Newsletter No 3 - 23rd February 2011

Starting School
Parents with a child born between 1st September 2007 and 31st August 2008 must apply for a school place for entry in the academic year beginning September 2012. The closing date for applications is 16th January 2012. You may apply on-line at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/admissions or by completing a paper CAP form available in the “Starting School” booklet, which is available from the school office, if you have not already received one from the Local Authority.

Year 6 Secondary School Applications
Families of Year 6 pupils should have received a letter from the Admissions Team at Oxfordshire County Council explaining the process for applying for a place at their chosen secondary school. If Year 6 parents have NOT received this letter, please ask Mrs Hopkins for a booklet which contains the application form. The closing date for on-time applications is 31st October.

Boiler replacement works and impact on car park
The safety fencing securing the area set aside for the workmen impacts on the number of spaces available in the school car park. We ask that parents try to find alternatives to parking in the car park, especially at the end of the school day, unless unavoidable. The taxis transporting Stadhampton School pupils and Mr Cuddy, our cleaner-in-charge should be the only cars/vans parking by the kerb alongside the front door. We thank parents for their understanding and co-operation in this matter.

End of day collection
Thank you to all parents for waiting in our enclosed outside area when picking up your child(ren). This system works well with Reception parents walking round the school (when the lock is taken off the gate.) The area outside Class 1 is now less busy and so it is easier for the small children to see their parents and get through the gate. When the weather changes, please do still stay outside the gate so that all children in the school can pass easily through Class 1’s outside/covered area.

Work Party
We are most grateful to the Dad’s who helped to prepare and seed the old climbing frame area on Monday evening.

Parent support hearing readers in Classes 1,2 and 3
Thank you to the parents who have responded to the requests from class teachers to help hear pupils read in school. We realise that time is precious and your support is much appreciated. We would still welcome further offers of help – if you would like to volunteer, please speak to your child’s class teacher. It is especially helpful if parents are able to commit to a time slot on a regular basis, even if it is only for a 6-week period for example.

Music for Youth Schools’ Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 9th November 2011
We are delighted that Stadhampton School is one of the 34 schools selected to represent Oxfordshire in the Music for Youth Schools’ Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 9th November this year. We are only able to take one year-group to this prestigious event and, on this occasion, our Year 6 pupils will have this priviledge. A choral work, called “Oxonia” has been composed specifically for the event by Dr John Traill, composer in residence at the University of Oxford and the pupils have already started rehearsing with other Oxfordshire schools. This is the first time that Stadhampton School pupils have been involved in this event and it is very exciting for all involved – it sounds tremendous!

Information leaflets for pupils
This week we have sent home, via bookbags, two leaflets for parents of pupils in Classes 1, 2 and 3. These are: “Supporting your child at home in Mathematics” to provide information and ideas linked with the maths your child will be learning in their current year group and a “Big Writing” information sheet outlining a fresh approach in Literacy which we are adopting to continue to raise the profile and standard of writing. From time to time this initiative will involve “Talking Homework” for you to discuss together at home. The themes for discussion will be sent home via bookbags prior to each class’s Big Writing session. We do hope you will enjoy being involved in this initiative.

Harvest Gifts
We hope that each child will be able to bring in a small Harvest Gift for our Harvest Service on Friday 7th October. This will take place in the Hall at 9.05am and families are most welcome to join us. After the Harvest Service in the village church on Sunday 9th October, the gifts will be taken to The Porch, a centre in Oxford for homeless people. The Porch prefer to receive items such as packets of pasta, tins of beans, bars of chocolate, packets of biscuits, tins of tomatoes, tins of spaghetti, etc rather than fresh produce. Thank you.

Thank you to the P.T.A.
The P.T.A. works extremely hard to support this school socially and financially and their generous contributions make a huge difference to the provision of “extra” opportunities and facilities for all pupils at Stadhampton School. At the recent P.T.A. AGM there was an election of officers and there have been some changes. We would like to take this opportunity to say a big “thank you” to Mrs Madry (Chair) and Mr White (Treasurer) both of whom have stood down as officers, for their hard work and tireless support of the school. Congratulations to the new Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. We look forward to working with you.

P.T.A. News – final message from Mrs Madry
Thank you to those parents who came to the A.G.M on Tuesday 20th September. The P.T.A. is very pleased to announce that a new constitution has now been put in place according to NCPTA recommendations. We are also pleased to announce that the key officer roles have been filled by Diana Woodwards – Chair, Charlotte Hector - Treasurer and Rowena Dobson – Secretary. We wish them lots of luck for the year ahead in their task of continuing to raise extra funds for the children.
We have arranged another meeting for Tuesday 4th October 8.00pm in the School Hall where we will be planning the first fundraising events of the year. Please come along if you can and help support us - your P.T.A. needs you!
Some of the P.T.A. fundraising events that are already underway that we would like to remind you of are:

• The CD/video/computer games collection has now reached over 100 items!! Please keep bringing them into school.
• Please note our next clothes recycling collection will be on Wednesday 16th November at 9.00am. (Not the 4th as previously advertised – sorry our mistake!) Look out for the recycling bags in book bags the week beginning Monday 10th October.
(All details of the two above fundraisers can be found on our fact sheet sent home at the start of term)
• Mrs Tracy Perring will be offering parents the opportunity to purchase certain items of school uniform from the Uniform Shop on Thursday afternoons in Little Bears from 3.15 to 3.30pm. Please make a note that the shop will close promptly at 3.30! A small proceed from sales goes towards P.T.A. funds.
• Hopefully all families should have received a form inside book bags giving you the opportunity to order plants through the P.T.A. Please can we remind everyone who wishes to make a purchase to return your form and money back to the school office by Monday 3rd October. Thank You! We can now confirm that the delivery date for orders arriving at school will be Thursday 13th October.
• Finally, the P.T.A. is pleased to announce that in December, we have been chosen to be one of Waitrose’s charities lucky enough to receive a share of £1,000 that the supermarket generously donates each month. The Thame Branch of Waitrose has said that our collection box will be in store throughout December when shoppers can place their green tokens in it to help support us. Shoppers can collect green tokens at the checkout before they leave the store. The more tokens we get, the larger our share of the £1,000! If you shop at Waitrose please think of the children at the school. Start collecting your green tokens now and take them to the Thame branch in December to put in our collection box and help us receive a share of £1,000. Alternatively, if you don’t shop in Thame please drop your tokens into the school at your convenience and we will do the honours for you! There is a labelled collection box in the school hall.
• P.T.A. WARNING! – We would like to let parents/carers know that we will be offering the opportunity for you to purchase Christmas cards made by your children in October – Watch this space for more info to follow!

Little Bears News
Next week at Little Bears we will be looking at the shape of road signs and what they mean, talking about road safety and making lots of large vehicles with junk modeling. So look out all those old shoe boxes, milk tops, yogurt pots etc for this. On the 20th October we will be having a Pie Sale after school so please pop in or if you like to get baking all pie contributions will be gratefully received.

DIARY DATES:

Thursday 29th September Icknield Community College Open Evening
Monday 3rd October Meeting of the School Governing Body at 7pm
Wednesday 5th October Mobile Library visit
Friday 7th October Harvest Festival in school at 9.05am.
Wednesday 12th October Open Morning at Stadhampton School and Little Bears
Thursday 20th October Little Bears Pie Sale
Term 1 ends at 3.15pm
Friday 21st October INSET Day for teaching staff only
Monday 31st October Term 2 begins at 9.00am for all pupils
Wednesday 16th November PTA Clothes Recycling