Newsletter for week ending 22 March 2013

Next week is a short week at school as we break up for the Easter Holiday at 1.30pm on Thursday 28 March, and therefore this will be the final newsletter of Term 4.

Message from the Governing Body to all parents/carers:

Governors’ response to the Ofsted Report
The 20th/21st February 2013 Ofsted report gave Stadhampton Primary School an overall rating of 'Good'. This inspection judgement means we are "a good school that is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for its pupils' needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education..."

By now hopefully you will have had a chance to read through this latest Ofsted report, you may even have had an opportunity to look at reports of other local schools to see how we compare.

As a process Ofsted is extremely rigorous and their visits are only announced the day before. It is therefore important to recognise the hard work of the entire school team and the pupils during this review process.


Receiving a rating of good for our school is something we should all be really proud of and celebrate, particularly when the improvements required are in areas that have already been identified within the school and activities are already in progress.


The benefits of 'Big Write' and 'Big Talk' have already made significant improvements in literacy and our results are outstanding. To complement the success in literacy and to ensure further success in maths, parents will be aware of the 'Active Maths' programme that pupils across the school will be engaged in during this, and future school years. Along with greater work with maths investigations, to place maths in real life contexts and a detailed maths action plan we are confident that our mathematics results will rise to match the literacy achievements.

We would like to thank the teaching team at Stadhampton Primary School for their continued hard work and dedication to the school . We encourage all parents to continue to support the school and pupils in their endeavours to help to ensure future successes and that outstanding judgement we are working toward.


We say goodbye and good luck to Miss Berrow and Miss Mansell who left us on Friday as their placement from Oxford Brookes University came to an end. We are pleased to welcome Miss Peet to Stadhampton School for two weeks for some work experience.


Planting Trees at Stadhampton School
Pupils in Reception and Class 1 planted trees this week as part of their second taster session of Forest Schools. This was in recognition of the first ever International Forest Day, a day proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in December last year to encourage all U.N. member countries to organize forest-related activities, including tree-planting campaigns. They also made amazing dens, built a pretend fire using a strike stick to make sparks, pretended to cook food, hunted for bugs, enjoyed group time on the hammock and explored more creative ways to climb.


Summer/Autumn Menu 2013
Copies of the new 4-week menu which will start after Easter have been sent home via book bags this week. The menu will be uploaded onto the school website once it is available electronically from Food with Thought.

Comic Relief
Thank you to all pupils and staff for joining in so enthuisatically with activities for the Comic Relief Day last Friday. We had a fantastic day and were very pleased to raise £204.14. Special thanks are due to Mrs Gonzalez, Mrs Wilkin, Miss Berrow and Miss Mansell for organising the day for us.

‘Jian-Zi’ Tournament
We held our annual ‘Jian-zi’ competition in school recently and congratulate Max Lansley who was our school champion with a score of 28 and whose name and score will be engraved on the trophy.Thank you to everyone for participating in this fun but nerve-wracking competition! We now have the results of the tournament held at Hazlach School in Poland and congratulate Wojciech Grygierek who had an amazing score of 118! If you would like to know what a ‘Jian-zi is, please ask your children!

PTA News

Friday Cake club
The lucky winner of the cake last week was Mr Short, kindly donated by Mrs Marianne Matthews. If you would like to pay for Friday Cake Club for next term before we finish for Easter, it is 20p per child per week, making it £1.20 up to May half term, or £2.60 to take us up to the end of the school year. Please see Rowena Dobson.

End of Term Chocolate Raffle
We would still be grateful for any donations of chocolate. Tickets will be on sale next week, 20p a ticket or £1 for a strip of 5, please catch Diana at the school gates to get yours.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at LB's we are preparing for Easter and also looking at the Hindu festival Holi. The children will be enjoying lots of messy painting fun this week and throwing paint in the garden to make a big Holi picture.

DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 27th March Easter Chocolate raffle
Thursday 28th March School finishes for Easter at 1.30pm
8th -12th April Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Monday 15th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5
Friday 19th April Junior Citizen – Class 3
Thursday 2nd May School closed to pupils for County Council Elections
Monday 13th – Friday 17th May SATs week
Tuesday 14th May Clothes Recycling Collection


Do you like having fun & enjoy being with children?

Chalgrove & Watlington Children’s Centre are looking for ‘bank staff’ for the Children’s Centre. The play workers will be working mainly school hours with young children & their families in the Centre at Chalgrove, Watlington & surrounding villages on an adhoc basis to cover staff holiday & training.

Their focus will be ‘stay & play’ sessions, holiday activities, occasional Saturday sessions & crèche work. They will need to have (or working towards) a recognised level 2 or 3 qualification relevant to early years.
Pay £7.64 - £8.89 per hour depending on experience

Please contact centre manager Helen Rints
07504 958334 or Helen.Rints@Oxfordshire.gov.uk for further details or an informal chat.
Application forms are available from the centre. 01865 400219

We would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter break and hope that Spring is just around the corner!

Newsletter for week ending 15 March 2013

Breakfast & After-School Club Provision
A reminder to parents/carers that we look forward to receiving completed after school provision questionnaires by the end of school today.Thank you to those who have responded already.

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

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

Thank you from the Governing Body.

Children and Cars
We are all aware that Cratlands Close is a bottleneck and can become very congested, especially at the beginning and end of the school day. To help alleviate this we currently open the school car park up to parents and carers of children at school and at Little Bears for dropping-off/picking up their children. We thank the many families who do all they can to avoid the need to park in the car park or in Cratlands Close. We have mentioned, on several occasions, that children and cars are not a good combination and, to avoid the potential of a tragic accident, once again respectfully request that parents and carers, as both pedestrians and motorists, are mindful of their own responsibilities and the needs of others, particularly the safety of children.

Waiting Area at the front of the school
Good news! The new surface area in the waiting area should make this a more user-friendly area again and we request that pupils are met in this area and do not cross the car park unattended. Thank you.

Message from Food With Thought
Beef is back on the menu at all Oxfordshire schools who use Carillion’s Food With Thought catering service. The precautionary measure was put in place temporarily to allay any concerns over horse meat contamination and because many parents didn’t want their children to eat beef.
We are delighted to inform you that all of our beef supplies that were tested for horse contamination from our local Oxfordshire butchers and national suppliers returned with zero equine DNA. Carillion will continue to monitor Food Standards Agency advice, and we assure you that the food provided through our Food With Thought catering service has the highest level of quality, nutrition and hygiene.

Woodlands Residential Visit – Report from Class 3 pupils
“Woodlands was a great experience. None of us will ever forget it. We did caving, canoeing, mountain walking, problem solving and Jungle Gym. We all learnt a number of skills and in just one week we did a number of activities that we’ll probably never have a chance to do again. We wish we could all go again”.

An Evening with Sue Palmer, Tuesday 19th March
A reminder that it is not too late to book a place at this very popular event which is being held at Icknield Community College, Watlington, at 7pm next Tuesday. Sue Palmer is an experienced professional educationalist and is the author of many books and educational publications. She is perhaps most widely known for her books ‘Toxic Childhood’ and ‘21st Century Boys’. She is also a well-known, engaging and thought-provoking speaker and will be talking about the pressures of being a child in 21st century Britain, the impact of modern Britain on childhood and how parents and professionals can support children in their care.
The event is free but please register your interest with Helen Rints on 07504958334 or e-mail Helen.Rints@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

West End School Dance Workshops and Displays
On Wednesday 13 March, as part of our planned events to celebrate World Book Day, all pupils were involved in class workshops designed to bring stories to life through dance. Greg Herst, a professional dancer who regularly dances in West End musicals in London, led the children through their interpretation of the stories through dance. His energy and animation captured the children’s imaginations and their portrayal of the stories in such a short time was amazing. All four dances were presented as a display at the end of the day and were watched by the many families who were able to join us. Thank you for coming – we hope you were as impressed as we were!
Thank you also for the many fantastic book-character costumes that you provided on that day. The children looked amazing and their character ‘mind-set’ may well have helped them to get into role for the story-telling dance. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support.

Report by Orla and Marcin – Class 3
“On Wednesday we were all lucky enough to receive some training in the art of dance by a real West End choreographer! Class 3 danced in a show of ‘Pinocchio’. We did it all through dance – there were three groups of us and each group had a different part of the story to act out, from being puppets to forming a whale! Class 2 performed a dance based on ‘The Butterfly Lion’. Class 1 gave a lively dance about ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and Reception decided to be trolls!
We all enjoyed it and surprised ourselves with our dancing ability. It was really good fun, even if the moves were really quick and we got out of breath!”

Forest School Taster Sessions
Pupils in Reception and Year 1 this week thoroughly enjoyed their taster sessions of Forest Schools, kindly led by Poppy Elliott. Pupils looked for bugs, made mud pies in the mud kitchen, climbed trees, relaxed in the hammock, built dens and practised their balancing and co-ordination skills on the logs. And the exciting thing is they get to do it all over again next week! We are most grateful to Little Bears for facilitating this opportunity for school.

PTA News

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Thea Diment, the winner of Friday’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Halliday. A reminder to Mrs Sam Green that she is on the cake rota for Friday 22 March.

We have 4 slots left on the rota to take us up to the end of the school year, so if you would like to volunteer to donate a cake, please see Rowena Dobson.

'Boogie' Bingo
What an evening! The feedback we've had is that 'Boogie' Bingo was a huge hit, and we've already had requests for another one! We raised £305, so thanks to everyone who came along and had a great time, also thanks to everyone who helped on the night. An extra special thank you to Rowena & Gareth Dobson for putting it together and hosting such an amazing evening.

Easter Chocolate Raffle - Wednesday 27 March
We would still be grateful for any donations of chocolate for this event. Thank you.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week we are creating houses for our superheroes. Please bring in any junk to help us create some excellent bat caves and castles.

DIARY DATES:
Saturday 16 March Brookes Science Bazaar. Free fun for all the family at the Headington Campus–11.00-4pm. No need to book, but please note that there is no parking available at this event. Leaflets with more details are available from the school office.
Wednesday 27th March Easter Chocolate raffle
Thursday 28th March School finishes for Easter at 1.30pm
8th -12th April Holiday Course at Stadhampton School
Monday 15th April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5
Friday 19th April Junior Citizen – Class 3
Thursday 2nd May School closed to pupils for County Council Elections

Newsletter for week ending 8 March 2013

OFSTED
Following our recent school inspection we have now received the final report from Ofsted. This means that we can now share the outcome and I am very pleased to be able to say that Ofsted judged us to be ‘good’ in every category. This is a very positive outcome. An electronic copy of the report is attached.

Ofsted is, quite rightly, a rigorous process and this judgement is a reflection of the on-going hard-work, commitment and professionalism of all members of the staff, the positive attitude of our pupils, the commitment of our governing body and the support and engagement of parents and carers. Together we make Stadhampton School the successful and special place that it is, and one to be proud of.

Thank you.

Any parents who are unable to access the report electronically are requested to ask at the school office for a paper copy. This includes any registered parents even if they are not living with their child.

Work-Viewing Evening
Unfortunately, due to a family bereavement, Miss Shah will be unable to be present for informal consultation during the work-viewing evening on Monday 11th. Pupils’ work will still be left out to enable parents to view their own child’s work. If any parents wish to speak with Miss Shah, she will be available after school on Tuesday 12th March f5rom 3.30 until 5.30pm.

Message from the Governing Body
Members of the Governing Body will be available at the work viewing evening on Monday to discuss the Governing Bodies role and the school's plans for the future.

Reminder:
In the school survey at the end of last year the statement "This school keeps me well informed" attracted the least positive response. 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.

Jason Hector, Chair of Governors

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.

School Website
Please have a look at the school website to see the additions this week:
• PTA information
• Woodlands photographs from Class 3’s residential visit

Comic Relief, Friday 15th March
This year we are supporting Comic Relief in several ways:

Every child is invited to contribute one joke to be included in the Stadhampton Red Nose Joke Book. The books will be sold for £1 each to help raise money for Comic Relief. Please put your jokes on a folded slip of paper (no sharing yet!) into the box provided in the hall by the end of school on Tuesday.

Red Noses for Comic Relief are now on sale from the school office, priced £1.

Wear something red for Comic Relief. We would like to invite children to pay £1 on Friday 15th to wear something red and/or funny (for example brightly coloured odd socks!) Please do bear in mind that it is still a school day and children will be expected to participate in normal lessons.

The pupils will also be busy making mouth-watering delights for you and you will be able to taste these tempting treats after school in the hall for a small donation.

And the fun continues in the School Hall at 3.30pm – come along and witness a very hairy experience (perhaps whilst eating your cake!!)

The teachers will also be providing a hair-raising surprise on the day!!


PTA News
Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to James Lowman for winning the cake on Friday, kindly donated by Angela Malley. A reminder to Mrs Marianne Matthews that she is on the rota for Friday 15th March.

Easter Chocolate raffle - Wednesday 27th March
Tickets will be 20p each, £1 for a strip of 5.

We need your help with donations of anything chocolate - please give any items to a member of the PTA, or leave them in the red PTA box in the school hall. Thank you.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears we will be creating superhero names and talking about what makes a good superhero. We will also be making ID cards for our superheroes.

DIARY DATES:
Sunday 10 March Mothering Sunday Service at St John the Baptist Church at 9.30am
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
Friday 15th March Comic Relief activities in school
Saturday 16 March Brookes Science Bazaar. Free fun for all the family at the Headington Campus–11.00-4pm. No need to book, but please note that there is no parking available at this event. Leaflets are available from the school office with more details of this event.
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 1 March 2013

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

During MARCH we are focusing on the core value of HOPE

Woodlands
Hopefully all parents will have been able to log on to the school website to read regular reports of Class 3’s visit to Woodlands. I went down to Woodlands on Tuesday evening and joined in the activities on Wednesday. Both groups were canoeing on the River Wye and were thrilled with having managed to safely naivigate down several small rapids! I won’t give too much away as they will want to tell you themselves. All pupils seem to be really enjoying the experience, working well with each other and integrating with the pupils from North Kidlington school when they meet up at mealtimes. They will all have benefitted from the challenging outdoor activities and residential routines that are carefully planned to develop each pupils’ self-awareness, ability to work with others, communication skills, responsibility and initiative. All pupils are given the opportunity to lead and are taught about hazard recognition and risk control. By the end of the week they will have developed a deeper understanding of themselves and the contribution they can make to group success. They will return home tired but buzzing with memories that will last and influence them into the future.
The arrangments for coming home are as conveyed in the letter sent home on 6th February. They will leave Woodlands at 5pm today and are expected to arrive at North Kidlington at approximately 7.45-8.15pm and then arrive at Stadhampton at approximately 8.30-9.00pm. Any significant change to this timing will be circulated to parents via the parent/carer contact tree.

Double–decker bus
We would like to let everyone know about our exciting project to purchase a double decker bus to have in the school grounds! With our increasing number of pupils on roll we have been exploring different affordable options to increase our accommodation. Over the last few months the staff and governing body have been investigating the possibility of using a converted double-decker bus to provide additional teaching accommodation. We believe that this would provide an affordable, exciting and flexible resource for both present and future pupils at Stadhampton School. The idea is that we would use it as our school reference library and we would then be able to free up the exisiting library space to use as an additional room for working with small groups, hold meetings, etc. We plan to house the library in the downstairs section of the bus and then upstairs to have bus seats and some tables as well as a carpet area for small group work, clarinet and recorder lessons, etc. If anyone has any useful contacts who we might be able to approach for help with respraying the outside, upholstering seats, increasing our resources with some additional books, and anything else which might be useful, Mrs Hopkins would love to hear from you. We have already looked at one bus which we decided needed too much work but have plans to see another bus very soon. We shall shortly be preparing the groundwork and putting down a suitable base for the bus to be parked on. Watch this space!

The Great Daffodil Appeal
Daffodils to support Marie Curie Cancer Care are now on sale in the school hall. Every donation made for a daffodil will help to nurse patients with terminal cancer and provide support for families. The suggested donation is £1 for each daffodil purchased.

PTA News
Adults Boogie Bingo - Friday 8th March, 7.30pm
Don't forget to get your tickets for this event.

• £7 for entry to Boogie Bingo and Fish & Chip supper - all orders must be in by after school on Monday 4th March
• £2.50 for entry to Boogie Bingo only - you can buy tickets right up until the evening itself.

We would like to hold a raffle at the Boogie Bingo evening - we would be grateful for any donations that would make suitable prizes.

Friday Cake Club
Well done to Jake Day who won the cake donated by Mrs Bradford last week. A reminder to Mrs Halliday that she is on the rota for Friday 8th March.

Childrens Bingo
Thank you to everyone who supported this evening, with help on the night, making cakes. Special thanks to Mrs Bateman for being, as usual, our excellent bingo caller, and to Mrs Birtles for donating the lovely bulbs as a thank you gift to Mrs Bateman.

Easter Chocolate Raffle -Wednesday 27th March
We will be holding an Easter Chocolate Raffle the last week of term as there will be no Friday Cake Club. Tickets will be 20p each, £1 for a strip of 5.

We need your help with donations of anything chocolate - please give any items to a member of the PTA, or leave them in the red PTA box in the school hall. Thank you.


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears we will be talking about real life superheros and people who help us.
We will also be preparing something for our superhero mummy's.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 4 March Mid-Year Summary Reports sent home this week
Friday 8 March Adult Boogie Bingo at 7.30pm
Sunday 10 March Mothering Sunday Service at St John the Baptist Church at 9.30am
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
Friday 15th March Comic Relief – watch this space for details of activities!
Saturday 16 March Brookes Science Bazaar. Free fun for all the family at the Headington Campus–11.00-4pm. No need to book, but please note that there is no parking available at this event. Leaflets are available from the school office with more details of this event.
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

Attachments:
1. An Evening with Sue Palmer (author of Toxic Childhood & 21st Century Boys on Tuesday 19 March at 7pm Icknield Community College – FREE event but please register your interest with Helen.Rints@Oxfordshire.gov.uk
2. Two-day workshop promoting positive behavious in children aged 0-12 years on Saturday 9 & 16 March from 9.30-1pm at Chalgrove and Watlington Children’s Centre. Contact Jane Bellars on 07920 070304 or Denise Hooper on 07948 348632.
3. Holiday Course at Stadhampton School from 8th to 12th April led by Michael Hopkins