newsletter 18

January 29th, 2010 Dear Parents, NEWSLETTER 18 Preparations for Quiz Night have been finalised and we are looking forward to a great night of competitive questions and, above all, fun! There will be a special cocktail to enhance your brain power as well as vodka jellies to take it away! Do try to be early for a 7:00 p.m. start – the team that is the first to have all its members on their table will win an extra 10 points! Sausage and chips will be served at half time! Haiti Appeal After the wonderful response to our Haiti appeal last week, it was very gratifying to hear from Sister Eileen, from the Daughters of Charity, with more news about the work the Sisters are doing in Haiti. She wrote: “News of the children's and staff's generosity towards Haiti has impressed us all and we are really most grateful to you all. Please tell the children that they are quite famous here in Mill Hill as we have told everyone of their generosity to The Passage as well as to the people of Haiti! You are indeed high on our priority list to send information about what we are doing and I will certainly keep you informed as and when we receive more news.” A useful website address all about their work in Haiti. This is: www.daughtersofcharity.org.uk/news/haiti.htm Sister Eileen has also sent some photographs which I will be showing the children next week. Maths Week News Maths week starts on Monday and we are all very excited about the plans the children have made for their money making projects. Attached to this Newsletter is a whole page of adverts they have designed to tell you all about their products and why you should buy them! Each child may bring up to £1.50 to school on Friday to buy items from their own class stall as well as from those belonging to other classes. We are also very excited about the fact that some parents are coming to talk to the children during their week about their work in the finance industry. Thank you, in advance to: Mrs. Gunn, Mr. Allright and Mrs. Cestone. We are also looking forward to welcoming Mr. Numberator on Thursday who will be working with all the children on all sorts of exciting Maths activities. Learning Opportunities for You!! We would like to start offering you, as parents and carers, the opportunity to come into school to learn about the different Literacy and Numeracy activities that we do. For the next two Fridays before half term (5th and 12th February), we are going to run workshops for adults so that you can make resources (such as games, number cards, letters, etc.) to use at home with your children. If you are interested, the workshops will run from 9:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. and are organised by our wonderful Teaching Assistants. The aim is to have fun learning and enjoying being in school. Come along and learn with us – it’s also free! At the same time each week, the ICT room will become an Internet Café and be open for anyone who would like to have access to the internet (for banking, searching, buying, etc.). Mrs. MacKay will be happy to welcome you with a cup of tea or coffee before you start surfing. There is no charge for this either! We hope to see you on Friday. Climate Change Summit – February 8th I have been very impressed with the enthusiasm and effort that Year Five have put into their planned participation in the Westminster Climate Change Summit which will be held on February 8th at Council House. The children are preparing for a debate with other schools (most of which are secondary schools) about the problem of global warming. However, they are not going to be debating as London children, they have to argue their ideas from the point of view of children from Tanzania. Well done to Chloe Michalides who has completely immersed herself in the subject and become an expert leader. For her considerable efforts, she has been appointed as the President of our debate team and we are sure that she will set a great example to the other team members. Year Five will be presenting their ideas in an assembly next Thursday and parents are welcome to come along to watch (9:15 start). Parent/carer Questionnaire Please also find attached to this Newsletter, our latest questionnaire to find out more about your views on our school. We would be grateful if you would take some time over the weekend to answer these questions so that we can meet any other needs you may have or hear of ideas that you may have. Athletics and Football Successes Well done to both the Athletic and Football Teams for their great successes this week. The Athletic team (Giulia Monteiro, Christian Kerton-Johnson, Flora Capon, Monty Martin-Zakheim, Francesca Colpitts-Swaby, Aaron Eastman, Maya Giulivi, Samuel Nwosu, Katherine Biggs, Najym Ibnahaten, Ava Innes, Joshua Chering, Denise Phang, Theo Kennedy, Lucy Blum, Fabio Martins, Joseph Carrol and John Mapanzure) managed to finish 3rd overall with the girls coming 3rd and the boys finishing 4th. The mixed football team Samuel Nwosu, Joseph Carroll, Christian Kerton-Johnson, Monty Martin-Zakheim, Aaron Eastman, Maya Giulivi, Francesca Colpitts-Swaby, Elena Jalali, Matilda Hindler-Lowe and Maisy Ritchie) beat St. Joseph’s in the league 9-1!. This puts them top of the league and into the semi-finals. Look out for the team photographs on the website soon! We are so proud!! Buster and The Teacher Angel Buster is going home with James Piltcher this week as he is so resilient and always tries his best even when he finds things hard. He is a fantastic member of the School Council and has worked hard to get into the School Football team. Teacher Angel is Mrs. MacKay as a thank you for getting new equipment for the playground and making sure that everyone has a friend. Geographer of the Week This week, Lily Daher was selected as Geographer of the week because she was so enthusiastic about Portugal. She created an excellent PowerPoint presentation to show the school in assembly and chose Poland as our country of the week to study from Monday. Stars of the Week – Resilience: bouncing back or making an effort Nursery: Justine Vaisnoras for making a good start in the Nursery, Reception: Cearney Connelly for being so enthusiastic about The Gruffalo and making a fantastic 3D model, Year One: David Cole for continually working hard to improve his writing, Year Two: Dylan Williams for being such a sensible, responsible and diligent member of our class, Year Three: Eve Capon for consistently working hard and being a fantastic member of Year Three, Year Four: Sat Gaze for being a great member of the class and always trying her best, Year Five: Chloe Michaelides for showing such dedication and persistence with our Climate Change project, Year Six: Krim Kacimi for really trying his best – well done! Class ChitChat Nursery: Please bring in any spare clothes, especially jogging bottoms. Reception: Please send in any old birthday cards to use for collage work. Year One: It is Year One’s Mass on Monday so please join us at 2:50 p.m. Year Two: Don’t forget to send in Monday on Friday for the Maths Fair and have a go at our iPinata! Year Six: We will be cooking next week so please bring in a medium sized Tupperware type box. Music: Anyone interested in having violin lessons, please speak to Miss Hodgson. Choir: The choir will be giving a short performance at the end of Mass on Monday if you wanted to hear them sing. Normal collection at 4:30 p.m. will still apply! With all best wishes, Ms. L. J. Woodford