St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 6th March 2026
Message from Mrs Evans
We have had a wonderful return to school. It has been lovely to see the sun shining and we came back straight into the excitement of two special days linked to World Book Day. All of the children had the chance to meet an author - thank you to the PSA for funding this - and we loved seeing the children dressed up for our celebration as some of their favourite characters. The book fair yesterday was really popular and we are looking forward to sharing how much has been raised for additional books for the library to add to our current collections.
Earlier this week, we had a visit from our School Improvement Partner and one of her colleagues who carried out a curriculum review for us. It was wonderful to have the time to reflect on the impact of the training that we have done with our staff so far this year and to plan for our next steps. It was a really positive visit and is always a pleasure to show visitors around the school.
I have been really touched by the lovely response that we have had from our families about our partnership news. There were some specific questions raised at the Class Reps meeting on Monday which will be answered in the minutes for that, but it has been really good to hear that our families are open to this new chapter for our school.
There have already been a couple of exciting trips and there is lots more planned for this short half-term leading us up to Easter.
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 |
|
96.25% |
96.54% | 95.32% | 95.39% | 96.15% | 95.72% | 96.24% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 95.94% | 94.44% |
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 your half-termly attendance update which will be shared again with you later in the half-term.
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:
First Aid Evening - Tuesday 24th February
The PSA held another successful First Aid training event. Mr Sandham led the training and the group enjoyed practising together to build their confidence. This is such an important skill for people to have and it's great to see members of our community wanting to know more in order to be able to help others.
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 'Story Books'. We started off our week reading the story 'Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas'. We then got to retell the story in our own words, using cut outs of the characters and porridge oats. On our writing table we wrote about what Goldy Luck got up to using our phonics knowledge to help us spell words. In the outdoor area we were filling up cups and seeing who had more or less porridge oats. We have been working hard using our cutting skills to make our own panda, where we also learnt about a panda's habitat and what they like to eat and compared this to a polar bear. We had a very special visit from a book author called 'Zanna Davidson' who spoke to us about her books and then we created our own monsters. This week in Reception our focus story is 'Billy and the Beast'. We have created our own story map to show who Billy saw walking through the forest. In Maths we have been looking at doubles, using butterflies to help us to find doubles. In our creative corner we have been creating our own beasts for a story taking inspiration from the beast in our focus book.
Reception Newsletter 2025-26
Year 1
Year 1 have had an exciting and creative start to the term! We had a wonderful introduction to our new book, Lubna and Pebble, where each one of us received our very own pebble to name, house, and care for. We practised writing "care instructions" to show how we would look after them, just like Lubna does in the story. In Art, we are exploring primary and secondary colours through our new Painting and Mixed Media topic, using Jasper Johns’ Numbers in Color as inspiration for our own vibrant masterpieces. To top it all off, we had a thrilling visit from the author Zanna Davidson, who brought the Izzy the Inventor series to life by letting us join in with some very exciting experiments! We made slime and experimented with how high we could drop an egg from before it cracked (it was very bouncy!)
Year 1 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 2
We had a wonderful school trip on Monday! Year 2 really enjoyed our den making and had a lovely time in the sunny weather. We have also been making the most of the weather by having our science lesson on 'lifecycles' outside. We enjoyed our visit from the author of 'Izzy the Inventor'. We took part in lots of exciting experiments, including home made water bombs and bouncing boiled eggs! We really enjoyed world book day and sharing our favourite stories and authors with the class. In English, we are writing a 'Save the Whale!' leaflet, using imperative verbs effectively to help us. In History, our topic is on school life - now and then. We have had lots of fun looking at the difference in the classes of today and the 60s, 80s and even as far back as the Victorian era. In Maths, we are working on our division, and skip counting in 2,5 and 10s. We have had a fun packed week, which we have thoroughly enjoyed, and Ms Leigh has been incredibly proud of the wonderful, reflective work that we have produced.
Year 2 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 3
Year 3 have been thinking about how to write paragraphs for information texts. We have also discussed the purpose of subheadings and organising information into paragraphs. We have enjoyed learning column addition and are feeling confident to use this method for column subtraction in the next few weeks. In Science, we are learning about light sources and reflection and we have started learning about the Stone Age in History which we are incredibly curious about.
Year 3 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 4
In Year 4 we have been reading the story 'FArTHER'. We have enjoyed making predictions and asking lots of questions. We designed our own flying machine, using expanded noun phrases to describe it. In Maths, we have been using our knowledge of times tables and division facts to find related facts (10x and 100x larger). In Geography we have begun looking at rivers and last week we enjoyed experimenting with where water goes when it rains. This week, we recapped our pervious knowledge of the water cycle from Science and thought about how this is also involved in rivers. In RE, we spent the last two weeks looking at Jesus's greatest commandments and how we can live these out.
Year 4 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 5
Year 5 have been working hard this week on creating scientific explanation labels for the Mars Rover - Curiosity. We have been working hard on developing the use of cohesion (flow) by using multi clauses, linking words and even commas to clarify. We've really enjoyed considering how we can be more formal by using different pronouns. In our Maths, we are really starting to see the link between the decimal conversions and units of measure. We have worked on recalling that 1 tenth is ten equal parts and 1 hundredth is 100 equal parts. We're really beginning to see how our place value knowledge can help with these conversions too. In our Science, we have been considering how different forces create different effects. We've looked at how gravity may act differently on different planets and how air resistance provides an upward force on earth. Our favourite activity was looking at the famous 1969 feather vs hammer drop experiment to compare different conditions on the earth and the moon.
Year 5 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 6
In Year 6 we have begun an exciting new writing topic focusing on discussion texts. Using the book 'Can We Save the Tiger?' as our inspiration, we have started to explore the issue of endangered animals and have discussed different viewpoints about how humans can help to protect them. We have thought carefully about how discussion writing presents balanced arguments and have begun gathering ideas that we will develop further in our own writing.
In Maths, we have been solving problems that involve two unknown values. We have used bar models and equations to help us understand how different pieces of information relate to one another and how we can use logical reasoning to find the missing values. In French, we have begun learning how to use the verb aller (to go) so that we can start planning and describing a holiday. We have practised forming simple sentences to explain where we are going and what we are going to do, helping us to build confidence in speaking and writing in French. In Design and Technology, we have started an exciting design project by sketching ideas for playground structures. We have thought carefully about how our designs could be both fun and functional, considering different shapes, features and materials that might make our structures engaging for children to use.
Year 6 Newsletter 2025-26
Team Points
Congratulations to Reception and Rubies who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 23rd February, to Year 3 and Sapphires who were the team points winners for the week beginning 2nd March.
News from St Paul's Church
St Paul’s Church will be remembering and celebrating mums and all who act as mothers to us on Sunday 15th March in a special service at 10am. Posies of flowers will be given out in Church, and there will also be a time of reflection as we remember those whom we love but see no longer along with any other losses surrounding this day. We’d love to see you to give thanks for all Mums.
St Paul’s Church hold an all-age service every first Sunday of the month. It is a great introduction to Church with an interactive service lasting around 50 minutes with refreshments afterwards. Our children’s group (from age 3+) is run on the other Sundays of the month with an experienced team of leaders; babies and younger children are very welcome to stay in Church with their parents.
We will be holding our Church Welcome Sunday for new Reception starters (and other St Paul’s pupils and their families) at 10am on Sunday 5th July. This will be an opportunity to meet your new classmates and have an introduction to the Church.
Wider Community News and Events
Mental Heath Support Team at a Glance
Further information about the services provided by the Mental Health Support Team to support families can be found here: MHST 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!
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.
New Swimming Company at our Pool!
Aqua Babies & Kiddies Surrey are excited to share that swimming lessons are returning to St Paul’s C of E Primary School! We are a 5.0 star swim school that has proudly served families across Surrey for over 8 years, and we’re excited to now welcome families back to our newly opened and refurbished pool!
For primary school-aged children, our lessons focus on building confidence and water safety, whilst also progressing swimmers through structured stages that build strong technique across all strokes. Children develop the confidence and competency expected at each level while fostering a lifelong love of swimming.
Aqua Babies & Kiddies lessons are supportive and conducted in a small-group environment - helping children feel calm, capable and happy in the water.
For further details, or to enrol in our March launch lessons, please visit: www.aquababiessurrey.com/swimming-lessons-chessington or send us a WhatsApp on 07766 242 572.
We can’t wait to welcome St Paul’s families back to the pool and see it thriving again at the heart of the school community.
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 10th Mar: Year 2 Victorian Workshop
- Tues 10th Mar: Year 6 SATs Briefing online at 5:30pm
- Thurs 12th Mar: Parent/Carer Meetings 4pm - 7pm
- Fri 13th Mar: PSA KS1 Disco
- Fri 13th Mar: PSA KS2 Movie Night
- Tues 17th Mar: Year 3 Stone Age Workshop
- Tues 17th Mar: Early Finish at 2:30pm
- Tues 17th Mar: Parent/Carer Meetings 3pm - 6:30pm
- Thurs 19th Mar: Choir at Star and Garter
- Fri 20th Mar: PSA KS2 Disco
- Mon 23rd Mar: Height and Weight Check for Reception and Year 6
- Mon 23rd Mar: iRock Parents/Carers' Concert at 2:30pm
- Weds 25th Mar: Year 4 River Trip
- Fri 27th Mar: Easter Service at St Paul's Church 9:15am
- Fri 27th Mar: End of Term 2pm Finish
- Mon 13th April: Children Return
- Mon 13th April: Swimming begins for Year 3
- Tues 14th April: Swimming begins for Year 4
- Fri 17th April: PSA Donation Day
- Fri 1st May: PSA Donation Day
- Mon 11th May: Year 6 SATs week
- Fri 15th May: PSA Donation Day
- Fri 15th May: Year 6 Bowling Trip
- Sat 16th May: PSA Summer Fair 12pm - 3pm
- Mon 19th May: Class Reps Meeting at 10am
- Fri 22nd May: End of Half-Term 3:15pm Finish
- Mon 1st June: INSET DAY (school closed to children)
- Tues 2nd June: Children Return
- Mon 8th June: Year 1 Phonics Screening Week
- Mon 8th June: Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check
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.
