Whole School News

Thank you to all parents, family members and friends who came along to support year 5 and 6 with their performances of “The Amazing Adventures of Super Stan.”   It was the funniest and most vibrant upper school play we have seen here, in my opinion!  The children gave wonderful performances and really rose to the occasion, delivering their lines and singing their songs beautifully.  We had a wonderful couple of evenings.  It is sad to think that this is the final performance for the year 6 children!  Their secondary school drama departments are very lucky people – such talent coming their way!

We look forward to seeing you all at the Summer Fair this evening.

Please note that sports day is next week – Tuesday if the weather is good or Thursday if needed as a backup. KS2 will participate in the morning starting at 9.30 a.m. and KS1 will have their events in the afternoon starting at 1.15 p.m.

Class News

Oak Class

The children have enjoyed practising for Sports Day. Miss Beesley thinks she has some very promising sack racers! Come along and see if she is right. We held our coffee morning on Thursday morning for parents and children who start school in September, thank you to the current Oak parents who joined us.

Hornbeam

The children have been doing some fabulous writing about their visit to Beale Park and they have each made an information leaflet about a chosen animal. The class have also been practising their multiplication and division skills in maths.

Beech Class

The children have enjoyed practising for Sports Day and are looking forward to seeing you all to cheer them on. In class they have been applying their maths skills to solve a maths mystery, writing some sound poetry and developing their painting skills through study of another modern artist.

Ash Class

The class have been delving deeper into their topic on Ancient Britons and learning how they built the earliest settlements at Skara Brae. The children learned about what farming was like in this stone-built Neolithic settlement located on the Bay of Skaill.

Rowan Class

The children conducted some interesting experiments using various pieces of equipment to represent different types of teeth. They used scissors to represent incisors and forks for canines. They used these implements to examine how effective teeth are at ‘chewing’ raw meat, grass and sunflower seeds. The class have also been practising for sports day next week.

Maple Class

Maple Class had a fantastic Residential experience last week. They went to Winchester Science Centre, had a sleepover at school, and then visited Thatcham Discovery Centre. They are now writing newspaper articles about aspects of their experiences. We would like to thank Mrs Norton for accompanying us to Winchester and Holly Salter for helping out in the evening. This week Maple Class sang and performed in ‘The Amazing Adventures of Superstan’. Sorcha, Alice and Louis stepped in as understudies and did a marvellous job. Well done to everyone!

Chloe has lost two pairs of trainers in an orange plastic bag. She thinks she left them in the hall some time ago. If anyone took them home by mistake or has seen them around the school, could you please bring them to Maple Class.  Many thanks.

Willow Class

The children did two stunning performances of ‘The Amazing Adventures of Superstan’. Thank you to all the parents for supplying props and costumes. Year 6 have also been writing their ‘Wedge Chronicles’, drawing inspiration from ‘The Edge Chronicles’.   

School Photographs

Although it does say on your proof card to have your orders in by Wednesday 5^th July, could you please have your orders for photographs in to the class teachers by Tuesday 4^th July because Wednesday is an INSET day and the children will not be in school.

 Sports News

This week the newsletter has had some special sports correspondents, the children in Foundation have given tantalising snippets about their Multi-Skills sports activities at Stoke Row.

Abi had to go through a barrel.

Jax said it was raining.

Matthew S ran, jumped and hopped.

Amy had to go under a bar and a hoop.

Matthew D said they had a snack and lined up ‘nice’.

Charlotte enjoyed the hopscotch.

Mrs Critcher got struck by a tennis ball quite a few times but she is still smiling.

‘On Monday a few children from Hornbeam and Beech classes went to Whitchurch to do some sports with other schools. We did throwing, jumping and running and we won a trophy for the best teamwork. It was the best sports ever and my favourite race was when you had to spring around the circle to try to beat the other person to be the first one back.’

Aaliya – Beech Class

‘On June 22^nd, a group of 9 Year 4 and 5 pupils represented us in a cricket tournament at Whitchurch. We played teams from Checkendon and Whitchurch A and Whitchurch B, Stoke Row and Goring. All teams played really well with lots of enthusiasm. Toby made a couple of particularly good catches as did Finn. Although we didn’t win we all had a great time. Thanks Mrs Bodeker for taking us. Lucas – Maple Class

Dates

Remember that Wednesday July 5^th is an INSET Day

FOWPS

Fowps are looking for Parent Class Representatives.

Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) are an important asset to most primary schools, organising events and helping to raise vital funds for the school. As well as the formal PTA positions of chair, treasurer and secretary, parents are invited to become the PTA representative for their child’s class. There are many good reasons to get involved as your child’s class rep. The main one is to help your child’s school.

There’s no formal person specification for the class rep position, but ideally, you need to be sociable, confident enough to put pressure on other parents to help out with events, and organised. Having enough spare time for the job is important, too; if you work full-time and are rarely in the playground for drop-off or pick-up, it can be hard to build relationships with other parents. Being a class rep isn’t just a job for women. We’d love to see some Dad’s volunteering.

But what exactly does being a class rep involve?

Being a class rep allows you to have a greater say in what the PTA does in terms of organising events and raising money. It’s also a good way to get to know other parents within the school, from your own child’s class and others.

Duties of class reps:

• Attending PTA meetings (optional) and passing on comments and suggestions from the other parents in your child’s class. This can be done via email to the committee if preferred.
• Helping with school events such as the summer fete and Christmas fair. This may involve helping to organise the entire event, coordinating a particular stall, and compiling a rota of your class parents to help on the day.
• Attending other school events such as sports day, discos and concerts to help serve refreshments, sell programmes and other similar tasks.
• Drawing up a list of contact details (from willing families) for all the parents in the class, circulating this to the families, and keeping it up to date. This is helpful for arranging playdates and birthday party invitations. This is especially helpful for parents not on social media.
• Organising social events for class parents such as coffee mornings and drinks or meals out.
• Coordinating collections for end-of-term presents for staff.
• Administrating the class Facebook page where class parents can communicate. Includes placing reminders, passing on messages from the teacher or information from the office.
• Acting as an extra line of communication between the teacher and parents, for example by passing on messages about school trips and events.

Suggestions for ways to support the class and the teacher:(Not always being actively involved but providing the link to other parents that may be able to help)

Communication with other class parents.

• General in-class support as requested by the class teacher, such as listening to readers.
• Encouraging parents to support school  and class events.
• Help with organising class parties and events.
• Helping with cooking, planting, art and other practical activities.

Keen to be a rep? Contact FOWPS via email, fowps@woodcote-primary.co.uk or speak to any committee member.