St Paul's Newsletter
Friday 8th May 2026
Message from Mrs Evans
It has been an incredibly busy few weeks at St Paul’s, and I have been delighted to spend time celebrating some wonderful achievements across the school. I’ve been particularly impressed by the writing emerging from Year 1, and it is fantastic to see our pupils continuing to engage so deeply with our SPARK books. Looking ahead, we are also busy preparing for Walk to School Week, and I look forward to seeing many of you arriving on foot to support this great initiative.
In a recent meeting with our Governors, I was proud to share the exceptional work happening within our curriculum. Our Science lead presented the fabulous learning taking place in our labs and classrooms, while a recent evaluation of our Art and DT books revealed the high-quality, creative offer our children enjoy. I want to extend a huge thank you to our staff for their dedication to these subjects.
We also shared the results of our recent Parent and Carer Survey with the Governors. The feedback was truly heartening, and you can see the strength of our community reflected in the Word Cloud here:
We also greatly value the constructive feedback provided and are committed to addressing it. Following our update two weeks ago on how we support individual needs, we will continue to share similar insights and opportunities for development in future editions. Thank you to everyone who engaged with the survey—your thoughts and ideas are vital to us.
As we look to next week, our Year 6 pupils will be sitting their SATs. We are so proud of how they have prepared; our hope is that when they reach their well-earned treat at the end of the week, they feel the satisfaction of simply having done their very best!
London Mini-Marathon Event
On Saturday 25th April a group of our pupils once again took part in the schools' London Mini-Marathon event. It was a brilliant morning and we were so proud watching each of the children cross the finishing line! It has been great to see the school taking part in its own marathon linked running event and we are looking forward to being able to attend this event again next year. A huge thank you to Miss Wells, Miss C and Coach Ellis for running with the children!
Attendance Overview
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 |
|
96.17% |
96.82% | 95.77% | 95.28% | 95.66% | 96.00% | 96.33% |
Whole School - since the start of the year
| Our Target | Current Attendance | National |
| 97% | 96% | 95.38% |
Regular Reminders
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.
Holidays in Term Time
I would like to remind all parents that holidays during term time will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. These absences cause disruption not only to children's learning, but can also have an impact on their social interactions within the class.
Absences in term-time should only be taken for 'exceptional circumstances' which are 'unavoidable and unplanned'. The Educational Welfare Service recommends to schools that any absences that do not meet this criteria must be marked as 'unauthorised'.
Where families do apply for an absence during term-time, they may be invited in for a meeting and will receive a letter to confirm how the absence will be marked on the register.
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.
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.
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 looked at butterflies as we had a very exciting delivery of our own caterpillars. This has allowed us to see the life cycle of a butterfly. We love watching our caterpillars grow and can't wait to see them turn into butterflies. In our writing we labelled a life cycle of a butterfly, using our phonics to help segment the words for our writing. We have been practising our turn taking when playing a game of snakes and ladders, also looking at the composition of numbers when playing. We went outside to collect some natural resources from the floor, and then created a 3D landscape picture. This week in Reception we have been looking at the question 'Do minibeasts make noise?', and seeing if we can imitate the noises. Some minibeasts also got stuck in a spider's web and we have been using our fine motor skills to save them using tweezers. In our Maths we have been focusing on subitising using pom poms to do this to circle a chosen number using our fast eyes.
Reception Newsletter 2025-26
Year 1
It has been such an incredibly busy and exciting week in Year 1! In English, we dived into the deep blue sea to create our very own fact files about octopuses, focusing on using our best presentation to share everything we’ve learned. In Maths, we have been hard at work mastering measurement, moving from counting centimetre cubes to using rulers accurately to find the length of different objects. In Art, we have loved exploring our own creative ideas through different media - we started with wool wrapping and plaiting, and it was wonderful to see the children so engaged and proud of their textured designs. Finally, in RE, we have been learning about Judaism by exploring where Jewish people worship and even using role-play to act out a traditional service. We are so impressed by the children's curiosity and the fantastic energy they are bringing to all their lessons!
Year 1 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 2
In Science, we have been busy growing our own plants. We have been exploring how light, water, and warmth affect growth, and have really enjoyed observing the changes and discussing what plants need to thrive. In RE, we have begun learning about Islam. The class has shown great curiosity and respect while exploring this topic, and we are all looking forward to our upcoming trip to a mosque in a few weeks. In Maths, we are focusing on money. We have been practising adding amounts together and working out change, building important real-life skills. In English, we are writing diary entries from the perspective of an explorer. This links closely with our history topic, where we are learning about the fascinating lives and journeys of Mary Kingsley, Christopher Columbus, and Matthew Henson. We are really enjoying bringing these explorers to life through their writing. It is also noticeable how much reading is going no at home - thank you for your continued support with this—it makes a real difference to progress and confidence.
Year 2 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 3
Year 3 have continued to learn about fractions and visually demonstrated how equal parts don't always look the same with cubes and shapes. We are completing our formal letters this week and have thought carefully about the vocabulary to include. In Science, we have observed how water travels through the stem of a plant and discussed the function of flowers. We have looked at data charts in Geography and noticed similarities differences between climate zones and biomes. We have really enjoyed designing our castles in DT to make them using junk modelling.
Year 3 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 4
Year 4 have been working hard on their literacy based on the search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish. They've worked hard on practising using their expanded noun phrases and adverbials to add relevant details to their descriptions. They've also practised using speech marks in their writing in order to role-play as Dr Morley and to express how the character was feeling at different points in the story. We are now starting our new genre writing a non chronological report on the Arctic. In Maths, we've continued to have a look at how fractions are equal parts of a whole and how we can place them on number lines. We've looked at both unit and non unit fractions. We have started to look further at water erosion and rivers both locally and globally. We started thinking about how rivers impact the people around them in different areas too. In Science we've looked at how food chains are affected by changes in the environment as well as any change to a particular species. We played the food chain challenge online and then looked at data to draw our own conclusions about hares and snow lynxes too. Finally in PHSE, we looked at how we can maintain and repair friendships if we face challenges in them.
Year 4 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 5
This week year five been looking at how we can develop our cohesion techniques even further focusing on Hansel and Gretel as well as Baba Yaga stories. We've focused particularly on becoming more confident with the use of adverbials and connective phrases. We've loved teasing the reader using our 'show not tell' techniques to build tension in our stories. We are working so hard on our presentation with a particular focus on formation of our vowels. In our Maths we are loving looking at our fractions work where we have used number lines, pictorials and the written methods. We understand that fractions are equal parts of a whole and are linked to decimals too! In our ocean topic we've been looking more at the investigation skills we can apply when we do our fieldwork enquiry next week. We've considered what is helpful and which methods will give us the data we need. We were so lucky to have our e-waste race assembly last week and we are full of ideas on how to recycle our electronics already.
Year 5 Newsletter 2025-26
Year 6
In Year 6 we have been exploring the idea of change in PSHE, thinking carefully about the different emotions that change can bring and discussing positive ways to cope with big changes in our lives. We talked about how emotions can be mixed and how different people experience change in different ways. As part of this learning, we created leaflets filled with our best advice and top tips about Year 6 so that we could pass our wisdom and encouragement on to our friends in Year 5 as they get ready to move up to Year 6. In Science, we have continued our work on classification by focusing on invertebrates. We identified the key characteristics of different groups of invertebrates and then used a classification key to help us identify and classify ladybirds accurately. This helped us to understand how scientists use observable features to group living things systematically. Alongside this, we have continued to revise and prepare carefully for our SATs next week. Following a very successful practice run during our mock SATs last week, we have been continuing to build our confidence by revisiting key skills, practising test techniques and supporting one another to feel positive and prepared for next week. Everyone is working really hard and putting in their best effort and they have a lot to be proud of.
Year 6 Newsletter 2025-26
Team Points
Congratulations to Reception and Rubies who were the Team Points winners for the week beginning 27th April, to Year 5 and Diamonds who were the team points winners for the week beginning 4th May.
News from St Paul's Church
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.
Music@St Paul's
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!
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:
- Mon 11th May: Year 6 SATs week
- Mon 11th May: Learn to Ride Course all week
- Thurs 14th May: Year 5 Local Walk
- Fri 15th May: PSA Donation Day
- Fri 15th May: Year 6 Bowling Trip
- Sat 16th May: PSA Summer Fair 12pm - 3pm
- Mon 18th May: Walk to School Week
- Mon 18th May: Year 2 Mosque Trip
- Mon 18th May: Parent Workshop at 6.30pm - 'Connection Before Correction: Building Trust-Based Relationships'
- Tues 19th May: Class Reps Meeting at 10am
- Thurs 21st May: Year 5 Multi-skills Festival at Surbiton
- Fri 22nd May: Year 6 Skipping Workshop
- Fri 22nd May: Reception Ugly Bug Ball (change of date)
- Fri 22nd May: End of Half-Term 3:15pm Finish
- Mon 1st June: INSET DAY (school closed to children)
- Tues 2nd June: Children Return
- Tues 2nd June: Swimming begins for Year 6
- Weds 3rd June: Parent Workshop at 6.30pm - 'Predictable Routines and Consistent Boundaries'
- Fri 5th June: Reception Bockett's Farm Trip
- Mon 8th June: Year 1 Phonics Screening Week
- Mon 8th June: Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check
- Mon 8th June: Swimming begins for Year 5
- Mon 8th June: Parent Workshop at 6.30pm - 'Reframing Behaviour. Seeing the Need Behind the Action'
- Tues 16th June: Year 4 River Trip
- Fri 19th June: Reception and Year 1 Online Postal Museum Workshops
- Thurs 25th June: KS2 Sports Day at Hollyfield Fields 9:15am - 11:45am
- Thurs 25th June: Year 2 Races Event Hollyfield Field 1:15pm - 2:15pm
- Fri 26th June: KS1 Sports Festival (Rec: 9:15am-10:00am; Year 1: 10:15am-11:00am)
- Tues 30th June: Year 1 Trip to Chessington
- Tues 30th June: Year 2 Forest School Trip
- Weds 1st July: Whole School 'Move Up' Morning
- Fri 3rd July: Year 5 Taster Day at Chessington School
- Fri 3rd July: Year 6 Leavers' Service at Southwark Cathedral
- Fri 3rd July: PSA Picnic in the Playground at 3:15pm
- Sun 5th July: New Reception Parents/Carers welcome Church Service at 10am
- Thurs 9th July: Y5/Y6 Production (adults only) at 9:15am
- Fri 10th July: Y5/Y6 Production at 9:15am
- Monday 13th July: Year 6 Dough Shack Pizza Treat
- Friday 17th July: End of Term at 2pm
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.
