Newsletter for week ending 20th April 2012

Welcome back to everyone!

Happy APRIL Birthday to: Katende Amery, Thea Diment, Orla Fernie, Julian Fouquet-Burns, Charlie Hackett, Isabel Homes, Oliver Jones, Jamie Lavene and Samuel Sundberg.

During April we are focusing on the core value of “Thoughtfulness”

Class Topics/Areas of Study
An outline of the topics/areas of study for each class for Terms 5 and 6 should have been put in book bags today.

School Council Decorated Egg Competition
Thank you to everyone who took part in the School Council Decorated Egg Competition at the end of last term. Mr Stephen Dawson, a new school governor, was most impressed with the standard of the entries and finally declared the winners of each class as: Sam Sundberg in Reception, Charlie Austin in Class 1, Hannah Bradford in Class 2 and Georgia Valentine in Class 3. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part in the competition.

School Council for Terms 5 and 6
We are very pleased to announce that our members of the School Council for the Summer term (voted for by the pupils) are as follows:- Year 2 - Megan Green & Leo Burnell, Year 3 – Hannah Bradford & Oliver Lowman, Year 4 – Naomi Woodwards & Josh Matthews, Year 5 – Hannah Tombling & Jake Day, Year 6 – Megan Barber & Matt Green. Congratulations to them all.

“Out of the Woods Project”, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
We are very pleased to be working again with Mr Simon Clements, a local wood carver who carved the designs on our storytelling chair, on an art project entitled “Out of the Woods: The Art of Science at Wytham Woods” in collaboration with the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. Mr Clements is one of the three artists-in-residence in the Wytham Woods Project; Wytham Woods belong to Oxford University. The artists-in-residence have created a number of wood sculptures and wood cut and lino cut prints inspired by the wildlife of Wytham Woods which will be on exhibition at the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History from 12th May to 30th September 2012.

Stadhampton School is one of two schools to be invited to participate in this project by jointly creating a large collaged banner entitled “Canopy and Compost” reflecting the natural history of the life of a tree – from its crown to its roots! Pupils in all four classes will be involved in working on the banner which will be on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Olympic Games Tickets!
As a school we have been extremely fortunate in being allocated three tickets to the London Olympic Games.

They are for athletics in the Olympic Stadium at 10am on Saturday 4th August. In the first instance they are allocated for schools to enable a teacher and two pupils to attend the games however, unfortunately, none of the teaching staff are available on that date so we need to consider an alternative way to distribute the tickets. A number of ‘terms and conditions’ apply which control how we select the lucky recipients, for example we cannot sell the tickets (and nor can the recipients), the group must consist of one adult and two pupils from Stadhampton School.

This is clearly a fantastic opportunity for three people from our school community and we want to ensure that the tickets are allocated as fairly as possible. In line with the Olympic Organising Committee guidelines we are in the process of consulting the school community for their ideas and suggestions. We have already consulted with staff, pupils and representatives of the Governing Body and the PTA and have compiled a list of suggestions. We would now like to invite parents to submit suggestions, in writing, to the school office by Friday 27th April. We will update you with further information soon.

PTA NEWS
School Uniform - Price changes
The PTA supplies items of school uniform with the school logo on to parents. From the beginning of the Summer Term (16 April 2012) new prices will apply.

Sweatshirt
Cardigan
White Polo shirt
Blue PE T-shirt
Blue Baseball Cap
Blue PE Bag
Blue Book Bag £10.00
£11.00
£6.00
£5.25
£4.00
£4.00
£4.00

To get your school uniform visit Tracy Perring in the school uniform shop (held in Little Bears) on Thursdays between 3.15pm and 3.30pm. Alternatively you can order items by email: tracy.perring@talktalk.net

Clothes Recycling – 9th May
Look out for bags for clothes recycling in book bags this week. We will take any old clothes, shoes, belts, bedding (not pillows or duvets), towels and cuddly toys. If you need extra bags you can either get them from the PTA or just use black bin bags. Please let any neighbours and friends know who are having a clear out about our clothes recycling scheme.

All bags will need to be at the school by 9am on Wed 9th May.

Beautiful Plants
All families should have received the CD Bell Plant Order Form in bookbags before Easter. Don't forget to get your plant orders with Sarah Madry or into the School Office by Monday 23rd April. Plants will be delivered on Thursday 3rd May for collection after school.

Puzzle Trail
After the success of the Puzzle Trails last year we have a brand new one! Taking in the same routes as before, just one trail this time, but can be easily done in two trips or just complete half. Puzzle Trail sheets are £5.00. See Rowena Dobson for a copy or for further details.

Family Fun Day - Saturday 19th May
Come and have a great fun day out at our Family Fun Day in the School Hall from 1.30pm. There will be lots of exciting stalls including: a scrapheap challenge; puzzle trail winner; cakes and refreshments and lots of craft activities. We are on the hunt for any of the following items that we need for the various crafty activites and the junk heap challenge:
CLEAN, SAFE & interesting items - for example: eggboxes, yoghurt pots, cardboard tubes (not toilet rolls), cardboard boxes, childrens (or other) magazines, plastic plant pots, glass jars, etc.

We'd also like donations of sweets/chocolate for the sweet tombola, and any home made tray bakes, cupcakes, biscuits for the refreshment stall.

The more we have = the more fun to be had. So please start collecting these items for us. Thank You.
and finally...
Thanks to everyone who bought cakes at the end of last term - we raised £53.70. We also have the final amount we raised from the hugely popular children's bingo night - a fantastic £120.14. Thanks for all your support.


Little Bears News
We are continuing with our “weather” theme next week and exploring ice and snow. We are going to paint with ice, make some snow and also some snowflakes.


DIARY DATES:
Thursday 26th April Eye tests in the Hall for Reception pupils
Friday 27th April Guitar tuitions restarts for participating pupils
Wednesday 2nd May Year 5 pupils visit ICC for a maths lesson
Monday 7th May Bank Holiday – school closed
Wednesday 9th May Clothes Recycling Collection
Monday 14th May-22nd May SATs for KS1 & KS2 pupils
Saturday 19th May PTA Family Fun Day – 1.30pm start
Friday 1st June School finishes at 3.15pm
Monday 11th June Return to school for the start of Term 6