Welcome back to everyone!

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Class 2 will begin their swimming sessions at the Abbey Sports Centre on Monday 28th April. They will have a total of 5 sessions (28 April, 12, 19 May, 2, 9 June). As always, we hope that parents/carers will be willing to pay £2 per child per swimming session towards the cost of the transport. Payments of £10 for the 5 sessions can be made by cheque (made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please.) Alternatively we are very happy to receive a cash payment of £2 on a weekly basis. Thank you.

Easter Egg Competition
On Wednesday we all enjoyed the School Council’s Easter Egg competition. Children had to create a vehicle that would safely transport a boiled egg as close as possible to our curling target, within a minute. Designs varied from remote controlled cars with egg ‘carriers’ to handcrafted cars made from all sorts of different junk materials…including Satsuma wheels!
The entries were judged by Mr Short, Mrs Shortman and Mrs Wilkin who focused on the overall quality of design, the originality/ingenuity of the design and its success in getting to the target while also keeping the egg protected! They then added up their scores and were pleased to announce the winners:

1st place: Leo Burnell who scored 75 points (out of a possible 90)
2nd place: Charlie Ball who scored 71 points
3rd place: Tia Khan who scored 64 points
Well done to all who took part – the vehicles were all impressive and we look forward to setting this challenge again!

Forest School Sessions
Forest School sessions began this week for Year 2 pupils. Thank you to Mr Short, Mrs Elliott, Mrs Gonzalez and Mrs Gravett for providing pupils with a most enjoyable experience building dens, making a rope swing, experimenting with grass trumpets, creating ‘hairware’ and good team-building and collaboration opportunities. Thank you to everyone involved in the fundraising to make this project possible. If you have not returned your completed permission slip yet for your child to participate, please do so as soon as possible. (Reminder forms were sent home earlier this week.) Thank you.

Sport Relief Cycle Ride
During the Easter Holidays, Mr & Mrs Turner cycled 673 miles from John O’Groats in northern Scotland, southwards. Strong westerly winds and heavy rain in Scotland slowed the cycling down and a daughter going into labour early meant they made it as far as Preston in Lancashire before returning home by train. They plan to cycle the remaining 200+ miles from Preston over the Summer. They have lost a little weight and gained a little grandson! Many thanks to all who have sponsored the ride - so far over £400 has been raised for Sport Relief but it’s not too late to sponsor, should you wish to and increase this total. They have set up a Sport Relief Giving Page as follows http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/johnandkathryncycleJohnOGroatstoBristol

Drinks Bottles
A number of un-named colourful, plastic drinks bottles were left in class cloakrooms over the Easter Holidays and pupils make no claim to them. The bottles have been emptied and put in the Lost Property box in the Hall, so if you are missing such a drinks bottle it may be there!

End of Term Assembly
Following our end of term assembly on Friday 4th April, a small amount of cash was found in the Hall. If you are aware of losing any cash at that time, please speak to Mrs Turner.

Saturday Science Club at Science Oxford
Details of Science Oxford’s Saturday Science Clubs can be found on www.scienceoxfordlive.com There are events on Saturday 26th April and Saturday 31st May. Children must be accompanied.

PTA News

Boogie Bingo Friday 16th May - tickets are on sale from Monday for this fun filled evening, priced at £8 each to include a fish and chip supper or £3 each without. Tickets will be available from the office or from outside Class 1 each morning. Be quick as it's a popular event and places are limited.

We will be holding a raffle on the evening and would appreciate any donations as prizes. Items needed are wine, beer, chocolate, bubble bath sets etc so please have a look at home and leave any donations in the PTA box in the hall.

Clothes recycling Thursday 22nd May – Bag2School recycling bags will be put into book bags as soon as we receive them so get sorting through your old winter wardrobe for your unwanted adult and/or children’s clothes, paired shoes, cuddly toys, bags, scarves, hats.

Bag2School is a free fundraising scheme that works in partnership with schools and businesses to help us raise money from your donations. It specialises in collecting unwanted textiles in good condition which are then sold to export markets worldwide where they are sorted and then sold to the general public.

Our next meeting is this Tuesday 29th April 8pm, The Crown. New members are always welcome so why not come along and see for yourselves!
Cake Club
Congratulations to Tillie Moss-Black, the lucky winner of the last cake before the Easter holidays, kindly donated by Mrs Fulker. A reminder to Mrs Lavene that she is on the rota for 2nd May.

Don’t forget you can pay for Cake Club weekly, half a term at a time or right up until the end of the school year. Please see Rowena Dobson.

DIARY DATES:
Monday 28 April Archery Club begins for participating pupils
Friday 9 May, 16 May,
23 May, 6 June
Friday 13 June
Friday 20 June Cycling sessions for Year 6 pupils

Cycle Theory Test
Cycle Test

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
The Little Bears all are settling back well into Term 5 and are exploring our topic of ‘Weather.’ We have begun by talking about the sun and how to be safe when the weather hots up.
In Week 2 we will be talking about the rain and making our own musical rain shakers - if anyone could donate some inner tubes of kitchen roll we would appreciate it very much.
Finally a reminder that on Friday 25th April – we are hosting a Ladies Supper Night at St John’s Church and we hope to see you there!

Newsletter for week ending 4 April 2014

Happy April Birthday to: Katende Amery, Oliver Bourne, Thea Diment, Charlie Hackett, Isabel Holmes, Ollie Jones, Jamie Lavene & Sam Sundberg.


During APRIL we are focusing on the core value of THOUGHTFULNESS

New School Meals Menu
Hard copies of the new Summer/Autumn menu were sent home to families earlier this week. A copy has also been uploaded onto the school website.

Website Additions
As well as the new Summer/Autumn meals menu, this week we have also uploaded to the school website details of the after school clubs for Term 5 and 6 (Archery), Term 5 (Art) and Term 5 (Multisports) as well as pictures of Sports Relief activities and the Kidzfit workshop in the ‘Events section’.

Internet E-Safety
With the Easter holidays approaching, many children will be keen to explore modern technology in more depth as a way of entertaining themselves. The Internet and devices such as tablets, games consoles and phones have many exciting things to offer children and there are many positives to be gained from experiencing these things. We would, however like to give a timely reminder that some of the content that can be accessed on the Internet (e.g. on YouTube or on game servers) is not always age-appropriate and occasionally can be offensive or upsetting. In school we have a filtering system blocking access to such sites.
Despite some protection/parental controls being available for you to set up on these different resources, they are not always effective in filtering the content to make it ‘child-safe’. Please continue to support your child by showing interest in what they are accessing via technology, to make sure they enjoy the experiences they have!
These websites below provide helpful, age-appropriate information about online safety, with tips for children and for families.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

‘Speaking and Listening’ Leaflet
This week every family should have received a copy of a leaflet entitled ‘Speaking and Listening: A short guide for parents’. Speech and language are key aspects of child development and we hope that you find the information useful. The leaflets were sent home via book bags but if you are unable to locate your copy, please ask for another one from the office.


UK Chess Challenge
This year children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 have enjoyed taking part in the UK Chess Challenge; a national competition that we have participated in for a number of years. The lunch time club was fully subscribed and it was lovely to see the enthusiasm of all the children. The skill varied from chess novices (who hopefully have gained confidence in their abilities over the 7 weeks of tournaments) to more experienced players.

In the end there could only be one champion...or...possibly two! Owen Cove and Greg Madry won all of their first six games in the tournament and then were pitted against each other for the final match. The game wasn't finished within the time limit so their points (for pieces taken) were added up. And the result was that they both drew! The boys decided that they are both happy to share this accolade and the trophy. Well done to both of them!

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Class 2 will begin their swimming sessions at the Abbey Sports Centre on Monday 28th April. They will have a total of 5 sessions (28 April, 12, 19 May, 2, 9 June). As always, we hope that parents/carers will be willing to pay £2 per child per swimming session towards the cost of the transport. Cash (£10 for all 5 sessions) or cheques for swimming should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School please. We are also very happy to receive payment on a weekly basis. Thank you.

Headlice
The presence of headlice continues to be a problem and parents/carers are asked to please check their children’s hair during the Easter break. This website seems to provide a great deal of information which may be useful: www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice/pages/treatment.aspx

Bookings Clerk
Sarah Massey, the bookings secretary and treasurer for the Hall Management Committee, who takes bookings for the school community hall, organises the keys and payments for hirers and balances the accounts each year, is looking for someone to take over from her so that she may step down. Would anyone be willing to take it on? It is not too onerous a task as only a handful of hirers now use the community hall regularly and for the occasional party. Please let Mrs Hopkins know if you might consider it and need any further information.

PTA News

Easter Cake Competition - what fabulous cakes we had enter the cake competition! Thank you to Shirley Bateman for being our judge. The winners in each year group were Casey Price, Jack Austin, Will Eaton, Ellie Walker, Charlie Austin, Hannah Bradford and Ella Perring. We had a fantastic cake sale after school and raised over £100 so thank you to everyone involved.

Boogie Bingo - Friday 16th May - tickets will be available after the holidays for this popular event so remember to keep the date free.

Clothes Recycling - as you may already know, the PTA organises regular collections of unwanted textiles through Bag2School. Bag2School is a free fundraising scheme that works in partnership with schools and businesses to help us raise money from your donations. It specialises in collecting unwanted textiles in good condition which are then sold to export markets worldwide where they are sorted and then sold to the general public

Our next collection will be at 9am on Thursday 22nd May so if you’re having a good sort out at home over the holidays, please save your unwanted adult and/or children’s clothes, paired shoes, cuddly toys, bags, scarves, hats.

For more details about the company and what you can give, please see their website www.bag2school.com.

Just a reminder the next PTA meeting will be on Tuesday 29th April at The Crown at 8pm. Thank you for your continued support of the PTA.


Plant Orders
Order forms for plant orders should be in book bags this week. Please have a look to see if you would like to place an order and, if so, return the order form and payment to school by Friday 25 April. Thank you.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Jamie Lavene, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Watkins. A reminder to Mrs Gravett that she is on the rota for 25 April, the first Friday after Easter. If you would like to pay for a few weeks at a time, it is £1 up to May Half Term, or £2.40 up to the end of the school year per child. Please see Rowena Dobson. Thank you.


School Council
• Please see Flyer attached about the Easter Egg Competition

DIARY DATES:
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5
Thursday 24 April Forest School session for Year 2 pupils

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Little Bears will be enjoying a sponsored obstacle course and a Easter bonnet parade on the last day of term and will be open until 3 pm.
We hope everyone has a restful and enjoyable 2 weeks with some sunshine hopefully!!
We return on Tuesday 22nd April to the topic of ‘weather’.

Community News:

• Easter holiday activities at the Earth Trust, Little Wittenham, OX14 4QZ – see www.earthtrust.org.uk for more details.
Our ever popular ‘Clumps Club’ for children aged 8 to 12 will be running on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th April, from 10am to 4pm (£25 per day, booking essential). We will be building dens, cooking on fires and rolling eggs on the Wittenham Clumps hills! There is plenty for the whole family in April too, including ‘Family Bushcraft’, ‘Newts, Frogs and Toads’ guided walk, ‘Forest School’ for pre-school children, ‘Woodland Adventure’ for 5 to 8 year olds, and a sensory buggy walk for babies and toddlers! See our website for full details or call us on 01865 407792.

• Flyers attached from Hill End about Bushcraft Days and Open Day

Newsletter for week ending 28 March 2014

Mr Montgomery
We are pleased to welcome Mr Montgomery, who joined our staff this week as a part-time Teaching Assistant.

Forest School
We are delighted that we will be providing Forest School sessions, for all pupils, during the summer term. A letter will be in book bags today with further details. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this happen.

Sports Relief
Thank you to everyone who paid a £1 for dressing up as a sports personality and walking or running a mile (or more!) for Sports Relief last week. We raised a total of £92. Thank you all.

Clothes Recycling
Thank you to everyone who donated bags for the last Bag2School clothes recycling collection. We are pleased to let you know that we collected 344kg and received a cheque for £172.00 this week.

Archery Club
This very popular club is, unfortunately, already full. We hope to offer it again in September. In the meantime, parents may like to know that Mr Chrisp runs an archery session on alternate Saturdays at the Abbey Sports Centre in Berinsfield.

Food with Thought – Easter Feast Lunch
We have been notified that on Wednesday 2nd April there will be a slight change to the regular school menu. This ‘Eggciting’ lunch will be Roast Chicken followed by Chocolate Easter Cake.

PTA News
Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA meeting at The Crown on Tuesday evening; we have lots of great events planned for the rest of the school year!

Quiz night - thank you to everyone who attended the quiz night last Friday. Whilst there was not a huge attendance, everyone had a great night with a healthy sum of just over £300 being raised.
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Easter Cake Competition - Wednesday 2nd April- we are very excited to be holding a cake competition and cake sale just before the Easter holidays. All the details will be in book bags on Friday, so please keep a look out for the details and happy baking!

Save The Date - Boogie Bingo is back! Scheduled for Friday 16th May. More details to follow.
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Thank you to all parents for your continued support of the PTA. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 29th April, The Crown, 8pm. Everyone welcome.


Cake Club
Congratulations to Owen Cove, the lucky winner of last week’s cake, kindly donated by Mrs Hindmarch. A reminder to Mrs Fulker that she is on the rota for 4 April.

Please see the Noticeboard outside Class 1 for the remainder of the year’s rota. We have just one space left – the last day of term – Friday 19th July. Please see Rowena Dobson if you can supply a cake that day. Thank you.

DIARY DATES:
Friday 4 April End of term assembly at 9.00am. All welcome. School finishes at 1.30pm when we break up for the Easter Holiday.
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week we will be finishing our ‘growth and garden’ topic by looking at the life cycle of a butterfly. We will be watching our live caterpillars go through their cycle.
Little Bears will be completing a sponsored obstacle course followed by a Easter bonnet parade on Friday 4th April. All Little Bear parents are welcome from 10am for tea and coffee followed by the obstacle course at 10.30am. Our Easter bonnet parade will then take place at 11.15 with judging at 11.30am. We hope many Little Bears and parents will all come to watch, support and cheer on Friday.
Little Bears finishes at 3pm on Friday and we return on Tuesday 22nd April to the topic of ‘Weather’.
We hope everyone has a lovely Easter break.

Ladies Supper Night – Friday 25th April from 7.30pm – 11.30pm in the Village Hall at St John’s (Church)
A chance to meet, have dinner and socialise. Nibbles on arrival, hot buffet with a choice of desserts. Please bring your own drinks. Everyone welcome, tickets £10 each.
For tickets or further details, please contact Debbie Bradford: 07854508417 or Melanie Gravett: 07905921540.

Community News
Flyers attached to this newsletter from the Chalgrove and Watlington Children’s Centre:
• Newsletter; April/May timetable; HENRY flyer; Easter Activities

Newsletter for week ending 21 March 2014

Goodbye and Good Luck!
We say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ to Miss Chivers and Miss Evans, the two student teachers who have been working in Class 1 for the last eight weeks. We wish them both the best of luck in their future teaching careers.

Reporting Absence by E-Mail
We have set up a new e-mail account for parents/carers to use if they prefer to send an e-mail to report a child’s absence from school rather than telephoning. The new e-mail address for reporting absence is absence@stadhampton.oxon.sch.uk and this can be accessed by all members of staff. On the home page of the school website we have added a “Report an absence” link which parents/carers can use to let us know that their child will be absent and the reason for the absence.
Please endeavour to report an absence from school by e-mail or by telephone by 8.30am.

Outdoor Play Equipment
We have recently noticed a number of young children playing on the outdoor equipment and at times this appears to be unsupervised. The outdoor equipment is understandably attractive to small children but, at the expense of appearing to be killjoys, parents should be aware that our insurance policy only covers pupils of Stadhampton School during school hours. Use of the equipment by non- school children during school hours or any children outside of school hours is not covered by our insurance and therefore we would politely request that it is not used.

Commonwealth Games Event
Carl McNight from Kidzfit came to school yesterday to help us learn more about being active and healthy. The children (and some adults!) danced, jumped, jigged and exercised to music and competed with each other by hoola hooping, skipping and doing speed bounces. We also learnt about the Queen’s Baton and some of the different countries of the Commonwealth. Pupils really enjoyed the day and when asked what they thought of it said “I loved it”, “it was awesome”, “epic”, “brilliant” and “the most fun ever!”

Sports Relief
Today pupils generously brought in £1 to take part in running or walking a mile around the school grounds. Some pupils dressed up as a famous sports personality and many did more than a mile!
So far, we have collected £87 and would be pleased to receive any final contributions before we send the money raised to Sports Relief early next week. Thank you for your support.

Mrs Turner and her husband are planning to cycle from John O'Groats in northern Scotland as far south as they can towards Lands End in Cornwall during the Easter holidays. This will definitely be a challenge and they would like their ride to help raise money for Sport Relief. They have set up a Sport Relief Giving Page http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/johnandkathryncycleJohnOGroatstoBristol if anyone would like to sponsor them and raise funds for this worthwhile cause.

Headlice
We are grateful to a parent for letting us know that headlice have been detected and treated in their child’s hair. Please could all parents check their children’s hair this weekend and treat if necessary. Thank you.

PTA News

Quiz night- there are still tickets available for tomorrow’s quiz night, priced at £5 each including nibbles. If you would like to buy tickets, please see Georgina Wiggins or speak to any member of the PTA.

Cake Competition - we will be having an Easter cake decorating competition in the run up to Easter. More details to follow very soon.

A reminder that our next PTA meeting is on Tuesday 25th March at 8pm in The Crown. New members are very welcome. If you are unable to make the meeting but have suggestions for fundraising events, please speak to any member of the PTA. A list of PTA members is on the notice board by the Class 1 outdoor area.


Cake Club
Congratulations to Katende Amery, the lucky winner of the cake kindly donated by Mrs Eaton. A reminder to Mrs Watkins that she is on the rota for 28th March.


DIARY DATES:
Monday 24 March Work viewing evening – teachers available for informal chat if required whilst you look at your child’s work - no appointments necessary - 3.15 to 6pm.
Friday 4 April Break up for Easter Holiday. End of term assembly at 9.00am. All welcome. School finishes at 1.30pm
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week we will be continuing with our ‘growth and garden theme’ and learning about garden birds and birds that migrate and who will be making their way to Britain soon. We shall also be making bird feeders.
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for supporting our cake sale. Donations are still coming in.

COMMUNITY NEWS:

Mothering Sunday Service
Everyone is welcome to attend the special Family Service for Mothering Sunday on 30th March at 9.30am at St John the Baptist Church (flyers in book bags tomorrow).


We are delighted to let you know that the Ffennell Skills and Culture Festival is confirmed again for 2014! After a fantastic inaugural event last year we are planning to run the event, which is free for all Oxfordshire Primary Schools, on Friday 13th June 2014.

The event will run similar to last year:
• Friday is Free for all Oxfordshire Schools
• Saturday 14th is open to the public and includes the Ffennell Soap Box Derby
• Hands on activities throughout
• Specialist STEM Zone (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths)
Activities are being added all the time and are offered on a first come first served basis. We will send an email confirmation when booking opens.
In the meantime if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us:
rob@engineeringyourfuture.com or visit the website for latest information: http://ffennellfestival.org/

FUN CHILD ATTENTION AND MEMORY STUDY – LEARN ABOUT YOUR BRAIN!
Researchers from Oxford’s Experimental Psychology Department are carrying out a study on the development of attention and memory during childhood. Parents can bring their child (aged 6-7 or 10-11) to play fun Pokemon-themed memory games on a computer while we record brain activity. In addition to afternoons after school during school term, we can also book times during the Easter break and school half term. During the visit, we tell the children more about how our brain works and at the end of the visit children can take a picture of their brain waves! The whole activity will last approximately 1 hour. To express your interest in participating with your child, please email us at andria.shimi@psy.ox.ac.uk with your name, your child’s name, age, and birth date, and a phone number to contact you to arrange a visit. Alternatively you can fill in this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Dj4NA2mOsmcLcbuG-AuRVMKlpOWfRiX7TaqVDsRQ3LM/viewform
By expressing an interest now you are not bound to participate in the study. Attached you can find more information about the study and the researchers involved.
For more information please email (andria.shimi@psy.ox.ac.uk) or call (01865 271375).

Newsletter for week ending 14 March 2014

Gardening Club – Friday Lunchtimes
There are still spaces available for pupils in Classes 2 and 3 to join the Gardening Club. Please let Mrs Hopkins know if you would like to be involved.

Storytelling Fortnight
Many, many thanks to all the adults (parents, carers and governors) who came in and read stories in each of the classes over the last two weeks. We have been entertained by a wide range of stories and poems, including Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’, Shirley Hughes ‘Dogger’, Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’ and ‘Dirty Beasts’, Julia Donaldson’s ‘Room on the Broom’ and ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ John Burningham’s ‘Would You Rather’and George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ as well as several stories by Dr Seuss, traditional tales such as ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, ‘The Dragon of Krakow’, ‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’ and poetry by Kit Wright. We were treated to stories read to us not only in English but also French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Swedish, Bulgarian and Yorkshire! These stories have all contributed to enabling our pupils to experience the rich variety of stories and the culture of storytelling in English and other languages. Thank you all for your involvement and support (and bravery!), it is greatly appreciated.

Youth Club in Stadhampton – Message from Debbie Bradford
“We have recently had discussions with an organisation called OAYP, (Oxfordshire Association for Young People) regarding the possibility of joining their community link up project, which will assist us in setting up a Youth Club in Stadhampton. This would be a great opportunity for the young people in the village to experience and get involved in. However, before we are able to move the project forward we need to gauge the level of interest and available support.

We have invited Adam French, a project worker from OAYP, to come and talk about his organisation and what services they can offer us.

This meeting will take place on Thursday 27th March at 7.45pm in the church hall. Please come along to show your support, and share your views on the subject.”

Cycle Safety Training
We are very grateful to Mrs Cove, Mrs Green, Mrs Ellis, Miss Moss-Black (Helen) and Mr Matthews (Dave) for offering to provide cycle safety training in the summer term for any Year 6 pupils who have not already passed the test and would like to have a go. Please could those pupils confirm with Mrs Hopkins whether they would like to do this, by Monday next week. In order for pupils to put their names forward it is essential that they have an appropriately sized roadworthy cycle and a cycle helmet which conforms to British Standards and fits correctly. We hope to be able to extend this opportunity to the present Year 5 pupils during the next academic year.

PTA News
Thank you to everyone who supported the Bingo night last Friday. It was a great success and all the children seemed to have a good time. Thank you to all the PTA members and parents who stayed to help and to all those who stayed to clear up at the end of the evening. Thanks also to Miss Mould for coming and to Guy Holmes for being our bingo caller.

Tickets are still available for the quiz night on Friday 21st March, priced at £5 each or £40 for a team of up to 8 people. Georgina Wiggins will be selling tickets outside Class 1 each morning, so please see her if you would like to buy any. It promises to be a great evening so please support this event if you can.

The next PTA meeting will be on Tuesday 25th March in The Crown at 8pm.
All welcome!


Cake Club
Congratulations to Daniel Ellis, the lucky winner of the cake kindly donated by Mrs Jones. A reminder to Mrs Hindmarch that she is on the rota for 21 March.

DIARY DATES:
Wednesday 19 March Sports Activities Day – please bring PE kit!
Monday 24 March Work viewing evening – teachers available for informal chat if required whilst you look at your child’s work - no appointments necessary - 3.15 to 6pm.
Friday 4 April Break up for Easter Holiday. School finishes at 1.30pm
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week Little Bears will be talking about growing food and where our food comes from. We will be looking at healthy foods and what's good for us.
A huge thank you to Anna Harris and Carol Holmes for their toy donations.

Community News:
Attachments to this newsletter:
• Brookes Science Bazaar – Free fun for the family on Saturday 22nd March from 11am to 4pm at Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane. No booking required but please note that no parking is available for this event.
• Two flyers about RAF Benson Holiday course from 7th -11th April and Making Connections Day on 15th April.
• Lambing Weekends at Earth Trust, Little Wittenham
• Food technician job vacancy at Icknield Community College

Newsletter for week ending 7 March 2014

Happy MARCH Birthday to: Maggie Almeida, Jem Burnell, Darcy Crook, Emily Drake, Daniel Ellis, Hannah Lansley, Greg Madry, Benjamin Walker and Naomi Woodwards.

During MARCH we are focusing on the core value of TRUST

World Book Day
Thursday 6th March was World Book Day and we decided to do something a bit different this year! Instead of dressing up as a book character, all classes made their own hats or masks to represent their chosen book character. Some children also made masks and hats at home. We used a variety of materials and they all looked fantastic! Characters ranged from Willy Wonka to the Lorax to the tiger (from ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’). The classes also enjoyed sharing books with children in different year groups and lots of interesting ‘book talk’ was overheard by the staff.
Well done to all the children for making such a good effort today and making it a very enjoyable morning of book celebration!

Gardening Club – Friday lunchtimes
We are grateful to Mr and Mrs Burnell for offering to resurrect the gardening club on Friday lunchtimes. Please could any pupils from Classes 2 and 3 who would like to attend the club put their names down with Mrs Hopkins. The club will start on Friday 14th March. If any other parents would like to also offer their help at this club, please let us know.

School Council Flag and Language Competition!
The School Council is running a competition, with an international theme, as a part of our continuing focus on maintaining international links as a school. All pupils at school are invited to take part and families at home too! The task is to identify twelve different flags on the competition sheet. Having done that you will also have a greeting, written in one of the main languages spoken in each country - however some of the letters will be missing! You will need to try and work out what the greeting should be in that language.
Once the competition sheet is completed, you will need to write your name and class on the back of the sheets. Finished entries can then be put in a labelled box outside Class 1. There is no charge for taking part in this competition. The competition sheets will be given to classes on Friday 7th March and need to be in by Friday 21st March. Entries with all the answers correct will be then entered into a prize draw and then one winner will be picked out at random and will receive an international-themed prize!

Advance Warning of Sporting Events
To link in with Commonwealth Day (on Monday 10th March), we have planned an exciting sports day on Wednesday 19th March when we look forward to welcoming a sports leader from Kidz Fit into school. Pupils will take part in interactive sessions to help them to learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle, physical fitness and personal wellbeing. Please ensure that ALL pupils have their PE kit in school!

We will also be taking part in activities for Sports Relief around 21st March. Further details to follow nearer the time.

Cycle Safety Training
We are hoping to be able to run cycle training sessions before the end of the summer term for Year 6 pupils who have not as yet, taken a cycle safety training test and would like to do so. Mrs Cove, Mrs Ellis and Mrs Green were involved in this last year and in order for this training to be available to pupils we really need additional volunteers to help with this activity. We all know how busy the road is through Stadhampton and therefore need a good number of adults to ensure that pupils are closely supervised in this activity. Please let Mrs Hopkins know if you would be willing to help.

Out-grown school shoes
Helen Moss-Black has asked us to circulate to parents details of the UK based charity, Osiligi (www.osiligi.org) which helps to relieve poverty in the Maasai area of Kenya. Helen collects out grown school shoes (particularly sizes 10-3 in both boys and girls) and passes them on to the charity who take them out to Kenya every three months or so. Next time you buy new school shoes, please think about whether the old ones might be suitable for a second life in Africa. Thank you.

PTA News
Tomorrow is Bingo Night! Please could parents be prompt in dropping/collecting their children. If any parent can stay and help clear up at the end of the evening, it would be greatly appreciated. Please let a PTA member know if you can help. It should be a great night for the children!


Individual and table tickets for the Quiz Night on Friday 21st March are available priced at £5 each or £40 for a table of up to 8. It promises to be a great evening, so please get involved and buy your tickets from Georgina Wiggins as soon as possible. This will allow us to make sure there is plenty of wine stocked up at the bar!


Once again, thank you for your continued support of the PTA.


Cake Club
Congratulations to Ella Perring, the lucky winner of the cake kindly donated by Mrs Lansley. A reminder to Mrs Eaton that she is on the rota for 14 March.

DIARY DATES:
3rd-14th March Story telling fortnight – please come in and read a story!
Monday 10 March Governing Body meeting at 7pm
Monday 24 March Work viewing evening – teachers available for informal chat if required whilst you look at your child’s work no appointments necessary - 3.15 to 6pm.
Friday 4 April Break up for Easter Holiday. School finishes at 1.30pm
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance or book via Mrs Hopkins.
Tuesday 22 April Pupils and staff return to school for the start of Term 5


LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Next week at Little Bears we will continue to explore the topic of ‘mini beasts’ and ‘the life cycle of a frog’. The Little Bears have worked hard making frog spawn, tadpoles and frogs and learning songs about frogs.

If anyone would like donate some paper plates to Little Bears, this would be very much appreciated.

Newsletter for week ending 28 February 2014

Swimming at the Abbey Sports Centre
Thank you to the parents of pupils in Class 3 who have already made a ‘voluntary contribution’ of £12 towards the cost of the swimming transport to Berinsfield this term. Thank you also to the families who pay weekly. We would be delighted to accept any further donations towards transport costs for Term 4. Cheques for swimming contributions should be made payable to Stadhampton Primary School. Thank you.

Recorders and Recorder Books
A reminder that all pupils in Years 3-6 have a weekly recorder lesson on Mondays this term. Thank you to the many pupils who have their recorder and book in school ready for the lesson. For hygiene reasons we prefer each pupil to have their own recorder. Recorders are available from the school office, priced at £6.50 each. Recorder Books 1 and 2 are also available at £4.85 each. The school makes no profit from selling these items.

Jian-Zi – results from Poland
The Jian-zi results from Poland are now in and one of their pupils, Wojtek Grygierek won with 276 kicks – their second highest was 18, so this was a truly extraordinary score! Max Lansley with 38 kicks, is therefore our international runner-up! Congratulations to Wojtek and Max.

Sean Callery (author/musician) workshops and pupil experiences
On Wednesday 26th February, we welcomed writer, teacher and musician Sean Callery into school for the day. He ran exciting workshops for all four classes based around song-writing! Each class wrote a song about a topic they had been focusing on in class and they all enjoyed the process of coming up with the lyrics, with Sean guiding them, using catchy tunes. We had an assembly at the end of the day so that each class could perform their songs to the rest of the school. Reception’s song was based upon life on the farm, Class 1 sang a cheerful song about Mexico, Class 2’s song told us all about Roald Dahl and Class 3 (accompanied by Sean on the piano) gave everyone a history lesson on the ancient Greeks.
Staff and children alike felt like this was a valuable experience, which inspired all the children to come up with different ideas and edit them as a class to improve the content on their song. A lot was achieved by all in a short period of time. The songs will stick in all our heads for a while!

The Great Daffodil Appeal
We are taking part in the Marie Curie Cancer Care Great Daffodil Appeal 2014 and daffodils are on sale from the yellow box in the hall. Every five minutes someone with a terminal illness in the UK dies without the care they need in their final hours. Your support can help change this. Each donation made will help nurses care for more terminally ill people in their own homes. Every £20 they receive pays for a Marie Curie nurse to care for someone in our area for an hour.

Oxford Literacy Festival –Tickets available!
Helen Moss Black (mossblack@hotmail.com) has 7 tickets at £6 each for Korky Paul at the Oxford Literary Festival that she is unable to use. If you’re interested, let her know, as they can be reallocated. Details can be found at this link.
http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2014/march-22/winnies-pirate-adventure

PTA News
Bingo Night - Friday 7th March - we are asking parents for any sweet or chocolate donations which could be used as prizes on the evening. Anything you have extra in the cupboards that you would like to donate would be hugely appreciated. Please put any donations into the PTA box in the school hall by Thursday next week. Thank you.

Quiz Night – Friday 21st March - we are now selling quiz night tickets individually, priced at £5 each. Tickets are limited so please see Georgina Wiggins for either individual or table-of-8 tickets. There will be nibbles on tables on the evening but as it is a "bring your own food" event, please feel free to bring your own snacks, nibbles or even meals. Please support the quiz night as it promises to be a fantastic evening.

Plant Orders - as we have done previously at this time of year, we will be taking orders for plants and bulbs in the next few weeks, so please keep a look out for order forms in book bags.

Thank you to everyone who attended the PTA meeting on Tuesday evening. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25th March at The Crown, 8pm.

Cake Club
Congratulations to Mrs Hopkins, who was the lucky winner of the Valentine Cake, kindly donated by Mrs Burnell. A reminder to Mrs Jones that she is on the rota for 7 March. Thank you to everyone who has offered to provide a cake – we just need 3 more volunteers to take us up to the end of the school year!

DIARY DATES:
3rd-14th March Story telling fortnight – please come in and read a story!
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 April Sports course at Stadhampton School led by Mr Hopkins. See posters in each cloakroom entrance for booking details or via Mrs Hopkins.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS:
Welcome back everyone! We hope you had a relaxing half term break. In Term 4 the Little Bears will be learning about gardens and growth. The first week we will be looking at how our gardens grow and how we grow.
On Friday the 7th March at 3pm Little Bears will be having a cake sale. All donations will be greatly received or please pop along on Friday and buy some cake!