Whitehouse Weekly Bulletin 357

Friday 17th July 2026

A Message from Miss Siddall:  

It has been an incredibly busy year and we are all so proud of everything the children have achieved. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the children for being enthusiastic learners, the parents for their continued support and the wonderful staff for their hard work and commitment. We would like to wish our very best to the Year 6 children who are heading off to their different High Schools. We would also like to say goodbye and good luck to the staff who are leaving us. We hope you all have a great summer break and we look forward to seeing the children back in school on Thursday 3^rd September.  

Inclusion Award

We are absolutely delighted to share some wonderful news with you. Following our recent, rigorous assessment, our school has officially been awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) with Flagship Status!  The IQM is a nationally recognised award that is granted to schools demonstrating exceptional inclusive practice with Flagship status being the highest possible accolade within the IQM Award framework. It is exclusively awarded to schools that have sustained IQM "Centre of Excellence" status for multiple years and actively lead best practices across wider school networks.

During the visit, the IQM assessor observed school practices and met with pupils, staff, governors, parent and carers. They looked closely at how our inclusive practice ensures that every child is valued, supported and enabled to achieve their full potential, and concluded that: ‘The school continues to move from strength to strength in terms of its superb inclusive practice.’

This award reflects the hard work, dedication and collaboration of everyone involved in our school. We are grateful to our pupils, families, governors and staff, who have helped create a culture where inclusion is at the heart of everything we do and are particularly proud that our IQM Flagship report states: ‘At Whitehouse, difference is welcomed, valued and encouraged. From Nursery to Year 6, pupils embrace diversity.’

As an IQM Flagship School, we will continue to work with other schools across the country, sharing effective practice and learning from others to further strengthen our provision. We would like to thank you for your ongoing support and partnership. Together, we have created a school community that celebrates diversity, promotes belonging, and enables every child to flourish.

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:

Governor Awards

We are pleased to share with you the list of children who have been presented with Governor Awards for their wonderful efforts during this school year.  We are so proud of all of our children.

Attendance: Top 3 classes with the best attendance for week ending 10^th July 2026

                           Foxes (98%)   Lizards (97%)   Cobras (96%) 

             Whole School Attendance: 92%

A Message from Mrs Sharkey, Our Attendance Officer

What a fantastic year for attendance we have had!!  ACE is now off on his holidays and wishes you all a wonderful summer break! 

ACE and I cannot wait to welcome you back to school on Thursday 3^rd September.  We are so excited to hear all about the amazing adventures you’ve been on and the fun you’ve had over the holidays.

Have a safe, happy and relaxing summer!  We will see you in September!

Safeguarding: Summer Holiday

During the school holidays, the school safeguarding team only monitors their email address (parents@whcps.org) daily, in the morning.  If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.  For other serious or urgent issues, contact Suffolk’s Customer First directly on 0808 800 4005, rather than waiting for a reply from the school. 

Children and young people can contact Childline free and confidentially on 0800 1111.

Parents and Carers can contact the NSPCC helpline on 0800 800 5000.

Additionally, if a child or young person is struggling with their mental health they can text YM to 85258 for free for 24/7 crisis support.  Parents/Carers wanting advice can contact the YoungMinds parents’ helpline on 0808 802 5544.

School Timings

A number of our children will be moving to new Key Stages in school when they return in September, so a quick reminder of the start and finish times for our children.

Reception:               School starts: 8.50am / School finishes: 3.20pm

KS1 (Years 1-2):       School starts: 8.45am / School finishes: 3.15pm

KS2 (Years 3-6):      School starts: 8.40am / School finishes: 3.10pm

Wake Up and Walk

The beginning of this week saw the return of our annual Daily Mile inspired ‘Wake Up & Walk’ event. The event, organised by Mr Jordan, encouraged pupils, parents and carers to take part in a 2 lap walk around the KS2 field before school.

As with previous ‘Wake Up & Walk’ events, there was a fantastic turn out by both pupils and parent/carers with an impressive 141 pupils and 38 parents/carers taking part during the KS1 & KS2 events!

It was fantastic to see so many of our pupils and parents/carers enjoying the physical, mental and social benefits from the early morning exercise. Mr Jordan would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that helped to make our ‘Wake Up & Walk’ event another massive success!

Summer 2 Project Showcase

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the Summer 2 Project Showcase below.  As you can see from just the few photos below, we had some wonderful work completed by the children in every class.  Well done everyone, we love seeing your homework projects.

Attendance: Duck Race Winners

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

Year 4 Travelled back in time for a day!

Year 4 had a fantastic experience at the Victorian School, where they learned songs and practised reading and writing on slates and on paper using ink and dip pens.  They even had a chance to play with authentic Victorian toys, such as spinning tops and metal hoops!

In the afternoon, each class was split into two groups.  The girls learned how to make lavender bags, while the boys sketched animals. The day was incredibly immersive, allowing the children to step back in time and experience what life was really like as a Victorian scholar.  The authentic artefacts and carefully recreated surroundings made the experience feel realistic and truly brought history to life.  Many of the children said they would remember this trip forever and some would love to return.

The group were especially grateful for the encouragement the children received throughout the day.  The Headmistress and her assistants’ warmth and enthusiasm made every one of our children feel valued and special.  It was a fun and memorable visit that greatly enriched the enquiry learning.

Summer Fair

Last Friday, Ms Salmon and the PFA put together what we think you'll all agree was an amazing Summer Fair! It was fantastic to see so many people turn out for it, watching our families walk around the field with smiles on their faces was great. We had over 10 external stalls and over 14 of our own from chocolate/sweet tombola stalls to our very popular ‘soak the teacher’. Everyone enjoys the chance to get their own back there! We would like to say a massive thankyou to Starbucks for their very kind donations, the children absolutely loved making their own refreshing drinks! 

A big thank you to the PFA and Ms Salmon for their hours of preparation, without them these events wouldn't happen!, A big thank you to all who stayed and helped with a stall. We would like to announce we raised an outstanding amount of £1,810.80.

Quadkids Events

Last Tuesday, Mr Jordan & Mrs Welham took a team of Year 5 and 6 pupils to take part in the annual U11 Quadkids event and on Wednesday, Ms Salmon and Miss Greenacre took a team of Year 3 and 4 pupils to the same event which was held at Northgate Sports Centre. Quadkids is an athletics event which involves teams competing in a rotation of 4 separate events made up of two running events (75m sprint and 600m race for U11s and 60m and 400m for U9s), a throwing event (Vortex Howler throw) and a jumping event (standing long jump). Quadkids is always a very popular event in the sports calendar, and this year was no exception with 38 teams from 36 different schools taking part.

Each school was allocated a country to represent during the event, our pupils represented the Maldives. The event began and finished with an opening and closing ceremony in which each school/team walked around the running track waving their flags and banners of their respective country. Despite the extra hot conditions, the team gave each event their absolute best effort. Mr Jordan and Ms Salmon were extremely proud of the team’s performance and also their impeccable behaviour, they were an absolute credit to our school. We both would like to thank the parents/carers who came to support the children during their events, support is always very much appreciated! The U11s came a very respectable 28th position whilst the U9's came a very impressive 14th. Well done to all that participated!

House Captain Elections 2026

Over the past two weeks a number of our Year 5 children have applied to become the next House Captains. After a successful application letter, some of our pupils then produced a video to explain why they would make a good House Captain and also their vision of how they would lead their respective houses. These videos were then shared with the whole school along with ballot papers for the children to cast their votes.

After a nervous wait for the candidates, the votes have been counted and the results are in! 

The elected House Captains are as follows:

Well done to everyone who put themselves forward and to those who were elected

PE Awards: Effort and Contribution

The first award recognises pupils’ that continually give 100% effort and make excellent contributions within their PE lessons. The recipients of this award have been chosen with the help of their class teachers and members of staff that have delivered PE to the class throughout the year. Congratulations goes to the following pupils:

End of KS1

End of KS2

PE and Sports Award

The second award celebrates two pupils’ fantastic achievements and persistent excellent effort, behaviour and attitude to learning within PE. The award also commends pupils’ commitment to PE, extra-curricular sports and also sporting activities within/outside of school. This prestigious award goes to the following pupils:

Well done to you all, this was thoroughly deserved!

Accelerated Reader

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

Dates for the Diary

Friday 17^th July 2026 – Last day of the Summer Term for the children

Monday 20^th July 2006 – PD Day (School closed to the children)

Tuesday 1^st September 2026 – PD Day (School closed to the children)

Wednesday 2^nd September 2026 – PD Day (School closed to the children)

Thursday 3^rd September 2026 – First day of Autumn Term for the children

Friday 11^th September 2026 – Non-Uniform Day for Ruby House

Monday 26^th October 2026 to Friday 30^th October 2026 – Half Term Holiday

Friday 18^th December 2026 – Last day of the Autumn Term