Newsletters
March 2010
Dear Parents,
February saw a very busy month in school. Do remember to visit the
school website to find out about what has been taking place and view
the photographs.
Educational visits
Next week Years 3 and 4 will travel to Shortenills Environmental
Centre for a residential stay. The focus for the weeks work will be
on Science, with a particular focus on the environment and habitats.
There will be a daily update on the school website during this
visit.
The following week Year 6 will travel to Marchants Hill in Surrey
for a residential week with a focus on team building and outdoor
activities. Again there will be a daily update on the school website
during this visit.
Chinese Dance Workshop
Just before half term we hosted a Chinese Dance Workshop. We were
entertained to a Lion Dance demonstration and each class then spent
time, using the mask, to invent their own dance and find out about
the history of the dance. It was an amazing experience for all the
children and comments of “It’s really cool”, “It was amazing” were
heard from the children all day. This was an important activity to
have in school as it helps our children gain greater awareness of
cultures other than our own.
Sports Captains
Four Year 6 pupils have now been appointed as Sports captains. To
apply for these positions the children had to write a letter
explaining how they would help raise the profile of sport in the
school, and what qualities they thought they could bring to the
post. There responsibilities include helping to sort out equipment
for sports competitions, looking after the sports information board
in the corridor and encouraging the rest of the school to take part
in sporting activities including those before and during school.
Sports Captains: Chloe Faulkner
Robert Gibbings
Vice Captains: Maddie
Simpson Harry Spinks
Links with the local and wider community
Last week pupils from Oak Green School visited us and spent the day
with their linked partners in Year 3 and 4. The children worked
together on a variety of activities which included visiting St
James’ Church. Later on in the year we will spend another day
visiting Oak Green
School and include a visit to the local mosque.
Year 5 were very excited this week to receive letters from their
French pen-pals in Montpellier and during the term we will be
replying to the letters, in French, and sending pictures of our
school.
On Tuesday of this week a team of 11 Year 5 and 6 pupils travelled
to Beachborough School to take part in a cross country event with
other schools from the area. The children all competed well with
Adam Graham coming 3rd in his race with the boys gaining 2nd place
overall, Maddie Simpson gained 6th place in her race.
Next week some children from Conkers class will be competing against
other schools in a variety of activities at Buckingham School.
On 16th March children from Year 5 will be competing in the first
round of the annual Dance Extravaganza competition at Buckingham
School. This year we are entering two teams, one in the bronze
category and one in the silver category
On Saturday 27th March we will be taking a cross country team to
Wing to take part in the Aylesbury Vale Schools athletic
competition.
It’s not long now until the annual Great Horwood Fun Run. For
further information please see the school website.
Bikeability Training
Tomorrow (Sat 6th March) children from Years 2 to 6 will be taking
part in a variety of cycling training. We are very fortunate that we
have been funded to run this training during the year. This
has meant that we are able to offer the training at a significant
discount to you. The funding for this training is dependent on the
school showing that as a result of the training, there has been an
increase in the number of pupils cycling to school. We are aware
that some children taking part in the training travel to school on
the school bus. However, I am concerned that unless we can show
there has been an increase in the number of children cycling to
school, we will be unsuccessful in our bid for funding in the next
school year.
We have arranged for our Bikeability instructor to run three bike
checks and cycle maintenance sessions next term during the school
day. These sessions are free to children and will take place on the
following dates: Thursday 29th April from 8:15 a.m., Thursday 20th
May during lunchtime and Thursday 17th June from 8:15 a.m.
We have places for 30 bicycles to be stored in school. It would be
wonderful to see these full so that we can ensure further funding
for our children.
The Toby Terkelsen Super cook Trophy
Today was the first round of our Super cook competition. Toby
Terkelsen was the winner of this competition last year and in memory
of Toby we have renamed this competition. Twenty seven Year 5 and 6
pupils entered the competition and the winners will be announced in
a special assembly later today. Please visit the school website to
find out the names of the winners. All the cakes were amazing and
the children had obviously all worked extremely hard.
Click here to view the winners of this
round.
Eco –School
As a school we have many initiatives in place to support being an
Eco school. As from this half term, each class will have two Eco
warriors who will help their class carry out a variety of activities
to ensure we are being as environmentally friendly as we can be. The
eco warriors are easily distinguished in school by the green badges
they wear. We hope that by the end of this term, we will have
completed enough activities to show the registering organisation
that we have achieved the Bronze level of the Eco School Award.
Looking forward to the future, in order to achieve a Silver Award we
need to have a parent working with us on this project. If anyone is
interested in becoming involved please do contact the school office.
Sainsbury’s vouchers
This year we are collecting Active Kids vouchers for new resources
for the school. You will find these vouchers in Sainsbury Stores,
and when you spend £10 you will be given 1 voucher. The collecting
box is in the main entrance hall so please start collecting now!
Maddie Simpson, Harry Spinks and Chloe Faulkner.
Tesco vouchers
We are collecting Tesco vouchers for school equipment and would like
you to bring in your vouchers and place them in the box provided.
Thank you
Robert Gibbings and George Samways.
World Book Day
World Book day was yesterday. We celebrated the day by exchanging
books.
Parent Helper Afternoon
Our Parent Helper afternoon will be on Friday 26th March. If you can
help, please complete the slip attached at the end of this
newsletter.
School Closure
A reminder that school closes for the Easter holiday on Friday 1st
April. We return to school on Monday 19th April.
Yours sincerely,
Lesley Whittaker
Headteacher
GREAT HORWOOD C.E. COMBINED SCHOOL
PARENTS HELPERS
Name:……………………………………………………….………………………
I will be available to help in school on the afternoon of Friday
26th March at 1.30 p.m.
Signed:…………………………………………………… Date: ………………….