Newsletters

Dear Parents and Carers, 

My goodness it has been lovely this week, spring has begun to show itself and what a welcome that has been! 

This week we have welcomed Jana to the Kilmorie team as she is covering Rachel’s maternity leave until the end of this academic year. If you see her in the playground do say Hi.  

Our whole school assembly was on Thursday this week in support of World Book Day and was led by our guest speaker, the author, Allison Parkinson. 

Allison Parkinson is a local author of children's books, who came to share her work in assembly. The younger children enjoyed her life size tiger and roaring along with her rhyming story, Tiger's Eye. The older children enjoyed a mini story workshop which focused on Allison's historical fantasy trilogy about a time travelling Catford schoolgirl. There were questions around being an author – let's hope she has inspired a few to have the dream of one day being an author themselves.

The children looked amazing in their costumes and pyjamas and enjoyed a variety of different activities during the day, including time with their reading buddies and special guest readers across the school. Reading is such an important part of life as it opens doors and enhances every part of our lives. Thank you to everyone for making it such a great day.   

We have had some exciting learning enrichment this week.  

• On Wednesday morning the Wonder Dome came to Kilmorie and year 1 enjoyed an exciting interactive presentation about our Solar system projected inside a huge inflatable dome! They learnt some interesting facts about the sun, the 8 planets and Neil Armstrong, who was the first person to set foot on the moon. The children enjoyed a song about the solar system at the end and were able to ask questions to the very engaging presenter. It was a great enjoyable experience for all our year 1 children. 

• Today Shona and Sarah C’s classes had a visit to the Maritime Museum. I look forward to hearing all about it upon their return.  

Eater Holiday club: Further to the continued absence of Benita and not having an extended Services Manager, we are sadly unable to run an Easter holiday club this year. Please be assured that I am trying to make sure that we will, going forward, have the capacity to offer holiday playschemes, and aim to be able to do this for the May half term break. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause but do look at the community news section as we do signpost holiday club information we have received. 

Enrichment clubs: We are close to finalising our summer term enrichment club offer and will be sending a letter home next week. Children in receipt of Pupil Premium will again be able to book before places are released to the rest of the school. However, we are leaving the booking window for everyone open for longer, to support all children having the opportunity to attend a club.   

Checking children’s details on Arbor: It is vital we have the correct information for children on our MIS system. We need every parent to check the information we hold and can do this on the Arbor app. You will see the following:  

• Childs details  

• Family, Guardians & contacts  

• Meal & Dietary Requirements  

• Allergies 

• Medical conditions  

• Consent information – photos for school website, video for school website. 

Please go through all the details mentioned within your child's profile page and if any of this information is incorrect, please amend it on the app. You do this by clicking into these fields where it will then let you edit. If you do not have the Arbor App, please let the office know ASAP and they will contact you and organise you being able to check the materials or help you download the app. Thank you in advance.  

Getting involved: We really want to involve our community in how we are doing at tackling unconscious bias, so all our children feel seen and heard. We need all of our community to be part of this so we can grow together and will be doing this in year groups. We are starting with a Yr1 coffee morning on Tuesday 12th March 2024 at 8:45 – 9:15am in the music room. Please bring your children with you. They will then go to class and we will have a further chat.  

Today is International Women's Day and next week is British Science Week and we want to combine the two. We will start the week with two scientist parents: Debbie (mother of Rosie in year 6) who works in vaccines and infectious diseases and Alex (father of Esmie in year 5) who works in acoustics will be joining us for our whole school assembly. It is so important children see their learning in real life and are very grateful for them giving up their time. We also have a whole host of activities planned which I look forward to seeing and sharing with you next week.

We also have a whole host of activities planned which I look forward to seeing and sharing with you next week.  

Next week we have our 'Wellbeing' parent workshop for years 2-6 on Tuesday 12th March 9:15am & 6pm in the community room.  This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about what 'wellbeing' looks like at Kilmorie and how you can support your child at home. The meeting will cover the wellbeing aspects of our PSHE curriculum, physical wellbeing and the other ways we support the children's mental wellbeing in school. For those who are unable to attend, the presentation will be made available on our website soon after the event. 

Ramadan begins on Sunday, and I wish all those observing it, a peaceful Ramadan. 

Kind regards 

Julie 

Parent mental health & wellbeing workshops will be held on 12th March 2024  at 9.15am & 6pm in the community room. 

Lost Property

All lost property boxes within each classroom have now been moved to the lost property cupboard and will be put into the Bertie Bin on last day of this half term.  

Early Phase Request 

We are currently updating our construction area’s and would love your help to top up our resources if you have any of the following you would wish to donate, please hand these into Ashleigh.  

• Lego  

• Duplo  

• K’nex  

• Mobilo 

• Wooden Blocks  

• Magnetic Tiles

• Spirit Levels  

Next week we are taking part in the Big Plastic Count 2024. 

We are asking every Kilmorie household and every Kilmorie class to count each piece of plastic they throw away for a week.  From the moment you wake up on Monday 11^th March until the evening of Sunday 17^th March please count every piece of plastic packaging you throw out, whether it’s at home or on the go. We will do the same at school. We will send a tally sheet home with your child on Monday for you to record this information on. This information will be used to convince the government, supermarkets and big brands to finally phase out plastic production for good. More information can be found on the website https://thebigplasticcount.com/. Please give your completed tally sheet to your child to bring into school on Monday 18^th March or hand it into the office.  We will combine the school and household information and send it Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic who are teaming up to run The Big Plastic Count this year.  Thank you for taking the time to take part in this very important investigation.

Easter poster competition 

This year, Friends of Kilmorie and Forest Hill branch of Winkworth are running an Easter poster competition. All entries handed in to the branch will receive a chocolate treat. 

The winning entry will win a £20 voucher and their design will be displayed in their branch window (along with a selection of others). If you’d like to take part then you can either download and print the PDF attached or pick up a copy from the office.  

All entries should be handed in to Winkworth by 22nd April.  

Cash for cans  

Don’t forget to look out for the black bins at the entrances. Please only put in empty, crushed drink cans (preferably washed) - Thank you.    

Don’t forget to pop into Winkworths Forest Hill to check out the winning entries for this year's World Book Day T-shirt designs.