Tag: Nursery

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 23rd January 2026

Written by Mrs McQueen on 23 January 2026. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Dear Parents/carers,

Learning Vision at St. Mary’s

We have been focusing on our Christian values of Integrity, Patience, Joy, Wisdom and Compassion so please talk to your child about them. You will receive a Parentmail today and a google form, where we would like to share with you our learning vision for pupils and a learning vision for how you as parents and carers can support your child and school. If we all work together, we can achieve great things!

We have also attached the learning vision for our staff and governors too so that you know what to expect from everyone at St. Mary’s. Consistency is key and we will try very hard to ensure this happens. We want the very best for everyone in our school community.

You will be asked to complete the google form to state whether you agree to support our school vision or not.

Nursery

Our nursery children have settled in so well. At the beginning of their morning session, Miss Jo has a ten minute active session on a literacy or maths rhyme. This morning it was Once I Caught a Fish Alive.

The Branch

Pop into the school library at 8.25-9.30am on a Monday morning if you need signposting or need some family support.

Please go to The Branch website for further information – www.thebranchtrust.org

Attendance

Whole school attendance this week	96.34%
Class with the highest attendance this week	Year 4 – 99.2%
Whole school attendance (year to date)	96.4%
National average	94.6%

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Kind regards,

Mrs McQueen

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 9th January 2026

Written by Mrs McQueen on 9 January 2026. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Nursery News

We welcomed several new nursery children to our school at the beginning of this month. Our Early
Years area is full of happy faces that are settling in with some already familiar faces.

VR Experience

We started the year off with a whole school Virtual Reality Experience. One child said to me, ‘I didn’t really like the orangutang’s bottom in my face – it was scary’. I would tend to agree but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience apart from that.

Attendance is at 97%

Three years ago, when I started St. Mary’s, our whole school attendance was 90.2%. It is currently 97%. This high attendance means that children don’t miss out on some amazing school experiences. The children have stated that learning is fun; they like to play with their friends and miss school when they are not here. Our attendance on the snowiest week of the year so far, has still been a super 96.5%. We have worked as a whole school community to understand the importance of high attendance. You can’t help it
when you are genuinely ill but our parents and children have really understood the value of having a duvet day at the weekend and that holidays are taken during the school holidays.

Wrap-around Care at St. Mary’s

Meet our wrap-around team.

Mrs Austin is our lead co-ordinator and runs Early Birds, Night Owls and our soon to be holiday provision. She has worked at St. Mary’s for a number of years and comes with a wealth of childcare experience. Mrs Austin is a keen artist and has run an art club alongside one of our other teaching assistants for the past two years. The art activities she provides at Night owls are the reason why we are currently bursting at the seams!

Miss Reynolds is a new member of school and is currently taking her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification with us. Miss Reynolds loves to cook and is looking forward to getting creative in the kitchen over the half term break with our holiday club.

Mr Buzzard is our sporting member of the team and he can be seen with our PE coach during daily afternoon sessions. He is a keen watcher and player of football as well as loving several other sports. He
is eager to support the whole school by looking for grant opportunities and has secured several pieces of
equipment and kits for the school so far.

Charging for Clubs

8:00 – 8:25 am	3:00 – 4:00 pm	4:00 – 5:00 pm
Early Birds £2	Night Owls £2	Night Owls £4
	After-school clubs £2

Due to the high demand for Night Owls, we have had to recruit an extra member of staff. This will mean
that after half term, we will have to increase the cost to £4 from 3-4pm and to £8 3-5pm. Our afterschool provision is the cheapest across the county and all of the money goes to paying staff wages and resourcing. We will also be sending a google form to ascertain whether parents would like the times
extended.

Late pick up

If you are going to be late picking up your child, please ring the school office and let us know. We have
noticed that several parents during the Autumn term were regularly picking up their child/children from
school late and without prior warning. It has recently come to our attention that this is to avoid The Green
at the end of the school day. If you are late and you do not give us any warning, your child will be placed in Night Owls and you will be charged accordingly. If you are late for Night Owls, you will also be charged £10 for every 10 minutes you are late.

Holiday Club – Monday 16th – Friday 20th February

We will also be offering a holiday club during the half-term February break. There will be physical activities, cookery, art and crafts and that all important ‘chill time’. You will need to provide your child with
a packed lunch and snacks for throughout the day. Please email the office to register your interest, more
details will follow.

Attendance

Whole school attendance this week	97.48%
Class with the highest attendance this week	Year 5 – 100%
Whole school attendance (year to date)	96.4%
National average	94.5%

Have a good weekend.

Mrs Christine McQueen

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 26th September 2025

Written by Mrs McQueen on 26 September 2025. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Dear Parents/carers,

Harvest Festival – Thursday 16^th October

Please join us for our annual Harvest Festival at St. Mary’s Church on Thursday 16^th October at 9.30am – all welcome.

If you would like to make a donation to the food bank, please send your child to school with something tinned or dried. No fresh items please. I will take them to the Church on Friday 10^th October so that they can be displayed in St. Mary’s Church for their Harvest Festival on Sunday 12^th and in preparation for ours on Thursday 16^th September.

Open Morning

Wow! What a busy Open Morning we had today. We had so many people through the school doors – old and new. Thank you to everyone that visited and thank you to the staff and children for working so hard. Thank you also to our teams that we work with – The Branch, LCSS and Rhiannon from the mental health team and of course our PTA. It was great to see so many families connecting with the services we have on offer.

Our new school lunch company, Dolce cooked up a variety of different food. My favourite was the yorkshire pudding topped with delicious cauliflower cheese. We had children tasting the menu and some of our Y6 pupils who woudn’t necessarily have a school lunch have definitely changed their minds. If your child would like a school lunch, please log onto the school grid.

Our Y6 tour guides were a credit to our school. Here is a message from a parent today.

‘Wow, never knew the school was so big! Stan and Vlad who showed me around are a credit to the school. It was great to see it all. For someone who is looking to put their child into the school you’d struggle to see why you wouldn’t want to. The place looks great. All the children were sat working hard and listening nicely.’

More nursery news and more…

We are very pleased to say that in January 2026 we will be taking 2 year old children. A special room is being developed for this provision and we hope that prospective parents will be able to visit this area in November/December. If you know someone that would be interested in this provision, please get them to contact the school.

Wrap around care and more…

We are also pleased to announce that we will be able to offer childcare from January 2026 for 50 weeks of the year. This will mean that we will offer not only after-school clubs but holidays clubs too. These will be run by staff in school so every face will be familiar and provide working parents with the support that they need. More information to follow. We are very excited about this.

If you would like to register your interest for a place in nursery or would like to know more about wrap around care, please get in touch.

Dates for your Diary

School Calendar

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Mrs Christine McQueen

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 12th September 2025

Written by Mrs McQueen on 12 September 2025. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Dear Parents/carers,

Nursery News

Well, after a lot of hard work the nursery and reception area is now completely finished and it looks amazing! The children have had so much fun using all of the new equipment and as the headteacher of St. Mary’s it has been so lovely to see.

Open Morning Friday 26^th September 09.00am – 11.00am

Come and see the new nursery and reception area; our newly re-vamped school hall and of course all our hard-working school community in action. We’d love to see you all. We will have taster sessions from our new Lunch Company Dolce; The Branch will be here should you need signposting to services or support; Locality and Community Support Services (LCSS); The Friends of St. Mary’s and The Book Fair will all be available so please do join us.

Chastleton Teas – Sunday 21^st September at Chastleton Church in aid of St. Mary’s Primary

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered but we could do with a little more help. If you could bake a cake and/or could volunteer an hour of your time, we would really appreciate it. All cakes should be brought to the school office by the end of the school day on Friday 19^th September in preparation for Sunday 21^st. Please contact Sonia King if you could bake a cake or spare an hour of your time on the Sunday.

School Lunches

The feedback about school lunches couldn’t have been better. The variety of food on offer and the new recipes are a definite hit. We have noticed that a lot of children who would normally be entitled to a school lunch are still not taking advantage of this delicious offer. If you are having difficulties setting up an account, please contact the school office and remember if you are unsure whether your child is entitled to a free school meal in KS2, we can always check for you.

Also, some parents are forgetting to pre-order their child’s school meal so unfortunately will not always be given an option at the counter. To avoid any unecessary upset, please order your child’s meal in advance. Meals can be ordered a term in advance. Many parents find ordering on a Sunday evening with their child also a good option so they know what they are eating for that week.

Early Birds and Night Owls

After-school clubs are full. However, you still have the opportunity to place your child in Night Owls, which runs from 3-5pm. Please see the separate email on ParentMail for step by step instructions.

Early Birds and Night Owls – change of drop off and collection

Our wrap around care is now in full swing. Early Birds and Night owls will now run in The Orchard. Please drop your child off and collect your child from the victorian building entrance, labelled The Orchard. Press the Intercom system and someone will come to the door.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Mrs Christine McQueen

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 4th April 2025

Written by Mrs McQueen on 4 April 2025. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Dear Parents and Carers

What a fabulous term we’ve had at St. Mary’s from fantastic class assemblies to amazing school visits to link in with our school topics. We’ve been to sporting events and the children of St. Mary’s have represented our school in so many ways. In fact, we came fourth in the Oxfordshire Boccia finals last night. Our school is going from strength to strength every day and what we offer our children is something I am very proud of. Our staff challenge when it is needed, support when times get tough and turn up every day to give the children of St. Mary’s the very best they can.

Easter Service

Thank you to everyone who attended our service yesterday. We may have had some technical difficulties but we are strong and the sun shone down on us and did not deter some lovely singing.

Nursery News

You all know that we are set to open our nursery next September and we are very nearly full, which is just fantastic. I can’t think of anything better than dropping your children at the same place every morning in preparation for a smooth transition to the school they will spend the rest of their time in. We had applied for the Department For Education grant before Christmas and have just received the news that we have been successful. So, what does that mean for the children of St. Mary’s? There will be refurbishment throughout the summer holidays of the whole EYFS area. We will get new fencing, outdoor area and furniture throughout for our new pupils. This also means that the money we had put aside for this can be used on other projects around the school.

Nursery visits for new starters to be arranged for next term.

Amazon Antics!

Year 5 had an amazing time visiting the rainforest this week.

Attendance

Class with overall best attendance	Year 3 – 100%
Overall school attendance	94.91%
Unauthorised attendance	4.28%

Have a lovely Easter break as the weather is set to be lovely next week and we look forward to welcoming
you back on Tuesday 22April 2025.

Kind regards,

Mrs. McQueen

Headteacher’s Newsletter – 21st March 2025

Written by Mrs McQueen on 21 March 2025. Posted in Headteacher Newsletter.

Dear Parents and Carers

Chipping Norton Music Festival

All our children in Years 1 to 6 took part in the Chipping Norton Music Festival this week. They performed class poems and the feedback from the judges was excellent.

CNS Multi-ball skills

Great fun was had by all children in Year 2 and Year 3 on Wednesday afternoon. As always the children were polite and really positive when playing with others.

The Branch

Parent Drop-In EVERY MONDAY MORNING 8.20am – 9.30am

Every Monday there is a Parent Drop-In, in the library run by Emma Kennedy from The Branch. If you have any questions about benefits, arrears, housing, debt support, parenting, or if you need help filling in forms please do come to reception, and you will be shown up to the library. Many families are struggling at the moment, and there is lots of help and support available that people often do not know about. Rather than have sleepless nights worrying about things, do drop in on a Monday and we will help signpost you to support for you and your family.

The Branch also runs Connect Café every Tuesday afternoon 1.00pm – 2.30pm, where you can go along for coffee, cake and craft – and there is also a help desk and Citizens Advice.

This term they also have the No Limits Programme on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays. This programme provides laptops, mobile phones, Wifi and Data packages for those who need a devise to access training or employment. If you would like support with this, then please either call in on a Monday morning when you drop the children off at school or go along to Connect Café on a Tuesday at The Branch.

All appointments are confidential.

Financial news for September 2025

After sending out the recent parental survey, every parent agreed that the after-school clubs on offer were varied and great value for money. 100% of parents who responded, stated they would agree to pay more. As we manage rising costs in school, we have made the decision to increase the cost of clubs to £2 per session in September. This is still much cheaper than schools in the locality that offer clubs at an average of £5 or more per hour.

School lunches will also rise to £2.50 per meal in September 2025 (this is the first rise in several years).

Nursery in September 2025

We are now taking enquiries for nursery places in September 2025. We already have several parents interested in joining us. Please contact Mrs Taylor for further information. We will take children after their 3rd birthday.