Newsletter for week ending 26th February 2016

Swimming for Class 3 Pupils
Swimming began at the Abbey Sports Centre for Class 3 pupils on Monday 22nd February (first day back). As always, we are very appreciative to receive a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £2 per session per pupil towards the transport costs. Cash or cheque welcomed, with cheques made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please (£10 for the 5 sessions). Thank you.

After School Clubs
Please note that both the Art and Multisports Clubs are now full. There are still one or two spaces available for the Monday Chess Club and a number of places for the Monday Ball Games club (D of E students from ICC) for pupils in Years 3-6.

New School Meals Menu
A copy of the new schools meals menu has now been uploaded to the school website as a reference point for families.

Elli Project
The next character to be introduced to represent one of the 7 learning characteristics will be ‘Stickability Tortoise’. Class 3 have been working on different scenarios to present in our Elli Project assembly on 29th February. One idea will be presented by the pupils who wrote it, using the puppets in school. We are very much looking forward to their presentation.

Forest Schools
If anyone has an old kitchen sink they no longer need and would be willing to donate for use at Forest School, please speak to Mrs Hopkins or Melanie Gravett.

Forest Schools Fundraising
On the subject of Forest Schools we will be planning a number of Forest School fundraising events during the year, as we have done in the past. We are committed to offering FS sessions to all pupils but the costs are not inconsiderable and this year our costs have doubled as we now hold two FS sessions a week. Budget constraints mean that we need to raise additional funds for both resources and staffing. Our very active and supportive PTA have recently generously paid for a set of waterproofs to ensure that all pupils are dry and comfortable even in the wettest of weathers, for which, on behalf of the pupils, we are very grateful. We cannot, however, expect the PTA to cover the full costs of our FS sessions, so from time to time the school will continue to organise specific FS events to raise funds.
The next event to raise funds is
A Supper Night on Friday 6th May from 7.30 to 11.30pm at the Village Hall at St John’s Church Stadhampton.
Tickets cost £12.50 and include a buffet and desserts. Bring your own drinks!
See attached flyer for more details and how to book.
We look forward to your support which will help to secure our continued Forest School provision.

Sporting Achievements

Jian-Zi Competition Results
Pupils took part in our annual Jian-Zi competition on the Friday afternoon just before we finished for the February Holiday as part of our Chinese New Year activities. The competition took place with 3 finalists participating from each year group performing in front of the whole school! The results were as follows:

Year Group Highest Result Runners up:
Reception Winner: Ollie (2) Harry (1); Aisulu (1)
Year 1 Winner: Jack (2) Bobby (1); Cianna (1); Zac (1)
Year 2 Winner: Casey (4) Oliver (2); Ollie E (2); Nate (1)
Year 3 Winner: Joshua (2) Jack A (1); Daniel (1)
Year 4 Winner: Lorenzo (32) Will E (10); Billy (4)
Year 5 Winner: Thomas C (333) Will P (30); Lawrence (12)
Year 6 Winner: Max (20) Charlie A (7); James (6)
Congratulations to Thomas Cove in Year 5 who scored an amazing 333!

CLOSER Partnership of Schools Football Tournament Winners!
During the last week of term the following pupils from Years 5 and 6 represented Stadhampton Primary School at a football tournament at RAF Benson: Lawrence, Tillie, Daniel, Tia, Will, Charlie, Max, Thomas and James.
Four other schools participated, Watlington, RAF Benson, Chalgrove and Ewelme. We played four games and won the whole tournament. Well done Stadhampton! Thank you to the parents who helped to transport and support us.

World Book Day – Thursday 3rd March 2016
For World Book Day this year we are doing something a little different! We are asking children and adults to bring in a prop from their favourite story book. The prop can be ready made or you can be creative and make the prop adding your own artistic flair to it! During the morning we will be holding a competition throughout the school where we ‘guess the book’ from the props brought in.
£1 Book tokens have been distributed to all pupils this week which enable pupils to exchange their token for either a £1 World Book Day book or receive £1 off a book worth £2.99 or more in all participating bookshops.

PTA NEWS
Here is a list of all the winners of the Harry Potter competition

Ellie Payne (Reception)
Honor White (Year 1)
Arun Davies (Year 2)
Elizabeth Marshall (Year 3)
Wyatt Bullock (Year 4)
Lizzie Bowerman (Year 5)

Thank you to everyone who took part

Disco night at The Crown- thank you for your donations towards the raffle. We raised a disappointing £55.45. If anyone has any ideas on what events we could hold for adults which would be better supported then please see a committee member. Thank you.

Earth Hour- on Saturday 19th March ‘Earth Hour’ is held worldwide encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn their non essential lights off for 1 hour, from 8.30-9.30pm (this can be done earlier for younger children) as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. It can be celebrated any way you like maybe have a dinner party in candle light or go for a walk with lanterns. On Friday 18th March we will be putting envelopes into book-bags (1 per family) for your child or your family to be sponsored to turn all lights off for an hour, however your child/family may wish to make it longer than an hour or maybe turn off televisions, consoles or mobile phones. 10% of all sponsor money will be donated to WWF with all other sponsor money going towards the PTA. Al envelopes to be handed into a box in the office from Monday 21st March.

Easter Chocolate raffle- we will be holding another Easter egg raffle on the last week of term. I wanted to start asking for donations towards this, if you could donate an Easter egg or chocolates then that would be hugely appreciated. We had 28 Easter eggs last year, it would be great if we could have even more this year. Please put all donations into the PTA box in the hall or alternatively give to a committee member. A list of all committee members is on the notice board outside Class 1.

Summer fete- we are very excited to be holding a summer fete this year and we would like to make it one to remember. Does your child attend a choir? dance group? Parents have you any contacts through work etc to help with stalls or entertainment for the day? Any help is very much appreciated.

Facebook- did you know the PTA has a facebook page? it is a closed group, if you search Stadhampton primary school pta and ask to join then I can add you. it is for reminders, information and a just a point of contact for parents.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Ruby Clark, the lucky winner of the last cake before half term, kindly donated by Mrs Hackett. A reminder to Mrs Khan that she is on the rota for 4th March. We still need cake donators from 29 April to 1st July. See Rowena if you would like to be added to the rota.


DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 2 March Mobile Library visit
Thursday 3 March World Book Day
Year 2 Forest School session
Monday 7 March Class 3 pupils attend French Theatre performance at ICC – coaches leave Stadhampton School at 9am. No costs involved for parents. Permission letter sent home this week.
Wednesday 9 March Whole –School Science Day (more details to follow)
Thursday 10 March Year 5 Forest School session
Friday 18 March Sport Relief – Dress as a clown for £1 and take part in the one mile fun run.

Easter Holiday Sports Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins, a qualified PE teacher, will be leading an Easter Sports Course on Wednesday 30th March, Thursday 31st March and Friday 1st April at Stadhampton Primary School. 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 for the day and bookings can be made directly by e-mailing m.hopkins07@hotmail.com or via Mrs Hopkins in the school office. Early booking is advised as the Christmas Sports Course was very popular.

Newsletter for week ending 12th February 2016

Happy FEBRUARY Birthday to: Charlie Ball, Casey Bromell, Tilly Moss-Black, Jemima O’Brien, Will Parkes, Alexandra Robinson and Daniel Robinson.

During FEBRUARY we are focusing on the core value of QUALITY

After School Clubs
We recently circulated information about the After School Clubs for Term 4. We endeavour to provide a variety of opportunities over the year and are always on the look-out for fresh opportunities!

We compile a register of pupils attending each after school club, to which class teachers and the after school club leaders refer, to ensure the right children are in the right place.

We know when a child is absent due to illness or when parents inform class teachers that their child is not attending due to other reasons. However, there are occasions when a child does not attend for reasons that we are unaware of. To ensure the safety of all pupils attending after school clubs, from Term 4, all pupils on the register for that activity will be sent to the hall for registration unless class teachers have received information directly from parents advising us of other arrangements.

Parents or carers will be able to collect their child from the hall and liaise directly with the after school club leader. Hopefully this will avoid any misunderstandings and ensure the safety of your children. Thank you.

Swimming for Class 3 Pupils
Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre will begin for Class 3 pupils on Monday 22nd February (first day back). They will have a total of five sessions in Term 4. As always, we are very appreciative to receive a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £2 per session per pupil towards the transport costs. Cash or cheque welcomed, with cheques made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please (£10 for the 5 sessions).
Thank you.

New School Meals Menu
Food & More (previously Food with Thought) have provided us with a copy of the new lunch menu which will start on Monday 22nd February. Please find an electronic copy of it attached to this newsletter. Parents should also receive a paper copy via book bags. The new menu will also be uploaded to the school website after half-term.

Robotscool and the Computing Curriculum
A huge thank you to the PTA, who have very generously donated funds to help provide the school with new laptops for the laptop trolley. The laptops in the trolley were 7 years old and struggling to work sufficiently well to allow all children access to the new Computing Curriculum. The new laptops are a great resource for the school and will benefit childrens’ learning.

The PTA have also contributed to funding a fantastic and exciting opportunity for KS2 pupils which will begin next term. ROBOTSCOOL will start in Class 2 and then Class 3 after Easter. The children will learn a wide range of skills such as engineering, reporting, managing and programming, all involving robots, and led by Mr Barry Grehan from Robotscool.

Chinese New Year Celebrations
We have celebrated Chinese New Year (the year of the monkey!) in various ways in each class this week (see below for details.) The celebrations will be concluded on Friday afternoon with our annual Jian-Zi tournament. As we send this newsletter to parents before the tournament, we will share details of the winners with you in our next newsletter.

Reception
Made lanterns; traced and painted ‘monkey’ word; made Chinese opera masks; cut out pictures of monkeys; wrote Chinese numbers to 10; learnt about dragon dances and Chinese music.

Class 1
Made paper lanterns; learnt ordinal numbers through the New Year story and painted Chinese numbers.

Class 2
We listened to a traditional story – Lin Yi’s Lantern – A Moon Festival Tale; made lanterns and Tangrams, "seven pieces of cleverness" - an ancient Chinese puzzle which is still mind-bending and intriguing today!

Class 3
Class 3 pupils created their own horoscopes and identified what Chinese animal they were. They made fortune cookies and even wrote fortunes of our own to put in the cookies. Some examples of the fortunes we wrote are:
“warmth will come when you give”
“be somebody who makes you feel like a somebody”
“a simple smile will make your troubles float away”
“expect the unexpected”
We look forward to eating our fortune cookies!

Highclere Castle Visit
Report by Jemima and Phoebe: “Class Two went on an amazing trip to Highclere Castle! Year 3 and Year 4 split into two different groups. We all saw the same things but in a different order. We saw Tutankhamun’s tomb. There was a brown rusty old door with black bars and when you look through them there was a light that turned on and off showing Egyptian Pharaohs. It made most of us jump! We found out that there was a mummy’s curse after the tomb was opened. A very interesting day!”

Sainsbury's Vouchers
We are collecting Sainsburys’s Active Kids vouchers again this year. The scheme launched on 27th January and we hope that everyone will ask their families and friends to also collect vouchers for us. There is a box in the Hall to put them in. We are able to exchange our vouchers for new sports equipment which is always very exciting!

Sport Relief
GET FUNNY and dress up as a funny character or clown and pay £1 to help raise money for Sport Relief on Friday 18th March 2016. Pupils will wear their funny costumes to run or walk for one mile around the school grounds. Pupils will also need their plimsolls or trainers in school for this event.


PTA NEWS
Harry Potter night: Thank you to everyone who entered our Harry Potter competition. The winners will be announced shortly.

Fundraising Disco Saturday, 730pm at The Crown: Thank you to everyone who has donated raffle prizes for this event. We would love to see you all there for what promises to be a fun filled evening. Whether you come with friends, partner or by yourself a warm welcome awaits you!
There is free entry, DJ, cocktail bar, photo booth and a raffle.

All money raised from the raffle goes to helping the school. Thank you for your support.

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Jack Fulker, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Cove. A reminder to Mrs Kenny that she is on the rota for 26 February, the first Friday after half term.


DIARY DATES:
Monday 22 February Start of Term 4 for pupils and staff
Class 3 Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre, Berinsfield
Thursday 25 February Year 2 Forest School
Wednesday 2 March Mobile Library visit
Thursday 3 March World Book Day
Year 2 Forest School session
Monday 7 March Class 3 pupils attend French Theatre performance at ICC – coaches leave Stadhampton School at 9am. No costs involved for parents.
Wednesday 9 March Whole –School Science Day (more details to follow)
Thursday 10 March Year 5 Forest School session

Easter Holiday Sports Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins, a qualified PE teacher, will be leading an Easter Sports Course on Wednesday 30th March, Thursday 31st March and Friday 1st April at Stadhampton Primary School. 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 for the day and bookings can be made directly by e-mailing m.hopkins07@hotmail.com or via Mrs Hopkins in the school office. Early booking is
advised as the Christmas Sports Course was very popular!

Newsletter for week ending 5th February 2016

Message from the Governing Body - Parent Feedback
Thank you to everyone who has already returned their completed questionnaire recently sent to parents by the Governing Body. We hope that as many families as possible will complete the questionnaire and return it to school as soon as possible. Parents were sent one form per family but additional forms are available in the school office for parents who have children in different classes and would like a separate form for each child. Thank you.

Catering Vacancy to assist Mrs Sheridan
We are pleased to announce that Carillion, who manage our School Meals provision, have appointed Mrs Emma Fulker to assist Mrs Sheridan for two hours each day. Mrs Fulker will set up the hall ready for lunchtime service and clear and tidy the hall afterwards. She will also assist Mrs Sheridan with serving lunch which should mean less waiting time for pupils! We are very grateful to Carillion for providing this additional support. The average uptake of a hot school meal at our school is now between 60-70 pupils per day.

Let’s Get Sugar Smart
Each family should receive via book bags this week an information pack from Change4Life about how to get ‘sugar smart’. We hope you find this of interest.

PTA News
Harry Potter Night- Thursday 4th February
You should all have received your activity packs to fill in; your child/children can illustrate the pictures in the pack or if they would prefer they can do their own picture. All packs and pictures to be returned on Monday 8th February to a special Harry Potter box in the office. All children will receive a sweet and the winner of the picture competition will win a Harry Potter prize.

Valentine Disco-Saturday 13th February
Come and join us at The Crown in Stadhampton from 7.30pm. There will be a cocktail bar serving all your favourite cocktails, DJ playing lots of great music, photo booth where you can take lots of silly photos.
Free entry.
Please come and support this night which promises to be a fun filled evening!

We are looking for donations of alcohol for the raffle we are doing on the evening. Please give whatever you can to a committee member.

Thank you for your support of the PTA

Friday Cake Club
Congratulations to Izzy Kenny, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly provided by Mrs Ellis. A reminder to Mrs Hackett that she is on the rota for 12 February.


DIARY DATES:
Tuesday 9 February Class 2 visit to Highclere Castle
Thursday 11 February Year 1 Forest School
Friday 12 February Annual Jian-Zi tournament
Break up for February Holiday at 3.15pm
Monday 22 February Start of Term 4 for pupils and staff
Class 3 Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre, Berinsfield
Thursday 25 February Year 2 Forest School

Easter Holiday Sports Course at Stadhampton School
Michael Hopkins, a qualified PE teacher, will be leading an Easter Sports Course on Wednesday 30th March, Thursday 31st March and Friday 1st April at Stadhampton Primary School. 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 for the day and bookings can be made directly by e-mailing m.hopkins07@hotmail.com or via Mrs Hopkins in the school office. Early booking is advised as the Christmas Sports Course was very popular!

Community News:

• Flyer attached about an U12 Girls Football Team in Horspath