The rain that fell on Tuesday couldn’t dampen the spirits of our Year 1 children – they were kitted out for the conditions as they spent an action-packed day at Sayers Croft. There were lots of exciting challenges and activities for them to enjoy, some of the children held unprompted team talks in order to discuss strategy. It was great to see them working together in this way. Thanks, as ever, to parents who volunteered and joined us on the trip. 

Over half-term Year 6 children will no doubt be packing bags and sourcing equipment for their residential trip to Christian Youth Enterprises (CYE), near Chichester. We have been taking Year 6 children here for a number of years now after completion of their SATs – their tagline is ‘life to the full’, underpinned by a shared belief in the Christian faith. Take a look at their website to see what lies in store for your children when they reach the final weeks of their time at St Cuthbert Mayne. 

On Wednesday you will have received a letter from Mrs Newland regarding a parent consultation regarding Life to the Full - the Relationships and Health Education curriculum that we will be using after half-term. Please refer to the letter for details of how to access the parent consultation and questionnaire. 

Looking further ahead, The Friends are busy preparing for the Summer Fair on Sunday, 23 June – this will be upon us sooner than we think! The Friends are asking parents to consider whether any of their employers might consider sponsoring the fair. Other ways in which businesses can support our fair would be by donating a raffle prize or providing gift matching for the funds raised. At present, we are short on sponsors, so if you have connections with any local businesses who might be interested in supporting the event, then do please contact The Friends or the School Office. There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs in the raffle - please purchase tickets here.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful half-term break with your children. 

Mr Thomas Hall,

Head of School  

Liturgy 

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Pentecost - the birthday of the church! It’s one of the few weeks in the year where we turn to one of the readings from Mass rather than the Gospel for our liturgy. The Acts of the Apostles gives the dramatic description of how tongues of fire spread out and touched each person, filling them with the Holy Spirit – suddenly the assembled were all able to understand everyone regardless of the language they were speaking. During our liturgy we heard various bilingual members of our school community uttering the same message in different languages - “Receive the Holy Spirit!” 

Generous Lord, you give us your gift of the Holy Spirit. Help us to be inspired like the apostles to go out and do good work in your name. Amen. 

MAY IS THE MONTH OF MARY

As always we continue to look for ways to invite our children to engage with the beautiful tradition of honouring Mary in May and we particularly encourage you to pray the rosary with children this May for peace in our world. There are many creative ways that you can help children to access this beautiful prayer tradition – rosary walks, paper roses, bead chains. Aid to the Church in Need have produced some resources to support younger children with praying the rosary for Peace in May https://acnuk.org/resource/the-maisy-milk-rosary-for-peace/

Thank you for joining us on the school playground at 8:40am to pray the rosary together during the month of May.

Mrs Newland

Year R Class Teacher and RE Lead

ONLINE SAFETY ADVICE

JOB ADVERT - FLU IMMUNISATION ADMINISTRATOR

Would you like some extra income while contributing to our community?

Join our team for a 14-week mission as a Flu Immunisation Administrator (£23,575 per annum pro rata).

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals to work within our school-based immunisation team, based at locations across the South- West of Surrey, to support with the delivery of the school based 2024 flu vaccination programme.

Job Advert (jobs.nhs.uk)

WEEKLY CELEBRATION CERTIFICATES.

For Year 2 Parents - First Holy Communion for baptised Catholic children starting Year 3 in Sept 2024

As parents you will be aware that supporting your children through their FHC is an important part of their faith formation.  To support you in this we invite you to attend a parents’ preparation course on 28/2, 13/3, 10/4 and 24/4 from 7.30 to 9 pm.  The meetings will be held in person in the Cranleigh Parish Meeting Room and will be a necessary part of strengthening our faith community as you as parents prepare for this important moment.  This a requirement of your child being accepted onto the First Holy Communion Course which will start in September 2024. Please book your place by emailing cranleigh@abdiocese.org.uk by 30 January 2024.

Attendance

At St Cuthbert Mayne we place great importance on school attendance. Please see the graphic below which illustrates the cumulative effect of continued poor attendance at school. In the first instance we will always work closely with families to support improvement in attendance when necessary.

On 19 January Mr Hall wrote to parents outlining the possibility of Penalty Notices being issued to parents in the event of unauthorised absences. School attendance is rarely out of the headlines - this BBC article details plans to increase the minimum fine from September 2024.

The cost of a family holiday outside of term time can be eye-watering, but we would urge all parents to consider what sort of message they are giving their children about the value that they place on education if they choose to take their children on holiday during term time.

Useful Links:

Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know

School Attendance Policy

Cupcake Baking and Decorating Classes

As part of the 2024 Parish Talent scheme, our family is offering cupcake Baking and Decorating Classes. Before I started as a TA at SCM I spent 10 years running my own successful celebration cakes business from home, and I thought that I could pass some of that knowledge on to anyone that would like to learn and have fun whilst we are at it!

Please contact: Kirsty Kay-Russell on WhatsApp 07563 140611 or email kirstykayrussell@googlemail.com to book your space/s!

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/

Uniform

After a considerable amount of time spent moving our uniform supplier to Marks and Spencer we have been informed that they will be discontuing their service as a provider of bespoke school uniforms.  We have already contacted an alternative supplier.  Details will be provided but it looks like it will be October when we move to the new supplier.

The new supplier have already sent a sample product and the purple is closer to the school colour than the one Marks and Spencer supply so if you do require new jumpers and cardigans you mighty want to wait for the new supplier to take over.

Classlist

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

Safeguarding

Keeping children safe is everyone's responsibility at St Cuthbert Mayne. Please see below for some useful links and resources for all families:

Family Lives – very useful parental information website, provides lots of links and resources - they also have a telephone support line for parents/carers. Parenting and Family Support - Family Lives (Parentline Plus)

Mental Health support – suitable for lots of families, especially at this time of year. Mental health support - Surrey County Council (surreycc.gov.uk)

NHS Talking Therapies – it may be helpful for any parents to be able to talk to someone and this is a self referral service Home Mind Matters Surrey - NHS Talking Therapies (mindmattersnhs.co.uk)

Family Conflict – SCC pages for parents. Our resources for reducing conflict between parents - Surrey County Council (surreycc.gov.uk)

Your Sanctuary – Domestic Abuse Support Services. YS Home (yoursanctuary.org.uk)

Relate – resources for relationships –

Get Help | Relate

Find your online centre Relate

Drug and Alcohol Support Services

i-access Drug & Alcohol Service : Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (surreydrugandalcohol.com)

Catalyst – substance and mental health support

Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Service in Surrey (catalystsupport.org.uk)

Citizens Advice – another more general link but useful for newsletters at this time of year

Citizens Advice

Family Information Service – Families can search for services near to them

Family Information Service - Surrey County Council (surreycc.gov.uk)

Online Understanding your child guides – Free for all Surrey residents – use access code ACORN.

Online Learning (heiapply.com)

Our Safeguarding Team: Mr Hall (DSL), Miss Wilkin (DDSL), Mrs Chalstrey (DDSL)

As a team we are always here to support, to be a listening ear, and guide in anyway you feel appropriate. Do get in touch with any member of the team via phone 01483 274961 or email DSL@stcuthbert-mayne.surrey.sch.uk

You are not on your own and many individuals or families do come and ask. 

Summer Teaching Internship Programme

Teach Southeast are offering a new, three-week internship programme which incorporates a paid scheme for secondary maths, computing and physics undergraduates (£300 pw) and an unpaid scheme for all other secondary subjects and primary teaching. Our aim is to help undergraduates in all subjects explore how rewarding and challenging a career in teaching can be.

As part of the programme, interns will have the opportunity to get involved in all aspects of school life, including: 

· Taking part in a bespoke training programme with other interns.

· Working closely with a mentor in a placement school to observe and teach lessons.

· The chance to meet with ECTs and SCITT trainees to get their perspective on the realities of  teacher training.

Xavier Teach Southeast - Undergraduate teaching internship

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.