Dear parents,

A warm welcome to all our lovely new children and families who joined us today. We are delighted that the day for Rabbits Class to start school has finally arrived. It has been very exciting and we hope a day you and your child will remember fondly. Thank you for all being so brave on the gate this morning. It is a huge help if parents drop and go. If parents come into the playground we can end up with many adults in the playground which makes supervision of all the children harder. However if you child is upset and you need to see your child’s teacher then of course you are welcome to come in with them occasionally.

I hope the Home Visits for Rabbits Class have been useful for you. A big thank you to Mrs Selencky and the Rabbits Team for whizzing around Cobham visiting 30 lovely families in 18 hours!

Rabbits Class were amazing this morning and all came in so happily. They have had a very good day. Well done Rabbits.

Otters and Badgers have also started back to school so well. They came in last Thursday all looking bigger and ready for the next stage in their St Matthews time. Many Headteacher’s stickers have already been given out in assembly. Well done everyone.

I usually write the schools weekly newsletter each Friday and it goes out in book bags and electronically at 3.15pm each Friday. As this is Rabbits first day however it is a lovely opportunity to welcome everyone back and update you on key things that are coming up.

Firstly, our clubs will start again this week and next week. French, coding club, chess and Theatrebugs start this week, and Gym, football, Hockey and Athletics next week. We still have lots of places in our Athletics club, French club and Hockey club (lunchtimes). Please sign up in the office if you would like your child to participate in any of our clubs.

Trips will start this week with Badgers going to Leeds Castle on Thursday for the day. This trip acts as a stimulus for their new topic: ‘Dungeons and Dragons’; ‘Castles and Knights.’ Otter’s new topic is the Jurassic Forest, and Rabbits have ‘Ourselves and Senses.’

This Saturday is Cobham Heritage Day in Cobham. We are very proud to be part of Cobham and to be involved in all the wonderful things that happen in our community. We would really appreciate your help on Saturday in running our St Matthew’s stall. We have a rota in the main entrance area. Please sign up if you can help out for an hour on the stall. This year our theme is literature. We have a passion for reading and writing here at St Matthew’s. On this year’s stall we will have:

The ‘World’s Longest Children’s Story…..’

All visitors to our stall will be asked to contribute to the story. We will start it off at 11am when we open, and subsequently each person wanting to take part reads the last section and carries the story on. We are very excited about what the final result might look like and hope to be able to share it with the Guinness Book of Records if we can achieve a magnificent response. PLEASE come along and contribute to our story…and bring lots of your story writing and imaginative ideas with you . All children contributing will receive a St Matthew’s sticker and a St Matthew’s pencil. Running alongside our Story Writing attempt we will have a ‘Word Search Challenge’, and ‘Story Time’. Every 30 minutes we will be reading a children’s favourite or classic in our St Matthew’s gazebo throughout the afternoon. Please bring your little ones along for a story. Our wonderful Maypole Dancers will also be dancing on Saturday. They will be performing in two locations and at two different times.

Firstly they will be at: 12.30pm-1pm at the leg of Mutton Field

Secondly they will be performing at: 2.15pm-2.45pm in the grounds of Church Gate House

If you would like your child to take part in the Maypole Dancing (We ideally need at least 16 Badgers as they are more familiar and competent at the moment) please let the office know by the end of tomorrow in order that we can practise and be confident that we have enough children to make the dancing possible. Otters have been practising but the dances are still very new to them and a public performance so early in the term might be a little unfair for them! 

We have a short PTA meeting tomorrow morning after drop off to discuss the Heritage Day arrangements. Please pop into the school hall after drop off tomorrow if you are able to help out on Saturday. We have many slots to fill on our stall rota.

Next week we will send out to each class the contact details of all parents in that class. If you do not want your details put on the contact sheet please let us know immediately.

We have found the contact sheet extremely helpful to parents in past years allowing playdates and pick-ups to be shared etc.

Please don’t forget that if someone else is picking up your child you must complete the pick-up sheet in the main entrance area.

Next Tuesday morning I will be holding the first coffee morning of this academic year. This is a chance for you to ask any questions you may have and find out more about what is happening at St Matthew’s. It starts at 9am after drop off.

Next week we also have the welcome meetings for all parents. This is an opportunity for you to:

  • Come along and have a glass of wine with us
  • Meet your child’s teachers
  • Ask any questions you may have about your child’s school life here at St Matthews
  • Listen to your children’s teachers telling you about the year ahead for your child at school (this part is held in the classrooms and each teacher will give a presentation covering key topics such as homework; topics; helping in class; P.E.times; timetables; and any other questions at all that you may have.

Sunday September 21st is the Harvest Festival at All Saints Church. Traditionally St Matthew’s children go along and the congregation take non-perishable food items to be delivered to a charity soon after. Reverend Elizabeth leads the service which is very child friendly. Please come along if you can. The service starts at 10.30am and you would be extremely welcome.

The Remembrance Service here to be held at school on November 11th at 10.40am is this year open to all parents. We have decided to do so as it is the 100th anniversary year of the start of World War One. The service

will be held by Reverend Elizabeth. We will hold the 2 minutes silence and the children will take part in an age appropriate way.

I will be sending out two school surveys very soon. Please look out for them in the book bags. One relates to school photographs asking parents what format they feel they should take and many questions along that theme, and the second about the possibility of some sort of school bus service working in conjunction with Cobham Heritage Trust. Your feedback will be crucial so please look out for them.

The next newsletter will follow on Friday 12th September and continue thereafter each Friday as usual.

Congratulations to Stuart D for completing his sticker chart, 4 days in! Each Friday in the newsletter we celebrate the children’s achievements.

Please can we ask that all parents park in the Cricketers when dropping / picking up the children. Please park considerably at the far end so that delivery lorries can get into the car park. Thank you.

Wishing you all a very good and happy term at St Matthews,

Rhian Thornton

AWARDS OF THE WEEK

SUPERSTARS

Rabbits:
Otters:
Badgers:
Enterprise Award

Environment Award

Spiritual & Moral Award

DIARY DATES

Wednesday 10th Sept / 9am PTA coffee re Heritage Day
Thursday 11th Sept / Badgers trip to Leeds Castle 8.40am
Saturday 13th Sept / Cobham Heritage Day
Tuesday 16th Sept / 9am School Coffee Morning
Thursday 18th Sept / 7.30pm Meet the teachers /welcome meeting for parents

GATE DUTY w/c Monday 15th September

TBC

Notices