Where every child is special Weekly News · 2017-09-28 · Shakespearian performance of Macbeth today – wonderful! ... REMEMBRANCE We will be holding an Act of Remembrance next

St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School Where every child is special

Weekly News for the week beginning Monday 7th November 2016

I hope that you all enjoyed a happy and fun-filled half term. I was very fortunate

to spend part of my half term in Rome and shared many of the things that I had

learnt on the trip with the children. The purpose was to show that even when we

are not in school and even when we are having fun “on holiday”, we are always

learning. One of the things I have talked to the children about is cooking and how

much I love to cook even though there was a time when I had a real fixed mindset

about the whole thing – it has been a real joy to hear from so many children who

have taken to the kitchen since we talked about it - I hope that you and your

families have enjoyed the results! My point is that everything we do is an

opportunity to experience and learn new things and I hope that in your half term

you found the time to do that with the children and show them that you are

always learning too! There has been a lot of learning in school this week, my

highlights have been in the Reception classes with the excitement of a new sound

in phonics and all the mess of bird feeders and pumpkin soup and the cross

curricular excitement in Year 5 from a mysterious crime scene to a full blown

Shakespearian performance of Macbeth today – wonderful! Enjoy the fireworks if

you are out and keep safe! Neil Lewin

The Week Ahead…

St Thomas’ Learner focus on Attitude – Independence

Monday 7th November

Start of Handwriting week in school

Fire Service (and hopefully the engine!) in School for Reception classes

Netball match against Queen Eleanor’s after school (no after school netball training)

Governors’ Pupil Development Committee meeting at 6.30pm

PTA meeting 19.45 at the Horse and Groom, Merrow. All welcome, please come along

Tuesday 8th November

Phil the Bag collection. Bring your bags in between 8.30 am and 9am

Mrs Alba Pinilla’s funeral at St Joseph’s Church at 10.00am (12pm at Guildford Crematorium, and

later at St Edward the Confessor)

Wednesday 9th November

9.00am Family Learning session for parents of children with EAL (Session 1 of 5)

Thursday 10th November

9.00am Year 5 Prayer service. Year group parents please join us if you can

Year 1 are discovering all about Castles with a theatre group in school

Father Alan in School this afternoon with the Reception classes

Friday 11th November

Whole school Act of Remembrance

Deadline for handing in PTA Lovelight Photography requests

18.00 School disco time!

DON’T FORGET PHIL THE BAG ON

TUESDAY!


Weekly News for the week beginning Monday 7th November 2016, page 2

MONDAY 14TH november St Thomas’ Learner focus on Attitude –-Learning Partners

Parliament week in school

Deadline for School photo orders into the school office

Good as new toys and books collection for the Christmas Fayre all this week

Jolly jars collection for the Christmas Fayre all this week

TUESDAY 15th NoVEMber -

WEDNESDAY 16th NOVEMBER Year 3 at Haslemere museum

Year 6 talk from Guildford Flames ‘Drugs Freeze’

Governors‘ Data analysis meeting

THURSDAY 17th NOVEMBER 10.00am Year 5 Mass at St Pius. Please join them if you can

Father Alan in school this afternoon

FRIDAY 18th NOVEMBER -

SPACE SCIENTISTS You may have heard on the news this week about the science investigation involving 8,000 school children

and Tim Peake who sent seeds back to earth from the International Space Station to compare the

germination with seeds that stayed on earth. The results will help inform the possibility of providing food

for space travel... 60 of those 8,000 pupils were right here at St Thomas' - our current Year 6. For more

details on the research follow this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37826704

REMEMBRANCE

We will be holding an Act of Remembrance next Friday in School. From

Monday Poppies will be on sale in various guises including key ring poppies

for which there is a suggested donation of £1. Year 6 will be selling the

poppies each day next week at play and lunchtime and so if you would like

your child to purchase one please send them in with the donation. Thank

you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37826704



A St Thomas’ Learner makes

S=P+A+C+E for their learning

We believe that St Thomas’ Learners can achieve Success through

Perseverance together with a really positive Attitude, confidence and,

of course, effort.

Being able to learn independently requires

resilience and a personal drive. In the school

context it is about having the confidence to have

a go and take responsibility for yourself. If

there’s a problem, to think it through before

asking for help – asking others for help is really

important and not to be dismissed but can you

try first and try to work out how to do something

before asking? You may well find that you can do

it after all.

It’s also about having the confidence to trust

your instinct – to have confidence in yourself.

We are trying to instil that in all our children and

I am sure you are doing the same at home; not

doing everything for the children but providing

them with the space and the security to have a

go on their own.

NEVER GIVES UP

Attitude – Independence



FROM THE PTA… UPCOMING EVENTS

Monthly PTA Meeting, Monday 7th November

Come and join us at the Horse and Groom from 7.45pm

Find out what’s going on this term, have your say and see how you can get involved! All welcome!

Phil the Bag, Tuesday 8th November

Don’t forget to deliver your bags of old clothes and linen to school on Tuesday for our Phil the Bag collection.

Phil accepts adults and children’s clothing, hats, shoes, belts, handbags and household textiles (sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers, curtains and towels but not blankets and sleeping bags).

Phil the Bag no longer provides branded bags so please just use your own black bin liners. Please DO NOT bring your bags before the day as we have nowhere to store them.

Lovelight Photography Campaign…..deadline is Friday 11th November!

Don’t forget to take advantage of our Lovelight offer and get your envelope in to the office before the deadline! Lovelight Photography are a local photography company who are offering our school a studio family photography session for just £20 (normal retail price is £199!)

They are also generously donating all funds raised from the voucher sales to our school….everyone’s a winner!

If you’d like to take advantage of this fabulous offer just fill out the details on the back of the payment envelope, pop £20 into the envelope (cheques made payable to St Thomas of Canterbury PTA) and hand it into the office as soon as possible.

You could have some gorgeous family photos wrapped and ready to give as Christmas presents to family and friends!

Simply book your studio session with Lovelight, turn on your smile at their studio and they will invite you back for a personal viewing session where you can choose the photos you’d like to purchase and also pick your FREE handmade 9x6 print of your choice!

It is recommended that you attend your studio session by 30th November if you’d like your images before Christmas so don’t delay…..hand your envelope into the office and book your session asap!

The revised deadline is Friday 11th November. We’ve extended the deadline on this offer by one week to give everyone a chance to take advantage of this offer after the holiday.

Autumn Disco, Friday 11th November

The tunes are lined up, the dance moves prepped and the glow sticks at the ready!

If you haven’t purchased Disco Tickets you can buy them on the door for £4.50 each.

Volunteers are needed for both the infant and junior discos to help with nail painting, tattoos, floor walking and other roles during the event, if you can help please indicate on your ticket request slip. If you are planning on staying with your children why not volunteer to help too? All parents not helping must wait in the Infant Hall.

The infant disco (years R,1 and 2) will take place 6pm until 7pm. Squash, a bag of crisps and all treatments are included in the ticket entry price.

The junior disco (years 3, 4, 5 and 6) will take place 7.15pm until 8.30pm. Squash, a bag of crisps and 1 treatment are included in the ticket entry price. Additional treatments will be available at 50p each and a tuck shop with prices ranging from 10p to 50p will be open. 



Please note that for health & safety reasons, younger siblings who are not yet at school (& older siblings

waiting for the junior disco) may not be brought to either disco, although you are welcome to wait in the infant hall with them until the disco finishes.

‘Good as New’ Toy and Book Collection, Monday 14th-18th November

We’ll be collecting your ‘good as new’ toys, books and games in the office entrance between 14th – 18th November to sell at the Xmas Fayre. It’s a great opportunity to make space for all the new toys that will appear on Christmas morning!

Jolly Jar Collection, Monday 14th-18th November

Please try to make a Jolly Jar or two ready for our collection. The kids love to make them….and then in turn buy them!

For those of you who are new to Jolly Jars we ask parents and children to fill clean jam jars with wrapped, nut free sweets, small crafts and party bag fillers, decorate them and bring them into school so they can be used for our Jolly Jar stall at the Christmas Fayre.

No jars that contained pickles, curry or anything as pungent please as the smell will still linger even after washing! Also, no Peanut Butter jars either for allergy reasons.

Bottle Mufti Collection, Friday 25th November

Children can wear their own clothes on Friday 25th November in return for a bottle of drink for the popular Bottle Tombola stall at our Christmas Fayre.

Bottles can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic but they must be unopened and have a sell by date post 26th November.

Clothes should be suitable for school and appropriate weather conditions.

Christmas Fayre SAVE THE DATE, Saturday 26th November

Only three weeks to go until one of our biggest fundraisers of the year! Keep the date free and make sure you can join us as we kick off Christmas on Saturday 26th November between 1.30-4.30pm with lots of exciting stalls, Father Christmas in his Grotto, and much much more!

….AND FINALLY!

Raffle Tickets!

Please don’t forget to sell as many raffle tickets as you can to family and friends in the weeks leading up to the Christmas Fayre.

There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs including: two Amazon 7” Fire Tablets 8GB, a Luxury Christmas Hamper, £50 Theatre Vouchers, Luxury Bottle of Champagne with Champagne Flutes and other great prizes.

Bring your ticket stubs and money into the office in an envelope marked Xmas Raffle.

These prizes are displayed in the office for your perusal and more raffle tickets can be purchased from the office if needed….good luck!

Christmas Wrapping Help Needed!

The children’s Christmas Shopping Day is set for Friday 16th December (more details to follow).

Trudie Durbridge and others have been busy doing an amazing job buying over 1700 presents for the shopping day….now we need your help to wrap them all!

Please contact Trudie at [email protected] and let her know if you are willing to take an armful of presents to wrap in the comfort of your own home.

Wrapping paper will be provided however if you have any that you are willing to donate it would be most welcome!

If needed, we will be having a communal wrapping session on Friday 2nd December to finish the wrapping so please keep this date free if you can help!

mailto:[email protected]



Offer on Christmas Drinks at Local Public Houses!

For any organised staff, governor or parent function throughout the entire 2016/2017 Academic year held at The Albany (Guildford Town Centre), the Olive Tree (Sutton Green) and the Dog and Pheasant (Brook) held Monday to Friday you will receive 15% off your bill. An additional 10% of the bill will then be donated directly to the PTA. Please think about how to centralise your bill if you are holding class drinks etc.

For any staff, governor or parent booking a private meal for friends or family (i.e. non-school/parent/governor/PTA function) then for a limited period up to the end of November 2016 the same offer applies (15% off your bill and an additional 10% goes to the PTA) Monday to Friday only.

If you would like to take advantage of any of these offers please contact us at [email protected] for more details.

Gardening Club anyone?

Following our recent Groundforce Day efforts, we’re planning to re-start a Parents Gardening Club!

The intention is to meet once a month on a week day after drop off and carry out some basic weeding, leaf clearing and cutting back so that our established plants and newly planted shrubs and bulbs are looked after and given a chance to thrive!

Please let us know if you’d like to be added to the Gardening Club Volunteer List. The PTA will send out a reminder a week or so before each date, there is no obligation to get involved, just let us know if you can make it!

Calling all Garden Pond Owners!

A new home is needed for some pond/marginal plants!

We recently removed several well established marginal plants from the pond in what will become our new Prayer Garden. They are a mixture of Iris and Pickerel Rush (Pontederia Cordata).

We now need to find them a new home! Please do get in touch if you have a pond at home that has space for some (or all) of these beautiful plants. They were planted in approximately one foot of water and were thriving so no need for anything deeper.

Donation / Fundraising Matching

Do you work for a company who offer to match funds raised for a charity?

Last year one parent doubled the takings of one Christmas Fayre stall by asking his boss if he could take advantage of a company donation matching scheme – this earned the school an extra £500!

If this is something your company offer please let us know at [email protected]

NAMESLESS CHRISTMAS CARDS

Do you recognise these card designs with no names? If you do please let us know if you would like to claim them by contacting us on the PTA email address below

We cannot include them in the order delivered to school but you will be able to order them online still

Thank you for your continued support Neula and Sophie

[email protected]




Reminder - No child should be left at school before 8.30am – there are no adults on duty before

then.

To try and help with traffic flow at peak drop off and pick up times please endeavour to only

drive down Horseshoe Lane West from the Epsom Road end. Likewise when leaving the drop

off lane please only turn left.

Another plea to please, please, please follow our Golden rule… park legally, sensibly and safely

and don’t block our neighbours’ drives or be rude to them or other road users – it serves no

purpose other than to put people including our children in danger and to create totally

unnecessary upset and hostility..

SCL Saturday Soccer SCL will be starting their next round

of FA qualified ‘Saturday Soccer’ on

Saturday 5th November. Please see

the attached flyer for details

Midday Supervisor wanted… Please look on the website for details of the vacancy we have

for a Midday supervisor to start as soon as possible. The job

description and application form can be downloaded from

the website: http://www.st-

thomas.surrey.sch.uk/recruitment/head/

Perhaps more than any other time in the school day, play and lunch periods can make or break a child’s day. The

games they play, the people they play with are key to their happiness and wellbeing for the rest of the day.

And so this job is important, vital to the wellbeing of our

children.

Remember to visit Bourne Estate Agents if you’re thinking about

selling your house! Our school receives a donation from Bourne of up

to 10% of their fee if you sell with them!

http://www.st-thomas.surrey.sch.uk/recruitment/head/

http://www.st-thomas.surrey.sch.uk/recruitment/head/



BUSENYA DONATION A special thank you to Orlaith Byrne who, instead of having birthday presents from her friends asked them

to put the money they would have spent on her into a collection for Busenya. What a lovely, selfless act,

well done Orlaith!

We have

reminded

all the

children

of the

Firework’s

Code…

have fun

but be

safe!



v Veggie bolognese

served with penne

& broccoli florets

Chicken &

butternut curry

served with

wholegrain rice &

green beans

Roast British beef

and Yorkshire

pudding served

with roast

potatoes,

cauliflower florets

& gravy

Organic

Lincolnshire pork

sausage served

with mashed

potato and baked

beans

Vinegar infused

salmon goujons

served with potato

wedges & garden

peas

v Vegetable slice

with spicy potato

wedges served with

sweetcorn

v Shepherdess pie

with mashed

potato and carrot

& swede

v Roasted root

vegetable filled

Yorkshire puddings

served with roast

potatoes & broccoli

florets

v Bean lasagne

with a side of

garlic bread &

sweetcorn

v Loaded vegetable

pizza served with

potato wedges &

grated carrot

Baked potato with

cheese or tuna

Baked potato with

cheese or tuna

Baked potato with

cheese or tuna

Baked potato with

cheese or tuna

Baked potato with

cheese or tuna

Salad selection and

freshly baked bread

Salad selection and

freshly baked bread

Salad selection and

freshly baked bread

Salad selection and

freshly baked bread

Salad selection and

freshly baked bread

v Autumn oaty

fruit crumble

served with

custard

v Cherry tray bake

with a glass of milk

v Fruit yoghurt

selection

v Orange cookie &

fresh orange

wedges

v Banana bread

and vanilla sauce

The School Council Think Tank have been working hard to

come up with ideas to make the school dinner hall a

better place.

Their first improvement is for the older children to have

plates and bowls rather than the sectioned trays and

yesterday they appeared for all the children in Year 5 and

6

Next on the agenda is a new menu for years 5 and 6

which will be an option to the full meal menu …. More

details to follow next week!

Our Kitchen team dressing up

for the Best of British on

Wednesday!



Congratulationsto all the children who received an award this week Successful and Confident Learners who made

S=P+A+C+E for their learning

Charlotte Della-Maestra Sophia Shaverin

Martha Hill Jada Hunte Poppy Jackson

Joey Niland Fred Davies Elliot Tarling

Eva Della-Maestra George Holmwood

Rebecca Gallagher Sophie Watson

Jamie Moore

Responsible Role Models in their behaviour,

attitude and learning

Toby Phillips Edie Brown Francesca Nash

Making a positive contribution to the class or

School

Dexter Pretty Harvey Norman

Norah Harrop-Lopez

St Salvatore and St William Classes

And congratulations to everyone across

the school who worked so hard to be

their very best this week



Contacting the School

Absences – please call the office number 01483 888388

For general enquiries, medical issues

– please contact Mrs Simpson or Mrs Read on 01483 888388 or by email:

[email protected]

For our Business Manager and Office Manager

– please contact Mrs Clay on 01483 888388 or by email:

[email protected]

For Admission enquiries and to arrange school tours

- please contact Mrs Tahouri our Admissions Officer on 01483 888388 or by email:

[email protected]

To change meal requests and for school meal payments

- please contact Mrs Simpson on 01483 888388 or by email:

[email protected]

For After school clubs and ScoPay/Parentmail enquiries

- please contact Mrs Foster on 01483 888388 or by email:

[email protected]

For information about Tommy’s Breakfast and After School clubs

- please contact Mrs Maguire by email: [email protected]

For our Home school link worker, Kate Shaw

- please email: [email protected]

For SEN information or advice

- please email our SENCos, Mrs McNiff and Mrs Terry: [email protected]

For Mr Lewin

- please ring the Office on 01483 888388 or email: [email protected]

School website: www.st-thomas.surrey.sch.uk

Parish website: http://www.guildfordcatholicchurches.co.uk/










http://www.st-thomas.surrey.sch.uk/

http://www.guildfordcatholicchurches.co.uk/

Documents

Where every child is special Weekly News · 2017-09-28 · Shakespearian performance of Macbeth today – wonderful! ... REMEMBRANCE We will be holding an Act of Remembrance next