Last week I wrote about a visit from Mr Ellson, the new Choral Director for the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton. This week he came for the first of what will be regular music sessions with Keystage 2 children on Mondays. It was wonderful to hear the piano being played and the children producing a fantastic sound. We are already starting to practise some carols! Mr Ellson pointed out that musicians begin to practise well in advance of concerts!

I was delighted to spend some time in classrooms this week: teaching Year 6 Maths; watching a Year 4 Writing lesson; doing some Phonics assessments. At this stage of term it’s not uncommon to see some signs of flagging, but I was really pleased to see plenty of focus and perseverance on show.

Believe it or not, we are already starting to look ahead to the academic year 2024-25; this week we welcomed prospective parents to our first Open Morning of the year. Year 6 children were fantastic ambassadors for the school when giving guided tours.

Next week we look forward to seeing you for the parents’ consultation meetings with teachers. This will be an important chance to touch base with your child’s teacher for an update on how they’ve settled into the new academic year.

I’d also like to draw your attention towards a couple of meetings for parents in Keystage 1 and Early Years after half term. For Reception parents and those who are new to the school there is a meeting about how you can support your children with their Phonics learning at home – this is a key meeting as it pre-empts lots of questions that you might have in the future about your child’s progress with Phonics. We are also using a scheme to support KS1 and EYFS with their Maths learning called Mastering Number at Home. Meeting timings are below:

• 30 October 5pm - Phonics & Maths Meeting parents and carers of Reception pupils & new KS1 pupil
• 1 November 5pm – Maths Meeting parents & carers of Y1 & Y2 pupils

I do hope you will be able to attend these meetings, as they will be a great benefit in terms of finding out how you can support your children with their learning at home.

Speaking of Phonics - we had a visit from our Read Write Inc consultant who was highly complimentary of the provision and progress that the children are making. This is also a feather in the cap to all you parents and carers for all the reading that you do at home with your children.

God bless,

Thomas Hall, Head of School

Prayer and Liturgy

For the third week in a row we heard about a parable relating to vineyards. This week’s story is particularly gruesome, with some unfortunate slaves being murdered at the hands of some particularly unpleasant tenants; not even the landowner’s son is spared. This was an opportunity for us to consider how we look after things that we have borrowed and encourage a sense of stewardship among the children towards our school, the local community and beyond.

God of love, open our ears to listen to your word. Lead us to help one another and to live our lives as you ask us to. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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...

School Achievement Certificates

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.

The Rosary

The Rosary is a meditative prayer that reflects upon the life, ministry, and death of Jesus and also on His Blessed Mother. As we repeat the familiar prayers, we allow our minds to think about the lives of Jesus and Mary here on earth – a mystery.

There are four parts to the rosary, known as ‘mysteries’:

The Luminous Mysteries
The Sorrowful Mysteries
The Glorious Mysteries
The Joyful Mysteries

For each set of mysteries, we are introduced to five different elements or ‘snapshots’ of the lives of Jesus and Mary. Each snapshot taken from Scripture is an opportunity to reflect and pray. To respond, we pray a set of prayers, which together with the reflection is called a ‘decade’. The prayers we say as part of this set begin with one Our Father, followed by ten Hail Marys and one Glory Be to finish. We use the beads of the Rosary to keep track of our prayers!

May is known as ‘The Month of Our Lady’, while October is known as ‘The Month of the Rosary’, and on October 7 we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. But anytime is a perfect time to begin or continue praying the Rosary with children!

Each week during October and May you can join us on the KS1 playground before school at 8:40-8:50 to pray the Rosary together. It is a wonderful way to start the day and we would love to see you there!

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!