Newsletter for week ending 29 November 2013

Forest Schools Fundraising
Thank you to the organisers of the Music Evening, led and generously supported by Stephen Dawson, in collaboration with Bob and Frances Campbell and Sally Johnson, which was held in the Village Hall at St John’s Church on Saturday evening to raise funds for Forest Schools. The talents of pianist Eleanor Tinlin and saxophonist Otis Lawrence were amazing and a memorable evening was had by all in a very atmospheric settting. Thank you also to everyone who came along to support the evening and to those who provided raffle prizes, prepared and served food and drinks, cleared up afterwards, etc. We are particularly grateful for the support given by members of the community for this school project which helped to make the event so successful. The total raised from this event was an incredible £1739.33!! This means that we are much closer to being able to turn our plans into reality.

Forest Schools Disco
We plan to follow on from the success of the Music Evening and continue to raise funds for Forest Schools by holding a Children’s Disco in the school hall on Thursday 19th December from 6.00-7.30pm. The event will be primarily organised by Mr and Mrs Bowerman and Mrs Hopkins and tickets will be on sale shortly and available to all pupils who attend Stadhampton Primary School. Tickets will cost £3 each and will include squash and ‘nibbles’. There will also be a raffle held on the evening so we hope that children will be able to bring along some extra money to buy a raffle ticket or two. Raffle tickets will cost 50p each. Tickets for the disco will be on sale from Tuesday morning.

Unclaimed Drinks Bottles
We have a sizeable collection of unclaimed and unnamed drinks bottles which will be disposed of shortly. Please have a look at the collection in the Hall before they are thrown away. Thank you.

PTA Message to Parents

Winter Fair- THIS Friday 6-8pm
The day is finally upon us, please come and support the school, the evening should be a great event! We have a white polar bear stall, crafts, chocolate tombola, cakes, raffle and of course Father Christmas! Thank you for all your donations for this event.

The PTA committee would really appreciate any help after the event with the clearing up. Please give a hand if you possibly can.

Wreath Making Evening on Tues17th Dec 7.30
A very popular evening which is limited to just 20 people so please fill out the form which is in the office and return it to Georgina Wiggins ASAP to secure your place.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Megan Green who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Buckner. A reminder to Mrs Perring that she is on the rota for Friday 6th December.


DIARY DATES:
Friday 29 November PTA Winter Fair 6pm start
Monday 2 December Meeting at ICC about school transport consultation 7pm
Thursday 5 December Meeting of the Governing Body at 7pm
Friday 6 December Singing Club performing at the Christmas Market at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton at 4pm.
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances 1.45pm / 6.30pm
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only 2.15pm start
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service – The Village Hall at St John’s Church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears our book of the week will be ‘Aussie Christmas’.
We will be talking about how people celebrate Christmas all over the World.
Our nativity play will be on the 14th December and more details can be found at Little Bears.
Finally, our Christmas party will be on Friday the 20th December. Please see your key person for more details.


Home to School Transport Consultation – Message from Mr Hunter, Head of ICC

Can I please just give a final reminder that, on this coming Monday (2nd December) at 7pm, we will be welcoming Ian Hudspeth (Leader of Oxfordshire County Council) and colleagues with respect to the attached consultation on Home to School transportation.

While you may not believe this is of immediate relevance to you or your children currently at the school, if either of the two options proposed are adopted, it may very well be that you are affected with:

- a potential travel cost arising in Year 11 (for current Year 7's),
- siblings not yet at the school where travel costs may arise
- ongoing sixth form/college arrangements where the anticipated costs of travel for your children are likely to rise significantly.

Please do come along to hear the presentation by the politicians and the council representatives and, as importantly, please do respond to the consultation.

A good source of information and views can be found via Facebook with the cross county pressure group Oxford Schools Bus Action Group (OSBAG) from where the following potential issues have been collated:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxon-School-Bus-Action-Group/146863815505334

OSBAG have given suggestions on how you may want to respond to the consultation on their page.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS: Parents may find that, although they are still in the deemed catchment area for Icknield Community College, they would be faced with a £600 bill for transport if these changes are voted through. Parents of students within our Icknield Community College catchment area are affected (particularly parents in Benson, Chinnor and Stadhampton).

SECONDARY SCHOOLS: under one option drafted within the Consultation, current year 7 would be faced with charges from the start of year 11! This would clearly affect parents who may not be able to afford to pay and are not available to drive their children to school. They would potentially be faced with having to change schools, right in the middle of their GCSEs.

For future SIXTH FORM under the new proposals, sixth formers living more than 3 miles from their nearest provision will pay the higher bus fare (currently £492), regardless of whether they opt for their catchment school or not. Currently, the rules allow students choosing their catchment sixth form to pay the cheaper fare (currently £264). This could be regarded as an unfair penalty against children who live more than 3 miles from any school, through no fault of their own, but because there simply isn't one. Children in rural villages are likely to be disproportionately hit by this change. The higher amount may also be set to increase under the proposals.

Community News:
The village are holding a Christmas Market in the new church hall on Friday 6 December, from 3pm until 8pm. All families welcome, lots of stalls including:

Hungry Hill cakes Chocsford Patchwork Beads from Benin Beyond Bubbles

Free range turkeys Flowers at Oxfordshire Felt cushions Paintings Pottery

Bogolan art Wild flower seeds Gifts in linen and other tempting and lovely things besides home-made refreshments and Christmas music.

FREE ENTRY. All welcome. Come and see how the church now looks as it's been refurbished for use as a village hall outside of church services.

Newsletter for week ending 22 November 2013

Children In Need
Thank you to everyone for your fantastic support for Children in Need last Friday. Through pupils and staff paying £1 to wear their pyjamas to school and by raffling a Pudsey and a Blush bear we raised a total of £129. We also sold 36 wristbands at a cost of £1 each so the total for Children in Need was an amazing £165!

Coats and Wellies
Please could all pupils have coats and wellies in school every day now that the weather has turned colder and wetter.

Parents’ Evenings
Thank you to parents and carers for the usual very high turn out to our recent parents’ evenings. These occasions offer important opportunities for us to work closely together in the best interests of each pupil.

Class 2 trip to Chedworth Roman Villa
Last week, as part of their History topic on Romans, Class 2 visited Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire. Chedworth is a National Trust property and they offer an excellent education programme. Our guide, who was inspiring, was also very impressed with both the behaviour and knowledge of everyone in Class 2. Thank you to Mrs Garrard for identifying a new trip venue and well done Class 2! Here are some extracts from pupils’ reports:
“Class 2 went on a trip to Chedworth Roman Villa – we had a great time. We saw loads of real Roman objects and dressed up as slaves and put on tunics and special neck tags. We found out many new things and words – lots of them in Latin! We loved it and wish we could go every fortnight!”
“First we dressed up as Roman slaves then we made some Roman medicine using mustard, lavender, bay leaves and a hint of coriander. Then we visited the baths which were very deep. In Roman times people used olive oil instead of soap and would JUMP into the bath!”
“We saw some incredible mosaics but the toilets were disgusting!”
“It was fun because we used Roman equipment to make the medicines. We visited the spring where the water for the villa came from (it’s still in good condition.)”

Did you know…caldarium = hot room, tepidarium =warm room and frigidarium = cold room!

“P.S. Please go there if you haven’t been already, Roman’s Rule!”

Extracts from reports by Darcy, Phoebe, Georgia, Zara, Ella G., Lawrence, Edison, Isabella, Max and Alex.

School Council Photography Competition
The photographs for our recent School Council Autumn Photography competition were judged on Tuesday 19th November by our TAs - a difficult task! Finally four class winners were chosen. Congratulations to Oliver Bourne (Class R), Isabel Holmes (Class 1), Juliana Browning (Class 2) and Naomi Woodwards (Class 3) who were judged to be the class winners, and thank you to all pupils who contributed. If you haven’t already seen them, the photos will be on display in the Hall between 3.00 and 3.15pm tomorrow and are well worth a look.

Maths Competition- Report from Max and Owen:
“On Wednesday 13th November, Max Lansley, Owen Cove, Thea Diment and Ella Perring went to the Young Mathematician maths competition (organised by Explore Learning in conjunction with the University of Cambridge). When we first arrived all the different school teams had a chance to relax in the Explore Learning Centre, which was good. When we finished relaxing we got on with lots of hard maths which was lots of fun. We had a maths problem called ’Dice trains’ to work on together which challenged us to the limit. It was quite hard but we think we did well and we worked particularly well as a team. Earlier this week we found out the results… good news - we made it to round TWO!

Keep your fingers crossed for us next Wednesday when we take part in the regional finals!”

Netball Competition – Report by Amy and Thea
“On Tuesday 12th November, seven Year 6 children formed a netball team and took part in the Partnership High Five netball tournament. The atmosphere was buzzing with nerves and excitement - everyone in our team was almost too nervous to do anything, but as the matches went on the scores got much better! We were doing quite well until the last match where we were very nervous (but excited!) But fortunately the goals kept on coming and in the end we won 5-0! We were so happy!
After that they started to announce the winners starting at 6th place! It was a great surprise when they said we were in joint 3rd place with Lewknor. But then they looked at goal difference and explained that Stadhampton had beaten Lewknor to become 3rd place winners!
We were all very proud of ourselves and our team work and our positive attitude really helped us.”

PTA Message to Parents

Winter Fair – Friday 29th November
The Winter Fair is just over a week away now, so we are in the final stages of preparation. Please see below:
Raffle - With prizes totalling over £500 this year, it is definitely worth buying some tickets if you haven't already. Please return your tickets - sold or unsold - to the office before Wednesday 27th November.

Cakes - The cake stall is crucial at the Winter Fair so all donations of cakes and biscuits etc would be most welcome. Please bring items for the cake stall to the hall before school or just after school on the day of the Winter Fair - the more the merrier and the more creative the better!

Donations - the donations for all the stalls so far have been fantastic! This is the final weekend to have a last minute sort out, so please bring any further donations in by Tuesday 26th at the latest.

Volunteers - we are still seeking volunteers for the Winter Fair to man stalls on the evening itself, so if you can help, please let a member of the PTA know.

Next PTA Meeting - the PTA is meeting on Tuesday 26th November at 8pm in the school community hall to sort through and wrap all the donations. If you would like to come along and help you will be more than welcome - please come armed with Sellotape and wrapping paper!

We would like to thank parents for the amazing support for this year’s Winter Fair and look forward to a successful and enjoyable evening next Friday.

Wreath Evening – Tuesday 17th December
The wreath making evening is returning this year and will be on Tuesday 17th December. Posters will be going up next week so if you are interested, please contact Georgina Wiggins as soon as possible, as places are limited.

The Giving Machine – Free Money for the PTA
If you are in Christmas shopping mode at the moment there is a way to raise money for the PTA at the same time, with no extra cost to you!

thegivingmachine.co.uk is a website set up to allow you to generate a sales commission to the PTA with each purchase made. It's free and easy to use and there are hundreds of participating retailers including Amazon, Next and John Lewis. So when shopping online if you access your chosen website through the giving machine site, each purchase you make will help to raise money for the school, costing you nothing extra. Please have a look online and register- there is a free app for download as well.
Cake Club
Congratulations to Joshua Hursey, who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mr & Mrs Holmes. A reminder to Mrs Gravett that she is on the rota for Friday 29 November.

Christmas Card Fair
Pupils have been making wrapping paper, gift tags and decorative boxes which will be on sale at the Charity Christmas Card Sale at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton on Saturday 23rd November from 10am to 1pm.


DIARY DATES:
Saturday 23 November Music Evening at The Village Hall at St John’s Church 7pm. Tickets £20 each. It is possible to pay on the door.
Friday 29 November PTA Winter Fair 6pm start
Monday 2 December Meeting at ICC about school transport consultation 7pm
Thursday 5 December Meeting of the Governing Body at 7pm
Friday 6 December Singing Club performing at the Christmas Market at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton at 4pm.
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service – The Village Hall at St John’s Church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears our chosen book will be Handa’s Surprise. We will also be enjoying some exotic fruit tasting and talking about African animals. On Thursday 28th November, Zoolab will be visiting us and bringing lots of animals for us to look at and touch if we are feeling brave!

• Please find attached to this newsletter important information for parents/carers from OCC about the Home to School Transport new proposals.

Newsletter for week ending 15 November 2013

Act of Remembrance
We held our school Act of Remembrance at 11am on Monday 11th November. Prayers and poems were read by pupils in Class 3 during our assembly.

Message from the Governing Body: Home To School Transport Consultation
Oxfordshire County Council is running a new consultation on proposals to change its Home to School Transport policy following a decision in July to look again at the plans. Following extensive feedback during the summer, when the Council deferred its decision on potential changes to the Home to School Transport policy, revised proposals to reduce the range of schools to which children would qualify for free transport are now being put forward for consultation. These proposals would bring the Council's policy into line with the national statutory level, as well as with similar policies adopted by neighbouring councils. One of the proposals regarding free travel is to provide only the statutory minimum (transport to the nearest available school if it is over the age determined “statutory walking distance”). A series of Public Meetings are being held about this consultation.
The proposed changes would have significant implications for families at Stadhampton School:
- It is our understanding that the Oxford Academy is currently regarded as the closest school to Stadhampton.
- Only pupils attending the Oxford Academy who live in Stadhampton will receive free transport in spite of Icknield Community College being our catchment and partner school.

Members of our Governing Body will be attending the meeting at Icknield Community College on Monday the 2nd of December at 7pm and we actively encourage parents/carers to attend this meeting in order to have a greater understanding of the proposed changes.

Forest Schools Music Evening
Tickets are now available from the school office for the Music Evening on Saturday 23rd November at the Village Hall at St John’s Church, Stadhampton. This evening is being held to raise funds so that we may have a trained Forest Schools leader within school and all children will benefit from regular Forest Schools sessions. Tickets cost £20 each and include performances by two professional musicians, Eleanor Tinlin (piano) and Otis (saxophone) as well as refreshments and a welcome drink on arrival. Please see the attached Programme for further details about these exciting performers.
We are aware that many parents are supportive of the Forest Schools project but are unable to attend the concert due to the difficulties involved in getting babysitters on a Saturday evening or prior engagements. We would therefore be pleased to accept donations towards this project from any families who are supportive of the Forest Schools initiative but who are unable to attend the concert. Mrs Hopkins or Poppy Elliott would be pleased to accept these and add them to the funds raised at the Music Evening.

Thank you
Thank you to the parents who have kindly given up their time this week to assist with the transportation of pupils to various events during school hours. We are very grateful for your support.


Appointment times for Parents’ Evenings
Slips showing the appointment times for the two Parents’ Evenings were put into book bags earlier this week.

School Council Photography Competition
We have had an excellent turnout for the School Council 'Autumn photography' competition. We have been pleased to see entries from all four classes and they have each shown artisitic skill and a thoughtful eye! The 4 class winners will be announced in assembly on Tuesday 19th November, after the school TAs have had the difficult task of judging them...

There will be a further formal opportunity for parents and children to come and see all the fantastic entries displayed in our own photography exhibition on Friday 22nd November from 3pm until 3.30pm. Please do come to see them all; they really are stunning!

The photography competition has raised £15.50 which will go towards wet break toys/games as decided by the School Council. Hopefully this competition is one we will repeat throughout the year, with a different theme. Thank you to all who entered!

PTA News

Winter Fair
Thank you for your donations so far for the Winter Fair. We have had a great response but still need more! Pease bring your donations in and put them into the PTA box in the hall.

Raffle ticket stubs and any unsold tickets need to be handed back to the office or Georgina Wiggins by 27th November so unwanted tickets can be sold on the night. Please try to sell as many as you can – look out for a list of the fantastic prizes in book bags next week.

The PTA would like to set up a group on Facebook. It would be a ‘closed’ group which only members will be able to see, no photos or teachers names will appear, so it is totally protected. We would post upcoming events, PTA meetings, lists of items needed, anything to do with the PTA. Lots of schools already use Facebook to help advertise PTA events. As we appreciate that everyone is not on Facebook, we would still continue to send communications via book bags. Mrs Turner has given her consent to this group, in principle, providing that parents are happy with it, so please let us know if you have any concerns. Mrs Manzie and Sue Bowerman will be making lovely wrapping paper, tags and Christmas gift boxes with Class 1 for the charity Christmas Card Morning on 23rd November 10am-1pm at the Village Hall, St John’s Church. The children are designing a Christmas picture on the bottom of each box and parents may purchase them on the day, but they will be sold on a ‘first come first served’ basis. This is a great village event so please go along if you can. Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Sophie Hector, who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Walker. A reminder to Mrs Buckner that she is on the rota for Friday 22 November.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 18 November Parents Evening 4.00-7.00pm
Wednesday 20 November Parents Evening 4.00-6.00pm
Saturday 23 November Music Concert at the Church to raise funds for Forest Schools
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service - village church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week our book is ‘There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’. We will also be talking about variations in size and shape.

Newsletter for week ending 8 November 2013

During NOVEMBER we are focusing on the core value of UNITY

Happy NOVEMBER Birthday to: Juliana Browning, Beau Burnell, Amy Freeman, Alex Igmofose, Bella Jones, Max Jones, Max Lansley, Lola Odell, Ella Perring and Innis Robertson-Pinnell.

Book Fair
Thank you to everyone who supported our recent School Book Fair. Sales totalled £471.79, which enabled us to receive books to the value of £223 by way of commission for our class and reference libraries.

Free Books for Foundation Stage Pupils
Each Reception pupil should have received a free Booktime pack this week provided jointly by Booktrust and Pearson. Booktime is a national programme for reception aged children providing them with a free book pack to share and enjoy with their family and friends.

Children in Need – Friday 15th November
Friday 15th November is ‘Children in Need’ day and pupils are encouraged to pay £1 to be able to wear their pyjamas to school instead of school uniform. We shall also be holding a raffle (50p a ticket) to win a Pudsey cuddly toy and will have Children in Need wristbands on sale priced at £1.

Parents’ Consultation Evenings – Monday 18th & Wednesday 20th November
Letters giving the dates and times of consultations were put into book bags earlier this week. Appointments are offered on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis.

Forest Schools Music Evening
Tickets are now available from the school office for the Music Evening on Saturday 23rd November at the Village Hall at St John’s Church, Stadhampton. This evening is being held to raise funds so that we may have a trained Forest Schools leader within school. Tickets cost £20 each and include performances by Eleanor Tinlin (piano) and Otis (saxophone) as well as refreshments and a welcome drink on arrival.

Swimming
Thank you to the families of pupils in Class 3 who have already made contributions towards the cost of the swimming transport this term.

Thank you to the PTA
Thank you to all parents and carers for raising funds to provide additional seating in our outdoor drama area. This was installed at the beginning of the week and is already being used by pupils. It is a valuable resource which we know pupils will be able to enjoy for many years.

PTA News
Raffle tickets for this year’s Winter Fair will be in book bags this week.We have many great raffle prizes including a Champagne Tea for Two at the Crazy Bear, 2 tickets to an Oxford United home game and a golden ticket to the Roald Dahl museum.

We have received one or two donations for our white polar bear stall but still need lots more so can all parents please have a good look at home this weekend for anything which might be suitable.

Chocolate is also wanted so please go through cupboards at home and give anything you can.

Also on our wanted list are; jars filled with sweets, chocolate or anything interesting for our jingle jars stall.

Your donations make the Winter Fair the success it is and we really want to pull out all the stops to make this one the best yet! Thank you for your help and donations.

Friday Cake Club
Jack Austin was the lucky winner of the cake before half term, kindly donated by Mrs Manzie. A reminder to Mr & Mrs Holmes that they are on the rota for Friday 15th November.

If you have not already done so, and would like to pay for Cake Club up to Christmas, it is £1.40 per child. Please see Rowena. We are also still looking for families to be included on the cake donation rota. It doesn’t need to be home-baked – bought cakes are just as well received by the winners!


DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 13 November Mobile Library visit pm
Monday 18 November Parents Evening 4.00-7.00pm
Wednesday 20 November Parents Evening 4.00-6.00pm
Saturday 23 November Music Concert at the Church to raise funds for Forest Schools
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service - village church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back to everyone at the start of Term 2. Our topic this term is ‘Books’ and we will be looking at the book "The Tiger who came to Tea"
We are also having photos taken on Thursday 14th November from 8am in the school hall - Please see your key person if you would like to come along with siblings in the morning.
Advance warning that Little Bears nativity will be on 14th December - more details to follow.


Poppies and wristbands on sale in school. Suggested minimum donation for a wristband is £1.


Community Notice
WANTED! SOMEONE LIKE YOU!!
Do you like to make a difference? Are you a decision maker? Have you got the odd day to
spare? Yes? I need people like you to sit on school appeal panels! So, if you are
interested in taking an active part in schools admissions and exclusions we would love to
hear from you. To find out more please contact 01865 810180 or
email: schoolappeals@oxfordshire.gov.uk