Friday 24 July 2009

Leavers Service 2009 in St. Michaels Church

Watch slideshow of photos from the Leavers Service held in St Michael's Church at the end of term.

Friday 17 July 2009

Staff Retiring

Mrs Gill Smith has worked as a teaching assistant at Robert Hitchams for 10 years and Mrs Glenys Morgan as a teacher for 20 years. They held a joint retirement party this week.

Jessica (from Class GM) writes:
Mrs Morgan will never be forgotten. We will remember her as an awesome teacher who comforts and is kind. She was always there when you needed help. We wish her a long and happy retirement and thank her for everything that she has done for us. Year 6 Camp will be one of the best memories of our primary school life.
Thank you so much.
Jessica (on behalf of all of Year 6).



Keith Harring style boards up in courtyard











Gazebo is finished on front playground







House Netball Final

The Final of the inter house netball was between HOWARD and HITCHAM.
Howard have had a very strong side this year with several school team players.
They proved a bit too strong for Hitcham and emerged as champions for the year.



SWINE FLU AT SCHOOL

I am writing to inform all families that, today, we have been alerted that a pupil in class JC has suspected swine flu. The child is being treated by the doctor with ‘Tamiflu’.

Repeated below is some of the information sent to all families on 13 July:

It is important that children who are ill with swine flu are kept away from school for a period of 7 days from the date that they develop symptoms.

Parents should keep an eye on children who have had contact with a swine flu case at school, for a period of 7 days from the last contact. The symptoms to look out for are a high fever [temperature above 38 C] with a mixture of other flu like symptoms such as headache, aching muscles, cough, runny nose, sore throat and sneezing. Swine flu is very unlikely to develop after this 7 day incubation period and symptoms are most likely to start after 2 to 4 days.

If you or your child develops symptoms of flu-like illness the advice of the Health Protection Agency is to stay at home and contact your GP or NHS Direct on 0845 4647. They will then advise you accordingly. Please do let us know if your child is being treated for these symptoms.

If a child is diagnosed by the GP as suffering from swine flu you can be assured that he/she is receiving the appropriate medical care and is recovering at home.

Good basic hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including swine flu. This includes:
Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible.
Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
Washing your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to your face or to other people.
Cleaning hard surfaces (such as door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.
Making sure your children follow this advice.

For more information on swine flu call the national information line on 0800 1 513 513. Alternatively, visit the Health Protection Agency website at www.hpa.org.uk.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

Summer Holiday Art Activity Days





Summer Holiday Activities

Creativity for Children aged 6-12.

Follow this link to a website giving more details.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

End of Year Film

The film below has highlights of another busy year at Robert Hitcham's. It looks mainly at our Year 6 Leavers. Have some tissues ready to wipe away the tears!

WHOLE SCHOOL LETTER (41)

As this letter brings another school year to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our hardworking staff, pupils, parents and helpers for the incredibly successful year we have had this year. Have a well deserved rest over the holidays. I wish the Year 6 children well on their move to high school and look forward to welcoming the rest of you back on 3 September together with all our new starters.

REMINDER LEAVERS’ SERVICE – THURSDAY 16 JULY AT 1.30PM
Reminder that the Leavers’ Service will be held at St Michael’s Church on Thursday 16 July at 1.30pm. Parents are warmly welcomed to this event. Only pupils in classes DB/KM, GM/DG, GH and RV will attend this service and they will be joined by younger siblings of Year 6 children who are at present in any other class.

KS2 SATS RESULTS
I am proud to report our KS2 SATs results:
KS2 English Maths Science
Level 4 and above 86% 86% 94%
Level 5 and above 36% 52% 42%
I think that you will agree with me that congratulations are due to all the children concerned, and of course, to the teachers too.

HOUSE RESULTS
House Handwriting Competition was won by Bulstrode with 19 points, 2nd place went to Howard, Hitchams and Mills all with 17 points.
House Poetry Competition 1st place Howard (19) 2nd place Hitchams (18) 3rd Mills (17) 4th Bulstrode (16)
House Captains and Vice Captains have now been selected by the pupils, they are as follows:

Bulstrode Boys Freddy Legg Jack Bentall
Girls Elisabeth Garrett Annabel Preston
Howard Boys Charlie Smith Ted Goode
Girls Izzy Brooks Hattie Hopkins
Hitcham Boys Adam Merry Ross Waddell
Girls Jessie Evans Jasmine Gravelius & Lavinina Carless
Mills Boys Ryan Seaber Josh Cantrell
Girls Imogen Frost Millie Green

CRICKET RESULTS
Our team did very well in the Asda Kwik Cricket competition this year; of the 5,000 schools from 10 counties that entered we finished in the last 8.

KNITTING CLUB BLANKET
Well done to the children and helpers of Knitting Club who produced the lovely blanket that was raffled at the school fete – and thank you to all who bought a raffle ticket. The charities chosen by the Knitting Club were Mzila School who will receive £50 and Cats Protection League who will receive £20.

READING SCHEME – FRAMLINGHAM LIBRARY
To encourage children to read over the summer holiday, Framlingham Library are running a free ‘reading scheme’, this year’s theme is ‘Quest Seekers’. The children must register and need to read 6 books – fiction or non-fiction (must include one non-fiction) – during the school holidays. PLEASE ASK AT THE LIBRARY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION or visit www.questseekers.org.uk.

BEST HOLIDAY PHOTOGRAPH
Following the success of last year’s photo competition we are running another one this summer. The photo must have been taken by the children themselves and one photo per child can be submitted (no bigger than A4 please). Please write on the back information about the photograph, the child’s name and class. The children can hand their photos in to me during the first week back and they will be judged according to their age. All children are welcome to enter with small prizes to the winners. A display of all the photos will be arranged for all to view. Any digital photos can also be e-mailed to Mr Brook for inclusion on the school BLOG, send to d.brook@hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk

GUITAR LESSONS – KS2
There are still a couple of spaces available in September for Guitar Lessons. If your child is interested, please collect a form from the Office.

SUMMER FETE SUCCESS
Thank you to everyone who helped at the fete, gave a donation or came along to support and enjoy the event. The Friend’s are delighted to let you know that they raised £1800.

FRIEND’S AGM AND MUSIC EVENING – Monday 28 September
There will be a music evening with performances by some of the children on Monday 28 September from 6pm to 8pm, with the Friend’s AGM in the interval. Miss Hitchcock will be holding auditions in September, more details to follow in the new school year.

20’s PLENTY ROAD SCHEME
We are delighted to advise parents that we have finally been successful in persuading SCC Highways to install a ‘20’s Plenty’ scheme on College Road. This is a really positive outcome from our Travel Plan which aims to make the local roads safer for children and families as they walk to and from school. A date for installation has not yet been confirmed.

EPILEPSY PARENTS AND FAMILIES CONFERENCE
The National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy is hosting a conference on Saturday 17 October at the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury, Central London (£15 adults/£10 children 12-18 years) for anyone affected by Epilepsy. For more info email: info@ncype.org.uk.

TESCO AND SAINSBURY’S VOUCHERS
Thank you to everyone who saved these for us, we have collected over 34,000 Tesco vouchers with which we are ordering keyboards, scanners, tripods, headphones, musical instruments, bird box with camera and some sports equipment. We have received over 7,000 Sainsbury’s vouchers which will enable us to order indoor basketball hoops, balls, and more.

May I wish everyone a happy and enjoyable summer.

Monday 13 July 2009

SWINE FLU INFORMATION FROM SCC

I am writing at the request of the Local Authority to provide an update on the management of swine flu in schools and early years settings.
As you know, this new flu virus was first found in Mexico in April and from there has spread to many countries in the world. So far, in Suffolk, we have been much luckier than some parts of the UK in that we have had relatively few cases. We are, however, now starting to see some cases in schools and, because this flu virus seems to pass fairly easily from child to child, we may well see more in the run up to the end of the summer term.
When the swine flu virus was first found in the UK, the policy was to close schools if a case was discovered in a pupil and to offer antiviral drugs to other children in the school. This made sound sense at the time, as doctors were not sure how severe this virus would be and we wanted to stop it spreading in the UK.
Two months later, we now know a lot more about the virus and, in particular, we know that it only causes a relatively mild illness in the vast majority of people who get it. These findings have led to a reassessment of the policy regarding school closure and it is now highly unlikely that public health doctors would advise the closure of a school if a pupil or member of staff was found to have swine flu. It is also very unlikely that other pupils would be offered antiviral drugs to try to prevent them getting swine flu – even if they were in the same class as someone who had swine flu.
It is, however, still important that children who are ill with swine flu are kept away from school for a period of 7 days from the date that they develop symptoms.
In addition, parents should keep an eye on children who have had contact with a swine flu case at school, for a period of 7 days from the last contact. The symptoms to look out for are a high fever [temperature above 38 C] with a mixture of other flu like symptoms such as headache, aching muscles, cough, runny nose, sore throat and sneezing. Swine flu is very unlikely to develop after this 7 day incubation period and symptoms are most likely to start after 2 to 4 days.
Parents are advised to contact their doctor if their child does develop such symptoms after coming into contact with someone who has swine flu. There is, however, no need to keep a child away from school if they have not developed any symptoms, even if they have been in contact with a known case.
Yours faithfully
Dr Brian Keeble
Consultant in Public Health Medicine

Additional information from the Health Protection Agency
If a child is diagnosed by the GP as suffering from swine flu you can be assured that he/she is receiving the appropriate medical care and is recovering at home.
The Health Protection Agency, the local NHS primary care trust and local authority are aware of the likelihood of swine flu cases in schools and early years settings and have advised that, when a case is identified, no other actions are necessary and we will remain open as usual. We are working closely with the bodies in order to keep updated on the most recent developments.
If you or your child develops symptoms of flu-like illness the advice of the Health Protection Agency is to stay at home and contact your GP or NHS Direct on 0845 4647. They will then advise you accordingly. Please do let us know if your child is being treated for these symptoms.
Good basic hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including swine flu. This includes:
1. Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible.
2. Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
3. Washing your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to your face or to other people.
4. Cleaning hard surfaces (such as door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.
5. Making sure your children follow this advice.
We will be taking hygiene precautions within the school.
For more information on swine flu call the national information line on 0800 1 513 513. Alternatively, visit the Health Protection Agency website at http://www.hpa.org.uk/.

Thursday 9 July 2009

Day 4 at Whitwell

We have had a brilliant day out at the North Norfolk coast.
It started with a boat trip to see the seals and sandwich terns (from Africa) off Blakeney Point.
We then had a few hours on the beach between Wells and Holkham (see TV program: 'Kingdom')
where we had lunch, built sand castles and played baseball.
Finally we spent our pocket money in the shops of Wells.
Everybody is now getting ready for the camp show. We must thank Mr Harte for preparing another superb evening meal. Tonight we had rice with either chicken curry or sweat & sour chicken - both in some cases!
See you back in Fram tomorrow.





















Wednesday 8 July 2009

Day 3 at Camp 09



















At Whitwell today the weather has been kind. This was important for our ARTS Day.





The children have painted Camp Signs, made some Whitwell pottery and Tie Dye t-shirts.



This evening we have cooked our own meals in the woods. We will soon go and watch a sheep dog demonstration.



Our cricket team had a super day down at Mildenhall. They finished 5th out of the 16 teams (from
8 different Counties). They also got to meet former England player Peter Such.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Day 2 at Year 6 Camp 2009

Sorry that this report is a bit late in the day. We have been very busy all day and the weather has been great. We have only had about 2 minutes of rain.
Today the children have helped cook the breakfast and evening meal aswell as making their own lunch.
We have done pond dipping, archery, macrame and baseball.




























Summer Fete Success









A wonderful warm summer's evening helped make the Friend's Summer Fete a great success on Friday.
The Pimms bar did a roaring trade and so too did the refreshments stall. There were loads of side shows for the children to take part in, from fishing in the duck pond to jam jar ping pong, penalty shoot out to face painting and a bouncy castle. The best decorated sweetie jar prizes went to Molly H, Alfie D, Emily D, and the best fancy dress prize was won by Kimberley B, both judged by Rev Graham Owen.
Thanks to everyone who went to the trouble of baking a cake - the cake stall was superbly stocked. The Friends worked very hard to for this event and would like to thank everyone who kindly gave their time to run a stall and help out setting up/clearing away.
Next terms events are not planned yet except for the AGM at the end of September, where we welcome anyone who would like to join the committee.

Monday 6 July 2009

1st Day at Camp 2009


The weather on our first day at Whitwell has been mixed. One minute there is clear blues sky and the next very strong showers. At least it is a nice temperature.

The children have settled in very easily. Their tents are well organised and everybody located their wellies!

In between showers we have been for a nature walk around the estate, played cricket and football. Charlotte led a sing song during one rain shower. In our wood pile we found a woodmouse nest with 3 babies. We moved them to a quieter spot.

Dinner looks great tonight - it is spag boll and it is nearly ready.














Thursday 2 July 2009

District Schools Athletics Championships

We took a team of 32 year 5 and 6 boys and girls to the District Atheletics Chamionships hosted by Thomas Mills High School.

15 of our team came away with winners medals and 25 of them with certificates for coming in the top 3 in an event.

This was a great morning of Athletics between 12 schools. There was a varity of track and field events with relays at the end.