Newsletter for week ending 22 February 2013

OFSTED
As you will be aware, we had an Ofsted inspection earlier this week. We cannot disclose the result or any details at this time as the official outcome is confidential until the final report is published by Ofsted in approximately 15 days time. However, following this very vigorous process, we are able to convey that we are pleased with the outcome.

Swimming for Class 2
Due to Class 3 being away for their residential next week, Class 2 will be swimming in their place on Monday 25th February. We will not make a request for a contribution towards the transport for this extra session, but please remember swimming kit!

Recorders
Recorder lessons will begin for all Key Stage 2 pupils on Monday 4th March.

Message from the Governing Body:

Breakfast & After-School Club Provision
As a Governing Body it is important for us to understand your requirements for childcare provision, ie, breakfast clubs and after school childcare. In order for us to assess whether providing childcare before and after school hours is a viable option, we need to understand the needs of parents and carers. We would therefore appreciate it if you would complete an online questionnaire to help us record your needs. Once we have collated your responses we will be able to contact some professional providers of these services. The survey results will allow them to assess whether there are enough children needing either breakfast club and/or after-school childcare and the details of the provision.

At this stage we cannot assure parents that there will definitely be childcare provision in the village, or who will provide it. The club will not be located on school premises as we do not have the necessary space available, nor will it be managed by school personnel.

The survey can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PMHDN2F

We would appreciate all responses by Friday 8th March. Thank you.

Governing Body

Message from Food with Thought
We recognise concerns over beef supply and that many parents would simply prefer their children not to eat beef at the moment. In light of this we are temporarily taking beef off the menu.

Carillion stands by its reassurances that the food provided through its Food With Thought catering service has the highest level of quality and hygiene. At the time of this letter, our suppliers have confirmed that they have not supplied us with any products or ingredients that have been sourced from any of the meat suppliers cited by the Food Standards Agency and that no meat products supplied contain the DNA of any species other than that declared on the packaging.

However, given the ongoing concern around horse meat contamination across the UK and Europe we have taken the decision to remove all beef from lunchtime menus. We feel this precautionary approach is the most sensible course of action in the current situation.

In the three weekly Food With Thought lunch cycle, beef appears five times. The menu changes are as follows:

Week One, Thursday. Cottage Pie to Shepherds Pie.
Week Two, Monday. Aberdeen Angus beef burger to breaded chicken portion.
Week Two, Thursday. Pasta Bolognaise to Cooked Chicken Strips.
Week Three, Tuesday. Lasagne to Moussaka
Week Three, Wednesday. Roast Beef to Roast Chicken.

Woodlands Reminders
Medicines and medical requirements
All medication and medical requirements must be brought to Miss Shah’s attention and all requests for the administration of any medication require completion of our school medical request form. All medication must be clearly labelled and given to Miss Shah on the morning of departure.


Shop and money
There is a small shop on site which stocks a variety of souvenirs and this will be open on the last evening. The maximum amount of pocket money will be £5.00 and this should be put in a named purse or wallet and handed into Miss Shah on arrival at school on the day of departure. Additionally, if anyone would like to buy a T-shirt, a further £5.50 (cash or cheque made payable to ‘Woodlands Shop’) should be put in a sealed, named envelope with ‘T-shirt’ written on it. This should also be handed in to Miss Shah on arrival at school on the day of departure.


Departure
Collection time for us is 7.30am on Monday 25th February. The school will be open from 7.15am so that everyone can assemble in the hall. Please be aware when parking that the coach will need access to the school car park. I understand that there is usually a brief toilet stop at Ross on Wye services but, apart from stopping to pick up the group from North Kidlington, this is the only scheduled stop. On arrival at Woodlands the children will be provided with a packed lunch before going out on activities.

We would like to wish everyone a fantastic trip and will post updates onto the front page of the school website at regular intervals.


PTA News
Children's Bingo - Friday 22nd March
Just to reassure all those who bought tickets for the Bingo, that no tickets are required - children will be let in after signing in.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Darcy Crook on winning the cake before half term, and thank you to Mrs Fernie for donating it. A reminder to Angela Malley that she is on the rota for 2 March.
For those wanting to pay in advance up to Easter, it's £1 per child.

Adults Boogie Bingo Night - Friday 8th March, 7.30pm
Tickets are now on sale for this event. Please see Diana Woodwards & Rowena Dobson in the school hall in the mornings.
• £7 for entry to Boogie Bingo and Fish & Chip supper - these need to be ordered by Monday 4th March.
• £2.50 for entry to Boogie Bingo only.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears are looking at the topic Superheroes.
Next week we will learning how to become a superhero. We will be talking about how a superhero might dress, making eye masks and capes (so as not to reveal our true identities.) Please do feel free to wear your pants over your trousers just like the heroes do!

DIARY DATES:
Monday 25 February – Friday 1 March Class 3 Residential Visit to Woodlands Outdoor Education Centre accompanied by Miss Shah, Mrs Scragg and Mr Hazeldine.
Extra swimming opportunity at Abbey Sports Centre for Class 2 pupils on Monday 25 February.
Monday 4 March Mid-Year Summary Reports sent home this week
Friday 8 March Adult Boogie Bingo at 7.30pm
Monday 11 March Work Viewing Evening (all classes) 3.15-6.00pm
Wednesday 13th March World Book Day event – West End Theatre in school all day
8th -12th April Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Friday 13th April Junior Citizen event for Class 3 pupils
Thursday 2 May School closed to pupils for County Council Elections

Newsletter for week ending 8 February 2013

UNICEF Collection
Thank you to everyone who sent pupils into school with change for the UNICEF Day for Change last Friday. We are pleased to announce that £82.20 was raised. Please have a look at the photographs we have uploaded onto the School Website under the ‘Events’ section.

Work Viewing Evening- Monday 11 March 2013
Our annual Work-Viewing Evening, when parents and carers are welcome to look at their child/ren’s work, will take place between 3.15pm and 6.00pm on Monday 11th March. Pupils are very welcome to accompany their parents/carers and show them their work. Teaching staff will be in their classrooms from 3.30pm and are available for brief, informal consultation but there is no appointment system and parents/carers should be aware that any conversations are unlikely to be private. Mid-Year Summary reports for all pupils will be sent home during the previous week.

Green Energy Bus
Photographs have now been uploaded onto the School Website of the visit by the ‘green’ bus to Stadhampton School.

Message from the Governing Body
Dear Parents/Carers,
At the last full Governing Body meeting we discussed the feedback you provided in the annual parents questionnaire. As you may remember from a previous newsletter your feedback was very positive with 92% of responses in Agree or Strongly Agree and there were no (0%) Strongly Disagree responses to any of the statements. The proportion of returned questionnaires was lower than in previous years.

In analysing your feedback some contradictions came to light. While the 3rd and 4th best scoring statements were "This school helps my child to develop skills in communication, reading, writing and mathematics" and "My child is taught well at this school" respectively, one of the lower scoring statements was "My child is making good progress at this school".
What was clearer was that the statement "This school keeps me well informed" attracted the least positive response with 11% (5 responses out of 42) disagreeing with the statement, while 40% strongly agreed and 49% agreed with the statement.

In order to better understand how the school could improve in informing you, we would like to offer parents/carers an opportunity to follow-up and clarify your thoughts, and suggestions to the Governing Body by providing a comment to the school. Any comment you make can be anonymous and should be left in a comments box that will be available at the Work Viewing Evening in March.

Regards
Jason Hector
Chair of Governors.

Music Lessons for the week 25th February to 1st March
As Class 3 pupils will be on their residential visit to Woodlands Outdoor Education Centre for the week of 25th Febraury to 1st March, there are some changes to the extra-curricular music lessions that some children participate in. We understand that arrangements are as follows:
Clarinet (Miss Howell) – there will be no lesson for any pupils and the missed lesson will be added to the lessons received in Terms 5 & 6.
Guitar (Mr Payne) – there will be no lesson for any pupils (including those in Class 2) and, the lesson missed will be added to the lessons received in Terms 5 & 6.
Piano (Mrs Drake) – there will be no lesson for pupils in Class 3 that week but pupils in Class 2 will receive their lesson as usual.

If any parents wish to receive any further information please contact your child’s music teacher. Thank you.

Sainsbury Vouchers
“I'm passionate about inspiring kids to try a new sport. And that's exactly what Active Kids is all about - encouraging kids to try, and hopefully really enjoy something new.”
David Beckham - Active Kids Ambassador

Please collect Active Kids vouchers when you shop at Sainsbury's between 30th January and 22nd May and donate them to us so that we can then redeem them for sports equipment. Thank you.

After School Clubs
Letters about the after school school clubs available in Term 4 should be in book bags today.
On offer in Term 4 are:
• Tag Rugby and Netball Club on Mondays – maximum of 16 pupils in Years 3-6.
• Multisports Club on Wednesdays – maximum of 25 pupils in Years 2-6.
• Gymnastics Club for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils on Thursdays - maximum attendance is 20 pupils.

PTA News
Friday Cake Club
Well done to Miss Shah for winning the cake last week, kindly made by Mrs Diment. A reminder to Mrs Bradford that she is on the rota for 22nd February, the first Friday after half term.

Children's Bingo
Have you any 'good as new' items that you could donate as prizes for the children's bingo - if so, please put them in the red PTA box in the school hall. Thank you.

Swimming at Berinsfield
To clarify the arrangements for swimming in Term 4:
• Class 2 will have their last ‘normal’ swimming session on Monday 18th February. This is the last week of the sessions paid for in Term 3.
• Class 2 will have an additional swimming opportunity on Monday 25th February as Class 3 are away on their residential visit. As we are aware that Class 2 pupils went on a trip to Sulgrave Manor quite recently, we shall not charge parents for the transport for this extra session.
• Class 3 pupils begin their 4 swimming sessions from Monday 4th March until Monday 25th March. We hope that parents will be willing to contribute to the cost of the swimming transport for these sessions, which equates to £2 per pupil. Cheques for swimming contributions should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School. Thank you.

Half Term Archery Sessions
Mr Ken Chrisp, who has been giving archery lessons at school recently, has asked me to let you know that he is running two archery sessions at the Abbey Sports Centre during half term. They are from 10:30 to 12:00pm on Tuesday 12th February and Friday 15th February. The sessions are restricted to children who are over 8 years old. Anyone interested in booking a place should contact the Abbey Sports Centre on 01865 341035.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears are returning to the topic of ‘Superheroes’ on the 18th February which should prove to be popular with the children.
Have a great break everyone and see you in a week’s time.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 18 February Return to school for the start of Term 4
Tuesday 19 February Reception pupils eye checks
Friday 22 February Children’s Bingo 5.30 to 7pm
Monday 25 February – Friday 1 March Class 3 Residential Visit to Woodlands Outdoor Education Centre accompanied by Miss Shah, Mrs Scragg and Mr Hazeldine.
Extra swimming opportunity at Abbey Sports Centre for Class 2 pupils on Monday 25 February.
Monday 4 March Mid-Year Summary Reports sent home this week
Friday 8 March Adult Boogie Bingo at 7.30pm
Monday 11 March Work Viewing Evening (all classes) 3.15-6.00pm
8th -12th April Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Thursday 2 May School closed to pupils for County Council Elections

Have a great February Holiday!

Newsletter for week ending 1 February 2013

Happy FEBRUARY Birthday to: Charlie Ball, Tillie Moss-Black, Jemima O’Brien, Will Parkes Alexandra Robinson and Daniel Robinson.

During FEBRUARY we are focusing on the core value of SIMPLICITY

We are pleased to welcome Miss Emma Brandon, a student from Henley College undertaking a Level 3 Childcare qualification, into the Foundation Stage Class for some time each week until the end of March. We are also pleased to welcome Miss Helen Berrow and Miss Stephanie Mansell, two PGCE students from Oxford Brookes University, into Class 1 for their second school teaching experience.

Staffing Changes
We are very fortunate to generally have low staff turnover, however, from time to time other opportunities and factors outside school mean that there are inevitable changes. During the next few months there will be some changes to support staff arrangements in school and these are as follows:-
After three and a half years working as a Teaching Assistant here, Mrs Leiper has decided to take up an opportunity to return to her former career in the hotel business and will be leaving us at the February half term holiday. Mrs Leiper has supported teachers across the school and was closely involved in the early stages of developing our dedicated Reception class. We will miss Mrs Leiper and wish her well in her new venture. She is still planning to maintain links with the school by continuing to organise the bottle top collections for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance and we look forward to seeing her then. We will have a card for Mrs Leiper in the school office and anyone wishing to sign it would be very welcome to do so.
After the February holiday, Mrs Catherine Roe, who is a qualified teacher, will temporarily fulfil Mrs Leiper’s role for six weeks until the Easter Holidays. After the Easter Holidays Mrs Shortman, who currently works in school both as our cook and as a part-time Teaching Assistant , will no longer be our school cook and will extend her TA hours to fulfil Mrs Leiper’s role on a permanent basis. This means that Food With Thought, who oversee catering for Oxfordshire County Council and currently employ Mrs Shortman as a cook, will be recruiting a new cook for us. Whilst we will be very sorry that Mrs Shortman will no longer cook our school meals after Easter, we are delighted to secure her additional hours as a well-established Teaching Assistant.
In addition, Mrs Shortman will be supporting Miss Mould and the children in Reception on Friday afternoons after the February half term holiday, on a regular basis instead of Mrs Wilkin who has other commitments outside of school on Friday afternoons.

Road Closure
We have been advised that Oxfordshire County Council have programmed to carry out some carriageway maintenance works on two stretches of the B480 road a) between 75m north and 60m south of the B4015 junction in Chiselhampton village, b) a 220m length west of Brookhampton Close in Stadhampton. Due to the narrowness of the carriageway and the nature of the works to be undertaken it will be necessary to close the B480 and by default, as there will be no access to the B480 for through traffic, the B4015 back to the A4074. The road closures will be for a week commencing 4th February 2013 however this timescale may change or be extended should inclement weather or unforeseen issues arise during the works. For those who live or work along the B4015, access will be available from the A4074 to Chiselhampton, but not onto the B480.

The Watlington Partnership of Schools Swimming Gala, 28.01.2013
Yet again we are very proud of our pupils who did so well at this week’s Swimming Gala. Here is a report from some of the team:
“On Monday 28th January 2013, three Year 6 and three Year 5s were chosen to go to the Swimming Gala. We were: Ben, Ella, Owen, Thea, Matthew and Millie. We all did very well in most races. First of all we all had heats, where we had to do either; front crawl, breast stroke or back stroke – or even all three! There were also relay races. Stadhampton were taking part against, Watlington, Lewknor, Chalgrove and Ewelme Schools. We felt surprisingly excited and nervous at the same time; some members of the team hadn’t taken part before, whereas Matthew and Ben had the previous year. After an exhausting one and a half hours we found out who had won! In 5th place was Lewknor, 4th place Chalgrove, 3rd place Ewelme (17 points), 2nd Stadhampton (26 points) and in 1st place was Watlington (33 points)! Thank you to Mrs Perring and Mrs Duke for their support and helping with transport. We’ll be aiming to reclaim the trophy next year!”

Waiting Area development
We are very aware that, with all the recent wet weather combined with the heavy foot-fall, the condition of the grass in the Waiting Area is far from ideal. Our intention is to replace the grass with an all-weather surface and we are currently seeking quotes from several companies to provide the best solution.

Green Energy Bus
Last week the children enjoyed a visit from the Green School Bus which offered workshops and activities for KS1 and KS2. These workshops are aimed to challenge the way the children think about energy and waste and enable them to take action in the school and local community. Here are the activities the children carried out and some of their comments:
Class 1 carried out an activity about compost.“We got to feel the soil and to talk about recycling”. “I liked the question-which one looks more firm for the animals?” “It was good. We got to see the fly move if there were any creatures in the compost” (Myles, Ellie and Tillie).

Class 2 had a debate about energy.“I really enjoyed going on the bike and the things in the bus. When we blew into a fan, it turned it around and made electricity to turn on a light” (Alfie).

Class 3 looked at electricity. “It shouldn’t have run on diesel but solar panels”.“It was great fun. Only a few people managed to start the radio by peddling the bike” (Bryce and Rhys).

Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins, will be running a 5-day Easter Holiday sports course here at Stadhampton School commencing Monday 8th April between 9am and 3pm. All pupils of primary school age are welcome to attend. The cost will be £10 for the day or £40 for the full 5 days. The emphasis is on having fun and will include playing a variety of sports, games and mini-tournaments, mainly outdoors if the weather permits. Bookings may be made directly with Mr Hopkins (see flyer attached) or via Mrs Hopkins in the school office.

Letter from Icknield Community College
Please find attached to this newsletter a letter to parents from ICC relating to their possible conversion to Academy status in the future.

Missing Coat
Amy Freeman’s black wool full length coat from Next is missing. Apparently other pupils have the same coat. Please could everyone check that it has not been taken home by another pupil by mistake. Thank you.

PTA News
Apologies for all the errors that crept into our calender sheet we sent out last week - the details in the newsletter are the correct version!

Our last Clothes Recycling collection (last October) has raised £234.50. Thank you to everyone who donated items. The next clothes recycling collection will be in May 2013.

Children's Bingo & Hotdog Night - Friday 22nd February, 5.30 until 7pm
Bingo tickets are all sold out! If anyone has any 'good as new' toys or items that could be used as prizes, please put them in the red PTA box in the hall. Thank you.

Friday Cake Club
Mrs Gonzales was the lucky winner of the cake last week, kindly donated by Mrs Hector. A reminder to Mrs Fernie that she is on the rota for Friday 8 February.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week we are looking at the book ‘Elmers’ again. We are talking about reflections, looking at our own reflections so that we can make self portraits. We will also be making elephant trunks out of pasta and starting to make our Elmer milk carton elephants.
A huge thank you to Catherine and Annabel Roe who donated a beautiful cradle and babies; the Little Bears are really enjoying using it.

Item found on the Green
A valuable item has been handed into the School office which was found on the Green at the weekend. Please contact the school office if you believe the item may be yours.

DIARY DATES:
Tuesday 5 February Class 2 visit to Sulgrave Manor.
Friday 8 February Break up for the February Holiday at 3.15pm
Monday 18 February Return to school for the start of Term 4
Tuesday 19 February Reception pupils eye checks
Friday 22 February Children’s Bingo 5.30 to 7pm
Monday 25 February – Friday 1 March Class 3 Residential Visit to Woodlands Outdoor Education Centre accompanied by Miss Shah, Mrs Scragg and Mr Hazeldine.
Extra swimming opportunity at Abbey Sports Centre for Class 2 pupils on Monday 25 February.
Friday 8 March Adult Boogie Bingo at 7.30pm
Thursday 2 May School closed to pupils for County Council Elections