Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term! I hope you had a restful half term break ahead of what promises to be a busy and exciting half term as we build up to Christmas in school! As always, please do refer to this weekly newsletter for important updates and information. The attachments to this also provide useful information for you to refer to.
This week:
- It has been great to welcome everyone back to school this week. The winter weather certainly seems to have arrived though, so please ensure your children come to school with a named coat. A reminder also about our uniform policy, as children may wear plain navy tracksuit bottoms for their PE days along with a St Margaret's PE hoody. The jogging bottoms should not be branded. The hoody is one of our statutory school branded items. A link to our website about our school uniform and how to buy it can be found here.
- It is great to see children cycling and scooting to school but please remember children must wear a helmet and on darker days, please supply a high vis and/or lights.
- We look forward to the launch of our newly formed Friends of St Margaret's, who will be meeting at 2:30pm on Thursday (today!) in the school hall.
- We celebrate our Shining Stars on Friday of this week. A winner of our special award is chosen at the end of each month from each class, and is awarded to somebody who has demonstrated our school values and has shone brightly! We celebrate this achievement in assembly, followed by 'Tea & Cake' with Mr Lumley!
- On the first Friday of each month there is a prayer group who meet to pray for our school. Parents, carers, grandparents, family and friends connected to the school are very welcome to join this group. The group will be meeting at 9am in the Vestry Hall at St Margaret's Church on Friday 6th November. The meeting lasts for about 30 minutes.
- Over the next few weeks, local Basketball team, Worthing Thunder, are working with our Year 5 classes and have kindly donated to us some new equipment as well as match-day tickets for the children to enjoy. It was great to see the first session this week and the children had such a good time. A big thank you to Worthing Thunder for this opportunity!
Next week:
- Monday is our 'Let your light shine!' day where we will be coming together as a school to pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and reflect upon how when we come together as a community we can shine even brighter. Please read the attached letter from Mrs Martin, and remember that children can come to school wearing bright colours on this day. Year 2 and Year 6 are due to have PE this day, so they can come in bright clothes that would be suitable to do PE in, rather than get changed into PE kit.
- Wednesday 11th is Remembrance Day, and we will be marking this by coming together as a school to take part in a short service and 2 minutes silence. You are warmly invited to attend this service too, which is held on the top playground at school. The gates will be opened at 10:45am, and we will start the service at 10:50am. It will last about 15 minutes in total. If it is raining, we will not be able to accommodate everyone, and we will come together as a school in the hall instead. An email will be sent if we have to make this change on Wednesday morning.
- Poppies are on sale each morning from the green gates as you come into school.
- Friday 13th November is Children in Need. Children are welcome to come to school in their own clothes on this day in exchange for a suggested £1 donation which will go to Children in Need.
- A reminder that you have until 12pm on Wednesday 11th November to order your child's Christmas Card design.
Important notices and updates:
- We are still without Sally, our lovely Crossing Patrol, to help us cross Arundel Road safely. I am continuing my quest for further support from West Sussex with this as I know traffic safety concerns are a worry for us all. In the meantime, please take extra care when crossing the road. It goes without saying that parents need to remember the importance of parking safely and legally too! The zigzag lines are not for parking or a quick drop-off/pick-up. Please also be considerate to our neighbours by not parking across driveways or on verges. Many thanks.
- You will see on our Christmas events information that we will be doing our Christmas hampers again this year. Mrs Smith and Mrs Capoia do an amazing job of this fundraising initiative and have attached a poster with more information about this and how items for the hampers will be collected this year.
Attachments:- Dates for your diary, After school clubs (Internal and External), Christmas events information, Christmas Hamper Poster and Operation Christmas Child.
With best wishes,
Mr Lumley
Headteacher