Whitehouse Common Primary -

Newsletter 18th January 2019

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An avalanche of Christmas cards!

Two of the eTwinning projects in which Whitehouse Common Primary are participating lead to an avalanche of post  in the school office in December. About 40 envelopes, big and small, arrived from all over Europe, all containing at least one handmade Christmas card. Some contained multiple cards, other schools enclosed beautifully written accounts of Christmas in their country whilst still more contained small gifts such as badges, tiles, stickers and book marks.

Being chosen to open one of the envelopes in class was cause of great excitement, and the volunteers who helped Sra Stevens to display the bulk of the cards were overjoyed that they were allowed to open so many.

You'll find out more about the Green Kids project in the next week or so, but the project that brought the most cards was How's Your Christmas? This project included 51 schools across 19 countries exchanging Christmas greetings. Due to some schools considering 51 cards too many to send, there was a smaller list of 8 schools and a longer list of 43 schools. Whitehouse Common was on the longer list and at the start of December, Y3-5 all produced a Christmas card to be sent to another school in another country. And then we waited!

Sra Stevens made a map of the schools involved so that we could track the cards. Below is a screenshot of the map as it currently is (we received another card today!) and if you click this link you can zoom in and out for more detail. 

How to ensure that everyone could see the cards was a concern and, if you attended one of the Christmas concerts in the Oaks building,  you may have seen that we 'borrowed' the Achievement Tree in the Hall. Below is a video to give you an idea of the number and variety of greetings were fortunate to receive. All the cards are now in the process of being grouped and filed in a big book ready for display.  

Leading Aspect Award

We are delighted to announce that, as part of the Learning Trust for Excellence (LTE), we have been awarded a Leading Aspect Award for excellence in our safeguarding work which ensures our children are safe, secure and happy in everything they do. The Leading Aspect Award is a national award that identifies and celebrates leading practice in education.

Safeguarding is of paramount importance to schools and runs across all aspects of school life. The award recognises the quality of policies, practice and commitment to safeguarding shown by all involved in the Learning Trust for Excellence and acknowledges the significant impact of collaborative working on our schools. A range of people including teachers, parents, governors, pupils and Head teachers were interviewed as part of the verification process required in order to achieve the award.

Thank you to everybody who has been a part of this. We are so proud that the work we have done with the other schools and partners has had such a positive impact on us all, and most importantly our children.
The Learning Trust for Excellence has lots of exciting plans for 2018 so watch this space.

Do You Enjoy Singing?

Singing Community of Choirs (SC Choirs) are having FREE tasters in ALL the choirs next Wednesday,16th January. They meet at Arthur Terry school (times below) every Wednesday in term time.
Come and experience a diverse, inspirational and inclusive choral organisation that nurtures friendships, fosters teamwork and develops musicianship across all ages. Exciting and unique performance opportunities too!

* Little Voices (ages 4-6) - 4.15pm-5pm.
* Junior Voices (ages 6-9) - 4pm-5pm
* Intermediate Voices (ages 9-12) - 5.30pm-7pm
* Senior Voices (ages 12-18) - 5.30pm-7pm
* Dynamic Voices (adults) - 7.15pm-9pm.

View our website here for further details: www.scchoirs.org.uk

Singing Community of Choirs
A community of five active choirs for all ages, plus singing projects within local schools and the wider area.

Newsletter 14th December 2018

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Happy Hometime Club December 2018 Newsletter

eTwinning projects 2018-19

Whitehouse Common has been involved in eTwinning since 2007; we've even won a national award for one of our projects! In case you didn't know, eTwinning is a free online community for schools in Europe which allows you to find partners and collaborate on projects within a secure network and platform. Schools communicate with one another via a Twinspace, and also by post or sometimes via Skype. Projects can last a few months or a whole year, and each one receives a National Quality Mark if it meets the criteria on the UK NSS.

This year, Whitehouse Common are involved in 4 projects!

1. How's your Christmas? 

2. Green Kids

3. Travelling Toys 

4. Let's travel with our mascot.

Over the next week, keep an eye on the school newsletter and also the website for new from our projects.

Stamp Collecting 2018!

The Eco Team need your help please. Their mission is to recycle as many used stamps as possible. These stamps are going to be used to help the RNIB. They can use them all to raise funds for blind and partially sighted people across the UK. Stamps are sold by weight and they raise £20 per kilogram so it is one of the easiest ways to raise money!

WCPS will also be competing against Moor Hall Primary and Hollyfield Primary School to see which school can collect the most stamps. Please help us to continue our four year winning reign.