Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 257

Friday 26th January 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

The children have been working hard and I’ve seen lots of excellent writing on my visits to classrooms this week.  

Attendance has been impacted by illness.  Please remember to phone the school if your child is ill. Good attendance is really important to enable the children to access the high-quality teaching that we offer every day.  Gaps in learning can have a significant impact on a child’s progress and attainment. To find out more about attendance you can visit our website: https://www.whcps.org/attendance/ or speak to our attendance officer Mrs Zantboer (01473 741249, extension 1). Please do all that you can to ensure the children don’t miss out (UNRC link: Article 3: Best interests of the child). Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance: Lions (99.62%)

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.

Measles / Vaccinations

Did you know that there have recently been outbreaks of measles in parts of England?  Measles spreads very easily among those who have not been vaccinated, especially in nurseries and schools.  The best protection for both children and adults is get both doses of the MMR vaccine.  It is never too late to receive these vaccinations.   You can visit the site below to learn more about measles and how to identify it:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/measles/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

A note from our Attendance Officer

We have noticed a real improvement in some of the children’s lateness so a big thank you to all of our parents and carers for your support in this.  When children arrive to school on time and attend every day, they make better progress, both socially and academically.  It is so important to develop habits of being punctual at an early age. Children who arrive at school on time find school routines, school work and friendships easier to cope with.  Ultimately, learning becomes more satisfying.  If there are any reasons why your children are consistently late, please do get in touch so we can help and offer support.

Awards

As you may be aware, the children are encouraged to follow ‘The Whitehouse Way’ in school to help them in their learning and in becoming good citizens. Our ‘Wonderful Week’ awards this year will be given as a recognition that the children have worked very hard in one of these areas:  Courage, Perseverance, Reflection or Responsibility.  This will be shown in the colour coded lists below.  We are so proud of our children at Whitehouse and their wonderful achievements.  Well done to you all.

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Readers’ Cup

Well done to the following classes who won the Readers’ Cup last week:

Year 6 Parent/Carer Session: Mummification

On Wednesday, Year 6 welcomed their parents/carers in for a fascinating history lesson.  During the session, we learnt how and why the Egyptians mummified their pharaohs. Unfortunately, no Year 6 children volunteered to have their brains removed so we decided to use a tomato instead!  With our death masks to hand, we started by carefully removing the brain of the tomato and pouring it into the bin.  After this, we made a small (or very large!) cut into the side of the tomato to start removing the organs.  Slowly and delicately, the organs were removed and placed into canopic jars while also covering the tables in chunks of tomato.  We finished off by covering them (and ourselves) with salt and leaving them to dry.  We all thoroughly enjoyed our morning and have learnt plenty about the process of mummification.  Stay tuned for another update to see if our mummification skills are up to scratch!

Online Safety Competition

Do you know how to stay safe online?  If so, the House Captains have a challenge for you!  They would like you to design a poster explaining the potential dangers online, how to stay safe and your top tips for using the internet.  We will be accepting entries from Monday 22^nd January 2024 and your poster must be with Miss Payne (Chameleons Teacher) by Friday 9^th February 2024.  All participants will receive a house point and the winner from each year group will receive a non-uniform voucher.  Be sure to include your name, class and house on the back of the poster so we identify the winners.  The best posters will be displayed around school next half-term, so make them bright and colourful!  If you have any further questions, the House Captains will be happy to help!

Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day, is coming up on Tuesday 13^th February 2024.  To celebrate the day, we will have pancakes on the menu for a special dessert.  It is a lovely day for your child to try a school dinner!

Debt

Can we please remind parents and carers the importance of ensuring all debt is cleared promptly. We have a number of families who have outstanding balances owing on either dinner money, breakfast club or both.  Please note the school’s finance policy is that both dinners and breakfast club should be paid for in advance or on the day.  We would ask you to please check your balances and ensure these are cleared urgently.  Any monies owing will reflect less money that can be spent on the children’s learning.  Thank you for your assistance.

Eco-Committee News

The Eco-committee have been hard at work so far this term in helping to promote recycling throughout the school.  Look at how many pens and glue sticks they recycled already just in the Spring Term!  Don’t forget to put your empty items in the boxes which are placed in each corridor.

Dates for the Diary

Monday 29^th January 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Wednesday 31^st January 2024 – Year 4 ‘Viking Long Boat’ Parent/Carer Session – 9.00am

Monday 5^th February 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Tuesday 6^th February – Year 5 Parent/ Carer Reading Session – 9:00am

Monday 12^th February 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 12^th February 2024 – Last week of Spring after-school clubs

Friday 16^th February 2024 – SMSC Whole School Day – Online Safety

Monday 19^th February 2024 to Friday 23^rd February 2024 – Half Term Holiday

Thursday 7^th March 2024 – World Book Day

Friday 8^th March 2024 – Reports sent home

Monday 11^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Friday 29^th March 2024 to Thursday 11^th April 2024 – Easter Holiday

Friday 12^th April 2024 – PD Day (Children not in school)

Monday 6^th May 2024 – May Day Bank Holiday

Monday 13^th May 2024 to Thursday 16^th May 2024 – Year 6 SATs Week

Monday 27^th May 2024 to Friday 31^st May 2024 – Half Term Holiday

Monday 3^rd June 2024 – PD Day (Children not in school)

Wednesday 5^th June 2024 – Nursery and Reception Sports Day

Thursday 6^th June 2024 – Years 1, 2 and 3 Sports Day

Friday 7^th June 2024 – Years 4, 5, and 6 Sports Day

Monday 24^th June 2024 to Tuesday 25^th June 2024 – Year 6 Residential Trip at Mersea

Wednesday 26^th June 2024 – School Transition Afternoon

Thursday 27^th June 2024 – School Transition Morning