School Closure

Confirmation that the school is CLOSED today due to the weather conditions and forecast.
Have a Happy Christmas everybody.

POSSIBLY CLOSURE DUE TO SNOW

The latest weather forecast today indicates the likelihood of 10-15 cm of snow overnight.

If this is the case it is highly likely that we will be closed for the last day of term.

Please can we ask that all parents listen to the radio tomorrow morning to hear if the school is closed.

• Radio Suffolk 95.5, 95.9, 103.9 and 104.6FM (have updates at 10 past and 20 to each hour)
• Broadland Norfolk 102.4FM
• SGR FM 97.1-96.4FM
• Beach Radio 103.4 and 97.4FM

We will also place a notice on the school website if we are closed.

We suggest that you make alternative childcare arrangements for tomorrow in case.

We make every possible effort to ensure that the school remains open, but many of the staff do live a long way away which involves difficult cross country journeys.

NUMERACY WORKSHOP

On Tuesday 12 January, we will be holding Numeracy Workshops. These will focus on addition and subtraction. There will be one workshop in the afternoon, and one workshop in the evening. These workshops will give you the opportunity to discover more about how we teach addition and subtraction in the school and the methods the children will be learning. Each workshop will have three sessions. They will be based on year groups.

The afternoon session will start at 1.30pm and finish at 3.00pm.
The evening session will start at 6.00pm and finish at 7.30pm. (This is a repeat of the afternoon session).

The sessions will run as follows
1.30pm / 6.00pm Years 1 and 2
2.00pm / 6.30pm Years 3 and 4
2.30pm / 7.00pm Years 5 and 6

You are welcome to attend all of the sessions, or those you feel are appropriate for your child/children. We would recommend that if your child is in year 3, you also attend the year 1 and 2 session and if your child is in year 5 you also attend the year 3 and 4 session. If your child is in the lower year groups, you would benefit from seeing the follow on sessions.

During the workshops you will be given our school calculation policy.

We would strongly recommend that you attend one of the workshops in order to fully support your child with their numeracy.

Later in the term we will be holding a workshop on multiplication and division. Please note this date in your diary: Tuesday 30 March 2010.

Please could you reply on the attached slip as to which workshops and sessions you will be attending. There will be a crèche available for both sessions, but we need to know the numbers and ages of the children.

Homework set during the week of the workshops will be related to what we have covered.

Please could you return the form by Friday 18 December. Thank you.

Christmas Carol Concert 2009

A wonderfully entertaining Christmas concert was held at S. Michael's Church, Framlingham last Friday afternoon.
The main theme of the service was a performance by all of our year 3 & 4 children called ' Mr Partridge's Amazing Performing Troop'.
There were huge numbers of children also involved with; readings, the school choir, hand chimes, recorder group and the school orchestra.
There are 3 videos below with some of the highlights from the afternoon.

Year 3 and 4 singing their 12 days of Christmas song

The hand chimes group playing ' Silent Night'

The School Orchestra playing ' We wish you a merry Christmas'


Well done to all of the children and staff involved in this super celebration of Christmas.

Whole School Letter

CHRISTMAS PARTIES – Thursday 17 December
There will be class parties this Thursday in the afternoon. Key Stage 2 children are to come to school in their party clothes. Key Stage 1 and Foundation children should come to school in their uniform and bring their party clothes in to change into after lunch. Nursery will have their party on Thursday in the morning. Please ensure that party clothes and footwear are practical for normal morning lessons and outside playtimes.

NO RECORDERS – Thursday 17 December
Please note there will be no recorder groups this Thursday

REMINDER – ‘BE BRIGHT BE SEEN DAY’ – Friday 18 December (Last Day of Term)
Reminder for all children to come to school dressed in Bright or Fluorescent Colours or wear Uniform with additional reflector bands/jackets as a day to raise awareness about keeping safe on dark roads.

FRIENDS CRISP SALE! – Friday 18 December
The Friends have an overstock of Walkers Crisps which will be out of date by their next event in February.
On Friday after school they will be selling them from the Playground Pavilion at cost price. Choices are Salt & Vinegar, Cheese and Onion, Prawn Cocktail and Cheesy Wotsits all at 25p and Tangy Tomato Snacks at 10p.

CHARITY DONATIONS
Our Foundation and Key Stage 1 Christmas Productions raised £397.11. Our Key Stage 2 Carol Service raised £179.66 All donations are going to EACH (East Anglian Children’s Hospice) Thank you for your generous support.

LIVING WITH CHILDREN COURSE – Information Session 7 January
There will be an Introductory Meeting for those parents who are as yet undecided as to whether they wish to attend this course, and for those who have already confirmed. The meeting will be held in school on Thursday 7 January from 3.10 – 3.40pm, We are sorry there will be no crèche on this date, but you may wish to have children with you!

LOST PROPERTY
Has your child lost something recently? There are lots of items in our lost property container.
Can we please encourage all children and parents to seek for lost items in the container sited at the end of the corridor at the top of the stairs above the Nursery. We feel it is important for children to realise that personal items are their responsibility in school, and if they go missing, they need to look for them – the first stop being the lost property box. If any items are handed in at the office we put them in the lost property box. Needless to say, lots of the items are unnamed – so please can we ask that parents ensure names are on all personal items brought into school – especially sweatshirts. ANY ITEMS NOT CLAIMED BY THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER WILL BE SENT TO THE LOCAL CHARITY SHOP OR DISPOSED OF.

MEND PROGRAMME
This community, family based programme for overweight children is running at Debenham CEVC High School for 10 weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays from 18 January until 24 March at 6pm or 7pm. Other venues in Ipswich and Kesgrave are available. If you are interested call 01473 704030 to find out how to register. See more details on the Parent notice board.

SCHOOL LUNCH MENUS AND PAYMENT
The menus sent home earlier in the term are still valid until the end of April. Please remember that you will need to pay for the first week’s dinner money on the first day back (Tuesday 5 January).

RECEPTION TEACHER VACANCY
Due to unforeseen circumstances Miss Higgins will now not be taking up this role from January. The new Reception class will be temporarily covered by Mrs Mawson and Mr Greenacre whilst we re-advertise the vacancy. If you know of anyone who may be interested in the role, application forms and details can be found on our website at www.roberthitchams.ik.org, closing date is 8 January 2010.

SIZE OF SCHOOL BAGS
If you are buying a new school bag for January please can you consider the size as we have limited space on the pegs in school and the smaller the better – drawstring or triangular bags are the best.

SPRING TERM
There is a non-pupil day on Monday 4 January and the children return on Tuesday 5 January 2010.

MAY I WISH YOU ALL A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY CELEBRATIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR

Navity Cast Photo

The whole cast of 'The Nativity'

The Key Stage 2 Choir

TEACHER VACANCY

Framlingham Sir Robert Hitcham’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School
College Road
Framlingham
Woodbridge
IP13 9EP

Salary: MPS
Job Term: Full Time Teacher
Appointment Type: Temporary – from January 2010 for 2 terms
Closing Date: 8 January 2010
Place of work: Framlingham Sir Robert Hitcham’s CEVAP School

Required for the Spring and Summer term 2010 an enthusiastic teacher to take responsibility for a Reception Class.

We can offer you:
• A friendly team with a sense of humour
• Well-motivated children
• Supportive parents
• Excellent resources
• Team planning
• A caring environment

We are looking for someone who
• Has a good knowledge of the Foundation Stage Curriculum
• Can demonstrate excellent classroom practice and create a stimulating learning environment
• Can bring a caring ethos to the school and build good relationships with pupils, parents and staff members
• Is willing to take an active role in the wider aspects of school life
• Is passionate about children’s learning with high expectations
• Could be supportive of the Christian ethos of the school

Visits to the school are welcome.

Application packs available from the school website: http://www.roberthitchams.ik.org/p_Staff.ikml
or the school office email admin @ hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk, tel: 01728 723354, fax: 01728 724834

• This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• CRB checks required for relevant posts.
• Suffolk County Council – welcoming diversity

Victorian Art Work

Class RV have been doing some Victorian style art work inspired by an English artist: Frederick Leighton. Here are some of their paintings with a theme of light and shade - in watercolours.

Frederic Leighton (3 December 1830–25 January 1896) was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter.

Local Leisure Centre Activities

Follow this LINK to the activities section on our website to download the latest leaflets.
Click on the images to go to leisure centre websites.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

This display is up in our school hall at the moment. Every child in classes NS/JB and GH has contributed something towards it.

Superb Nativity Plays Start Christmas in Style!

These photos are taken from our Foundation and Key Stage 1 productions.

As Mrs Elphick said at the end of these productions huge praise should go to the children and staff involved. The costumes this year were stunning.

More images and video will be added to the BLOG before the end of term.

WHOLE SCHOOL LETTER (15)

REMINDER - GRAND PRIZE DRAW – MONDAY 14 DECEMBER
If you still have unsold raffle tickets, that you are not likely to sell, please can you return them to the office as soon as possible as we have had requests for more. All sold ticket stubs and money need to be returned by Friday 11 December. The draw will take place in Assembly on Monday 14 December.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH – TUESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Payment for the Christmas lunch is required on MONDAY 14 DECEMBER. The cost for the week is £10.80, the day £2.80, or an additional 80p is required if you have paid for the whole term but not for the Christmas lunch yet. Please note there is NO Nursery Lunch club on this day.

ROAD SAFETY EVENT – ‘BE BRIGHT BE SEEN’ – FRIDAY 18 DECEMBER (Last Day of Term)
As we are now in the darkest of winter the Junior Road Safety Officers are organising a ‘BE BRIGHT BE SEEN DAY’. They would like all children to come to school dressed in Bright or Fluorescent Colours or wear Uniform with additional reflector bands or jackets. This will be held on the last day of term – there is no donation to pay for this – it is purely a day to raise awareness about keeping safe on dark roads.

REFLECTORS FOR SALE
We have in stock some clip-on Reflectors which can be purchased for £1.00. The 4 main choices of shapes are T-Shirt (Blue), Owl (Yellow), Cat (White) and Snowflake (White). Please purchase from the Office.

CYCLE PROFICIENCY
Training has now finished for this term. The next course will start in the summer term for the remaining year 5 pupils. Mr Byer and Mrs Eyles would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who kindly volunteered their help: Mrs L Gooch, Mr M Gooch, Mrs N Gooch, Mr Tappenden, Mr Wood, Mrs Gray, Mrs Seaber, PC Hassler, Mrs Whiteley, Mrs Mason, Mr Russell, Ms Whitwood, and Mr Gorniak.

REMEMBRANCE POPPIES
We are pleased to let you know that we raised £91.48 for this year’s Poppy Appeal.

FLORA COOKING WITH SCHOOLS
Thank you to those who collected these tokens, we received 183 from which we have been able to order Digital Scales & Whisks for DT lessons.

MORRISON’S LETS GROW
With the 382 vouchers collected for this scheme we have ordered Cloche & Propagator Sets for Seeds and Tomato Seeds. Thank you.

School Chess Team

On Tuesday after school, a team of 6 players travelled to Debenham to play a chess match. During the available time, pupils played as many matches as they could fit in and four members of the team remained undefeated – Lucy Tappendon, Oscar Wood, Theo Bimson and Jake Briffa. Reigning school champion Joshua Briggs and David Orrell also contributed points to a comfortable win. This year’s school tournament in January should be an exciting contest with any of these 6 players plus a few others, including Billy Caiger who won last year’s year 4 tournament, all in contention.

Year 6 Netball

A large and enthusiastic group of girls have been practicing at lunchtimes with Mrs Elphick. She organised some matches against girls from Charsfield and Dennington Primary Schools. Unfortunately the weather was poor but the games went ahead anyway.

B Team report by Olivia: On December 3rd our B Team had a tournament against Dennington, Charsfield and Fram A. We won the game with Charsfield 5-0. We then played our A Team whilst Charsfield played Dennington. Against Dennington we had a close match. They were very good and we only managed to score the winning goal in the last minute.

A Team report by Imogen: On Thursday 3rd December we played a Netball tournament against Dennington and Charsfield. We won 10-0 against Charsfield with Imogen Frost scoring 7 and Elizabeth 3. We then played Dennington and won 4-1. At the end we had juice and biscuits.

St Michael's Church decorated for Christmas

Our large scale Nativity figures are now finished and in place at St. Michael's Church in Framlingham. It is worth having a look in the Church at the moment to see several Nativity sculptures (from local schools) plus all of the decorated Christmas trees.

Class NS / JB Christmas Carol Film

This is the updated version of the film with new photographs with larger speech bubbles. There is also an extra song at the end with lyrics written by members of class NS/JB.

Year 4 Football

Mr Byer has been kindly giving up some of his spare time to run year 4 football on Wednesday lunchtimes.
This week they have had a practice match against a year 5 select team which proved to be a closely fought game. The year 5 boys narrowly won by 4 goals to 2.
Mr Byer arranged a match against Debenham Primary School on Thursday after school. Fram won by 7 goals to 2. There is certainly plenty of talent and enthusiasm coming up through the school.

Year 6 go to London

On Friday 27 November year 6 went on a trip to London. We were split up into groups with Mrs Elphick, Mr Elphick, Mrs Mawson Miss Ashberry and Mr Vaughan. In the coach everyone was occupied for the 3-hour journey the London. When we were in London we saw policemen outside Downing Street, a lot of statues of famous people including Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill. First went to the national art gallery and looked at Turner pictures and Picasso. Then went into the royal opera house and watched an opera called The Tsarina’s slippers. It was brilliant. Next we went to Convent garden and watched people doing tricks. Everyone enjoyed themselves throughout the whole day. Thank you to all the teachers who helped organize our trip to London. By Emily Hunt