Newsletter 12: 2^nd December 2016

 ‘The best that I can be’

The children have had a very productive week, with sports competitions, Christmas rehearsals and lots of fun, exciting learning. I was particularly impressed with some poems written by Years 5 and 6 about a character from their class novel ‘The London Eye Mystery’. A selection of the poems will be published on the Class 5/6 page of the school website.

Sports Hall Athletics

On Wednesday, year 5&6 had a really good afternoon and everyone had a super time, but on Thursday the year 3&4 were amazing- coming 8th in the afternoon event; this is the highest place we have ever reached in this competition, so well done to everyone who took part.

Friends of Dame Tipping Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre will take place on Friday 9th December from 3-6pm at St. John’s church hall. We require donations for the chocolate tombola, teddy bear tombola, wine tombola and any unwanted, unused gifts. We have received some items, but need lots more. Any donations of gift vouchers etc… for the raffle are also needed, so if you, or someone you know has a business or a contact who could provide some good prizes, we would be very grateful.

Mathletics Results

We have had a fantastic response (after some cajoling from Miss Smith!) to Mathletics this week. Class 3 and 4 are currently 13th in the country and 11th in the world ! The other classes are not yet in the top 50, but I’m sure they could be with a little more work. We are also taking part in the Mathletics challenge. It’s not too late to take part, as the challenge finishes on Sunday. There will be prizes for the children who have completed the most Mathletics in each class.

Christmas Lunch

Our school Christmas lunch will be served on Monday 19th December this year. The children can come to school wearing their Christmas jumpers instead of their school ones for a small donation (charity to be decided on by the children). The menu will be : roast turkey or vegetable plait, with all the trimmings. £2.20 for KS2 pupils and free to all Reception and KS1 pupils.

Swimming

This week is the last week of swimming for the term.

Clubs

The last day of clubs will be Thursday 8th December. There will be no clubs during the last full week of term or the 2 days the following week. Please remember to collect your children at 3pm during the week beginning 12th December.

Theatre Visit

We are all looking forward to our visit to Brentwood Theatre next Thursday. Thank you to those of you who have returned the slips and payment. Please do not forget to send in the slips, as we need your permission to take the children on the visit. The trip has been subsidised by the Friends of Dame Tipping, so the cost is £7 per pupil.

School Security and Gates

Please be patient when buzzing to get into the school. We are currently experiencing difficulties when trying to open the gate/door at the back and front of the school at the same time, but are working to rectify this. Please do not lock the gates at the back of the school manually by lowering the bar, as this means someone has to come out to open them.

School Uniform

Many of the children are not wearing the correct school uniform and are coming to school looking quite untidy. Only Reception children should wear polo shirts in the winter : all others should have a long sleeved shirt and tie, with a school jumper or cardigan. Other hoodies and football ‘skins’ are not school uniform and should not be worn ; children wearing such items will be asked to remove them. In such cold weather, it is important that you provide your child with warm clothes which adhere to our school uniform code. We still have a few school ties for sale in the school office if you wish to purchase one. They are also available from Red Oak Roller. If you are replacing ties, please buy a burgundy and gold one (not the burgundy and white ones which were previously produced by Tesco).

Girls should wear small, discreet hair bobbles and bows, which should be plain or school colours only, please. Once again, they will be asked to remove items which are not school uniform.

Thank you for your co-operation

Commendations

Commendations this week went to: Dylan Alexander, for the effort he puts into all of his work; Joe Stanley, for being a kind and considerate friend; Elena Marshall and Jack Robinson, for excellent effort with Mathletics at home; Livia French, for being so kind and caring to the Reception children; Michelle Nemhara, for trying her very best when reading this week and Kitty Higgins, for trying really hard with her story writing. Well done, everyone!

Work of the Week

Reception : Alicia Moran- for writing an excellent sentence in phonics and remembering to use finger spaces and punctuation.

Class 1 and 2 :Rhys Hayes- for speedy and accurate addition.

Class 3 and 4 :Mojola Awosan- for writing an interesting, original version of ‘The Tiger Child’.

Class 5 and 6 : Imogen Snell- for her very moving poem on the subject of ‘grief’.

Pen Licences

Pen Licences were awarded to Oliver Mahoney and Albert Gilbert for consistently neat, joined writing. Well done, boys!

Achievements

Well done to Poppy Whitcombe for achieving her level 3 swimming badge and to Nicole Mahoney, for reaching level1 in Gymnastics.

Attendance

Reception: 92.50%; Class 1 and 2: 95%; Class 3 and 4 : 93.60% ; Class 5 and 6 :97.86%

Dates for the diary:

• Wednesday 7^th December- Class 3/4 Theatre Trip to London
• Thursday 8^th December- Whole school trip to Brentwood Theatre-‘Through the Looking Glass’
• Friday 9^th December- School Christmas Fayre in the church hall- 3-6pm
• Tuesday 13^th and Wednesday 14^th December- Reception and KS1 Nativity- 1.30pm
• Monday 19^th December- Christmas lunch
• Tuesday 20^th December- Christmas Church Service- 1.30pm St. John’s Church

Mrs. Kathryn Waters