Great Tew School Newsletter Issue 254 Friday 18 TH March 2016

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1 Great Tew School Newsletter Issue 254 Friday 18 TH March 2016 News from School Council On Tuesday 22 nd March the School Council have organised a cake sale to raise money for the charity voted for by the children Helen and Douglas House Hospice. A flyer has been sent home today with the details on but, basically it s this: All cakes will cost 50p The children will be allowed to buy 1 cake only at morning break time The rest of the cakes will be available for parents/carers to buy in the Hall from 3pm in the afternoon We are asking you at home to support us in this by getting the baking tins out! Please do help if you can because if you don t bring in the cakes we won t be able to sell them. To make it easier on the day, we ask you to make individual cakes or to cut up any large cakes or tray bakes into individual portions to save us having to get the sharp knives out! Thank you! News from Reception This week we ve been focusing on the story Handa s Surprise which led us onto thinking about living in a hot climate. We looked at the animals in the story and then added a few more that live in hot climates. We then thought about all the different fruit in the story and tried to make the biggest list of fruit ever! I think we managed somewhere near 20 see if you can think of as many as us! For snack we tasted a variety of different fruits as well as the usual bananas, apples and pears. We tried lime, lemon, grapefruit, pomegranate and pineapple. Some tasted better than others but you d be surprised how many enjoyed the sour citrus flavours. In Maths we have been looking at time and direction. It would be great if you could continue to practise using the associated language at home as the children always find it challenging to work out analogue clocks but are definitely getting there! As for left and right, a quick game of Simon Says proved to be very popular with Simon saying put your left hand in the air or stamp your right foot. Popular but not necessarily accurate! Finally, Miss Read and Mrs Martin were very proud of all the children taking part in the Sport Relief Mile event. I think it can be summed up with the headline From tears to triumph with everybody taking part and some running as far as the older children or even further. All the children listened to instructions so knew where they needed to be and what they should be doing and they were fantastic Well done, Reception Class! Interest Table: We have some wonderful things on our Interest Table and there s still time to bring something in to show us if you haven t already done so. The theme is still Easter so try to think of something associated with the celebration that we might not already have. Now there s a challenge! News from Years 1 & 2 The children have all started to write their own version of Handa s Hen using their imaginations to change the story to write about their own characters such as Tinkerbell s Turtle and Chloe s Cat. Using story maps we practised telling our stories first which really helped us to formulate quality sentences before putting pencil to paper. Our writing targets have included the accurate use of question marks, apostrophes for possession and capital letters for names. In maths this week Year 1 children have explored odd and even numbers, counting in twos and doubles. Year 2 children have started to explore how to represent multiplication sums as an array and the multiplication facts for the 2, 5 and 10

2 times tables. It would really help your child if you could find some time over the holidays to practise these number facts. Year 1 children could practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Our art topic has given us a lovely messy week using fingers and 2D shapes to create some beautiful printing patterns. The children really worked hard to perfect their technique, making sure they didn t use too much paint and investigating the printed shapes that they could achieve to create their patterns. News from Years 3 & 4 A busy week with assessments and parents evenings but we still squeezed in cooking chocolate Easter cakes and giving Miss Butler a good send off! We have been developing our stories for The Deddington Writing Festival and continuing our Times Table Challenges and the Year 3 children thoroughly enjoyed the Chipping Norton Schoolympics. Sporting Hero: Phyllida - a leading light and showing great throwing skills. A great role model to our Yr 2's. Year 3 & 4 on the Bouldering Wall Home Learning Hero: Ben - who despite being quite poorly lately always tries SO hard with his Home Learning Tasks. The Stone Age Rocks! Year 3 and 4 children had a very informative afternoon on Friday when Dr Thompson, Sophie and James dad, popped into school to tell us all about his mountaineering adventures. At the beginning of the term we welcomed 22 parents/grandparents to our Stone Age Day. Dr Thompson came to finalise our topic... 'Did the Stone Age Rock?' In 2003, after two attempts and ten years of planning, Dr Thompson finally achieved his goal of climbing Mount Everest. He shared with us his grit, determination and the need for the right mind set to follow your dreams and achieve great things. He brought in slides and the actual equipment he used and shared the highs as well as the lows of climbing the world's tallest mountain. With their recent trip to The Creation Climbing Wall in Birmingham clearly in their minds the children tried on his climbing equipment for size and asked some very probing questions about what it was like to actually climb Everest. Dr Thompson talked about the hard decision of having to leave his friend to continue the climb with strangers and the exhilaration of finally reaching the summit of Everest. We were amazed to find out that there is only a 7-10 day window of reaching the summit each year. This term we certainly believed the Stone Age Rocked. But we also found out that our Year 3/4 parents rocked too! They are a talented bunch and certainly inspired us! Miss Mannion would like to say a big thank you to them all.

3 Year 2 & 3 Schoolympics at Chipping Norton School What a pleasure to take the Year 2 and 3 children from Great Tew this week to Chipping Norton School! Their behaviour was excellent and every single person threw themselves into an afternoon of sporting activities. They mixed well with the three other schools competing and followed every instruction given by the Sports Leaders from Chipping Norton School. A lovely afternoon where we really got to know each other. News From the Great Tew School Trust As Mrs Miles was kind enough to introduce members of the Great Tew School Trust at Assembly on 4th March, I thought that I would just say something about the Trust for those of you who may not be aware of our role. Essentially we are a charity whose principal remit, as stated in the Trust Deed, is to advance the education of the pupils of Great Tew School. The Trust was set up in 1998 at a time when the school was in danger of losing a teacher because of the pressure on Oxfordshire school budgets. Thanks to the generosity of parents and other supporters, over time we managed to build a reserve of about 50,000, as well as to support the school in various activities. Recently the presence of the reserve enabled the Trust to supplement the wonderful fund raising achievements of the New Build Appeal Team (NBAT), in raising money for the new building and the all weather pitch, without which this huge capital project would not have been possible. We are in the process of producing a leaflet to give information about the Trust and, hopefully, to encourage you to support us. Since the Trust is a charity we are able to claim gift aid, which adds 25% to donations. Sven Hammarling, Chair, Great Tew School Trust. Sport Relief Mile What a fabulous turnout for our Sport Relief Mile on Friday morning! We had the whole school plus some Mums and Dads joining in and those that didn t run, walk or bunny hop(!) offered their support with lots of cheers and clapping (which helped to keep their hands warm too). Each person taking part had to do 5 laps to reach their mile and could then chose to do more if they still had the energy. It wasn t a race so nobody gets a prize for coming in first or for running the furthest distance, however all those taking part had a Sport Relief sticker to show they had done their bit. Some sponsorship forms have already been returned to the school office but we ll give you the Easter Holidays to finish collecting in all your sponsorship money so there s no rush! All those who return a sponsorship form with donations to school will receive an official Sport Relief certificate so please do what you can to support this very worthwhile charity. Thank you.

4 And Finally a Farewell to Miss Butler We were very sad to say farewell on Friday to Miss Butler, who has been with us as a Teaching Assistant since September, following in that Butler tradition! Miss Butler has been a truly exceptional member of our team committed, energetic, capable and hard-working and always with a smile on her face and she is leaving us to go travelling. We have all enjoyed having Miss Butler with us at Great Tew for the past two terms and wish her fun and adventure on her travels. A very big thank you to Nell for all that she has done we will all miss her. Miss Hardy will be supervising Breakfast Club from Monday 21 st March. With best wishes, Mrs Lucy Miles Bag2School Our Bag2School collection will take place on Wednesday 20 th April. Bags will be sent home this week. Please start tidying out those cupboards and let s try to make this our biggest collection yet. The following good quality items are accepted: Men s, Ladies and Children s clothing Paired shoes (tied together or elastic band around) Handbags Hats Bags Scarves and ties Jewellery Lingerie Belts Soft toys The following are not accepted: Duvets, bedding, blankets and household linen Pillows and cushions Carpets, rugs and mats Curtains Towels Soiled, painted, ripped or wet clothing School uniforms but don t forget that good quality uniform can be donated to the school to be sold second-hand Corporate clothing and workwear Textile off cuts, yarns or threaded material

5 Dates for Your Diary Easter Events Tuesday 22 nd March Wednesday 23 rd March Wednesday 23 rd March Thursday 24 th March Egg rolling and egg hunt (children to bring a decorated egg to roll!) Cake Sale in support of Helen & Douglas House Hospice Easter Service at St Michael s Church (9am) everyone welcome Followed by: Easter Bonnet Parade children walk back to school in their Easter bonnets Term finishes at 2pm INSET Day no school for children Monday 11 th April Summer Term begins

6 Great Tew Primary School Term Dates for Autumn Term 1 Wednesday 2 nd September to Wednesday 21 st October at 3.15pm (INSET days on 1 st September, 22 nd October & 23 rd October) HALF TERM Monday 26 th October to Friday 30 th October (plus INSET on Thursday 22 nd & Friday 23 rd October) Autumn Term 2 Monday 2 nd November to Friday 18 th December at 2pm CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY Monday 21 st December to Friday 1 st January (plus INSET day on Monday 4 th January) Spring Term 1 Tuesday 5 th January to Friday 12 th February at 3.15pm HALF TERM Monday 15 th February to Friday 19 th February Spring Term 2 Monday 22 nd February to Wednesday 23 rd March at 2pm (Thursday 24 th March is INSET day) EASTER HOLIDAY Friday 25 th March to Friday 8 th April (plus INSET day on Thursday 24 th March) Summer Term 1 Monday 11 th April to Friday 27 th May at 3.15pm (with May Day Bank Holiday on Monday 2 nd May) HALF TERM Monday 30 th May to Friday 3 rd June Summer Term 2 Monday 6 th June to Wednesday 20 th July at 2pm INSET (Staff Training) DAYS no school for children on these days: Tuesday 1 st September Thursday 22 nd and Friday 23 rd October Monday 4 th January Thursday 24 th March TERM DATES Autumn Term 1 begins Wednesday 2 nd September Autumn Term 1 ends Wednesday 21 st October at 3.15pm Autumn Term 2 starts Monday 2 nd November Autumn Term 2 ends Friday 18 th December at 2.00pm Spring Term 3 starts Tuesday 5 th January Spring Term 3 ends Friday 12 th February at 3.15pm Spring Term 4 starts Monday 22 nd February Spring Term 4 ends Wednesday 23 rd March at 2pm Summer Term 5 starts Monday 11 th April Summer Term 5 ends Friday 27 th May at 3.15pm Summer Term 6 starts Monday 6 th June Summer Term 6 ends Wednesday 20 th July at 2pm