jubilee Garden Party.

Again, we had pleasure in being responsible for organising and setting up the tables for the children. What a truly wonderful sight to see the children’s faces when a mass of red, white and blue balloons and bunting came into view.

A most enjoyable time for everyone,

Happy Holidays to you all,

Chris Worth

The Parent Prayer Group:

“For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” — Jeremiah 29:11.

What a great Bible Verse to encourage us in the midst of hearing of those near and far going through very very difficult times. Whatever season we find ourselves in, it is always good to be able to pray together, either virtually or in person, and at the end of this school year we give thanks to God for the twice monthly opportunities we have had to meet at school and pray together for our wonderful St Michael’s School. To sit in the playground and pray for all the different aspects of school life for all the staff, children and families.

We have also continued to send a weekly WhatsApp prayer text to our 30 strong parent prayer group community with a Bible verse, thought and a prayer, so that even though we can't meet all together throughout the week, there are arrows of prayer to our Heavenly Father for our school.

If you would like to be part of the WhatsApp prayer group please contact Rachael (Daya in 5H) at rachaelbrunning@hotmail.com or on 07989 346084 and feel free to join us in person too. We meet the first Monday and Friday of each month at the bench outside reception. So the first meeting to kick off the new term will be on:

Monday 12^th September and Friday 16^th September. We will meet just inside the main playground for about 20 minutes on the first Monday (just after school drop off at 8.50am) and Friday (before pick up at 2.45pm) of every month. We would love as many people to join as possible. It is such a privilege to be able to pray for the school and to do so in person on the school grounds is, we believe, particularly powerful.

We want to say Thank you Lord for bringing us to the end of another year, where there has been a return to the normal, and additional, summer activities of celebration, competition and commemoration.

We thank you for the amazing work of the staff and PTA in all they've organised this year!

It has been so good to be able to get together as a school in person, and as we come to the end of the term, and for year 6 the end of their primary school days, we pray for blessings upon every child, especially on our year 6 cohort - for special times before they leave, for preparation and for peace as they go on to their different schools.

At the same time, we pray for our new reception children and new mini St Mikes kids who will join us in September. We pray Lord, that you would meet each child in their anticipation and potential worry and bring them joy and excitement for this new start. We also pray that the new parents joining would feel a warm welcome to the community at St Michael's School.

Finally, as we approach a long summer holiday, we continue to pray for each family and staff member of St Mikes, in particular for those who find the holidays long and difficult, to feel carried and supported and rested and refreshed. We pray Jesus, for your heavenly joy and love to abound for all staff, pupils and families. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Have a wonderful Summer!

Amy, Claire, Triny, Rachael & Lucy

Prayers from our Prayer Board:

'Learn To Love To Read':

Remember it is really important to keep up the reading over the holidays!

Here are a few suggestions that you could try:

Sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge at the library
Could you find a book for your whole family to enjoy together? Take it in turns to read a chapter each night?
Check our our Simple Sounds short video clips on YouTube to recap some phonics - here is the link Simple Sounds with Learn to Love to Read - YouTube
You could borrow an audio book from the library and enjoy it on a car journey.
If you need a recommendation on what to read next, take a look at The Teacher Reader website which has lots of ideas for each year group The Reader Teacher Bookshop UK

Farewell to Year 6:

Message From The Outgoing Head Girls and Boys:

"During my time as Head Girl I think that I have developed my confidence so much more. This time last year I never could have imagined that I would have done half the things that I have achieved during this year. I'm so grateful for the ample opportunities that I have received and enjoyed over this past year." (Rosie)

"During my time as Head Boy I have become more confident in what I do and how I do it. It will definitely help in years to come, from speaking to people about the school, to giving tours around the school. It has given me lots of chances to express myself and to show people who I am. Touring people around the school and saying my speech to prospective parents is what I would never thing to be doing when I started in Year 6. Now I am confident and very ready for Secondary School." (Isaac)

"During my time as Head Girl I have had so many opportunities and done things I could never even have imagined myself doing. It has opened many doors to what I could do in my later life. I have built my self-esteem and confidence by trying new things, , like writing prayers and speeches. This will inspire me to do many more things." (Maddie)

"In my time as Head Boy I have learnt to be a more confident speaker and to write prayers and speeches. These are things I could never have thought I would do or say. I've taken people on tours which at first was so scary but I have met so many amazing people. The skills I have taken from being Head Boy - let alone a St Michael's pupil - will unlock so many doors for me in my life." (Seb)

Headteachers For The Day!

"Our day in the life of a Headteacher was really fun throughout the day but there were lots of jobs. AMG is one tough nut to deal with that everyday!"

"The day was so much fun than expected but so exhausting. Who knew AMG did so many steps each day running round the school?!

My favourite part of the day was the disco, playing with nursery children and having my own office. I hope all the children had a great day but, not sure this job is for me. Far too much hard work! "

Emily and Dylan

At the start of the academic year in September Mrs Grant held an assembly coaxing the children not to be anxious and assuring them that 2021/2022 would be ok.

She said that at the end of the year in July they could come and let her know if it had been a good year or not.

..... One of our Year 6 pupils took those words to heart and ensured she remembered - and here is the result.......

A Leavers Prayer for Year 6:

Loving and Caring God,

As I come to the end of my time at Primary School, I reflect on the years since I began school.

Some of the building blocks of my life have happened here without my even knowing it: reading and writing, skills that will grow and that I will use throughout my life. If I look back on my first days at school, everybody else in the school seemed very big.

Now, I am at the top of the school and I don’t feel quite so big!

But I am getting ready now to move on, to new challenges, to a new sense of belonging, to a new identity. As I do so, help me always to remember a phrase that can accompany me now and in the future: Do this in Memory of Me!

Help me, Lord, to remember and not to forget: that as a child of your family, at any age, I can pray and ask for your guidance; that as a follower of yours, I can make a difference in the world by speaking the truth; that as a member of the human family, I can act responsibly and lead others to do the same.

Bless all those who have been part of my journey so far: my family my friends my teachers and all of the staff at my school.

Keep me in your care, Lord, throughout the summer.

Keep me safe.

May every day of my life be an opportunity to give back to you the gratitude I have for the gift of life you have given me.

Amen.

One more step along the world I go:

One more step along the world I go;

From the old things to the new

Keep me travelling along with you

And it’s from the old I travel to the new;

Keep me travelling along with you.

By Sydney Carter.

Written for the Leavers’ Service 1971 held in Southwark Cathedral.

A prayer to mark the 50th anniversary of the hymn ‘One more step along the world I go':

God of the journey, thank you for walking with me, for being my companion every step of the way.

Thank you for putting me on the right path when I have lost my way.

Thank you for picking me up and setting me back on my feet.

As I travel from the old and travel to the new, keep me traveling along with you and bring me to my journey’s end in the company of all who travel your way.

Amen.

Written by The Very Revd Andrew Nunn, Dean of Southwark, 2021.

The PTA:

Thinking back to watching our children join their new classes in September 2021, it seems like such a long time ago but equally this year seems to have passed in a flash! We have once again enjoyed an amazing year and one that was so welcome after the previous two years. From a fundraising perspective, it was another amazing effort, raising over £33,000 for our school. What an incredible sum that is and how fortunate our children are to have such a wonderful community supporting them! We also were able to bring back all our much loved events, running our traditional pre-covid calendar once again. The joy and happiness which everyone who joined any of these events showed was so wonderful!

The highlight of this term has been our incredible summer fete. Once again, it was an almighty effort by the whole school community and it was a fabulous day! To those outside our school community, what an impression they have of everyone working together to put on such a spectacular event. And as our main fundraiser of the year, it made quite a contribution to our overall fundraising efforts!

Earlier in the year, we enjoyed a disco for the grown ups then discos for the children, we oohed and aahhed at our fireworks extravaganza, enjoyed a quiz night and promises auction with some exceptional promises donated, the children had a fun filled Christmas fair and we sold a lot of Christmas trees!! And in between that, we sold a LOT of cakes and a lot of uniform! A very busy and entertaining year indeed.

Next year, we look forward to another fun filled year with a full calendar of events! We start the year on a high with our inflatables day on the first Friday back. We are sorry our current year 6’s will miss it but what a way to end the first week back! We will also have a uniform sale (hopefully on that day too), followed by cake sales, the autumn social and our much loved fireworks night! Please keep an eye out for our newsletters with essential diary dates and other information.

As we end this year, we also end the two year term of a large number of committee members. This group of volunteers have been amazing and we are honoured to have led the PTA with them. Thank you so much to Ronni van Straaten who has been an excellent Treasurer and led us into the world of cashless sales!. To Alex Vanotti who was a fabulous Secretary and so much more – the posters and newsletters she designed for us were simply stunning as well as the incredible summer fete brochures. To Emilie McCarthy who bravely volunteered for our newest position of Sponsorship Coordinator and made this side of the PTA more efficient, thank you! And to everyone who has volunteered as a Parent Rep, led or helped with an event, baked or bought a cake, donated their time, or helped us in any way, thank you.

We look forward to introducing you to our new committee members after the summer break. However we are still looking for new Chairs so please, volunteer! It is an amazing experience.

We also want to thank AMG, the SLT, teachers and support staff for their support and help this year. This year started with covid still very much part of our lives and ended with Ofsted so a big year for all the staff! Your endless and ongoing support of everything we did and enthusiasm for new and old ideas, has been so appreciated. Thank you. And particular thank you to Jason Harris who has spent many Friday afternoons setting up or putting away tables, coming in on a Saturday night to sort the hall for us and always saying yes when we’ve asked for help.

An end of year summary cannot be finished without some goodbye and good luck shout outs! To the year sixes who are ending their Primary school days – we wish you all the very best as you move into secondary school. We hope you come back to visit next year and have had a wonderful time at St Michaels. To those families of the year six children or those who are moving to another school, we wish you all the very best in the next chapter of your lives and thank you for the support you have given the school throughout your time with us. We will miss your faces in the playground and at our events!

As we finish our two year term as PTA Chairs, we are incredibly proud of all we have achieved. It has been an intense couple of years but we adapted, we planned and we did everything we could to achieve our goals of raising money for our school and keeping our community united and children smiling! To everyone in our school community, thank you for supporting us so well across all the events in such a variety of ways. It’s been an honour and privilege to be your PTA Chairs!

We hope everyone has a fabulous summer, enjoys a well deserved break and makes some wonderful memories. Stay safe, take care and see you in September.

Rachel and Naomi

.. and finally...

This beautiful prayer was written by a Year 2 pupil....what a lovely way to end the year.

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