St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 3rd October 2025
Message from Mrs Evans
We have had a busy few weeks. There have been some wonderful trips - Hampton Court Palace for Year 5, Kensington Palace for Year 4, local walks for Year 1, Year 2 and Year 4 and a brilliant Victorian Day!
It was wonderful to welcome so many of our parents and carers in today for our Harvest service - we had almost 80 people in attendance which was fantastic! This was the first opportunity for our new Faith Reps to lead whole school worship. We have had our first Class Reps meeting which was a really helpful session - thank you to all of the reps who were able to attend or sent in feedback.
On Tuesday, the PSA held their AGM at school. It was great to see some of our new reception parents/carers at the meeting. We said thank you to Kirsty Sibley and Caroline Wales who have worked so hard in leading the PSA for the last few years and welcomed in our new PSA Chair - Mark Bottell. It is lovely to hear how the previous team will be supporting the new team as they begin and we are looking forward to all the events that they have planned.
During the meeting we talked about some of the wonderful things that we have been able to do thanks to the funds raised by the PSA:
- New libraries;
- Science workshops;
- Maths workshops;
- Author visits;
- Playground equipment;
- Astro Turf repairs;
- Fully funded Christmas theatre trips for pupils in Year 2 - Year 6;
- Keyboard hire
The fund raising allows us to enrich the children's curriculum offer and the fantastic events - such as picnic in the playground - offer our community the opportunity to come together as a group and build long lasting relationships.
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. We have seen a slight drop in families using breakfast club, but our 'short sessions' after school continue to be popular. It is great to see a number of our new Reception families making use of our wraparound care too. James and Tasmin have been planning some very creative themes for each week and we continue to look out for new fruits/foods for the children to try! We are grateful for the support being shown by our families and hope to continue to see new families making use of the service too.
Attendance Overview
Classes - since last newsletter
| Reception | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|
99.40% |
97.28% | 94.40% | 96.67% | 97.62% | 96.55% | 94.46% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 97.31% | 95.21% |
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 used our building skills to make numbers out of multi-link cubes. We have been practising identifying our names and looking at what our name begins with. In our creative corner we have been making different patterns using paint. This week in Reception we have started our new topic in maths 'subitising', using our 'fast eyes' to say what number we see. Our focus with our writing this week has been name writing, using our fine motor skills to hold a pencil. To help with this we have been strengthening our fine motor skills by doing playdoh disco. We have also been looking at different types of homes and discussing who we live with.
Reception Newsletter 2025-26
Year 1
This week in Year 1 we have had a busy week! In English, we have been learning all about butterflies. We looked carefully at pictures of butterflies and wrote sentences to describe them, remembering to use capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops. In Maths, we’ve been exploring number bonds to 10, practising counting forwards and backwards from 1 to 20, and finding one more and one less than different numbers. In Geography, we had fun using a map in the playground to find hidden letters at different points. In Science, we continued our topic on humans. We thought about the five senses, went around the school to explore what we could discover using them, and learned about making healthy food choices and why it’s important to eat a wide variety of foods. We also began experimenting with the BeeBots in computing. It was very exciting!
Year 1 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 2
It has been another busy week in Year 2! In English, we have used our senses to describe a scene from our class book 'The Robot and the Bluebird', whilst in DT we have been using our senses to help us decide what fillings we are going to put into our healthy wraps in the next few weeks. The children really enjoyed our 'blind tasting' challenge and came up with some creative ideas for their final wrap. In History, we continue to find out things about 'Our Local Heroes', with lots of enthusiastic conversations about objects from the past. In Maths, we worked well with our partners to represent addition and subtraction facts by using the dice. We really enjoyed our RE this week, which consolidated our previous visit to the Church, as we discussed baptism and its importance within the Christian faith. Finally, you may have seen our Science work on 'microhabitats' which we proudly displayed along the fence on Monday afternoon. This amazing collaborative project was the result of learning about minibeasts and their homes.
Year 2 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 3
Year 3 have been exploring 3-digit numbers in maths, making bonds to 100 and adding with bridging across the 100s boundary. We have begun reading our new text in English, 'I was a rat' and are thinking of how to effectively describe a character. After learning French numbers up to 10, we have written number bonds to 10 in French and read these aloud with our partner. In Science, we have been describing endoskeletons and exoskeletons and discussed the skeletons of different animals, predicting whether an animal is a vertebrate or invertebrate and explaining our reasoning.
Year 3 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 4
Year 4 have been busy in maths. We have reviewed our place value knowledge up to 100 and then been using this to help us convert between measurements. We enjoyed going on a 1 kilometre walk, or 1000 metre walk! We have also been converting between litres and millilitres and grams and kilograms. In English, we have finished writing our balanced argument about whether we should have zoos. We picked out our vocabulary carefully, thinking about the best words to give us a more formal tone. In Art, we enjoyed making a collage. We thought carefully about the focal point of our picture and considered how to make our artwork look balanced. In Geography, we have continued learning about the world. This week we enjoyed using the lines of longitude and latitude to locate the continents using coordinates.
Year 4 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 5
Year 5 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 6
This week in Year 6 we have continued to work very hard in Maths. We've been exploring place value in numbers with up to seven digits, including sorting and comparing numbers up to ten million. We have also investigated how mirrors work in Science, using the fact that light travels in straight lines to help us to experiment with reflections to help us read notes hidden underneath the tables and behind us. We also conducted an investigation into how light refracts when it moves through different states of matter. In Computing we used Scratch to build a program that sorts coins to deliver an amount of change with the smallest number of coins and in History we have continued to discover the impact that the World Wars had on communities at home in Britain by looking at how the lives of children were affected. We learned about the sculptor Thomas J Price and his message of how it is important to notice everyday people and we used his sculpture 'Warm Shores' to inspire some thoughtful diary writing about the feelings and emotions of people who came to Britain on the Empire Windrush.
Year 6 Newsletter 2025-26
Team Points
Congratulations to Year 1 and Rubies who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 22nd September and to Reception and Diamonds who were the team points winners for the week beginning 29th September.
Wider Community News and Events
Local Author Events
Moving Matters Holiday Camp
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
- Tues 7th Oct: Year 5 National Portrait Gallery Trip
- Thurs 9th Oct: Year 1 Local Area Walk
- Mon 13th Oct: Year 6 Hindleap Warren Residential
- Weds 15th Oct: Year 4 International Food Fair
- Mon 20th Oct: Workshare 3:15pm - 4:00pm
- Fri 24th Oct: PSA Donation Day - wear own clothes (no superhero outfits or sports kits) - parents/carers bring in alcoholic or non-alcoholic bottled drinks for tombola
- Fri 24th Oct: PSA Donuts Sale
- Fri 24th Oct: End of half-term (3:15pm finish)
- Mon 3rd Nov: Year 5 and Year 6 Talk Consent Workshop
- Weds 5th Nov: Year 4 'Future Makers' at Royal Albert Hall
- Mon 10th Nov: Whole School Nasal Flu Immunisation
- Fri 14th Nov: PSA Donation Day - wear own non-uniform shoes with school uniform - parents/carers bring in packets of sweets for tombola
- Fri 14th Nov: PSA Quiz Night (adults only)
- Tues 18th Nov: Class Reps at 10am
- Weds 19th Nov: Year 2 Christmas Journey
- Fri 21st Nov: Year 2 Polka Theatre Trip
- Mon 24th Nov: Year 5 Bikeability (all week)
- Tues 25th Nov: Year 4 Science Museum Trip
- Weds 26th Nov: KS2 Choir singing at John Lewis
- Weds 26th Nov: Parent/Carer Meetings 4pm - 6:30pm
- Fri 28th Nov: PSA Donation Day - wear Christmas themed outfit - colours or images - parents/carers bring in home made cakes and biscuits for cake stall at the fair (no nuts please)
- Sat 29th Nov: PSA Christmas Fair 12pm - 3pm
- Tues 2nd Dec: Early Finish at 2:30pm
- Tues 2nd Dec: Parent/Carer Meetings 3pm - 6pm
- Weds 3rd Dec: Year 5 Rose Theatre Trip
- Fri 5th Dec: Reception Postbox and Library Trip
- Fri 5th Dec: Year 3 and Year 4 Polka Theatre Trip
- Mon 8th Dec: iRock Parents/Carers Concert at 2:30pm
- Tues 9th Dec: KS1 Nativity at 9:15am (adults only)
- Tues 9th Dec: Year 6 Rose Theatre Trip
- Weds 10th Dec: PSA Children's Christmas Market
- Thurs 11th Dec: KS1 Nativity at 9:15am (siblings welcome)
- Fri 12th Dec: PSA Children's Christmas Market
- Mon 15th Dec: KS2 Christmas Concert at 9:15am (adults only)
- Mon 15th Dec: KS2 Choir singing at Trafalger 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: End of Term (2pm finish)
- Mon 5th Jan: INSET DAY (school closed to children)
- Tues 6th Jan: 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.
