Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 240

Friday 21st July 2023

Message from Mrs Hall

It has been another super busy year and we are all incredibly proud of what the children have achieved. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support and we are all looking forward to what the next academic year brings. We would like to wish our Year 6 children who are heading off to their different High Schools the very best of luck and well done for their amazing performances of ‘What a Knight!’.  We hope you all have a great summer break; school starts again for the children on Tuesday 5th September.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance: Pandas (97.27%)

Year 1: Seaside Activity Day

Last Friday, Year 1 had a seaside themed activity day and the children were able to take part in some of the traditional seaside activities that they had been learning about this half-term.  There was a large area with sand for building sandcastles and for feeling the sand between their toes and a paddling area with opportunities to catch fish and hunt with miniature nets.  They also have the opportunity to take part in some traditional seaside fair games, such as hoopla, splat the rat and twirling ribbons.  It was a wonderful day, enjoyed by all. 

Dinner Debt

Despite regular reminders we still have some parents/carers who have not cleared their dinner debts.  Please make payment urgently via Arbor.  For those Year 6 children whose debts remain, please note these will be passed to the Trust who will be chasing for immediate payment.  In addition, we would also ask that any Breakfast Club or Nursery debt is cleared urgently, again via Arbor.  Thank you for your co-operation.

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

Governor Awards

We are pleased to share with you the list of children who have been presented with Governors Awards for their wonderful efforts during this school year.  We are so proud of all of our children.

Year R: Tractor Rides

The children in Reception had a super treat this week when Colin brought his tractor into school for the children to see.  They learned that the tractor was called Dexter and was 64 years old.  Wow!  The children asked some super questions when they viewed Dexter and then were able to have a ride around the school field in the trailer.  Even Mrs Hall was persuaded to have a go!  All of the staff were very pleased with the excellent behaviour of the children and we thank Colin for a fantastic experience.  In the words of one of one child ‘It was the best day ever!’

Attendance

It is time to celebrate those children who have reached the end of the school year with 100% attendance!  I am pleased to announce that this year there are 19 children who have been awarded a certificate and a £5.00 book token for this fantastic achievement! These children are shown below.  In addition to 100% attendance, this year Jess (Year 6, Macaws) has now reached 100% attendance throughout Key Stage 2 (years 3-6).  Well done Jess!  You should be very proud of this and have been rewarded with an additional £5.00 book token.

A huge thank you to the parents/carers of all these children in supporting them to be in school all day, every day, accessing all the learning that they can.  I would like to make a special mention to Amy, mum of Fraya, Maria, Poppy-Charlotte and Violet, for having all four children with 100% attendance!  Amy said the children have had the odd cough and cold throughout the year but that she sent them in regardless to see how they got on and to teach them a valuable lesson for the future regarding the importance of being at work every day when they are older.  As a special thank you Amy has received an Aldi gift voucher.

We wish you a wonderful summer break.

School Dinners

As you will have seen in emails sent home this week, we are pleased to let you know that from September we will be moving to a new Catering provider for all our school meals.  We are excited to work with Lunchtime Co who have some great menu options lined up for the children.  We will share the menus with you before the start of the new term.  We are also pleased to confirm the price of meals will be £2.43, 10p cheaper than our current meal provider. 

Celebrating our Children

This week we are thrilled to share some photos of Kezzia-Belle who is in Year 3 and loves dancing!  Kezzia-Belle recently took part in a street dance competition and thoroughly enjoyed her day!  Well done Kezzia-Belle. 

Recommended Read Trip

Yesterday, the children who had read all 18 recommended reads for their year group were invited on a special reward trip. 21 children were able to attend and they had a wonderful day out with Mrs Hall, Miss Siddall, Mrs Arnold and Mrs Balaam.  They got the number 8 bus into town and visited Christchurch Park, where they had a play in the play area and a delicious picnic.  Then they visited an independent bookshop – Dial Lane Books – where they had a Q&A session with the manager and enjoyed browsing all the books. They each chose a book to keep as a memory of the day.  Well done to all the children who read the recommended reads – this is a massive achievement and we are all very proud of you!

‘Wake Up & Walk’ Event

The beginning of this week saw our very first ‘Wake Up & Walk’ event, organised by Mr Jordan, which encouraged pupils, parents/carers to take part in a Daily Mile inspired 2 lap walk around the KS2 field school.  The turnout for the event by both pupils and parent/carers exceeded all expectations.  An impressive 158 pupils took part in both the KS1 and KS2 events, and that’s not including the equally impressive number of parents/carers who also donned their walking shoes, and in some cases their running shoes, to also complete their 2 laps.  It was fantastic to see so many pupils and parents/carers enjoying the physical, mental and social benefits from the early morning exercise.  As a result of the popularity of the event, and following the positive feedback from pupils and parent/carers alike, Mr Jordan will be organising more ‘Wake Up & Walk’ events in the future.   We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that helped to make our very first event such a massive success!

PE Awards

Each year Mr Jordan celebrates the hard work, effort and achievements of individual pupils within PE with our annual PE awards.  As with previous years, the awards go to pupils at the end of KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 (Year 6).

Effort and Contribution Awards

The first award recognises pupil’s that continually give 100% effort and make excellent contributions within their PE lessons.  The recipients of this award have been chosen with the help of their class teachers and members of staff that have delivered PE to the class throughout the year.  Congratulations goes to the pupils shown overleaf:

End of Key Stage 1:

End of Key Stage 2:

PE and Sports Award

The second award celebrates two pupils’ fantastic achievements and persistent excellent effort, behaviour and attitude to learning within PE from each of Year 2 and Year 6.  The award also commends pupils’ commitment to PE, extra-curricular sports and also sporting activities within/outside of school.  The winners of this prestigious award goes to the following pupils:

End of Key Stage 1:

End of Key Stage 2:

Well done to all of you.  These awards are very well deserved!

Inclusion Quality Mark

Following our assessment for the Inclusion quality Mark last week, we are very pleased to announce that we have successfully achieved this award celebrating our inclusive ethos and practice. Our final report states that,

 ‘Whitehouse Community Primary School is an excellent example of inclusive practice.’

Furthermore, our assessor was very impressed with the school and has also awarded us with the IQM Centre of Excellence award commenting that,

‘Whitehouse Community Primary School is a particularly outstanding example of a school committed to meet the needs of its pupils and is outstanding in its commitment to and implementation of inclusive practice.’

Thank you to all of the parents/carers who made such positive comments during our assessment.  We are immensely proud of this achievement celebrating the inclusive ethos and practice of our wonderful school. 

Children and Young People Services (CYP) Privacy Notice

For our parents/carers whose children have SEND forms created which are submitted to the Local Authority, please see the attached link for details of the privacy notice.  This will inform you how the data submitted is collected, used and what your rights are with regards to this information:

https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/about/privacy-notice/children-and-young-people-services-privacy-notice

Dates for the Diary

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