Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 275

Friday 28th June 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

The children have had a busy week in school.  They have really enjoyed the opportunity to meet their new teachers and classes on Wednesday and Thursday this week and have been asking lots of questions about what they will be learning next year and if there will be any trips or visits. They have also practiced both the fire drill and the lockdown drill, both in record time so well done to all of the children for being sensible.  The Year Six children had a wonderful time at their residential trip to Mersea Island and the Year Five children are off to Kentwell Hall today.  Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing many of you at the fair next Friday after school.

Attendance for the week before half term:

Class with the best attendance: Hedgehogs (99.68%)

Parent/Carer Survey 2024

Our latest parent/carer survey has now been released which gives you a chance to feedback your experience and opinions with regards to the school.  Please do access the survey either by using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/cNQxnUWC9d, or by using the QR code.  Thank you for your assistance.

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

Well done to the winners of our Duck Races the week before half term:

Smoking/Vaping

Can we please ask parents/carers who are waiting at the school gates and are wanting to smoke/vape to please stand on the other side of the road, or at a distance from the gate. This will enable our children, some of whom have severe asthma, to wait without being affected by the smoke. Thank you.

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:

Suffolk Libraries: Reading Quest

Suffolk Libraries is launching an exciting new summer reading program this year. It will run through the summer holiday and offers a great opportunity to get the whole family involved in reading and making memories.  The aim of the summer reading challenge campaign is to encourage children to read, for pleasure, over the summer months but to also create something new and engaging with a Suffolk theme to involve the whole family.

Families will be able to visit their local library from Saturday 13^th July 2024 to collect a free Reading Quest map and then start their quest!  Children will then be encouraged to take part in activities and experiences across the summer rather than read an expected number of books.  This will take the children from ‘reading under their covers with a torch’ to ‘choosing a recipe book and making something together as a family.’  Each week, in the library the staff and volunteers will be on hand to chat to the children about the activities they have completed and the exciting books they have read.  The children can also collect a weekly reward at the library and choose new books to take home to read.  Research has proven that a summer reading campaign can help children to maintain literacy levels during the long summer holiday so their reading skills do not slip.  We have 45 libraries across Suffolk to there are lots to choose from.  Any child can take part but the event is primarily aimed at 2-12 year olds.

Celebrating our Children

As you may remember, it was National School Sports Week from 17^th to 23^rd June 2024, so this week we are pleased to celebrate a few of our pupils with their sporting efforts.

Lucas and his sister Carmen love to be involved with playing sports all year round and recently Lucas took part in a very muddy ‘Race for Life’ for children.  It was a 5km race, with obstacles throughout and we were very impressed to hear that he ran the whole way!  Super effort Lucas.  Meanwhile Carmen was also getting active as shown here when she attended her street dance class!  As well as this they attend basketball, swimming and beavers, so they are certainly keeping fit!  Well done to you both.   

We are also pleased to share the sporting efforts of Seth and Jason, from Year 4, who both play football for Witnesham Wasps.  On Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, the boys played in a football tournament where they both received a medal for taking part.  Seth scored the winning goal, making it a 2-1 win for Wasps.  Well done boys – fabulous achievement.  Next, we have Eli, also from Year 4 who took part in kayaking this week with the Scouts, which he absolutely loved!  He listened well to instructions to respect the wildlife as they went on their way along the River Gipping at Bramford Meadows.    Eli even managed to do a trick as he stood on the back of the kayak without falling, although the teacher did splash him so he got wet!  He had a wonderful time and looks forward to having another go.  Mum was very proud of his achievement and so are we!  Well done Eli.

We love to celebrate the achievements of our children, sporting and otherwise, so if you have something to share please send it to parents@whcps.org and confirm you are happy for us to share it in the newsletter.

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: What is a community?  What communities are we a part of?  (UNRC: Article 15: I have the right to be with friends and join, or set up clubs, unless this breaks the rights of others).   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

Readers’ Cup

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

Summer Holiday iCards

Ipswich Borough Council have confirmed that the popular Summer Holiday iCard programme will take place again this summer.  Between Monday 22^nd July 2024 and Friday 30^th August 2024, hundreds of different activities will be available for children living in Ipswich to take part in, including BMX biking, rollerskating and kayaking.  To have access to these events, you will need to purchase an iCard from the Ipswich Fit website, at a cost of £6.00 per child which will cover the full summer holiday.

Please be aware that to take part in an activity you must pre-book a space.  This can be done at: https://eequ.org/ and searching for Ipswich activities. Park activities can be booked from 28^th June 2024 and all other activities from 17^th July 2024.

If your child is eligible for Free School Meals, please note you will not have to pay for the iCard.  When you go in to https://eequ.org/, and are selecting a membership, please select ‘Holiday Concession iCard.’  Your details will then be checked and once they confirm your child is in receipt of Free School Meals you will be able to make bookings at no cost.  Details of holiday clubs and how to book them are also available on the website.

Healthy Eating: Recipe

As the hot weather is here, we wanted to share some healthy recipes for the summer time to help us all keep cool.  So, for the next few weeks we will be sharing these starting with how to make healthy lollies.

Coconut and Blueberry Lollies

90g Blueberries

100ml Canned Coconut Milk

100g Vanilla Yoghurt

Pulse the blueberries, vanilla yoghurt and coconut milk in a blender until ‘smashed’ but not completely smooth.  Divide the mixture between four lolly moulds.  Place a lolly stick into each mould.  Freeze the mixture for a minimum of eight hours. Then enjoy a nice cold treat!

Online Safety

We are pleased to let you know that Mrs Cox has now returned from her Maternity Leave and will again be undertaking the role of Online Safety Lead.  If parents/carers have any questions or concerns about Online Safety, please do contact Mrs Cox, via the School Office, and she will be happy to assist wherever she can. 

Boccia Event at The Bridge School

Following the Inclusion Quality Mark with Centre of Excellence status, which was awarded to our school at the end of last academic year, throughout this academic year we have been working closely with The Bridge School. As a result, The Bridge School kindly invited our school to take part in their annual inclusive Boccia event as an additional opportunity for collaborative working between ourselves and a number of SEND schools within the local area.

So last Thursday, Mr Jordan and Mrs Davies took 6 pupils to take part in the inclusive event. During the event, the pupils were split into two teams of three and took part in two separate ‘round robin’ style Boccia matches against two other teams. Both teams played fantastically well during both their respective matches, with both teams winning one of their matches and narrowly losing the other. All pupils thoroughly enjoyed their time at the event and were extremely happy to receive their participation certificates at the end. A special mention goes to Gabriela who also volunteered to play for another team who were a player down during one of their matches.

U11 Girls’ 4v4 Football Festival

Following the recent series of 4v4 Football Festivals run by the Suffolk FA, last week saw the turn of the U11 girls to take part in their event. The festival, which had originally been planned to be held at ITFC, had to be postponed and relocated. This was due to the immediate work and upgrades to the stadium ahead of the new season, following Ipswich Towns success in being promoted back to the Premier League. Therefore, last Friday Mr Jordan took six girls from Year 5 to Whitton Sports Centre to take part in the U11 Girls’ 4v4 Football Festival. As with all of the previous 4v4 festivals, the main aim of the event was to provide an opportunity for the girls to simply enjoy playing football in a relaxed environment during a number of small sided matches throughout the festival. As a result, each match involved minimal coaching from the sidelines, no goalkeepers and minimal refereeing from the young leaders!

The girls grew in confidence throughout the festival and showed some very pleasing individual and team performances during each game. With no set goalkeepers and slightly bigger goals than previous festivals, each game saw plenty of shots on goal and a number of goals scored. Throughout the festival the girls scored an impressive 9 goals, three goals each from Ivy, Lexi and Scarlett. At the other end of the pitch, there was also some fantastic defensive work shown by Isla, Sakura and Vina to close down and tackle their opponents, denying them goal scoring opportunities. Mr Jordan was extremely proud of the girls’ workrate and teamwork during each of the matches. Despite the extremely warm weather, every single member of the team put 100% effort into each match. Well done girls!

Wake Up and Walk: Coming Soon

Back by popular demand! Following the success of last year’s first ‘Wake up & Walk’, we will again be inviting parents/carers to take part in the Daily Mile inspired event. As with the previous event, this year’s ‘Wake Up & Walk’ will again be an informal and optional event, which will give parents/carers the opportunity to take part in a two lap walk around the KS2 field before school with their child. Keep an eye out in next week’s Newsletter for full details!

Dates for the Diary

Monday 1^st July 2024 – Family Breakfast at 8.00am

Monday 1^st July 2024 – Non-Uniform Day (bring sweets or chocolate)

Friday 5^th July 2024 – Year 1 Parent/Carer DT Session – 9.00am / 2.00pm

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

Friday 5^th July 2024 – Summer Fair

Monday 8^th July 2024 – Family Breakfast at 8.00am

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

Friday 15^th November 2024 – Flu Vaccinations (more details will follow)

Friday 13^th December 2024 – Flu Vaccinations Catch-up Session (more details will follow)