Northbourne C.E. (A) Primary School

Many apologies for the school closure earlier today.  An electrical fault, which Southern Electric could not initially fix, left us with no electricity, heating or hot water.

Thank you all for your quick response to our calls to collect children and your patience during this issue.

The problem has since been rectified and school will be open as normal tomorrow (Thursday 19th).

…to all of the parents and family members who joined us for our Christmas service at St. Peters on the last day of term. Father Edward’s service was, as always, an excellent way to start the Christmas holiday and the carols were sung beautifully by a packed church! Many thanks to the choir, Miss Folan and Mrs. Ramsbottom for their Christmas Calypso performance, and a big well done to a pupil in Year 5 for her (very brave) solo. Thanks too to all of the pupils who were readers; again, you are very brave to stand in front of so many people and read so clearly and calmly!
As you may know, Father Edward will sadly be leaving St. Peters at the end of this term. We hope to give him a memorable send-off to wish him good luck and say thank you for all his hard work during the time he has been in Didcot, and hope lots of you will be able to be involved with this; more details to follow soon.

You may have heard that our Breakfast Club has now been re launched as “ Morning Fun Club”.
Our club is a safe, friendly, relaxed place where the children can enjoy an optional, nutritional breakfast, whilst playing with friends.
It’s the perfect way for the children to get a great start to their school day.

Breakfast clubs are proven to improve children’s behaviour, punctuality and attendance rates at school. They also increase concentration levels throughout the morning, help in our pupils reach their full potential with their learning.

Our Morning Fun Club is held in the School library and runs from 07:30 until 08:50 when children go into school or pre-school.
The cost is £4.00 per session, (£3.50 if a sibling already attends), which is needed to cover staff wages and running costs.

There are ways to get help towards paying for registered and approved childcare, including our Morning Fun Club.  The following web sites may help you:
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/help-paying-childcare
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/oxfordshire-help-childcare-cost-fund

But it’s not all about breakfast… We are fortunate enough to have a wide range of exciting toys and games for the children to play with too.
In addition the children get involved in activities including:

• Art
• Tactile play (sand, water, play dough)
• Parachute games
• Ball games
• Outside play
• Computers

We look forward to you visiting Morning Fun Club soon

You may have heard that our Breakfast Club has now been re launched as “ Morning Fun Club”.
Our club is a safe, friendly, relaxed place where the children can enjoy an optional,  nutritional breakfast, whilst playing with friends.
It’s the perfect way for the children to get a great start to their school day.

Breakfast clubs are proven to improve children’s behaviour, punctuality and attendance rates at school. They also increase concentration levels throughout the morning, helping our pupils reach their full potential with their learning.

Our Morning Fun Club is held in the School library and runs from 07:30 until 08:50 when children go into school or pre-school.
The cost is £4.00 per session, (£3.50 if a sibling already attends), which is needed to cover staff wages and running costs.

There are ways to get help towards paying for registered and approved childcare, including our Morning Fun Club.  The following web sites may help you
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/help-paying-childcare
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/oxfordshire-help-childcare-cost-fund

But it’s not all about breakfast… We are fortunate enough to have a wide range of exciting toys and games for the children to play with too.
In addition the children get involved in activities including:
o Art
o Tactile play (sand, water, play dough)
o Parachute games
o Ball games
o Outside play
o Computers

We look forward to you visiting Morning Fun Club soon

Many thanks to all of the parents, family members, governors and staff who came along to our Chilli and Quiz Night last Friday. Our team of Teaching Assistants retained their crown as queens of the quiz by winning for a second year in a row; well done to all of you for such impressive general knowledge! The evening was really enjoyable and helped raise £400 for our Secret Garden fund. We are now almost ready to start work on the first phase of this exciting project, and will soon be able to display plans in school to show you all what we are aiming for.

As always, huge thanks go to the PTA; Sarah Tomas, Gwynne and Sue Doran, Alison Benn, Siobhan Taylor, Jackie Pierpoint and Kay Alder worked really hard in organising the event, making an excellent chilli and keeping score on the night (in the face of a number of protests from the teacher team). Thanks too to Ashley Taylor, our Quizmaster, for writing and presenting our second quiz. Keep your eyes peeled for more events, including our Christmas discos…

I am writing to say a huge thank you for your amazing response to our operation Christmas Child appeal! Children from all year groups across the school have participated with enthusiasm and it has been lovely to see the number of brightly coloured boxes in the hall increasing every day!

Whether you donated an item for one of the shoe boxes, a complete shoe box or your child gave their time to help us check and sort the shoe boxes – thank you! Thank you for your time and generosity in helping your child make a positive contribution.

We have no doubt the shoe boxes will play an important role in brightening the Christmases of lots of children across the world. As a working party of children sorted and checked the boxes, they were literally squealing with delight at all of the gifts and donations that had made each box complete. The shoe boxes will help the children who receive them know they are been thought of this Christmas.
We hope the children have enjoyed making the boxes and that they have a sense of satisfaction knowing what a difference they will make. This year, our school has donated over 45 complete shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child as a result of your hard work and effort.

Thank you once again for your generosity and support.