Welcome from the TLAS Team

Dear TLAS Community,

This week marks the end of the Spring Term 2023 and while we look forward to the Easter Holidays, it is also a chance for us to reflect on all that has happened since Christmas. From our Ofsted inspection to swimming lessons, Imbolc festival to Open Classrooms, it has been a very busy and fruitful term. We’ve been delighted to welcome new pupils and new members of staff over the term. Sadly, we must now bid farewell to a few pupils and staff. We wish Lyana Lee, Blake Rama and Phoenix Rama all the best with their schooling futures. We also say goodbye to Luana Milroy, Willow Class Teacher, who has been at The London Acorn School since 2017. We wish Luana all the very best in her new career and thank her for all that she has given to the school.

From the Summer Term, we are delighted to welcome our new Head, who many of you will know as one of the founders of the school, Sarah Thorne. We look forward to introducing you to Sarah via our Walks and Talks next term (please find the Summer Calendar below).

Before we get carried away with next term, we still have lots to enjoy this week!

We have had a special assembly this morning to reveal how much we have raised for the charity CARE Pakistan. £200.00 has been raised by the school through Friday morning popcorn sales, thank you very much. Find out which charity we will be supporting next term after the Easter break.

Swimming lessons continue for Juniors at Morden Leisure Centre all week, including Friday.

Our Whole School Easter Egg Hunt takes place Thursday morning for Kindergarten and Juniors. We are very excited to work together to follow clues around the Adventure Playground to find a tasty treat (parents, we will be gifting children with a small dairy-free Easter egg to celebrate the end of term).

A few reminders:

Please find the Summer Term Calendar below. There are lots of events taking place that parents are welcome to attend, including some new events, so please make a note in your diaries. The first special event is our May Day Festival on Monday 15th May, details will follow next term.
Please note that all pupils return on Tuesday 25th April.
Parents of Kindergarten children are invited to join Kindergarten in the back garden for the Morning Song from 8:40am on Tuesday 25th April. Usually this will take place on a Monday morning throughout the Summer Term, unless there is a Bank Holiday, in which case, Tuesday mornings.
Monday 1st and Monday 8th May are Bank Holidays so there will be no school on those days.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter,

The TLAS Team

Kindergarten News

It was wet last week. On our way walking to the kindy tree, we took a deep breath of the musky after-rain smell and children discovered that the leaves of the climbing tree (bay tree) had an interesting smell. According to Gabriel, it smelled like “fresh air”! While we enjoyed and struggled with mud in nature, children really do love singing rainy day and rainbow songs. We knew that raindrops awakened garden flowers and wild flowers. Whenever children saw the sunny faces of daffodils and dandelions, shining smiles also blossomed on them!

We continued with our Easter preparation, we planted seeds and bulbs; and made Easter baskets out of paintings we produced on painting days. Playtime this week had a relaxed vibe. Many children really paid attention to the details of their drawings and some were really into writing letters and numbers. Most of the days, children invited familiar friends to play in small groups. We have seen all-time-favourites such as, homes, airports, car parks, boats and shops. As well as the hard structures, what’s really amazing was how children invented interesting characters for themselves. There have been doctors, mermaids, super women with a dozen tools attached to their belt, and poor people who could only afford to cover themselves with old blankets in the rain. Sometimes, when there’s an imaginary birthday in the room, all others came to join the celebration and had a good time together!

From next term, Kindergarten teachers would like to welcome parents to join their Morning Song in the back garden from 8:40am. The first morning will be Tuesday 25th April. Usually this will take place on a Monday morning throughout the Summer Term, unless there is a Bank Holiday, in which case, Tuesday mornings.

Junior School News

Last week, Willow, Hazel and Oak Classes took to the pool!

We are very fortunate to have the brilliant facilities of Morden Leisure Centre a short distance from our school. It is a lovely, clean and welcoming space, flooded with natural light and overlooking green fields. But most of all, it’s the swimming teachers that really make the difference. For instance, some children were apprehensive about swimming at the start of the week – it might have been the first time they’d had lessons – and yet, by the end of the week, the children were beaming with pride and splashing about with confidence, and that is thanks to the excellent staff. Not only do they teach the children technique and test their stamina, but they show the children that swimming is fun.

From all of us here at The London Acorn School, thank you.

Thank you also to parents for collecting your children from the leisure centre and changing your routine for these last two weeks. The benefit to the children is huge. They are learning to be more independent, developing self-reliance and time-management skills, which they can then transfer back into the classroom.

We hope that students feel inspired to keep swimming.