Spring Term 2008 - 7th March 2008

Dear Parents

WORLD BOOK DAY
What a super time we had yesterday. You will see below that I have asked some roving reporters in Y2 and Y6 to give you their account of the day. All that remains is for me to thank Mrs Jones and all the staff for organising all the activities (and for dressing in such fabulous costumes).
If you ever doubted just how much children learn from days like these, you would only need to have been a fly on the wall in the hall at 3.00 pm yesterday, when 185 children, in full costume, sat spellbound, listening to Tom Chapman from Y5 read aloud to them the story which they had all helped to create, entitled “Where is my Book?” A very special moment indeed.

On Thursday, 6th March, children at Andrews’ Endowed Primary School celebrated ‘World Book Day’. To start the morning, a book quiz was held. Two children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 were chosen by the House Captains to represent their House. As a school, we wrote a story together. We started with the first sentence, and adapted it to our style of writing. Each class had a turn of writing part of the story.

Children made the most of another opportunity to dress up as their favourite character from a book. The costumes were amazing, and I’m sure a lot of time was put in to them, so thank you if you spent your time to make them. (Liam Joy, Y6)

In the morning, we had an assembly from Reverend James. He shared some of his most precious Bibles, and explained to us that the word ‘bible’ is Greek, and it actually means ‘book’.
The whole of KS2 did some book day related work including reading polls, fact files and wordsearches on books, and finishing a class story. Everyone did very well at dressing up, even the teachers! There was Cruella De Ville, a pirate or two, a wicked queen and a ‘devil’ cat! (Becky Moulton, Y6)

On World Book Day we had lots of fun. There was a Reading Quiz and we also wrote some book reviews. Each class wrote a bit of a story. The costumes were great too! (Olivia Rhodes, Y2)

We had to dress up as our favourite book character. Some people went as Disney characters. Others went as people like Harry Potter and Robin Hood. (Erin Care, Y2)

An Evening with Alan Titchmarsh
Many thanks to everyone responsible for organising last night’s fundraiser, and of course, to Alan himself, for his superb talk and for generously giving up his time for us. It was lovely to see some parents amongst the audience, helping us to launch our campaign to raise £25,000 towards the cost of replacing the mobile classrooms. We will now need to formulate a campaign team to take the work of the fundraising project forward. More of this in future newsletters.

Sports Relief
Look out for a separate letter about next Friday’s Sports Relief fundraising events, being planned for us by the children in Y3 and Y4.

House News
Congratulations to ‘Austen’, winners of the Inter-House Reading Quiz yesterday, with 18½ points, and belated congratulations to ‘White’, who won the Challenge Cup before half term, achieving 804 House Points.

Jewellery
May I remind parents that jewellery is not permitted in school. Those children who have pierced ears should only be wearing plain studs, which should be removed for PE, and placed for safe keeping in a container brought in for that purpose, on the teacher’s table. If your child is not able to remove and re-fit the earrings for themselves, then you will need to provide the teacher with plasters or micropore tape from home to cover the earrings during PE.

Pilgrimage Day
Year 6 have been invited to attend a Pilgrimage Day at Winchester Cathedral on Wednesday 12th March.

Think Safe
Year 6 pupils are attending a ‘Think Safe’ event at Queen Elizabeth Country Park on Thursday 13th March from 12.50 to 3/10pm. The event is run by East Hants District Council and gives children the opportunity to think about how to keep safe in different situations. All Yr 6 children will have to bring a packed lunch on that day. We hope to be back at school between 3.30 and 3.45pm.

Netball Tournament
Our Yr. 6 netballers played in the Alton Convent’s tournament on Tuesday in glorious sunshine. They were victorious against Medstead school and drew their other match against a Convent team, finishing in fourth place overall. It was a fine team performance. The netball club will run each Tuesday, 3.30 to 4.30pm until the end of term.

PTFA Pampered Evening
There are still a few tickets left for the PTFA Pampered Evening which is being held on Monday 31st March, 7.30 to 9.30pm. Tickets are £10 to include all treatments and are available from the school office.

Maria Lloyd
Head Teacher