Week ending 27 January 2017

 

 

Internet Safety Day – 7^th February 2017

We take E-safety seriously throughout the year but Internet Safety Day on Tuesday 7^th February will provide us with an opportunity to have a more in-depth focus on E-safety in each class and share some of the children’s learning with you. Over the next two weeks pupils will be learning about how to stay safe on the internet. Their learning and activities will be relevant to their age group. We believe that it’s important for children and their parents to be aware of the dangers on the internet, to recognise any inappropriate use of the internet, and to know what to do should they find themselves involved in any situation. You are invited to join us on Tuesday 7^th February for a morning assembly (9.10am to approximately 9.50am) when each class will share with you what they have learnt. This will then be followed by a Powerpoint presentation for parents and carers with time afterwards for questions and discussion. As part of Internet Safety Day we also plan for pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 to take part in the OCC Cybersafety Survey.

 

Annual Survey Request from the Governing Body

Each pupil should have brought home via their book bag a questionnaire from the Governing Body which they hope that parents will complete for each child at school. The Governors are keen to hear your views on how well the school is meeting your expectations, what we do well and your thoughts on what needs to be done differently. Thank you.

 

MEERKAT Champion of the Week

We are delighted to share the names of our "MEERKAT Champion of the Week" award in each class last week as follows;

Reception – Grace M

Class 1 – Cianna B

Class 2 – Bella J

Class 3 – Hannah L

 

Well done to you all!

 

Swimming Voluntary Contributions

Thank you to the many families in Class 2 who have already contributed towards the cost of the swimming transport to the Abbey Sports Centre for this term’s swimming sessions. It is much appreciated. A reminder that Class 2 have their final swimming session on the first Monday after the February Holiday (20^th February). It is not too late to make a voluntary contribution for swimming if you have not done so already. The cost for the 6 sessions is £12 and cheques for swimming should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School. Thank you.

 

PTA News

Thursday 9^th February – Valentines and Villains Children’s Disco, 5.30pm – 7pm

Just a reminder we will be holding a Valentines and Villains disco for Stadhampton pupils in the school hall on 9^th February (just before half term).  Cost will be £3 per child to include drinks and a snack. Letters were sent home this week, so please complete the permission slip and return to the school office (with the correct money in an envelope) or to Melanie Gravett, along with the £3, as soon as possible.

 

Saturday 1^st April – Easter Fayre

We will be organising an Easter Fayre in the afternoon of Saturday 1^st April.  More details to follow but for now, please keep the date free if you can.

  

Our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 7^th March, The Crown at 8pm.  Please come along if you can.

 

Cake Club
Congratulations to Ben West the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Mrs Burnell. A reminder to Mrs Sunberg that she is on the rota for Friday 3rd February.

 

Diary Dates:

Tuesday 7 February	Safer Internet Day – please see this newsletter for information
Thursday 9 February	Valentines and Villains Children’s Disco, 5.30pm – 7pm
Monday 13-Friday 17 February	February Holiday
Tuesday 7 March	PTA Meeting – 8pm at The Crown
Monday 20 March	Work Viewing Evening – 3:15pm to 6pm
Saturday 1 April	Easter Fayre (pm)

 

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:

Continuing with our topic this term we will be learning all about farm vehicles and farms. We will be looking at different farms from around the world as well as talking about what is grown on farms. 

We will also be talking about healthy eating.

 

Community News:

Please note February dates for Stadhampton Youth Club:

 

1st Feb - Years 5 & 6 18.30 - 19.30 & Years 7, 8 & 9 19.45 - 20.45

15th Feb (half Term) - Years 5 - 9 18.30 - 20.00 Cinema Session

Tuck shop open as normal. 

 

Thank you

SYC

 

China Day

Drop-in FREE family event at the Ashmolean Museum on Sunday 29 January from 11am-4pm

 

We welcome children and their families from your school to celebrate Chinese New Year 2017 at the Ashmolean – the year of the Rooster!  There will be range of craft activities to get stuck into including making roosters, dragon masks and fans and you can have a go at calligraphy, paper cutting and creating a huge collage.  We will also have storytelling in our China galleries, and live Chinese music in the afternoon.  

 

Parents Protect flyer attached to this Newsletter.

 

Week ending 20 January 2017

 

Sainsburys Active Kids 2017

We are pleased to be participating once again in the Sainsburys Active Kids voucher scheme starting on 25 January 2017. If you shop at Sainsburys please collect vouchers for us (and ask your friends and family to collect too!) and put them in the box on top of the piano. At the end of the scheme we are able to exchange the vouchers for wonderful new cooking and sports equipment which the children get very excited about. Thank you.

 

Sports Hall Athletics Tournament

“On Friday 13^th January all of Class 3 competed in the annual Sports Hall Athletics Tournament at Icknield Community College. We were up against five other schools which were Chalgrove, Watlington, RAF Benson, Ewelme and Nettlebed. Nettlebed won but they aren’t really in the partnership. We came third, so just missed out on qualifying for the next round. Watlington and Nettlebed qualified but we all tried extremely hard. We finished with 107 points, 5 points behind Watlington! We really enjoyed it and we will be ready for next year.”

By Ben and Thomas

Well done to you all, we have some fine young athletes in Class 3!

 

MEERKAT Champion of the Week

We are delighted to share the names of our "MEERKAT Champion of the Week" award in each class last week as follows;

Reception – William W

Class 1 – Harry P

Class 2 – Emily H

Class 3 – Juliana B

 

Well done to you all!

 

Guitar Tuition

Spaces are now available for new students to join the guitar tuition groups run by Mr Payne on Friday lunchtimes. Mr Payne also teaches guitars at Icknield Community College so if students wished to continue with their tuition at secondary school this could be possible. An enrolment form is attached to this newsletter so that parents may contact Mr Payne directly for further details of the tuition and the costs involved.

 

PTA News

Thank you to everyone who came to the PTA meeting last week.

 

We have started to plan some events, so dates for diaries so far are as follows:

 

Thursday 9^th February – Valentines and Villains Children’s Disco, 5.30pm – 7pm

We will be holding a Valentines and Villains disco for Stadhampton pupils in the school hall on 9^th February (just before half term).  Cost will be £3 per child to include drinks and a snack.  More details with consent form to follow in book bags shortly.

 

Saturday 1^st April – Easter Fayre

We will be organising an Easter Fayre in the afternoon of Saturday 1^st April.  More details to follow but for now, please keep the date free if you can.

 

Cake Club

As you may know, Helen Payne will no longer be running Cake Club for us as her children have now moved on to a different school.  Thank you to Helen for all her efforts in keeping Cake Club going over the last term.

 

Lindsay Jenkins (Harry Thomson’s Gran) will be taking over from Helen and will be available on Friday mornings for anyone who wishes to join in with Cake Club or pay for the forthcoming term in advance.  Thank you to Lindsay for volunteering to take over.

 

Easyfundraising – FREE money for the PTA!

If you haven’t already registered for Easyfundraising, it is very easy to do and raises money for the PTA, just by doing your normal online shopping.

 

Easyfundraising.org.uk provides a FREE service where you can shop with your favourite online stores and at no extra cost raise funds for the PTA. Simply access your chosen websites by using the links from the Easyfundraising.org.uk site or use the ‘Find and Remind’ toolbar on the website. There are over 3,000 retailers and online sites registered with Easyfundraising and each purchase you make will generate a cashback donation to the PTA.

 

All you need to do is register at Easyfundraising.org.uk. You only need to register once and it only takes a couple of minutes.

 

Our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 7^th March, The Crown at 8pm.  Please come along if you can.

 

Cake Club
Congratulations to Casey Price the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Mrs Thompson. A reminder to Lindsay Jenkins that she is on the rota for Friday 27^th January.

 

Diary Dates:

Monday 23 January	Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Thursday 26 January	Y2 Forest School
Friday 27 January	Jian-zi tournament annual event linking with Chinese New Year
Tuesday 7 February	Safer Internet Day – more information to follow next week
Monday 13-Friday 17 January	Half Term
Monday 20 March	Work Viewing Evening

 

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:

Little Bears will be continuing with their ‘Transport’ theme and learning all about transport on and under the sea. We will be experimenting with sink or float activities and making our own boats. 

 

Community News:

Stadhampton Youth Club has applied to win one of seventy £300 donations via the Galaxy Hot Chocolate fund.

Five donations will be awarded each week, four by their panel of judges and one through the People’s Choice award - to the organisation with the most weekly votes.

That's where YOU can help us!

One vote, once a week until February 26th 2017 - are you with us? bit.ly/GalaxyHCFundSYC

 

Please share far and wide with your families and friends to increase our chances of winning.

 

Week ending 13 January 2017

 

 

Welcome

We are pleased to welcome Albie Chapman, who joined Year 5 this week.

 

Message from Chair of Governors

As we start the New Year please can I remind all parents that if you have any concerns about your child at school or you have general concerns about the school then you speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance or the Headteacher if the concern relates to the school in general. The PTA Facebook page is not the best route to voice concerns, especially as these comments can border on being quite inappropriate at times. The school does not monitor the Facebook page and therefore cannot respond. If your child comes home talking about what they did that day and you wish to know more please would you email or speak to school directly to ensure that you obtain from school the full facts of the situation.

 

We are open to hearing your concerns and suggestions, all we ask is these are specific as opposed to hearsay or generalisations, and are communicated in a professional manner. It can be very frustrating to hear comments that tend to generalise as this does not enable us to address what the specific issue is, or therefore improve it. Its also great to hear the good news and comments as well.

 

If you have a great idea, as the parent did regarding the exercising before school initiative (see below), please make contact with school and present your idea in a constructive way, preferably with some evidence or research that helps show how the idea can be beneficial. Thank you.

Sara Wright

 

Run A Mile a Day Initiative

As many of you may have noticed children in Class 3 have been starting the morning with a run around the school field. This initiative, which originated in Scotland and Holland, has gained much support nationally over recent months. A parent approached school staff with the idea, presenting evidence and research that explained the benefits, both from a health and mental alertness prospective. The idea is that, before school, children partake in exercise before they settle down to school work as this helps with concentration, focus, health and well-being. Following staff discussions around logistics of introducing this initiative, we decided to conduct a trial of this initiative with Class 3 for a few weeks before considering our ‘next steps’ and we are pleased to be part of such a growing initiative. If you would like to know more about the initiative there are several websites and news reports that can provide you with the background; this particular website is very helpful: http://thedailymile.co.uk/

The activity takes no more than 10 minutes and early feedback from children is very positive, however if you have any concerns or questions, please speak to Miss Raval. Here are some of the children’s comments;

“It gets me ready for the day!”

“Lots of fun and gives me lots of ideas for my work”

“It refreshes my mind”

“It prepares me for the day”

 

“In the morning Class 3 run around the school field to warm up their brains. I think the run works because my writing becomes neater and I think of better ideas. If it is cold children can choose to wear their coat or not. The idea came from other schools and we think it was a great idea! Most children enjoy the run.”

By May H.

 

Class Overviews

Termly ‘jig-saws’ outlining the curriculum areas being covered in each class for the Spring Term (January 2017 to Easter 2017) have now been uploaded onto the school website and can be found under the ‘This Term’ section of the Class pages. Please read these, not only do they provide information about the class curriculum for the term, they also provide important information about group work and homework!

 

ELLI Project Assembly

We continue with our regular focus on styles of learning with the ELLI Project. Our next character to look at is ‘Curiosity Cat’ which Reception pupils presented to the whole school in an assembly on Thursday. Everyone was most impressed by how many of them remembered their lines! They showed and told us the questions we can use when we are curious with our learning. Pupils joined in with our theme of ‘curiosity’ by asking questions of Reception pupils.

 

MEERKAT Champion of the Week

We are delighted to share the names of our "MEERKAT Champion of the Week" award in each class as follows;

Reception – Chloe K

Class 1 – Frankie S

Class 2 – Joshua H

Class 3 – Isabella D

 

Well done to you all!

 

Mrs Ali Eaton

Last term Mrs Ali Eaton was recruited on a temporary, part-time, basis to provide Teaching Assistant cover in Class 3 on Friday mornings. Mrs Eaton has now taken up a TA post at a school closer to home and we will miss her but wish her well in her new job. The Friday morning TA time in Class 3 will be covered by existing members of our support staff; initially this will be Mrs Wilkin and Mrs Singleton.

 

PTA News

The PTA are holding a meeting at The Crown, Stadhampton at 8pm on Thursday 12^th January (TONIGHT!) All welcome.

 

Cake Club
Congratulations to Emily Hackett the lucky winner of last week's cake, kindly donated by Mrs Mason-Flower. A reminder to Mrs Burnell that she is on the rota for Friday 20th January.

 

 

 

Diary Dates:

Thursday 19 January	Y2 Forest School NCMP for pupils in Reception & Y6 (letters distributed at the end of last week to those year groups)
Friday 20 January	Guitar lessons resume for participating pupils
Monday 23 January	Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Thursday 26 January	Y2 Forest School
Friday 27 January	Jian-zi tournament annual event linking with Chinese New Year

 

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:

Little Bears are all settling nicely back into the term. We are looking forward to our topic this term which is ‘Transport’. We have been counting cars and making roads as well as enjoying lots of messy play. 

 

 

 

Week ending 6 January 2017

 

 

Welcome back to everyone and Happy New Year!

 

Happy January Birthday to: Elizabeth Bowerman, Thomas Cove, Myles Dobson, Anna Fegyveres-Nagy, Peter Fegyveres-Nagy, Aisulu Goddard, Isabella Kenny, Riley Mason-Cook, Leo Thornhill, William Webber, Benjamin West, Thomas West, Honor White and Rosie Wiggins.

 

During JANUARY we are focusing on the core value of FRIENDSHIP

 

Thank you

All members of staff would like to join me in thanking you for your many good wishes, Christmas cards and very thoughtful Christmas gifts. We don’t expect any gifts but are very touched by your generosity and thoughtfulness. Thank you!

 

Coming into school in the morning

As a village school we highly value the role we play in the village community, especially the strong links we have with parents and the enormous support we receive. However, as our class sizes have increased over time, rooms can become congested and noisy first thing in the morning due to the sheer number of people (adults and children) in a small space and this can delay the start of the school day. We encourage parents of children in KS2 (i.e. Classes 2 and 3) to send their children into school independently whenever possible. Where there is a need to accompany your child into class it would be appreciated if this could be done discreetly so that the morning can get off to a calm and quiet start promptly at 9am. We recognise that there are occasions when parents and carers do need to speak with a teacher and the following, which is taken directly from our School Prospectus, is intended to provide some guidance. 

 

“We should like to stress that parents are always welcome to come into school to see their child’s work or talk to the teacher. However, to ensure that the start of the school day is not delayed, we prefer this to be at the end of the school day whenever possible and by appointment.”

We hope you appreciate this situation and we thank you, in anticipation, for your support in this.

 

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre in January

Swimming will start for Class 2 pupils at the Abbey Sports Centre on Monday 9 January. They will have 5 sessions leading up to half-term, followed by their last session on Monday 20 February. As always, we are most grateful to receive a ‘voluntary contribution’ from parents of £2 per child per swimming session towards the transport costs (currently £75 per visit). Cheques for swimming contributions (£12 in total) should be made payable to Stadhampton School. Thank you, in advance, for your continued support and to those parents who have already made a ‘voluntary contribution’. It is very much appreciated.

 

Amended Lunch Menu to start in January 2017

Mrs Sheridan requested some changes to the school menu as some of the choices were not popular with the children. The amended menu (which has already begun) has been uploaded to the school website.

 

Conjunctivitis Guidance from the Royal College of General Practitioners

Please find attached to this Newsletter new guidance from the RCGP about infective conjunctivitis.

 

eTwinning Project

We are pleased to be participating in a one-year (January 2017 – December 2017) eTwinning project with our partner school in Hazlach, Poland, and a school in Ouistreham, France. eTwinning is an initiative from the European Commission’s eLearning Programme promoting school collaboration in Europe through the use of ICT. Our joint project, which unfortunately is not funded, is entitled “The Four Elements of Nature: Fire, Earth, Wind and Water”. Through this project, which will mainly focus on developing science and maths skills, we hope to share learning experiences between pupils in each of the three countries, gain an understanding of other children and adults in these countries and work as part of an international team. In our school the project will largely link directly with the curriculum in each class. We aim to provide you with termly updates.

 

Garden of Remembrance and Reflection

We are pleased to share with you the news that we are now have two curved oak benches installed in our Garden of Remembrance and Reflection. The benches are formed from an oak bough split into two lengthways, so creating “mirrored benches” which links perfectly with the ‘reflection’ aspect of the garden. The benches are from locally sourced oak mounted on metal legs made by a local blacksmith and were designed and shaped by Mr Simon Clements, a local wood carver who carved our unique story-telling chair. We look forward to seeing the benches in use in the near future!

 

After School Clubs run by Icknield Community College Students

We are delighted that a number of former pupils from Stadhampton School, now students at Icknield Community College, have volunteered to run a range of after school clubs here as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award activities. The clubs they are offering are being run as 6-week blocks as follows:-

 

Mondays 3:15 to 4:15 January 9th – February 20th Board Games (Years 1 & 2) taking place in Class 1 Creating a Book/Story-making Workshops Years 3 & 4 taking place in Class 2   Tuesdays 3:15 to 4:15 January 10th – February 21st Drama for Years 3 &4 in the Hall

Mondays 3:15 to 4:15 February 27th – April 3rd Sports (Class 2) Netball (Class 3)   Tuesdays 3:15 to 4:15 February 28th – April 4th Drama (Class 1)

 

Letters for the first block of after school clubs were sent home via bookbags, for the relevant classes at the end of last term but we thought you may like to know what is available later in the Spring Term too. Letters can be found on the Parents Section on our website under After-School Clubs.

 

Other After School Clubs

In addition to the above, we are delighted that Mr Goddard is kindly running a Chess After School Club from 3:15 to 4:00pm on Mondays for pupils in Classes 2 and 3 from January 9^th to February 6^th (please note a 4pm finish). As usual, we are offering Multi Sports After School Club for children in Classes 1, 2 and 3 from 3:15 to 4:15 on Thursdays. Letters for these also went home, via bookbags, for children in the relevant classes at the end of last term.  A full list of all clubs and recent letters can be found on our website under our Parents Section.

 

Term Dates for 2017-2018 School Year

The term dates for the new academic year starting in September 2017 are attached to this newsletter. They have also been uploaded to the school website.

 

PTA News

A Happy New Year from everyone on the PTA committee.

 

We will start planning the fundraising events for the term at our next meeting on Thursday 12th January at 8pm in The Crown.  Please do come along if you can, all welcome.

Diary Dates:

 

Monday 9 January	Class 2 Swimming starts 1/6
Thursday 12 January	Y1 Forest School session

 

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:

Welcome back to a new year. The Little Bears team hope everyone had a peaceful and restful Christmas break. Our topic this term is ‘Transport’. We are also welcoming some new children this term and looking forward to an exciting and busy term.