Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 309

Friday 16th May 2025

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: Owls (100%)

Assemblies

The theme of our assemblies for next week will be Walk to School Week: Why is walking so important?  (UNRC: Article 24 – I have a right to the best health possible and to medical care and to information that will help me to stay well).  The weather is lovely at the moment so why not make a plan to walk to school each day next week.  If you live too far away to walk, then maybe you could park a little way from the school and walk the last part.

Accelerated Reader

We have also had a large number of children who have recently received certificates for their reading.   A big well done to you all.

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 is 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:

Smartphones: New Survey

The South West Grid for Learning launched a new survey this month.  The survey seeks to understand the concerns, expectations and experiences that parents and carers expect to face after giving a child their first smartphone. This is a little understood area, despite the impact that smartphones have on children. With concrete insights into how families navigate this transition, the SWGfL seeks to produce a support kit to help with these issues. We would encourage any of you who have given your child a smart phone to complete the survey on the link below:

https://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/take-our-survey-share-your-experience-on-your-childs-first-smartphone/

A Plea for Wellies!

Several of the trips we take the children on are best completed wearing wellies (wellington boots) and we are finding a number of our children do not have a pair available to use.  Can we please ask that if anyone has a spare pair they are willing to donate, or a pair your child has grown out of, would you please consider donating these to the school.  We would be grateful for some extra pairs that our children can use if needed. Thank you!

Trips – Packed Lunches

We have lots of trips going out between now and the end of term.  Whilst we have always been able to provide packed lunches for those children eligible for Free School Meals, we are pleased to confirm we are now able to provide a packed lunch for any of our children who book one. 

It remains free of charge for children on Free School Meals and those in Year Reception, 1 and 2, and is at a cost of £2.52 for any other children.  Please let the office know at the time of consenting to the trip if you would like to book a packed lunch and whether your child would prefer ham or cheese.

Bake Sale: Monday 19^th May

The House Captains are excited to announce that we are running a bake sale after school from 3.15pm to 3.30pm on Monday 19^th May.  We will set up our stalls on the Astroturf outside the Year 6 classes on the KS2 playground.

If you would like to donate baked goods for us to sell please see the following points:

• Items must be handed in to your teacher by the morning of Monday 19^th May
• All items must be clearly labelled with your child’s name, house and class
• Any items that are homemade must include an ingredients list or we will unfortunately not be able to sell them.
• Any donated foods must NOT contain nuts

Items will be sold for between 20p and 50p and all proceeds will be donated to the charities the children have voted for.  Thank you for your help!

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

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

Year 5/6 Girls Cup Football

Last Thursday, the Year 5/6 girls’ football team capped off a busy run of fixtures with a return to cup football. The girls faced strong opposition as they hosted Sidegate Primary School in the Quarter finals. Having previously lost 3-1 to Sidegate in the league, the girls knew that it would be a tough game. However, with their recent impressive performances and with a place in the semi-finals up for grabs, the girls were determined to give it their best efforts! The game was a very close and competitive affair from start to finish. Both teams enjoyed their own spells of possession and created a number of opportunities to score. Equally, both teams also showed some fantastic defensive work to break up the play and win the ball back. The girls were very unlucky to head in to half time 1-0 behind from a Sidegate shot that managed to make its way through a crowded box and sneak into the bottom corner of the goal. Undeterred, the girls continued to play some fantastic football throughout the second half. Sakura made sure that the score stayed at 1-0 with a fantastic save, getting her hand to the ball to tip a long-range effort from Sidegate over the bar. The girls were very unlucky not to equalise from Isla’s shot which was stopped on the goal line by the Sidegate goalkeeper. Soon after the girls went close to equalising again when Scarlett’s shot hit the post towards the end of match. Despite the girls’ best efforts, the game finished 1-0 to Sidegate. The girls were extremely pleased with the way they had played during the match and extremely proud to have made it to the quarterfinals of the cup! 

The girls truly displayed the ‘Whitehouse Way’ during the match and Mr Jordan was extremely proud and complementary of the effort and perseverance the girls showed in their performance, not to mention the excellent football the girls played throughout the match! A special mention goes to Isla who was Mr Jordan’s ‘Player of the Match’. Well done girls on a fantastic cup run! 

Year 5/6 Girls Netball

On Thursday 8th May, the Year 6 girls were back in action with another IPSSA Netball league game. We knew this was not going to be an easy game for us given Britannia’s outstanding track record for sport and having already played them in the IPSSA Cup. However, the girls were not deterred and took to the pitch with an increased confidence from their recent league performance at Rushmere. As expected, Britannia enjoyed large spells of possession, however the girls continually tried their best and defended extremely well. Unfortunately, the team was missing a few players which meant that the team had to play the entire match without any subs. Sadly, the match finished with a win for Britannia. Despite this, the girls worked extremely hard and continued to show an increase in both their confidence and netball skills throughout the match. As always, Ms Salmon was extremely impressed with the effort, attitude and perseverance shown by all of the girls during the match. Well Done!  A special mention goes to Idunu who was chosen player of the match by Britannia, Idunu also received player of the match from Ms Salmon too. 

Sports Days

Please see below the details of the sports days this year.  We hope as many of you as possible will be able to come along and enjoy the event with us.

Reception: Easton Farm Park

On Thursday last week the Reception classes, Starfish and Seahorses, went on their first school trip. They went to Easton Farm Park to learn more about farm animals. The children were lucky enough to see many different farm animals and even luckier because they could get close enough to touch some too. They had the opportunity to touch lambs, sheep, rabbits, chicks, ducklings and a cheeky goat called Bobby!  The staff were proud of all the children as they behaved brilliantly and were so enthusiastic in their learning. Well done!

Year 5: Climate Change Workshop

Last week, the Year 5 children took part in an active workshop to help them to understand their enquiry key question ‘How is climate change affecting this world?’.  They looked at key facts around the Arctic and Antarctic and how they vary, and spoke about the impacts of Climate Change.  They also took part in some drama exercises, looking at Shackleton's journey and freeze-framing key moments, and working in role as Shackleton and a newspaper reporter in an interview situation.  The children will be able to use what they have learnt to help them to write a newspaper article.

Celebrating our Children

This week, we are pleased to celebrate the achievements of Ava in Year 1.  Ava has recently started a new dance class at Dynamite School of Dance and we were very excited to see her walk into school this week with a trophy almost as big as she was!  Ava got Star of the Week in her class and earnt herself the trophy.  Well done Ava - we are excited to see all your achievements over the coming months.

Walking to School Week 2025

With more warm and sunny weather in the forecast, what better way to enjoy it than actively travelling to school next week with the return of ‘Walk to School Week’ (Monday 19th May – Friday 23^rd May). As a school, we will again be taking part in the Living Streets – The Great Space Walk 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 Friday is a PD day, why not finish off the walking challenge as a family or with friends. 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.

Dates for the Diary

Monday 19^th May 2025 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 19^th May 2025 – House Captains Bake Sale – 3.15pm to 3.30pm

Tuesday 20^th May 2025 – Project Showcase (Years N, 1, 3 and 5)

Thursday 22^nd May 2025 – Project Showcase (Years R, 2, 4 and 6)

Friday 23^rd May 2025 – PD Day (School closed to children)

Monday 26^th May to Friday 30^th May – Half Term Holiday

Tuesday 3^rd June 2025 – Year 4 Victorian School – Hedgehogs Class

Thursday 5^th June 2025 – Year 4 Victorian School – Squirrels Class

Thursday 5^th June 2025 – Year 1 Felixstowe Beach

Monday 9^th June 2025 – Year 4 Victorian School – Foxes Class

Monday 9^th June 2025 – Year 6 Crucial Crew

Tuesday 10^th June 2025 – Year 3 Ducking Down the Deben – Owls Class

Wednesday 11^th June 2025 – Sports Day – Nursery / Reception

Thursday 12^th June 2025 – Sports Day – Years 1, 2 and 3

Friday 13^th June 2025 – Sports Day – Years 4, 5 and 6

Tuesday 17^th June 2025 – Y3 Ducking Down the Deben – Rabbits Class

Thursday 19^th June 2025 – Y2 Duxford Visit

Monday 23^rd June 2025 -Tuesday 24^th June 2025 – Year 6 Residential (Danbury)

Tuesday 24^th June 2025 – Y3 Ducking Down the Deben – Badgers Class

Wednesday 25^th June 2025 – Transition Day

Thursday 26^th June 2025 – Transition Day

Friday 27^th June 2025: SMSC Day: British Values

Friday 4^th July 2025 – Summer Fair

Tuesday 8^th July 2025 – Project Showcase (Years R, 2, 4 and 6)

Thursday 10^th July 2025 – Project Showcase (Years N, 1, 3 and 5)

Friday 11^th July 2025 – Reports Home to Parents/Carers

Wednesday 16^th July 2025 – Year 6 Production

Monday 21^st July 2025 – Year 6 Leavers BBQ

Tuesday 22^nd July 2025 – Year 6 Leavers Assembly

Tuesday 22^nd July 2025 – Last day of the Summer Term

Wednesday 23^rd July 2025 – First day of the Summer Holiday

Monday 1^st September 2025 – PD Day (School closed to children)

Tuesday 2^nd September 2025 – PD Day (School closed to children)

Wednesday 3^rd September 2025 – First day of term for the children