Dear Parents and Carers,

The half-term break is here and the children have a well-deserved week off school to rest and refresh after all their hard work over the past few weeks.

Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, falls in the half-term holiday this year.  This means that we won’t be having our Service of Ashes in school this year but do check your parish website for times of services.

Please note that school returns on Tuesday 24^th February.  NSSport will be running their holiday club every day of the half-term break and you can find details of how to book at https://nssport3.co.uk/

This week in school

Lunar New Year

Mrs Briggs led an assembly this morning on Lunar New Year which is taking place over half-term.  Mrs Briggs was joined by children who are celebrating Lunar New Year who taught the rest of the school how to say Happy New Year and showed some of the decorations they will have in their homes.  Happy New Year to all our families who will be celebrating next week!

Y2 Class Assembly

Wednesday was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and Y2 led the whole school in a Celebration of the Word on the theme of Mary.  They encouraged us to think about ways that we do kind acts and say yes to God.  They also showed us their beautiful portraits of Mary. 

Reception and Y2 Class Concerts

This week saw the first of our KS1 Class Concerts with our Reception and Y2 children showcasing their musical talents in front of an audience of parents. The children were so excited to perform some of the songs that they have been learning in class this term.  Thank you to Mrs FitzGerald for organising  these and to the parents for joining us.

Well-being assembly with Mrs Compton

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week. The theme this year is ‘This is my place’ which is based around belonging.  On Monday Mrs Compton led an assembly sharing ideas about how we foster a sense of belonging in our school community.  Please see the slides from the assembly attached to this message. 

Y6 Cycling Proficiency

Well done to our Y6 pupils for completing their Cycling Proficiency this week.  They have learnt how to cycle safely on the roads around the school under the careful supervision of the Richmond Safety Team and despite the rainy conditions, the children thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

Sports update from Mr Sagar and Mrs Knowles

St Elizabeth's finished off the half term with an incredibly busy and successful week of sport. 

On Monday, to complete their netball topic in PE, Y6 took part in an inter-house tournament. A frantic round robin of action resulted in a win for St John Henry Newman. Well done to Y6 for putting all the skills they have learned into practice!  Also on Monday, the tag rugby team took on Deer Park School in their final league game of the season winning 5 tries to 1. Player of the match was awarded by the opposition to Szymon. 

On Tuesday, following on from Hugo's swimming silver medal last week, the swimming squad were in action at Pools on the Park. We had strong performances across the age ranges and strokes and the team came away with 2 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals. A brilliant squad effort!

On Thursday, the girls football team finished their league season with a match against Kew Riverside, braving rain and mud! St Elizabeth's played the conditions well and some strong passing and tackling saw the girls finish 4-2 winners. Audrey scored a beautiful solo goal from the half way line and Mia was voted player of the match for a terrific hat trick that made her our top goal scorer of the season. Well done, girls!

We are delighted to celebrate all the fantastic achievements of our pupils across a range of sports this half term. Thank you very much to all our parent helpers for offering transport to events and a special thank you to Mrs Andrews and Mrs Mulry for training and organising the swimming squad.

Y6 Wild Wild West Line Dancing Evening

The Line Dancing evening was a great success last Friday!  It was lovely to see so many of our families, old and new, enjoying the evening. Thank you to the Y6 parents for organising the event which raised a fantastic £1,054.37 and to all for joining in the spirit, dressing up and having a go at the dancing. Thank you too, to Joshua from Boundless Dance teaching the dances – see https://www.boundlessarts.co.uk/partyzonemain for more information about their dance activities.

Information for Parents

PTA Pre loved Uniform Sale

The PTA is collecting clean, good-quality unwanted school uniforms for our Pre-Loved Uniform Sale. If you have items your child has outgrown, we would be grateful for your donations. Please send them into school anytime from now until 26th February.  Thank you for supporting our school community.

Easyfundraising

If you haven’t yet downloaded the easyfundraising app, please do consider doing this and encourage your friends and family to do so too.  easyfundraising is completely free and generates much needed income for the school. 

Upcoming dates

FEBRUARY

Half – Term…   Half – Term…  Monday 16^th – Monday 23^rd February    Half – Term… Half – Term

24th   8:45 a.m.   School returns after half-term break

25th   9:15 a.m.   Y1 Class Concert and Phonics workshop

26th   10:30 a.m.   Y4 & Y3 swimming sessions begin

26th   All day   Richmond Borough Orchestra Day

MARCH

2nd – 4th   p.m.   Y3 Safe Walking with London Borough of Richmond

3rd   3:30 – 6:30 p.m.   Parents’ Meetings

4th   a.m.   KS1 Reconciliation Service

5th   a.m.   KS2 Reconciliation Service

5th  p.m.   Y4 Individual Reconciliation / Confession

5th   3:30 – 6:30 p.m.   Parents’ Meetings

6th   a.m.   Y1 EV to Holly Lodge

Awards this week

Reading Cup 

Congratulations to Miss Burr and Y2, who had the most completed challenges and are the winners of the Reading Cup for the last half term. 

Attendance and punctuality this week

Congratulations to Reception class for having the highest attendance this week.

Well done to Y5 and Y6 for having the best punctuality this week.

Wishing you a lovely half-term,

Jane Hines and the staff of St Elizabeth’s