Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 223

Friday 3rd March 2023

Message from Mrs Hall

This week, it was great to see all the children and staff dressed up for World Book Day, I hope you spotted the staff theme! Thank you to all parents and carers for supporting this day and for helping to create some amazing costumes. We are very passionate about reading at Whitehouse, so will take every opportunity to share a good book. Please note that short reports will be sent home next Friday, in preparation for discussing your child’s progress at the scheduled parent’s meetings on the 15^th and 23rd March. Please make an appointment to find out how amazing your children are.  Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the last week:

Class with the best attendance: Puffins (99.53%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Why do we need to look after our ears and hearing?  What help is available to people who cannot hear? (UNRC Link: Article 24: I have a right to the best health possible and to medical care and to information that will help me to stay well). 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.  

Parents/Carers Evening

We are pleased to confirm that the first of our parent/carer evenings will be taking place on Wednesday 15^th March 2023 between 3.30pm and 5.30pm.  Instructions have been emailed home to explain how to make an appointment.  The instructions can also be viewed here:   https://www.whcps.org/27-02-2023-parentcarers-evening/. We are particularly pleased that appointments will be returning to face to face for this meeting and hope as many parents/carers as possible will take this opportunity to meet with the teacher to discuss your child’s progress.

Breakfast Club

As you may be aware we recently changed the entrance that children come into school in the morning for Breakfast Club.  This move was made to ensure that children and parents are not waiting in or crossing over the car park, which we know can get very busy in the mornings.  Can we remind parents/carers that it is very important that you and your child come into school via the KS1 playground to access Breakfast Club and do not walk through the car park.  Any children who arrive after 8.15am we would ask that parents/carers accompany them to the school office.   

Awards

EYFS:

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Reception: Thank You

Our Reception teachers would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to all those parents/carers who have attended a phonics lesson in their child’s class over the last few weeks.  We are so proud of how well the children are learning their phonics which in turn will help them with reading and writing.  We hope it helps you when you listen to your child read each day at home.  Please do speak to the class teacher if you were unable to attend but would still like the opportunity.

Purple Man Reading Competition

Well done to the winners of the Purple Man competition last week (a competition that rewards classes with the highest average reading minutes across KS2).  A lot of our children have been working very hard on their reading, including during the half term holiday.

‘Books Change Lives’ Project

Inspired on the Global Citizenship Day by the true story ‘The Boy who Harnessed the Wind’, the RRSA Committee is investigating the possibility of collecting books to send to Africa.  In the book, William couldn’t attend school so he taught himself by reading books.  He learned how to build a windmill so that his village could water the crops and have a steady source of food.  The RRSA Committee want to make a difference to children’s right to education in developing countries.  We will keep you updated with what the children find out!

Inclusion Quality Mark

In December 2022, Whitehouse applied to work towards the prestigious Inclusion Quality Mark’ which is awarded to ‘educationally inclusive’ schools in ‘which the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes and wellbeing of every young person matter (OFSTED).  The aim of the award is to promote equal opportunities for all pupils whatever their age gender, ethnicity, attainment and background.  Schools can apply for three different levels of achievement: IQM Inclusive School, IQM Centre of Excellence and IQM Flagship School.  We are very excited at Whitehouse to embark on this new accreditation journey.   Keep an eye out for updates along the way!

French for the Family: Hedgehogs Class

It was wonderful to welcome 25 parents/carers to the first of our Year 4 French for the Family events this year.  The children and their family members enjoyed learning French alongside each other and sampling wonderful croissants, pains au chocolat, gaufres, crepes and brioches.  Everyone especially enjoyed learning together and the camaraderie between the adults and children.  The feedback we received was that our parents/carers would like more cultural events such as these.

As a Rights Respecting School we are always keen to act on feedback and have more exciting cultural events planned for this year.  These include a Spanish/Portuguese after-school club which started this week, a French Theatre Day for all of Year 5 in the Children Endeavours Trust in June, a Whitehouse ‘Cooking book from Around the World’ containing recipes provided by our families in the Summer Term as well as a whole-school family-led Cultural Day on Friday 23^rd June 2023.  So, there are lots of exciting things to look forward to!

Eco-Committee News

On Tuesday 28^th February 2023 the Eco Committee were very busy planting two new trees, an apple and a pear tree.  The children decided that the best location was between the Reception classes and KS1, as our new trees need shade and sunlight to grow best.  We dug out trees about a foot into the ground so they had the best chance of survival. We are hoping in the near future to have some delicious fruit that we can share.  Our task now is to keep watering and nurturing the trees so they can grow big and strong!  They will also be a lovely new habitat for birds and minibeasts.  A big thank you to Rebecca, one of our committee members, and the Co-op who kindly donated the trees to our school as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Reading Engagement

There has been a huge increase in reading engagement in Key Stage 2 this term, with an impressive 127 children reading more than the expected amount at home each day (you will see this reflected by the purple colour-coding on the report cards coming home next week).  Thank you to all parents/carers for supporting your child with their reading, as this really does have a positive impact on their learning in school.

Year 5 – Local Visit

Our Year 5 children will be going on a visit the local Co-op store on Wednesday 29^th March 2023, where they will be investigating Fairtrade products.  The children are very excited, so please can parents/carers ensure that permission slips are returned by Friday 24^th March 2023.  Thank you for your assistance.

Online Safety

This week’s Online Safety update comes directly from the Online Safety Ambassadors who met with Mrs Cox on Monday to discuss current Online Safety concerns and to share ideas for increasing awareness around inappropriate apps and games.

• Please be vigilant and check the age limits on games.  Many games now have ‘games within games’ which means that although the original game might be suitable, many ‘add on’ games are deemed highly inappropriate and sometimes dangerous.
• There are many scams circulating on Roblox.  The scams all follow a similar format asking the player for personal information (banking details, address, email address and phone number).
• Over the next couple of weeks, the OSA will be creating a list of safe and free games/websites suitable for children from Nursery through to Year 6.

Thank you for reading our Online Safety update.

The Online Safety Ambassadors

World Book Day 2023

As always, World Book Day was a great day at Whitehouse with both staff and children making a great effort to join in.  Here is just a taste of the day!

Dates for the Diary

Monday 6^th March 2023 – Family Breakfast (KS2)

Thursday 9^th March 2023 – Rights Respecting Gold Verification

Monday 13^th March 2023 – Family Breakfast (EYFS and KS1)

Tuesday 14^th March 2023 – Colchester Castle Trip – Year 3

Wednesday 15^th March 2023 – French for the Family Afternoon – Foxes Class

Wednesday 15^th March 2023 – Parent/Carers Evening (in person)

Monday 20^th March 2023 – Family Breakfast (KS2)

Thursday 23^rd March 2023 – Parent/Carers Evening (in person)

Friday 24^th March 2023 – Whole School SMSC Day

Monday 27^th March 2023 – Family Breakfast (EYFS and KS1)

Wednesday 29^th March 2023 – Visit to local Co-op – Year 5

Thursday 30^th March 2023 – Walton-on-the-Naze Trip – Year 6

Friday 31^st March 2023 – Walton-on-the-Naze Trip – Year 6

Monday 3^rd April 2023 to Friday 14^th April 2023 – Easter Holiday

School Closed – Monday 1^st May (Bank Holiday)

School Closed – Monday 8^th May (Bank Holiday)