Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 258

Friday 2nd February 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

It has been wonderful to see so many of you in school to take part in enquiry-based learning recently.  Last week, we had nearly 30 year six family members learning about mummification in Ancient Egypt alongside their children.  This we week we have had 45 year 4 family members learning about Viking Longboats with their children.  The feedback from these events has been overwhelmingly positive – some of the comments recorded were:

‘The children and parents were engaged in working together as a team’ and ‘I enjoyed helping my child with their learning – it was so much fun.’ 

Thank you to all the family members, children and staff for helping to make this  event such a success.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance: Foxes (97.3%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Chinese New Year: What is it and why is it celebrated? (UNRC Link: Article 7: I have the right to have a name and a nationality).  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.

Free School Meal Vouchers

We are pleased to confirm that Suffolk County Council will again be providing vouchers to parents/carers of any child who is eligible for free school meals, to help with food costs over the February half term holiday and the Easter holiday.  Please note on this occasion a voucher of £45.00 will be provided for each eligible child but this will cover both holidays, you will not receive another voucher at Easter.

As usual the voucher will be sent by email from noresponse@vouchers.sodexoengage.com and will be with you by Thursday 15^th February 2024. You will need to go online and redeem the voucher by Friday 12^th April 2024 and then the voucher can be valid for your chosen supermarket for 12 months. If you do not receive the voucher, please email freeschoolmeals@suffolk.gov.uk and they will be able to assist.  Please do not contact the school office as we will be unable to help.

Spare Clothes

If you have any spare underwear or jogging bottoms to fit our Reception year group we would be very willing to take these.  On occasion, we do need to change their clothes and so these spares do always come in very helpful.

Awards

As you may be aware, the children are encouraged to follow ‘The Whitehouse Way’ in school to help them in their learning and in becoming good citizens. Our ‘Wonderful Week’ awards this year will be given as a recognition that the children have worked very hard in one of these areas:  Courage, Perseverance, Reflection or Responsibility.  This will be shown in the colour coded lists below.  We are so proud of our children at Whitehouse and their wonderful achievements.  Well done to you all.

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Readers’ Cup

Well done to the following classes who won the Readers’ Cup last week:

Blue Peter Reading Badge

You may recall that a few weeks ago we told you about the launch of a new Blue Peter book badge.  To earn the badge children must be between the ages of 5 and 15 and either submit an online form or send a paper application to Blue Peter. Forms are available to download from the Blue Peter website or your child can collect one in school from the KS2 library.

In last week’s Celebration Assembly, we were very excited to celebrate the achievements of Ava from Year 4 who was understandably extremely proud to bring in her new Blue Peter badge and letter that she had received earlier in the week.  When asked by Mrs Balaam how she felt when she opened the envelope containing her badge, Ava replied ‘I felt amazing and really proud of myself because I had achieved something I had never done before.’   We are all very proud of you Ava.  As a result of this fantastic achievement a number of our other children across the school have expressed an interest in working towards their Blue Peter book badge and we are aware of a number of children that have already submitted their application.  Watch this space for more exciting news in the next few weeks.

To find out more information on how your child can earn a prestigious Blue Peter book badge visit:

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/findoutmore/blue-peter-apply-for-a-book-badge

Year 4 Parent/Carer Session

On Wednesday we had some of the parents/carers of our Year 4 children in school to help them make Viking longboats.  The children all behaved very well and engaged in some fantastic group work.  They really did demonstrate the Whitehouse Way and the golden rules and the teachers were very proud of them.  Feedback from the parents/carers was very positive, saying they were impressed with the teamwork shown and that they hope the sessions will take place more frequently.  A big thank you to all those who attended.

U11 Sportshall Athletics

On Thursday 18th January, Mr Jordan and Ms Salmon took twenty-four of our Year 5 and 6 pupils to compete in the School Games Sportshall Athletics competition, which took place at Westbourne Academy. Just like the previous years, the format for the competition saw the boys and girls teams compete in six adapted indoor track and field events. Each of the events took place at the same time and in the same space, which made for an exciting atmosphere. Mr Jordan and Miss Salmon were extremely proud of the team as each and every member put their best efforts into each of their individual events. The team’s determination and team spirit during each of the events was truly admirable. Well done to everyone who took part!

U11 Dodgeball Event

On Tuesday Mr Jordan took ten Year 6 pupils to take part in the School Games U11 Mixed Dodgeball event which took place at Ipswich School Sports Centre, Rushmere. The event consisted of a Round Robin style format in which the team competed against six other schools within their group. Each match consisted of three 2-minute games, which made for high tempo action packed matches. The team showed some amazing dodging, throwing and catching skills to not only evade their opponents’ attacks, but also mount their own attempts to get their opponents ‘out’. Mr Jordan was especially pleased with the tactics and team work implemented by the team during each of their matches. Mr Jordan was also incredibly proud of the effort shown by the team during each of their matches throughout the event. As a result, the team managed to win 3 and lose 3 of the matches. Well done to the team!

Dates for the Diary

Monday 5^th February 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Tuesday 6^th February – Year 5 Parent/ Carer Reading Session – 9:00am

Monday 12^th February 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 12^th February 2024 – Last week of Spring after-school clubs

Friday 16^th February 2024 – SMSC Whole School Day – Online Safety

Monday 19^th February 2024 to Friday 23^rd February 2024 – Half Term Holiday

Thursday 7^th March 2024 – World Book Day

Friday 8^th March 2024 – Reports sent home

Monday 11^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Friday 29^th March 2024 to Thursday 11^th April 2024 – Easter Holiday

Friday 12^th April 2024 – PD Day (Children not in school)

Monday 6^th May 2024 – May Day Bank Holiday

Monday 13^th May 2024 to Thursday 16^th May 2024 – Year 6 SATs Week

Monday 27^th May 2024 to Friday 31^st May 2024 – Half Term Holiday

Monday 3^rd June 2024 – PD Day (Children not in school)

Wednesday 5^th June 2024 – Nursery and Reception Sports Day

Thursday 6^th June 2024 – Years 1, 2 and 3 Sports Day

Friday 7^th June 2024 – Years 4, 5, and 6 Sports Day

Monday 24^th June 2024 to Tuesday 25^th June 2024 – Year 6 Residential Trip at Mersea

Wednesday 26^th June 2024 – School Transition Afternoon

Thursday 27^th June 2024 – School Transition Morning