Newsletter No 4 - 1st July 2011

Happy JULY Birthday to: Georgia Day, Benjamin Drake, Ayisha Hall and Andrew Oakley.

During July we are focusing on the core value of FREEDOM

School Meal Price Increase
We have been advised that the price of a school meal will rise to £2.10 per day from 1st September. We should remind everyone that school meals need to be ordered and paid for, please, on the first morning of the school week or in advance for the term. Cheques for school meals should be made payable to Oxfordshire County Council with Stadhampton School written on the back of the cheque. The school’s financial accounting package (SAP), requires payment for school meals to be kept entirely separate from payments for swimming, after-school clubs or trips. Thank you to all parents for their co-operation in this matter.

Premier Sports Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Booking forms are now available for the sports course being held at Stadhampton School from 25th – 29th July from the school office. Please note that the cost of the course is now £6 a day for 9-3pm.

Samba Drumming Workshops
On Friday 24th June you may have heard the unmistakeable sounds of Notting Hill Carnival emenating from school. All pupils participated in a series of Samba drumming workshops which, as the weather was dry, we were able to hold in our new outdoor classroom. Pupils thoroughly enjoyed this event and a number of parents were able to come to the short presentation at the end of the afternoon. This event was funded by Extended Services to tie in with the Watlington Partnership of Schools link with schools in Argentina. The drumming was much louder than any of us had anticipated and I apologise if the noise inconvenienced anyone – it will not be a regular event!

Partnership Tennis Tournament – Report by Class 3
On Monday 27th June, 9 pupils from Stadhampton School attended the Icknield Partnership Tennis Tournament. The final was all Stadhampton pupils with Andrew and Tom finishing as runners-up and the winners were Ben and Benedict. Congratulations to all who took part.

Big Science Event
Yet again Stadhampton School pupils have reached the final of the Oxfordshire Big Science Event. This is an annual event which, this year, involved over 3000 children in Oxfordshire. Pupils work in small groups over a period of a few months to independently conduct a science investigation of their own design. Then they need to create a poster displaying all their findings. These are then judged in school against a detailed criteria and then the school winners are judged by a representative from Science Oxford. Here is a report from our team:
“On 30th June 2011 Chloe Hindmarch, Chloe Scragg, Matty Green and Ewan Madry went to the Big Science Event final. Out of 3000 children across Oxfordshire who entered, only ten groups got to the final. We didn’t win but we enjoyed the day anyway. We also learnt a lot.”

P.E. Kits in School
Please could all pupils have their PE kits in school every day. As Sports Evening approaches we will be taking advantage of additional opportunities to practice! Also pupils in Reception will need to have their PE kit in on Thursday as they will be taking part in a Premier Sports
led PE session as part of their Transition Day. Thank you.

Thank you
We are very grateful to Mr Burnell and to Mr Leighfield for their recent help with our on-going school grounds improvements.

P.T.A. News
A reminder that food tickets are available from the school office for Sports Evening on 15th July and are on sale until Friday 8th July. Please note: We will not be able to offer any tickets for sale after Friday the 8th July. You can purchase a Hot dog or a burger for the very reasonable price of £2.00 each and there is no limit as to how many you may wish to buy. This is the perfect way to end the school year – so order your food now and don’t miss out!

The P.T.A. is hoping that you will be able to support our last fundraising venture of the school year by donating any unwanted CDs and DVDs. If we can manage to collect a minimum of 250 discs, we can claim a free five-a-side football kit for the school! The P.T.A. has worked out if each family donates just five CDs or DVDs we will reach our goal easily and also raise £150.00 towards P.T.A. funds. If we exceed this amount the P.T.A. will obviously receive more money – plus the free kit!
To receive payment we need to collect CDs and DVDs that have their original notes and sleeves as well as a bar code on the reverse. Unfortunately we can’t send CDs or DVDs that have been given free in newspapers or magazines as these do not have a barcode. Also musicMagpie will only take CD albums, not singles.

Many thanks once again to all who entered cakes for The Great Stadhampton Bake Off 2011, it was a lovely event and the standard of the entries was extremely high! Extra special thanks must go to Miss Mould and Mrs Leiper for their help with refreshments and to former pupils Conall Fernie and Jessica Tombling for their help in setting up and clearing up after the event.

We are delighted to announce that the PTA will be producing a booklet with cake recipes and pictures very shortly so you and your families can try baking some of the entries yourselves over the summer holidays. There are still some Tupperware cake boxes left so if you are missing one please get in touch with Eimer Fernie or Diana Woodwards.

If you’re shopping online please remember to consider using The Giving Machine, the more money spent through The Giving Machine the more money the school receives! Their retailer list is huge and includes names such as, M&S, Early Learning Centre, Boots, Carphone Warehouse, Clarks, Matalan and Debenhams, link is below. You can set The Giving Machine as your homepage or add it to your bookmarks by clicking in the top right hand corner on their website.
http://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/

Little Bears News
Little Bears Pre-school will be holding their hugely popular Strawberry Fair once again on THURSDAY 7 JULY from 3pm onwards. There will be lots to do - tombola, lucky dip, craft stalls and more, plus lots to eat and drink as well as goodies to win.
Please join us and support Little Bears in the process - we're fundraising towards improvements for our garden area too!

DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 6th July, Thursday 7th July, Friday 8th July Transition days for all pupils. Reception Class mini-topic will be “All About Me”, Class 1 mini-topic will be “The Seaside”, Class 2 mini-topic will be “Cats” and Class 3 mini-topic will be “Pinocchio.”
Wednesday 13th June Class 3 visit to Banbury Museum
Friday 15th July Sports evening (weather permitting)
Wednesday 20th July Mobile Library
Friday 22nd July End of school year assembly at 9.05am in hall. All welcome.
Term 6 ends at 1.30pm
25th – 29th July Holiday course run by Premier Sports Group

Monday 5th & Tuesday 6th September Teacher INSET Days
Wednesday 7th September Pupils return to school
Wednesday 21st September School photographs