St Cecilia's News
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School - October 2017
Welcome back to a new school year
I hope that the new school year is going well for you, autumn is well and truly with us now and we have all settled back into school routines after our summer holidays.
It has been lovely to meet you all at the various events at the start of the academic year, at Year Aheads and Parent Teacher consultations - thank you so much for the welcome and all the cards that I have received. It's always exciting when you move to a new school and start to build a new shared vision for the future with the school community.
I am very pleased to welcome back Miss Fry and Mrs O Dwyer after their maternity leave, it's great to have them back with us. We also welcome Miss Hay who is covering for Mrs Buckley whilst she is on maternity leave. Miss Fenner has joined us this term, it's great to not be the only new member of staff!
The Autumn term is always a busy one, a good long term and a chance to make great strides in learning. Mrs Martin and I spend time in classes each day, working alongside the children, experiencing their learning journey with them. It has been wonderful to witness the breadth of our curriculum and the quality of teaching that we have here at St. Cecilia's over the past weeks. Next week Mrs Martin and I will be in classes talking to the children about how happy and safe they feel in school, their playtime games, their friendships and support networks in school.
A big welcome to all our new families - you are joining a very special community, we thank you for trust in us and look forward to many wonderful years ahead with you.
A new email system, updated calendar
As part of this move we have taken the decision to have an easier web address and email system.
Our new web address: stcecilias.school (the old address will still work until Easter)
To contact the school office: office@stcecilias.school
After School Club: afterschoolclub@stcecilias.school
Our calendar system has been streamlined and is now available to all staff through the Google Apps system, we hope that this will enable us to include more events on the calendar with a greater notice period. If you find that the link is not working for you on your smart phone you may need to re-establish a link to our calendar again.
You can still find the calendar on the same page of our website, see the link below.
New PTA Committee
We welcome Katrina Olson as our new PTA Chair, Sarah Mills is continuing as PTA Treasurer and Stella Mezei-Revell is our new PTA Secretary.
The PTA newsletter was sent out to you earlier this week - please look out for it in your inbox.
School & Family Partnership
Support with parenting
Activities that support this type of involvement provide information to parents about your child's development, health, safety, and learning at home. In this area I am currently investigating relevant speakers who may provide interesting and challenging talks and workshops for parents - any ideas please let me know.
Communication
Enabling you to participate in your child's education through high quality information from the school, having systems in place so that you can provide us with information easily. We are currently investigating new style data reports and a "Class Dojo" news sharing app pilot.
Volunteering
We welcome your support for activities in school.
Learning at home
We support families with clear home learning tasks, e-learning will increase as we develop our interest in internet-based learning systems like Google Apps for Education.
Decision Making
We hope that you will provide feedback to us when necessary. We will often have pilot projects and electronic surveys, your opinion is valued. In a few weeks time we will contact you with our Annual Parent Survey, it will provide us with useful information from the parent community to help make St Cecilia's an even better place.
Collaborating
Our PTA are vital to helping us to bring parents and school staff together. We often collaborate through fundraising events, but we can also work on joint projects together, sometimes in service to others, at other times for the good of our own school community.
We use the 6 strand model to ensure that we have a balanced approach to our work with the school community.
Curriculum News
SATs Results
Reception Year Admissions - Apply Now
Applications are made direct to your own local authority on the Common Application Form (CAF), check out their website for details. Our supplementary form is available via our website or the school office. The closing date for this form is 31 December 2017.
We have guided tours for the next few months, please contact Mrs Long and book a slot to visit us with your rising four year old.
The national closing date for applications is 15 January 2018 - don't be late!
Year 6 Transfer to Secondary School
MacMillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning
Class Dojo Pilot
Parent Teacher Consultations
Working with our local community - respect and consideration
Please park considerately and remember that in your interaction with our neighbours you carry the reputation of our school with you. I have received two complaints from neighbours, both of whom have received abuse from our parents. Please remember, in your frustration about parking, which we all share, to show respect and consideration and that we are adults setting a good example to our children.
Sporting events
All of the arranged football matches are on our website calendar, netball matches are being added by Mrs Saunders as they are arranged.
Feedback
Please contact us using office@stcecilias.school
With best wishes from all the team at St Cecilias,
Vince Burke
Head Teacher
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School
Email: office@stcecilias.school
Website: www.stcecilias.school
Location: London Road, Sutton, SM3 9DL
Phone: 020 8337 4566