Friday, March 30, 2012

Newsletter for week ending 30th March 2012

Sport Relief
We were pleased to raise £55.50 for Sports Relief from donations made by people dressing up last Friday. Thank you.

Health and Safety Audit
Local Authority Health and Safety auditors recently visited the school to carry out an annual audit of our health and safety policies and procedures, including checking risk assessments, first aid procedures, fire safety and critical incident action plans. Health and Safety, along with ensuring that we have robust Safeguarding procedures in place is something which Ofsted scrutinise in detail when they visit the school and we are pleased to report that we were awarded “Outstanding” in this audit by the Local Authority.

Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins will once again be leading a Holiday Course at Stadhampton School in the second week of the Easter Holidays, i.e from Tuesday 10th April to Friday 13th April inclusive. The course will run from 9am-3pm each day and the cost will be £6 a day. If you have not booked in advance, it is possible to arrive a few minutes early and pay on the day.
A reminder that the course finishes promptly at 3pm each day.

School Council Decorated Egg Competition
What fantastically creative entries we have had! Thank you to everyone who has entered – they make a stunning display. The entries will be judged during the day on Friday 30th March and the winners will be announced in our afternoon assembly. We will inform everyone of the winners in our next newsletter.

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Swimming begins for Class 2 pupils on Monday 16th April. They will have 6 swimming sessions and, as always, we hope that parents are willing to contribute to the cost of the transport to the pool by paying £1 per pupil per week.
At present the school significantly subsidises the cost of the transport to Berinsfield and it is likely that, in line with other schools in the Partnership who have charged between £2.50 and £3 per week for the last two years, we will review the cost we ask parents to contribute from the beginning of the new academic year in September 2012.

School Meals
Please may we respectfully remind parents that payment for school meals (£2.10 a day) should be made on the first morning of the school week. In order to reduce administration time and save parents remembering to write a cheque each week, we are very willing to accept payment for as many days in advance that parents wish to pay for, eg for the whole term, for a month, etc. Cheques for school meals should be made payable to Oxfordshire County Council with Stadhampton School written on the back of the cheque. Thank you.

Plastic Bottles for the Greenhouse
Thank you for all recent donations of plastic 2 litre bottles and 6’ garden bamboo canes. Please continue to collect bottles for us over the Easter holidays. Thank you.

PTA News
Bingo Night
What a fantastic evening for the children and thanks to all the mums who stayed and helped. A big thanks also to Shirley our bingo caller for the evening - she did a fantastic job and the children really got into the spirit - lots of groans or cheers as the numbers were called. The children showed their appreciation by presenting Shirley with some beautiful potted mini daffodils very kindly donated by Eileen Birtles.

Clothes Recycling - Wed 9th May
Ready for spring cleaning? You can donate all of the following - clothes, shoes, belts, sheets, duvet covers (no duvets or pillows), towels and cuddly toys.

Plants for Spring
There is spring in the air and some of you may be keen to get out in the garden over Easter. The PTA are once again offering the opportunity to purchase hanging baskets, bedding plants and patio vegetables via the school. Plant order forms will be in book bags at the end of this week and we ask that you take a look at the plant supplier’s web site at www.cdbell.co.uk . The Company will donate 30% of all sales, with a further 5% on orders totalling £250, so this is a fantastic way of helping the P.T.A. Please return completed order forms with your payment to Stadhampton Primary School PTA in a sealed envelope to the school office, no later than Monday 23 April. The plants will be delivered at the beginning of May. NB: Please place your order through the school and not on the supplier’s website – thank you!

“Spring in the Woods” – Harcourt Arboretum
Flyer attached to this newsletter about an event at the Harcourt Arboretum on Saturday 21st April.


Little Bears News
Little Bears return on 16th April to the topic of “Weather”. They would like to welcome Freddie Watts and Cianna Browning who start at Little Bears in Term 5 and wish a belated Happy Birthday to Oliver Bourne and Jem Burnell.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 16th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5
Swimming starts for Class 2 pupils today.
Wednesday 18th April Mobile Library visit
Thursday 26th April Eye tests in the Hall for Reception pupils
Monday 7th May Bank Holiday – school closed
Monday 14th May KS2 SATs week
Friday 1st June School finishes at 3.15pm
Monday 11th June Return to school for the start of Term 6


We wish everyone a Happy Easter and a good holiday. We look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday 16th April.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Newsletter for week ending 23rd March 2012

Mother’s Day Flowers
We would like to thank Mr & Mrs Birtles who, once again, kindly donated daffodils for each child to surprise their Mum with on Mother’s Day. We would like to say thank you on behalf of all the parents who very much appreciate this generosity.

Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins will once again be leading a Holiday Course at Stadhampton School in the second week of the Easter Holidays, i.e from Tuesday 10th April to Friday 13th April inclusive. The course will run from 9am-3pm each day and the cost will be £6 a day. Booking forms are attached to this newsletter.

Summer/Autumn Menu
We are sending home today copies in book bags of Food With Thought’s new four week menu, which will begin on Monday 16th April. We shall also post this information onto the school website shortly.

School Council Competition
A reminder that the School Council will be running an Easter-themed competition on Friday 30th March. Please bring your egg in on Thursday 29th March so that they can be displayed in the hall and judged on Friday.

PTA News

Easter Themed Cake Sale – Thursday 29th March

We are having an Easter-themed Cake Sale from 3.15pm on 29th March in the covered area outside Class 1. Get creative and come up with something Eastery!

Children who are playing football after school will have an opportunity to buy cakes before the club starts, so please make sure your child has some money with them to avoid disappointment! This money will need to be in a named envelope or purse and handed in to the class teacher at the beginning of the day.

Clothes Recycling - Wed 9th May

Time to have a spring clean, and get rid of all those old clothes, shoes, bedding and cuddly toys. Bags will be in children’s book bags after Easter, and if you know any friends or neighbours that are having a tidy up please let them know about our clothes recycling scheme and that they can help raise funds for our school. Black sacks full of clothes are equally acceptable.

Eye tests for Y1 & Y6
The school health nurse has asked us to remind parents that opticians offer free eye tests for children. She suggests that it would be particularly appropriate for pupils in Year 1 and Year 6 to have a routine eye test.

Little Bears News
We are looking forward to our Easter bonnet parade on Friday which starts at 11.00am and all are welcome. We are also having a cake sale from 12.00 which will continue at 3pm after Forest Schools. Unfortunately the fire engine visit has been postponed to May, more details will follow.


DIARY DATES:
Tuesday 27th March Chess Club Final
Wednesday 28th March Maths Masterclass for participating pupils at ICC
Friday 30th March End of term assembly at 9.05am. All parents/carers welcome to attend.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 16th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5

Friday, March 16, 2012

Newsletter for week ending 16th March 2012

Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins will once again be leading a Holiday Course at Stadhampton School in the second week of the Easter Holidays, i.e from Tuesday 10th April to Friday 13th April inclusive. The course will run from 9am-3pm each day and the cost will be £6 a day. Flyers and booking forms are awaited from the Premier Sports Group and should arrive shortly. Any pupil who attends primary school (not necessarily Stadhampton School) is eligible to attend.

Sports Relief Activities on Friday 23rd March
All pupils will be taking part in our Sports Relief afternoon. We will all aim to walk or run the “Sports Relief Mile” and pupils may bring clothes to change into after lunch for dressing up as a sports personality. We hope that pupils who choose to dress up will be willing to donate at least 50p towards Sports Relief. Other fun activities, based on the Sports Relief idea of a “one minute mayhem” which pupils have thoroughly enjoyed in the past, will take place either inside or outside depending on the weather.

School Council Competition
The School Council will be running an Easter-themed competition on Friday 30th March. Your task is to make a Springtime-themed egg character! For example you could decorate an egg with paints and fabric to make an “Easter bunny” egg – complete with a cotton wool tail! You could even make a “backdrop” scene for your character to be placed in. A prize will be awarded to one child from each of the four classes based on the attractiveness of the egg and the originality of the design/approach. Please bring your egg in on Thursday 29th March so that they can be displayed in the hall and judged on Friday.

PTA News

Children's Bingo – 23rd March

We will be serving hotdogs to the children, if there are any vegetarian or other dietary requirements please let Rowena Dobson or Diana Woodwards know as soon as possible.

We would still be grateful for any new, small items that would be suitable as children's prizes for the bingo next week. Thank you for the items we have already received in our red PTA box.

Easter Themed Cake Sale - Thursday 29th March

Following the success and popularity of the Halloween/Bonfire cake sale we are going to have another cake sale, this time with an Easter theme, on Thursday 29th March from 3.15pm.

Watch out for more details next week, and in the meantime get your thinking caps on - we're really looking forward to seeing the results of everyone’s creativity and imagination.

School Coach Crash in Switzerland

Although we have no direct link with the recent catastrophic coach crash in Switzerland, we can all empathise with this tragic event and our thoughts are with the families and school communities of those involved.


Little Bears News

Next week we are learning all about the fire and rescue services; we are hopefully going to have a real fire engine visit Little Bears too. We are going to start our fire engine shoe boxes, so any more donations of shoe boxes would be very much appreciated.
Reminder about our Easter Bonnet Parade on 30th March from 11.00am, followed by a cake sale. All donations will be going towards our outside patio area.


DIARY DATES:
Thursday 22nd March Year 3-6 after school football tournament at RAF Benson. Letters were sent home in book bags on 14th March.
Friday 23rd March Sports Relief activities
Children’s Bingo and Hot Dog Evening
Tuesday 27th March Chess Club Final
Wednesday 28th March Maths Masterclass for participating pupils at ICC
Friday 30th March End of term assembly at 9.05am. All parents/carers welcome to attend.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 16th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5

Friday, March 9, 2012

Newsletter for week ending 9th April 2012

World Book Day - 01.03.2012
A big thank you to all families who paid £1 for their child to dress up for World Book Day. We were pleased to collect £71 from our 88 pupils which will be used towards our Diamond Jubilee celebrations in school.

Mid –Year Summary Reports
Mid-year summary reports for all pupils were sent home in book bags on Tuesday.

Opening Ceremony of our Biomass Boiler
Stadhampton School is the first school in Oxfordshire to install low-carbon technology, which runs on wood pellets instead of oil or gas. Manufactured by Ökofen, the 56kW-rated boiler is fed from a storage hopper which holds up to four tonnes of pellets, saving £500 per year in fuel. The projected rise in energy prices and new Government incentives for low carbon technologies were key factors in the final choice of a biomass boiler and the school is grateful to the Governing Body and in particular, Jolyon Roe, who spent a great deal of time considering the options available to the school when the old boiler reached the end of its life.

At the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Wendy Cheeseman, Energy Officer at Mouchel said that Stadhampton Primary has a strong track-record of eco-friendly projects, with recent efforts including sustainably-sourced wooden playground equipment and a giant ‘solar stopwatch’.The school’s Gardening Club is also planning to make a greenhouse out of hundreds of recycled plastic drinks bottles.Having also achieved Silver Eco-School status the school is working hard towards achieving its Green Flag – the top environmental award for schools.

Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Growth and Infrastructure added: “In the current environmental and financial climate it is increasingly important for schools to reduce their carbon footprints and bring down energy costs.

“I’m delighted this bold step is paying off at Stadhampton Primary and I hope other schools across the county will think about following suit.”

For families who are interested to know more about the biomass system or other energy-related environmental issues, there is a website aimed at 7-11 year-olds that you may wish to access. This is www.managenergy.net click on Kids corner (top left of screen) and then select Energy Magic from the menu, select the language you wish to access it in and then there is a choice of animations, activities and other games.

Gardening Club News
Spring is definitely in the air and the children will soon be sowing seeds for this year’s crops. We are hoping that some plants may even be raised under “glass” thanks to all of your efforts in collecting and bringing in clear, 2L plastic bottles. Although we are still some way off the 1500 bottle target, we are making really good progress. So, thank you all – and keep them coming! With all of the “green” school activity this week, we were very lucky to have a greenhouse panel constructed as part of the display. This is on show in the school hall and gives a really good idea of how the finished building will look. Please come and see for yourself. As a final request, we are running short of 6 foot bamboo canes. If you have any unused ones that you are willing to donate we would be very grateful to receive them. Thank you.

Tesco Vouchers
We are collecting Tesco Vouchers again this year, providing sports equipment for schools. Please ask your family and friends to also collect vouchers for us and put them in the collection box in the school hall. Thank you.

Change to School Dinners
Due to delivery problems, the roast dinner option for Tuesday 13th (Chicken) has swapped with Thursday 15th (Roast Beef). Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

PTA News
Quiz night

Congratulations to the ‘Muppets Rejuvenated’ who were the winning team at the quiz night on
Friday, with the 'Chizlers' coming a close second.

The fish and chips were delicious, and were washed down with plenty of drinks - I know that there were a few sore heads on the Saturday morning. Everyone had a really good night out, laughing at their (lack of) TV and film knowledge. If anyone would like a copy of the Quiz on CD for your own to do with friends or family, it can be yours for a small donation to the PTA. Please see Rowena Dobson.
Thanks to everyone who came, you helped us raise the fantastic total of £290.33!

Bingo Evening

If anyone has any new, small, items that would be suitable as children’s prizes for the bingo evening that they could donate we would be very grateful. Please put any donations in the red PTA box in the hall.


Little Bears News
Next week we will be exploring the occupation of a florist and making lots of Mothers Day “surprises”. We are also starting to plant some seeds.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 12th March Science Week begins
Work-viewing evening
Friday 23rd March Sports Relief activities
Children’s Bingo and Hot Dog Evening
Tuesday 27th March Chess Club Final
Wednesday 28th March Maths Masterclass for participating pupils at ICC
Friday 30th March End of term assembly at 9.05am. All parents/carers welcome to attend.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 16th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5

Friday, March 2, 2012

Newsletter for week ending 2nd March 2012

During March the school is focusing on the core value of TRUST

Happy March Birthday to: Darcy Crook, Emily Drake, Daniel Ellis, Hannah Lansley, Greg Madry, Hannah Tombling and Naomi Woodwards.

Visit by John Howell MP
We were pleased to invite John Howell, local MP for Henley, to school today to meet pupils, staff and governors and have a tour of our school. Members of the Governing Body showed him around the school including the new boiler, and took the opportunity to ask him questions on funding for small schools and future government policy.

World Book Day - 01.03.2012
A big thank you to all families who supported this event. We appreciate the amount of effort and organisation this takes; the children looked fantastic and the event helps bring literature to life. Thank you for the contributions already received – we will announce the total raised next week once we have had all contributions in.

Opening Ceremony of our Biomass Boiler
As you may know we are the first school in Oxfordshire to have a biomass boiler installed and there is much interest in this within Oxfordshire County Council and other schools. We are holding an official opening ceremony on Wednesday 7th March and during this time Councillor Lindsay-Gale of OCC will cut the ribbon. The event will be attended by other County Councillors, a number of representatives of Oxfordshire County Council, other headteachers, representatives of organisations involved in the installation, our own School Governors and, of course, ourselves.

Transition’ Day’s 2012
We would like to give you advance notice that Year 6 pupils will be attending their Transition Days at Icknield Community College on Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2012. During these three days all pupils at Stadhampton School will effectively ‘move up’ a year-group and have an opportunity to experience school life as it will be in September. Our new Foundation Stage pupils will also be invited to attend the three days in our Reception Class.

Brookes Science Bazaar 2012
As part of the 2012 Oxfordshire Science Festival, Oxford Brookes University will be holding their annual Brookes Science Bazaar on Saturday 17th March, 11am – 4pm, at their Gipsy Lane campus. Come along to the Main Reception for a range of drop-in sessions and competitions. This free day of fun-filled science activities is designed to encourage children aged 5-15 years and families to engage with science.
Discover the secret behind a dinosaur’s speed….
Explore gruesome boils and diseases….
Take part in the Insect Olympics….
Please note: no parking is available at this event.


Headlice
A parent has kindly let us know that their child has had headlice this week which has been treated. Please could all parents check their children’s hair this weekend and treat if necessary. Thank you.

Sibling Rivalry – Workshop
To be held at the Chalgrove Children’s Centre on Tuesday 13th March 9.30am–11.30am. An informal workshop discussing coping stragegies, offering practical advice and support.

International Jian-Zi Competition – Headteacher’s Report
During my visit to Hazlach School in Poland I attended the annual Jian-Zi tournament there. It was a very tense situation as they were very nervous and so was I! I knew our score but refrained from revealing it until after their tournament was over. In the end both Lukaz Weglarzy and Szymon Najetny managed to score 22, just beating Joe Mercer’s score of 19! We will have the trophy engraved and sent to Hazlach – until next year……

PTA News
Bingo & Hot Dog Evening – 23rd March
Tickets for this are now all sold out. With the way the orders came in thick and fast, this promises to be a great evening.

Next PTA Meeting – 13th March, 8pm, The Crown
We will be discussing fundraising activites for the rest of the school year, and you are all welcome to join us and discuss any fundraising ideas you have. All suggestions are gratefully received. If you can't attend but have any ideas or comments, please speak to one of the PTA members.


Little Bears News
We will be continuing with our topic of “occupations” and making a vets surgery at Little Bears. Children may bring in a cuddly soft toy pet and a photo of their pet.


DIARY DATES:

Monday 5th March School nurse weighing and measuring Reception and Year 6 pupils
Wednesday 7th March Mobile Library
Year 5 pupils visit ICC for an English lesson
Boiler opening ceremony with Cllr Lindsay-Gale and Cllr Ann Purse, headteachers from other schools, governors and personnel from OCC and Mouchel. We anticipate that there will be press coverage of this event.
Monday 12th March Science Week begins
Work-viewing evening
Friday 23rd March Sports Relief activities
Children’s Bingo and Hot Dog Evening
Wednesday 28th March Maths Masterclass for participating pupils at ICC
Friday 30th March End of term assembly at 9.05am. All parents/carers welcome to attend.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 16th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5