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.