Newsletter for week ending 17 June 2016

Sleeping Sense

On Wednesday 8^th June, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment held an open rehearsal in the school hall in the evening. It was a real privilege to see such a wonderful orchestra in our local setting. The orchestra members talked to the families who came about their instruments and helped the children find out the names of the instruments. They demonstrated how baroque instruments are different to modern ones, and how easily they go out of tune!The singer, Elin Thomas, sang dancing songs, and very sad songs from the opera called the Fairy Queen, and she gave the music to the children to look at. Aisulu in Reception, said she had the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. It was wonderful to see the different members of the orchestra communicating with each other through the music.

Mr and Mrs Goddard

Thank you to Mr and Mrs Goddard for taking the time to write the above report for us following their attendance at the rehearsal on 8^th June.

Thank you to the many parents and other relatives who attended the performance at the Sheldonian Theatre on 9^th June. With 75 of you there we felt very well supported! It was a fantastic priviledge to take part in such an event and we have uploaded some pictures of the event to both Class 2 and Class 3 pages on the school website for you to see.

 

Forest School Fundraising Event

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the evening Forest School Fundraising Event held at the Church on Friday 10^th June. Particular thanks to the parents who kindly donated salads and some amazing puddings and to Food and More (and in particular Mrs Sheridan) who kindly made and donated two large lasagnes and salads. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket even though they were unable to attend, to those who made cash donations and to those who provided raffle prizes. The evening was most enjoyable and we raised an amazing £523.50! This money will be used for the purchase of more marshmallows, chocolate biscuits and hot chocolate, which the children really enjoy having during their Forest School sessions, and will also help with the cost of the tree work carried out on the Forest School sites in May 2016. Thank you to parents, Little Bears staff, governors and to everyone else from the village who supported this event in any way.

 

Final Forest School Session for Year 6 Pupils

The last Forest School session for Year 6 pupils will be on Thursday 23rd June. We thought it would be nice for pupils to have their lunch at Forest School to celebrate. Please could parents/carers send in a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £1.50 to help with the cost of the food which will be cooked on the campfire. The children will not need a packed lunch or school meal on that day. Please send the money in a separate envelope to the school office. Thank you. 

 

The Queen’s 90^th Birthday Celebrations

On Friday 10^th June we joined in with the celebrations to mark the Queen’s 90^th birthday. The children all made crowns, designed a part of our celebratory bunting, iced (and ate!) their own cupcake and watched the live streaming of the royal tea party at Windsor Castle.

The bunting that was made by pupils and used in school will be on display again at the village events during the weekend.

 

ELLI Project

At the beginning of this week we saw the introduction of our next character in the ELLI Project – Changing Cameleon. Changing Cameleon represents changing and learning in the sense of children learning and changing over time. The Reception class did a fantastic job of working together on a story and a group of them presented the story to the whole school. They did very well and everyone enjoyed their little play. Our next ELLI Project assembly will be ‘Making Links Spider’ on Monday 27^th June.

 

Parents’ Information Library

A reminder that we have a small collection of information books available for parents to borrow. They are located in a box on the cupboard outside the school office and the following titles are available:-

            Detoxing Childhood by Sue Palmer (2 copies)

            Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph (1 copy)

            Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph (1 copy)

            Help Your Child Love Reading by Alison David (1 copy)

Loans are on an honesty basis and there is a small notebook in the same box to record borrowing and returning. Please return any borrowed booked once you have finished with them so that others can borrow them too! Thank you.

 

Warwick Castle Visit (Classes 2 & 3)

On Wednesday 15^th June, Class 2 and Class 3 went to Warwick Castle. The first thing we did was went through the Horrible Histories Maze. We also watched a trebuchet – This is a trebuchet

We explored the Time Tower, it was very dark and wet! Before returning home we had fun in the park and although we got soaking wet, it was the best time ever! Ben

 

On Wednesday 15^th of June Class 2 and Class 3 went to Warwick Castle because Izzy won a contest on building a model castle.

There were a lot of different things to do like Horrible History, Time Tower, the Mighty Trebuchet, awesome interiors and lots of towers. Here is what some pupils thought about the trip;

“It was an interesting experience” – Juliana

“I loved the visit and I’ll never forget it” – Ella

“Even though we got drenched by rain, it was the best school trip ever” – Ellie

“It was an amazing experience and it was the best school trip that I can remember” – Tillie

By Tende and Ella

 

Rio Olympics/Brazil Drama and Dance Performances for Parents

As mentioned in our newsletter of May 27, on Tuesday 28^th June pupils in Classes 2 and 3 will be taking part in a series of Olympic Drama Workshops. These will finish with a KS2 performance for parents and carers between 2:50 and 3:15 in the school Hall which you are warmly welcome to attend. On Wednesday 29^th June all pupils will be taking part in a series of Dance (Carnival) Workshops which will finish with a performance by KS1/Reception pupils only in the the school Hall at 3:00pm, which you are also warmly welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you!

 

Thank you

We are extremely grateful to current parents and to parents who no longer have children in our school, but still continue to support us. This week we would like to thank in particular:

• Mrs Jane Duke for continuing to audit the school Special Purpose Account and the Hall Management Accounts again for us this year,
• Mr Burnell for spending a day re-pointing the slabs in the swimming pool area
• The many parents who have accompanied trips over the last couple of weeks to Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle, the Sheldonian Theatre and to the Quad Kids Event,
• The parents who are training Year 6 pupils on cycle safety training and the parents who run Gardening Club for us.

Thank you, your help and support is very much appreciated.

 

We would also like to thank Mrs Shortman for giving up a large part of her weekend to clean the pool of grit and prepare the water for the microbiological testing. The test has now come back clear so the pool is now ready for use.

 

Important information about swimming in the school pool – please get ready!

Please could ALL pupils have their swimming kit in school from Monday (20^th June) ready for use in the school pool. The onus will be on families to ensure that swimming kit is in school each day, otherwise pupils may miss out on opportunities to swim. Pupils who do not have their swimming kit in school will sit in the pool area and read when their class has their turn in the school pool. Thank you.

 

Rocket Science

We have completed our investigation and have submitted our data to the RHS/UK Space Agency. We await to hear the results nationally. Although there was little evidence of any noticeable difference between the sets of seeds and the children were divided as to which set of seeds had been in space but more children thought it was the ‘blue’ seeds packet. We await to hear from Tim Peake himself!

 

Sports Night

As you may have gathered from the school dates/calendar, Sports Evening is on 1^st July. The children will be put into their Olympic colour teams on Monday (some of them may know before then) and they will bring a note home to say which one they are in. We will be sorting out the teams on Monday morning as a part of the start of our ‘Sports Week’. An assembly on the Olympics will introduce the Rio Olympic theme this year and, although skipping is not yet one of the Olympic events, your child may like to bring their speed rope into school to practice for our annual competition.

Please check your diaries and make sure that you let the office, or Mrs Manzie, know if your child is unable to attend ‘Sports Evening’ as it is crucial that Mrs Manzie has the correct numbers to be able to organise 100 children in the relay event. Thank you.

Mrs Manzie

 

PTA NEWS

In order for the PTA to keep fundraising for the school we need parents to be on the committee otherwise we cannot continue. Could you donate some of your time? We meet once every 6 weeks to organise fundraisers for the school and to help pay for things that the school has asked for. In this academic year alone we have helped pay for:

Forest school waterproofs

New laptops for Class 3

French teacher

Improvements to the swimming pool

School trips

Robot school

New chess sets

Bookbags for all Reception children

 

If you would like to join the committee please speak to a committee member a full list of active members is on the noticeboard.

 

Sports night- Friday 1st July- I am still looking for volunteers to help tidy up after sports night, please speak to Georgina Wiggins if you would like to help.

Tickets for the BBQ will be on sale soon so please watch this space.

 

End of school disco- Thursday 14th July 6-7.30pm- look out for letters in book bags next week.

 

Thank you for your continued support of the PTA

 

Friday Cake Club

 

Congratulations to Thomas Eaton, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Kozlowska.  A reminder to Mrs Parkes that she is on the rota for 24th June.

 

 

DIARY DATES:
Saturday 18 June	Village Fete including PTA Raffle
Friday 24 June	Cycle safety training practical test
Monday 27 June	Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Friday 1 July	Sports Evening – note earlier date than usual
Friday 15 July	End of year assembly at 9.05am. All welcome School finishes at 1.30pm
Monday 5 September	Pupils return to school for the start of the new academic year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Sports Course at Stadhampton School

Michael Hopkins, who is well-known to the school as a 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:

• Queen's 90th Birthday Village Tea Party on Saturday 18 June 2016, 2pm onwards

See attached flyer for details of the event on the Village Green

 

• Proposal for ICC to convert to an Academy – notice of meetings on 22^nd June – see attached flyer