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Dear Parents and Carers, We have a very busy few weeks coming up as we prepare for Christmas. Here is the latest news from school. PTA CHRISTMAS FAYRE NEWS
Our PTA are working extremely hard at the moment organising the Christmas Fayre. This will be held in school on the evening of Friday, 11th December. Whilst on the subject, please can we remind parents that it is Birmingham City Council’s policy that no smoking is allowed anywhere on school premises. This includes outside the buildings within school grounds. BOOK FAIR
Many thanks to everyone who came along and supported this event. Mrs Juniper sold £500 worth of books during the week. This means that we can now purchase £240 worth of new books for school.
Well done! CHILDREN IN NEED
Mufti day donations this year raised £375 for the BBC Children In Need Appeal. Many thanks! BLACK HISTORY WEEK
During Black History Week the children looked at a different person in each of the different classes and these include sports people, explorers, musicians, astronauts amongst others. The work included listening to different music, hearing life stories and aspirations and included sending a message to Mohammed Ali on his website! There are displays of some of the work produced in the entrance of the Acorns building and in the Oaks Hall. Thank you to all the children, staff and parents who helped with the work. COMENIUS PROJECT
Eight visitors from Barcelona, Spain visited our school last week as part of a two year project linking our school with Els Pins in Spain. The aim is for both schools to develop a greater understanding of how each school works and delivers lessons. Our visitors had a great time and were very impressed with how well the children worked and behaved in school. As a school, we gave our visitors a teddy bear named Chocolate, and a booklet with a class page in to take back to Spain to remember us. We look forward to continuing with this exciting project. SAMARITAN’S PURSE
We were overwhelmed by the amount of boxes sent into school for this worthy cause. These were collected last week and are now on their way to bring a little happiness to young children who usually have very little at Christmas time. A very big thank you for your generosity! MESSAGE OF THANKS FROM MRS COPE
A heartfelt thank you for the beautiful Wedgwood Photograph Frame, flowers, biscuits and cards I received on my retirement. Mrs Allen, the staff and children gave me a fantastic send off in their Assembly on 27th November. My daughter-in-law videoed the proceedings, so I can watch it over and over again at my leisure. I have always been proud to say I work at Whitehouse Common as it is a happy, caring and successful school. I will miss the children but have many happy memories to treasure. I wish you a merry and relaxing Christmas with your families and a happy and healthy New Year. Love, Helen Cope. PUPIL DESIGNED CHRISTMAS CARDS
Again, we are overwhelmed by the generosity of our parents! So far we have received through school over £1100 worth of orders. The printing company have assured us that the cards will be arriving in school this week. For parents who ordered online, items will be posted from the company directly to their home address. Obviously the company will inform us of the commission school receives from online orders once they have been dispatched. When we know the final total raised for school we will let you know. SCHOOL LUNCHES FOR PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS
We have enjoyed welcoming parents and grandparents of our pupils into school over the past few weeks at lunchtime. Both adults and children alike have really enjoyed sharing their meal time together. This has been a great success for Reception & Year 1 classes and we look forward to having more of these for other classes next term. HEALTHY SNACKS
We have recently had a new Food in Schools Policy approved by the Governing Body, and would like to inform you of certain changes we have made to our policy of healthy snacks in school. In order to continue to achieve our ‘Healthy Schools’ status, I would urge parents to only send in healthy snacks for their children to consume at playtimes. These might include dried or fresh fruit, carrot sticks, celery sticks, a healthy cereal bar (please be aware that many can contain a high level of fat or sugar), toast, scotch pancakes, pitta bread with healthy filling, or plain biscuits. We must also point out that no foods sent into school should contain nuts or nut traces of any kind. Please help us to educate the children towards a healthy lifestyle and diet. Many thanks. ATTENDANCE
Please remember to phone the absence line, before 9.15am, to inform the school if your child is ill giving details of their illness and a contact phone number. It is also very important that a “Term Time Leave Request Form” is completed at least six weeks prior to the leave being needed, so that consideration can be given to this request. Below is a table, which shows the impact absences from school have over a school year. ATTENDANCE DURING ONE SCHOOL YEAR EQUALS DAYS ABSENT WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY WEEKS ABSENT WHICH MEANS THIS NUMBER OF LESSONS MISSED
95% 9 days 2 weeks 50 lessons
90% 19 days 4 weeks 100 lessons
85% 29 days 6 weeks 150 lessons
80% 38 days 8 weeks 200 lessons
75% 48 days 10 weeks 250 lessons
70% 57 days 11.5 weeks 290 lessons
65% 67 days 13.5 days 340 lessons Children are required to attend school for 190 days each year and the target attendance for Whitehouse Common is 96.5%.
SCHOOL MEALS
The cost of school meals for the next half term (January to February half-term) will be £51.80, £1.85 per day and £9.25 per week. If you wish to pay for the full term (January until Easter) the total cost will be £105.45. PARKING
Please can we respectfully remind parents that it is ILLEGAL to park vehicles across the yellow
zig-zag area outside the school gates. The road markings are there for a specific reason which, if adhered to, should assist in the health and safety of our pupils, and other road and pavement users. Please also refrain from parking on the street corners in the area, and be mindful of not blocking residents’ driveways. Your co-operation would be very much appreciated in this matter. ACORNS BUILDING START OF DAY PROCEDURES FOR PUPILS
Please could we remind parents that at the start of the school day, pupils should be walked around the pathway alongside the school field, and use the gate near the shelter to enter the infant playground. There will always be two members of staff on duty from 8.40am, one at the gateway and another in the playground. For health and safety reasons, please do not let children enter the playground until staff are on duty. Please could we ask parents NOT to use the entrance to the playground near the Happy Hometime Club. If a child arrives after the bell has been rung at 8.50am, then they must be accompanied into the main reception area by a parent, who should then sign them in at the office. START OF DAY PROCEDURES- OAKS PLAYGROUND
For health and safety reasons, it is important that NO pupils enter the playground areas until 8.40am.
Before this time, there are no adults on duty to supervise the children. Therefore, please can we ask parents to refrain from leaving children unsupervised on school premises before the designated time. ECO TEAM NEWS
The Eco Team welcomed our Spanish visitors and our Chair of Governors to their meeting last week. They enjoyed the meeting immensely and were very impressed at how the children shared their ideas, listened to each other and agreed the next steps they need to take. FUND RAISING FOR WATER BOTTLES
Pupils across the school have been working very hard using their initiative in how to raise money to pay for new water drinking bottles. Each class came up with a different idea and a range of activities which they all took part in last week. We are now looking forward to counting all the money raised and will let you know the outcome in due course! CAROL CONCERT AT LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL
We were very proud of the pupils who were involved in the wonderful concert in Lichfield Cathedral on Wednesday evening. A group of Year 5 children and a young reader from Whitehouse Common took part and all of them performed really well! WELCOME BACK TO MRS CHECKLEY!
From January, we are looking forward to welcoming Mrs Checkley back into school after her maternity leave. Mrs Checkley will be with us for three days each week until Easter. We are pleased that Mrs McGovern will be staying with us for two days each week, also until Easter. Looking forward to seeing you all at our Christmas Fayre and concerts very soon! We have attached a useful list of key events happening in school leading up to Christmas. Regards, DEBBIE ALLEN
HEADTEACHER LATEST NEWS FROM CLASSES
RJE
RJE have enjoyed looking at a variety of different stories during our Traditional Tales topic. A particular favourite was The Emperors New Clothes. All the children were very amused when the Emperor went outside without clothes on! We have been busy making masks of our favourite
storybook characters and we are now looking forward to our forthcoming trip to Chapman's Hill Farm where we will be making our very own butter!
1DS
In 1DS we are looking at traditional tales and have enjoyed acting out stories including The Gingerbread Man, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Little Red Hen. This week we are looking at the story of Pinocchio using visual literacy. We are also starting to make puppets in DT. We had a
great trip to ThinkTank last week and enjoyed playing with toys from different periods and learning a bit more about how our bodies work. We have also enjoyed having lunch with our parents and grandparents. We are now practising our singing for the Christmas production!
2HS
2HS have enjoyed learning all about electricity. They have carried out investigations into circuits and also conductors. They have learnt how to write good, clear instructions. They have also enjoyed learning about evacuation and life in general during World War Two. The children have worked very hard during the whole term and are looking forward to Christmas.
3SG
In 3SG we have started a new topic in Geography, the weather! In Literacy, we had lots of fun writing playscripts and using puppets to perform them to the children in Reception. In maths we have been learning to tell the time and made human clocks as a class in the playground. We have also enjoyed our business enterprise afternoon, when we had a year three connect four competition.
4RD
4RD really enjoyed their visit to the museum to learn about the Romans. We were able to hold authentic Roman artefacts such as coins and pots. We found out lots of interesting facts about the Romans and had fun while learning.
5LC
Many children in Year 5 took part in the Four Oaks Community Choir at Lichfield Cathedral on Wednesday night. All pupils were wonderful ambassadors for Whitehouse Common School and provided a very enjoyable evening for both parents and staff, who attended. A big thank you to all
parents who helped with transport to and from the Cathedral. Year 5 were lucky enough to be selected for the Symphony Hall’s ‘Banded About’ project, this week. We were joined by two very skilled musicians, who shared their expertise and helped us develop our own ensemble!
6SD
6SD went on a fantastic trip to Safeside this week. The children learned a great deal about 'how to keep safe' in many different ways, including: near railway lines; crossing roads; canals and how to be safe near water; how to respond if there was a fire, the problems hoax 999 phone calls cause
etc. I expect the children have told you all about it. In addition to this they have been working hard in preparation for the Christmas production, learning lines and words to songs. They have begun a new
science topic on circuits, and have prepared questions that they will investigate. In maths the children are concentrating on Problem Solving and developing calculator skills. Much of the maths work will be beneficial to them in everyday life.
KEY EVENTS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 Tuesday 8th December Happy Hometime Club Xmas Parties 4.00pm Thursday 10th December KS2 Dress Rehearsal Oaks Hall 9.30am
(Grandparents invited to attend) Thursday 10th December Reception/KS1 Dress Rehearsal Acorns Hall 1.45pm (Grandparents invited to attend) Thursday 10th December Christmas Dinner for pupils Friday 11th December PTA Christmas Fayre 6.00pm Monday 14th December KS2 Xmas Production Oaks Hall 9.30am Monday 14th December Reception/KS1 Xmas Production
Acorns Hall 1.45pm Tuesday 15th December Reception/KS1 Xmas Production
Acorns Hall 9.30am
Tuesday 15th December KS2 Xmas Production Oaks Hall 2.00pm Thursday 17th December Xmas Parties in Classrooms from 1.30pm Friday 18th December Nursery AM Xmas Production 9.30am
(Including mince pies & coffee) Friday 18th December Nursery PM Xmas Production 1.30pm
(Including mince pies & coffee)
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