Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 238

Friday 7th July 2023

Message from Mrs Hall

I am delighted to report that 24 children in Key Stage 2 completed this year’s recommended read challenge. Therefore, next week they will have the opportunity to take part in a special trip out of school. Do look out for the letter from Miss Siddall confirming the arrangements. Please note that the annual reports will be sent out on Friday 14^th July which will provide you with the opportunity to see how well your children have progressed throughout this year.  Feedback about the new report format would be appreciated on the reply slip enclosed. Lessons will be in place until the 21^st July, so do ensure your child attends school for the remaining 10 days. Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance: Owls (96.9%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for the week after half term will be: World Population Day: How many humans are there on Planet Earth and what challenges does this raise? (UNRC Link: Article 6: I have the right to life and Article 8: I have the right to an identity).  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.

Year 4 Experiments

Our Year 4 children have been learning how to conduct experiments to see which materials are conductors and insulators by adding material to a complete circuit.  Investigations in groups have been a lot of fun, seeing how lamps light up when the switch is closed and which materials are a conductor or an insulator.

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

SENDIASS Session for Parents/Carers

Suffolk SENDIAS provide impartial and confidential information, advice and support to children and young people with SEND, and to their parents and carers.   They are holding a session where specialist teachers will be sharing how construction intervention can help children to develop their social understanding. 

There is still time to register for the session which is on Thursday 13^th July 2023 at 10.00am to 11.00am.  Just follow the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-construction-intervention-can-support-social-communication-tickets-577374341197

Nursery Spaces - September

We are pleased to let you know that we will have some spaces in our popular Nursery from September 2023.  We offer spaces for either 15 hours a week or 30 hours a week for those who have a 30-hour code (or who wish to pay for the extra hours).  We accept children from the term after their 3^rd birthday.  Timings for our sessions are: Morning: 8.30am to 11.30am or Afternoon: 12.15pm to 3.15pm

If you would like more information please contact the school office and ask to speak to Miss Sara McCullum who will be able to assist. 

Celebrating our Children

As you know we love to celebrate our children and all they achieve.  This week we celebrate Kaeden (Nursery) and Ollie (Year 2) who enjoy motocross.  Ollie has been riding motocross bikes since he was just 4 years old and has been riding on some big tracks recently, in readiness to start competing soon.  He has been building up some fast speeds and landing high jumps!  Meanwhile Kaeden started riding in the last 6 months and has just ridden on 2 big tracks also.  Well done boys, we look forward to seeing how you get on in the coming months!

Family Breakfast Clubs

A reminder that we are still holding our Family Breakfast Clubs each Monday.  This is open to all families, who are welcome to come along at 8.00am, and enjoy a free simple breakfast together before the start of the school day.  Breakfast options will include cereal, toast and juice or tea and coffee.  We would love to see you!  Please come into school via the KS1 playground where Mrs Kate Gotts will meet you and show you the way to the dining hall.

Year 5 Kentwell Hall Trip

This half term Year 5 have been studying the Tudors and discovering what life was like under the reign of Henry VIII.  On Friday last week, Year 5 children stepped back in time to 1549 when they visited Kentwell Hall.  The children were able to fully immerse themselves into the Tudor times.  They were able to see first-hand how they lived their daily lives in an extremely authentic setting.  The recreations on display were amazing, as was the behaviour of the children throughout the day.  Well done Year 5.

Free School Meal Vouchers

Suffolk County Council have confirmed that the Free School Meal vouchers will again be provided to low income families over the Summer Holiday.  Parents/Carers will receive a £90 voucher for each eligible child to assist with living costs over the holiday period. Please note these will no longer be sent to parents/carers via Edenred but a new company called Sodexo will be used. A letter has been emailed to all families who are eligible with details of the change.

Parent/Carer Survey

Please find below the link to a short parent/carer survey where you are able to give some feedback on the school and your childs experience at Whitehouse.  The survey will only take a couple of minutes and will be open until Thursday 20^th July 2023.  Thank you for your assistance.

https://forms.office.com/e/y7P9Qsvc56

Lost Property

Please note we have a large amount of lost property across the school at the moment and due to these items not being named, we are struggling to reunite them with their owners!  If your child is missing an item of clothing, please can you let the teacher know when picking your child up and we will do our best to see if we can find them before the end of term.  In addition, can we remind parents/carers that is very important to name all items of clothing, as it ensures we can prevent items being lost.   Thank you for your co-operation.

U11 Quadkids Event

On Tuesday, Mr Jordan and Mr Dunnett took ten Year 5 and 6 pupils to take part in the U11 Quadkids event which was held at Northgate Sports Centre.  The Quadkids event is an annual athletics event which involves teams competing in a rotation of 4 separate athletics events made up of a 75m sprint, 600m race, Vortex Howler throwing and the standing long jump. Quadkids is always a very popular event in the sports calendar, and this year was no exception with 44 teams from 41 different schools taking part in the event. Each school was allocated a country to represent, our pupils represented China. The event began with an opening ceremony which involved each school walking around the running track waving their flags and banners of their respective country. Despite the rainy conditions, the team performed amazingly and gave each event their absolute best effort. Mr Jordan and Mr Dunnett were extremely proud of the team’s performance and also their impeccable behaviour. They were an absolute credit to our school! Mr Jordan would like to thank the parents/carers for providing transport and supporting the team during the event, even if this meant having to run for shelter from the rain at times! Your support is always very much appreciated! Mr Jordan will inform the team which placed they finished once he has received the email to confirm the results from the event organisers. Well done everyone! 

Inclusion Quality Mark

At Whitehouse, we pride ourselves in our inclusive ethos and work hard to ensure our school is a place where all children, families, staff and visitors are welcomed and included.  In line with our school vision, we aim to work in partnership with families to enable everyone at Whitehouse Community Primary School to thrive and achieve their full potential.  On Monday and Tuesday of next week, we are looking forward to welcoming the assessor for the Inclusion Quality Mark which is awarded to inclusive schools.  We have lots of wonderful examples of inclusive practice to celebrate and are excited to share our inclusion journey with the assessor.  If you have any comments you would like to share, please email these to parents@whcps.org so that we can pass these on to the assessor. 

Parents/Carers Daily Mile Inspired WHCPS ‘Wake up and Walk’ event

As a registered Daily Mile school, we value the benefits our pupils gain from taking part in the Daily Mile.  Not only does it provide pupils with the opportunity to get out of their seats to become more active during their normal school day. It also provides a much-needed break during lessons to help refocus levels of concentration. 

We would like to extend these benefits to our parents/carers by inviting you all to a Daily Mile inspired ‘Wake Up & Walk’ event. The event is being held before school (during drop off time) at the beginning of the final week of term. The event will be an informal and optional event, which will invite parents/carers the opportunity to take part in a 2 lap walk around the KS2 field before school with their child. Yr5/6 pupils that walk to school by themselves may also take part in the event.  As an incentive for those that take part in the event, there will be certificates for both parents/carers and pupils and also a non-school uniform voucher for pupils to use during the final week of term.

Event details:

Dates: Monday 17th July 2023 (EYFS & KS1 Pupils & Parents/Carers)

Tuesday 18th July 2023 (KS2 Pupils & Parents/Carers) 

Time:   8:30am – 8:40am 

Additional Information: No sign up is required. Simply meet Mr Jordan on the KS2 field, entering school via the Marlow Rd or Waterford Rd gate.

We very much look forward to seeing many of our parents/carers and pupils enjoying the event.

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 11^th July 2023 – House Bake Sale – 3.10pm

Thursday 13^th July 2023 – Tractor visit to EYFS

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

Monday 17^th July 2023 – Wake Up and Walk Event (EYFS & KS1 children and parents/carers)

Monday 17^th July 2023 – Year 6 Production

Tuesday 18^th July 2023 – Wake Up and Walk Event (KS2 children and parents/carers)

Tuesday 18^th July 2023 – Year 6 Production

Wednesday 19^th July 2023 – ‘Recommended Read’ Trip

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