What a busy week it’s been! On Friday, we celebrated the end of Space Week with our Science Fiction Dress-up Day and the school was invaded by various aliens, creatures and characters from Sci-Fi books, TV programmes and films. The costumes looked amazing! Our ‘Sit Out for the Homeless’ event was held on Tuesday afternoon with pupils sitting out on the playground (in cardboard boxes) to help them gain an appreciation of what it is like to be without shelter. Thank you for the numerous donations of items to the Trinity Homeless Charity. Yesterday, Father Nicholas and Angela visited school to talk to Years 1 to 3 about their RE topic of ‘Baptism’. This afternoon we held our Curriculum Open Afternoon giving parents the opportunity to see some of the work the children have been doing as a part of this week’s One World Week. It was lovely to see so many parents in attendance. Hopefully you got the opportunity to sample some of the cakes, biscuits and snacks on offer from around the world (a big thank you to all the parents who contributed to the collection of food items)!

 

Tomorrow’s Dress-up Day

Tomorrow we are inviting all pupils to come to school wearing clothes associated with the country they have been studying this week. Please don’t feel the need to go out and buy any expensive costumes - this could simply be items of clothing that are the same colour as the national flag. A reminder of these countries can be found below:

Early Years (Nursery & Reception)	China
Year 1	Poland
Year 2	Mexico
Year 3	Wales
Year 4	Italy
Year 5	New Zealand
Year 6	Portugal

 

End of Term – INSET Day

We break up tomorrow for the half term break (at the usual time). School will also be closed on Monday 30^th October due to our teacher training day. All pupils are due back to school on Tuesday 31^st October (at 8.40am). Mrs Sullivan’s and Mrs Owen’s groups will also resume on this day (at 8.30am).

 

All Saints’ Mass

Father Nicholas will visit school on Wednesday 1^st November to celebrate our All Saints’ Mass with pupils. Parents, carers and other family members are most welcome to attend. We will open up the front entrance to school shortly before 2.30pm.

 

Hurricane Appeal

‘Thank you to the whole school community for your kind donations and prayers. The support showed to this appeal was overwhelming. We collected and filled a family size car with the help of the community. Thank you again for spreading awareness and your prayers in this extremely difficult time.’

Catherine Scotland

 

Contact Details Updates

Can all parents and carers make sure to contact us by email: office@stmarysuxbridge.org.uk if your phone/mobile numbers, home or email addresses have changed in the last year. Please remember to let us know of any changes to your contact details as it is very distressing for your child having to wait for a long time when they are unwell and we cannot contact you.

 

If you are not getting our newsletter by email

Please let us know by email: office@stmarysuxbridge.org.uk if you are not getting our weekly newsletters and we will add your email address to our mailing list.

 

URGENT - Pupil Premium – Registering for Free School Meals & Early Years Funding

We have just been alerted that the online provider for checking if families are eligible is now offline.  Therefore if you have applied for Free School Meals recently we would not necessarily know.  If you have applied recently please could you contact Mrs Taberer immediately. Or indeed if your financial circumstances have changed and you are receiving Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance or Child Tax Credit (with no working tax), not only could you be eligible for Free School Meals but the school also attracts a funding to purchase resources to assist the learning of eligible pupils.  If you have any questions please contact Mrs Taberer in the school Office.  This information will be kept in the strictest confidence.

 

National Teaching School

As a designated Teaching School we have hosted a range of courses for other schools this term. Our own staff have also benefitted from the professional development on offer from various educational trainers. We have held the following sessions:

·Training for teaching assistants (developing pupil independence, grammar and punctuation subject knowledge).

·Special Educational Needs (SEN) training (counselling skills, assessing and teaching social skills and the deployment of teaching assistants).

·Various maths courses (Year 2 and Year 6 revision techniques, developing multiplication tables, time and money).

·A range of English based sessions (Year 2, Year 6 revision techniques and the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling).

·Working scientifically course for science co-ordinators.

·Programming and coding across the computing National Curriculum.

For more information about the work of our Teaching School - please visit our separate website:

http://www.primarytsalliance.org/

 

House Points

This week’s winning house is: St Bernadette with 171

House Point winners in each year group:

Class	Name	Number of House Points
Year 1	Ryder	12
Year 2	Chloe L	14
Year 3	Luca	14
Year 4	Oliver	4
Year 5	Hallie	19
Year 6	Junior	8

Dates for your diary

OCTOBER:

Friday 20^th

One World Week Dress-up Day

 

Monday 23^rd – Friday 27^th

Half Term Break

 

Monday 30^th

INSET day – school closed for pupils

 

Tuesday 31^st

Pupils back to school 8:40 a.m.

 

NOVEMBER:

Wednesday 1^st

All Saints Mass 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

 

Wednesday 8^th

Prospective Parents Tour 9:30 a.m.

 

Tuesday 14^th

Year 1 & 6 Mass at Church 9:30 a.m.

 

Tuesday 21^st

Year 5 BFI Maths trip

Year 3 and Year 4 Mass at Church 9:30 a.m.

 

Monday 27^th

Start of Test Week

 

Tuesday 28^th

Year 2 and Year 5 Mass at Church 9:30 a.m.

At St Mary’s we do not authorise any holiday booked in term time as since September 2013 Government instruction has stated that no holidays in term time can be authorised.