Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 261

Friday 1st March 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

Welcome back to another busy half-term at Whitehouse! There are lots of events, trips and visits scheduled - Year 6 are going to see the coastal erosion and look for fossils at Walton-on-the-Naze, Year 5 are visiting the local Co-Op to learn about Fair Trade and Year 3 will visit Colchester Castle to find out about the Romans. We are also hoping that Year 1 will be able to meet a member of the Fire Service or Police to help them with their PSHE about keeping safe.  Please look out for the letters on Arbor so that your child does not miss out (article 28: right to an education).   There are also some parent workshops planned (the first one is in year 5). 

Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the week before half term:

Class with the best attendance: Lizards (97.89%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: What is World Book Day and why do we celebrate it?  (UNRC Link: Article 28: I have the right to education).  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

Readers’ Cup

Well done to the following classes who won the Readers’ Cup the week before half term:

Family Breakfasts

Our popular Family Breakfasts will be starting again on Monday morning.  This is a lovely way to start the school week, as parents/carers are invited to come into school at 8.00am and enjoy a simple, free breakfast with their children. 

Please come in via the Key Stage 1 playground on Marlow Road, where Mrs Gotts will meet you and show you where to go.  We look forward to seeing many of you there! 

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:

Eco-News

The eco-committee have been busy looking after our saplings that have been planted around the school field and we are so excited to see they have started growing! When you are on site, please do make sure you are careful when walking around the field so we can keep them from being damaged.  We cannot wait to see just how much they grow over the next few months!

World Book Day: Special Menu

To help us celebrate World Book Day we are pleased to have a special lunch menu as shown.  Please note the pick and mix option will also be available.

Parent Courses

Are you aware that if you need a little extra advice in how to support your child, there are a wide range of courses available that can help? Most of these are completely free to attend and many are online so can be attended from your home. 

The range of courses includes help for children with neurodiversity; help for those suffering from OCD or anxiety and courses which can help you learn new skills to be the very best parent/carer you can be!

Details of these courses are available on our website at the following link: 

https://www.whcps.org/parent-courses/

World Book Day

In school, preparations are continuing for this year’s World Book Day which takes place next week on Thursday 7^th March 2024.  Your child has received information from their teacher this week about our plans, including details of this year’s specially produced World Book Day books (this link gives further details: https://www.worldbookday.com/books-and-tokens/books/.  We wanted to also share this information with you.

The Department of Education’s ‘Reading Framework’ recognises the importance of reading for pleasure and the indicator this has on a child’s future success.  It has a positive influence on a child’s academic record and wellbeing and can even reduce the impact of social disadvantage. The main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to begin a lifelong love of reading. This is why a special selection of books are available at just £1.00 and tokens are given to all children to cover that cost. 

To help all of our children to be able to use their token and choose a book, we will be having a ‘pop up shop’ in school. The children will choose one of the specially published £1.00 World Book Day books at this shop.  

During the school day on Thursday and Friday, we will also have our Book Fair open for viewing only and the children will have the opportunity to have a look at the books available.  These will then be available for purchase at the after-school Book Fairs the following week (Monday 11^th March and Tuesday 12^th March 2024).

As always, we would like to invite each child to also come to school dressed as their favourite book character.  We are aware that with the cost of living crisis, this can be difficult for families, so please do not feel you have to go out and buy a costume.   Instead, why not try and work with your child to make a very simple costume with items you have at home.

We are very excited about World Book Day and are very much looking forward to celebrating this day with your children. Thank you for your continued support.

Beat the Street

We hope you and your children have been enjoying playing Beat the Street over the half term holiday – lots of staff have been joining in too!

The game continues right through until Wednesday 27^th March 2024, so there is plenty of time to keep gathering those points!  If you have not started playing, why not get out this weekend and have a go! Don’t forget that to earn points you need to scan two ‘Beat Boxes’ within 60 minutes.    If you have downloaded the App, you can see where Whitehouse is on the leaders table!  Currently we are at 3^rd place, with just two schools ahead of us, so lets all put on our walking shoes and keep going!

For more information about Beat the Street visit www.beatthestreet.me or watch the short Beat the Street YouTube video https://youtu.be/WMS6rQPIt0o.

We have loved seeing your photos of your adventures so far, including Holly from Year 4 who loves collecting points on her way to school, Eli from Year 4 who has loved going out during half term come rain or shine (mostly rain!) and is trying hard to find all 128 boxes.  Also, we have Carmen and Lucas (Year 1 and Year 6) who joined their family out on a bike ride to find 19 boxes in the local area.  Well done everyone! 

We would love to see some more photos of you all enjoying the game, so please share these with us by sending them to parents@whcps.org.

Healthy Eating Ideas: Breakfast Swaps

Sugar and fat are the biggest things to watch out for at breakfast time.  Even just 1 or 2 everyday swaps can really make a difference and go a long way to making each day healthier – but the more you make the better!

You can find some more delicious breakfast recipes by following the link below:  Healthy breakfast ideas - Healthier Families - NHS (www.nhs.uk).   We will share some suggestions for healthy lunchtime swaps next week!

Dates for the Diary

Monday 4^th March 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 4^th March – Year 6 Walton-on-the-Naze trip

Monday 4^th March 2024 – Spring 2 After-School Clubs Commence

Thursday 7^th March 2024 – World Book Day

Friday 8^th March 2024 – Year 4 Parent/Carer Session (Maths) –9.00am

Friday 8^th March 2024 – Reports sent home

Monday 11^th March 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 11^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Year 5 Parent/Carer Session: Flapjack Tasting – 2.15pm

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Scholastic Book Fair

Tuesday 12^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Wednesday 13^th March 2024 – Year 3 Roman Day

Friday 15^th March 2024 – Comic Relief

Monday 18^th March 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 18^th March 2024 – Year 3 Colchester Castle Trip

Wednesday 20^th March 2024 – Parents Evening

Thursday 21^st March 2024 – Year 5 – Local Trip to Co-op

Monday 25^th March 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 25^th March 2024 – Last week of Spring 2 After-School Clubs

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

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

Tuesday 30^th April 2024 – Class Photos

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