Newsletter for week ending 1st May 2015

Happy MAY Birthday to: Billy Bowerman, Hannah Bradford, Leo Burnell, Lorenzo Elliott, Gene Green, Isabel Hector, Megan Hutchence, Miriam Hutchence, Joshua Hursey, Olivia Kenny, Jack Smith and Freddie Webber

During MAY we are focusing on the core value of UNDERSTANDING

Woodlands Residential
Thank you to those families in Class 3 who have now paid their outstanding balance for the residential visit to Woodlands in June. Please may we remind everyone else that the final balance is due by no later than 15th May 2015. Thank you. We’re really looking forward to this visit!

Forest School Sessions
• Reception pupils will have Forest School sessions on the afternoons of Thursday 25th June and Thursday 2nd July. Please could parents ensure that pupils have suitable old clothing in school for those two dates.
• The Year 1 Forest School session scheduled for Thursday 21st May will change to Thursday 18th June as Class 1 will be attending a ‘Bookfeast’ session on that day. (More details about Bookfeast are to follow shortly).
• The session for Year 6 pupils scheduled for 18th June will now take place on Thursday 21st May instead.

Student in Class 3
Miss Sophie Peet, a PGCE student at Oxford Brookes, will be completing her final school placement with us from 5th May to 3rd July and will mainly be working with Miss Raval and Class 3.

Young Leaders Training Day – by Leo Burnell, Class 3
The ‘Young Leaders’ training day led by Mrs Manzie, was lots of fun. We used the new Fit 4 Life kit bag and organised games for each other using the new equipment. Games included ‘Not in My Backyard’ and ‘Target Golf’. Next week, we will be running Clubs for the younger children. At the end of the day, instead of a certificate, we were given a fitness wristband to show that we are Young Leaders and to make sure we are physically fit enough to run clubs!

Hosts Required!
We have a group of 12 people from our partner school in Hazlach, Poland, visiting from Friday 19th to Tuesday 23rd June. There are 4 pupils, each with a parent, and 4 members of the teaching staff. Parents and members of staff have generously offered to host families, providing transport and hospitality, however we are still looking for someone willing to offer accommodation for 2 of the teachers. They are both female and would be willing to share the same bedroom. One of them is an English teacher at the school, has very good English and visited us before but the other has limited English so it would be best to keep the two together. There is no obligation to become involved in all the planned activities (although you would be very welcome to be!), the main priority is to provide somewhere to sleep. If anyone could help, please contact Mrs Turner. Thank you.

Clarinet Lessons
Unfortunately the letter which went home to families earlier this week about Clarinet lessons for pupils in Years 5 and 6 in the next school year did not contain details of who to make the cheque payable to. To clarify, cheques for clarinet tuition should be made payable to OCC. Thank you and apologies for the omission.

Nepalese Earthquake
Our thoughts go out to the people of Nepal, and the many visitors there, following last weekend’s devastating earthquake. It is hard for us to imagine what people there are having to cope with but our newly elected School Council are keen to do something to help and are looking into fundraising options to best help the Nepalese people. We hope to be able to give you further details of their plans very soon.

Booking Clerk for the School (Community) Hall
Sarah Massey, the bookings secretary and treasurer for the Hall Management Committee, takes bookings for the school 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. Thank you.

PTA NEWS:
Clothes recycling is on Tuesday 19th May and bags have now been put into book-bags. This is a great opportunity to get rid of all unwanted clothes! You may use additional black sacks if needed. All money raised from clothes recycling goes to PTA funds. The collection will be at 9am from the school.

Family Quiz Night is on Friday 15th May from 6-8pm. This promises to be a fabulous evening for the whole family to enjoy. Tickets cost £10 for the family of up to 6 people. Please order your tickets from Sue Bowerman. Tickets are limited so be quick!

Date for your diary
Sponsored Family Fun Run will be on Saturday 13th June- more details to follow nearer the time!

Our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 12th May at 8pm in The Crown.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Jem Burnell, the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Debbi Purchon, Bobby Byrne's Mum. A reminder to Mrs Fegyveres that she is on the rota for 8 May.
DIARY DATES:
Thursday 7 May Forest School for Year 4 pupils
Monday 11 May SATs week – please ensure no routine appointments such as for the doctor or dentist are made for this week for Year 6 pupils and Year 2 pupils in particular. Thank you.
Tuesday 30 June African Dance Workshop – details to be confirmed
Friday 10th July Whole School Sports Evening – details to be confirmed

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week the Little Bears will continue learning all about the solar system, enjoy experimenting with marble inks and learning lots of facts about planets. We will also be enjoying some group book times together with the book "Everyone Loves the Moon"
Last chance to get your tickets for the Ladies Supper night on Friday 8th May at the Village Hall at St Johns Church - 7.30 till 11.30pm.
Tickets are £12 each - Everyone is welcome for nibbles, cold buffet, choice of desserts.... come along and bring your own drinks.
Please see Debbie to order your tickets.

Newsletter for week ending 24 April 2015

Ofsted Report for Icknield Community College
Congratulations to ICC on securing a ‘Good’ grading at their last Ofsted inspection. A copy of the Ofsted report is attached to this newsletter.

Holidays in Term-Time
A reminder that as a result of changes since September 2013 to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, Headteachers are unable to authorise any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as bereavement. It will be impossible, therefore, to support any requests for holidays during term time. Please support us and your child by making all holiday bookings during school holidays. Any requests for consideration of exceptional circumstances must be submitted in writing to Mrs Turner and this may be followed by a meeting. Thank you.

Tests for Pupils
End of KS1 Standard Attainment Tests (SATs) for Year 2 pupils will take place throughout May. End of KS2 SATs for Year 6 pupils follow a set national timetable and take place during the week beginning 11th May. Pupils in Years 3, 4 and 5 also have assessment tests in May. We politely request that routine dentist or doctor appointments are not made during this time. Thank you.

Cycle Safety Training – More Volunteers Required please!
Cycle Safety Training will be taking place for eight Year 6 pupils on the following dates: 15th, 22nd May, 5th, 19th, 26th June and 3rd July. We already have in place a small group of experienced leaders of this activity but we urgently need to recruit one or two more volunteers to help when pupils go out on the busy main road to practise. Please let Mrs Hopkins know if you could help with this training or would like more information about what is required. Thank you.

School Council Election of New Members
The following pupils were elected to the School Council this week by their fellow pupils: Oliver, Cora, James, Zara, Daniel, Juliana, Beau, Isabel Holmes, Phoebe and Jem. Congratulations to them all. We also used the opportunity, with the older children, to discuss democracy and the system of voting in elections.

Shakespeare Day on Wednesday 22nd April
Class 3 report
On the 22nd of April, Abby, a professional actress from the West End Schools Theatre Company came to Stadhampton to lead a fantastic Shakespearen workshop for the school. The Shakespeare play we were preparing to perform was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. She taught us facial expressions and how to put exaggeration into our speech and acting. After each year group completed their workshop everyone came together in the afternoon to perform the whole play. Abby had put together background narration with ‘Puck’ the naughty pixie. We all joined in ‘Team Puck’ and were naughty pixies putting juice in the eyes of Titania, Lysander, and Demetrius! It was amazing how well it all came together at the end!

Class 2 report
A lady from the West End Theatre called Abby came in and taught us two parts from the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It was great fun and exciting learning about the funny and confusing characters like Nick Bottom. We also liked learning about cheeky characters like Puck, and strong powerful characters like Titania and Oberon.
We loved doing our part in the play. Year 3 did the comedy part and it was really funny. We had to act out different personalities; confused, scared, show-off, angry and sleepy.

PTA NEWS:
Clothes recycling is on Tuesday 19th May,- this is a great opportunity to get rid of all your unwanted clothes! Nearer the time we will send a white bag home to each family for putting unwanted clothes in but you may also use additional black sacks if needed. All money raised from clothes recycling goes to PTA funds. The collection will take place at 9am from the school.

Family Quiz Night will be on Friday 15th May 6-8pm. This promises to be a fabulous evening for the whole family to enjoy. Tickets cost £10 for a family of up to 6 people. Please see Sue Bowerman for tickets. Tickets are limited so please order yours now!

Date for your diary:
Sponsored Family Fun Run on Saturday 13th June- more details to follow.
Our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 12th May at 8pm at The Crown.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Myles Dobson, the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Mrs Hutchence. A reminder to Ewa (Oliver Lemon's mum) that she is on the rota for 1st May.
We now have enough cake donators until the end of the school year - thank you all very much!

DIARY DATES:
Monday 27 April Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Wednesday 29 April Class 3 pupils working with Mrs Manzie and Miss Raval on Sports Leader scheme. All pupils must have their PE kit in school please.
Thursday 30 April Forest School for Year 4 pupils
Thursday 7 May Forest School for Year 4 pupils
Monday 11 May SATs week – please ensure no routine appointments such as for the doctor or dentist are made for this week for Year 6 pupils and Year 2 pupils in particular. Thank you.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears we will be learning all about the solar system, enjoying experimenting with marble inks and learning lots of facts about planets.
Little Bears are hosting a Ladies Supper Night on Friday 8th May at the Village Hall at St Johns Church - 7.30 till 11.30pm.
Tickets are £12 each. Everyone is welcome for nibbles, cold buffet, choice of desserts.... come along and bring your own drinks. Please come to Little Bears for more details.

Newsletter for week ending 17 April 2015

Welcome back to everyone!
We would like to welcome Megan Hutchence who recently joined Class 3 and Freddie Webber who recently joined Class 1.

Happy APRIL Birthday to: Katende Amery, Oliver Bourne, Cianna Browning, Bobby Byrne, Charlie Hackett, Isabel Holmes, Zachary Holmes and Sam Sundberg.

During APRIL we are focusing on the core value of HUMILITY

Topics/Areas of Study
Termly Outline Plans giving parents and carers an overview of the key areas of teaching and learning in each class have been uploaded onto the school website. If anyone would like a paper copy please ask in the school office for one.

Guitar Lessons
Guitar lessons start again on Wednesday 22nd April for participating pupils.

Let's perform a Shakespeare play together - in a single day”
We are delighted to welcome back West End in Schools on Wednesday 22nd April to spend the day with all the children joining together to perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream to each other - the whole process, including preparation, all in one day!
The actors will be involved with each year group leading to a shared final performance providing all the children with a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare.
At the end of the day the children will perform a version of the play to each other in a shared assembly, each class telling a different part of the story. The workshop leaders will direct, and ‘weave’ the production together as they go.
The children will get to explore and understand the characters and the story, will lose any ‘fear’ of Shakespeare, and will experience performing in a way they will never forget.
The final shared assembly is a key part of the day, and an opportunity for the children to engage with the play as a whole, as well as to play their own parts. Unfortunately, on this occasion the children will not be performing to parents.
We know this will disappoint some parents but this is a condition of this particular workshop with West End Theatre. We are planning another event later in the Summer term to which we intend to invite parents to a shared presentation.

Information Resources for Parents
We have a small number of books which may be of interest to parents and would like to set up a small reference resource based on an honesty arrangement. We have the following books in a box on the cupboard just outside the school office;
• Detoxing Childhood (what parents need to know to raise bright, balanced children) by Sue Palmer (2 copies)
• Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph
• Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph
This is a modest collection but if the resources are popular we can add to it and would be happy to consider other publications recommended by parents. If you would like to borrow any of the books please leave a note in the accompanying note-book, giving the book title, and your initials and phone number. Thank you.

PTA NEWS:
We hope that everyone had a lovely Easter break.

A reminder that clothes recycling is on Tuesday 19th May. The collection will be at 9am from the school.
This is a great opportunity to get rid of all your unwanted clothes; nearer the time we will be putting white bags for you to fill your clothes with; you may use additional black sacks if needed. All money raised from recycling our old clothes goes to the PTA.
Exciting events coming up........

Family Quiz Night- Friday 15th May
Sponsored Family Fun Run- date tbc

Our next PTA meeting is Tuesday 12th May 8pm at The Crown.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Mia Gravett & Emily Hackett, two lucky winners of cakes the last Friday before Easter. The cakes were kindly donated by Mrs Marshall and Debbie Purchon (Bobby Byrne's mum), who has also kindly offered to make another cake for Friday 24th April.
If you would like to pay for next term in one go, prices are £1.20 to May half term, and £2.60 to the end of the school year per child. Just 3 more cake donators needed now please! Please see Rowena.

DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 22 April Shakespeare Workshop
Thursday 23 April Forest School for Year 3 pupils
Monday 27 April Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Thursday 30 April Forest School for Year 4 pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back to Term 5. We hope you had a enjoyable Easter.
This term the Little Bears will be learning about space and space travel as well as enjoying lots of garden time with the improving weather!
Little Bears are hosting a Ladies Supper Night on Friday 8th May at the village hall at St Johns Church - 7.30 till 11.30pm.
Tickets are £12 each - Everyone is welcome for nibbles, cold buffet, choice of desserts.... come along and bring your own drinks.
Please come to Little Bears for more details

Community News:
Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary in Chiselhampton. A blue car and a white 4x4 crew cab vehicle were seen in a nearby lay-by acting suspiciously at approximately 4.30pm.
If you have seen any suspicious looking people or vehicles in the area or have any information relating to this message please call the police on 101.
Alternatively if you have any information but wish to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online @ crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.