Newsletter for week ending 28 February 2014

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Thank you to the parents of pupils in Class 3 who have already made a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £12 towards the cost of the swimming transport to Berinsfield this term. Thank you also to the families who pay weekly. We would be delighted to accept any further donations towards transport costs for Term 4. Cheques for swimming contributions should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School. Thank you.

Recorders and Recorder Books
A reminder that all pupils in Years 3-6 have a weekly recorder lesson on Mondays this term. Thank you to the many pupils who have their recorder and book in school ready for the lesson. For hygiene reasons we prefer each pupil to have their own recorder. Recorders are available from the school office, priced at £6.50 each. Recorder Books 1 and 2 are also available at £4.85 each. The school makes no profit from selling these items.

Jian-Zi – results from Poland
The Jian-zi results from Poland are now in and one of their pupils, Wojtek Grygierek won with 276 kicks – their second highest was 18, so this was a truly extraordinary score! Max Lansley with 38 kicks, is therefore our international runner-up! Congratulations to Wojtek and Max.

Sean Callery (author/musician) workshops and pupil experiences
On Wednesday 26th February, we welcomed writer, teacher and musician Sean Callery into school for the day. He ran exciting workshops for all four classes based around song-writing! Each class wrote a song about a topic they had been focusing on in class and they all enjoyed the process of coming up with the lyrics, with Sean guiding them, using catchy tunes. We had an assembly at the end of the day so that each class could perform their songs to the rest of the school. Reception’s song was based upon life on the farm, Class 1 sang a cheerful song about Mexico, Class 2’s song told us all about Roald Dahl and Class 3 (accompanied by Sean on the piano) gave everyone a history lesson on the ancient Greeks.
Staff and children alike felt like this was a valuable experience, which inspired all the children to come up with different ideas and edit them as a class to improve the content on their song. A lot was achieved by all in a short period of time. The songs will stick in all our heads for a while!

The Great Daffodil Appeal
We are taking part in the Marie Curie Cancer Care Great Daffodil Appeal 2014 and daffodils are on sale from the yellow box in the hall. Every five minutes someone with a terminal illness in the UK dies without the care they need in their final hours. Your support can help change this. Each donation made will help nurses care for more terminally ill people in their own homes. Every £20 they receive pays for a Marie Curie nurse to care for someone in our area for an hour.

Oxford Literacy Festival –Tickets available!
Helen Moss Black (mossblack@hotmail.com) has 7 tickets at £6 each for Korky Paul at the Oxford Literary Festival that she is unable to use. If you’re interested, let her know, as they can be reallocated. Details can be found at this link.
http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2014/march-22/winnies-pirate-adventure

PTA News
Bingo Night - Friday 7th March - we are asking parents for any sweet or chocolate donations which could be used as prizes on the evening. Anything you have extra in the cupboards that you would like to donate would be hugely appreciated. Please put any donations into the PTA box in the school hall by Thursday next week. Thank you.

Quiz Night – Friday 21st March - we are now selling quiz night tickets individually, priced at £5 each. Tickets are limited so please see Georgina Wiggins for either individual or table-of-8 tickets. There will be nibbles on tables on the evening but as it is a "bring your own food" event, please feel free to bring your own snacks, nibbles or even meals. Please support the quiz night as it promises to be a fantastic evening.

Plant Orders - as we have done previously at this time of year, we will be taking orders for plants and bulbs in the next few weeks, so please keep a look out for order forms in book bags.

Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA meeting on Tuesday evening. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25th March at The Crown, 8pm.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Mrs Hopkins, who was the lucky winner of the Valentine Cake, kindly donated by Mrs Burnell. A reminder to Mrs Jones that she is on the rota for 7 March. Thank you to everyone who has offered to provide a cake – we just need 3 more volunteers to take us up to the end of the school year!

DIARY DATES:
3rd-14th March Story telling fortnight – please come in and read a story!
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance for booking details or via Mrs Hopkins.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a relaxing half term break. In Term 4 the Little Bears will be learning about gardens and growth. The first week we will be looking at how our gardens grow and how we grow.
On Friday the 7th March at 3pm Little Bears will be having a cake sale. All donations will be greatly received or please pop along on Friday and buy some cake!