Newsletter for week ending 20th December 2013

End of Term Assembly
Everyone is welcome to our end of term assembly at 9.10am on Friday. We anticipate that this is likely to generate an increased number of vehicles and consequent pressure on suitable parking spaces. We respectfully request that families consider the needs of local residents and avoid parking in Cratlands Close. School and Little Bears staff will park on the netball court, freeing up a limited number of spaces in the school car park.

Thank you!
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to parents and carers, the PTA, our Governing Body and all other members of the local community who have given us so much support in so many different ways over the last term. The lead-up to Christmas is always a particularly busy time of year and we would like to thank everyone involved for their support in helping to make all our Christmas events so successful. Special thanks to Ms Cyprien for her amazing face-painting of many pupils in our KS2 production ‘Hoodwinked’, to Mrs Burnell for decorating cakes and making lots of wonderful cookies for the Christmas party on Tuesday, to Mr and Mrs Bowerman for their help in organising the Forest Schools fundraising disco and to Mrs Dobson, Mrs Madry and Mrs Elliott for their admin support over the last few months. We are very fortunate to have so many supportive parents.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all pupils and staff for their hard work and commitment to all our events. The Christmas season may be a very busy time of year for us but it is also a very special one!
Thank you to everyone who gave a £1 on “party day” to help with the fundraising for Forest Schools. This raised £56. We will let you know how much was raised at the Forest Schools disco in our assembly on Friday.

School Nativity Service
Thank you to all families who were able to join us for this service. It is always a special occasion and this year we received many comments on how wonderful the singing was – not to mention how angelic the Reception pupils looked! It was lovely to be able to hold our service in the atmospheric setting of the Church. Thank you to Mr Manzie for providing and operating the sound system which made such a difference and to the team of mums who helped put the furniture back and sweep the floor!

School Website Additions
We have uploaded the dates of the After School Clubs in Term 3 to our website, so that parents have access to them as a reference point. We have also added a link to CEOP, whose work is crucial in the protection of children from exploitation and the promotion of online protection. Finally, we have uploaded some photographs from the Christmas productions and school Christmas Party.

Reminder about consultation on Home to School transport
We would encourage all parents to complete the questionnaire as part of the consultation using the following link to ensure that your feelings are known:

https://myconsultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/transport2015/view?objectId=521987

The deadline for responding was 20th December 2013.
See article below explaining about the deadline extension. However, we would encourage all parents/carers to respond before Christmas, just in case you forget to do it!

www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxfordshire/10883177.Activists_angry_as_county_extends_debate_on_school_bus_charges?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Young Mathematicians Competition
On Wednesday 27th November, Year 6 pupils Thea, Max, Owen and Ella were invited to the regional finals of the Young Mathematician competion at Explore Learning, Oxford, after successfully scoring highly enough to qualify in the first round of local finals. They had yet another tricky maths problem to work through as a team, involving swimming pools, ribbons and finding all the possibilities! The level of competition was extremely high and our pupils enjoyed the challenge and a chance to work in a different setting.

Whilst they did not score quite enough to qualify for the national final round of the competition they can all be very proud of their performance. The feedback from Explore Learning was that they 'continued to work extremely well as a team and showed great enthusiasm and focus for the task, well done!'

This is the first time we have taken part in this maths competition and we shall definitely be entering a team next year!

Primary Maths Challenge
Every year we take part in the Mathematical Association’s annual ‘Primary Maths Challenge’, a national competition, which aims to challenge children with a range of problem solving and logic-based questions.

Congratulations to Abby Wright, Ruby Dallimore, Max Lansley, Owen Cove, Ella Perring, Lola Odell and Thea Diment for competing in the Primary Maths Challenge 2013.

Here is what Abby and Ruby thought about the maths challenge “It was very hard and we struggled on some of the questions - the last five were not multiple choice so they were the hardest! However we enjoyed a chance to try some different types of questions and we felt confident enough to have a go after some practice sessions with Miss Shah. We are proud to say that every one of us got a certificate; 4 of us got silver and 3 of us got bronze!”

After School Clubs in Term 3
Spaces are still available on the Photography Course for pupils in Years 3-6 and the Cheerleading/Street Dance Club and Multisports Club which are open to all pupils. Archery and Art clubs will restart after the Easter holiday.

School Meals
A reminder that school meals cost £2 per day. Cheques for school meals should be made payable to Oxfordshire County Council please with Stadhampton Primary School written on the back of the cheque. In order to reduce administration time spent on school meals we appreciate receiving orders and payments for school meals on the first morning of each school week. Thank you.

Swimming at Berinsfield
Swimming will begin for Class 2 pupils on Monday 13th January. They will have a total of 5 sessions. As always, we hope that parents will be willing to help with the transport costs to Berinsfield with a contribution of £2 per swimming session. Thank you to the parents/carers of pupils in Class 3 who made a contribution last term. Cheques for swimming contributions should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School, please.

PTA News
Our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 14th January 8pm at The Crown, new members very much welcomed. We will be discussing events for next year so if you have any good ideas for different events and would like to get involved with the PTA, please do come along.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and staff at the school for a fantastic fundraising year and also the PTA members for all their continued hard work and support. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Mia Gravett who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Diment. A reminder to Mrs Bourne that she is on the rota for 10th January, the first Friday back after Christmas. There are 6 weeks in the next half term, so if you would like to pay for Cake Club, the full amount will be £1.20, or if you would like to take it up to Easter £2.40. Please see Rowena Dobson.


DIARY DATES:
Monday 6 January Staff Inset Day
Tuesday 7 January Pupils return to school for the start of Term 3
Tuesday 14 January First After School – Cheer Leading/Street Dance Club
Wednesday 15 January First After School – Photography Club
Thursday 16 January First After School – Multisports Club

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
We return on Tuesday 7th January 2014.
A huge thank you to everyone who came and supported our Christmas nativity on Saturday.
I think we will all agree that the Little Bears were truly amazing.


Happy Christmas from everyone at Stadhampton School!

We look forward to seeing everyone again in the New Year.

Newsletter for week ending 13th December 2013

Message from the Governing Body about Home to School Transport
As you are no doubt aware the Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) has to make significant cost savings in the forthcoming budgets. One of their proposals is to change the Home to School Transport arrangement, which would mean free travel would only be provided to the nearest school. There is an ongoing consultation and as you know, there was a consultation meeting held at Icknield Community College on Monday 2nd December with many Stadhampton parents in attendance.

We wanted to take this opportunity to recap on the potential impact for Stadhampton, Chiselhampton, Newington and other local villages.

The current proposal is that pupils will only be entitled to free transport to their nearest school, which for the majority of Stadhampton unfortunately is not our catchment school. Of concern to many parents who attended the consultation meetings is that depending on where you live in the village your nearest school could be any one of four schools: The Oxford Academy, Wallingford, Wheatley Park and Icknield – which has obvious implications for our community. There are provisions in the consultation (under A2) to prevent villages being ‘split’, however given that Icknield is technically one of the furthest schools from the village (by a matter of 0.25 to 0.5 miles) whether this will apply to Stadhampton and enable all of the village to enjoy free transport to Icknield is by no means guaranteed.

It should be noted that this is a consultation, and therefore nothing has been formally agreed as yet. We wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with all the information that is available in this regard, and encourage you to take a few minutes to respond to the consultation online before the deadline of 20 December 2013.

Where can I learn more?
There is a significant amount of detail about the consultation online:

https://myconsultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/transport2015/consultationHome

There is a very active group (Oxon Schools Bus Action Group) who are challenging the proposals and their Facebook page has lots of information regarding the protests that have been occurring across the county:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxon-School-Bus-Action-Group/146863815505334

What can I do?
We would encourage all parents to complete the questionnaire as part of the consultation at the following link to ensure that your feelings are known:

https://myconsultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/transport2015/view?objectId=521987
You will see from some of the correspondence on the Facebook site that there is strong feeling that making changes that misalign the catchment school and the school to which free transport is provided is not in anyone’s, but particularly the pupil’s best interest. The Council’s view is that savings will be achieved because parents will continue to send their children to the catchment school, however because this will be a parental choice, then in some cases free transport will not be provided.

What has the school and the Governing Body done?
In addition to responding to the consultation individually and as a Governing Body, we have been thinking what else we can do to try to raise the awareness of the issues to those on the council that may be able to influence the end result.

The Governing Body have been corresponding with the other Watlington Partnership schools in an effort to respond to the consultation as a Partnership, as this will demonstrate the broader impact that these proposals will have on Icknield and other rural communities.

A letter has been prepared to represent our views and this will be submitted to our local Councillor with a request to make sure these views are represented to OCC. We also intend to send a copy of this letter to John Howell, MP.

In addition we have been in dialogue with our local Councillor, Lorraine Lindsey-Gale, to request a meeting with her to discuss alternative strategies that would assist Stadhampton. We are hopeful to get a meeting scheduled very soon.

Next steps
Once the consultation is over a decision will be made in the New Year and this is expected to be implemented from Summer 2014. We will be closely monitoring the situation and will continue to provide feedback as more is learned through the end of the consultation.

Adopted pupils will now qualify for the Pupil Premium Grant - urgent action needed
Please see book bags for a letter about this.

Christmas Productions
Congratulations to all pupils on their splendid performances in the KS1 and KS2 Christmas productions this week. We received many compliments about each performance and pupils should be very proud of themselves. Thank you to school staff for preparing pupils for the performances, making and selling tickets, creating the scenery and making props, thank you to parents for helping with costumes, learning of lines and buying tickets to come along and watch. Special thanks to Sue Cyprien for helping with the face painting and to the PTA for serving refreshments on Tuesday evening. The total raised from ticket sales was £433 and this will go towards the purchase of I-pads and a storage unit. Each class will have two I-pads which will be used from the start of Term 3.

Reverend Caroline, who is also a school governor, watched both productions and sent this note which we thought we would share with you:

“It was a privilege to see both school Christmas productions, both played to a packed and enthusiastic audience. The KS2 children performed ‘Hoodwinked’, based on the story of Robin Hood; it was obvious that a large cast had worked very hard and performed with humour, skill and great comic timing, the musical parts were performed well. I especially enjoyed the confident way the cast led the audience in some good old fashioned pantomime humour, they also combined some topical and local references.


The younger children performed a traditional nativity through the narrative of a star that wouldn’t shine, again it was wonderful to see all of KS1 involved in a well rehearsed, energetic play with wonderfully sung contributions. Their enthusiasm was infectious again including some old fashioned panto humour and willing audience participation. The costumes were magnificent!


Huge thanks to all staff and pupils for such wonderful end of term productions; they can all feel justly proud for the undoubted hard work and effort; a triumph for all involved!”

Visit to Church on Monday 16th December
We would like to make families aware that all classes are planning to visit the church next Monday as part of our preparations for the Nativity Service next Wednesday.


Letters about the National Childhood Measuring Programme
The School Health Team have written to advise us that they will be in school on 10th February 2014 to measure the height and weight of children in Reception and Year 6. Letters about this have been put in book bags this week.

Mr Ansell
We say goodbye today to Mr Ansell, a PGCE student from Oxford Brookes University, who has been working with pupils in Class 3 over the last eight weeks. Mr Ansell has been a great asset to the school and we thank him for his contribution.

Reminder about next week’s events:

Monday 16 Archery ASC Final Archery session
Tuesday 17 Christmas Party afternoon Lunch as normal. Pupils may bring party clothes to change into after lunch. Optional donation of £1 towards Forest Schools fundraising. Food supplied by PTA.
No clarinets.
ASC Dance Club on as usual. The dance club are putting on a show for parents at 4pm, so please do come along to see it.
PTA wreath making evening – forms available from school office
Wednesday 18 Nativity Service Everyone welcome to join us for this event in Church which starts at 2.15pm. No art club.
Thursday 19 School Christmas lunch We hope all pupils will have school lunch today with crackers, music, etc. Staff serve pupils with their lunch. Same price as a normal school meal - £2.
Christmas Disco at 6pm to raise funds for Forest Schools. Tickets on sale priced at £3. A raffle will be held during the evening (50p a ticket).
Multisports ASC on as usual.
Friday 20 End of term assembly
Early finish Everyone welcome to attend end of term assembly at 9.05am. Lunch as normal.
School closes at 1.30pm

PTA News
Wreath making evening-Tuesday 17th, we still have a few spaces available so please fill in a form in the office to guarantee your place.

Winter Fair- we made a massive £1100 this year, which is fantastic. Thank you again to everyone for all your support.


Cake Club
Congratulations to Phoebe Watkins who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Perring. A reminder to Mrs Bowerman that she is on the rota for 20th December.

If anyone would like to donate a cake who has not already done so, we need cakes from 14 February onwards. Please see Rowena to get your name down on the rota. Don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be homemade. Bought cakes are just as well received!


DIARY DATES:
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.
Monday 6 January Staff Inset Day
Tuesday 7 January Pupils return to school for the start of Term 3

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week the Little Bears book is 'Twas the night before Christmas' and we will be talking about how we get ready for Christmas with our families and also making stockings.
Little Bears hope to go to the Nativity Service at Stadhampton Church on the 18th December and the last day of term is 20th December. Our Little Bears party is on Friday 20th December from 11.30 - 1pm. All Llittle Bears are welcome. We also have a very special visitor too. We return on 7th January 2014 to the topic ‘Opposites’.

Newsletter for week ending 6th December 2013

Home to School Transport Meeting at ICC on Monday 2nd December
Thank you to the high number of parents/carers and school governors who attended the consultation meeting on Monday 2nd December at Icknield Community College to find out more about the OCC proposals. The strength of feeling was evident at the meeting as to the impact that these proposals would have on both Icknield CC and the partnership schools that form its catchment area. The panel explained that the plans are focussed on achieving the OCC cost savings required, however there were a number of concerns and questions raised about the assumptions that had been included in the financial modelling.

The current proposal is that pupils will only be entitled to free transport to your nearest school, which for the majority of Stadhampton unfortunately is not our catchment school. Of concern to many parents who attended the consultation meetings is that depending on where you live in the village your nearest school could be any one of four schools: The Oxford Academy, Wallingford, Wheatley Park and Icknield – which has obvious implications for our community.

It should be stressed that the proposals at this stage will not change our catchment school which remains as Icknield Community College. However, parents may find that, although they live in the catchment area for Icknield Community College, the fact that other schools are nearer means that they would be faced with a £600 bill (per pupil) for transport if these changes are voted through. We urge parents to individually respond to the consultation, as attached to our newsletter of 22.11.2013. The School and the Governing Body are in discussions with other members of the Partnership to discuss how we can collectively respond and will keep parents updated with respect to the action that we are taking.

Cars/vans in Cratlands Close
A resident of Cratlands Close has expressed her concern this week at how difficult it can be to cross the road safely in Cratlands Close when there are so many cars/vans parked on the kerbs. We have agreement from the landlord of The Crown pub for parents/carers to use their car park at the beginning and end of the school day to drop off or collect children from school. In the interest of safety for all pupils, it would be particularly helpful if those parents/carers who drive large vehicles especially vans, could park in The Crown pub if there is not a space available in the school car park rather than obstruct the pavements and hinder the visibility of those people attempting to cross the road safely with their children. In anticipation, we thank all parents/carers for their co-operation in this matter.

Emergency Closure Procedures
If the weather is particularly bad or there are power cuts in the village and the decision is made to close the school, the information is given to parents through BBC Radio Oxford, Jack FM and Heart FM. Parents are advised to tune into these local radio stations and also check their websites if there is a possibility that the school could be closed. We will also do our best to put a message onto the school website if there is power!

Archery After School Club
We have been advised that Mr Chrisp will not be available to provide the after school archery club on Monday 9th December. Therefore the final session will take place on Monday 16th December. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes. Refunds will be issued for the missed session.

Contributions to the cost of the swimming transport
Thank you to those families in Class 3 who have already made contributions this term towards the cost of the swimming transport. The cost of the transport for 7 swimming sessions is £420 and to date we have received well below half of this cost from voluntary parental contributions. If any more parents would be willing to contribute to this cost it would be very much appreciated. If you are unsure whether you have paid or not please ask in the school office. Thank you.

Thank you
Thank you to Mr and Mrs Tuckwell who have very kindly supplied us with a beautiful Christmas tree again this year.

Play tickets
Tickets are required for all performances of the KS1 and KS2 school plays. They are on sale now from the school office priced at £2 each. All monies raised this year will go towards buying some mini I-pads for each classroom to use. Once again we are very grateful to the PTA who will be supplying refreshments at the end of the KS2 evening performance.

KS2 Costume Reminder
Thank you to those people who have already brought their costumes into school. A reminder that all costumes need to be in school by Friday 6th December, prior to the dress rehearsal on Monday 9th December.

Forest School Disco- Thursday 19th December from 6.00-7.30pm
Tickets are now on sale for the Forest School disco priced at £3 each. There will also be a raffle held on the evening and we hope that children will be able to bring along some extra money to buy a raffle ticket or two. Raffle tickets will cost 50p each and we have about fifteen prizes so far!

School Christmas Party
We are very aware of just how much we have asked of parents and carers this year and therefore the school/PTA will pay for the cost of the party food for this year’s school Christmas party on the afternoon of Tuesday 17th December.
Traditionally, pupils bring party clothes to school to change into after lunch. We do not usually make a request for a financial donation for this event however, if any families would be willing to make a £1 donation towards Forest School this would be very much appreciated.

School Christmas Lunch
We hope all pupils will join us for a special Christmas lunch with napkins and crackers on Thursday 19th December. Children will make their own special place mat in school during the morning. During lunchtime we have Christmas music playing and the staff serve the children with their lunch -it is a really fun and festive occasion which we hope all children will partipate in. The cost is the same as for a normal school meal (£2) and payment can be made at any time before the day. Thank you.

PTA Message to Parents
Winter Fair:
Thank you very much to everyone who came and supported the Winter Fair last Friday; it was a great night and the total raised will be announced in next week’s newsletter once everything has been counted and verified; special thanks to the PTA team and volunteers who helped to ‘man’ the stalls and clear up on the night.

Wreath making evening -Tuesday 17th December
There are still places available for this great evening which also raises money for the PTA. Booking forms are available from the school office. Please do think about coming if you can.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Mya Khan who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Gravett. A reminder to Mrs Diment that she is on the rota for 13th December.


DIARY DATES:
Friday 6 December Singing Club performing at the Christmas Market at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton at 4pm.
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances 1.45pm / 6.30pm. Tickets on sale now from the school office.
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only 2.00 for 2.15pm start. Tickets on sale now from the school office.
Tuesday 17 December School Christmas Party – please donate £1 to our Forest School fund for your child to wear party clothes in the afternoon
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service – The Village Hall at St John’s Church 2.15pm. Everyone welcome to join us for this event.
Thursday 19 December School Christmas lunch for all £2. Payment welcomed at any time now.
Disco for Forest School – tickets on sale now priced at £3 each. Raffle tickets 50p each.
Friday 20 December End of term assembly at 9.05am. Everyone welcome.
School finishes at 1.30pm – please note earlier break up time.
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week our book of the week is the “Jolly Christmas Postman;” Little Bears post-box is in the main entrance of Little Bears and there will be a class list so we can start to post our Christmas letters. The Little Bears Nativity is on the 14th December so we will be practising all our songs ready for our performance at 2pm.

Community News:
• Flyer attached about an Allergy Support meeting
• Flyer attached about one day Sports Course here on Monday 23rd December

Newsletter for week ending 29 November 2013

Forest Schools Fundraising
Thank you to the organisers of the Music Evening, led and generously supported by Stephen Dawson, in collaboration with Bob and Frances Campbell and Sally Johnson, which was held in the Village Hall at St John’s Church on Saturday evening to raise funds for Forest Schools. The talents of pianist Eleanor Tinlin and saxophonist Otis Lawrence were amazing and a memorable evening was had by all in a very atmospheric settting. Thank you also to everyone who came along to support the evening and to those who provided raffle prizes, prepared and served food and drinks, cleared up afterwards, etc. We are particularly grateful for the support given by members of the community for this school project which helped to make the event so successful. The total raised from this event was an incredible £1739.33!! This means that we are much closer to being able to turn our plans into reality.

Forest Schools Disco
We plan to follow on from the success of the Music Evening and continue to raise funds for Forest Schools by holding a Children’s Disco in the school hall on Thursday 19th December from 6.00-7.30pm. The event will be primarily organised by Mr and Mrs Bowerman and Mrs Hopkins and tickets will be on sale shortly and available to all pupils who attend Stadhampton Primary School. Tickets will cost £3 each and will include squash and ‘nibbles’. There will also be a raffle held on the evening so we hope that children will be able to bring along some extra money to buy a raffle ticket or two. Raffle tickets will cost 50p each. Tickets for the disco will be on sale from Tuesday morning.

Unclaimed Drinks Bottles
We have a sizeable collection of unclaimed and unnamed drinks bottles which will be disposed of shortly. Please have a look at the collection in the Hall before they are thrown away. Thank you.

PTA Message to Parents

Winter Fair- THIS Friday 6-8pm
The day is finally upon us, please come and support the school, the evening should be a great event! We have a white polar bear stall, crafts, chocolate tombola, cakes, raffle and of course Father Christmas! Thank you for all your donations for this event.

The PTA committee would really appreciate any help after the event with the clearing up. Please give a hand if you possibly can.

Wreath Making Evening on Tues17th Dec 7.30
A very popular evening which is limited to just 20 people so please fill out the form which is in the office and return it to Georgina Wiggins ASAP to secure your place.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Megan Green who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Buckner. A reminder to Mrs Perring that she is on the rota for Friday 6th December.


DIARY DATES:
Friday 29 November PTA Winter Fair 6pm start
Monday 2 December Meeting at ICC about school transport consultation 7pm
Thursday 5 December Meeting of the Governing Body at 7pm
Friday 6 December Singing Club performing at the Christmas Market at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton at 4pm.
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances 1.45pm / 6.30pm
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only 2.15pm start
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service – The Village Hall at St John’s Church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears our book of the week will be ‘Aussie Christmas’.
We will be talking about how people celebrate Christmas all over the World.
Our nativity play will be on the 14th December and more details can be found at Little Bears.
Finally, our Christmas party will be on Friday the 20th December. Please see your key person for more details.


Home to School Transport Consultation – Message from Mr Hunter, Head of ICC

Can I please just give a final reminder that, on this coming Monday (2nd December) at 7pm, we will be welcoming Ian Hudspeth (Leader of Oxfordshire County Council) and colleagues with respect to the attached consultation on Home to School transportation.

While you may not believe this is of immediate relevance to you or your children currently at the school, if either of the two options proposed are adopted, it may very well be that you are affected with:

- a potential travel cost arising in Year 11 (for current Year 7's),
- siblings not yet at the school where travel costs may arise
- ongoing sixth form/college arrangements where the anticipated costs of travel for your children are likely to rise significantly.

Please do come along to hear the presentation by the politicians and the council representatives and, as importantly, please do respond to the consultation.

A good source of information and views can be found via Facebook with the cross county pressure group Oxford Schools Bus Action Group (OSBAG) from where the following potential issues have been collated:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxon-School-Bus-Action-Group/146863815505334

OSBAG have given suggestions on how you may want to respond to the consultation on their page.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS: Parents may find that, although they are still in the deemed catchment area for Icknield Community College, they would be faced with a £600 bill for transport if these changes are voted through. Parents of students within our Icknield Community College catchment area are affected (particularly parents in Benson, Chinnor and Stadhampton).

SECONDARY SCHOOLS: under one option drafted within the Consultation, current year 7 would be faced with charges from the start of year 11! This would clearly affect parents who may not be able to afford to pay and are not available to drive their children to school. They would potentially be faced with having to change schools, right in the middle of their GCSEs.

For future SIXTH FORM under the new proposals, sixth formers living more than 3 miles from their nearest provision will pay the higher bus fare (currently £492), regardless of whether they opt for their catchment school or not. Currently, the rules allow students choosing their catchment sixth form to pay the cheaper fare (currently £264). This could be regarded as an unfair penalty against children who live more than 3 miles from any school, through no fault of their own, but because there simply isn't one. Children in rural villages are likely to be disproportionately hit by this change. The higher amount may also be set to increase under the proposals.

Community News:
The village are holding a Christmas Market in the new church hall on Friday 6 December, from 3pm until 8pm. All families welcome, lots of stalls including:

Hungry Hill cakes Chocsford Patchwork Beads from Benin Beyond Bubbles

Free range turkeys Flowers at Oxfordshire Felt cushions Paintings Pottery

Bogolan art Wild flower seeds Gifts in linen and other tempting and lovely things besides home-made refreshments and Christmas music.

FREE ENTRY. All welcome. Come and see how the church now looks as it's been refurbished for use as a village hall outside of church services.

Newsletter for week ending 22 November 2013

Children In Need
Thank you to everyone for your fantastic support for Children in Need last Friday. Through pupils and staff paying £1 to wear their pyjamas to school and by raffling a Pudsey and a Blush bear we raised a total of £129. We also sold 36 wristbands at a cost of £1 each so the total for Children in Need was an amazing £165!

Coats and Wellies
Please could all pupils have coats and wellies in school every day now that the weather has turned colder and wetter.

Parents’ Evenings
Thank you to parents and carers for the usual very high turn out to our recent parents’ evenings. These occasions offer important opportunities for us to work closely together in the best interests of each pupil.

Class 2 trip to Chedworth Roman Villa
Last week, as part of their History topic on Romans, Class 2 visited Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire. Chedworth is a National Trust property and they offer an excellent education programme. Our guide, who was inspiring, was also very impressed with both the behaviour and knowledge of everyone in Class 2. Thank you to Mrs Garrard for identifying a new trip venue and well done Class 2! Here are some extracts from pupils’ reports:
“Class 2 went on a trip to Chedworth Roman Villa – we had a great time. We saw loads of real Roman objects and dressed up as slaves and put on tunics and special neck tags. We found out many new things and words – lots of them in Latin! We loved it and wish we could go every fortnight!”
“First we dressed up as Roman slaves then we made some Roman medicine using mustard, lavender, bay leaves and a hint of coriander. Then we visited the baths which were very deep. In Roman times people used olive oil instead of soap and would JUMP into the bath!”
“We saw some incredible mosaics but the toilets were disgusting!”
“It was fun because we used Roman equipment to make the medicines. We visited the spring where the water for the villa came from (it’s still in good condition.)”

Did you know…caldarium = hot room, tepidarium =warm room and frigidarium = cold room!

“P.S. Please go there if you haven’t been already, Roman’s Rule!”

Extracts from reports by Darcy, Phoebe, Georgia, Zara, Ella G., Lawrence, Edison, Isabella, Max and Alex.

School Council Photography Competition
The photographs for our recent School Council Autumn Photography competition were judged on Tuesday 19th November by our TAs - a difficult task! Finally four class winners were chosen. Congratulations to Oliver Bourne (Class R), Isabel Holmes (Class 1), Juliana Browning (Class 2) and Naomi Woodwards (Class 3) who were judged to be the class winners, and thank you to all pupils who contributed. If you haven’t already seen them, the photos will be on display in the Hall between 3.00 and 3.15pm tomorrow and are well worth a look.

Maths Competition- Report from Max and Owen:
“On Wednesday 13th November, Max Lansley, Owen Cove, Thea Diment and Ella Perring went to the Young Mathematician maths competition (organised by Explore Learning in conjunction with the University of Cambridge). When we first arrived all the different school teams had a chance to relax in the Explore Learning Centre, which was good. When we finished relaxing we got on with lots of hard maths which was lots of fun. We had a maths problem called ’Dice trains’ to work on together which challenged us to the limit. It was quite hard but we think we did well and we worked particularly well as a team. Earlier this week we found out the results… good news - we made it to round TWO!

Keep your fingers crossed for us next Wednesday when we take part in the regional finals!”

Netball Competition – Report by Amy and Thea
“On Tuesday 12th November, seven Year 6 children formed a netball team and took part in the Partnership High Five netball tournament. The atmosphere was buzzing with nerves and excitement - everyone in our team was almost too nervous to do anything, but as the matches went on the scores got much better! We were doing quite well until the last match where we were very nervous (but excited!) But fortunately the goals kept on coming and in the end we won 5-0! We were so happy!
After that they started to announce the winners starting at 6th place! It was a great surprise when they said we were in joint 3rd place with Lewknor. But then they looked at goal difference and explained that Stadhampton had beaten Lewknor to become 3rd place winners!
We were all very proud of ourselves and our team work and our positive attitude really helped us.”

PTA Message to Parents

Winter Fair – Friday 29th November
The Winter Fair is just over a week away now, so we are in the final stages of preparation. Please see below:
Raffle - With prizes totalling over £500 this year, it is definitely worth buying some tickets if you haven't already. Please return your tickets - sold or unsold - to the office before Wednesday 27th November.

Cakes - The cake stall is crucial at the Winter Fair so all donations of cakes and biscuits etc would be most welcome. Please bring items for the cake stall to the hall before school or just after school on the day of the Winter Fair - the more the merrier and the more creative the better!

Donations - the donations for all the stalls so far have been fantastic! This is the final weekend to have a last minute sort out, so please bring any further donations in by Tuesday 26th at the latest.

Volunteers - we are still seeking volunteers for the Winter Fair to man stalls on the evening itself, so if you can help, please let a member of the PTA know.

Next PTA Meeting - the PTA is meeting on Tuesday 26th November at 8pm in the school community hall to sort through and wrap all the donations. If you would like to come along and help you will be more than welcome - please come armed with Sellotape and wrapping paper!

We would like to thank parents for the amazing support for this year’s Winter Fair and look forward to a successful and enjoyable evening next Friday.

Wreath Evening – Tuesday 17th December
The wreath making evening is returning this year and will be on Tuesday 17th December. Posters will be going up next week so if you are interested, please contact Georgina Wiggins as soon as possible, as places are limited.

The Giving Machine – Free Money for the PTA
If you are in Christmas shopping mode at the moment there is a way to raise money for the PTA at the same time, with no extra cost to you!

thegivingmachine.co.uk is a website set up to allow you to generate a sales commission to the PTA with each purchase made. It's free and easy to use and there are hundreds of participating retailers including Amazon, Next and John Lewis. So when shopping online if you access your chosen website through the giving machine site, each purchase you make will help to raise money for the school, costing you nothing extra. Please have a look online and register- there is a free app for download as well.
Cake Club
Congratulations to Joshua Hursey, who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mr & Mrs Holmes. A reminder to Mrs Gravett that she is on the rota for Friday 29 November.

Christmas Card Fair
Pupils have been making wrapping paper, gift tags and decorative boxes which will be on sale at the Charity Christmas Card Sale at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton on Saturday 23rd November from 10am to 1pm.


DIARY DATES:
Saturday 23 November Music Evening at The Village Hall at St John’s Church 7pm. Tickets £20 each. It is possible to pay on the door.
Friday 29 November PTA Winter Fair 6pm start
Monday 2 December Meeting at ICC about school transport consultation 7pm
Thursday 5 December Meeting of the Governing Body at 7pm
Friday 6 December Singing Club performing at the Christmas Market at The Village Hall at St John’s Stadhampton at 4pm.
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service – The Village Hall at St John’s Church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears our chosen book will be Handa’s Surprise. We will also be enjoying some exotic fruit tasting and talking about African animals. On Thursday 28th November, Zoolab will be visiting us and bringing lots of animals for us to look at and touch if we are feeling brave!

• Please find attached to this newsletter important information for parents/carers from OCC about the Home to School Transport new proposals.

Newsletter for week ending 15 November 2013

Act of Remembrance
We held our school Act of Remembrance at 11am on Monday 11th November. Prayers and poems were read by pupils in Class 3 during our assembly.

Message from the Governing Body: Home To School Transport Consultation
Oxfordshire County Council is running a new consultation on proposals to change its Home to School Transport policy following a decision in July to look again at the plans. Following extensive feedback during the summer, when the Council deferred its decision on potential changes to the Home to School Transport policy, revised proposals to reduce the range of schools to which children would qualify for free transport are now being put forward for consultation. These proposals would bring the Council's policy into line with the national statutory level, as well as with similar policies adopted by neighbouring councils. One of the proposals regarding free travel is to provide only the statutory minimum (transport to the nearest available school if it is over the age determined “statutory walking distance”). A series of Public Meetings are being held about this consultation.
The proposed changes would have significant implications for families at Stadhampton School:
- It is our understanding that the Oxford Academy is currently regarded as the closest school to Stadhampton.
- Only pupils attending the Oxford Academy who live in Stadhampton will receive free transport in spite of Icknield Community College being our catchment and partner school.

Members of our Governing Body will be attending the meeting at Icknield Community College on Monday the 2nd of December at 7pm and we actively encourage parents/carers to attend this meeting in order to have a greater understanding of the proposed changes.

Forest Schools Music Evening
Tickets are now available from the school office for the Music Evening on Saturday 23rd November at the Village Hall at St John’s Church, Stadhampton. This evening is being held to raise funds so that we may have a trained Forest Schools leader within school and all children will benefit from regular Forest Schools sessions. Tickets cost £20 each and include performances by two professional musicians, Eleanor Tinlin (piano) and Otis (saxophone) as well as refreshments and a welcome drink on arrival. Please see the attached Programme for further details about these exciting performers.
We are aware that many parents are supportive of the Forest Schools project but are unable to attend the concert due to the difficulties involved in getting babysitters on a Saturday evening or prior engagements. We would therefore be pleased to accept donations towards this project from any families who are supportive of the Forest Schools initiative but who are unable to attend the concert. Mrs Hopkins or Poppy Elliott would be pleased to accept these and add them to the funds raised at the Music Evening.

Thank you
Thank you to the parents who have kindly given up their time this week to assist with the transportation of pupils to various events during school hours. We are very grateful for your support.


Appointment times for Parents’ Evenings
Slips showing the appointment times for the two Parents’ Evenings were put into book bags earlier this week.

School Council Photography Competition
We have had an excellent turnout for the School Council 'Autumn photography' competition. We have been pleased to see entries from all four classes and they have each shown artisitic skill and a thoughtful eye! The 4 class winners will be announced in assembly on Tuesday 19th November, after the school TAs have had the difficult task of judging them...

There will be a further formal opportunity for parents and children to come and see all the fantastic entries displayed in our own photography exhibition on Friday 22nd November from 3pm until 3.30pm. Please do come to see them all; they really are stunning!

The photography competition has raised £15.50 which will go towards wet break toys/games as decided by the School Council. Hopefully this competition is one we will repeat throughout the year, with a different theme. Thank you to all who entered!

PTA News

Winter Fair
Thank you for your donations so far for the Winter Fair. We have had a great response but still need more! Pease bring your donations in and put them into the PTA box in the hall.

Raffle ticket stubs and any unsold tickets need to be handed back to the office or Georgina Wiggins by 27th November so unwanted tickets can be sold on the night. Please try to sell as many as you can – look out for a list of the fantastic prizes in book bags next week.

The PTA would like to set up a group on Facebook. It would be a ‘closed’ group which only members will be able to see, no photos or teachers names will appear, so it is totally protected. We would post upcoming events, PTA meetings, lists of items needed, anything to do with the PTA. Lots of schools already use Facebook to help advertise PTA events. As we appreciate that everyone is not on Facebook, we would still continue to send communications via book bags. Mrs Turner has given her consent to this group, in principle, providing that parents are happy with it, so please let us know if you have any concerns. Mrs Manzie and Sue Bowerman will be making lovely wrapping paper, tags and Christmas gift boxes with Class 1 for the charity Christmas Card Morning on 23rd November 10am-1pm at the Village Hall, St John’s Church. The children are designing a Christmas picture on the bottom of each box and parents may purchase them on the day, but they will be sold on a ‘first come first served’ basis. This is a great village event so please go along if you can. Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Sophie Hector, who was the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Walker. A reminder to Mrs Buckner that she is on the rota for Friday 22 November.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 18 November Parents Evening 4.00-7.00pm
Wednesday 20 November Parents Evening 4.00-6.00pm
Saturday 23 November Music Concert at the Church to raise funds for Forest Schools
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service - village church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week our book is ‘There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’. We will also be talking about variations in size and shape.

Newsletter for week ending 8 November 2013

During NOVEMBER we are focusing on the core value of UNITY

Happy NOVEMBER Birthday to: Juliana Browning, Beau Burnell, Amy Freeman, Alex Igmofose, Bella Jones, Max Jones, Max Lansley, Lola Odell, Ella Perring and Innis Robertson-Pinnell.

Book Fair
Thank you to everyone who supported our recent School Book Fair. Sales totalled £471.79, which enabled us to receive books to the value of £223 by way of commission for our class and reference libraries.

Free Books for Foundation Stage Pupils
Each Reception pupil should have received a free Booktime pack this week provided jointly by Booktrust and Pearson. Booktime is a national programme for reception aged children providing them with a free book pack to share and enjoy with their family and friends.

Children in Need – Friday 15th November
Friday 15th November is ‘Children in Need’ day and pupils are encouraged to pay £1 to be able to wear their pyjamas to school instead of school uniform. We shall also be holding a raffle (50p a ticket) to win a Pudsey cuddly toy and will have Children in Need wristbands on sale priced at £1.

Parents’ Consultation Evenings – Monday 18th & Wednesday 20th November
Letters giving the dates and times of consultations were put into book bags earlier this week. Appointments are offered on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis.

Forest Schools Music Evening
Tickets are now available from the school office for the Music Evening on Saturday 23rd November at the Village Hall at St John’s Church, Stadhampton. This evening is being held to raise funds so that we may have a trained Forest Schools leader within school. Tickets cost £20 each and include performances by Eleanor Tinlin (piano) and Otis (saxophone) as well as refreshments and a welcome drink on arrival.

Swimming
Thank you to the families of pupils in Class 3 who have already made contributions towards the cost of the swimming transport this term.

Thank you to the PTA
Thank you to all parents and carers for raising funds to provide additional seating in our outdoor drama area. This was installed at the beginning of the week and is already being used by pupils. It is a valuable resource which we know pupils will be able to enjoy for many years.

PTA News
Raffle tickets for this year’s Winter Fair will be in book bags this week.We have many great raffle prizes including a Champagne Tea for Two at the Crazy Bear, 2 tickets to an Oxford United home game and a golden ticket to the Roald Dahl museum.

We have received one or two donations for our white polar bear stall but still need lots more so can all parents please have a good look at home this weekend for anything which might be suitable.

Chocolate is also wanted so please go through cupboards at home and give anything you can.

Also on our wanted list are; jars filled with sweets, chocolate or anything interesting for our jingle jars stall.

Your donations make the Winter Fair the success it is and we really want to pull out all the stops to make this one the best yet! Thank you for your help and donations.

Friday Cake Club
Jack Austin was the lucky winner of the cake before half term, kindly donated by Mrs Manzie. A reminder to Mr & Mrs Holmes that they are on the rota for Friday 15th November.

If you have not already done so, and would like to pay for Cake Club up to Christmas, it is £1.40 per child. Please see Rowena. We are also still looking for families to be included on the cake donation rota. It doesn’t need to be home-baked – bought cakes are just as well received by the winners!


DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 13 November Mobile Library visit pm
Monday 18 November Parents Evening 4.00-7.00pm
Wednesday 20 November Parents Evening 4.00-6.00pm
Saturday 23 November Music Concert at the Church to raise funds for Forest Schools
Tuesday 10 December KS2 (Classes 2 & 3) - both matinee and evening performances (times to be confirmed)
Wednesday 11 December FS/KS1 (Reception & Class 1) - matinee performance only (time to be confirmed).
Wednesday 18 December Nativity Service - village church 2.15pm
Monday 23 December One-day Sports Course at Stadhampton School for participating pupils. See notices in each classroom entrance area for more information and details of how to book.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back to everyone at the start of Term 2. Our topic this term is ‘Books’ and we will be looking at the book "The Tiger who came to Tea"
We are also having photos taken on Thursday 14th November from 8am in the school hall - Please see your key person if you would like to come along with siblings in the morning.
Advance warning that Little Bears nativity will be on 14th December - more details to follow.


Poppies and wristbands on sale in school. Suggested minimum donation for a wristband is £1.


Community Notice
WANTED! SOMEONE LIKE YOU!!
Do you like to make a difference? Are you a decision maker? Have you got the odd day to
spare? Yes? I need people like you to sit on school appeal panels! So, if you are
interested in taking an active part in schools admissions and exclusions we would love to
hear from you. To find out more please contact 01865 810180 or
email: schoolappeals@oxfordshire.gov.uk