Newsletter for week ending 11th September 2015

School Prospectus
The new School Prospectus for 2015 -16 is almost ready! We will upload it to the school website (when this is fixed – see note below).

School Website Update
Our school website, along with the websites from a number of other Oxfordshire schools, was hacked this week resulting in automatic redirection to other sites. The issue has been with our IT consultants during the week and unfortunately, although the problem can be fixed, the site needs to be made even more secure in order to prevent this from happening again. We have now agreed to the costs involved and hope that the website will be up and running again in the very near future.

Harvest Festival – Friday 2nd October
Our annual Harvest Festival will take place in the Hall at 9.05am on Friday 2nd October and families are most welcome to join us. Once again we will be supporting Stepping Stones, an organisation for homeless people in Oxford, with our Harvest Gifts. We hope that each child will be able to bring a small contribution into school before our service. All Harvest gifts bought into school will be taken to the village church and put on display for the Harvest Service there on Sunday 4th October, before being taken on to Stepping Stones. Stepping Stones prefer to receive non-perishable items such as packets of pasta, tins of beans, bars of chocolate, packets of biscuits, tins of tomatoes, tins of spaghetti, etc rather than fresh produce. Thank you.

Starting School in 2016
Parents of children born between 01/09/2011 and 31/08/2012 must make an application now for their child to start Reception in September 2016. The closing date for on-time applications is 15th January 2016. The Primary offer date for on-time applications is 18th April 2016. Please apply on-line at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/admissions

Secondary Transfer in 2016
Parents of pupils in Year 6 have been sent a letter by the Local Authority to explain the application process for transfer to secondary school. The closing date for on-time applications is 2nd November 2015. The secondary offer date for on-time applications is 1st March 2016.

Request for Pearson Employees to nominate us
With the increased challenge and demands of the new National Curriculum, 2014; the school is hoping to invest in a reliable planning Maths resource from Abacus Evolve from ‘Pearson Education’. This publishing company very kindly offer a substantial discount to schools who have a family member working for them. Employees can nominate a school to receive a discount and can nominate a school linked to a friend if they don’t have family contacts. Please let us know if anyone has any possible connection with Pearson Education so that we might be able to benefit from this discount. Thank you in anticipation!

Healthy Lunch Boxes
Leaflets about what ideally constitutes a healthy lunch box have been put in book bags this week as a reminder for all parents.

Nut Allergy
We have a child in school who has a severe nut allergy. We respectfully ask parents to please ensure that lunchboxes do not contain any products containing nuts, eg peanut butter sandwiches, nuts in yoghurts, etc. Thank you to everyone for their co-operation in this matter.

PTA News
Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA meeting on Tuesday. We have lots of exciting events coming up!!!

Please look out in book-bags for a year plan of PTA events. It is laminated so it can be stuck on a fridge or noticeboard and is a great way to keep up to date with what is coming up whether this is a child or adult event.

We hope everyone enjoyed their bacon roll and tea/coffee on Thursday morning! Thank you to the parents who wrote down some ideas for possible events to hold in the future.

Quiz night with fish & chip supper- Saturday 10th October 7.30pm, school hall- we are very excited to hold another adult quiz night! We have a fully stocked bar and there will be lots of great rounds to test everyone's knowledge. Tickets priced at £10 each for fish & chips or £5 without food. Tickets on sale very soon.

Dates for diaries:
Quiz night- Saturday 10th October
AGM- Tuesday 13th October
Clothes recycling- Monday 19th October
Kids disco- Friday 23rd October
Official Notice of the PTA's Annual General Meeting (AGM) - Tuesday 13th October, 8pm in the School Hall .
The PTA plays a vital part in the school community and all parents, as members of the PTA, are invited to support the AGM. This is your chance to hear and see how the funds you have helped to raise last year have been used for the benefit of the children at our school.
The AGM is also an opportunity for you to elect the PTA Officers (Chair, Treasurer, Secretary), to represent the association throughout the forthcoming academic year. Our current Secretary, Melanie Gravett, and current Treasurer, Charlotte Hector, will not be standing for re-election, so if you are interested in taking on one of these roles or the role of chair, please confirm your interest by email to the school office prior to the AGM meeting (formal nominations will take place at the meeting itself). If you would like any further information about any of these roles or are just interested in joining the committee, please speak to Melanie or Charlotte or our current Chair, Georgina Wiggins. Or if you just want to come to the meeting to find out a bit more, come along-everyone is welcome.
Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Charlie Hackett, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Holmes. A reminder to Mrs Hackett that she is on the rota for 18 September. If you would like to donate a cake for the Cake Club, please speak to Rowena Dobson and she will add you to the rota. It’s not too late to pay for the whole year and get 3 weeks free. Just £7 per child – see Rowena.


DIARY DATES:
Tuesday 15 September Forest School – Reception pupils
Wednesday 16 September Skipping Workshop
Tuesday 22 September Forest School – Reception pupils
Thursday 24 September Forest School – Year 2 pupils
Monday 28 September GB Meeting at 7pm
Tuesday 29 September Forest School – Reception pupils
Thursday 1 October Forest School – Year 2 pupils
Friday 2 October Harvest Festival in school (more details to follow)

Community News:

Flyer attached from Icknield Community College about their Open Evening on Thursday 17th September.

St Birinus Open Evening – (Boys School)
Parents are warmly invited to attend our Open Evening on Tuesday 29 September 2015 between 5pm and 8pm. You will have the opportunity to meet staff and pupils, and have a look around the school. We are also hosting Open Mornings, starting at 9.15am on 6, 14, 16 and 19 October 2015. You will need to book a place to come along to one of these, which you can do by emailing admissions@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk or calling (01235) 814444.

River and Rowing Museum
Oxfordshire Goes Wild (and Wet!) on Saturday 19 September from 12-4pm. Free with normal admission costs. Telephone 01491 415600

Stadhampton Youth Club extends a warm invitation to all parents & volunteers to attend an information & training evening @ 19:30 hr in the Village Hall St Johns on Wed 30 Sep 2015.
We will explain all you need to know about helping out at and otherwise supporting your local youth club.

Please let us know whether or not you can attend, so that we can be sure to provide refreshments, by emailing stadhamptonyouthclub@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you,
Stadhampton Youth Club