St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 12th December 2025
Message from Mrs Evans
What a wonderful couple of weeks! Christmas is in full swing at St Paul's and we are really enjoying it all! We had a wonderful letter this week from Sir Ed Davey to let us know that Harry S in Year 2 is one of the winners of his Christmas card competition - he has won 1st prize in the age 4-6 category. The theme this year was 'Music at Christmas' and Harry's design included a fabulous flashing dance floor!
Christmas Fair
Our Christmas Fair was a huge success - thank you so much to the PSA, to all of the parent/carer volunteers and to the staff who came along to help too. It was a fabulous community day enjoyed by everyone who was there. The fair raised £5100 and there is still some match funding to come! This is a fantastic amount which will go towards our plans for the music room along with other enrichment activities across the year.
Nativity
Our Nativity performances were brilliant! The Year 2 children spoke so confidently and the Reception and Year 1 children joined in with the singing and actions beautifully. We are so proud of each and every one of them! Thank you to our parents for supporting us in the changes to our photo and video policy too. The children loved seeing so many faces smiling at them as they performed. A huge thank you to our staff for all of the time and effort that has gone in to preparing the children for the performances.
Swimming Pool Update
We are delighted to announce that the pool has new owners! They are currently working to find a partner to deliver lessons from the pool and once this is finalised we will be able to return to our lessons too. As a kind gesture, the new owners have given a donation to the school to be used to benefit all of the children. This is being used to purchase additional playground equipment for the children including new football goals, balls, 'champ' balls, bouncy balls and skipping ropes. We look forward to being able to share further information about the pool soon.
Barclays Girls' Football Award
The FA has developed digital awards to celebrate and recognise schools that offer equal access and opportunities for girls in football and we am delighted to say that our school has received this award for Key Stage 2. (There is no award covering KS1). These awards are given to schools who demonstrate a commitment to equity in girls' football through their PE curriculum and other activities. With the award comes a new logo for us to add to our letterhead so look out for this on letters going forward.
Mobile Phone Policy
A polite reminder that mobile phones are not allowed to be used on the school site - we ask that they are away in a bag or pocket during drop off and pick up times. Please can we also remind parent helpers that mobile phones must not be used during school trips. A reminder will also be given to parent helpers before leaving school. A huge thank you to the community for your positive support in this change of policy.
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.
Attendance Overview
Next week you will be receiving an overview of your child's attendance. Please come and see the school office team if you have any queries about this.
Classes - since last newsletter
| Reception | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|
86.46% |
89.72% | 94.58% | 94.79% | 95.83% | 92.24% | 94.18% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 96.11% | 95.34% |
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 synced 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.
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 information 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 practised using our fine motor skills. We had to thread beads onto pipe cleaners. which has helped us to strengthen our muscles and to become more confident when holding a pencil. We also looked at an artist called 'Kandinsky'. We looked at different pieces of his art and then created our own version of it. As part of our morning writing, we have been focusing on number formation, writing numbers 1-5. On Friday, we had a great trip to the post box. We posted our letters to Father Christmas and then we went off to the library for some Christmas activities. Thank you to those parents and carers who came and helped us on our trip. This week in Reception we have had our nativity performances which we are so proud of being part of. We have also been making Christmas ornaments out of Lego, using a picture as a guide to help us build, and have loved playing snakes and ladders, practising our turn taking and counting.
Reception Newsletter 2025-26
Year 1
We have all been excited about the Nativity and we absolutely loved wearing our pyjamas at school. In English, we have been writing about what we would like in our dream house. We had amazing ideas with the most popular idea being a waterslide in our bedroom! We were very lucky to have Freshwater Theatre visit us and take us on a journey around the world. We explored different continents and “travelled” using a range of imaginative transport. We had a brilliant time and were fully immersed in the experience. In RE, we learned about the importance of the different characters in the Nativity story and why they each play a special role. In Art, we created portraits inspired by Paul Klee, using his distinctive shapes and colours to build our own expressive artwork. We used our knowledge of lines to create the shapes. It’s been a wonderful week of learning, creativity, and Christmas excitement!
Year 1 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 2
Year 2 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 3
Year 3 have started reading 'Leo and the Gorgon's curse', thinking about a person's character and writing descriptively and in detail in preparation for our narrative write. We have looked at magnets in more detail in Science and tested to see which of our magnets were the strongest. We also observed what happens when we put like poles of a magnet together. In Geography, we worked in pairs to research a country in the Americas and created a class book. We have been learning about measurement in Maths and have used our knowledge of number patterns on a number line to help us to read different measuremnt scales.
Year 3 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 4
In Year 4 we have begun reading the Iron Man. We enjoyed writing character descriptions of the Iron Man using thesauruses to uplevel our vocabulary and editing to improve. In Maths, we have begun learning the 6 times table, using our knowledge of 3 and 5 times tables to help bridge the gaps. We have also begun to apply our knowledge of times tables to answer 2 step problems. In History, we continued looking at the Romans, learning about how they built roads and considering which of their inventions are still significant today. In DT, we enjoyed making our torches, linking our learning in Science about electricity to help us to build a circuit.
Year 4 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 5
Year 5 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 6
This week in Year 6 we have been working exceptionally hard across all areas of our learning. In Maths, we have focused on improving our confidence with fractions, beginning with simplifying them using common factors before moving on to adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. We have been using factor bugs to find the highest common factor for simplifying fractions and our times table knowledge to find multiples to help us with finding common denominators. In English, we have continued our work inspired by A Christmas Carol. We explored how storyboarding can help us to plan a clear sequence for our Final Write, thinking carefully about atmosphere, character reactions and the key moments we want our readers to experience. We have also been developing our vocabulary through fun rounds of fluency grid bingo, where we challenged ourselves to recognise key vocabulary words through their definitions and through synonyms. We have been practising the ukulele in preparation for our Christmas carol concert and are becoming more confident at changing chords smoothly and keeping a steady rhythm as we rehearse our festive piece - Carol of the Bells. A real highlight of the week was our visit to the Rose Theatre to see Cinderella. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and had the chance to think about how theatre brings stories to life through character, music, humour and staging.
Year 6 Newsletter 2025-26
Team Points
Congratulations to Year 6 and Diamonds who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 1st December and to Year 1 and Rubies who were the team points winners for the week beginning 8th December.
News from St Paul's Church
The 321 course invites you to see life the way Jesus does. The course considers God's Three-ness, the world's two-ness and your one-ness. Each session begins with a thoughtful question followed by storytelling and interactive videos that help us better understand God, the world and ourselves.
You will have the opportunity to engage in thoughtful conversation as part of a small group hosted in a friendly environment at St Paul’s Church.
This free course will run over four Wednesday evenings starting on 7 January from 7.30-9.00pm at St Paul’s Church, 280 Hook Road, KT9 1PF.
Interested? Contact Jen, Vicar at St Paul’s – revjenhoughton@gmail.com or 07933 004 460 to find out more or let us know you’d like to attend.
Wider Community News and Events
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!
Miss C's Half-Marathon
Miss C is running the London Landmarks half-marathon on 12th April She is raising money for 'Hope and Homes for Children' who work to get children from orphanages back to their families. She is raising money through a just giving page - the link is here if you would like to support her:
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
- Mon 15th Dec: KS2 Christmas Concert at 9:15am (adults only)
- Mon 15th Dec: KS2 Choir singing at Trafalgar Square
- Tues 16th Dec: KS2 Christmas Concert at 9:15am (siblings welcome)
- Tues 16th Dec: Whole School Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day
- Thurs 18th Dec: Reception and Year 1 Christmas Film
- Fri 19th Dec: Christmas Service at St Paul's Church at 9:15am - parents and carers welcome
- Fri 19th Dec: End of Term (2pm finish)
- Mon 5th Jan: INSET DAY (school closed to children)
- Tues 6th Jan: Children Return
- Mon 12th Jan: Clubs start this week
- Fri 16th Jan: Year 3, Year 4 and Year 6 Lego Workshops
- Tues 27th Jan: Whole school INSIGHT sessions
- Thurs 5th Feb: Year 3 Natural History Museum Trip
- Fri 13th Feb: End of half-term (3:15pm finish)
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.
