Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 210

Friday 11th November 2022

Message from Mrs Hall

Today at 11.00 am, the whole school took part in a 2-minute silence to commemorate Remembrance Day. We are very proud of how the children behaved during this event and the consideration and understanding they demonstrated in this tribute to those who lost their lives fighting in past World Wars. Reflection time is a key element of our Whitehouse curriculum. It is so important that we continue to think of others. Thank you for donating money to the Poppy Appeal through the school and to the school parliament members for organising this collection. Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance:  Jaguars (99.5%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Toilet Day: What is the history of toilet day and how does it improve the lives of people around the world?  (UNRC Link: Article 27: I have the right to a good standard of living.  This means I should have food clothes and a place to live). Resources related to this assembly will soon be available on our website.  To access them, simply go to Learning and click on our Enquiry Based Assemblies.

Global Citizenship Day: Appeal for Recycling Items – 25^th November 2022

Thank you to those parents/carers who have helped provide items for our Global Citizenship Day on 25^th November 2022.  Just a quick reminder that the items we need to complete the activities that day are as follows:

Microwave Rice Pouches               Tissue Boxes (flat not the square ones)

Lolly Sticks                                Long Cardboard Tubes

Elastic Bands                              Buttons, Ribbons and other Decorations

Balloons                                     Ring Pull Tin Cans

Paper Straws                              Cardboard Gravy Containers

If you are able to help us by collecting and donating any of these items, we would be very grateful. 

Dinner Money Debt

Can we please ask parents/carers to ensure all outstanding dinner debt is cleared as a matter of urgency.  Please be aware all dinners should be paid for in advance.  Thank you for your support.  

Awards

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Purple Man Reading Competition

Well done to the winners of the Purple Man competition from the week before half term:

Book Fair Poster Competition

We are having a Book Fair at school and would like to advertise it as much as possible!  To help us do this we have launched a competition to design a poster which will be displayed throughout the school.  Five winners will be chosen and each will receive a £5.00 book voucher which can be spent at the fair. The posters need to contain the following information about the dates and times of the fair but everything else added to the poster is up to you!

Tuesday 6^th December 2022 3.15pm to 3.45pm

Thursday 8^th December 2022 3.15pm to 3.45pm

We look forward to seeing your entries!  Please pass these to Mrs West, our Librarian, by Monday 14^th November 2022.

School Reports

This year we are trialling a new report system in Years 1-6 to keep you regularly updated about how your child is getting on at school throughout the year.  Please note, Autumn Term reports will be coming home with your child today.  Further details about the information on the report and the colour coding can be viewed on our website at the following link:   https://www.whcps.org/11-11-2022-guidance-for-parentscarers-for-autumn-r/

PE Update

It has been a fantastic and busy sporting start to the academic year at Whitehouse, with lots of sporting events enjoyed by our pupils as you will see below. 

U9 Quadkids Athletics Event

To ‘kick start’ the year, nine of our Year 4 pupils took part in the rescheduled U9 Quadkids Athletics event.  Following its cancellation at the end of last year, the Year 4 pupils were eager to take part in the event.  During the event each pupil took their turn to compete in the 50m sprint, 400m race, Vortex Howler throw and the standing long jump. To continue the Commonwealth Games theme, each school was allocated a Commonwealth country to represent.  Our pupils represented Ghana and took part in an exciting opening and closing ceremony.  Well done to all of our pupils for their excellent effort and perseverance during each of the events!

U11 Boys and Girls 7v7 Football Event

Before half term, both the Year 5 and 6 boys and girls football teams were involved in their respective Ipswich and South Suffolk School Games U11’s 7v7 Football events. Both events took place at Whitton Sports Centre and included a number of Ipswich based Primary schools.  This was the first Level 2 (inter-school) football event for both teams and the first opportunity for both teams to play together as a team this year.  During both events, Mr Jordan (boy’s event), Miss Horne and Mrs Hall (girls’ event) were extremely proud of the teams’ efforts, work rate and pleasing football skills shown throughout their events.  A special mention goes to the girls’ team for not losing a single game throughout their event!

Year 5/6 Boys Football: IPSSA Cup Match

Last Wednesday, our Year 5/6 boys’ football team travelled to Britannia Primary School to play their first round IPSSA football cup match.  Despite being a very evenly contested match, the boys worked to put their opponents under pressure.  Their hard work and very good counter attacks paid off with a very classy goal scored by Romey from a free kick just before half time. 

The second half continued to be a very close match with both teams creating opportunities to score.  Britannia levelled the score to take the game to a penalty shoot-out.  Despite their hard work and effort, the boys unfortunately missed out on the opportunity to progress to the next round of the cup, losing 4-2 on penalties.

ITFC ‘School of the Day’

Before half term we were delighted to be chosen as the ‘School of the Day’ for Ipswich Town Football Club’s league one home match against Derby County.  As a result, we were kindly donated 200 tickets for the match.  These were enjoyed by our pupils and their families from our Year 5/6 after school football clubs and our lucky winners of our school raffle.  It was lovely to see so many of our pupils having such a fantastic time cheering on the ITFC players.  The evening was made even more special with a 1-0 win to Ipswich Town!

Year 5/6 Girls Football: IPSSA Cup Match

Last Thursday saw the Year 5/6 girls’ football teams turn to play in their first round IPSSA football cup match away at Ravenswood CP School.  Throughout the game the girls were very impressive in both attack and defence, creating numerous opportunities in front of goal and quickly closing down and dispossessing their opponents.  The girls also enjoyed large spells of possession inside their opponent’s half.  This fantastic team effort was rewarded with three very good goals from Kaci, Ebunoluwa and Abigail, to see the girls progress through to the second round of the cup.  Well done girls!

Key Stage 1 Primary Panathlon Event

To finish off the week, last Friday Mr Jordan and Ms Salmon took six Year 1 pupils to take part in the KS1 Primary Panathlon event.  Having previously taken part in the KS2 event, this was the first time that KS1 pupils had attended the event.  Despite some early nerves, the team were soon having lots of fun completing each of the eight inclusive, fundamental, skill-based activities. During each activity the pupils aimed to score as many points as possible for the team.  The score from each activity was added together to give teams an overall score.  The pupils’ hard work was rewarded as the team were delighted to finish third overall, receiving the bronze medal!  An amazing achievement, well done to all.

Year 6: Martlesham Control Tower Visit

Recently we visited the Control Tower to learn about WW2 and how it impacted our local area.  We listened as the volunteers shared the major points of the beginning of WW2 and how the Control Tower first began its life as a testing station before becoming a fighting station.  We then separated into two groups and went outside to an actual WW2 Anderson shelter where we explored the interior and how it was built, which will help us when we design and make our own in our DT lessons.  It would have been very cramped, damp and uncomfortable!  Then we explored the underground bunker, which was our favourite part, as we got to listen to real recordings of the air raid sirens and bombings which made us feel like we were really there!

Following this, we explored the museum and were able to see many different artefacts and even got to handle some of them, like the shell fragments and gas masks.  We would thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone studying WW2 within Ipswich.

Thank you for reading!

Ebun and Georgia (Year 6, Toucans Class) 

Online Safety: Grandparents Guide

A recent study found that 4 in 10 grandparents help out with childcare during the week (including at the weekend). To help grandparents get to grips with life online, Internet Matters have created a new Grandparents Guide to Online Safety, with practical advice to keep children safe.  Please click on the link below to view the guide.  If you have any questions regarding online safety, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Cox via the School Office.

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/grandparents-guide-to-online-safety/

Consideration of Residents

We continue to receive some complaints from close neighbours to the school that parents/carers are parking in a way which means they are unable to leave their homes, or pull onto their drives.  In addition, it would appear that some adults have also standing within the boundaries of people’s gardens, including standing under people’s porches to stay dry in the wet weather.  We would again remind all parents/carers to show consideration to the residents who live near Whitehouse in the way they park their cars and that they do not trespass on resident’s property.  Thank you for your co-operation.

Whitehouse Eco-Committee

We are very excited to let you know the children who have been successful in joining our eco-committee which has recently been set up at Whitehouse.  Well done to all those below, we look forward to hearing more about the good work you do!    

Year 2 Visit: Framlingham Castle

Our Year 2 children had a wonderful visit to Framlingham Castle last week, where they had a chance to explore the castle and identify all the things they have been learning about this term.  The children especially enjoyed being able to walk around the castle wall and take part in some archery.

Celebrating our Children’s Successes:

We love to see the wonderful things our children are achieving outside of school and this week are celebrating with Scarlett who recently took part in a National Dance Competition in Blackpool.  Scarlett took 3^rd place in the waltz (ballroom dance) and 3^rd in the Cha Cha (Latin dancing).  Scarlett has been working hard on her dancing all year, and we are very proud of all she has achieved.  What wonderful photos of the event.  Well done Scarlett!

Attendance Update

Please note Mrs Calver, our Attendance Officer, will also now be using text messages via Arbor to follow up on children’s absences.  Please note these will show on your phone as an unknown mobile phone but will be signed off from Whitehouse CP School.  If you do receive a message, please contact the school by emailing parents@whcps.org, by sending a message via the Arbor app or by calling the school office to update the reason your child is not in school.  Please be aware these will be genuine text messages from us and are not a scam.

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 15^th November 2022 – Year 4 Sutton Hoo Trip

Wednesday 16^th November 2022 – Year 4 Sutton Hoo Trip

Thursday 17^th November 2022 – Parents/Carers Evening (Online Event)

Friday 18^th November 2022 – Children in Need (Non-Uniform Day)

Tuesday 22^nd November 2022 – Year 1 Ipswich Transport Museum Trip

Wednesday 23^rd November 2022 – Year 1 Ipswich Transport Museum Trip

Wednesday 23^rd November 2022 – Parents/Carers Evening (Online Event)

Friday 25^th November 2022 – SMSC Whole School Day: Global Citizenship

Friday 2^nd December 2022 – Flu Immunisations Catch-up Day

Friday 2^nd December 2022 – School Christmas Fair

Tuesday 6^th December 2022 – Book Fair – 3.15pm

Thursday 8^th December 2022 – Book Fair – 3.15pm

Friday 16^th December 2022 – Last day of the Autumn Term

Tuesday 3^rd January 2023 – PD Day (School Closed to Children)

Wednesday 4^th January 2023 – First day back at school for the children