Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 277

Friday 12th July 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

We hope that you will enjoy reading your child’s annual report and that you find the information about your child’s successes as well as what they need to do next useful. We are extremely proud of all the children and how hard they have worked to achieve their very best this year so thank you for your support. If you would like to speak to a member of staff about your child’s progress please don’t hesitate to contact the school.  All clubs have now finished for this year and I would like to thank all the staff for giving up their time to offer these super opportunities for the children.  We will be in touch in September with the clubs for next term.

Attendance for the last week was:

Class with the best attendance: Toucans (98.46%)

Dinner Money and Breakfast Club Debt

A reminder to all parents/carers that ALL debt must be cleared by the end of the Summer Term.  If you are unsure how much is owed, this can be viewed on Arbor or by checking with the school office.

Year 6 Events

We have lots in the calendar for our Year 6 children next week, so here is a reminder for parents/carers:

Tuesday 16^th July – Year 6 Production at 9.30am and 6.00pm (children need to be back at school at 5.15pm to be ready for the evening performance).

Thursday 18^th July – BBQ at 4.00pm to 5.15pm.  Please note children need to have returned the slips to confirm they are attending.  If they have not done this and would like to attend, please let us know by email at parents@whcps.org – they can still attend but it is too late now to order food.

Friday 19^th July – Leaver’s Assembly/Picnic (details below):

1.50pm          Parents/Carers enter via the Marlow Road Gate

2.00pm         Children meet the parents/carers for a picnic (provided by the parents/carers)

2.30pm         Children come in and prepare for leavers’ assembly

2.40pm         Parents/Carers are invited to watch the assembly in the Marlow Road Hall

3.00pm         All are invited to the dining hall field for photos before going home

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Staying Safe in the Holidays.  (UNRC: Article 5: I have the right to be given guidance by my parents and family).  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

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 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:

Parents/Carers Daily Mile Inspired WHCPS ‘Wake Up and Walk’ Event

Don’t forget this coming week on Monday and Tuesday we have our very popular ‘Wake up and Walk’ events.  This is an informal and optional event where parents/carers can come into school and take part in a 2 lap walk around the field with their child.  All participants (including parents/carers) will receive a certificate and children will be given a non-uniform voucher to use on one day, of their choosing, next week. We will be collecting donations if you wish to make one, which will support our four chosen House Charities of the year. Timings are shown below:

Event details:

Dates: Monday 15th July 2024 (EYFS & KS1 Pupils & Parents/Carers)

Tuesday 16th July 2024 (KS2 Pupils & Parents/Carers) 

Time:   8:30am – 8:40am 

Additional Information: No sign up is required. Simply meet Mr Jordan on the KS2 field, entering school via the Marlow Rd or Waterford Rd gate. We very much look forward to seeing many of our parents/carers and pupils enjoying the event.

School Dinners: Price Increase

Unfortunately, we need to advise you that due to the increasing food costs, we will need to increase the cost of a school dinner from September 2024.  There will be an increase of 9p per meal, taking the cost from £2.43 to £2.52 per day.  Please note this will only affect children who pay for a dinner.  There will be no change for children in EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 or any child who is entitled to free school meals.

Despite this small price increase, hot lunches still represent excellent value for money. Healthy and nourishing school meals, cooked on the premises, are available each day. There is a varied three-weekly rolling menu detailing each day’s main course and dessert along with a vegetarian option, jacket potato or sandwich option.   The menu is available on our website for parents/carers to view:  https://www.whcps.org/school-dinners/

Wellbeing: Moving Schools

Are you in Year 6 or moving to a new school?  Are you worried about what it will be like?  It can be a bit of a scary time, so why not have a look at this page which will give you lots of tips and helps about starting somewhere new and making new friends!  It might feel a bit scary but can also be a very exciting one! 

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/school-college-and-work/school-college/moving-schools/

Readers’ Cup

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

National Book Token Competition: Please help!

Once again National Book Tokens are offering five schools the chance to win £1,000 worth of books for their school library and up to £500 worth of books for yourself!  All you have to do is visit the link below and nominate our school.  Winners will be drawn on Wednesday 31^st July 2024 and announced in September 2024.

https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/schools-prize?utm_medium=email&utm_source=nbt&utm_campaign=20240625-schools&utm_content=schools-prize

School Games Sports Mark

As with previous year’s, the School Games Sports Mark is awarded to schools based firstly upon their level of engagement and participation with the School Games programme (sports events, tournaments, festivals etc.). Additionally, the award also recognises the opportunities, participation/ engagement and the quality of the school’s PE and sport provision (PE curriculum, after school clubs etc.).   We are extremely proud of all of the hard work and effort that continues to go into our PE/sports provision. As a result, we are also extremely pleased to announce that for the fourth year in a row we have again successfully been awarded with a Gold School Games

                                       Sports Mark Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank every pupil that has been involved in any of the after-school sports clubs and/or has represented the school in any fixtures, competitions or festivals. We would also like to thank the staff that have given their own time and efforts to support this year’s PE. Lastly, we also like to that this opportunity to thank all of our parents/carers for all of your continued support with our PE provision.  Well done everyone on a fantastic achievement!

Celebrating our Children

Once again, we are pleased to be able to celebrate the achievements of some of our children here at Whitehouse.  Siblings, Skye, Ruby and Effie recently performed in a dance show for the Suffolk Academy of Dance and Performing Arts.  This was held at the Regent Theatre to celebrate the dance school’s 30^th anniversary!  The girls did a wonderful job making their family incredibly proud of them.  Well done girls!

Amelia in Year 3 has also been busy as she achieved her orange belt in karate after less than two months of attending the class.  Amelia was so excited she brought in her belt to show her class.  This is a wonderful achievement, well done!  

Street Dance, is also proving popular with our children.  Darsie in Year 1 recently won two National Street Dance competitions and received trophies, whilst Carmen, also in Year 1, has been collecting badges and a key ring for taking part in street dance activities. 

What a talented bunch of children we have at Whitehouse!  Well done to all of you.  You have found some wonderful activities to help you stay fit.

**** Helping Hands Event ****

Please note we will be holding another of our Helping Hands events next week on Thursday 18^th July 2024 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm in our Blue Meeting Room (next to the main school office).  At this event we will have lots of items that you can come along and take, free of charge, to help you and your family as the summer holiday approaches.  Included will be staple food items, toiletries, children’s clothes as well as a small amount of school uniform.  Please do come along if you feel these might be of help.

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

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

We now have two displays in school showcasing the winners of our weekly duck races!  One is situated in the Key Stage 1 corridor and the other in Key Stage 2.  We hope the children will enjoy seeing their names up on the board to celebrate their weekly attendance along with the class with the best attendance for the week.

Healthy Eating: Recipe

Another cool and refreshing recipe for keeping cool in the summer.

Blueberry and Strawberry Lollies

70g Strawberries

160g Vanilla Yoghurt

40g Blueberries

Slice strawberries thinly, lengthwise. 

Place the sliced fruit around the inside of four lolly moulds.

Mix the blueberries with the yoghurt.  Carefully spoon the yoghurt mixture into the moulds.

Place a lolly stick into each mould. 

Freeze for a minimum of eight hours and then enjoy!

Y6 Boys Friendly Football Match

Last Wednesday Mr Jordan organised a Year 6 boys ‘friendly’ football match against Springfield Junior School. The aim of the friendly was to allow the Year 6 boys who had attended after school football club, but had not yet played in a school match, the opportunity to represent our school in a football match before moving on to High School. The boys were extremely excited to have the opportunity and were keen to put on a good performance during the match, and they did exactly that! The boys were fantastic from start to finish and put into practice all of the skills and tactics that had been taught to them during the after-school club. As a result, the boys played some brilliant football both individually and as a team. Out of possession the boys continued to work hard to put Springfield under pressure to win the ball back. In possession they showed some fantastic passages of play, passing the ball around and attacking the Springfield goal.

The boys continued to press throughout the game and could have scored a few goals had it not been for some fine saves from the Springfield goalkeeper. However, all of the team’s hard work and effort was rewarded during the second half with a fantastic goal from Oliver’s long range shot from just outside of the area. At the other end, Tawhid also made some fantastic saves to prevent Springfield from scoring. However, a late save which unfortunately fell to the feet of a Springfield player allowed them to equalise and finish the match with a draw.

Mr Jordan & Mr Fox were extremely proud of the boys’ efforts and performance throughout the match. Player of the match went to the entire team! Well done boys! 

News from the House Captains

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are most pleased to announce the Summer 2 results of the House Point System.  We have counted all of the house points and added up the results.  First of all, we would like to thank you all for showing your best Whitehouse Way learning behaviours to earn all these points for your houses.  The results are extremely close; however, everyone was outstanding!

In 4^th place with 199 points is Emerald

In 3^rd place with 210 points is Diamond

In 2^nd place with 222 points is Ruby

And finally, a massive well done to the winning house, Sapphire with 248 points!

A big thank you to all the houses for trying your best.  The winning house will receive a non-uniform day on Friday 19^th July 2024! 

In addition, the overall winners of the house points for the year were:

4^th Place – Emerald 2827

3^rd Place – Ruby 2910

2^nd Place – Diamond 2913

1^st Place was Sapphire with 3073 house points!

Thank you for earning all of these points and well done to the new House Captains who helped us to count them up!  We will introduce our new House Captains to you next week so keep an eye out!

From Dougie, Dylan, Logan, Maddison, Derek, Sophia, JJ and Kacey-Mae

Year 1 Parent/Carer Sewing Session

Our Year 1 children have been busy designing and making their own puppets this half term, inspired by the traditional seaside puppet show ‘Pinch and Judy.’  They each designed their puppet using success criteria generated by the class.  They were very creative when designing their puppets.  Next, they made their puppets and learnt some new sewing skills.  The children had to thread a needle and use running stitch to join two pieces of fabric together.  The teachers were very impressed with the children’s resilience and patience when threading the needle and completing their running stitch (and grateful for the parents/carers support).  All the children really enjoyed a session of drawing, joining, sticking and finishing their puppets.  A big thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to come and join us.  Well done Year 1!

Summer Fair

After the decision was made to hold the Summer Fair indoors due to the British weather, it was lovely we were able to move some of our stalls on to the playground in the fresh air.  We are sure you will agree it was another very successful event.  Walking around and seeing such big smiles on our children’s faces was lovely.  As you can imagine it takes a lot of planning to organise these events, so a big thank you to the PFA as without their help these events would not go ahead.   Sadly, we will be losing three of our PFA this year as their children move to High School, but thank you to Rebecca’s mum Zoe, Eliza’s mum Claire and Jayden’s mum Emma.  You have been amazing!  This leaves us with just Ms Salmon and one parent, Eleanor’s mum Kelly, on the committee so we will not be able to hold future events unless we can find some new volunteers! We raised a huge £1,184.70 on the day, so thank you to everyone!  Keep an eye out in September for the next PFA gathering and please do come along, without help there will be no Christmas Fair, which would be such a shame for our wonderful children.

Dates for the Diary

Monday 15^th July 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 15^th July 2024 – Wake Up and Walk (EYFS/KS1 Children and Parents/Carers) – 8.30am

Tuesday 16^th July 2024 – Wake Up and Walk (KS2 Children and Parents/Carers) – 8.30am

Tuesday 16^th July 2024 – Year 6 Production – 9.30am / 6.00pm

Thursday 18^th July 2024 - Helping Hands event (free food / clothes etc) – 2.30pm – 3.30pm

Thursday 18^th July 2024 – Y6 Leavers BBQ – 4.15pm

Friday 19^th July 2024 – Non-uniform day for Sapphire House

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).