Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 232

Friday 19th May 2023

Message from Mrs Hall

It has been great to welcome so many parents and carers into school this week to participate in a range of learning activities, including Science and sewing. Next week, there will be an opportunity to view our wonderful Art Exhibition that has been created by the children using recycled materials. Do pop into the Marlow Road Hall on Tuesday 23^rd May (KS1 and EYFS), Wednesday 24^th May (LKS2) and Thursday 25^th May (UKS2) from 3.00pm to 4.00pm to see this great work. Also, don’t forget to book time off work for our Sports Days (first week in June), which are a highlight of the school year for many! If you have any comments about our share events do let us know.

Attendance for the previous week:

Classes with the best attendance: Owls, Ocelots and Toucans (100%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: International Day of the Family: What do we mean by the word ‘family’? (UNRC Link: Article 9: I have the right to live with my parents, unless it is bad for me). 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. 

Summer 2 Events: Message from the Year 6 Team

As your child nears the end of their time at Whitehouse, we have a number of events planned to make the last half term incredibly exciting.  You should have already received letters about forthcoming trips to Mersea Island and Crucial Crew.  In addition to these, the children will be looking forward to showing off their production ‘What a Knight!’ to you, with both morning and evening performances planned for Monday 17^th July and Tuesday 18^th July 2023.  We have planned a Leavers’ BBQ on Wednesday 19^th July for the children and finally, on Friday 21st July, we will be holding a Leavers’ Assembly in the afternoon.  Letters with more details of each event will be sent out in due course so please bear with us.

Purple Man Reading Competition

Well done to the winners of the Purple Man competition for last week (a competition that rewards classes with the highest average reading minutes across KS2). 

Awards

EYFS:

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Author Session: Zohra Nabi

On Wednesday, 23 children in Years 4, 5 and 6 attended a virtual ‘Meet the Author’ session with Waterstones ‘Children’s Book of the Month: May’ author Zohra Nabi.  Zorha read from her book and told us about the inspiration for her book.  The children came up with their own ideas for a fantasy world too.

Year 4: Sewing Session

In Design and Technology, Year 4 made a variety of plushie animals with the help of many parents/carers this week.  They designed their animals with templates and then cut them out using colourful felt.  The tricky part was the sewing but everyone had the opportunity to stitch the parts together to make their own plushie.  The children added the details to their animals and they all looked amazing!  All the children enjoyed the morning and were able to take their animals home.

Year 5: Art Session

It was wonderful to welcome so many parents and carers to the Year 5 art lesson on Tuesday morning.  The children loved working alongside their adults to create some fantastic iceberg landscapes.  Thank you to all those you came to support our children.

Online Safety: XBox Safety Toolkit

We know that many children and young people use Xbox gaming stations at home. To support these users, Microsoft has put together a comprehensive toolkit in PDF format for parents, children and young people.  The toolkit goes into quite a lot of depth, including parental controls, guidance for all ages, common safety risks, bullying, unwanted contact and more.  There is also age-specific guidance (from 5 years upwards) and case studies.  Please click the link below to open the PDF:

https://assets.xboxservices.com/assets/b1/00/b100259a-3152-4f0a-a194-5eb1e42db368.pdf?n=Australia_Xbox-Gaming-Safety-Toolkit-v2.pdf

A Message from our Librarian

A huge thank you to everyone who attended one of our Travelling Books Book Fairs.  Your generous support has earnt our school £228.01 in rewards to spend on new books to add to our school libraries.  With this in mind, I met with our four Year 6 Library Assistants earlier this week and together we chose a selection of titles to purchase.  The new books will be displayed in one of our libraries and will be available for loan over the next couple of weeks, so please encourage your child to visit the libraries next week to take a look at some of the new titles on offer.

The Summer Reading Challenge in our Suffolk Libraries launches on Saturday 24^th June 2023. This annual UK wide promotion is organised by The Reading Agency and delivered in partnership with local public libraries.  This year’s event (Ready Set Read!) will challenge children to read six books over the summer holidays.  All children who successfully complete the challenge by the September finish date will receive rewards and a certificate.

Watch this space or contact your local library to find out more about this year’s challenge.  In the meantime, you could encourage your child to take a look at some of the sports and games themed books included in this year’s challenge by visiting:  https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/#library.

Attendance Update

With the warmer weather finally upon us, I am really pleased to report that the whole school attendance this week has seen a positive improvement.  A number of certificates have also been awarded to some of the children whose attendance has greatly improved since the beginning of the school year.  Well done to those who have received one!

With eight weeks of the Summer Term ahead, there is still time to support your child and drive attendance up even further!  Thank you for your continued support and to all those who continue to notify school when your child is unwell.

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 23^rd May 2023 – Parent/Carer Session – Year 3 2.30pm

Tuesday 23^rd May 2023 – Recycled Art Exhibition – EYFS / KS1

Wednesday 24^th May 2023 – Recycled Art Exhibition – Years 3 and 4

Thursday 25^th May 2023 – Recycled Art Exhibition – Years 5 and 6

Friday 26^th May 2023 – PD Day – School Closed for Children

Monday 29^th May 2023 to Friday 2^nd June 2023 – Half Term Holiday

Monday 5^th June 2023 – PD Day – School Closed for Children

Tuesday 6^th June 2023 – Victorian School – Year 4 Squirrels Class

Wednesday 7^th June – Victorian School – Year 4 Foxes Class

Wednesday 7^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Nursery 9.15am-10.15am

Wednesday 7^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Reception 10.30am-11.30am

Thursday 8^th June – Victorian School – Year 4 Hedgehogs Class

Thursday 8^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 1 10.00am-11.00am

Thursday 8^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 2 11.15am-12.15am

Thursday 8^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 3 2.00pm-3.00pm

Friday 9^th June 2023 – Crucial Crew – Year 6 (am only)

Friday 9^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 4 10.00am-11.00am

Friday 9^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 5 11.15am-12.15am

Friday 9^th June 2023 – Sports Day – Year 6 2.00pm-3.00pm

Thursday 15^th June 2023 – Easton Farm Park Trip – Year R

Tuesday 20^th June 2023 – Foxburrow Farm Trip – Year 3

Friday 23^rd June 2023 – Whole School SMSC Day

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

Monday 26^th June 2023 – Duxford Trip – Year 2

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

Wednesday 28^th June 2023 – Transition Morning

Thursday 29^th June 2023 – Transition Morning

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

Friday 7^th July 2023 – Afternoon Tea for New Reception Intake

Friday 7^th July 2023 – Summer Fair

Friday 14^th July 2023 – Visit to ‘Maggie the Community Playbus’ – Nursery Dolphins Class

Monday 17^th July 2023 – Year 6 Production

Tuesday 18^th July 2023 – Year 6 Production

Wednesday 19^th July 2023 – Leavers BBQ

Friday 21^st July 2023 – Leavers Assembly

Friday 21^st July 2023 – Last day of the Summer Term

Monday 24^th July 2023 to Thursday 31^st August 2023 – Summer Holiday

Friday 1^st September 2023 – PD Day – School Closed for Children

Monday 4^th September 2023 – PD Day – School Closed for Children

Tuesday 5^th September 2023 – First day of Autumn Term for Children