Tuesday 24 November 2009

RE Displays in Key Stage 1 and Foundation

There are some stunning displays up in the corridors at the moment. Class JC have a display called 'Jesus calmed the storm'. Foundation have a display about Jonah and the Whale.














After school tennis club

22 children from key stage 2 have been taking part in weekly tennis lessons after school on Mondays with an outside coach: Anthony.

Children in Need Day in School

The school was full of teddies last Friday. Each one paid a contribution towards Children in Need. The total raised was £175.
Some of the teddies joined in with maths in Key Stage 1 and Music in KS2.
One very large teddy made itself comfortable in the staffroom.
At the end of the day two characters from Star Wars appeared on the front playground.




































Football Match v Debenham

Our school team played a match v Debenham Primary last Friday. Fram won the game 10 -0 with Charlie scoring 6, Billy 3 and Josh 1 goal. We have a very strong team this year and hope to do well in the district cup and league.


Friday 20 November 2009

New Raised beds for Foundation classes

We have recently had some beautiful raised mades made for each of our foundation outdoor classrooms. These will be well used by the children in the Spring and Summer. The Nursery have put some Winter pansies in theirs already.









Children make large scale Christmas crib

A group of children from each key stage 2 class came together with Mrs Dwyer to make some characters for a super size Christmas crib: shepherd, wise man, Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus and an angel.
We started off by making wire frames for the bodies. These were covered in newspaper. This was then covered in 'mod roc'. This is like plaster of Paris. It looks like bandages. They are dipped in water are stuck onto the body.
Rolled up newspapers were used for the arms and attached to the body with pieces of wire.
Balloons were used for the heads - covered in newspaper and mod roc.
We also made accessories for the characters such as gifts, crown, halo, head dress and a crook.
This activity was great fun and we can't wait to see the finished characters. Once they are dry they will be spray painted.
By Olivia, Jessie, Ross, Jasmine and all the other children who took part.



























































































WHOLE SCHOOL LETTER (13)

IMPORTANT DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
MATHEMATICS WORKSHOP – 12 JANUARY 2010

· Are you confused by what mathematics your child is doing?
· Would you like to know more about the strategies your child is learning?
· Do you find yourself saying ‘That’s not how we did it in my day’?
We are holding a workshop for parents to work alongside their children to discover how your child is learning skills for addition and subtraction. (Multiplication and division will be covered in a further workshop in April.) We will also be giving out our school Calculation Policy which gives clear guidelines for what your child will be learning at each stage.
There will be an afternoon session 1:30- 3:00pm and an evening session 6:00 – 7:30pm.
We would strongly encourage you to come along.. There will be a crèche. More details will follow.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH – TUESDAY 15 DECEMBER 2009
In past years children have asked for a vegetarian meal on Christmas dinner day even though they aren’t vegetarians. If your child would like to try the vegetarian option - chick pea Wellington which is a pastry dish - please complete the slip overleaf by Friday 27 November.

PHOTOGRAPHS
The individual photo proofs have been given to your child today, if you wish to order please return form with payment (cheques made payable to Van Cols Ltd) to the office BY TUESDAY 1 DECEMBER at the latest. Any forms returned after this date will incur a £3.50 surcharge. If you have not received your photo through your child please speak to the class teacher.

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS POST

The school’s post box will be open for deliveries from Tuesday 2 December and will be sited at the top of the stairs from the Nursery on the landing. Please ensure that ALL cards are correctly addressed with the first name and surname and class initials. For information the class initials are as follows:
KS Nursery; CH Mrs Hopkins; KT Miss Treen; LC Mrs Cann; JC Mrs Colchester; PLDD Mrs Lord/Mrs Dwyer; EM Miss Montague; CA Miss Ashberry; NSJB Mrs Spencer/Mrs Bell; GH Miss Hitchcock;
RV Mr Vaughan; DBKM Mr Brook/Mrs Mawson;

LABELLING UNIFORM AND PAINTING APRONS – KS1
Please may we remind parents to ensure all uniform is clearly labelled (including vests, especially KS1). In addition please ensure your child has a painting apron/shirt in school. Thank you to those who have brought in old uniform for us to use as spares, we now have plenty and have no room to store anymore.

NEW SCHOOL COAT
Following enquiries from some parents the Friends have sourced a really good quality reversible red school coat. It is waterproof on one side and has a thick fleece on the other, it will have the school badge embroidered on the waterproof side and will be priced at £17. It is fully machine washable and can be tumble dried. They are placing a small order for ages 5-6, 7-8 and 9-10 which should be available in 3 weeks. A sample of the coat can be seen at the office. If you would like to place an order please do so via the Uniform form at the school office.

EMAIL
Our system for sending school letters home by email is working really well. We would like to encourage more parents to take up this way of receiving letters – it is fast, efficient and far more environmentally friendly than receiving a paper copy.
If you would like to register please do email us saying so on admin@hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk. We are endeavouring not to produce a ‘hard’ copy to those households that receive letters by email, so please ensure your child is aware they do not need to receive a paper copy. Those who are already registered do not need to re-register.

NEW RECEPTION TEACHER
I am delighted to let parents know that Miss Tessa Higgins has been employed as teacher for the new Reception class starting in January. She will be working alongside Mrs Hopkins

LIVING WITH CHILDREN – FREE COURSE
Please find with this letter information about a free course with a free crèche that will be run here from January, it will help parents learn new skills and share experiences, helping with behaviour, relationships, self-esteem, boundaries and pressures. Deadline for returning slips is 11 December.

ATHLETICS CLUB TASTER SESSIONS
Farlingaye High School is offering Athletics taster sessions for children 8 and over, on 23 November and 7 December from 4.30-6.30pm (£2.00 per session). Call 01394 444318 for more information or see the poster on the parent noticeboard.

RECOMMENDED AUDIO CD FOR LEARNING TIMES TABLES
This CD is one used in school and many children find it a really good learning tool.
It can be purchased from: http://www.kidsmusic.co.uk/acatalog/Kidsmusic_Times_Table_Range.html £8.00
Times Tables Challenge Double CD Audio Game - PTAGCD21 Ref: 1857819659 Double Disc CD Audio Game: Sing-along and learn the two to ten times tables on disc one, which also includes some tests. Then play the Times Tables Challenge on

Wednesday 18 November 2009

School Team Wins Uni-Hoc Tournament

We took 2 teams to take part in the annual uni-hoc tournament. This year (because of the large number of entries) there were 2 tournaments. We went to the Debenham tournament and emerged as winners from the 6 teams.
We will now go (with runners-up Stonham) to another tournament against 2 teams from the Stradbroke event.



Monday 16 November 2009

Friends Events Coming Up




Mills v Bulstrode House Football

Mills played very well in this match to record a convincing 8 - 2 win over Bulstrode.
This puts them into 2nd place in the house league behing Hitcham.










Friday 13 November 2009

Animation Day Movies

Movie by Class NS/JB - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens


This film involved the whole class in painting, prop making, writing, singing and ICT.



A brilliant team effort.



This video was made by some children from Class DB. It is based on a famous Bible story.







This film was made entirely by Freddy in Year 6.

Year 1 'Wake and Shake' at the High School

On Thursday 6th November Year 1 went to Thomas Mills High School for a Wake and Shake Festival. We had great fun learning loads of different actions for different Pirate activities, from counting treasure to sword fighting. We had nine different Pirate activities to learn. After several minutes learning each action we joined together and did all the actions as a large group. We then had to do the same and learn the actions for nine different types of jobs from being a teacher and telling the naughty children off to being a DJ spinning the decks. Our favourite job was being a DJ and we have already been using many of the actions in our PE lessons back at school.
We also had the extra treat of meeting Mr Cuddles who joined in with many of the actions too.