Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Weekly News Friday 25 April 2025
Fri 25 Apr 2025Dear Parents and Carers
“The promise of new life and a world finally set free awaits us; and a new beginning, however impossible it might seem, can take us by surprise, for Christ has triumphed over death," Pope Francis
We have all been saddened by the news of the death of Pope Francis at the beginning of the week but we can take consolation in the great message of hope that Easter brings and that through the resurrection of Jesus we know that death is not the end.
We will remember Pope Francis in our prayers may he rest in peace.
Beginning of Term Mass
Today we celebrated the beginning of term with Mass with the Parish which was followed by a lovely Easter Blessing of all the classrooms by Fr Jose. The children sang beautifully and their behaviour was excellent throughout the celebration of a Mass.
Crowning of Mary
On Friday 2nd May at 2:30p.m Year R will lead the school in our Crowning of Mary Liturgy when we remember and honour Mary as the mother of Jesus. As with all our liturgies parents and carers are very welcome to join us.
Rock Steady
On Thursday 24th April the children were introduced to “Rock Steady” which offer music lessons for children in how to play in a rock band. The children were thrilled and thoroughly entertained by Ros who led the introductory session. A letter explaining how to sign up for the lessons was sent home and I am very sure that the lessons will prove to be very popular.
The first lessons are scheduled for Tuesday 29th April so parents and carers that wish their children to take part in this need to be very prompt when signing up.
Times Tables Rock Stars
The boys were victorious in our latest “Battle of the Bands” times tables competition arranged by Mrs Warren our mathematics leader. Well done to all who took part and better luck next time girls!
Chartwells Food Waste Workshops
With an aim to reduce food waste and encourage the children to eat healthfully our school catering company are holding workshops with the children. The first of these will be held with Key Stage 2 children on Thursday 1st May and then with Key Stage 1 on Thursday 8th May. I am sure that the children will enjoy the workshops and of course eating some of the dishes prepared!
Basketball Tournament
On Wednesday 30th April we have a team of children from Year 6 taking part in a basketball tournament at the North School. I am sure the children will give their very best and make us proud.
Reminders
Just a quick reminder that the school is a nut free environment. Please can parents and carers not send in any nut-based snacks or foodstuffs in packed lunches as we have a number of staff and pupils who have serious nut allergies.
If parents and carers haven’t already returned our Home School Agreements, please can these be returned as soon as possible.
With best wishes
Peter McCabe
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Weekly News Friday 4th April 2025
Fri 04 Apr 2025Dear Parents and Carers
“Happy Easter! May you bring to all the joy and hope of the Risen Christ!” Pope Francis
This week Year 4 led us in a Passion Reflection when Jesus journeyed towards his death on the cross. The children were magnificent with their singing and the delivery of the reflections on scripture that they had written themselves. Well-done all in Year 4.
Many thanks to all the parents and carers who came along to support the children.
The whole school attended our End of Term Mass at St Simon’s Church we are always very proud of how well the children behave during Mass and how well they respond with the prayers and with their singing.
Important dates for services at St Simon’s Church during the Easter Holiday
- Lent Confessions Saturday 12th April
- Palm Sunday 13th April
- Maundy Thursday 17th April
- Good Friday 18th April
- Easter Vigil 19th April
- Easter Sunday 20th April
(Unfortunately, the parish hasn’t publicised the times of services as yet)
Lenten Fund Raising
Today we held our Annual Easter Egg Raffle and due to the great generosity of parents and carers once again this Year every child was able to go home with an Easter Egg and we still had a great number of Easter eggs left to raffle off to the lucky ticket winners.
To date we have managed to raise the following amounts:
Crazy Hair Day (Missio): £147.41
Sponsored walk(CAFOD): £899.45
Dress in Red(Save the Children): £172.95
Year 6 Activity Afternoon(War Child): £116.40
Easter Egg Raffle(CAFOD): £350.10
Total to Date: £1686.31
This is an incredible amount for a small school such as St Simon’s congratulations everyone and a great big thank you to everyone for their generosity.
Looking forward to next term and Rocksteady
On our return after the Easter Holiday on Thursday 24th April the children will be taking part in a “Rocksteady” assembly and workshops.
We already run extra music lessons for children in Ukelele, Violin, Recorder, Piano and Clarinet for parents who have requested this and we are now looking to work with “Rocksteady” who offer lessons in how to play in a rock band.
The lessons are run over Tuesday afternoons for 30 minute sessions for 9 musicians: 2x Guitarists, 2x Drummers, 2x Vocalists, 2x Keyboards and 1x Bass player. There will be a charge for parents who wish their children to take part. More details to follow after the workshops.
(Let’s hope our neighbours on Noakes Meadow don’t object to the noise from the rehearsals!)
Times Tables Rock Stars
Mrs Warren our mathematics leader has set up another “Battle of the Bands” competition on Times Tables Rockstars. It is boys vs girls. The competition started on the 2nd of April and ends on the 17th April. I have been informed that the girls are well in the lead at the moment.
Easter Newsletter from our Trust KCSP
For news and events from around schools in our trust please check the latest Trust Newsletter:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ISsrhvl7QARG62lPsM4FIE5yEHhnlHmv/view?usp=sharing
May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy and Holy Easter. The children return to school on Tuesday 22nd April.
Best wishes
Peter McCabe
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Weekly News Friday 28th March
Fri 28 Mar 2025Dear Parents and Carers
“May each family rediscover family prayer, which helps to bring about forgiveness.” Pope Francis
It is very hard to believe that we only have one week left of this term before we break up for the Easter Holidays. It has been a very short but very busy term. It has been good to see some spring weather and the children have been enjoying playing out on the school field. Let us all hope that the good weather continues.
Just a little reminder the clocks move forward an hour this Saturday so we will all lose an hour this weekend.
Mothering Sunday
This Sunday is Mothering Sunday or Mother’s Day so hopefully all mums will be able to put their feet up and be thoroughly spoiled on this day.
The children are asked to support the Parish with their singing at a very special Mother’s Day Mass at 10:30a.m in St Simon’s Church. It would be good to see as many children as possible attending to make this a very special celebration.
Year 6 Activity Afternoon
Today as part of our Lenten Fund-raising Year 6 arranged an Activity Afternoon for all the other classes. They had lots of activities planned from penalty shoot-out, nail bar (always very popular with everyone) name the countries and their flags and many more.
All seemed to have had a great time and our Year 6 were exhausted by the end of the afternoon.
Many thanks to our Year 6 for planning the afternoon and many thanks to all for the kind donations for this week’s charity “War Child”.
Easter Egg Raffle
Tickets are on sale for our annual Easter Egg Raffle next Friday. We have had many kind donations of Easter Eggs for the raffle but can always do with more so if you can donate an Easter Egg for our raffle this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone for their very kind generosity to date.
Year 4 Passion Reflection
Year 4 will lead the school on a Passion Reflection on Thursday 3rd April at 2:00p.m in the school hall. This is usually a very moving liturgy when Year 4 take us through the last part of Jesus’ journey to the cross. As with all our liturgy parents and carers are very welcome to attend.
Key Stage 2 Reconciliation
Catholic children in Key Stage 2 will have the opportunity to take part in the sacrament of reconciliation on Tuesday 1st April. Non-Catholic children will be able to visit the priest for pastoral support. Many thanks to Fr Jose for arranging this for the children.
End of Term Mass
All classes will be attending our End of Term Mass on Friday 4th April at 9:30a.m in St Simon’s Church. Parents and carers are welcome to join us.
Best Wishes
Peter McCabe
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Weekly News Friday 21st March
Fri 21 Mar 2025Dear Parents and Carers
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” St John Henry Newman
It was good to welcome so many parents to our parent meetings this week and I am sure that all were pleased to hear about the learning that is taking place in the classrooms.
Many thanks to all who completed one of our parental questionnaires as your views about the school are very important to us.
It was very pleasing to see that the questionnaires returned were extremely positive about the school. This is very reaffirming for the school staff as they all work extremely hard to support the children in their learning.
If you haven’t managed to make an appointment to speak to your child’s class teacher an appointment can still be made via the school office.
Dress in Something Red Day
Many thanks once again to all who took part in our “Dress in Something Red Day” to raise funds for Save the Children. This is the third of our charities that the children voted to raise funds for and I thank everyone for their kind generosity. Next week Year 6 will be organising an activity afternoon for the children across the school. This is usually great fun more details to follow early next week.
St Simon’s Easter Egg Raffle
Next week tickets will be on sale for our annual Easter Egg Raffle which will take place on the last day of term. We need more donations of Easter Eggs for the raffle as these have been coming in very slowly so please can we keep the donations coming in.
Stations of the Cross
On Wednesday 26th March Year 1 and Year 2 will have the opportunity to take part in The Stations of the Cross in St Simon’s Church. The children will be able to pause and reflect on the events leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross and looking forward to the great hope that Easter brings.
Year 4 Passion Reflection
Year 4 will lead the school in a Passion Reflection on Thursday 3rd April at 2:00p.m this is usually a very moving liturgy when Year 4 remind us all of the great sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us.
Schools Theatre Production Alice in Wonderland
On Monday children from all classes will be able to watch a production of Alice in Wonderland. Seeing a live performance is always a great experience for the children and I am sure they will all enjoy this. After the performance Year 4 children will have the opportunity to take part in a workshop when the cast will give them tips and hints on how to improve their own acting skills.
Big Walk and Wheel
Next week is the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel fortnight. We would like to see as many pupils and adults either walking or wheeling (biking or scooting) to school. This is to promote healthy life styles. We will count the number of “journeys” to school in each year group. Let’s hope we have a great response to this and this will not only be good for the health it will also take more cars off the road which is better for the environment.
Parking
This week we had a traffic warden patrolling outside the school who was a very welcome sight as I haven’t really seen any improvement in parking outside the school even after many repeated requests.
I spoke to the traffic warden and thanked him for his presence outside the school. He informed me that he was very pleased that so many parents had also thanked him which goes to show that many of our parents are concerned about the actions of the few inconsiderate parents who have been parking unsafely. Hopefully this will help people to stop and think and change their ways.
Home School Agreement
Periodically we review our home school agreement which outlines what we agree to do as a school and the expectations that we have of parents and carers and the pupils.
Next week we will be reissuing our home school agreement as our old agreement is getting a little dated and doesn’t fully reflect our current practice. If parents and carers could please read and sign the agreement and ask your children to sign their part and return this to school by 28th March this would be greatly appreciated.
If you as a parent or carer feel that you can’t sign the agreement, please don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss this.
With best wishes
Peter McCabe
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Weekly News Friday 14th March
Fri 14 Mar 2025Dear Parents and Carers
If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” St Francis of Assisi
Phonics Briefing
Many thanks to all the parents who joined us for our phonics briefing on Wednesday this week. This enabled us to share with parents and carers how we go about teaching early reading. I am sure that all who attended found this very informative. Many thanks to our teachers for putting this event on for our parents and carers.
Parents Evening
Next week we are holding parent evenings on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th March 3:30p.m until 6:00p.m. Parents and carers have had the opportunity to sign up for an appointment at the beginning and end of the day this week. If you have missed the opportunity to make an appointment you can still contact the school office to make one.
Parents and Carers will receive their child’s report today with the exception of Year R who will receive their report on Monday.
Please remember the report is just a snapshot of how your child is getting on to get the full picture you need further discussion with your child’s class teacher.
Lenten Charity Fund Raising
Today the children enjoyed taking part in a sponsored walk in aid of CAFOD. The children always enjoy this activity as it is truly very much a whole school event with all the children and staff getting out walking around the school grounds. This raises great funds for our charity while at the same time giving the children (and staff) some exercise.
Many thanks to everyone who sponsored the children in their walk this is very much appreciated.
Next week the children are asked to come into school “Dressed in Red” in aid of “Save the Children”.
St Simon’s Annual Easter Egg Raffle
We are looking for donations of Easter Eggs for our Annual Easter Egg Raffle. Last year we had so many Easter Eggs that there was enough donated so that every child in the school “won” one and we had many more that we raffled off for charity.
It really would be fantastic if we could do the same this year. Please can parents send in donations of Easter Eggs from Monday. Tickets will then be on sale from Monday 24th March.
Stations of the Cross
Throughout Lent the children have the opportunity to take part in the “Stations of the Cross” this week the children in Year 3 and 4 will be visiting the church on Wednesday 19th March.
Lock Down Drill
Next week we will be carrying out a “Lock Down Drill” so that the children will be prepared in the event that we have to carry out a real lock down.
A lock down can be needed for a number of reasons e.g. a chemical spillage in the local area, an intruder on school site, a dangerous dog on the playground etc.
We always notify parents and carers when we do a lock down drill so that you can reassure your children about the need for the drill and so that you are not alarmed when the children tell you about this.
If any parent feels their children may find this upsetting, please don’t hesitate to inform us so we can do further work to reassure them before we carry out the drill.
Quick Sticks Hockey Competition
On Tuesday 18th March a team of our Year 6 pupils will be representing the school at a Hockey Competition at the Ashford Prep School at Great Chart. This is the first event of our sporting calendar and I am sure that the children will give their best.
With best wishes
Peter McCabe