Newsletter 11

November 27th, 2009 Dear Parents, NEWSLETTER 11 This week has been a flurry of activity in preparation for our Christmas Bazaar tomorrow! We are all very excited and hope that lots of you will turn up at 2:00 p.m. to enjoy all the fun and start the Christmas season off with a bang! It has been so impressive to see how well everyone has worked together – adults and children all with one aim to make wonderful Christmassy things to sell and much money as possible for the PTA. This week’s SEAL (Social, Emotional Attitudes to Learning) theme was “getting on with each other” so how perfect was that? Important Message to Class Reps Please make sure that your stall is fully ready for 2:00 p.m. The school will be open from 10:30 a.m. so you can come along and finish things off in the morning if necessary. Volunteers to “man” the stall should report for duty by 1:30 p.m. at the latest. Christmas Decorations We are now putting up the Christmas decorations and the school is beginning to look very jolly. Thank you to The Horticulture Club for creating such wonderful swags on the entrance door – they look beautiful. Check out their Christmas Garden at the front of the school. The Christmas tree in the hall will have some decorations on it but we would like you to help make this look beautiful by donating toothbrushes that we can hang on the branches. These will be given to the homeless people who are looked after by The Passage charity in Victoria. Please add some toothbrushes to your weekly shop. Thanks to Emily and Fred Squires-Brown and Elias Giulivi for adding the first ones today. Christmas Lunches: If your child would like to have a school Christmas lunch, please send in £1.70 to the School Office by Monday morning. Lost Items of Clothing and “The Search is On” It is very common for children to loose items of clothing and equally common for them to turn up in unusual places! We encourage children to be responsible for their own possessions especially when they are changing for PE. However, whilst we will do all we can to help, it is not the responsibility of staff to search for these things after school. It is amazing how many items of clothing we find that do not have names on the labels and how many with nametags that end up in the Lost Property bin. Clearly, we will do all we can to help but parents should also be mindful of asking for help in a polite manner. I am afraid that I have received several complaints from members of staff that parents have been rather rude to them about this matter – surely not! Mobile Phone Numbers from Members of Staff Occasionally on school trips, parent helpers are given the mobile phones numbers of lead teachers. If this is the case, could you please delete these from your phone’s memory and not use these numbers to contact any member of school staff. Your co-operation is much appreciated. Eco Schools Information Miss Capell is very excited about the work the Environment Team is doing at the moment. She wanted you to know some more information about this: As you know we achieved our Silver Eco-Schools status last year as well as wining the coverted Westminster Environment Award (check out our amazing website: http://www.webfronter.com/westminster/ea). We are now working towards gaining our “Green Flag!” This will be a big project but we are hoping to have it by the end of the year! If you are interested in finding out more about this please let me know. One of the smaller projects that we have to be involved in is Climate Change (CC). Currently, Year Five is working on a Climate Change Project and will be attending a special CC summit to argue a case for Tanzania. This project will continue after Christmas and the whole school will be getting involved. If you would like to help, please let me know. Next week, is our campaigning week and each child will have the opportunity to sign a petition agreeing to make positive changes to our environment (you can do this as well!). Here is a great website all about CC that is suitable for children: www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html Music News from Miss Hodgson The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be holding special workshops @ Westminster Music Library on Saturday 6th February to help celebrate the lives and music of the composers Chopin and Schumann. Morning session: 9.30am - 12.30pm Afternoon session: 1.30 - 4.30pm These sessions are free but places are limited so please book in advance on: 020 7641 4286 or email: rwalters@westminster.gov.uk [Do tell Miss. Hodgson if you go, she'd like to hear all about it!!] Buster and The Teacher Angel Buster is going home with Maggie Curwin today as she worked so well in a group and was a very supportive partner on our trip to The City Learning Centre this week. The Teacher Angel this week is Mrs Bibi who is a great help to the younger children in the School. She is very caring and kind but could not collect her award today as she is celebrating Eid – so what a surprise she will have on Monday! Geographer of the Week: is Joshua Garwood-Watkins who has become very interested in the Year Five Climate Change project especially as his Dad recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Joshua chose Brazil as the country that we will be studying next week. Stars of the Week Nursery: Lilah Capon for being a kind and caring person in Nursery, Reception: Innes Joannides for being a kind friend to everyone in the class and being so sensible with her friends, Year One: Kimi-Fay Haynes for being a fantastic friend an making a real effort in the playground to get on with others, Year Two: Christopher Eveleigh for being a valued member of Year Two and being a great to his peers, Year Three: James Rowley for being a fantastic member of Year Three and working really well with his PSHE team at the CLC, Year Four: Sophie Easton for making a fantastic start in Year Four and for getting on and being friends with everyone, Year Five: Najym Ibnahaten for “getting on” with everything so enthusiastically, especially our CC project work! Year Six: Rosie Watson for being such a kind friend to everyone – including Miss Fiske! Class ChitChat Nursery and Reception: Our Nativity performance for parents is next Friday at 2:00 p.m. in church. Please collect your child from the church when we have finished. Please remember a carrier bag on Monday for your costume and please send in any spare jogging bottoms in case of accidents! Year One: Please bring angel costumes for our Nativity in a clearly labelled bag for the dress rehearsal on Monday. Year Two: Please make sure that your child is in church on Wednesday by 6:30 p.m. Narrators please bring your costumes in on Monday for our dress rehearsal. Year Four: Don’t forget we are going to watch a performance of The Magic Flute on Thursday so you will need a packed lunch. Year Five: Well done for being so wonderful during our workshops today. Another well done for making such creative gingerbread people this week. The recipe is on its way home. It is our Mass on Monday. Year Six: Please remember to bring in your presents for the Senior Citizens’ party on Monday. Fantastic News …….. We have, at last, been told that we have a new School Crossing Patrol Officer! Thank you so much to Mrs. Allright for her persistent badgering of the City Council in “encouraging” them to make this much needed appointment! With all best wishes, Ms. L. J. Woodford