Cobham Montessori School

Newsletter W/C 23rd March 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

NOTICES

End of Term - 12pm Friday 27th March

A reminder that the Spring Term ends on Friday and we will finish at midday - there will be no lunch. We have two inset days when we come back: Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th April for preparing the classrooms and for staff training. We look forward to welcoming the children back on Thursday 16th April.

Friday 27th March - Elementary Class World Food Celebration - Response needed from Elementary Parents!

On Friday Elementary will enjoy a World Food Celebration. We are inviting Elementary children (and any parents from the Elementary community who wish to be involved) to bring a dish of cultural significance to school on the morning of Friday 27th March. The Elementary children were rather overwhelmed at the thought of inviting the whole school, so we agreed to limit attendees to Elementary this time. Hopefully it will go very well and we will be able to invite everyone in the future.

It would be useful if you could let us know your plans for Friday so we can support the children in the most appropriate way. If you wish to join us in the classroom, we consider that you have "collected" them and their welfare, and food choice is your responsibility!

Logistically, the term ends at 12 midday and we need to clear the building ready for cleaning over the Easter break. We therefore intend to invite parents in from 11.00 to share food and information about each dish with one another. Please can you let us know your plans - either:

1. I am not able to attend, I will collect my child at 12.00 - if this is the case please let us know your food preferences/permissions for your child (e.g.- no refined sugar, etc. )
   
2. I will/ my child will bring a dish and I will join my child in Elementary at 11.00
   
3. We are not bringing a dish, I will join at 11.00
   
4. We are not bringing a dish, I will collect my child at 12 - again, we will need food permissions please!
   

Please can we ask that all dishes are nut-free - we are a nut-free site. However, can we also ask that you are able to let everyone know if a dish contains gluten, dairy, eggs or pork or if there is a high sugar/processed additive content.

THE WEEK IN SCHOOL

Children's House

The warmer weather invited the children to extend their work outdoors. Some watered the plants, swept the floor, and enjoyed painting on our outdoor easel (it’s back!). Some children chose to bring Sandpaper Letters outside, practising their writing and writing copies at the outdoor tables. With sunglasses on and pencils in hand, they happily began their work, with one child remarking, “It’s so lovely outside.” Even a ladybird stopped by, landing on a child’s work as if to admire their beautiful letters.

On Monday, we practised meditation again. When the teacher asked if the children would like to get ready, one child enthusiastically replied, “Yay, meditation is my favourite!”

At Yoga on Tuesday, the children enjoyed the story of "The Go Away Bird," about the value of friendship. The book also focused on colours, and at various points throughout the story, Miss Hayley invited everyone to find a colour in the Children's House environment and touch it, such as "touch something green with your ear!" Everyone had lots of fun with this!

On Wednesday, we welcomed a parent who shared an immersive book experience with the group, reading Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow. The story follows a boy whose suit becomes too small, leading him on a journey to create a new one. Pelle shears a lamb, and the wool is then carded, spun, dyed, and woven before a tailor makes his new suit. This wonderful story helped children understand where their clothes come from and introduced them to the traditional craft of working with wool. The children listened attentively, participated with enthusiasm, and especially enjoyed feeling the wool and observing its transformation at each stage.

On Thursday, a family joined us to introduce Norooz, the Persian New Year. To celebrate, we were shown a Haft-Seentable—a traditional display prepared especially for this occasion. “Haft” means seven, and “Seen” refers to the Persian letter “S.” The table includes seven symbolic items, each beginning with this letter and representing wishes and values for the year ahead. Sonbol (hyacinth flower) – symbolising spring and renewal, Sekkeh(coins) – representing prosperity, Senjed (oleaster fruit) – symbolising love, Seer(garlic) – for health and protection, Seeb (apple) – representing beauty and good health, Serkeh(vinegar) – symbolising patience and ageing and Somāq(sumac) – representing sunrise and new beginnings

The children were invited to explore the table through their senses—touching, smelling, and tasting a selection of foods. This hands-on experience supported their understanding of the celebration and encouraged curiosity about different cultures.

Afterwards, we went outside and sowed two types of sunflower seeds—red and yellow—which we are excited to watch grow.

On Friday, during sports, after the usual warm ups, Coach Phil led the children with a series of stretches, counting to 10 and then resting. They also had a go at cartwheels, aiming to land on their feet. One child expressed "That's so hard," but later exclaimed "I did it!" Another child, when balancing during stretches, said "Woah, this is tricky," followed with, "tricky is good for your brain." The children are being challenged in sports but learning that they can do hard things and succeed!

Snapshot of the Week

A child was playing the xylophone:

Child 2: “Lovely music!”

Child 1: “I’m playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star… the Halloween version.”

Joke of the Week

Child: “Miss, do you know what kind of tree fits on your palm?” A palm tree!

Elementary

With just one more week of term to go Easter is fast approaching and everyone is making great efforts to get their projects finished before the break. There is some exciting work coming up and we look forward to seeing the products of their time in the last few days of term.

The garden has continued to receive some great attention from the children; the pond has been completely emptied, with the children having to be creative in distributing the mucky water throughout the garden. They realised that the water could be used as a great fertiliser throughout the flower beds. The children's next task is to get the garden ready for eating outside, especially as we've had some really lovely weather this week.

In recent weeks, each child chose something they would like to grow and the arrival of the seeds was eagerly anticipated. After much delay, they finally arrived this week and everyone is busy figuring out what their chosen seeds will need to thrive.

There has been an explosion of interest in different reading books recently; we got out some of the crates of books we have squirreled away and some children chose to take a few books to read at home. Please do continue to read to your child at home, especially if they are reading independently; it really benefits everyone to continue the ritual of reading. Daily reading boosts vocabulary, improves academic performance, enhances attention spans, and creates calming routines. It also promotes emotional regulation, imagination, and critical thinking skills. If you can continue to read to your child well into their teens then these benefits only compound on one another.

For our last sports of the term the children played basketball. We have seen such a huge improvement in everyone's ball skills. The children particularly enjoyed bouncing the balls and either crouching under or putting their leg over the ball as they bounced. The mix of teams was slightly different on Friday and the final game was really interesting to watch. Coach Phil has really got the children thinking about using space and helping each other out with passing the ball between each other to move the game forward.

We don't need scooters this week at all.

Kind regards,

Yvonne