St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 2nd May 2025
Message from Mrs Evans
We have had an incredibly busy first two weeks which has been filled with fun and lots of sunshine! The children have settled back into school well and are focused on their new topics. We have already seen some classes going out on some exciting trips and have more to come in the weeks ahead. It is hard to believe that it is already May!
Our Year 6 pupils have been taking part in their mock SATs week and it has been wonderful to see so many of them demonstrating such a positive attitude to these. The rest of the school have done a fantastic job of supporting the Year 6s as this has meant some changes to their usual timetables.
We have seen an improvement in our overall school attendance and the number of our pupils who are on the 'persistently absent' list (attendance below 90%) is at its lowest so far for this year!
We have been enjoying the sunshine here this week! A small reminder that suncream should be applied at home before coming to school and must not be sent in with children to apply to themselves. If there is a medical reason for your child needing additional suncream during the day, please contact the office to make an appointment to meet with Mrs Griffin to make a medical plan for this.
As we head in to the bank holiday weekend, I hope that you all have a chance to enjoy the lovely weather! See you back at school on Tuesday.
New Wraparound Care - 'The Bridge' Update
Our new wraparound care has had an incredibly successful start! James and his team are doing a fantastic job of making the club an exciting experience with daily organised games and activities.
We have seen some increase in numbers across the week and the short sessions seem to be very popular! We are still seeing very low numbers on a Friday after school, particularly for the later finish, and are tracking this closely. We are committed to offering daily wraparound care for our families, but must balance this with ensuring that we are not running the club at a loss.
It has been lovely for me to be spending some more time in the club - I was even convinced to go in goal for one of their games at breakfast club this week! Mrs Momp has been supporting the club too and the children have been delighted to see some variety in the breakfast foods offered with brioche rolls and scotch pancakes making an appearance in these first two weeks too.
It has been great to see some new families making use of this service as our hope was that by bringing it in house we may see more of our families accessing the support. We continue to see new registrations and hope to see numbers continuing to rise.
Fruit & Veg Snacks Update
All classes are now enjoying their fruit or vegetable snack in their classroom daily rather than taking it out to breaktime. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 continue to be provided with this snack by the school. Children in Year 3 - Year 6 should bring a piece of fresh fruit (or small pot of fruit or fresh vegetables) to have during this time (no dried fruit, cereal/snack bars or other snacks please).
We have seen a real benefit in class to an increase in the number of our pupils having this snack, so we are asking all KS2 parents/carers to please ensure that they do provide one for their child daily.
Mini-Marathon
On Saturday 26th April, some of our pupils and staff took the schools' 'Mini-Marathon'. They ran 2.6km. Miss C and Coach Ellis accompanied the group and we were so proud of how they all performed. It was a wonderful event which we hope to be part of again next year.
We had a brilliant response to the chance to run in this, and so in recognition of this we have decided to organise a 'Fun Run' event on Friday 23rd May (save the date as parent/carers will be able to be involved), just before we break up for half-term. Further details to follow soon.
PSA London to Brighton Cycle
On Sunday 15th June, a group of our parents/carers will be cycling from London to Brighton. This is a fantastic community event which will raise money for our school. Further details about the event can be found here: Go Fund Me: PSA Pedallers and you can also use the QR code below to donate:
A huge thank you to the parents/carers taking part!
| Parent/Carer | Year Group/s Represented |
| Mark Bottell | Reception and Year 3 |
| Mick Edwards | Reception and Year 3 |
| James Elvy | Year 3 and Year 4 |
| Ian Curd | Year 3 |
| Dave Holdaway | Year 3 and Year 5 |
| Antony Baxter | Year 1 and Year 4 |
| Aron Sibley | Year 3 and Year 6 |
| Bea Wlodarczyk | Year 2 and Year 4 |
| Alannah Sandham | Year 1 and Year 2 |
| Tom Harvey | Year 3 and Year 6 |
| Ed Sillars | Year 2 |
| Simon Erith | Year 4 and Year 6 |
| Mike Underwood | Reception and Year 1 |
Here are some photos of members of the team on their training rides:
PSA Cycle Challenge 2025 - Training Photos
Attendance Overview
Classes - since last newsletter
| Reception | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|
95.63% |
94.79% | 96.67% | 97.41% | 96.44% | 97.99% | 97.36% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 95.60% | 93.0% |
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 Spark Book award book celebrating what makes us uniquely us.
A Hook: We are all uniquely different and that is something we all have in common.
Book..
Look...
Hook...
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 also provided author visits and science workshops for the whole school to enrich our curriculum offer further.
Upcoming PSA Events
- Summer Fair - 7th June
- London to Brighton Cycle Ride - 15th June (see details below)
- Picnic in the Playground - 4th July
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 started our new topic 'Animals'. We started this topic off by looking at farm animals and what food comes from farms. We used our fine motor skills to make a painting of a lamb, using pegs and pom poms. In Maths, we looked at ordering numbers 1-10. We were very excited to watch an author called Craig Barr-Green live talk about his book that we read called 'Gina Saves the Wolf'. This week in Reception our focus has been all about sea animals. We have been practising our letter formation in the sand and using our phonics knowledge to write about the sea animals that we can see on a picture. In Maths, we have been focusing on the number 6. We have done lots of different activities based on this number. We have also read the story 'Rainbow Fish' discussing the importance of sharing, and creating our own rainbow fish using celery sticks.
Reception 2024 Newsletter
Year 1
Year 1 Newsletter 2024
Year 2
Year 2 have made a flying start to the new summer term. We are particularly enjoying the warm sunshine which has enabled our seeds to grow! We will be planting our vegetables outside in larger pots soon, which you will see from the decking. In Maths we have made a timely revisit to recognising the times of quarter to, quarter past and half past the hour, as well as practising 5-minute times. We have also turned our lives around, moved forwards, backwards, left, right, clockwise and anti-clockwise. In English, we continue our descriptive writing journey - please ask us about adjectives and adverbs. We are working on prepositions and are adding these to our descriptive writing too. In History, we are learning about explorers so it is a very good thing that we know about direction!
Year 2 Newsletter 2024
Year 3
Year 3 have enjoyed starting our new topics for the summer term. We are learning about the Hindu faith in RE and thought about what is important to Hindus and learned about some of their core beliefs. In Geography, we are learning about climate and weather, exploring the rotation of the Earth and 'Climate Zones'. We have set up a comparative test in Science to observe what happens when one variable is removed in an experiment. We really enjoyed making calligrams in English and have started our fractions unit in Maths, by recapping parts and wholes.
Year 3 Newsletter 2024
Year 4
Year 4 had a busy start to the term. In English, we were introduced to our book for this term: ‘Oliver and the Sea Wigs’. We made predictions about what we thought would happen in the story based on the title, blurb and having read the first chapter. We were lucky enough to have 2 online author visits where 3 of our class got to ask questions which was really exciting! In Maths, we got paper shapes and cut them out to create wholes and we had to identify out of how many parts they were made. In Geography, we started our new topic of coasts and we have been learning about and identifying human and geographical features.
Year 4 Newsletter 2024
Year 5
We have had a fantastic two weeks in Year 5 and have thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather. In Maths, we have continued work on volume and have explored this using multilink cubes to create shapes with specific volumes. We have learnt how to calculate the volume of cuboids only using measurements to do so. In English, we have enjoyed reading Jennie Pearson's book 'The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates'. We have worked on clauses and sentence structure whilst writing a recount of the onion eating competition section of the story. Finally, in Art, we have started studying impressionist art. This week, we created our own Monet inspired pieces using oil pastels as our medium for this.
Year 5 Newsletter 2024
Year 6
Year 6 have worked incredibly hard this week on our Mock SATs. We've discussed how our mindset matters and how we prepare to be the best version of ourselves. We discussed the value of giving things a go and how it can enrich us even when we make an error as opposed to not trying. In RE, we compared how Abraham is a key figure in three world religions; we debated where we saw similarities and where we saw differences in his role. We chose to look at how we follow our faith whether they are secular or religious too in our day to day lives. In our Computing and Science, we looked at the importance of using valid sources of evidence and how to identify false information or sources. In our Maths, we are recapping and recording different problem solving strategies including pictorial methods like the bar models. Finally, in our transition lessons, we have spoken about the importance of learning how to accept responsibility and how to best ask for support when we are finding ourselves in a challenging situation. We spoke about how we can either choose to pull people down or lift them up with our actions.
Year 6 Newsletter 2024
Team Points
Congratulations to Year 1 and Sapphires who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 21st April and to Year 2 and Diamonds who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 28th April .
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!
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 5th May: Bank Holiday Monday (school closed)
- Fri 9th May: PSA Donation Day (Sweets) - 'Show Your Style': Wear non-school shoes with your uniform.
- Fri 9th May: Reception Farm Trip
- Fri 9th May: Class Reps Meeting at 10am
- Mon 12th May: Year 6 SATs Week
- Fri 16th May: Class Photos
- Fri 16th May: Year 6 Bowling Trip
- Mon 19th May: Year 2 Mosque Trip
- Tues 20th May: Year 1 Synangogue Trip
- Thurs 22nd May: Year 5 Multi Skills Festival
- Fri 23rd May: Own clothes day for half-term team points winnners - team to be confirmed that week
- Fri 23rd May: Fun Run Event
- Fri 23rd May: End of half-term (finish at 3:15pm)
- Mon 2nd June: INSET DAY (school closed to children)
- Tues 3rd June: Children Return
- Tues 3rd June: Year 4 Gurdwara Trip
- Fri 6th June: PSA Donation Day (homemade cakes) - 'Festival Theme'
- Sat 7th June: PSA Summer Fair
- Mon 9th June: Year 2 Rose Theatre for Barnes Literature Festival
- Mon 9th June: Year 5 Rose Theatre for Barnes Literature Festival
- Weds 18th June: Kingston Music Festival
- Thurs 19th June: KS2 Sports Day - 9:15am to 11:45am at Hollyfield Fields (Parents/Carers welcome as spectators)
- Thurs 19th June: Year 2 Races Event - 1:15pm - 2:15pm at Hollyfield Fields (Parents/Carers welcome as spectators)
- Monday 23rd June: Year 5 Bikeability all week
- Thursday 26th June: Year 5 at Southborough reading Conference
- Thursday 1st July: Year 5 Taster day at Chessington School
- Friday 4th July: PSA Picnic in the Playground at 3:15pm
- Thurs 10th July: Year 6 Leavers' Service at Southwark Cathedral
- Weds 16th July: Year 5 and Year 6 Production at 9:15am
- Thurs 17th July: KS1 Sports Festival at school - 9:15am to 10:00am Reception; 10:15am - 11:00am Year 1 (Parents/Carers welcome as spectators)
- Fri 18th July: Year 5 and Year 6 Production at 9:15am
- 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
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.
