Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a busy week in school.  Please do take a look at our activities below and our upcoming dates towards the end of this newsletter.

The beginning of next week is due to be hot.  On Monday and Tuesday next week the children may wear their PE kit to school to keep them cool, if they wish.  On Wednesday all children will need to be wearing PE kits for the Sponsored Walk and we will review uniform after this point.  Please also remember hats, water bottles and sun-screen each day.

This week in school

Y4 Battle of the Books – Winners for the second year running!

On Thursday, a team of eight Y4 students participated in the annual Richmond Borough KS2 Battle of the Books competition. Since January, the team has been working hard reading six books and preparing to show their knowledge through quizzing and artwork. Well done to Ivor, Kateryna, Aidan, Naia, Clodagh, Eddie, Valerie and Eureka! The team came first in the Quiz Round, second in the Art Round and were Overall Winners out of thirteen schools! Thank you too, to Mrs Briggs for preparing the children for the quiz.

Reception Class Assembly

Reception led our Celebration of the Word yesterday on the theme of ‘Growing’.  They showed the many ways that they have grown this year: in size, in their learning and in their relationships with others.  They also explained that they have grown closer to God this year and in their understanding that He wants them to be kind and caring to others.  They spoke so clearly and sang so beautifully – we were all very proud of them!

Southwark Diocese Festival of Hope

On Wednesday this week a group of Y5 children represented our school at the Southwark Diocese Festival of Hope.  The festival took place at Aylesford Priory in Kent and involved hundreds of children from across our diocese coming together for a day of fun and prayer. 

We travelled to the event with schools from the Christ the Redeemer Trust and it was lovely to participate as part of a wider family of schools.

National School Sports Week at St Elizabeth's

This week, we celebrated National School Sports Week, an annual event designed to promote sport in schools. The week started with an assembly led by the Sports Committee celebrating the sporting achievements of our pupils outside school. We are delighted to see the broad range of activities that our children enjoy, including roller skating, skiing, gymnastics, swimming, trampolining, climbing, Irish dancing, football, rugby, karate, athletics and horse riding. Thank you to parents for sending in photos and certificates; we look forward to seeing more in the future!

Throughout the week, our Sports Committee ran a number of activities at break and lunch times, encouraging children to take part in a variety of sports, including dodgeball, volleyball and table tennis. Volleyball proved very popular and we will be looking to incorporate this into our curriculum next year. Thank you to the Sports Committee for organising and supervising these events!

Vocal Concert

We were treated to some amazing performances at the vocal concert last night.  Children sang with confidence and joy in front of a full school hall.  There were individual and group songs as well as joint performances from Junior Choir and Schola. 

Refurbished Toilets!

We were delighted to officially open our newly refurbished toilets this week. 

The children’s toilets nearest to the hall have now got an extra cubicle and the accessible toilet has been fitted with an emergency pull cord and baby changing unit.  Both toilet spaces are now clean, bright and child-friendly!

Huge thanks go to the PTA for funding this much needed school improvement.

Next week in school

Sponsored Walk – Wednesday 2^nd July

We are looking forward to our Sponsored Walk which is taking place next Wednesday.  Please see the separate Arbor emails that have been sent out about this event. 

We are still looking for parents and family members to join us on the walk and help with preparing the refreshments for the children.  If you are able to come along, please email the school office.

The money raised in the Sponsored Walk will be used to buy headset microphones for use by the children in school performances.  These cost around £200 each and so the more we raise, the more we can buy!  Please ask your family and friends to sponsor your child by completing the paper form sent home this week.  Alternatively you can make a donation to our Sponsored Walk Just Giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/schoolsponsoredwalk2025

St Elizabeth’s Feast Day

Friday 4^th July is St Elizabeth of Portugal’s Feast Day.  To celebrate our school patron saint we will be having Mass in the morning which will be led by Y3. This will be followed by a children’s picnic lunch and at 2pm all parents are invited to a concert in the school hall where all classes will be performing a song. 

Y3 children are invited to come into school in their Fist Holy Communion outfits or a similar smart outfit on this day and they will be having a class photo at 9:00am before Mass.  They will then wear their outfits for Mass and will need to change afterwards into school uniform.  Children who have made their First Holy Communion this year in other classes are also invited to wear their First Holy Communion outfit and join the photograph.

St Elizabeth of Portugal is a truly inspiring saint and a wonderful role model as a peacemaker for our school.  If you would like to know more about her life visit https://young-catholics.com/78515/st-elizabeth-of-portugal/

Fair Trade Week

Next week in our assemblies and in our Catholic Social Teaching lessons we will be having a focus on the Dignity of the Worker and Fair Trade in particular.  To mark this, on Wednesday 2^nd July after school, the Pupil Chaplains will be holding a Fair Trade treats sale on the Infant and Junior playgrounds.

Information for parents

School Uniform change

We have made a change to our summer school uniform.  Due to the difficulty in getting hold of reasonably priced yellow and white striped dresses, children may now wear either a yellow and white gingham or a yellow and white striped dress.  This will hopefully help to keep costs down for parents and make finding items of school uniform easier.

Good News from the Bike Sale!

We have received a fantastic £555 from the sale of the bikes donated to the recent bike sale.  Thank you very much for your kind donations and we hope that those who bought bikes at the sale are enjoying them!

Hire of school premises

From September, a number of our school spaces, our astro-pitch, our hall and our Food Technology Room, are going to be available to hire in the evenings and at weekends.  If you know of anyone who is looking for a space to run classes or clubs e.g. pilates or fitness classes, please do encourage them to contact our school office at admin@st-elizabeths.richmond.sch.uk

Upcoming Events

JULY

2^nd  a.m.  Whole School Sponsored Walk in Richmond Park – all parents invited

2^nd  3:15 p.m.  Fair Trade treat sale on KS1 and KS2 playgrounds

4^th  a.m. TBC  St Elizabeth’s Feast Day Mass – parents invited

4^th  2 p.m.  St Elizabeth’s Feast Day Concert – parents invited

8^th  All day  Y6 visit to The House of Lords

9^th  a.m.  KS1 Sports Day

9^th  p.m.  Y5 visit to ‘Matilda’

10^th  a.m.  KS2 Sports Day

11^th  a.m.  Y3 Visit to Richmond Synagogue

16^th  a.m.  Visit by Richmond Library for the Summer Reading Challenge

16^th  p.m.  School production of ‘Aladdin’

17^th  p.m.  School production of ‘Aladdin’

18^th  p.m.  PTA BBQ

22^nd  9:30 a.m.  End of Term Mass – all invited – followed by Y6 Governors’ Award Ceremony

22^nd  2 p.m.  End of Term

Awards this week

Values Awards

Congratulations to the following children who have received a Values Award this week.  They will be invited to a Headteacher’s Breakfast over the next couple of weeks.

Y1 – Annabel and Alessandro

Y2 - Venetia

Y3 – Peter

Y5 - Oliver

Y6 - Lucien

And …

Reception – Zoe and Bertie

Y2 – Tom

Y3 - Josie

Y4 - Ali

Y5 – Kate

Y6 - Colton

Million Word Readers

Congratulations to Nyah in Y6, Alianna in Y5 and Vidhaan in Y2 for reading 1 million words!  Such a fantastic achievement!

Attendance and Punctuality

Congratulations to Y2 for having the highest attendance this week with 99.3%.  This is closely followed by Y3 with 99.1%.  Well done to Y6 for having the least number of latecomers again this week.  As most of our Y6 pupils now come to school on their own it is great to see their excellent time-keeping habits ahead of their transition to secondary school.

Have a lovely weekend,

Jane Hines and the staff of St Elizabeth’s