Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 270

Friday 17th May 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

Well done to Year 6 for continuing to demonstrate the ‘Whitehouse Way’ during SATs week. We are extremely proud of the children and will share the results with them when we receive them in July. Over the next few weeks, the curriculum will change slightly for Year 6 as they prepare for their end of year play and also their transition to High School. We have lots of trips, visits and parent/carer sessions planned over the next few weeks, so do check the diary at the end of this newsletter so you don’t miss out. Dates for our Sports Days have also been included, as we know this is a very popular event. Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the previous week:

Class with the best attendance: Tigers and Toucans (100%)

Nursery Spaces - September

We are pleased to let you know that we will have some spaces in our popular Nursery from September 2024.  We offer spaces for 15 hours a week (5 mornings, 8.30am to 11.30am) and accept children from the term after their 3^rd birthday. 

If you would like more information, please contact the school office and ask to speak to Mrs Vikki Jousiffe who will be able to assist. 

Competition Time

Welcome to National Share a Story Month which runs throughout May.  As part of this annual event, The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is running a competition for children aged 5-13 years to create and represent a potion using colour and written details.   It is hoped that children may take inspiration from books they have read, especially George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl and Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potion by Carrie Sellon.  In fact, Carrie will be one of the guest judges for the competition!  For further information about the competition, including how to enter, please visit https://fcbg.org.uk/nssm/ and click on A Feast of Stories Competition.

Some of our Year 4 and 5 Library Assistants have been promoting this around school and from Monday 20^th May, application forms will be available from the KS2 Library.

Entries should be sent directly to: NSSM, 54 Alexandra Road, Ipswich, IP4 2RN to arrive no later than the 7^th June.

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.

EYFS:

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Year 6 SATs

We want to say a big WELL DONE to all of our Year 6 children for completing your SATs this week.  We know it can feel a little stressful but we are so proud of all of your efforts and hard work.  Well done and we hope you enjoy a lovely weekend.

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

Well done to the winners of our Duck Races last week:

Year 3: French Day

Last Friday, Year 3 took part in an amazing French Experience Day.  They had a visit from the Kidslingo team who took them on a journey through Paris with lots of fun activities along the way.  The children had a great time and the Kidslingo team were very impressed with their behaviour and enthusiasm in each activity.  They especially enjoyed tasting some traditional French foods with their families and evaluating what they liked and didn’t like about each one. A big thank you to all the family members who were able to come along and enjoy this time with the children.

Readers’ Cup

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

Staffing News

As some of you will be aware, today is the last day in school for Mrs Churchyard who has been at Whitehouse for a few years working in our Nursery and Reception year groups.   She is moving on to another nursery and we send her all our well wishes with her new endeavour.

Healthy Eating Recipe Ideas: Fruit Crumble

Ingredients:

400g-500g fresh fruit (e.g. eating apples, bananas, pears, plums)

100g plain flour

50 g butter or unsaturated margarine

25g sugar

Put the over to Gas Mark 5 (190C/375F) so it can heat up.  Sieve the flour into a bowl. Break the butter or margarine into chunks and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.  Add the sugar and mix it with your fingers.

Wash, peel and slice the fruit, removing any seeds or pips.  Arrange the sliced fruit in an ovenproof dish.

Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the fruit.  Put the dish on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbles up around the edges.

Serving Suggestions:

• Add a handful of oats to the flour for a crunchy topping.
• Serve with yoghurt, fromage frais or custard.
• Tinned fruit in natural juice or frozen fruit can be used instead of fresh.  Tinned blackberries, apricots, pears or peaches or frozen forest fruits all work well.
• Dried fruit such as raisins, ready to eat prunes or figs can also be chopped up and added to the fruit filling for variety.

If you do try this at home, let us know via Tapestry or to the class teacher.  For more healthy recipes visit www.henry.org.uk.

Beat the Street Celebration Assembly

You may remember our wonderful achievement during the Beat the Street event earlier this year, in which our school finished top of the leaderboard for the total number of points scored and second for the average number of points scored for the West Ipswich schools.  Following that achievement, last Friday, our pupils were treated to a celebration assembly conducted by Libby, the Beat the Street engagement coordinator for Ipswich.

During the assembly, we were presented with an impressive first place Beat the Street trophy and a framed certificate, which are now both on display within our trophy cabinet at the front of the school. In addition, we were also presented with £350 of Waterstone vouchers to further celebrate our achievements during the Beat the Street event. We would again like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you that took part in the Beat the Street event!

Walk to School Week 2024

Walk to School Week is back! Next week Monday marks the start of ‘Walk to School Week’ (Monday 20th May 2024 to Friday 24th May 2024). As a school, we will again be taking part in the ‘Living Streets: The Magic of Walking Five-Day Walking Challenge’. As a result, we would like to encourage you and your child to walk to school for the whole week. If you live too far to walk, maybe you could use public transport or even consider parking the car before walking the last 5 minutes into school. An activity booklet with daily fun activities to complete on the way to school will be provided to each pupil. Additionally, as with previous ‘Walk to School’ weeks, each class will also be provided with a visual wallchart and daily reward stickers to track their class’s participation in the challenge.

To add a healthy competitive element to this year’s ‘Walk to School Week’, Mr Jordan will again be introducing an inter-class competition to see which class has the greatest number of pupils walking to school throughout the week. As with previous PE challenges, we would really like to celebrate our pupils’ efforts and engagement in the challenge on the PE page of the school website. Therefore, please feel free to send any photos of your child during their walk to school throughout the week to parents@whcps.org.

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Vesak: Buddha Day: What is it and who celebrates it?  (UNRC: Article 30: If I come from a minority group, because of my race, religion or language, I have the right to enjoy my own culture, practise my own religion and use my own language.)   Resources related to this assembly will soon be available on our website.  To access them, go to Learning and click on our Enquiry Based Assemblies.

Year 5/6 Girls Football

After their victory against Castle Hill Juniors at the beginning of the last week, the football team were again back in action at the end of the week as they travelled away to Britannia Primary School. Having already played against Britannia during the Year 6 Futsal festival, some of the girls knew that the Britannia girls were going to be tough opposition. The match was also made even trickier with the sweltering weather conditions! Undeterred, the girls continued to work hard and give 100% effort from the first to the final whistle. As a result, throughout the match the girls worked extremely hard to continually put Britannia under pressure when they had possession of the ball. This led to some fantastic closing down and tackling from the girls. Equally, the girls continued to show increasing confidence when in possession of the ball with some pleasing passing and moving passages of play of their own. The girls hard work and perseverance was repaid at the start of the second half with a very good team goal. Some excellent link up play and a very good through ball from Eliza, provided Ivy with the opportunity to neatly place the ball into the bottom corner of Britannia’s goal and score her first goal for the school. Some fantastic saves from Sakura at the other end of the pitch during the second half of the match also prevented Britannia from extending their lead further. Despite the girls’ best efforts, unfortunately the match finished with a win to Britannia.

Despite the result, Mr Jordan was extremely proud of the team and the effort they showed throughout the match. Mr Jordan was also pleased to see the continued development and confidence in their football skills and performance.

A special mention goes to both Eliza and Sakura for being named as Mr Jordan’s ‘Players of the Match’.

Online Safety: Jessie and Friends

Jessie and Friends (4-7 year olds) is a great resource that parents can use to engage with their younger children about worrying or frightening situations online.  When children answer a question, they earn a star and can download a certificate to colour in.  Please follow this link to access it:  https://www.ceopeducation.co.uk/parents/articles/4-7s-website/

Online Safety: Wellbeing Apps for Kids

With wellbeing increasingly hot on the agenda, helping children manage their health and wellbeing is a top priority.  Nothing can beat getting out in the fresh air, meeting friends and having fun, but some children may find apps useful for things such as learning about emotions, managing anxiety etc.  There are thousands of these types of apps but to cut through the fog, Internet Matters have put together a list which gives details such as: suitable ages, purpose, how the app works and (where applicable) the cost.  You can view this list of apps here:  https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/wellbeing-apps-guide-for-kids/#wellbeing-apps-stay-active

Dates for the Diary

Monday 20^th May 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 20^th May 2024 to Friday 24^th May 2024 – Walk to School Week!

Tuesday 21^st May 2024 – Year 4 Parent/Carer DT Sewing Session – 1.30pm-3.00pm

Thursday 23^rd May 2024 – Reception – Easton Farm Park

Thursday 23^rd May 2024 – Starfish Parents/Carers Evening (previously postponed)

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)

Tuesday 4^th June 2024 – Year 3 Ducking Down the Deben – Owls Class

Tuesday 4^th June 2024 – Year 4 Victorian School – Foxes Class

Wednesday 5^th June 2024 – Year 4 Victorian School – Hedgehogs Class

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

Thursday 6^th June 2024 – Year 6 Crucial Crew

Thursday 6^th June 2024 – Year 4 Victorian School – Squirrels Class

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

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

Tuesday 11^th June 2024 – Year 3 Ducking Down the Deben – Badgers Class

Wednesday 12^th June 2024 – Year 2 Duxford Imperial War Museum Trip

Tuesday 18^th June 2024 – Year 3 Ducking Down the Deben – Rabbits Class

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

Friday 5^th July 2024 – EYFS Afternoon Tea for new Reception children (Sept 2024 intake)

Friday 5^th July 2024 – Summer Fair

Friday 12^th July 2024 – End of year reports home

Tuesday 16^th July 2024 – Year 6 Production

Thursday 18^th July 2024 – Y6 Leavers BBQ

Friday 19^th July 2024 – Y6 Leavers Assembly – Parents / Carers invited

Friday 19^th July 2024 – Last day of the Summer Term

Monday 22^nd July 2024 to Friday 30^th August 2024 – Summer Holiday

Monday 2^nd September 2024 – PD Day (Children are not in school)

Tuesday 3^rd September 2024 - PD Day (Children are not in school)

Wednesday 4^th September 2024 – First day of Autumn Term