Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year break – well deserved after such a lovely and busy build-up here at school. The children have all had a lovely week, settling in to the new term quickly and with enthusiasm. We welcome Louise in Rabbits class, who has just moved to Cobham from France and Evie in Otters Class who has moved from Epsom. I know that everyone will make our new families feel very welcome.

Our school value this term is Friendship and we will be exploring friendship in many different ways throughout the school and beyond, learning what the Bible and Jesus teach us about what true friendship means. This week our assemblies have focused on how Jesus chose his disciples from people with ordinary backgrounds such as fishermen, and those who were not popular such as tax collectors. He chose his disciples from groups that other religious leaders would not have spoken to and he called his disciples not servants, but friends.

Today I have sent home an outline of our Friendship value to share how it supports other important values such as inclusivity and tolerance, as well as being deeply embedded in our school ethos and curriculum.

Rabbits Class have started off the term talking about the presents that they received at Christmas and why we give and receive gifts. They have been thinking about all the things that God has given us – in particular the world – and will be beginning to talk about creation next week. They have been enjoying practising a bit of French to help Louise to settle in to her new class – for example, saying ‘Bon matin’ at register time. They had a great time in PE yesterday, learning lots of new football skills and how to be a good team player.

Otters Class have enjoyed getting to know Mrs Rook this week and are helping her to settle in to our St Matthew’s routines. They have been very busy with the story of Hansel and Gretel, doing lots of retelling of the story using role play, and freeze frames to depict important parts of the story. They will be building on this learning next week by starting to plan their own exciting stories, using the story telling skills practised this week. Otters are enthusiastically learning their letters and sounds that they have been given to practise and are excited to come and show me the ones that they now know.

Badgers Class have been very busy looking at coats of arms that knights might have used and have had fun creating their own coats of arms as well as imagining being king, and what rules they would have in place for their kingdom. They have written some very detailed accounts of their Christmas holidays and have enjoyed doing their show and tell related to this. In maths they have been learning about greater than and less than – remembering that the greedy crocodile always eats the biggest number.

On Wednesday it was lovely to have so many of you come to our coffee morning where you had the chance to meet our new year one teacher, Mrs Rook. If you were unable to join us, feel free to pop in to the classroom at the end of the day on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday to say hello and to introduce yourself. Mrs Rook comes with a fantastic and enthusiastic attitude to teaching and brings a wealth of experience, particularly in science and sustainability, and of working in key stage one. At the coffee morning it was requested that

parents get as much notice as possible about dressing-up days. Our next dressing up day is on World Book Day, Thursday March 2nd,where children can dress up as their favourite book character and can bring their book to school to share. Another key date for your diaries is our leaver’s assembly which will be taking place on Wednesday 19th July this year.

Next week we have a PTA meeting on Friday 13th January at 9am in the school hall – we hope to come up with lots of ideas for the PTA in the term ahead, so it would be great to see you if you are able to make this date and time.

Well done to Katie M, Freya P and Ollie W for finishing their sticker charts.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Hutt.

AWARDS OF THE WEEK

SUPERSTARS

Rabbits: / Dylan for fantastic behavior and doing the right thing.
Otters: / Evie for settling in to Otters so well and for always having such a lovely smile on her face.
Badgers: / Giselle for always being so ready to learn and fantastic listening on the carpet. You are a superstar!
Enterprise Award
/ R – Isaac for working really hard on his writing and making huge improvements. Wow, what a star!
O – Lily for working so hard on counting in tens.
B – Samuel for working so hard this week.
Environment Award
/ R – Louise for having learnt so quickly our tidy up time routine and doing a good job in helping to tidy up our toys.
O – Talulah for doing a fantastic job at keeping the classroom neat and tidy
B – Menna for helping to look after our environment, inside and outside!
Spiritual & Moral Award
/ R – Keira for always being a kind and caring friend.
O – Thomas M for having such a kind and thoughtful nature and thinking about others.
B – Evie for being such a good friend to everyone in Badgers class.
Golden Ticket
/ Katie M, Ava B, Lottie W – all for learning their letters and sounds!

DIARY DATES

Thursday 12th January / Puppet Assembly
Friday 13th January / 9am PTA meeting

GATE DUTY w/c 9th January 2017, Parents of:

Mon 9th A Neish, Tue 10th L Othman, Wed 11th P Page, Thu 12thF Palmer, Fri 13th F Potter

Notices

To Otter Parents

Thank you for the John Lewis vouchers you so kindly gave me for Christmas – I shall enjoy having a spend up in the January sales!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all a very happy 2017! Love from Tracy