Welcome back to the new school year!

Our School Prayer

Dear God,
help us to make this school a safe, happy place.
Help us to do our very best in our work and to look after each other.
Help us to make you and our family proud of us,
so that, with Christ in our hearts,
we grow in love to help others.

Amen.

We are really looking forward to seeing all of the children on Friday 4th September. We hope you’ve all had a lovely break over the summer and that, together, we are ready to tackle the new year! We can’t wait to start!

Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd September are INSET days and so the children return on Friday in PE kit please. .

A very warm welcome too to all of the new children and families joining our St Mary’s family this September.

A reminder of our Vision and Mission

Our school family at St Mary’s wants this to be a safe, caring, creative and happy place, where we all have a fair chance to learn and grow together and to do the best we can. We do this by knowing and loving Jesus more every day and by following his teachings in a joyful way.

Together with our families, parish and local community, we will have an unwavering focus on high quality academic, spiritual and social growth for all our children. We will have a particular emphasis on developing well-rounded young people ready for secondary school. We are committed to providing a holistic approach to education that unlocks the full potential of each individual.

At the start of the new year we will all be re-establishing our routines and getting the children back into being in school. Teachers will restate our expectations often and rehearse them regularly with all of the children so that everyone is clear. You can see the school's Behaviour policy here.

Staffing 2026-2027

The new school year always brings some staffing changes and we are really pleased to welcome our new colleagues to St Mary’s.

Our year group teaching teams for September are:

EYFS – Rosary, Loreto & Rome: *Mrs Lawlor / Miss O’Connor /*Mrs Statham-Burt / Miss Walsh / Ms Jayona /Ms Waszak / Mrs Macwan / Ms Ammah
Year 1 – Westminster & Willesden: Miss Rendall and Mrs Stevenson and Mrs Kashif
Year 2 – Cardigan & Walsingham: Mr Kharay and Miss Baida
Year 3 – Doncaster & Ipswich: Miss Collinson and *Mrs Jackson / Miss Cullen
Year 4 – Knock & Lourdes: *Mrs Richards / Miss O’Donnell and Mr Smyth
Year 5 – Czestochowa & Fátima: Miss Ferrante, Mr Peet and Mr Kayani
Year 6 – Guadalupe & Carmel: Mr Conway, *Mr Lawlor and Ms Shanmugam

A * indicates that the person is on or is going on leave.

For this year our team of LSAs will be working across the school. The team comprises Mrs Bentley, Ms Bordan, Ms Hill, Ms Jain, Mrs Korana, MissTurlejska, Ms Adaramola and Ms Saydzai

Mr Cobbold continues as Deputy Headteacher and will also be acting SENCO during Mrs Statham-Burt's maternity leave. Our admin team are Mrs Gardner, Mrs Manners and Mr Gray.

As always, staffing can change during the year and your child will be taught and supported by different members of their year group and the wider school team.

Term Dates 2026-2027

A few important dates for the year ahead:

Friday 4th September – children return to school
Monday 26th – Friday 30th October – Autumn half term
Monday 2nd November – children return
Thursday 17th December at 2pm – school closes for Christmas
Monday 4th January 2027 – children return
Monday 15th – Friday 19th February – Spring half term
Monday 22nd February – children return
Thursday 25th March at 2pm – school closes for the Easter holiday
Monday 12th April – Summer Term begins
Monday 3rd May – Bank Holiday, school closed
Monday 31st May – Bank Holiday, school closed
Tuesday 1st – Friday 4th June – Summer half term
Monday 7th June – children return
Friday 16th July at 2pm – end of the school year

The full term dates are available in the Term Dates section of the website.

Learning at Home

Each day’s learning in school is reflected in the Learning at Home activities and everyone should do these. All children should all undertake these activities for every day ideally the afternoon or evening before they are taught in class. Activities will be uploaded each weekend from 12th/13th September.

Our New Uniform

Following our two-year uniform trial and consultation with children and parents, our updated Active Uniform is now our school uniform.

The aim has been to keep our uniform smart whilst making it more practical, comfortable, affordable and inclusive. Most items can now be bought from supermarkets and other usual retailers and the school logo is optional.

A few reminders for September:

Children in Years 1-6 return in summer uniform, which continues until the October half term.
The main uniform includes a white polo shirt, green jumper, cardigan, sweatshirt or fleece, grey school trousers, shorts or skort and plain black trainers with no branded logos.
Green and white checked summer dresses can be worn.
If you still have the previous green striped summer dress it can continue to be worn throughout 2026-2027 – please don’t replace perfectly good uniform unnecessarily.
Children moving from Reception into Year 1 can continue to wear their EYFS uniform until the October half term. They will, however, need PE kit.
Nursery and Reception children continue to wear their separate EYFS uniform. They do not need a PE kit.
On PE days, and on Fridays, children come to school wearing their PE kit.
White shirts and ties remain an optional part of the winter uniform. Ties are not worn with polo shirts.
Watches and invisible small stud earrings may be worn. Other jewellery is not permitted.
Please make sure that everything is named!

Pre-loved uniform is also available through school. If the cost of uniform is causing any difficulty, please contact us – we will always help.

Please check the Uniform page of the website for the full details before buying anything new.

Key Reminders

Water Bottles

Only school-issued water bottles should be brought into school. Please don’t send children in with other bottles, including metal bottles.

Mobile Phones

Children must not bring mobile phones into school.

Drop-Off & Collection

A reminder of the routes into school:

Nursery (Rosary) – EYFS building, far end. Enter through the back gates on the church side.
Reception (Loreto & Rome) – EYFS building. Enter through the back gates on the church side.
Year 1 (Westminster & Willesden) – enter through the back gates on the church side.
Year 2 (Cardigan & Walsingham) – enter through the classroom doors from the car park.
Years 3 & 4 (Doncaster, Ipswich, Knock & Lourdes) – enter through the car park gates and downstairs classroom doors.
Year 5 (Czestochowa & Fátima) – enter through the car park gates and the doors at the far end of the KS2 building.
Year 6 (Carmel & Guadalupe) – enter through the car park gates and use the door at the back of the KS2 block.

Only Year 6 children can walk to and from school independently. Secondary-aged siblings can drop off or collect younger children if parents are happy for them to do so.

We strongly recommend that you check what your child brings into school each day. We suggest this in order to help keep everyone safe.

Being on Time

Please make every effort to be on time each morning. Our soft start is from 8:45am to 8:55am and children arriving after 8:55am need to come through the school office. If you are late then you can expect to have to wait.

Wherever possible, please walk, scoot, cycle or use public transport. If you do need to drive, please park away from the school and walk the remaining distance.

School finishes at 3:15pm - please don't be late to pick your child up.

School Meals

School meals are free but must be booked. Bookings are managed through Arbor app. Please check the Arbor app and make sure that you are able to access your child’s account. Meals can be booked up to midnight.

What’s happening this term?

Over the next few days more and more events will be added to the school calendar, so please keep checking it.

Class teachers will let you know about PE days and we’ll let you know when clubs are starting via the School Calendar.

There will be lots happening over the coming weeks!

Here’s to a fantastic start to the new school year!

The St Mary’s Team