School Newsletter : 25 September 2026

A HUGE thank you to all the parents, carers and extended family members who joined us for our Open Morning and Macmillan Coffee Morning on Thursday. What a wonderful start to the day!

Our classrooms and corridors were buzzing with conversation, laughter and activity as pupils proudly shared their learning environments and classwork with their families.

Staff really appreciated the opportunity to welcome new family members, catch up with familiar faces and chat informally about the learning taking place across the school.

It was also lovely to see so many parents and carers stay afterwards in the First Floor Hall to meet and mingle over tea, coffee and a wonderful selection of cakes.

We are delighted to share that £212.00 was raised for Macmillan. Thank you once again for your generosity and for supporting this important national fundraising event.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the morning such a warm and enjoyable one. We look forward to welcoming you back to our next school event 🙂

Our Harvest Service will take place on Wednesday 7th October at 10:00 in St. Stephens Church.

Parents & carers, if you’re attending, please be seated by 09:55. A kind remember to please switch your phones off during the service.

Thank you to those families who have already generously donated items towards our Harvest Collection.

We are still collecting donations of non-perishable food items, sanitary and toiletry products and infant care products for our Harvest Collection this year, from Monday 14th September 2026.

Please bring any contributions to school by 09:00 on Tuesday 06th October and place it on our Harvest table which is located in the annex area by the Ground Floor Hall.

Thank you in advance.

We are delighted to invite all our Nursery and Reception parents and carers to a special EYFS workshop on Wednesday 21st October at 9am.

This session will explore our Early Years curriculum, focusing on practical ways to support early reading, writing, and mark-making skills at home. We will demonstrate how we use Google Classroom as a digital floorbook – giving you a wonderful, live window into the learning taking place at school!

This is a fantastic opportunity to gather easy, actionable strategies to foster a love of reading at home and see exactly what learning looks like in our classrooms.

We look forward to seeing you there and partnering together to support your child’s learning and development!

Here’s this week’s class attendance figures:

Please do not include:

• Crisps, sweets or chocolate bars
• Fizzy or sugary drinks, including juice drinks such as Capri-Sun or Fruit Shoot
• Probiotic drinks such as Actimel, Yakult or kefir drinks
• Desserts in excess of the guidance above
• Any nut products, including chocolate spreads containing nuts

School Trips and Packed Lunches

Packed lunches for school trips should also be healthy and balanced, following the guidance above. However, one small packet of crisps may be included on a school trip, whether the lunch is provided from home or by school.

All other items listed above as unsuitable should not be included in trip packed lunches. A balanced lunch will help pupils stay focused and energised throughout the day.

Thank you for your support in helping us encourage healthy habits and keep our whole school community safe.

We’re delighted to share our pupils’ results from the end of the summer term, alongside national comparisons.*

A special well done to our hardworking pupils and staff, particularly those in Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6, for these fabulous achievements. Everyone did incredibly well, and we’re so proud of you all!

*Please note that these figures are currently unvalidated. Validated data will be published in December.

September 2026

• Wednesday 30th: Year 3 trip to Gunnersbury Park Museum.

October 2026

• Tuesday 6th: Y1 Trip to The Tower of London, 10:00 – 14:30
• Tuesday 6th: Annual Blessing of the Animals Service at St Stephen’s Church, 18:30–19:15. Everyone is warmly welcome, including their pets!
• Wednesday 7th: Y2 Trip to The Tower of London, 10:00 – 14:30
• Wednesday 7th: Whole School Harvest Service. More information to follow.
• Wednesday 7th: Flu vaccinations for all year groups. Please complete the form sent home last week, indicating ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and return it to the school office by Friday 2 October.
• Thursday 8th: Nursery and Reception trip to Rhymes LIVE! at Smith Square Hall, 10:00–12:00.
• Friday 9th: Pupil Christmas Cards and order forms sent home.
• Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th: Individual and sibling school photographs. More information to follow.
• Tuesday 13th: Year 6 trip to Benjamin Franklin House, 11:00–15:00.
• Thursday 15th:  Pupil Christmas Card Orders and Envelopes with artwork to be returned to school.
• Thursday 15th: Year 4 trip to the Science Museum, 09:00–15:15.
• Friday 23rd: INSET day. School closed to pupils.
• Monday 26th–Friday 30th: October half term.

Pupils are welcome to continue to wear their school summer uniform until the end of September. However, as the weather changes to more cooler and wetter patterns, all pupils will need to be wearing the Autumn/Winter School Uniform from the beginning of October, or sooner if they wish.

Please ensure that all pieces of school uniform are named.

Please ensure that your children are wearing the correct school uniform to school each day. It is important that all pupils are also wearing the correct school shoes – which are black shoes, and not trainers.

The  Autumn/Winter term uniform options for pupils in Nursery to Year 6 are:

Please find here the agreed term dates set by our school’s Governing Body for the upcoming academic year, starting September 2026.

Please remember that holidays will not be authorised during the school term, and that all children should be in school, and on time, every day.

This week, our book has been Baby Goes to Market, a story about a baby who collects different foods as their mother walks around the market. To support their understanding of the story, the children have made playdough fruit, drawn pictures of fruits they enjoy and created artwork by dipping fruit into paint. They have also extended their learning through play, making markets for the babies and making sure they are well fed.

We’ve also changed our pick-up routine this week so thank you to all parents & carers for your understanding and patience while we adjust to the new arrangements.

This week in Nursery, we have been exploring a wonderful new Literacy story, Mr Gumpy’s Outing. The book features lots of different animals, and the children had great fun learning and practising the different ways they move. It was lovely to see them understanding and acting out each movement. In maths, they began learning about 2D shapes, focusing on circles, squares and triangles. The children have been hunting for shapes both inside the classroom and outdoors, becoming brilliant shape spotters and discovering that shapes really are everywhere!

This week, Reception began writing independently. The children talked about what makes a good writer, using Wise Owl to help them remember key features such as capital letters, finger spaces and checking that sentences make sense. They have also been applying the sounds learnt in phonics to blend and write CVC words, making important links between their phonics learning and independent writing. In maths, they have been exploring sorting and comparing objects. They looked closely at similarities and differences, grouped objects by properties such as size and colour, and explained their choices as they explored different ways to organise them.

This week, Year 1 made their guided reading sessions extra cosy. The children gathered on cushions, switched on their candles and settled into a calm reading circle together. They worked carefully through their books, using phonics to decode words, rereading sentences to build fluency and talking about what they had read. There was lots of sounding out, checking and celebrating when a tricky word finally clicked. Guided reading is an opportunity to develop key reading skills while also encouraging a love of books. Creating a calm, inviting space helped the class slow down, concentrate and enjoy reading together.

Year 6 have completed their first maths block of the year, focusing on place value. The class have worked with numbers up to 10,000,000, learning to read, write, compare and order large numbers and understand the value of each digit. They have also explored powers of 10, number lines, rounding and negative numbers. Throughout the block, theyhave applied their learning through reasoning and problem-solving activities, using mathematical vocabulary to explain their thinking. Pupils have now completed their end-of-block assessment and will move on to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.