‘The best that I can be’

Parent consultations evening

Thank you to all those parents and children who attended. It was a very rewarding experience for the staff and children, and hopefully for parents too. If you did not manage to get to see your child’s teacher, please arrange with them to do so at another time in the next couple of weeks.

 

Core Christian Value:  Compassion

Some words for Reverend Carter, our visiting curate who has been in school all week:

Ephesians 4:31-32

Get rid of all rage and anger, fighting and gossip. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as through Jesus Christ, God forgave you.

Our Core Value this half term is compassion.   Compassion is a feeling of empathy or tender-heartedness or mercy which can compel people to respond with action.  So, on our wall in the School Hall the children can see the phrase “empathy + action = compassion”.   In the Bible we can see many examples of Jesus having compassion for people and responding in various ways, which we’ll look at in the coming weeks.  The passage above looks at forgiveness as one way of responding.

The Year 5 & 6 class looked at this Bible passage in their RE class and tried out 4 different spiritual practices to the theme of compassion.

• Reading the passage and reflecting on when we have been unkind. Stepping into the other person’s shoes as to the impact we’ve had on the other person with our hurtful behaviour and trying to feel what they may have felt when they were hurt, then asking them to forgive us.  Then, in asking God to forgive us as well, we can feel God’s compassion and forgiveness and be able to forgive and feel compassion towards ourselves as well as others.
• We did a guided meditation, imagining a happy place of our choice where we were with the person we had hurt, asking them to forgive us, giving them a hug or a handshake, reconciling, then walking away together with the intention to try not to do it again.
• We listened to some Taize music (gentle, meditative and repetitive music, which can be found on Youtube) called Kyrie Eleison which means Lord Have Mercy (on the theme of compassion) and invited the pupils to learn and sing it – which they did!
• We did a finger labyrinth (from Liverpool St station), as a slow meditation body movement while listening to another Taize setting of music to the words Lord Have Mercy.

The children were asked to think about which spiritual practice they liked best and encouraged to continue trying it at home and at school.  You, as parents, may like to try it with them as one of the spiritual practices you can “take up” during Lent (and beyond)!

Reverend Carter

 

World Book Day – 3rd March

Next Thursday is World Book Day and all children will receive a £1 book token which can spent on a specially published book for £1 or put towards another book at participating book shops.  In school we will be celebrating with a special Book Day.  Children are invited to come to school dressed as a book character of their choice, from superhero to princesses, fairytales to classics… whatever takes your fancy!  There will be a special assembly with a poetry theme and staff will share their favourite verses.  There will also be a handwriting competition for each class with a prize for the most beautifully written and illustrated poem.

Bug Club for Reception

Mrs. McCormack and Miss North will be running an information for Reception parents on Monday 29^th February to introduce them to our online reading scheme and answer any questions. The meeting will start straight after school. I hope you can all make it.

 

Lent Games

Don’t forget to send in your coins for lent games, which the children have organised and which will be continuing until we break up for the Easter holidays.

 

Friends of Dame Tipping

We are pleased to announce that the Friends of Dame Tipping will be holding a Mothers Day event at 3pm on Friday 4th March. The cost of each Mothers Day Gift will be £2.50 and will include flowers and a chocolate treat which the children will be able to chose for themselves along with designing their own gift label.
We hope that everyone will join us for this event to make it a success.
As always any help to set up or to assist with the running of the event itself would be much appreciated. Please let myself, Kay or the class reps know if you are able to help.
On a separate note the information letters relating to the Bicester Shopping Trip will be sent out next week so watch this space!
Many thanks
Vicki Makepeace

 

Attendance

Attendance for each class this week:

Reception- 97.33%; Class 1 and 2- 95.67%; Class 3 and 4- 95.52%; Class 5 and 6- 96.67%.

Well done, everyone. Let’s build on this now.

 

Commendations

Commendations this week went to Ruby Walton, Deborah Ajayi, Stevie Makepeace, Freddy Parrish and Oscar Knight.  Well done to all of you !

 

Work of the Week

Class 5 and 6 work of the week was for Maddie Taylor, for her Highwayman holiday work, Class 3 and 4’s to Aaron Hick, for an excellent Creation poster and Class 1 and 2’s to Charlotte Woods for an excellent poem in the style of ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’.

 

Gold Book

Well done to Lexi Webb, Deborah Ajayi, Aaliyah Bimpong, Chidi Emechebe, Daniel Davies, Dylan Patel, Freddie French, Michael Battrum and Aimee Bradley for earning their place in this week’s Gold Book for excellent learning behaviour.

 

Dates for the diary:

• Monday 29^th February- Bug Club information meeting for Reception Parents-3pm
• Thursday 3^rd March- World book day (poetry theme) and dressing up.
• Thursday 24^th March –Last day of the Spring Term
• Monday 11^th April- children return to school after the Easter holidays

Mrs. Kathryn Waters

The Christian value we are learning about this term is ‘Compassion’