Newsletter for week ending 27 February 2015

Food with Thought Meal Offer
Food with Thought, our school meal provider, is running a promotion during March offering a voucher for a free meal to all KS2 children. To qualify for this offer, you simply need to buy 10 consecutive meals from either Monday 2nd March or Monday 16th March. You can of course purchase meals for the whole of March to qualify for 2 vouchers.
The vouchers can be used in April or May and will have an expiry date of 31st May 2015.
The new menu which starts from 16th March has been uploaded onto the school website and is also attached to this newsletter. Food with Thought are no longer providing families with paper copies of the menu.

World Book Day – Thursday 5th March
A reminder that on Thursday 5th March all pupils and (staff!) are encouraged to come to school dressed as a favourite book character, bring a copy of the book if possible, and be prepared to explain why they chose that particular character. Photographs of the children as book characters will be taken and we plan to make a display of these in school afterwards. We have already heard of some inspiring ideas!
Pupils will also need to have their PE kit in school that day to change into during the afternoon.

World Book Day Vouchers
World Book Day takes place on Thursday 5th March 2015 and celebrates the joy and value of books and reading, especially for children. To help get them started on their reading journey, every child receives a £1 World Book Day Book Token that can either be exchanged for one of TEN special £1 World Book Day books or used to get £1 off any book costing £2.99 or more. You can find out more about the books at worldbookday.com/books. Book Tokens will be sent home today in book bags. Please help your child to use it on or around World Book Day by visiting your local bookshop (if you need help finding one, visit booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch).

E-Safety Presentations
It was good to see so many of you at our E-Safety and Cyberbullying presentations this week. The children had worked hard to prepare their presentations which we hope you found both entertaining and informative. For those of you who were unable to attend we have attached a copy of the presentation for you to see.

Visit by Polish pupils, parents and teachers
From Friday 19th to Tuesday 23rd June we will be welcoming a party of 12 visitors from our partner school in Hazlach, Poland. We have had links with Hazlach school for over 10 years and during this time we have conducted a number of exchange visits – the most recent being a group from this school travelling to Poland last May. Staff and families have hosted visitors in the past and this is the plan for the visit in June too. Several members of staff and families have already agreed to host this year’s visitors, however, we are still seeking to find a family who would be willing to have an 11 year old girl and her mother stay with them for this time. If you are able and willing, please speak with Mrs Turner for further information. Thank you.

Question & Answer Session with the Governing Body
Tuesday 17 March, 8pm, School Hall
The Governing Body would like to invite all parents and carers to an informal Q&A session on Tuesday 17 March at 8pm in the school hall. This is a chance for parents and carers to find out more about what the school governors do, how they are involved with the operation of the school and to find out more about the schools’ priorities.

There will be a short presentation followed by an open Q&A session. However, parents and carers are welcome to submit questions anonymously via the school office should they wish to do so.

As the aim of the session is to provide information about the work of the Governing Body and to address any questions about the overall governance of the school, neither Mrs Turner nor any of the teaching staff will be attending. Should a parent wish to talk about their child with a member of the teaching staff they should make an appointment in the usual way. Please note we will not be able to answer any questions specific to individual children.

The agenda for the meeting will be:

Benchmarking
League tables
Financials & Budgets
School priorities

The Chair of the Governors, Jason Hector, and the chair of the Finance Committee, Paul Gravett, as well as other members of the governing body will all be available to answer questions.

We hope you will welcome the opportunity to find out more and hope to see you on the 17th March.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Jason Hector & Paul Gravett

Work-Viewing Evening on Monday 23rd March
This year our Work Viewing Evening is Monday 23rd March. This takes place in pupils’ classrooms between 3.15 and 6pm and parents and carers are invited to look at their child’s/children’s work. Many families choose to do this with their children and this is encouraged. Teachers will be present in the classrooms between 3.30 and 6pm and although there is no appointment system they are available for a brief conversation if required. In addition, our annual Mid-Year Summary Reports, which indicate individual pupil progress towards key targets, will be sent out the week before.

School Council News

Cake Sale
Thank you to everyone who donated cup cakes or biscuits to raise money for a wireless camera for the school bird box. We raised £61.04 and are planning to purchase the camera shortly.

Red Nose Day on Friday 13 March
Competition – We will be participating in Red Nose Day by holding a ‘funny face’ photograph competition. All you need to do is take a photo of your face, making it as funny as you possibly can. You can use props, such as face paints, glasses, wigs, etc to enhance your entry photo. All entries will cost £1 and must be handed in to the school office by Wednesday 11th March 2015. The best ‘funny face’ photograph will win a prize which will be presented in the Friday assembly.

Red Nose Day- Children may pay £1 to come to school dressed in their pyjamas for the day! This money will then be added to the Competition money and sent off to Comic Relief.


Year 6 visit to see ‘Contes Mauriciens’ performance at Icknield Community College
Year 6 pupils thoroughly enjoyed visiting Icknield Community College on Tuesday for a Contes Mauriciens performance by actors and a technician from Theatre Sans Frontieres. They were surprised by how much of it they were able to understand and found the plays very entertaining. What a great experience! Thank you to Icknield Community College for inviting pupils to this event.

Football Tournament Results from RAF Benson
The outdoor matches were cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch, so the children took part in an indoor skills rally and a football quiz instead. Year 3 and Year 4s came first and Year 5 and 6 came 4th. Overall we came 2nd and everyone enjoyed the experience! Congratulations to everyone and thank you to the parents who helped with the transport. Particular thanks to Mr Cove for coaching pupils beforehand.

Gardening Club
We are grateful to Mr and Mrs Burnell for offering to restart the gardening club on Friday lunchtimes. Please could any pupils from Classes 2 and 3 who would like to attend the club put their names down with Mrs Hopkins. The club will start again on Friday 6th March.

PTA NEWS:
Kids Bingo Night Friday 20th March 5.30-7pm- letters with consent forms will be going into book bags on Monday. Please return the consent forms along with £3.00 to the school office no later then Thursday 19th March. No tickets are being issued and if you are able to help please speak to a PTA committee member. Thank you.

Fish and Chip’s supper and disco/karaoke night. Saturday 21st March 7.30pm The Crown, Stadhampton- the PTA are very excited to announce that we are holding this event in partnership with The Crown, tickets are priced at £7 each which includes an enormous fish and chip supper, plus there is a disco, Karaoke, an alcohol raffle and much more, all funds going to the PTA. This promises to be a fantastic night for everyone, tickets are available from Georgina Wiggins and from The Crown.

Easter Egg Raffle, we are holding a raffle the day before we break up for Easter and are asking for donations of Easter eggs from parents. Please put all donations into the PTA box in the school hall. Thank you.

Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Hannah Lansley, the lucky winner of the last cake before half term, kindly donated by Mrs Khan. A reminder to Mrs Payne that she is on the rota for 6 March.
We still have gaps for people to donate cakes from 8 May to the end of the school year. Please see Rowena if you are willing to go on the rota.

DIARY DATES:
Thursday 5 March World Book Day
Monday 13 April Vision screening for Reception pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears would like to welcome everyone back to Term 4. This term our topic is "Six Dinner Sid" a book by Inga Moore. Sid has six owners, lives in six houses and has six dinners a day. We look forward to lots of cat mini topics with this book.
Little Bears would also like to say a big thank you to Tillie, Nate, Helen and Max Moss-Black for the lovely toys they donated.

Community News
Michael Hopkins will be leading an 3-day Easter Sports Course at Stadhampton School on Monday 30 March, Tuesday 31 March & Wednesday 1 April. The course runs from 9-3pm each day and is open to all pupils (not necessarily just Stadhampton School) aged 4-11. The cost is £10 per day and bookings can be made directly by e-mailing m.hopkins07@hotmail.com or via Mrs Hopkins in the school office. These sports courses are very popular and early booking is advised.

Stadhampton Youth Club Continues...
Wednesday, 4th & Wednesday 18th March are the next sessions which continue on the first and third Wednesdays of the month @Village Hall at St Johns.
Sessions run as follows - make sure you're attending at the correct times!
18.30 – 19.30 – School Years 5 & 6 (approx. ages 9 to 11)
19.45 – 20.45 – School Years 7 & 8 (approx. ages 11 to 13)
Subs £1.50/week
Before attending, a Membership Form, signed by a parent, needs to be completed and handed to the Club Leader (available on the door or by emailing the address below).

We’d love feedback from the young people coming along to the sessions as well as parents/carers and there will an opportunity to feedback confidentially your thoughts (suggestion box at Youth Club) or by email.

Of course we need more volunteers; both adults and older youngsters, from the local community to ensure these sessions can continue to run.
stadhamptonyouthclub@gmail.com