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News & Events

No. 289 - 10 February

Dear Parents and Carers,

Fluffy Friday has been an excellent way to end this first half of the spring term! The variety of different activities on offer has been phenomenal (thanks to our wonderfully creative staff team!), and the enthusiasm of the children, staff and parent helpers has been fantastic. Everyone seemed to be learning something: perhaps mastering a new skill, perhaps making new friends, and some overcoming nerves and pushing themselves to face a challenge, even if that’s not being with their friends for an activity. We talked to the children about the importance of learning from Fluffy – it’s not just a fun day. It sometimes provides an opportunity to build resilience, especially if the activity you were assigned, wasn’t the one at the top of your list. Facing disappointment and overcoming hurdles as a child can be part of realising that struggle and difficulty isn’t always to be avoided. It might mean that future setbacks in life won’t be quite so catastrophic or traumatic. Thank you so much for remembering to send in £1, or making a payment on ParentPay. It’s proving a real challenge to stretch our funds in school and we’re so aware that every donation makes a real difference and secures future Fluffy days.

I know that many of you have been saddened by the tragic news of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. With several of our school families coming from this part of the world, I wanted to send my condolences and sympathy. As a school community, people are already encouraging one another to be generous with cake sales taking place this afternoon in both playgrounds. We talked to the children in assembly this week about sharing, learning from Jesus who had compassion for a large crowd. Sometimes it’s hard to feel that we can make a difference, but have a listen to Rev. Richard Coles on the Radio 4 appeal (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001jh5d) – he reminds us that even small donations can bring hope and make an impact on that one individual or family who receives our aid. The link to the DEC fund is here: www.dec.org.uk/appeal/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal

We marked safer internet day earlier this week teaching the children about the importance of keeping safe online, and were concerned to hear about how many children had seen images or content online that had upset them. We were even more alarmed by the number of children who use devices without enough adult supervision, and were very worried about children who make contact online with people that they don’t know. Tom Everard, our online safety lead, likened it to dropping a young child off in the middle of a big, potentially scary city, and not walking alongside them to keep them safe, but just saying, “Have a great time!”. If you’d like support in understanding the risks of unsupervised internet use, do get in touch with us (either through the office or tome@htpd.surrey.sch.uk ), or you could take a look at this helpful information: saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers, https://www.childnet.com/safer-internet-day/

It was great to enjoy “bedtime stories” at Pewley on Wednesday. The children seemed to love snuggling up in their pyjamas and hearing their teacher read by the light of a (virtual!) fire. It reminded all of us that stories are the best thing to share at the end of a day, and thanks to FOPS for organising the hot chocolate! Thank you as well to everyone for engaging in the conversation about how best to support reading at home. Do get in touch with your child’s teacher if you need any more top tips about this.

With the half term break ahead of us, I do hope that you have a restful and happy week at home or on holiday. We always encourage the children to be careful to stay safe, thinking about doing other things away from time looking at a screen. It’s good to be looking ahead to warmer times; perhaps like me, you’ll get out and about and start looking for signs of spring…snowdrops flowering, birds starting to build nests and lighter skies.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership over the past couple of months; see you all on Monday 20th February. Happy half term!

With love,

Clare

Thought of the week: The Magic of Sharing. Are you greedy or grateful? Jesus’ miracle: The feeding of the 5000. “Give us today our daily bread.”

Infant

Lunch: Week 3 beginning 20 February


FOPS News

Hi everyone,

We made it to half term! Thanks so much for all your help and support over the last 6 weeks which really does make such a difference to the school and our parent community.

Quiz and Curry night

We’re thrilled to share that the very popular Quiz and Curry night last week raised just over £2,000! It was such a fun evening – thank you to all those who came along. The money will be a big step closer to getting much needed air conditioning for the upstairs classrooms which are unbearably hot for the children and teachers during the summer months.

Pewley Sponsored Read

All children will have received a letter and sponsorship form in the book bags this week to take part in the Sponsored Read. Please do take part with your child over half term or donate if you can – all money will go towards new phonics library books as part of the new reading scheme.

2023 events

We have more exciting fundraising and community events to share with you for the rest of the Spring and Summer term. More on this when we’re back!

Have a great break everyone 😊

Eleanor and Sally x

Junior

Parents Evening (Tuesday 28 February and Thursday 2 March)

  • Booking is now open. Please refer to ParentMail sent out on Monday 6 February for detailed information.

Data Sheets

  • If you have not returned the data sheet, please return it on Monday 20 February.

Dates for the diary

  • Thursday 23 February – Y5 Neasden Temple

Cancelled Clubs

  • Tuesday 21 February – No Advanced Chess due to a Chess Match with Boxgrove
  • Thursday 23 Feb – Y3 & Y4 No Dance Club as staff away on a school trip

Spring Term Club – 2nd Half term

Year group changes are highlighted in Blue, as per below:

  • Tuesday Football Club will be for Y5
  • Tuesday Drama Club will be for Y6

Wednesday Y3 Almost Science Club

We will not be opening a new registration for the club as we have had many children on the waiting list since the Autumn term, and therefore, will be giving them the opportunity to attend first.

Lunch – Week 3 beginning 20 February.

Other notices

Free Conversational English Classes for EAL families – please see the flyer below about the free English conversational courses taking place on Wednesday afternoons at Boxgrove School - especially useful for our Ukrainian families at the moment. The sessions start on 1st March.

St. Mary's are providing a half term 'pop-up' activity during the break - please see the flyer below.

Wintershall Performance of The Passion of Jesus at Trafalgar Square on 7 April 2023 at 12 noon and 3:15 pm www.wintershall.org.uk/passion-jesus-london. Please see the leaflet below of this unique free event and a link to a YouTube promo video. For those who cannot get to Trafalgar Square the performances will be live streamed on the Wintershall Facebook page.