Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 279
Friday 6th September 2024
A Message from Miss Siddall
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back! I hope you have had a wonderful summer with your family. We are so pleased to welcome the children back for their new school year. If you would like the opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, there will be a chance to meet them later in September (more details below). As usual, there is lots of interesting learning to look forward to over the coming term and some of our year groups have trips already planned, so keep a look out for letters coming home soon. A reminder of the timings of the school day are detailed below for you. Children who arrive at school after 8.55am will need to enter via the school office, as the gates are closed promptly to allow teachers to begin lessons.
School Timings
As lots of our children have moved in to new Key Stages, please find below for your information and start and finish times for our year groups:
Key Stage | Start Time | Finish Time |
Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) | 8.40am | 3.10pm |
Key Stage 1 (Years 1-2) | 8.45am | 3.15pm |
Reception | 8.50am | 3.20pm |
Nursery | 8.30am | 11.30am |
If you have more than one child to drop off to classrooms, please start with your oldest child to prevent them arriving to class late. Again, when collecting, please collect the eldest sibling first and then make your way down the school year groups to the youngest child.
School Photos
We are pleased to let you know that we have our school photographer coming into school on Monday 16th September to take individual photos of our children. Please remember to send your child in wearing their full uniform and looking their best. If your child was due to have PE that day, please ensure they come into school in their school uniform instead of their PE kit.
Breakfast Club
Our breakfast clubs are proving as popular as ever this year. Please remember if you want your child to attend, you need to book a space. This can be done via Arbor or at the school office. The cost is £1.00 per child, per day and must be paid in advance. You need to enter via the KS1 playground and enter the back door of the Marlow Road hall, where a member of staff will greet your child and sign them in.
Meet the Teacher sessions
We are pleased to inform you that we have our ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions coming up very soon. These take place after school and give parents/carers the opportunity to come into the classroom and have a chance to speak to the teachers. Please note the session times are:
Monday 16th September: Year 1
Tuesday 17th September: Nursery, Reception and Year 3
Wednesday 18th September: Year 4 and Year 6
Thursday 19th September: Year 2 and Year 5
School Dinners
A reminder that the price of school dinners has increased slightly to £2.52. This will be for both hot dinners and pick and mix options. Children who have moved into Year 3 and above will have to pay for their school dinner unless they are eligible for free school meals. If you think your child may be eligible you can apply online at the below link:
If you need some assistance please come and speak to the School Office team who will happily assist.
There have been a couple of minor changes to the school menu which can be viewed on our website: https://www.whcps.org/school-dinners/. This menu will remain in place for this half term.
If your child has a dinner money debt we would ask you to kindly ensure this is paid off immediately and pay for any further dinners in advance.
Parking
As we move into the new school year, we would like to remind parents/carers the importance of ensuring they are parking safely and considerately in the area around the school site. As you will be aware the start and end of the school day is very busy with many cars and pedestrians near the site. Please do think about whether it would be possible for you to leave the car at home and walk to collect your children. We would also ask you to please be considerate to the residents living near the school and do not block the access to their homes when parking. Also, please be aware the car park is not for use by parents/carers, unless they have a blue badge which must be displayed.
Attendance: Parent/Carer Raffle
To show our appreciation to our parents/carers for all their efforts in supporting their children to be in school every day, we are pleased to introduce our Half Termly Parent/Carer Raffles. At the end of each half term, all the names of the children who have been at school every day, will be placed into a raffle and one chosen at random. The parent/carer of that child (you can choose either Mum or Dad!) will be given a gift as a thank you. The gifts will differ on each occasion but may be for example a supermarket voucher to spend. We will of course continue to incentivise the children in school and encourage them to attend school every day. As you will be aware good attendance beings so many benefits to a child so we are grateful for all your continued support in this matter.
Assemblies
The theme of our assemblies for next week will be: Cycle and Road Safety. (UNRC: Article 31: I have the right to play and relax by doing things like sports, music and drama). 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.
Children’s Project Showcase
This year we will be introducing a half termly project showcase session which our parents/carers are invited to come into school for. These will happen at the end of the school day and will be a wonderful chance for you to see the range of topic work completed by your child, for example writing, geography, history, art, DT, music and homework.
The first showcase will be at the end of Autumn 1, on Tuesday 15th October 2024 (Nursery, Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5) and Thursday 17th October 2024 (Reception, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6).
If you have more than one child whose showcase is on the same day, you will be able to move from one to another. We hope many of you will come along and enjoy seeing the wonderful work that gets completed by the children.
Parents and Friends Association (PFA)
We have been very lucky in recent years to have a wonderful PFA, led by Ms Salmon, who have put on many events at the school for our children and families to enjoy, including our very popular Christmas and Summer Fairs. Unfortunately, with children moving on to High School, we have a lost a number of our volunteers and are looking for some new PFA members who would be willing to give a little bit of their time so we can continue to hold events. If you think you might be interested, please do speak to Ms Salmon or let the School Office know. We are excited to have you on board! Unfortunately, if we do not have any new helpers, we will be unable to hold our Christmas Fair. A meeting will be planned for any interested parties in the near future.
Parents/Carers Course: Step Ahead in Maths
Would you like to improve your maths skills and learn how to support your child with their maths learning? A new ‘Step Ahead in Maths’ course is starting on 19th September 2024 and is running each Thursday morning from 9.00am to 12.00pm at Castle Hill Community Centre, Highfield Road, Ipswich. The course is free and if you would like to get more information or book a space please contact Eileen on Eileen.richards@realisefutures.org or call her on 07860 268074.
Dates for the Diary
Monday 16th September 2024 – School Photos
Monday 16th September 2024 – Meet the Teacher: Year 1
Tuesday 17th September 2024 – Meet the Teacher: Nursery, Reception and Year 3
Wednesday 18th September 2024 – Meet the Teacher: Year 4 and Year 6
Wednesday 18th September 2024 - Year 2 trip to Ipswich Town Centre (half year group)
Thursday 19th September 2024 - Meet the Teacher: Year 2 and Year 5
Friday 20th September 2024 - Year 6 Earthquake Workshop
Wednesday 25th September 2024 - Year 2 trip to Ipswich Town Centre (half year group)
Tuesday 15th October 2024 – Autumn 1 Project Showcase (Nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5)
Thursday 17th October 2024 – Autumn 1 Project Showcase (Reception, Years 2, 4 and 6)
Friday 25th October 2024 - Whole School SMSC Day
Monday 28th October – Friday 1st November 2024 – Half Term Holiday
Friday 15th November 2024 – Flu Vaccinations (more details will follow)
Wednesday 4th December 2024 - Reports home to parents/carers
Thursday 5th December 2024 – Online Parents/Carers Evening
Tuesday 10th December 2024 – Online Parents/Carers Evening
Tuesday 17th December 2024 – Autumn 2 Project Showcase (Reception, Years 2, 4 and 6)
Thursday 19th December 2024 – Autumn 1 Project Showcase (Nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5)
Friday 13th December 2024 – Flu Vaccinations Catch-up Session (more details will follow)
Friday 20th December 2024 – Last day of the Autumn Term
Monday 23rd December 2024 – Friday 3rd January 2025 – Christmas Holiday
Monday 6th January 2025 – PD Day (Children are not in school)
Tuesday 7th January 2025 – First day of the Spring Term