Newsletter for week ending 27 June 2014

Returning to school in September
We are aware that some pupils are moving away from the area and will not be returning to Stadhampton School for the start of the new academic year and are grateful to those families for keeping the school informed of their intentions. In order to make our plans and draw up timetables for the new academic year, it would be very helpful to know if any other pupils may not be returning to Stadhampton School in September. Thank you.

Readiness for School
We have requested in school newsletters that all pupils should have their PE and swimming kit in school every day this term. There are several children, however, who frequently do not have the right equipment with them in order to be able to participate in PE or swimming activities. Please could EVERYONE make sure that their child comes to school with what they need in order to take part in all of the day’s lessons. We don’t want them to miss out! Thank you.

Forest School Donation
We thought that parents would like to know that we were delighted to receive a very generous donation of £500 this week from Mr Bob Campbell, received by him in lieu of payment for a recent talk, which we will use to support ‘Forest School’ sessions for all pupils. We are extremely grateful to Mr and Mrs Campbell for their on-going support of our plans to offer Forest School experiences for all pupils on a long-term basis.

Cycle Safety Training
Congratulations to our Year 6 pupils (Amy Matthews, Alex Igmofose, Rhys Brown, Ruby Dallimore, Josh Matthews, Ella Perring and Marcin Skwarek) who all successfully passed their cycle safety test last Friday. It is most unusual for all pupils to pass the test first time, so well done to you all! We must also say a very big ‘thank you’ to our instructors who obviously trained them very well! Thank you to Mrs Cove, Mrs Green, Miss Helen Moss-Black, Miss Max Moss Black, Mrs Ellis and Mr Matthews for their help and support to pupils over the last few weeks.

IMPS Visit – Report by Emily and Cora:
“We went to Henley Townlands Hospital to do our IMPS training. Class 3 explored and learnt a great deal about CPR and how to use an AED and each of us had a dummy to practice on. What does DrsABC stand for? It stands for Danger, Response, Shout, Airway, Breathing, Call the Ambulance and do CPR! What is an AED? It is a machine with two pads that you put on the chest and the tummy. You press an orange button and that will give the person a shock which might save someone’s life. What does IMPS stand for? It is the Injury Minimization Programme for Schools (I.M.P.S.) and it empowers young people to take personal responsibility for managing their own risk. Class 3 had a tour of the minor injury department. We also had a finger cast put on. We were all honoured to be trusted at the hospital and it was a fun day for all of us”.

Festival of Voices
Well done to all of the pupils who participated in the Festival of Voices this week at Dorchester Abbey. We had a fantastic afternoon rehearsal followed by a picnic in the Abbey grounds. The evening performance was magical and each child should be very proud of themselves for having the confidence to sing all those songs (without the words!). Thank you to all the parents who supported and attended the event. I think you will agree, that they were brilliant!
Miss Mould
Report by Cora and Ella :
“We enjoyed the excitement and seeing the smiles from the audience. The conductor was comforting and very funny. We learnt how to co-operate with other children from other schools and made some new friends. It was an amazing experience that we will never forget”.

Home-School Transport Update – for families with pupils in Year 5 and Year 4
Last week there was a meeting in the Village Hall at St John’s Church, and we circulated a letter from the Governing Body dated 18th June summarising the outcome of the meeting. As an initial follow-up, a parent has drawn some further information and a survey, initialling targeting parents of pupils currently in Year 5 and Year 4. This information will be in book bags of pupils in Year 5 and Year 4 on Friday 27 June – please note that forms are requested to be returned to the box in the foyer outside the school office on Monday 30th June. Your response will help parents as a group better understand your transport needs. Whilst home-school transport arrangements are not the responsibility of the staff or Governing Body of Stadhampton School, we are happy to facilitate this initial form of contact.

International Week 30 June – 4 July 2014
A reminder that all pupils will be ‘travelling’ to other parts of the world by visiting each of the other classrooms at different times during the week. They will spend some of that time being taught by the teacher from that class, finding out some aspects of life so that by the end of the week they will have been taught by all teachers and will have ‘visited’ the Scottish Hebrides, Antarctica, India and Madagascar. Don’t be surprised if they’re tired by Friday!

PTA NEWS:
Summertime Funtime - thank you to everyone who came and supported Summertime Funtime and well done to all our competition winners. We raised nearly £300 so a fantastic result for a small summer event. Thank you to all our PTA committee and also to Mrs Manzie, Miss Shah and Miss Mould for running the cafe and the wonderful cream teas!

Sports Night - Friday 11th July - tickets for the BBQ at the sports night will be on sale outside Class 1 next week. There will be a choice of burger, sausage or veggie sausages. Please note a small number of extra burgers and sausages will be available on the night but to guarantee yourself something please buy a ticket beforehand.

End of School Disco - Thursday 17th July - if any parents would like to help out on this night or have a DJ system we could borrow please let a PTA member know. Tickets for the disco will be available shortly.

Parent Survey – if you have already completed our short survey, thank you for taking the time to do so. If you haven't, then please access the link below to answer some questions about the PTA and our fundraising. It really only take a few minutes and will really help focus our fundraising efforts during the next school year.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PKFLCJ

Please note clicking on the link may not work on certain devices, e.g. iPad and iPhone, so you may need to copy and paste or type the details into your browser. Please let Georgina Wiggins or Melanie Gravett know if you have any problems accessing the survey.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 1st July 8pm at The Crown. Everyone welcome.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Hannah Lansley, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Khan. A reminder to Mrs Lansley that she is on the rota for 4th July!

DIARY DATES:
Tuesday 1 July Class 1 visit to Tesco.
Class 2 and 3 visit to The Story Museum
Friday 4 July Sports Hall Athletics at ICC for Class 2 pupils
Tuesday 8 July Clarinet Concert for parents
Wednesday – Friday 9, 10, 11 July ‘Moving –up days’ for all pupils. Reception pupils due to join in September 2014 also invited into school for 3 days.
Sports Evening – Friday 11 July-6pm for 6.30pm start. All welcome.
Friday 18 July End of school year assembly at 9.05am.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 11 – Friday 15 August Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School. Please see posters on each classroom door and in the entrance foyer for details of how to book.
1st, 2nd September Staff INSET Days
Wednesday 3 September Start of Term 1 for all new and returning pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week the Little Bears will be practising a "tightrope routine" balancing on a tape stretched across the floor and also using balancing beams outside.
Has anyone got some flippers we could borrow so the children can experience how it feels to walk in extra large shoes, please?

Newsletter for week ending 20 June 2014

Secondary Transportation Meeting
Please see letter in book bags this week from the Governing Body about the outcomes of the joint meeting held on 16th June with representatives from Icknield Community College (ICC) and the Local Authority.
If you are intending to send your child to ICC and live in Stadhampton, Newington, Chiselhampton and surroundings it is important that you read the letter and consider your options.
You might also consider engaging with the wider community to help to find solutions.

Sports Week – week commencing 23rd June 2014
As a part of 'Sports Week' on Friday 27th June we shall be having a whole-school Fun Run in the morning. This will be organised by Mrs Manzie with support from the School Council. It will be £1 to enter which will go towards School Council funds for extra break equipment. All pupils will take part in this event wearing their school PE kit. (Please have this in school every day during Sports Week).

Gardening Club
Thank you to everyone who supported the Gardening Club’s plant sale on Friday afternoon. £19 was raised, which will enable new seeds, etc to be bought in due course. Thank you to Mrs Burnell for organising this event and to everyone who bought plants.

Working Party
A huge ‘Thank You’ to the PTA for organising last weekend’s working party to help ‘spruce up’ the school and school grounds. The impact of all the hard work is very evident. Thank you all. There wasn’t enough time to treat some of the fences and outdoor classroom this time, so it is hoped that some parents may come forward to volunteer to do this – either at a weekend or after school. Please contact Georgina Wiggins or Mrs Hopkins if you can help. Thank you.

Quad Kids – report by Lola and Max
“Nearly all of Year 6 took part in a competition for Oxfordshire schools called Quad Kids. Quad Kids is a competition to see which is the best sporting school (particularly in athletics) in Oxfordshire. We got through to the semi-final which in itself is a great success. The children who got through were Josh, Max, Owen, Lola, Thea, Abby, Ruby, Amy M, Ollie and Alex.

In this competition we had to do Vortex, standing long jump, 75 metre sprint and a 600 metre race. Sadly we only came 8th out of nine schools in the semi-finals, but we all did really well, mainly because we worked as a team and helped each other finish the 600 metre race by running alongside each other and cheering them on! We all enjoyed our experience and some of us managed to also beat our personal bests.”

Food with Thought
‘Alice’s Day’ on Thursday 3rd July – ‘Wonderland’ lunch menu – chequered sandwiches and a selection from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Assortment, including a choice from the Queeen of Hearts Pudding Collection. Further details are on the Alice’s Day posters.
Priced £2, order by Monday 30th June please.

Explore Learning
Congratulations to Ella Perring who has achieved a top 100 place (from 13,000 entries!) in the Explore Learning National Competition.
We thought we would share Ella’s success by printing her story for everyone to read:

Once upon a fairy tale, in the deep dark woods, lived twelve, not very handsome goblins. Although they were not the nicest looking creatures, with their algae coloured skin and pus-filled oozing warts they each had a special talent. Well that was all except one goblin who had never been blessed with a talent. Unfortunately for him, he was also the ugliest of them all. This goblins name was Gangrin and he had tough hairy skin, an infestation of warts and a long knobbly nose. He was made to feel that he was not part of the group.
One day Gangrin had had enough. He found his courage and went to talk to the other Goblins.
“Every day you make me feel like I am worthless and stupid but I know full well that I am not. I do have a talent I just haven’t found it yet.”
“You have a talent, yeah right; I’ll believe that the day pigs fly.”
“I will show you that I have a talent but right now I am going to find a place where I am appreciated for who I really am.”
So off Gangrin went on his quest to a new land hoping to find a better life waiting for him. As Gangrin soon found out this was to prove harder than he thought. For every village that he passed judged him only on his looks and not on who he was inside. For what seemed like years but were only actually a few months Gangrin walked into village after village every time faced with looks of disgust until one day he found hope. At first it was the same as usual the adults hiding their children from what they saw as a beast but this time the children smiled at him. Not only did they smile, some of them also skipped over to him. Initially the parents were nervous and tried to persuade their children not to go to him but the children could see something different in him.
Every day the parents watched cautiously through the window at their children playing with Gangrin and every night it would be the same. The children would come home and tell their mums and dads what a wonderful day they had had and what new enchanting story Gangrin had told them.
As years went by Gangrin grew famous across the land and was nicknamed the handsome story teller. For as each cautious parent grew to love Gangrin one of his pus-filled oozing warts or tough pieces of skin would come off and in its place would be a smooth, attractive piece of skin. Very quickly every parent grew to love Gangrin so he was soon looking the handsomest Goblin ever known to man.
Gangrin finally realised what his special talent was and that was that he was kind and caring but most of all he was the greatest storyteller in the land.

Moral
Everybody has a talent


PTA NEWS:
School Spring Clean Up- thank you to the parents who came and helped out - Sarah Green, Sam Green, Rowena Dobson, Kevin Bowerman, Paul Wiggins and Paul Gravett as well as our fantastic PTA team. It would have been nice to have seen some new faces but there are similar events in the pipeline for the summer. I think we can all agree that the school is looking great so thank you again to all who came to help.

Summertime Funtime - Saturday 21st June - 2pm until 4pm. Please come and support our mini summer fete, lots of ‘crafty’ things to do, a bouncy castle, cream teas and a tombola. Great raffle prizes to be won including a tour and tasting day at Chiltern Wines and afternoon tea at The Crazy Bear. All our competition entries will be judged with prizes for the winners.

Sports night - Friday 11th July. BBQ and bar, prepaid tickets available soon.

End of School Year Disco - Thursday 17th July. Please put the date in your diaries.

Parent Survey – if you haven't already done so, then please access the link below to answer a few short questions about the PTA and our fundraising. It really will help focus our fundraising efforts during the next school year.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PKFLCJ

Please note clicking on the link may not work on certain devices, e.g. iPad and iPhone, so you may need to copy and paste or type the details into your browser. Please let Georgina Wiggins or Melanie Gravett know if you have any problems accessing the survey.

Our next meeting is Tuesday 1st July 8pm at The Crown - everyone welcome!

Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Leo Burnell, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Bowerman. A reminder to Mrs Buckner that she is on the rota for Friday 27 June.

DIARY DATES:
Saturday 21 June PTA Summer Event
Wednesday 25 June Festival of Voices Concert at Dorchester Abbey
Tuesday 8 July Clarinet Concert for parents
Wednesday – Friday 9, 10, 11 July ‘Moving –up days’ for all pupils. Reception pupils due to join in September 2014 also invited into school for 3 days.
Sports Evening – Friday 11 July-6pm for 6.30pm start. All welcome.
Friday 18 July End of school year assembly at 9.05am.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 11 – Friday 15 August Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School. Please see posters on each classroom door and in the entrance foyer for details of how to book.
1st, 2nd September Staff INSET Days
Wednesday 3 September Start of Term 1 for all new and returning pupils



LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week the Little Bears are going to continue with measuring ourselves and talk about people on stilts at the circus and measure ourselves again to look at the difference. We are also going to explore shapes and make some clowns using all of the different shapes we can find.

Community News:

• Please see attached flyer from The Ruskin School of Art about a weekend of workshops and learning for art teachers at the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Newsletter for week ending 13 June 2014

Class 3 Teacher from September 2014
We understand that current pupils in Year 4 and Year 5, and their parents, will be keen to know who will be teaching in Class 3 from next September. We are continuing to advertise for a teacher with the right experience and will, of course, be looking for high quality. We look forward to sharing the outcome of the forthcoming selection process with you.

Home to School Transport - Meeting 16th of June, 7PM, St John's Village Hall (the Church)
A reminder that parents are invited to a meeting to be held on Monday 16th June at 7pm at St John's Village Hall (the Church) to share and discuss ways forward.

Many thanks
Governing Body, Stadhampton Primary School

Thank You
We are most grateful to Mr Burnell, for spending a whole day in school this week levelling off the paving slabs around the swimming pool area so that it is ready for use. Thank you for doing a fantastic job for us!

Swimming in the School Pool
The school swimming pool has been prepared for use by Mrs Shortman and Mr Short, the paving slabs have been levelled by Mr Burnell, it has passed the LA Health and Safety checks and the bacteriological results have come back clear, Miss Mould and Mrs Turner have successfully renewed their lifesaving qualification, so we are now ready to use it! From Monday please ensure that your child(ren) have their swimming kit in school each day so that they do not miss out on swimming opportunities. Thank you.

Recorders
Recorder lessons began this week for all pupils in Classes 2 and 3. Please could everyone make sure that they have their own recorder and book in school each Monday from now until the end of term. Recorders and books are available to purchase from the school office if necessary - recorders cost £6.50 and books £4.99 each (the price we pay for them). Thank you.

Sports Week – week commencing 23rd June 2014
Please could pupils bring their PE kit into school every day during Sports Week. We plan to use our new sets of weighted hula hoops, indoor curling and boccia equipment during the week and pupils will also take part in mini tournaments/competitions such as table tennis, skipping and tennis/badminton. More details to follow next week.


Please note that our annual Sports Evening will take place (weather permitting) on Friday 11th July. Pupils should arrive at 6pm for races to start promptly at 6.30pm. Details of food and bar to follow from the PTA.

International Week – week commencing 30th June 2014
Each year, usually during the Summer term, we have a whole-school international week. In the past this has usually been a different country each year; recent years have included Australia, Argentina, Uganda, Japan and our European partner countries in recent Comenius Partnership projects. This year we plan to hold a series of activities linking with the countries/continents that each class are currently finding about, enabling every child to have an opportunity to experience and compare aspects of life in that part of the world. The locations are; India, Madagascar, Antarctica and the Scottish Hebrides. At times during the week our school hall will become an ‘airport’ and each pupil will have their own ‘passport’ for the week. We hope there will be many happy travellers!

PTA NEWS:
School Spring Clean Day - Saturday 14th June 10am onwards. We still have spaces left to help on this day - even if you can only spare an hour, every little helps and it benefits our children. If you are planning on coming along please bring buckets, paintbrushes, sandpaper, gardening equipment etc as these are not provided. The sun is going to be shining (hopefully!) so what better way to spend a few hours than soaking up the sun and helping the school? Hope to see you all there.

Summertime Funtime - Saturday 21st June - 2pm until 4pm. This event is rapidly approaching. You should all have received your competition entry forms in bookbags and a printable copy with last weeks' newsletter. This is going to be a really fun event with a "craft corner", a junk modelling room, games, cakes, afternoon tea, competition results, raffle, planting seeds, tattoos and nail painting. Please make sure it's down in your diaries! If you are able to help run a stall at this event then please see a member of the PTA committee.

DONATIONS - we urgently need bottles (any size or contents), wine, chocolate, bubbles, candles, not wanted gift sets, sweets etc, so please have a good look at home and think of us. All donations into the PTA box in the hall no later then Friday 20th June please.

Parent Survey - thank you to everyone who has already completed the survey online. If you haven't done so, then please access the link below to answer a few short questions about the PTA and our fundraising. It really will help focus our fundraising efforts during the next school year.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PKFLCJ

Please let Georgina Wiggins or Melanie Gravett know if you have any problems accessing the survey.

Our final PTA meeting for this school year will be Tuesday 1st July at 8pm in The Crown. Please do come along.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Charlie Ball, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Marshall. A reminder to Mrs Khan that she is on the rota for 20th June.


DIARY DATES:
Saturday 14 June PTA Spring Cleaning Event
Wednesday 18 June Year 5 Visit to ICC for Humanities, Science and PE lessons – please remember to take PE kit!
Mobile Library visit
Saturday 21 June PTA Summer Event
Wednesday 25 June Festival of Voices Concert at Dorchester Abbey
Friday 13 June
Friday 20 June Cycle Theory Test
Cycle Test
Tuesday 8 July Clarinet Concert for parents
Wednesday – Friday 9, 10, 11 July ‘Moving –up days’ for all pupils. Reception pupils due to join in September 2014 also invited into school for 3 days.
Sports Evening – Friday 11 July-6pm for 6.30pm start. All welcome.
Friday 18 July End of school year assembly at 9.05am.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 11 – Friday 15 August Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School. Please see posters on each classroom door and in the entrance foyer for details of how to book.
1st, 2nd September Staff INSET Days
Wednesday 3 September Start of Term 1 for all new and returning pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
We will be continuing to enjoy our ‘big top’ in Little Bears by making a box office to sell the tickets to the big show. We also be making a height chart and measuring each other.

Community News:
Village Auction in the Hall at St John’s
This Saturday 14th June, from 6pm
Art, jewellery and vintage goods
If you can’t stay for the bidding you are welcome to leave a bidding limit with the auctioneer
All proceeds to Families for Children
Prosecco, wine and beer available all evening – it should be fun, pop in!
Any questions, please contact Catherine on 07432 126 514

Newsletter for week ending 6 June 2014

Happy June Birthday to: Freya Clapton, Will Eaton, Betsy Elliott, Ella Gravett, Zara Hopkins, James Lowman, Josh Matthews, Elia Pistis, Casey Price and Ellie Wiggins.

During JUNE we are focusing on the core value of PATIENCE

We would also like to welcome Elia (Class 1) and Viola Pistis (Class 2) who have moved to Stadhampton from Italy.

Home to School Transport - Meeting 16th of June, 7PM, St John's Village Hall (the Church)
As you may be aware from previous communication regarding home to school transport, children will only receive free transport to their nearest school, not necessarily those schools that they are in the catchment area for. This means that those children wishing to go to Icknield will not in future receive free transport if they live in Stadhampton, Chiselhampton or Newington for example. This will be effective from September 2015.

Icknield Community College staff have held meetings with representatives from the LA and discussed how the changes will affect schools in their partnership and it appears that the impact to Stadhampton Primary School will be significant with the ‘nearest school rule’ applying.

They have therefore suggested a meeting be arranged for all relevant parties (parents, governors, parish councillors, headteachers, Philip Earnshaw (LA), Gary Appleton (LA), PTA members etc) to discuss alternative solutions. There is a government grant scheme available for community transport and we are hoping to have an expert who may be able to explain how to access the funding available.

The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss ideas and investigate possible solutions, we are not getting together to re-open the Oxfordshire County Council decision as that is not within our remit. Similarly this meeting is not an official consultation meeting as the decision has already been made and we would prefer to invest our energy in finding a solution for our children.

The Governing Body of Stadhampton School along with representatives from Icknield Community College will be chairing the meeting, it is not the responsibility of Stadhampton Primary School to solve or mitigate this issue on the behalf of local parents, however they have a keen interest in the solution and have offered to support with emails to parents and arranging meetings.

We therefore invite parents along to a meeting to be held on Monday 16th June at 7pm at St John's Village Hall (the Church) to share and discuss ways forward.

Please also pass this message onto parents you know of in the village who may also be affected.

Many thanks
Governing Body, Stadhampton Primary School

Food with Thought
Food with Thought have informed us this week that due to supply issues they will be replacing meals containing lamb mince with beef mince until further notice.

Festival of Voices Tickets
Tickets were distributed earlier this week for this event. Please check book bags if you ordered tickets and have not seen them as yet!

Pupil, Parent and Staff Visit to Hazlach School, Poland
Report by Sarah Madry:
On Saturday 24th May at 6.25am, a small group consisting of Mrs Turner, Miss Shah, three parents and three children found themselves on a plane at Stansted Airport taking off for Poland. I was lucky enough to have been one of those parents and was accompanying my son Greg on his very first flight. We landed at Katowice Airport at around 10.00am to be greeted by blue skies, sunshine and the host families and teachers from the school. They drove us to the small village of Hazlach and each group went our separate ways to meet other members of our host families and eat a hearty lunch with them. Their kindness and hospitality was obvious from the start. After trying some typically Polish food of borsch soup, dumplings and meat and a very tasty apple and chocolate cake, we met up again with our English group at the village hall for an arts festival performance, where our three representatives from England, Greg Madry, Owen Cove and Ella Perring, played their recorders beautifully, alongside their Polish counterparts. There were also some pupils from a nearby Czech school who joined in with the singing, dancing and playing of musical instruments. It was all very impressive and thoroughly enjoyable. We returned to our hosts’ houses to eat supper and then headed off to bed, after a very long day.

On the Sunday morning we were taken for a tour of the attractive historic town of Cieszyn, which is on the Czech border, and shown the sites. After a short drive to the mountains near Ustron on the Czech border, we began the afternoon by taking a ride in a ski lift up the mountainside. We continued to walk on up through the forest and crossed into the Czech Republic at the peak. Here we stopped for some lunch and a rest, before heading back down the mountain, pausing for a while to try out a summer luge run, which everyone agreed was brilliant fun! On our return to the valley, we were treated to a delicious barbeque at the house of one of the teachers from the school in Hazlach.

On Monday morning, the English families met at the school, with Mrs Turner and Miss Shah.
The English teacher, Ania Kawik showed us round the classrooms and introduced us to the pupils and teachers. The school was a lot bigger than Stadhampton and had many more pupils, but it was obvious that the children were all very happy and friendly, as some boldly said “Hello” in English to us with cheeky smiles on their faces! We experienced a planned fire drill, complete with a fire engine from the nearest fire station and had to evacuate the school, while they hosed down the sports hall and ‘rescued’ a child from the building – all very exciting! Then our Stadhampton pupils, Greg, Owen and Ella did a wonderful display of Double Dutch skipping in front of the school along with the Czech pupils watching too. Shortly after this, a football match and volley ball game took place on the pitches opposite the school, involving all pupils from the three schools. Our young students played a great game of football, proving that language is no barrier in sport. Once the children had rested and had a drink, we headed off on foot to the nearby woods. Here, one of the fathers and the school caretaker had set up a campfire for all the children from the three schools to cook sausages on long sticks. During the afternoon, we got the chance to sit with our hosts and chat to our new friends to find out a little more about each other. The host families had at least one member who was comfortable speaking English and coped very well with the fact that most of us couldn’t speak more than a few words of Polish!
In the evening, our host families drove us to another teacher’s house, where we had another wonderfully cooked barbeque. The Polish people were the most fantastic entertainers and everyone insisted that we should eat plenty of food. We wouldn’t be leaving Poland hungry!

On the Tuesday, Greg, Owen and Ella, spent the morning at the school with Mrs Turner and Miss Shah and got to experience what it would be like to be Polish pupils. Dave Cove got the opportunity to visit Auschwitz the prisoner of war camp, while Tracy Perring and I visited the nearby town of Bielsko Biala to look round the museum with our guide Peter, the father of Tracy’s host family. After lunch, we met back at the school and then all of us took a trip to the curiously named Twin Pigs theme park. It turned out to be an American Wild West adventure park, with rides and actors playing parts in a pretend shoot out! All very good fun – but most bizarre!

On the sunny, hot, Wednesday morning it was time to say goodbye to our host families and head back home to England. It was very clear that they were very sad at our departure and we all found it difficult to bid our farewells to everyone, including the teachers and pupils too. Agnieszka Pilch, the head of Hazlach School, accompanied us on the minibus to Krakow and joined us on our tour of the beautiful city along with a guide who took us into the castle and the cathedral. She then walked us through the old Jewish quarter of the city and managed to find us a restaurant where we could take shelter and eat lunch while a fierce thunderstorm raged overhead. It was very atmospheric! Once the rain had stopped, we walked back to the large city square and bought gifts in the Cloth Market, before heading back to the bus that would take us to Krakow Airport. It had been a very interesting, culturally stimulating day, but our three, young explorers continued to behave perfectly, as we bid a final farewell to Agnieszka at the airport and begin the long journey home. We safely arrived back at Stansted Airport on Wednesday night at 11.30pm. The children appeared to have grown up a lot in the five days we had been away and we all agreed that it had been a life experience that we would never forget, thanks to the kind, generous people who had welcomed us to their country and into their homes.

Report from Greg, Owen and Ella:
“When we were travelling to Poland we were all excited because we were looking forward to meeting our host families, and staying in Poland for a week, but we were all tired from waking up at 1:30AM!
Our families were extremely hospitable and treated us with great kindness, and they always made us feel like we were more than at home. We couldn’t have wished to stay with nicer families. Just being with them was very enjoyable.
We particularly enjoyed going up the Czantoria Mountain on a chair lift and going on a summer luge down the mountain because it was exhilarating and thrilling! We also loved the BBQs and playing badminton in someone’s garden. The food was delicious especially the sausages we roasted on the glowing bonfire.
At Hazlach School we enjoyed going in their gym and loved showing them the skipping Double Dutch and how to skip with a long rope. It was interesting seeing how big the school was compare to ours and how many children went to the school. We both enjoy doing sports and they also have school dinners. But they have amazing facilities like a giant football pitch and their own basketball court!
From this trip we’ve learnt what Poland is like and how to speak a little bit of Polish. We also saw how Polish families live. We all agree that if we had the chance to go again we would because we thoroughly enjoyed it”.

Plant Sale
The Gardening Club on Friday lunchtimes is proving extremely popular and we are most grateful to Mr and Mrs Burnell for inspiring and encouraging pupils to learn about gardening in a very practical ‘hands on’ way. The Gardening Club has some surplus plants which they would like to offer for sale in the covered area outside Class 1 on Friday 13th June at 3.15pm. Monies raised will be used to buy seeds and equipment for the school Gardening Club. Thank you, in advance, for your support.

Requests for help:
As a school community we often ask families for help in supporting our school, but this week we have two unusual requests. We hope someone will be able to help with the following;

Stadhampton School’s 40th Anniversary
As many of you may know, the present school building in Stadhampton opened its doors to pupils in September 1974 and early in the next school year we plan to carry out a series of events to celebrate our 40th anniversary. One of the things we would like to do is compile a booklet of photographs and pupil memories from that time. We know that a number of current families have links with the school at that time, indeed some families may have members who were pupils themselves in 1974. We would love to hear from you if you can supply any photographs, memoires or other memorabilia. If there are any parents who would be interested in helping to compile such a booklet, we would also be very happy to hear from you. Thank you.

Milk Bottle Tops
Many thanks to everyone who has been collecting plastic milk bottle tops for us. For the last few years we have been collecting them in support of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. Unfortunately the collection point in Swindon has now been withdrawn and this method of raising funds for them is no longer possible. As so many people have become ardent bottle-top collectors, we are happy to continue to collect the bottle tops, as long as we can find a suitable cause to support and a local centre to take them to! If any parent, or other family member, knows of a worthy cause and can locate a nearby collection point, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Thank you.

Missing Cardigan
Please could everyone who attended Art Club on Tuesday 20 May check to see if they picked up Isabel Holmes’s cardigan by mistake at the end of the session? It has her name in it. Thank you.

PTA NEWS:
Spring Cleaning Day - Saturday 14th June from 10am - it's time to start asking family and friends if they would be willing to spare a few hours for painting, weeding, planting and doing general maintenance of the school grounds. It's an event which, if popular, we will run twice a year as with school budgets ever being tightened, everything we can do as parents and as a community will benefit the school. Please let's get behind this and help to keep our school looking as beautiful as it can be! Please use the sign up sheet in the office or speak to a member of the PTA for more info.

Please note it won't be possible to bring children into the school grounds on the day. However, Little Bears has offered to open its grounds should families wish to coordinate childcare there, while other family members volunteer at the school. Parents will remain responsible for their children and will need to ensure they are supervised at all times.

Summertime Funtime - Saturday 21st June 2-4pm - a fun filled afternoon for all the family with a summer theme and lots of competitions to enter. Entry forms will be appearing in book bags soon and there will be extra copies in the office. We will need volunteers for stalls on the day so please speak to a member of the PTA if you would like to help.

We are in need of donations for the event - bottles (of any sort) chocolate, smellies, wine, beer, sweets so please start putting things in the PTA box in the hall. Cake donations nearer the time would also be very welcome.

Parent Survey – as we are nearing the end of another school year, the PTA would like to take this opportunity to ask parents and carers a few questions to see where we have been successful this year and where we can try and make some improvements going forward.

The link below should take you to a short survey, which we would ask as many families as possible to complete. It should only take a few minutes and it really will help the PTA decide where we should concentrate our fundraising efforts next year.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5PKFLCJ

If anyone has any problems accessing the survey online, please speak to Georgina Wiggins or Melanie Gravett who should be able to help.

Thank you for your continued support of the PTA. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 1st July 8pm at The Crown. Please do come along.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Greg Madry, the lucky winner of the last cake before half term, kindly donated by Mrs Crook. A reminder to Mrs Bowerman that she is on the rota for 13 June.

DIARY DATES:
Thursday 12th June School Lunch - Brazilian World Cup Feast – Brazilian chicken or sticky quorn (v) with salsa and rice, followed by coconut and pineapple glazed sponge - £2. Please order on Monday 9th June if your child would like to have this lunch.
Saturday 14 June PTA Spring Cleaning Event
Wednesday 18 June Year 5 Visit to ICC for Humanities, Science and PE lessons – please remember to take PE kit!
Mobile Library visit
Saturday 21 June PTA Summer Event
Wednesday 25 June Festival of Voices Concert at Dorchester Abbey
Friday 13 June
Friday 20 June Cycle Theory Test
Cycle Test
Tuesday 8 July Clarinet Concert for parents
Wednesday – Friday 9, 10, 11 July ‘Moving –up days’ for all pupils. Reception pupils due to join in September 2014 also invited into school for 3 days.
Sports Evening – Friday 11 July- All welcome.
Friday 18 July End of school year assembly at 9.05am.
School finishes at 1.30pm.
Monday 11 – Friday 15 August Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School. Please see posters on each classroom door and in the entrance foyer for details of how to book.
1st, 2nd September Staff INSET Days
Wednesday 3 September Start of Term 1 for all new and returning pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back to Term 6! We are hoping for some finer weather to enjoy our circus theme; we will be making an outdoor circus ring and also practising for Little Bears sports day at the end of term.
Please could all parents ensure hats and water bottles are brought to preschool daily. Thank you.
Please note due to the severe weather forecast this Saturday, we feel that is is necessary to postpone our summer BBQ and 10 year anniversary to Friday 18th July 1.30-4.30pm.


Community News:
• Catherine Roe and Karen Amery are holding an auction of original art work, prints, jewellery, vintage goods and more, in aid of the Families for Children’s work in Uganda. There will be posters up around the village and catalogues are available from this weekend:

Vintage Village Summer Auction
Distilling the spirit of the summer fete over a glass of prosecco on a summers eve
~~
From 6pm on 14th JUNE 2014
Village Hall at St John’s, Stadhampton
~~
For further details or a catalogue, contact Catherine on 07432 126 514
A small sample can be viewed on:
http://imgur.com/a/KBbZp


• What’s on at the Earth Trust, Little Wittenham, OX14 4QZ

Grow Your Own Festival
Sunday 22nd June, 11am-4pm

Head down to the Earth Trust Farm for a fun day of food, planting, and growing! With children’s planting and a storyteller, plus talks on growing tasty veg and how to keep chickens, there’s something for the whole family to enjoy. Don’t forget to bring your own plants for swapping and to sample some of the delicious local food on offer. Entry is £5 for adults and £2 for children.

See our website for full details: www.earthtrust.org.uk or contact us on 01865 407792 / admin@earthtrust.org.uk.




• A New Singing Opportunity for Children aged 8-13.
Come and Sing Vivaldi’s Gloria and Britten’s Friday Afternoons
with
THE OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE SINGING SCHOOL, at
WORCESTER COLLEGE, Oxford.
11th – 15th August 2014

See attached flyer