Friday 29 January 2010

ICE Monsters by Class CA

Class CA have produced some fascinating art work as part of their Polar Regions topic.
Watch the video below to see their Ice Monsters.

Interesting sights around school

The Year 6 courtyard has been flooded this week but it did mean that there were some interesting reflections in the water.

















Have you noticed this strange sight outside class JC? Click on the video to get a suprise.

Friends Events Coming Up




More news from Prickles in Liberia

Prickles on a school visit in the rural area of Liberia


Prickles finds a friend in an unusual place at a church site in a village up country

















Mrs Elphick and Prickles having a lunch break with the local pastor and some men from the community















Children pumping water from the village pump
















I have been in the city of Monrovia today and it was an exciting busy mass of people. I visited the Ministry of Education and held an interview with the Deputy Minister for Planning in the Education Department. It was good to hear all the plans that they have in Liberia for the improvement of education. Many more children now have the opportunity to go to primary school which they call elementary here but you are very lucky to get a secondary education!

Today I swam in the sea!! After a long ,very hot day it was a brilliant to cool off. The waves were really high and fun to jump around in. the sand was golden and the palm trees around the edge of the beach are really beautiful. I wish you were ALL here!

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Message from Mrs Elphick in Liberia

Mrs Elphick has sent an email to the school office:

This is a map of Liberia - on the West coast of Africa. Click on map to see in more detail.






Hi everyone
It is Tuesday evening and I am sitting in the guest house listening to the waves of the sea lapping on the beach next to the house. It is 10pm and very dark outside. It gets dark here at about 6.30pm all year round. The crickets are chirping in the palm trees and the temperature is over 32 degrees.

Today I have visited the ELWA Academy school which was a delight! The children were rather shy at first and then became very excited to see Prickles and have their photo taken. I have given the letters from DD/PL to the teachers and they were quickly planning how their children will reply! I will bring some pictures of the school for you all to see when I return.

Today I talked with the Local Christian radio station and the Mission hospital leaders to see what work SIM could do for them. There are many needs!!

Yesterday I went to a huge Rubber plantation, the largest in the world. I watched the rubber latex being harvested
from the trees and we visited 3 villages to speak to their church pastors and to members of the community. Prickles came with me and I have pictures of him in churches and village schools.

The food has been interesting and I have eaten many things I have not eaten before! Fried Plantain is lovely a little bit like fried banana but not so sweet and cassava root and yams, which are both a little bit like potato.

I am pleased to say that our guest house has running cold water which is lovely! I start the day and finish it with a cold shower AH Bliss!!

I have seen several types of very friendly lizards but thank goodness no snakes yet!

The Liberian people are great. They are so friendly and welcoming. They are working very hard indeed to improve their country. The children and adults are very keen to get an education, either in school or college. I feel that the future for Liberia is Bright!

On that note Prickles and I are going for a cold shower!! I don’t know who is more excited about the idea Him or me! Prickles tells me that Liberia is too hot for a hedgehog

See you all soon Be good!

Mrs Elphick
This is the Liberian flag

New Maths Webpage Resources


Please have a look at the new MATHS page on our school website. There are lots of links to interactive activities plus useful documents on our calculation policy.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

WHOLE SCHOOL LETTER (22)

YEAR 6 CAMP - CORRECTION
The yellow letter (no.19) sent at the start of January, mistakenly put the Year 6 camp dates as 5 – 9 July, camp week is on Mon 12 – Fri 16 July 2010. Sorry for any confusion.

MY TRIP TO LIBERIA
The Governors have kindly agreed to give me time out of school to visit Liberia in West Africa. I will be going out with SIM (Serving in Mission), the same organisation that Miss Long and Mr Trythall, 2 of our ex-teachers now work for.
With my husband, Will, and a small team we will be assessing the needs of communities in this country, and my particular focus will be education. Following a devastating civil war most schools have been destroyed and only 30% of the children are in school. I am very moved and humbled by the plight of these people where so many are now struggling to make a better life for themselves. I hope that the little I can contribute will be of some help! I will be returning to school on Tuesday 2 February (definitely older and possible wiser!)

TEACHER TRAINING TASTER COURSE
SCC are running a Black and Minority Ethnic Teacher Training Taster Course at St Alban’s High School, Ipswich on 24-26 March. This is for graduates or final year undergraduates seriously considering becoming a Secondary teacher. It is specifically designed to help suitably qualified people with a BME background make an informed career decision. Interested applicants should email teachsuffolk@suffolk.gov.uk or phone 01473 264582 (01473 264582)

FUN TO LEARN – ‘TABLES DISCO’ CD
We have found a good source of audio CD that will help the children with their times tables (2 to 10). The double CD “Tables Disco” costs £7.99 (Normal Internet price is £12.94). If you would like a copy please return the slip below with payment (cheques payable to Framlingham Sir Robert Hitcham’s CEVAP School) by Friday 5 February when we will be placing the order

FRENCH DAY – Monday 8 February 2010
As previously mentioned French Day has moved to 8 February, in addition SCC Catering are planning a special French Menu for that day РChicken and Vegetable Casserole; Cauliflower Cheese; Quiche Lorraine; Saut̩ed Potatoes; Freshly made Bread; Mixed Salad; Green Beans; Chocolat dessert; French Apple Flan and Custard Sauce.

Monday 25 January 2010

A Celebration of Schools' Music concert at Snape

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 13th March 2010 at Snape are now available to buy from www.aldeburgh.co.uk

Full price £6
Under 27 £3

Saturday 23 January 2010

Class CH's Celebration Assembly

This was their first Celebration Assembly. All of the children were very proud of their achievements. The children showed lots of work about winter and sang Nursery Rhymes - Hickory Dickory Dock and 1,2 Buckle My shoe.









Thursday 21 January 2010

Whole School Letter

NEW SCHOOL WEBSITE
Following a problem on the School Website back in early 2009 we are no longer able to update the information on this site or the files you can link off it (www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk). Mr Brook has created a new site which gives all the latest information; it includes the brochure, policies, lunch menu, Friends and Governor information, calendar dates and more. As with the old site it also has a direct link to the School BLOG. Please can we encourage you to set this new site www.roberthitchams.ik.org as one of your favourite links and remove the old one. Thank you.

QUANTUM THEATRE – Monday 1 February
A production of ‘’The Bin Raider’, a play on energy saving and recycling, is to take place during the afternoon of Monday 1 February. The cost of this production is £300 therefore we would ask for a voluntary donation of £1.00 per child. According to the Governors’ Policy of Charges and Remissions for School Activities parents who are in receipt of: (a) Income Support; (b) Income Based Job Seekers Allowance; (c) Child Tax Credit and do not receive Working Tax Credit and who have an annual taxable income of less than £15,575; (d) Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; or (e) a guaranteed element of State Pension Credit do not need to pay for this event. Nor will they be expected to make a voluntary contribution of money unless they wish to do so. Teachers will deal with the collection of money in the same sensitive way that operates for those children who receive free school meals.
Please complete the form below and return it to the class teacher by Tuesday 26 January.

FLORA COOKING FOR SCHOOLS
Many thanks to those of you who had registered your tokens on the Flora website. Parents can enter their tokens (found in the lids of Flora tubs) on the website www.cookingwithschools.com, these will accumulate and hopefully generate enough to enable us to swap them for cooking equipment and multimedia teaching resources for cooking. If anyone is unable to access a computer to register the tokens then they can bring them to the office. The scheme starts again now and concludes on 5 May, so please continue to register your tokens Thank you.

DATES – CHANGES AND NEW DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
French Day will now be held on Monday 8 February
The Book Fair has changed to Monday 8 – Wednesday 10 March
New! - Bring your Mum to Lunch will run on Wednesday 10 and Monday 15 March

SCHOOL MONEY ENVELOPES
We do have packs of envelopes that are useful for school lunches, trips etc. They cost £1 and can be obtained from the school office

SCHOOLS SPORTS COACH MANAGER
Suffolk Sports Partnership has a vacancy for a Schools Sports Coach Manager it is part time (20 hours per week, 42 weeks per year), salary £9045 - £10217, fixed term until July 2011. For an informal discussion contact Alan Peatfield 01379 872723 or email ssco@hartismere.com for application pack. Closing date 4 February 2010

OUT OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AND CLUBS
Please find with this letter a survey form about any clubs or activities your children take part in. The local schools are aiming to create a directory from this information which will be available to all families in the area. Please return the completed form to the office by Friday 29 January, thank you.

DO YOU RUN YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
If you do, the Friends Committee would like to hear from you. They would like to put together a database of self employed parents/guardians so that they can provide you with information about an exciting publication planned for the forthcoming months, which may include advertising opportunities.
If you are self employed and would like to hear from the Friends then please fill out and return this slip to the school office by Friday 12 February or email the information to Amanda Cornwell (Chairperson) on amanda.cornwell@btinternet.com. Thank you.
Name: ________________________________________
Name of Business: ________________________________________
Nature of Business: _______________________________________________________________
Contact Number: ___________________________
Email: ________________________________________

Friday 15 January 2010

Charity Day Costumes

The children dressed in their own clothes today.

Our school council choose 'Guide dogs for the blind' as a charity. Key Stage 2 children came in spots or stripes. Key Stage 1 children missed out on their book character day (because of the snow) so came in costumes.

All sorts of childrens stories were covered by the fantastic costumes: Robin Hood, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack & the beanstalk, Gingerbread man, Thumberlina, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.

The children raised £153 for Guide dogs for the blind. Click on picture to go to their website.





































































































































Countdown to Year 6 Camp

Something to look forward to!

Our year 6 children can start to think about the annual summer camp in Whitwell, Norfolk.
You can follow this countdown on the Blog menu up till July 12th.
You can see Blog posts including photos and videos from previous Year 6 camps - click on Year 6 camp on the Blog archive list.

Thursday 14 January 2010

CHARITY DAY – GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND

A reminder = Friday 15 JanuaryThe School Council have chosen to raise funds for this charity. The children can wear their own clothes and we would ask they try to find an item of clothing with dots (to represent the Braille system blind people use to read) or dogs on, if not then wear either bright or stripy clothes or bring in a toy dog, a donation of 50p is suggested.

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Snapshot of Nursery

We had great fun doing
our nativity play. We dressed up and learnt lots of new songs. Poz the magician kept us all entertained with his magic tricks. He even had a white rabbit which Raneesha helped make appear from an empty box.



He made all of us laugh so much one of us fell off the bench!



We made this den all by ourselves. We chose what to use and went and got our own materials. We are very proud of this and it was really cosy!









Maths Workshop a Great Sucess

118 parents took part in our Addition / Subtraction workshops yesterday afternoon and evening. The feedback from the parents was very positive and appreciated by the staff involved.


We certainly felt like it was worthwhile and hope that parents will feel more confident about helping to support their children in their maths.
You can see some videos below which demonstrate column method addition and subtraction for upper key stage 2 children.
Mr Brook will be producing a complete set of videos covering every aspect of our school calculation policy.
There is also a new MATHS (Numeracy) section on our school website. You can download the various parts of the calculation policy and follow links to other useful maths resources.
Video showing Column Addition Method
Subtraction column method demonstration

Framlingham in the Snow

We have now had snow on the ground for 14 days in the Framlingham area. Children have been bringing in some of their photos of the landscape, animals, plants and activities. There are some stunning pictures below.