Upcoming Diary Dates

This week	Event	Details
Wednesday 6th September (8:30 am)	All Children Return to School After school Clubs start from today	Welcome back!
Friday 8th September (8:35 am)	New Parents Walk and Talk with Headteacher	Join our Headteacher, Sarah Thorne, for a walk through Morden Hall Park after drop-off. An opportunity to ask questions as new parents to the school.
Friday 8th September (2 pm)	Charity Clothes Sale	Have your children grown out of their clothes over the summer holidays? Need new clothes for the autumn ahead? Come and purchase secondhand clothing from our community in our Back Garden. All proceeds will go towards our current school charity, ‘Farms for City Children’. Please drop-off donations from Wednesday onwards at the school’s main entrance. We really appreciate your generous donations.
Next week	Event	Details
Monday 11th September (1 – 2 pm)	Parent Workshop: The Gift of a Kindergarten start to Education	Sarah Thorne will be hosting the first of our exciting new parent workshops. This in-person workshop will primarily be for Kindergarten parents. The workshop will also be recorded for any parents keen to attend who are unable to make this event in person.
Wednesday 13th September (5:30 – 7 pm)	Junior Curriculum Evening	An opportunity to find out more about what your child will be learning throughout this new academic year. This will be an in-person event starting in the Hall.
Friday 15th September (1:30 – 3 pm)	TLAS Open Day	If you have friends, family, neighbours or colleagues looking for a nurturing and inspiring place to educate their child, tell them about our upcoming Open Day. Places are limited, so book here now.

Welcome from our Headteacher

I hope that you had a wonderful summer and welcome back to what looks like a beautiful September – the sun is being kind to us in finishing off this year’s crop of apples. Writer Laurie Lee (of Cider with Rosie fame), puts it better than I ever could:

The russet, crab and cottage redburn to the sun’s hot brass

However, the cooler days of autumn are just around the corner and for all of us, it is time to change gear and come back into school where we have plenty of activities to make use of summer energy, starting with a pacy maths rhythmic time at the beginning of every day in the Junior School. Please can you ensure that your children arrive to school promptly by 8:30am to make sure that they do not miss out on this important session – unfortunately, if they arrive late they will miss it as joining later would cause disruption to the fast moving exercises. Please see updates to drop-off times and late procedure below.

Meanwhile, in Kindergarten we will soon start to move to warmer snacks, using the advice kindly provided by Daiana Primon, Gabriel’s mum who is a qualified nutritionist. She has very kindly taken the trouble to put together some practical nutrition tips on packed lunches for us all to make use of and which I am very pleased to share with you – click here to download her sheet. I personally will be acting on her thoughts on snack labels.

As we enter a new phase for the school, our ethos of offering plenty of opportunities for parents to get involved in the life of the school will continue as ever. We have our charity clothes sale on Friday at 2pm and plenty of themed sessions and festivals on our autumn calendar. If your bent is more towards outside, I will be working in our garden and allotment area for two hours from 9.30am on Saturday 9th and 23rd of September, meet me in the back garden then if you would like to lend a hand and let’s see how much we can get done whilst catching the final rays of the season.

With warmest wishes,

Sarah

Announcements, Reminders and Important Information

Welcome to our new families and staff:

We are delighted to welcome the following children to our school:

Nalah Musa and Ayla Mylroie will be joining us in Rose Kindergarten.

Sebastian Mahoor and Oleksandra Mazur will be joining us in Bluebell Kindergarten.

Josephine and Camille Audebourg will be joining us in Willow Class.

We are also very excited to introduce you to our newest member of the TLAS team, Sama Al-Falahi, our Willow Class Teacher.

We know that you will make all of our new starters feel very welcomed in our community.

Drop-off timing and culture for the Whole School:

From the start of this new academic year 2023-24, all children (Kindergarten and Juniors) will be expected to arrive at school at 8:30am.

Kindergarten pupils will be welcomed through the Bridge Door. Juniors will all be welcomed through the Front Door.

The doors will be kept open until 8:40am, after which time your child will be marked late. Please park all bikes and scooters by 8:40am in the Back Garden, otherwise you can use the National Trust bike racks.

Across the school, in Kindergarten we start each day with Circle Time to ground the children, and in Juniors we will be starting each day with an exciting rhythmic maths session. If your child arrives late, they will not be able to attend these first sessions as it will be disruptive for the rest of the class. Instead, they will read with Sarah or Zoe until 9am when they will be able to join their class for their morning lessons. Therefore, it is important that your child arrives at school on time.

Finally, in the mornings when children are arriving at school, the focus for all Class Teachers is ensuring a great start to their day. For this reason, please can you reserve chats with Class Teachers to pick-up time, or even better, by appointment. Sarah or Zoe will be available outside the school each morning if you have anything that can’t wait. Thank you for your understanding and support.