Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's Weekly News, Friday 5th April, 2019
Apr 5, 2019
5 April 2019
Dear Parents
Easter Egg Raffle
It is that time of year where the excitement builds and the rustle of raffle tickets can be heard around the school. The children have been eying up their favourite eggs in the office all week and hoping their ticket would be pulled out first so they could select their chosen egg. With the tension building, the first tickets were selected and the lucky winners hurried up to make their choice. Every child who bought a ticket won an egg and there were many happy faces on the way back to the classrooms. This morning, we had a draw for the big eggs. These were won by Alex 5M, Haaris 4D and Hugo 3J. Thank you to all the parents who donated the eggs. All the money raised will be going to HPPTA funds.
Orienteering with Year 4 at Rivington
We were lucky again last Friday with some fantastic weather. It was a glorious day at Rivington and all the children were eager to explore the park. The year group was split into three and set off at different points in the park with the objective of finding as many orienteering posts as possible using a map. First of all, the children had to orientate themselves with the map, examine the key and scale and form an idea of the approximate distance between each point. The group I was working with quickly worked out that by walking close to the perimeter they could pick up a lot of points before diagonally crossing the park and picking up all the points in the middle on the way back to the starting point. The children all agreed on this approach before setting off. Each pair within the group took it in turns to lead and quickly formed an understanding of the scale and distance by striding out paces to the first point. As the afternoon progressed, the points became harder to find and the children had to really look at the key and compare the map to their surroundings. They also had to prepare themselves for what was on the map no longer being there. One post, which was a really good find, was next to an old gatepost where the original fence had been taken away. I was very impressed with the approach of my group who worked really hard to stay focused on the map and were not distracted by their surroundings on a sunny day! All the groups completed the course, picking up lots of points. The development of their teamwork skills was definitely noticeable throughout the afternoon. Thank you Mrs Jones for organising the event and Mr Hall for supporting on the day.
Year 2 Visit the Zoo
On Tuesday, we visited Blackpool Zoo as part of our science topic ‘Habitats’ and our geography topic, ‘On Safari’. It was a cold day and we had a little bit of rain but we still had a fabulous time. Here are some of the bits we enjoyed the most:
I liked watching the sealion show whilst we had lunch, the sealions were very clever and could even clap their flippers. Luca
I loved seeing the red panda, it was so cute! Maryam
I liked collecting facts in my activity booklet. Did you know that elephants have 4 big molars and if one wears out another one replaces it! Naina
I like the elephants, they were enormous! Ayesha
I liked the giraffes, it was funny when they came inside to look at us! Pranav
I thought the otters were interesting, they were having lots of fun running around. Zaidan
It was great to see all the animals we had been talking about in class. Lyla
Summer Uniform
The children should be wearing their full Summer Uniform on the first day back after the Easter holidays.
Boys’ Uniform: Grey shorts (not cargo style), grey ankle socks. Black shoes or navy closed toe sandals. Short sleeved shirts are optional.
Girls’ Uniform: Light blue and white striped dress, white ankle socks or tights.
Black shoes or navy closed toe sandals.
Sun hats are available from the School Office.
Juniors must wear white socks for PE and Games lessons after Easter.
HPPTA News
The HPPTA has two exciting events planned for next term. The first is a Gin and Tapas night to be held on Friday 10th May in the Bluebell Suite at the Norman Jepson by J31A.
The second is a family Bollywood night which will be held in the school hall on Saturday 15th June.
More information and tickets will be available after the holidays.
Advance Dates for next Term
April
Tuesday 23 Breakfast Club begins 7.15am
Term begins 8.30am
Wednesday 24 Signing up for Junior Sports clubs 12.40pm, Sports Hall
Cricket v AKS A 2pm TBC
Thursday 25 Year 4 Swimming commences
Friday 26 Reception trip Smithills Farm
Monday 29 Clubs commence
May
Thursday 9 Y3&5 Play: Victorian Villainy 6pm
The school will be closed for a whole school Inset for all staff on Monday September 2nd. Please note that the Nursery and Holiday Club will not be open.
Merit Awards
RB: Arthur RH: Isobel 1D: Daisy 1W: Reuben 2E: Lyla
3J: Evie 3M: Ayman 4D: Yaamini 4S: Neelesh 5M: Hashbala 6H: Hannah 6P: Yawar
Monitor of the week: Abigail
Monitor of the term: Katie
Thought for the Week
Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life. S.D. Gordon
I hope you all have a very happy Easter holiday. I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 23rd April.
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
