Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 345

Friday 17th April 2026

A Message from Miss Siddall:  Welcome back to the summer term at Whitehouse. We hope you have had a restful holiday with your families. Thank you to those of you who took the opportunity to take part in the ‘family day out’ suggestion from the homework menu. Please feel free to send in any photographs you took as we would love to be able to feature some of these in our newsletters and on our homework celebration display.

Looking forward to the term ahead, we have a Reception visit to the farm, a Y1 visit to the zoo, a Y2 visit to a working farm and a Y5 Tudors in the local area visit.  There are also several upcoming parent open sessions as well as our annual Sports Days so we look forward to seeing you soon.

Attendance: Top 3 classes with the best attendance for week ending 27^th March 2026

                                Foxes 99%    Lizards 98%     Frogs 97%

Nice work Foxes – an outstanding 99% attendance! 🦊🎉

Whole school attendance: 94.2%

Spring Term 2 100% Attendance Winner: Darsie from Rabbits 🐰🎉👏.  Well done and enjoy the £20 Amazon voucher. 

Who will win the voucher this half term?  It could be you if you are here every day, ready on time.

A Message from our Attendance Officer

This half term we are excited to introduce a very special new friend…please welcome ACE (Attending Class Everyday) bear!  ACE is our brand-new attendance hero, and he is ready to celebrate great attendance across the school.  Each week, the class with the highest attendance will get the chance to take care of ACE for the following week – what an honour!  So…which class will be looking after ACE next week? 

ACE is thrilled to be joining Whitehouse and cannot wait to see all the amazing adventures you’ll share together!

Asthma Friendly School: Gold Status

We are very pleased to announce we have recently been awarded the Gold Standard as an Asthma Friendly School which is evidence of how well the condition is understood and managed in school.  Well done to our Medical Lead, Mrs Bendell for her hard work in helping us achieve this. 

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. Well done to you all.

EYFS:

Key Stage 1:

Lower Key Stage 2:

Upper Key Stage 2:

Non-School Uniform Vouchers

Just a reminder that vouchers from the Attendance Kiosk can only be used on a Wednesday.  Those that have been given for reading can only be used on a Friday.  We would very much appreciate if this could be adhered to by all children.

Spring 2 Project Showcase

We are very pleased to share with you the winners of the Spring 2 Project Showcase.  As you can see from the photos below, as always, we had some wonderful work completed by the children in every class. 

Well done everyone, we love seeing your homework projects and are excited to see what you are working on this half term!

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

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

Inclusion Visit to The Bridge School

As part of our Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) and Centre of Excellence status, we have continued to build close links with The Bridge School with another visit to their setting. 

Before Easter, together with some of our school prefects and members of KS2, we were invited by The Bridge School to join them for an interactive music lesson and forest school session.  Our students had the opportunity to use instruments and play music alongside their Bridge peers, then work together on a spring identification hunt within their forest school area.  To complete the morning, we joined together for morning break and snack time.

As always, our pupils demonstrated exemplary behaviour throughout the visit and it was wonderful to see them engage and work alongside their peers.  We were very proud to see their inclusive approach as they interacted with students and adults throughout the visit.  We look forward to welcoming The Bridge back to Whitehouse this term to continue to develop our partnership.

SEND Regional Events: Belonging Together

There are some events coming up aimed at families who have a child with SEND, which are designed to offer a welcoming space where you can access information, guidance and local services as well as connect with others.  Each event will include a range of stallholders, two workshops on relevant topics and refreshments available throughout. You are welcome to bring your children with you, there will be a dedicated area with toys for them.  For more information and to book a space please see below.

Accelerated Reader

A big well done to all the children below who have recently received certificates for their reading.

Toilet Training Workshop

Are you struggling with toilet training your child?  Are they due to start school soon and you are worried about toilet training?  Highfields Nursery will be holding an information session within our Nursery (Marlow Road entrance), where you can get lots of advice.  Please see the poster for more information.

Bags of Taste

Do you worry about the cost of living and providing your family with healthy meals?  If so, why not sign up for this upcoming course which can help you learn some healthy, tasty meals. All ingredients will be provided free of charge and there is lots of support.  Please see the poster for details of how to sign up.

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 21^st April 2026 – NHS Parent/Carer Workshop: Anxiety – 2.00pm to 3.00pm

Wednesday 22^nd April 2026 – Year 2 Shimpling Farm Trip - Cobras

Wednesday 22^nd April 2026 – Story Sack Course begins (sign up required)

Wednesday 22^nd April 2026 – Year 5 Parent/Carer Session – 9.15am – 9.45am

Thursday 23^rd April 2026 – Year 2 Shimpling Farm Trip – Dragons

Friday 24^th April 2026 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Friday 24^th April 2026 – Year 1 Colchester Zoo Trip

Monday 27^th April 2026 – Year 2 Shimpling Farm Trip – Frogs

Tuesday 28^th April 2026 – Year 3 French Day

Tuesday 28^th April 2026 – NHS Parent/Carer Workshop: Emotion Regulation – 2.00pm to 3.00pm

Thursday 30^th April 2026 – Year R Easton Farm Park Trip

Friday 1^st May 2026 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Monday 4^th May 2026 – Bank Holiday

Friday 8^th May 2026 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Friday 15^th May 2026 – Family Breakfast – 8.00am

Friday 22^nd May 2026 – PD Day (School closed to Children)

Monday 25^th May 2026 to Friday 29^th May 2026 – Half Term Holiday

Monday 22^nd June to Tuesday 23^rd June 2026 – Year 6 Residential Trip to Mersea

Tuesday 14th July 2026 – Year 6 Production- 9.30am and 6.00pm

Friday 17th July 2026 – Year 6 Leavers Picnic and Assembly – 1.50pm