St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 11th July 2025
Message from Mrs Evans
We have had an incredibly busy few weeks. Trips, assessment week and writing reviews of the year are just some of the things that the classes have been doing. A special mention must also go out to all parents/carers who provided watermelons on the hot days last week. This was a huge success - chilled water melon slices provided welcome relief for children and staff. With a few more hot days to come further donations of watermelons would be welcomed!
Our Year 6 pupils have had their transition days at their new secondary schools and the rest of our classes enjoyed 'Move Up Morning' on Tuesday of this week which went incredibly well! Here are some photos of the children with their new class teachers:
Move Up Morning 2025
It was great to welcome Ms Leigh and Miss Rice for the day - they enjoyed spending time wth the staff and children - and to meet our new Reception class too! We have now been able to confirm support staff plans and an overview of classroom support can be seen below (please note that some support staff will be supporting across more than one class during the day/week).
| Class | Class Teacher | Support Staff |
| Reception | Miss Weedon |
Miss Beckett-Smith Mrs Dardouk |
| Year 1 | Miss Chomse | Mrs Nash |
| Year 2 |
Ms Leigh Mrs Gnanasri (1 afternoon) |
Mrs Laming Miss Chapman |
| Year 3 | Miss Wells |
Mrs Rob Mrs Barett Miss Gen |
| Year 4 | Mr Fleming |
Mrs Forrester Mrs Downham |
| Year 5 |
Miss Welland Mrs Evans (1 afternoon) |
Mrs Rob Mrs Barett |
| Year 6 | Miss Rice | Ms Cook |
KS2 Statutory Assessments
This week, we received the Key Stage 2 SATs results (shown below). We are incredibly proud of these results. The chidlren and staff have worked very hard to prepare for SATs week and we know that we are sending our Year 6 pupils off to secondary school with a strong foundation ready to be built upon. Mrs Gnanasri was delighted to be able to share the children's results with them - always a moment to recognise the hard work and effort that they have put in. I had the pleasure of sharing these results with our governors on Tuesday night too.
| Subject |
St Paul's EXS 2025 |
National Average 2025 | St Paul's GDS 2025 | St Paul's 2024 |
| Reading | 81% | 75% | 19% | 65% |
| Writing | 85% | 72% | 12% | 81% |
| Maths | 73% | 74% | 23% | 77% |
| GPS | 73% | 73% | 19% | 77% |
| RWM Combined |
73% |
62% |
12% |
54% |
Explanations
- EXS - Meeting Age Expected Standard.
- GDS - Working at Greater Depth within the Age Expected Standard.
- RWM Combined - Percentage meeting at least Age Expected Standard in Reading, Writing and Maths (must meet all 3 to qualify for this).
We have been working on 'exam technique' with our other year groups too when completing end of term assessments, reminding children that this is their chance to 'show off' - an approach which we have found has alleviated some of the nerves that can otherwise be seen at these times.
Next week, Mrs Griffin and I will be meeting with each of the class teachers to discuss the assessment results and to put plans in place for any children who need a little extra support to ensure that they are on track to meet their target level. We have been pleased with the results of the assessments across the school too which are a testament to the hard work and dedication that our teaching staff show along with the positive attitude that so many of our pupils show towards their learning! Lots to be proud of!
Parent/Carer Survey 2025
This is the word cloud created from the comments and feedback on the parent/carer survey - so much to be proud of! The full feedback can be viewed here: Parent/Carer Survey 2025 - Feedback
Parking on the Road
We ask that our parents/carers are considerate when parking in the roads local to school. We have been receiving complaints again about cars parked on double yellow lines and across drives which has made these inaccessible to local residents. Please remember that double yellow lines have been put in place for safety reasons - in order to keep all of our pupils safe we ask that you do not park on these.
New Wraparound Care - 'The Bridge' Update
Numbers at 'The Bridge' continue to be relatively stable. James and Tasmin continue to come up with some very creative themes and activities to engage the children and James and Mrs Momp continue to look out for new things for the children to try! We continue to be grateful for the support being shown by our families and hope to continue to see new families making use of the service in these last few weeks of term.
Attendance Overview
Classes - since last newsletter
| Reception | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|
96.18% |
95.09% | 95.83% | 96.17% | 95.58% | 95.87% | 96.07% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 95.82% | 93.2% |
Holidays in Term Time
I would like to remind all parents that holidays during term time will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. These cause disruption within the class due to children missing parts of the learning in topics which will later be built upon and can lead to children being unsettled on their return to school.
Holidays in term-time should only be taken for 'exceptional circumstances' which means that this would not be a regular (including annual) occurrence.
We are currently reviewing our attendance strategy and are closely monitoring the link between term-time absence and an increase in support needed for some of our pupils and families in school.
If you are considering a term-time holiday, I would really ask that you reflect on the confusion in the messaging to the children when they are taken out of school for a holiday having been told up to that point (and after) that they 'must' attend school.
Please look out for further updates about the changes to our strategy in the coming year.
Birthday Treats
A reminder that we do not allow cake or sweets to be given out on children's birthdays. If you are keen for your child to be able to share a treat with their class to mark the day, please provide a platter of fruit to be shared by the class or a new book to be added to the class library.
School Website
Please remember to make use of the school's website and calendar (which can be synched to your phone) for reminders and updates.
Support with Behaviour Concerns
A plea to parents/carers that if they have concerns about an incident that has taken place at school, that they avoid directly contacting other parents as this can lead to both misunderstandings and upset. We ask that any concerns are brought directly to school staff and that school are then left to deal with these. We will always follow up any concerns brought forward and would always prefer to find out more and resolve these within the school day (wherever possible) as this makes it easier for the children to accurately recall what has taken place. One of our key priorities is developing positive relationships across our community and this is something that our families can do to support us with this.
School Trips/Visits Policy
At St Paul's we have developed a rich programme of trips and visits to support our curriculum. Whilst parents/carers will always be asked for permission for their child to attend, these experiences have been carefully chosen and planned to enrich our pupils' learning and therefore we are always keen to enable as many pupils as possible to attend.
We are always keen to hear from parents/carers if they have any concerns about a trip or visit and will then invite them to come in and meet with us to discuss this concern further in the hope that together we can create a plan of support which will enable their child to take part.
Please do not be surprised to be asked to come in if you have not given permission for a trip/visit - we really value these opportunities to have conversations about concerns and to consider what can be done to support.
Developing Healthy Online Habits
We are aware that even our youngest pupils have regular access to devices such as iPads and phones to access activities online. We wanted to share some top tips with families to support them in helping their children to develop a healthy relationship with this technology. Parents and carers can do this by:
- Setting clear limits on the amount of time that these are being used daily
- Ensuring that devices are being used in an area that allows adult supervision at all times
- Discussing with children how to respond if they see something online that they do not like or if they are contacted by someone that they do not know
- Having regular conversations about what they are accessing
- Setting boundaries around online device use and bedtime – ensuring that there is a period of time when children are not using these before going to bed.
- Creating healthy habits, open discussion and clear boundaries early in children's lives is extremely important as it is much harder to put these in place once unhealthy habits have been formed. The following guide gives some suggestion
If you would like any further support with this please see the information on our school website here: Online Safety Advice for Parents
Alternatively, please contact Mrs Evans or Mrs Griffin to arrange a time to discuss this with them further.
With Me in Mind - Mental Health and Wellbeing Support for Families
This newsletter is a place where we can share with you: resources, strategies and thoughts to consider. We are keen to reach more families with messages and resources that we use with your children at school. We look forward to receiving feedback on this new venture for us.
- So what do you want to know more about?
- Are there challenges that you are facing that you would like to consider differently? Please let us know your thoughts on this Google Form
In this issue:
A Book: A book that considers celebrating new journeys.
A Hook: How we can celebrate what has been and what is to come?
A Look: How we continue to stay connected.
Book..
Hook...
Look...
|
|
Our Mental Health Team...
Sharon Griffin Lianne Cook Fahmida Wadud
Mental Health Lead Emotional Support Mental Health Support
PSA Updates
St Paul's PSA: ‘Bringing our school community together to create lifelong memories’
The PSA have done such a fantastic job in their fundraising over the last year which has made a visible difference to a variety of areas around the school. This year they have funded brand new libraries for both KS1 and KS2 which have made significant difference for our children. They have provided author visits, science and maths workshops and we are looking forward to having our astro turf repaired thanks to their fundraising efforts too.
Big Target: A new music room - look out for further infomration about this to come soon.
Remember to check out our events guide on the PSA page which is a guide for families about what our different events involve and how you can help:
Look out for upcoming events
PSA Store
Don't forget to head over to our PSA store to get involved in the latest events using the link below:
Second Hand Uniform
We have a large amount of good quality second hand uniform available, please use the link below and follow these instructions:
- Once on the website click on the three lines to the right.
- Scroll down to ‘find your school’
- Select Kingston upon Thames as our Local authority.
- Select St Paul’s C of E KT9 1AJ
Please carefully read the instructions on when to collect your items.
Easyfundraising
Easyfundraising turns your daily shopping into every day magic!
Easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won't cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand.
Brands pay Easyfundraising a commission because when you start your shop from the Easyfundraising website or app, they can see we sent you to them. If you make a purchase, a commission is generated, and we turn that into a donation - magic!
Click the link above to register to use Easyfundraising - remember to search 'St Paul's Primary School, Chessington' when searching for your cause and turn on the donation reminder. Every little bit helps!
Class News
Reception
Last week in Reception, we learnt about spiders. We looked at different types of spiders and their habitats. We even made our own spider web using string, and some of us pretended to be flies stuck in the spider's web. Reception have been enjoying the sunshine. We used different types of bubble wands to make bubbles outside which we all really enjoyed! Last week we released our butterflies after learnign all about them - we have loved learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. We have also been learning about bees and why they are so important. We have made honeycomb pictures and used dominos to make our maths bees. In RE, we have been learning about the creation story, speaking about our favourite parts of it and then creating picture of it too.
Reception 2024 Newsletter
Year 1
Year 1 Newsletter 2024
Year 2
Year 2 are feeling rightly proud of their part in the KS1 choir and violin performances. The children all love singing and this was made even better when parents/carers came along to watch. We all enjoyed our geography field trip to the local park, the shade under the chestnut trees was marvellously cool and we all discussed and drew urban and rural landscapes, with human and physical features. Thank you very much to the parent helpers who came along. We are all looking forward to sports day and seeing you all there. Please see our sports day practice photos.
Year 2 Newsletter 2024
Year 3
Year 3 have been thoroughly enjoying learning the story of Beowulf in English over the last few weeks. We have thought about the main characters and written character descriptions to describe them, including how they would make us feel too. In Maths, we are learning how to tell the time to the nearest minute and looked at clocks with Roman numerals too. We have studied some Anglo-Saxon artefacts and discussed what they can tell us about the past as well as what they cannot tell us. We had a lovely time at Kew Gardens to extend our learning on plants in science too.
Year 3 Newsletter 2024
Year 4
In Year 4 this week, we explored how people can make the world a fairer place. We were given different scenarios that were put around the classroom and we worked together in groups to suggest fair and thoughtful ways to solve them. In DT, we continued our topic on Mindful Moments. We discussed the importance of calming down and how long we might need to feel relaxed. Using this, we developed a design criteria to create our own mindfulness timers for a classroom. We then made prototypes of our timers using cardboard carefully considering the size and colours ensuring they weren't too big or bright to help to to keep the moment calm and soothing. We also used our Chromebooks to program our timers adding an exciting digital element to support our designs. We had an amazing trip to Littlehampton Beach where we learnt about erosion as we built our sandcastles and watched them get destroyed by the tide coming in! We identified some physical and human geographical features as well. It was such an exciting day - we had so much fun exploring and really didn't want to leave!
Year 4 Newsletter 2024
Year 5
Year 5 Newsletter 2024
Year 6
This week, Year 6 have worked really hard on their resilience and their reflective thinking. We went to the Buddhist Temple and we thought about how we need to be more mindful in our lives so that we can learn from our mistakes and use the present to affect change in the future. We thought about how we need to be self aware in order to discover our influence on others. We also went to the Southwark Cathedral where we reflected on how we are preparing for our next chapter: we were able to listen to messages of belonging in our community and even got advice from some Year 7 pupils too. Finally, we were able to think about inherited traits vs developed traits and had some interesting debates about whether intelligence is inherited or developed too. We also got to make DNA models using sweets. which was great fun!
Year 6 Newsletter 2024
Team Points
Congratulations to Year 5 and Diamonds who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 30th June and to Reception and Diamonds who were the team points winner for the week beginning 7th July.
Wider Community News and Events
Reading Challenge
The Summer Reading Challenge is happeniing again this year across teh country and in our local area it is celebrating all things 'Kingston'! The reading challenge aims to inspire our children to keep reading over the summer holidays. For every book that they read they can earn a stamp and a riddle. If they read 6 books and complete all 6 riddles they will be in the running for the 'special prize'. Look out for other reading events taking place in our local libraries over the summer too! It is easy to get started, just go along to your Hook Library or another local library for more information.
Junior Parkrun comes to Chessington
The Junior Parkrun is a 2k fun run which takes place weekly at many different locations across the country. We are excited to announce that they have launched a weekly event at Lovelace Primary School on Sundays at 9am. It is a free event, but you do need to register in advance using the link here:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/lovelaceprimaryschool-juniors/
It would brilliant to hear about some of our families taking part!
Family support Workshops
Achieving for Children’s Mental Health Support Teams are delivering a series of webinars for parents of primary-aged children. The ‘Helping Children with …’ series of webinars will cover a range of common difficulties experienced by children and will aim to share evidence-based strategies to help parents and carers support their children with these difficulties. Please use the link below to find further information.
Safeguarding Information
What if I have a Safeguarding Concern?
A reminder to parents and carers that if you have a safeguarding concern about a child this should be brought to Mrs Evans (Designated Safeguarding Lead) or Mrs Griffin (Deputy DSL).
There is lots of information on the school’s website to support parents in keeping their children safe (particularly linked to online safety) which can be found by clicking on the link below:
Road Safety Around Our School
We ask that parents and carers are considerate of the other members of both our school and local community when parking for drop off and collection. Please do not park on yellow lines or on the corners of local roads - markings have been placed on the road in spots where it will become dangerous if a vehicle stops. Parking in these places makes it very difficult for families to check that roads are safe for crossing and we are aware that this also applies to our Year 6 pupils who are walking home alone. Please leave time to find a suitable place to park safely and work with us to make the local roads as safe as possible for our pupils and families.
Key School Policies
Please take some time to familiarise yourself with our School Policies: 'Separated Parents Policy' and 'Communication and Conduct Policy'. These have been put together in consultation with the governing body who have now adopted these. Click on the links below to access them; they can also be accessed on the 'policies' page of the school's website.
Separated Parents Policy Communication and Conduct Policy
Key Dates for Your Diary
New or changes to dates shown in blue
- Weds 16th July: Year 5 and Year 6 Production at 9:15am
- Thurs 17th July: KS2 Sports Day - 9:15am - 11:45am (Hollyfield Field - Parents/Carers welcome)
- Thurs 17th July: Year 2 'Races' Event - 1:00pm - 2:00pm (Hollyfield Field - Parents/Carers welcome)
- Fri 18th July: Year 5 and Year 6 Production at 9:15am
- Mon 21st July: Celebration Worship for Mrs Saddington and Mrs Walker at 2:30pm
- Tues 22nd July: Year 6 Leavers' Service at St Paul's at 9:15am (further details to follow)
- Tues 22nd July: End of Term - 2pm finish
- Weds 3rd Sept: Children Return
Remember to visit the calendar page using the link above and to link our school calendar to the calendar no your phone for automatic updates.
