Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin

Friday 13th December 2024

A Message from Miss Siddall

In school, the children have been carrying out lots of activities to prepare for Christmas and I’m very proud of how well they’ve conducted themselves during these past few busy weeks.  Next week is the last week of school so it’s nearly time for everybody to have a rest.  However, next week, is also a busy one so please check your diaries carefully – there are the school Christmas dinners, the Reception nativity, open sessions in most year groups and of course the project showcases (YR, 2, 4 and 6 on Tuesday; YN, 1, 2 and 5 on Thursday) straight after school.   Finally, we are looking forward to seeing lots of families at our Christmas Fair today.

Thank you for your continued support.

Attendance for the week before half term:

Class with the best attendance: Lions (97.83%)

Parent/Carer Sessions

Please note we are excited to be able to invite parent/carers into school over the next week for the following sessions:

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be The Festive Period: How do people celebrate?  (UNRC: Article 14 – I have the right to think what I like and be whatever religion I want to be, with my parents’ guidance).  The children will also be learning a festive song, why not ask them to share it with you?

House Captain Competition

This half term the House Captains have been busy checking classrooms to see which of our classes are respecting our school environment by keeping it tidy!  The winning class in each year will be announced early next week and their prize will be a non-uniform day on Friday 20^th December 2024!  Watch this space!

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:

Science Ambassadors

Congratulations to the following pupils who have been chosen as this year’s Science Ambassadors.  With their help, children across the school will have access to the important science equipment they need to learn and be able to participate in lunchtime activities which promote a love of science.  Well done to:

Grace, Amelia, Ellie and Ite in Jaguars

Ema in Pandas

Domas, Alaina and Peace in Lizards

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

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

Suffolk Libraries Blank Page Project

The Blank Page Project is an exciting programme providing free high-quality activities run by professional local artists at Ipswich County Library and selected Suffolk Libraries during the school holidays.  The free, creative activities, give 10-16-year olds the chance to express their creativity through a range of mediums.  From textiles, to interactive video game, fiction and filmmaking, there is something for everyone to enjoy!

We have been talking about this project in our KS2 assemblies and there are also displays in our KS2 library.  For further information or to book a place on one or more workshops, please visit: https://www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/resources/the-blank-page-project?e6ae108a_page=4 or contact Katie Puls on email at katie.puls@suffolklibraries or calling on 07380 193784.

Accelerated Reader

We are very pleased to be able to celebrate with the following children who have all earned certificates for their reading.  A big well done to you all, we are very proud of you!

Book Fair

Many thanks to all of those who attended our recent book fair.  As a result of your generosity we have managed to earn reward vouchers which have enabled us to purchase some fantastic new titles for each of our school libraries.  We would also like to say a huge thank you to our school prefects for their excellent help on the day:  Ruari, Lucas, Vana, Sakura Isla, Vina, Amelia S and Amelia J.  To help us promote our book fair, children were given a mini flyer they could hand in at the fair and enter a free prize draw to win a book.  Our seven lucky prize-winners were presented with their books last week.  Well done to Jose (Reception), Autumn (Year 1), Tito (Year 2), Grace (Year 3), Willow (Year 4), Vana and Amelia S (Year 6). 

Online Winter Mini Reading Challenge

The Reading Agency have just introduced a Winter Mini Challenge, which is fun and can boost your child’s reading confidence.  It takes place from December 2024 to February 2025 and is free to take part.  You can register at the following link: https://wintermini.org.uk/ and each time your child logs in and reviews a book they will earn points.  The challenge is to read three or more books between 1^st December 2024 to 20^th February 2025 and add these to their profile.  When they reach their reading goal, they will unlock a special online badge and get a certificate of achievement. 

If your child takes part, please encourage them to bring their certificates into school to share!

BBC 500 Words

Earlier this year, a number of children across the school submitted an entry to the BBC 500 Words competition. We are very pleased to announce that after the first round of judging, three entries have made it to the next round. A massive congratulations to Daniel in Ocelots, Amelia J in Chameleons and Rapha in Toucans. This is a huge achievement as tens of thousands of entries were submitted and only approximately a final 5,000 stories make it this far. We will hear further news in January if any of these entries are shortlisted for the final. All children who submitted to this national competition showed great imagination in their stories and in recognition of this, all received a certificate after the deadline. Well done everyone who joined in and a special congratulations to those three children who have made it to the next round! 

Attendance Update

As we rapidly approach the Christmas break we are finding that our children are still suffering with seasonal coughs and colds. Remember, unless your child has a temperature, then we are more than happy to have them in school. If they do need to be off school, please do remember to call the school each day of their absence so we know where they are and the reason for their absence.  We continue to celebrate attendance with our weekly duck races and extra golden time. In addition to this, we have our parent/carer raffle and this half term we have an extra special prize! In the new year we will be launching a new exciting incentive for our children, there is some building going on at both ends of the school to allow for this… I wonder if the children will notice? 

Online Safety: The ABC Checklist

With Christmas just around the corner, the holiday period is a great time to look at the devices being used in your home and ensure they are set up correctly with any parental features you feel are appropriate for your child.  One frustrating issue is that the available features and how you set devices up differ.  To help with this, Internet Matters have really good non-techie guides which you can follow as part of their ABC Checklists.  ABC stands for:

• A – Activate parental controls
• B – Balance screen time
• C – Check and chat

Follow the link here to get started:  https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/abc-online-safety-checklist/

Resources

Can we remind parents/carers that the children do not need to bring in any personal equipment and pencil cases into school as the school provide everything that the children need.  We ask items to be left at home as it avoids items being lost or causing the children distractions.  Thank you for your co-operation.

Dates for the Diary

Monday 16^th December 2024 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 16^th December 2024 – Reception Nativity

Monday 16^th December 2024 – Christmas Dinner – Year 1

Monday 16^th December 2024 – Year 4 Christingle Service – St Thomas the Apostle Church

Tuesday 17^th December 2024 – Christmas Dinner – Year 2

Tuesday 17^th December 2024 – Year 3 Parent/Carer Christmas Crafts Session – 1.30pm

Tuesday 17^th December 2024 – Year 2 Parent/Carer Christmas Crafts Session – 2.00pm

Tuesday 17^th December 2024 – Autumn 2 Project Showcase (Reception, Years 2, 4 and 6)

Wednesday 18^th December 2024 – Christmas Dinner – Year R and Year 3

Wednesday 18^th December 2024 – Year 1 Parent/Carer Christmas Craft Session – 2.00pm

Wednesday 18^th December 2024 – Year 6 Parent/Carer DT Anderson Shelter – 9.15am

Thursday 19^th December 2024 – Nursery Parent/Carer Share Session – 10.30am

Thursday 19^th December 2024 – Christmas Dinner – Year 4

Thursday 19^th December 2024 – Helping Hands 2.00pm-3.00pm

Thursday 19^th December 2024 – Reception – Parent/Carer Christmas Crafts/Games Session – 2.00pm

Thursday 19^th December 2024 – Autumn 2 Project Showcase (Nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5)

Friday 20^th December 2024 – Christmas Dinner – Year 5 and 6

Friday 20^th December 2024 – Last day of the Autumn Term

Monday 23^rd December 2024 – Friday 3^rd January 2025 – Christmas Holiday

Monday 6^th January 2025 – PD Day (Children are not in school)

Tuesday 7^th January 2025 – First day of the Spring Term

Thursday 9^th January 2025 - Open Morning for Reception 2025 children

Tuesday 14^th January 2025 – Parent/Carer Reading Course Begins (Reception / Y1)

Monday 20^th January 2025 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 27^th January 2025 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 17^th February 2025 to Friday 21^st February 2025 – Half Term Holiday