Dear Parents and Carers 14/12/2023

Nativity Performances

It was a delight to watch our two nativity performances this week.

On Tuesday we enjoyed the Year 1 and 2 Nativity ‘Born in a Barn’ and today we had the pleasure of watching the Nursery & Reception nativity ‘Christmas’ – photos to follow.

Choir at Greville House

Our choir were invited to sing to the residents of Greville House last Friday. They have since been in touch to say, ‘On Friday the 8th December your pupils came and sung for us. I just want to say a big thank you – our residents really enjoyed the performance, your pupils were so sweet and very well behaved, their singing was beautiful. Once again, a big thank you! The residents were also delighted by the Christmas cards that year 2 had made for them all.

Reverse Advent Calendar 

The Salvation Army came to collect all of the gifts that you have kindly donated through the Reverse Advent Calendar. The JLT asked lots of questions about what the Salvation Army do and where all the gifts would be going. Joel, the Salvation Army leader said,’ It was a privilege to come to the school again this year and as always, we are so grateful for your support to our Christmas present appeal. We are blown away by the amount of donations and by the enthusiasm of the children! Thank you’.

Christmas lunch

Thank you to our amazing kitchen team for cooking a delicious Christmas lunch today and to some of our Governors who came to help the staff provide table service for the children. There was relief by many that there wasn’t a sprout in sight!

Coming up…….

Key Stage 2 Christmas Carol Service 

This lovely carol service will take place at Holy Trinity Church at 6pm on Monday 18th December. All junior (years 3-6) children are expected to attend and must wear their school uniform. They should arrive from 5.30pm for a prompt start. We would love you to join us.

Christingle 

All children will be making Christingles early next week ready for the Christingle Celebrations on Wednesday afternoon. Please send your child in on Monday with an orange and a minimum donation of £1 which will be donated to the Children’s Society. We will provide all the other bits they will need to make their Christingles.

End of term service.

This will take place at Holy Trinity Church at 9.30am on Thursday 21st December. You are all welcome to attend.

A reminder that school finishes at 2.15pm on Thursday 21st December.

HT Friends Christmas photo project

For many of us, Christmas/New Year is a time of celebration, going to church, exchanging gifts, and festive food; however, we recognise that we all do this in many different ways. For example, in Austria and Germany St Nicholas’ Day is celebrated and clogs are put out, in Poland it is tradition to have 12 special courses, in Hong Kong it is tradition to send/ eat a ‘peace’ apple on Christmas Eve and in Turkey, a largely Muslim country, Santa Claus is termed Noel Baba and is believed to bring gifts on New Year’s Eve. This is before we begin to talk about all the wonderful and different traditional clothing! 

We would love to celebrate our wonderful and diverse community through sharing a snapshot of what we all do over the holiday. Please send in a photo of your child from over the festive period that represents one of the ways that you celebrate. You can either email it to your class teacher or send it in at the start of next term. Thank you – we can’t wait to see them! Have a wonderful festive period! Miss Ashby.

Values Champions   Will be awarded tomorrow.

Attendance: Overall 97.37%;                                      Butterflies 99.57%

Christmas Services at Holy Trinity Church

You are all very welcome to join in with any of the services being held at Holy Trinity Church over Christmas. Of particular interest to parents may be the Nativity Service (10am 17th Dec), the traditional Carols by Candlelight (6pm 17th Dec) and the always-popular Christingle Service (4pm on Christmas Eve). See htrichmond.org/christmas or the attached flyer for further details. 

Eligibility to apply for support with childcare costs

From 2 January 2024, eligible working parents can apply for 15 hours of childcare for two-year-olds. Parents have until 31 March 2024 to apply for a code, with mid-January to the end of February being the optimum time to apply in case further information is required to support the application.

To apply for a childcare code each parent needs to be working and earning the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum/living wage and under £100,000 adjusted net income per year. This means that each parent needs to earn from just over £8,600 per year to be eligible for 15 hours a week of childcare during term time. 

There is more information on childcare support available to parents on the Childcare Choices website, where you can explore the early education entitlements and other government help with childcare costs.