Newsletter No 10 / 26th March

As next week is a shorter week than usual, it is envisaged that this will be the final newsletter of Term 4.

Sport Relief
Thank you all for your generous support of the School Council Fun Run which took place last week. Between us all, (pupils and staff!) we managed to run/walk a total of 163 miles! We were very pleased to collect £111 for Sports Relief.
Here is a report from the School Council:
On the 19th March the whole-school ran a certain number of laps around the school field for Sports Relief. Everyone did at least one mile including the Foundation Stage. We would like to thank everyone for all the money you’ve given, it makes a huge difference. So we would like to say a big, big THANK YOU!

Paying for School Meals
As all Primary Schools in Oxfordshire change their finance system to SAP on 1st April, there is a requirement for parents paying for school meals by cheque, from the 1st April, to make sure that cheques are made payable to “Oxfordshire County Council” and that they write “Stadhampton Primary School” on the back of the cheque, please.
Also, although the vast majority of parents do follow our regular reminders via the newsletter to pay for school meals on MONDAY MORNING, there are still a significant number of parents who have not yet consistently got into this habit! The organisation of school meals and banking of the monies collected is a time-consuming task and we do appreciate parents’ co-operation in this matter in order to keep the time involved to a minimum.

The change-over to SAP may also affect school trips/after school clubs,/swimming contributions to transport costs, etc which some parents pay for by cheque. We will endeavour to make it very clear on any such letter whether cheques would need to be made payable to Oxfordshire County Council or Stadhampton Primary School.
Thank you.

Swimming at Berinsfield
Class 2 pupils will begin a series of five swimming sessions on Monday 19th April. The other swimming sessions will be on 26th April, 10th May, 17th May and 24th May. As always, we appreciate a “voluntary contribution” of £1 per child, per swimming session, and for parents choosing to pay this cost by cheque, it would be £5 made payable to Stadhampton Primary School, please.

Class 2 Visit to Northmoor Trust – Report by Ella Mae White
Last Tuesday, Class 2 went to a Saxon day at the Northmoor Trust. We looked at a time spiral from about half a billion years ago to the present. Then we went to look at some pictures about what the Northmoor Trust would have looked like in Saxon and Viking times. Next we went to Castle Hill, which is one of two hills, and looked at a ditch dug out of the hill. We were told that it was for protection and then we ran down it! Later, we did some wattle weaving in the arboretum.

Class 3 Visit to Northmoor Trust – Report by Conall Fernie and Issy Matthews
On 16th March Class 3 went on a school trip to the Northmoor Trust in Little Wittenham. We did several activities based on teamwork. This included a lot of walking up and down hills and an accident or two along the way! Then we went off to do some den-making which we all found great fun. Next we played a game called “camouflage” where you have to find a hiding place in 5 seconds. We have tried to play this in our school field but there are not so many hiding places! The final game was a hiding game where we got into groups and hid one of the people in the group. Then the other group had to try and find them. We all loved this school trip and would really like to go again!

‘Mrs Wells’ Bench’
When Mrs Wells retired from school last summer she had plans to have a bench made for pupils and staff to sit on in the school grounds. This week a wonderful oak bench made by Mrs Wells’ brother arrived and has already become very popular with the children! We would all like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to Mrs Wells and we look forward to seeing her sitting on the bench too!

Little Bears News
We are getting ready for Easter this week at Little Bears. We are making cards, baskets and much more. We enjoyed the chocolate nests we made this week too, they had a healthy twist as we used All Bran to represent the twigs. We are having an Easter Cake Sale at 3.30pm on Wednesday 31st March, please come along and buy a tea/coffee & a cake.

Early wishes to everyone for a Happy Easter!

DIARY DATES:
Sunday 28th March
9.30am St John’s Church, Stadhampton. Come and follow the donkey from the Green.
Tuesday 30th March
Classes 2 & 3 visit the North Wall Theatre. Letters sent home on 17th March.
Little Cooks last session
Thursday 1st April
9.00am End of Term Assembly with Little Bears. Parents/carers welcome. Chocolate Raffle draw.
School finishes at 1.30pm for the April Holiday. No after –school football club.
Monday 19th April
Start of Term 5
Swimming begins for Class 2 pupils.
Tuesday 20th April
PTA meeting in The Crown as the school hall is being used by the Parish Council.
Wednesday 21st April
Mobile Library visit.
Monday 26th April
Governing Body meeting at 7pm.
Friday 30th April
“Clothes bags” collection – please bring bags into school by 9.00am. Unfortunately, as the portacabin is now in full-time use as a classroom, we do not have storage facilities to accept bags prior to the morning of collection.