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.