Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 226

Friday 24th March 2023

Message from Mrs Hall

We hope you enjoyed the opportunity to attend our parents/carers evenings over the last two weeks to see the wonderful work your children have completed. There was lots of positive feedback about the reports and how everyone had the chance to visit the classrooms to look at books and displays. If there is anything that you can think that we can improve, please let us know. Moving forward, is our intention that the autumn meetings will be online and the spring meetings in person.  Don’t forget clocks go forward one hour on Saturday 25^th March! Please remember to adjust your clocks for school on Monday morning. Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the last week:

Class with the best attendance: Jaguars (98.18%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: World Water Day: What work has the Eco-Committee done since November and what difference has it made to life at Whitehouse?   (UNRC Link: Article 24: I have the 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.  

Online Safety

The Online Safety Ambassadors have been busy researching suitable games for children in our school to play at home.  Special thanks to Kaci, Tommy and M-J for their contributions to the Online Safety Team this week:

Awards

EYFS:

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 last week (a competition that rewards classes with the highest average reading minutes across KS2). 

Comic Relief

Thank you for all of your kind donations on Friday for Comic Relief.  We are pleased to confirm in total we raised £439.15. This total includes £50.00 which was raised by some of our Year 6 girls who again arranged a bake sale and made goodies to sell to their friends!  Well done everyone.

Superhero Clean-Up After School Club

Some of our Year 1 and 2 children have been real superhero’s this half term as they joined an after-school club which saw them being super helpful around the school and completing various tasks.  Some of the things the children have done include litter picking, moving items for teachers and collecting leaves!  At their latest session, the children decided to bury a time capsule on the school site, containing their drawings of what they all enjoy doing in 2023 and a few special items and photos, which they all really enjoyed!  I wonder what year it will be when the time capsule gets discovered and how different the world will be then? 

Year 5: Flapjack Making

After researching, tasting and designing their own recipe, pupils from Year 5 have been busy this week, making tasty flapjacks.  The children really enjoyed the activity.  One child said “I really enjoyed weighing out all the ingredients and making it all by myself.”  The pupils of course loved the best bit of the unit – tasting their flapjacks!  After that, their final task was to evaluate their product.  Was it tasty?  Did it meet the original design and success criteria?  There were some reflective evaluations from all the classes.  Now they have their own recipes, why not make them again at home.  Well done Year 5 for great work in DT.

Year 6 Netball News

On Tuesday 21^st March 2023 the Year 6 girls were back in action, this time we were travelling to Rushmere Hall Primary.  This was the first time playing Rushmere and the girls were a little nervous, but once they got into the swing of the game their confidence grew and this paid off with Sophie and Georgia scoring an amazing 6 goals between them in the first quarter.  The second quarter also started strong.  The fast-paced play was outstanding and Rushmere did struggle to keep up.  Our team scored another 6 goals, thanks to Isla and Jasmin.  Despite Rushmere being 12-0 down at half time, their team kept their spirits high and battled on.  Our team knew how this felt as we were in that situation last year and Ms Salmon told the girls to be patient and take everything on board and our time would come!  This is exactly what our girls did.

Going into the third quarter Rushmere came out and had a lot more possession of the ball than previously in the game.  However, our girls pushed on and it was not long before we scored another 7 goals, including 4 from Ebun and Lilia.  The final quarter saw Ms Salmon beaming with pride and excitement as she tried to continue umpiring the game as the goals were still going in for Whitehouse!  The girls were playing the highest standard of netball Ms Salmon had seen them play, defending and attacking and working as a team.  Just before the final whistle was blown, Mylie and Sophie had made the score 25-0 to us.  Well played girls, an absolutely outstanding game of netball.  Also, a special well done to Sophie for receiving player of the match.

The girls are next in action for a home match against Springfield Juniors on Wednesday 29^th March 2023.  Why not come along and watch them in action! 

Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF)

As we mentioned last week in the newsletter, please note any children who are eligible for free school meals (due to receiving benefits) are entitled to also receive vouchers which allow them to access holiday clubs over the Easter holiday for free, where their children will also receive a free lunch.  These vouchers have been sent to those who meet the criteria.  There are a wide choice of clubs available.  Please note the Suffolk website has now been updated with details of the clubs being offered and how to access them.  This can be viewed at the following link:  https://infolink.suffolk.gov.uk/kb5/suffolk/infolink/advice.page?id=Zj4vWQtEbvA.

Dates for the Diary

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

Wednesday 19^th April 2023 – Easton Farm Park – Year 2

Tuesday 25^th April 2023 – Colchester Zoo Trip – Year 1

Monday 26^th June 2023 – Mersea Day Trip – Year 6

Tuesday 27^th June 2023 – Mersea Day Trip – Year 6

Friday 30^th June 2023 – Kentwell Hall – Year 5

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)