Newsletter for week ending 6 May 2016

Happy May Birthday to: William Bowerman, Leo Burnell, Lorenzo Elliott, Gene Green, Isabel (May) Hector, Megan Hutchence, Miriam Hutchence, Joshua Hursey, Olivia Kenny, Jack Smith and Freddie Webber.

During May we are focusing on TOLERANCE

 

Message from Governing Body

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Parents & Community Forum last Tuesday. We acknowledge that not all parents were able to attend due to other commitments therefore we have placed the slides from the Forum on the website for all to access.

 

It’s difficult to write down everything that was discussed, therefore if you have any specific questions please email the Chair directly (Sara Wright – sarawright300@btinternet.com).

 

The government has announced that all schools will need to convert to being an academy by 2022. The governing body is considering a range of possible options and keeping informed of local and national developments in order to make the best decision for Stadhampton Primary School. We commit to continue to communicate with parents and engage in dialogue with the community to ensure that, whatever decision we make, the views of all stakeholders will be taken into consideration.

 

Councillor Madry was present and will update the Parish Council at the next meeting to encourage the community to take an active interest in the future of the school.

 

The Governing Body appreciates feedback from parents to ensure the school remains a very strong, good, school. There are always little quirks and incidences that we can learn from, however overall our children are happy at the school, do well and experience a strong foundation to set them up for success later in life.

 

Thank you.

 

Health and Safety Audit

We thought we would share with you the findings from our Health and Safety audit at the end of April by the Local Authority:

“The school maintains an extremely high standard of the management of Health and Safety processes and procedures, well done to all involved. The administration is organised, the monitoring checks are well documented and the in-house training, led by you, certainly promotes a robust health and safety culture within the school”.

 

Mobile Library Visits to Schools

We have received notification this week that due to County Council budget cuts the Oxfordshire mobile library service to schools will cease at the end of the summer term 2016, with no further visits by this service after July 15^th 2016. All borrowed books must be returned by the last visit date prior to this (will confirm the actual date nearer the time via this newsletter). The County Council hope that as many children as possible will continue their love of reading by using their network of 43 libraries across the county. We are very sorry that this valuable facility has been a casualty of local government cuts but hope that families will make use of the other local libraries.

 

Book Fair

We shall be holding a Book Fair in the school hall from the afternoon of Monday 16^th May until the morning of Friday 20^th May. There will be an exciting range of the latest top quality reading books for sale as well as stationery items, which pupils will hopefully enjoy. The Book Fair will be open each morning from 8.30am and then again in the afternoon from 3pm until 3.30pm. We would be happy for parents to stay on, after the children have gone into class for registration at 9am, to browse for books for presents, etc. Leaflets have been sent home this week showing a selection of the books which will be available and explaining the ‘3 books for the price of 2 offer’ and also the ‘click and collect’ facility. School earns commission from the sales of books which enables us to choose free books to update our classroom libraries and non-fiction library. Thank you for your support.

 

Chess Megafinal

Thank you to the Cove family for sending us this photograph from the Chess Megafinal at the weekend. 9 children represented Stadhampton School out of 246 children who took part last Saturday.

Report from Thomas: “From Year 2, Peter scored 3 points; from Year 3 Ella scored 1.5 points and Lewis 2 points; from Year 4 Sam scored 1.5 points and Will scored .5 of a point; from Year 6 Charlie A and Charlie B each scored 3 points. In order to get through to the Giga Final you needed to score 4 points out of a possible 6 which unfortunately no-one did. It was very challenging and everyone who took part did amazingly well. Congratulations to everyone who took part.”

 

UNICEF Final Total for Day for Change

We are pleased to let you know that the final total raised for UNICEF for the Day for Change Appeal in 2016 was £107.41. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

 

Swimming Contributions

Thank you to the families in Class 2 who contributed to the cost of the swimming transport for this term’s swimming sessions during this week.

 

Clarinet Deposits

A reminder that deposits for Clarinet lessons for current Year 4 pupils who will be Year 5 in September are required by Friday 6^th May (letter sent to all Year 4 pupils on 27 April 2016 and a copy is on the school website.) Cheques to be made payable to OCC please. Thank you to those families who have already paid a deposit.

 

PTA NEWS

Cake Club- as mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we are looking for someone to take on cake club, you don't have to be on the committee you would just need to be available on Friday mornings. Rowena is very happy to show whoever takes it over the ropes and to fully support them. Unless we get a volunteer to take it on we will unfortunately have to stop cake club, which none of us want to do. Please speak to a committee member if you are interested in taking this on.

 

Clothes recycling- please keep filling those bags ready for Tuesday 10th May 9am we accept clothes, shoes, good condition cuddly toys, hats, bags. All money raised goes towards the PTA and Little Bears.

 

Family Quiz Night- Friday 20th May 6pm- tickets are on sale for this fun evening, a family ticket is £10, there is a fully stocked bar, pizza and hotdogs for sale and a fantastic quiz for all the family to enjoy. Please see Georgina Wiggins for tickets.

 

Queen’s celebration- Saturday 18th June- the PTA are supporting the Queen’s birthday celebration and are holding a raffle on the day at the village summer fete. We are asking for donations from parents for hampers that we hope to raffle off. All the money raised from the raffle will go to the PTA and we have cancelled our summer fete to support this event. Please start putting donations in the PTA box in the hall.

 

Our next PTA meeting is Tuesday 10th May 8pm at The Crown in Stadhampton.

 

Thank you for your continued support of the PTA. 

 

Friday Cake Club

Congratulations to Mrs Hopkins, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Bradley.  A reminder to Mrs Ellis that she is on the rota for 15 May.  Just one space remaining on the rota now – 1st July.  Thanks to those who have filled the other gaps.

 

DIARY DATES:
Monday 2 May	Bank Holiday
Monday 9 May	Start of SATs week
Wednesday 11 May	Mobile Library visit
Monday 16 May	Book Fair in school
Tuesday 17 May	Class 2 Trip
Friday 20 May	PTA Family Quiz Evening
Friday 27 May	School finishes at 3.15pm for May Holiday
Monday 6 June	Start of Term 6 for staff and pupils
Friday 10 June (rearranged date)	Forest School fundraising supper event at the Church – please see Mrs Hopkins to book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School

Michael Hopkins, a qualified PE teacher, will be leading a Summer Sports Course on Monday 8th, Tuesday 9^th and Wednesday 10^th AUGUST 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 Easter Sports Course was very popular!

 

 

Community News:

SAVE THE DATE -  Queen's 90th Birthday - Saturday 18 June 2016, 2pm onwards

 

We will be holding a village tea party in June to celebrate the Queen's 90th Birthday, as well as those of members of the local community also reaching their 90th year - we'd like include anyone 80+, (please contact Sue White if you'd like to include someone at the birthday table  01865 890880). 

 

The Brook Race will go ahead - thank you to the Hopkins family for returning one of the shields for this event - there will be three races; men, ladies and 11-16 year olds with medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the latter race. 

 

More information will follow in these newsletters, the Village Voice and on the village website stadhampton.org - and if you'd like to be involved then please contact Sue on the number above. Thank you.  We'll keep updating you over the new few weeks but for now please make a note in your diaries.