Welcome back to everyone!

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Class 2 will begin their swimming sessions at the Abbey Sports Centre on Monday 28th April. They will have a total of 5 sessions (28 April, 12, 19 May, 2, 9 June). As always, we hope that parents/carers will be willing to pay £2 per child per swimming session towards the cost of the transport. Payments of £10 for the 5 sessions can be made by cheque (made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please.) Alternatively we are very happy to receive a cash payment of £2 on a weekly basis. Thank you.

Easter Egg Competition
On Wednesday we all enjoyed the School Council’s Easter Egg competition. Children had to create a vehicle that would safely transport a boiled egg as close as possible to our curling target, within a minute. Designs varied from remote controlled cars with egg ‘carriers’ to handcrafted cars made from all sorts of different junk materials…including Satsuma wheels!
The entries were judged by Mr Short, Mrs Shortman and Mrs Wilkin who focused on the overall quality of design, the originality/ingenuity of the design and its success in getting to the target while also keeping the egg protected! They then added up their scores and were pleased to announce the winners:

1st place: Leo Burnell who scored 75 points (out of a possible 90)
2nd place: Charlie Ball who scored 71 points
3rd place: Tia Khan who scored 64 points
Well done to all who took part – the vehicles were all impressive and we look forward to setting this challenge again!

Forest School Sessions
Forest School sessions began this week for Year 2 pupils. Thank you to Mr Short, Mrs Elliott, Mrs Gonzalez and Mrs Gravett for providing pupils with a most enjoyable experience building dens, making a rope swing, experimenting with grass trumpets, creating ‘hairware’ and good team-building and collaboration opportunities. Thank you to everyone involved in the fundraising to make this project possible. If you have not returned your completed permission slip yet for your child to participate, please do so as soon as possible. (Reminder forms were sent home earlier this week.) Thank you.

Sport Relief Cycle Ride
During the Easter Holidays, Mr & Mrs Turner cycled 673 miles from John O’Groats in northern Scotland, southwards. Strong westerly winds and heavy rain in Scotland slowed the cycling down and a daughter going into labour early meant they made it as far as Preston in Lancashire before returning home by train. They plan to cycle the remaining 200+ miles from Preston over the Summer. They have lost a little weight and gained a little grandson! Many thanks to all who have sponsored the ride - so far over £400 has been raised for Sport Relief but it’s not too late to sponsor, should you wish to and increase this total. They have set up a Sport Relief Giving Page as follows http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/johnandkathryncycleJohnOGroatstoBristol

Drinks Bottles
A number of un-named colourful, plastic drinks bottles were left in class cloakrooms over the Easter Holidays and pupils make no claim to them. The bottles have been emptied and put in the Lost Property box in the Hall, so if you are missing such a drinks bottle it may be there!

End of Term Assembly
Following our end of term assembly on Friday 4th April, a small amount of cash was found in the Hall. If you are aware of losing any cash at that time, please speak to Mrs Turner.

Saturday Science Club at Science Oxford
Details of Science Oxford’s Saturday Science Clubs can be found on www.scienceoxfordlive.com There are events on Saturday 26th April and Saturday 31st May. Children must be accompanied.

PTA News

Boogie Bingo Friday 16th May - tickets are on sale from Monday for this fun filled evening, priced at £8 each to include a fish and chip supper or £3 each without. Tickets will be available from the office or from outside Class 1 each morning. Be quick as it's a popular event and places are limited.

We will be holding a raffle on the evening and would appreciate any donations as prizes. Items needed are wine, beer, chocolate, bubble bath sets etc so please have a look at home and leave any donations in the PTA box in the hall.

Clothes recycling Thursday 22nd May – Bag2School recycling bags will be put into book bags as soon as we receive them so get sorting through your old winter wardrobe for your unwanted adult and/or children’s clothes, paired shoes, cuddly toys, bags, scarves, hats.

Bag2School is a free fundraising scheme that works in partnership with schools and businesses to help us raise money from your donations. It specialises in collecting unwanted textiles in good condition which are then sold to export markets worldwide where they are sorted and then sold to the general public.

Our next meeting is this Tuesday 29th April 8pm, The Crown. New members are always welcome so why not come along and see for yourselves!
Cake Club
Congratulations to Tillie Moss-Black, the lucky winner of the last cake before the Easter holidays, kindly donated by Mrs Fulker. A reminder to Mrs Lavene that she is on the rota for 2nd May.

Don’t forget you can pay for Cake Club weekly, half a term at a time or right up until the end of the school year. Please see Rowena Dobson.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 28 April Archery Club begins for participating pupils
Friday 9 May, 16 May,
23 May, 6 June
Friday 13 June
Friday 20 June Cycling sessions for Year 6 pupils

Cycle Theory Test
Cycle Test

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
The Little Bears all are settling back well into Term 5 and are exploring our topic of ‘Weather.’ We have begun by talking about the sun and how to be safe when the weather hots up.
In Week 2 we will be talking about the rain and making our own musical rain shakers - if anyone could donate some inner tubes of kitchen roll we would appreciate it very much.
Finally a reminder that on Friday 25th April – we are hosting a Ladies Supper Night at St John’s Church and we hope to see you there!

Newsletter for week ending 4 April 2014

Happy April Birthday to: Katende Amery, Oliver Bourne, Thea Diment, Charlie Hackett, Isabel Holmes, Ollie Jones, Jamie Lavene & Sam Sundberg.


During APRIL we are focusing on the core value of THOUGHTFULNESS

New School Meals Menu
Hard copies of the new Summer/Autumn menu were sent home to families earlier this week. A copy has also been uploaded onto the school website.

Website Additions
As well as the new Summer/Autumn meals menu, this week we have also uploaded to the school website details of the after school clubs for Term 5 and 6 (Archery), Term 5 (Art) and Term 5 (Multisports) as well as pictures of Sports Relief activities and the Kidzfit workshop in the ‘Events section’.

Internet E-Safety
With the Easter holidays approaching, many children will be keen to explore modern technology in more depth as a way of entertaining themselves. The Internet and devices such as tablets, games consoles and phones have many exciting things to offer children and there are many positives to be gained from experiencing these things. We would, however like to give a timely reminder that some of the content that can be accessed on the Internet (e.g. on YouTube or on game servers) is not always age-appropriate and occasionally can be offensive or upsetting. In school we have a filtering system blocking access to such sites.
Despite some protection/parental controls being available for you to set up on these different resources, they are not always effective in filtering the content to make it ‘child-safe’. Please continue to support your child by showing interest in what they are accessing via technology, to make sure they enjoy the experiences they have!
These websites below provide helpful, age-appropriate information about online safety, with tips for children and for families.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

‘Speaking and Listening’ Leaflet
This week every family should have received a copy of a leaflet entitled ‘Speaking and Listening: A short guide for parents’. Speech and language are key aspects of child development and we hope that you find the information useful. The leaflets were sent home via book bags but if you are unable to locate your copy, please ask for another one from the office.


UK Chess Challenge
This year children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 have enjoyed taking part in the UK Chess Challenge; a national competition that we have participated in for a number of years. The lunch time club was fully subscribed and it was lovely to see the enthusiasm of all the children. The skill varied from chess novices (who hopefully have gained confidence in their abilities over the 7 weeks of tournaments) to more experienced players.

In the end there could only be one champion...or...possibly two! Owen Cove and Greg Madry won all of their first six games in the tournament and then were pitted against each other for the final match. The game wasn't finished within the time limit so their points (for pieces taken) were added up. And the result was that they both drew! The boys decided that they are both happy to share this accolade and the trophy. Well done to both of them!

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Class 2 will begin their swimming sessions at the Abbey Sports Centre on Monday 28th April. They will have a total of 5 sessions (28 April, 12, 19 May, 2, 9 June). As always, we hope that parents/carers will be willing to pay £2 per child per swimming session towards the cost of the transport. Cash (£10 for all 5 sessions) or cheques for swimming should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please. We are also very happy to receive payment on a weekly basis. Thank you.

Headlice
The presence of headlice continues to be a problem and parents/carers are asked to please check their children’s hair during the Easter break. This website seems to provide a great deal of information which may be useful: www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice/pages/treatment.aspx

Bookings Clerk
Sarah Massey, the bookings secretary and treasurer for the Hall Management Committee, who takes bookings for the school community hall, organises the keys and payments for hirers and balances the accounts each year, is looking for someone to take over from her so that she may step down. Would anyone be willing to take it on? It is not too onerous a task as only a handful of hirers now use the community hall regularly and for the occasional party. Please let Mrs Hopkins know if you might consider it and need any further information.

PTA News

Easter Cake Competition - what fabulous cakes we had enter the cake competition! Thank you to Shirley Bateman for being our judge. The winners in each year group were Casey Price, Jack Austin, Will Eaton, Ellie Walker, Charlie Austin, Hannah Bradford and Ella Perring. We had a fantastic cake sale after school and raised over £100 so thank you to everyone involved.

Boogie Bingo - Friday 16th May - tickets will be available after the holidays for this popular event so remember to keep the date free.

Clothes Recycling - as you may already know, the PTA organises regular collections of unwanted textiles through Bag2School. Bag2School is a free fundraising scheme that works in partnership with schools and businesses to help us raise money from your donations. It specialises in collecting unwanted textiles in good condition which are then sold to export markets worldwide where they are sorted and then sold to the general public

Our next collection will be at 9am on Thursday 22nd May so if you’re having a good sort out at home over the holidays, please save your unwanted adult and/or children’s clothes, paired shoes, cuddly toys, bags, scarves, hats.

For more details about the company and what you can give, please see their website www.bag2school.com.

Just a reminder the next PTA meeting will be on Tuesday 29th April at The Crown at 8pm. Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.


Plant Orders
Order forms for plant orders should be in book bags this week. Please have a look to see if you would like to place an order and, if so, return the order form and payment to school by Friday 25 April. Thank you.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Jamie Lavene, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Watkins. A reminder to Mrs Gravett that she is on the rota for 25 April, the first Friday after Easter. If you would like to pay for a few weeks at a time, it is £1 up to May Half Term, or £2.40 up to the end of the school year per child. Please see Rowena Dobson. Thank you.


School Council
• Please see Flyer attached about the Easter Egg Competition

DIARY DATES:
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5
Thursday 24 April Forest School session for Year 2 pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears will be enjoying a sponsored obstacle course and a Easter bonnet parade on the last day of term and will be open until 3 pm.
We hope everyone has a restful and enjoyable 2 weeks with some sunshine hopefully!!
We return on Tuesday 22nd April to the topic of ‘weather’.

Community News:

• Easter holiday activities at the Earth Trust, Little Wittenham, OX14 4QZ – see www.earthtrust.org.uk for more details.
Our ever popular ‘Clumps Club’ for children aged 8 to 12 will be running on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th April, from 10am to 4pm (£25 per day, booking essential). We will be building dens, cooking on fires and rolling eggs on the Wittenham Clumps hills! There is plenty for the whole family in April too, including ‘Family Bushcraft’, ‘Newts, Frogs and Toads’ guided walk, ‘Forest School’ for pre-school children, ‘Woodland Adventure’ for 5 to 8 year olds, and a sensory buggy walk for babies and toddlers! See our website for full details or call us on 01865 407792.

• Flyers attached from Hill End about Bushcraft Days and Open Day