On Tuesday night I was greeted by some ghoulish faces at my office window – some of the older children were hoping to fleece me for some sweets; unfortunately I was unable to oblige this time! On Wednesday our liturgy with the children explained that Halloween is the eve of All Hallows Day – the holy people, All Saints. We all have the capacity to be saints, to be holy and to move from the darkness of Halloween to the light of Christ that we can all reflect into the world through our actions.

Thank you to all those parents and carers who attended the Early Years and KS1 Phonics and Maths presentations this week. If you weren’t able to join us, then please do look out for the slides from the presentations which will be made available next week.

Congratulations to our two teams of basketball players who competed at Glebelands this week. One team finished joint first and the other team finished second. More details in this newsletter.

Year 6 children had an early start today as they boarded their coach to travel to the Imperial War Museum for the day. Thank you to the parents who accompanied the children on this trip. We are always keen to have parent volunteers join us on school trips. It means that we are able to split the class into smaller groups which means that they get a lot more out of the day. If you would like to become a volunteer please contact the school office for more information.

After half term we welcomed two newcomers to our community: Oscar joined us in Year 3 and Ms Davies joins the staff as a new Learning Support Assistant. We are delighted to have them both in our school!

I am sure many of you will be heading to bonfires and firework displays this weekend. During our Assembly today we touched on how they can stay safe this weekend – the children will have seen the poster below.

God bless,

Thomas Hall, Head of School

Prayer and Liturgy

The contributions from the children during our Liturgies are rarely predictable, but often wonderful. When posed with the question of where we can find God, there were a myriad of different responses; perhaps the most striking was ‘In our hearts’. Jesus summarises the most important commandments as being to love God and to love your neighbour as you would yourself. If we can find God in our own and others’ hearts, then perhaps to love our neighbour is to love God too.

Merciful and ever-loving God, open our hearts to love and serve you in all that we do. Help us to reach out in love to one another around the world. Amen.

SCHOOL INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS - MONDAY 6TH NOVEMBER

Tempest will be visiting our school on Monday.

Please can all children be in full school uniform.

Positive Parking

We continue to be very grateful to all our parents that park and stride/cycle/walk to school, and to those that park safely and respectfully around the neighbouring roads.

We are aware that some people continue to park on the yellow zig-zag lines outside the school and the church car park. Rule 243 of the Highway Code states that road users must not park near a school entrance; for the safety of all the children at St Cuthbert Mayne, we would ask that all members of our community adhere to this rule and do not park on the yellow zig-zag lines.

We must also ensure that we are polite and respectful to local residents at all times.

Please show your children, by your actions, that positive and respectful parking is a way to show that you care about other pedestrians, neighbours and road users. Be a good role model!

For helpful information about road safety please visit: https://www.think.gov.uk/

Classlist

Classlist is the most effective way of staying touch with other parents. Please click this link in order to sign up.

READY - RESPECTFUL - SAFE

This year children have been introduced to three important principles that we follow at St Cuthbert Mayne. Why not start to use the same language at home - we want all our children to be...

This academic year we would like to introduce loose parts play in school for all children to access. 'Loose parts' are things like cardboard boxes, tyres, crates, tarpaulins, wooden planks and plastic guttering. Loose parts give children the opportunity to play in many different ways - anything from making a pirate ship to an assault course or den.? This approach to play will allow children to play freely with friends, investigate, discover, explore and create.  

In order to kick-start this in school, we are politely requesting any donations of the items below. If you have anything that you can spare please leave them in/beside the box labelled ‘Loose parts play’ outside the green gate. 

Example Content

Mary’s Meals would like to invite you to collect all your foreign currency* no matter how old or obscure.  Clear out your drawers and have a look under the sofa.  Currently, the charity feeds over 2.4 million young children one good meal every day in their place of education – by giving Mary’s Meals your foreign coins and notes, you can help feed the next hungry child.

Mary’s Meals feeds in over 18 countries.  Because of our low costs, we can do this for as little as £19.15 per child per year!  *We will also take UK coins/notes that aren’t legal tender

Donations can be left in the Cranleigh Parish Office, which is outside the SCM green school gates - double white patio doors - on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday mornings.   With thanks from Tracy in the parish office.

Our calendar for the term can be found here. We are beginning to populate this - a slow process initially as we learn to navigate our new website!