Western Primary School Newsletter No 9
26th March 2008
Dear Parents/Carers
I hope you had a Happy Easter.
As you know, this year the Spring Holiday has not coincided with the Easter weekend. We have seven more days of school before this vacation begins. School closes for two weeks at 3.30pm on Friday 4th April. We reopen on Monday 21st April. Apologies for any confusion over the closing date.
Diocesan Inspection
As a voluntary controlled school, we need to have a Diocesan Inspection within eight weeks of the OFSTED inspection. Mr Robin Thomas will be undertaking our inspection on Wednesday 23rd April. He will focus on the following four areas:
- How well does the school, through its distinctive character, meet the needs of all learners?
- What is the impact of Collective Worship on the school community?
- How effective is the provision of Religious Education?
- How effective is the leadership and management of the school as a Church school?
Mr Thomas will spend time talking to children, staff, parents and governors during the day and will observe the KS1 Birthday Assembly and the KS2 Celebration Assembly.
You are invited to complete and return the attached Diocesan Questionnaire. Please can you return this form by Friday 4th April? Thank you for your continued support.
PTA Easter Egg Hunt
My thanks to the PTA Committee members and volunteers who helped to make this year’s Easter Egg Hunt such a success. Well done to all the children who took part in the various competitions. This event raised £600. Thank you for your generous support for all the PTA events. The money raised makes a huge difference to the educational experiences we can offer to the children eg. interactive whiteboards, library books.
Competition Winners!
QUIZ TEAM
Congratulations to our Quiz Team (Doug Rigden, George Ellis, Theodora Trebacz and Fergus O’Dowd) and the reserves (Rosie Berkin, Hugh Warden and Ben Duncan) who competed in the Inter-Schools Quiz Championships and WON! As Area Heat winners, they now go forward to the Regional Competition to be held in Camberley next week. We wish them luck!
CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
Congratulations to all the children who competed in the Inter-Schools Cross Country Championship. The children did brilliantly and showed an excellent team spirit. There were four teams of six children representing Years 3, 4, 5, and 6. Individual medal winners, deserving special mention, are:
Callum Rigden – Year 6 gold
Rory McCallum – Year 5 gold
Will Stafford – Year 5 silver
Hannah Thursfield – Year 4 silver
Thomas Steggall – Year 4 silver
LACROSSE TOURNAMENT
Well done to the two Lacrosse Teams who took part in the local tournament earlier this term. James Gibney, Annabel Penfound, Sam Martin, Toby Sylvester, Leon Henry, Erica Brown, Maddie Donald, Ewan Penty-Gereats made up the team who were runners up and they will represent the school at the regional tournament.
SCHOOL COMPETITION
We ran a competition to Design a Sign for the Friendship Bench. The winning design was drawn by Thea Willmott in Year 4. The runner up was Alex Wilson in Year 1. We will have the signs made as soon as possible and they will be displayed on the playground.
Drinking Water at School
We encourage children to drink water during the school day, including playtime and lunchtime.
It is very important for their health and to help them learn and concentrate. It is recommended that children drink 6-8 glasses of water a day (more in hot weather), to ensure they do not become dehydrated. Dehydration can contribute to headaches, tiredness, poor concentration, reduced mental performance, irritability and health problems. Pure unsweetened fruit juice counts as one of the five recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables. It is advised that cartons/containers of juice should not be sipped during the day and are therefore better suited to lunchboxes. Sweet drinks are less healthy and are not as effective at rehydration as water. They can also damage teeth.
If we work together on this, we can get the message across. Thank you for your support.
Summer Term Dress Code
In anticipation of warm, sunny weather in the summer term, please can I remind you of the summer dress code? Boys can wear navy blue or grey shorts but they should be smart in appearance (not three quarter length shorts or sports shorts). Girls can wear blue and white striped or blue and white checked summer dresses. Flip flops, coloured trainers, strappy sandals or sandals with heels should be confined to after school, weekends and holidays (coloured trainers can be worn at lunchtime but children will need to change back into school shoes afterwards).
Thank you to everyone who has supported the school’s dress code this year. The children have looked smart and it gives them a greater sense of belonging to the school community.
When it is sunny, we encourage the children to wear sun hats – school baseball caps and legionnaire style caps are available from our uniform supplier – Direct4schools.com. Coloured team T-shirts are also available for PE and games lessons and forthcoming team events.
Parking
Some residents on Browning Drive have phoned the school to ask us to remind you not to obstruct access to their homes.
Please drive with care and consideration for residents and pedestrians. The School Travel Plan has been submitted to the Local Authority. If successful, it will enable us to fund some improvements to the entrance to the school and make this area safer for pedestrians.
Dinner Money
Just a reminder that, from Monday 21st April, the cost of a school lunch will be £1.90. The weekly cost will be £9.50. If paying for the half term, the cost for the first half term will be £45.60 and, for the second half term, £72.20. Please make cheques payable to ‘Hampshire County Council’.
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a relaxing spring holiday.
Yours sincerely
Lorraine Smith
Headteacher