Newsletter No. 9.
25th April 2013

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the Summer Term. Congratulations to everyone, the amount of the Lenten Collection at the moment is £1142. This is marvellous, thank you all for your support. The money was raised by non uniform days, sponsored activities, raffle, guessing games, cake stall, and PTFA coffee morning. The children enjoyed themselves, had good educational experiences and learnt about people in need. The children are telling us they are still collecting their sponsor money for the sponsored swim! Very well done!  Steph and Geoff Devlin from the Leamington Christian Mission came to school and we gave them the tins we had collected, which were greatly appreciated.

Thank you to Mrs Hackett, Mrs Eames and the PTFA for organising The Smarties Collection. There was a very good response, with lots of Smarties tubes being returned filled with money adding up to £310. Well done everyone! The children in Year 1/2 class raised the most money in the Smarties Collection.

Mrs Smith and her husband Rob have written to thank everyone for the very generous gift of Mothercare vouchers that we bought with the money collected on the birth of their baby Jacob Solomon Smith. We sent them our Congratulations and our very best wishes for good health and happiness the future. Please see Mrs Smith’s thank you note and lovely photograph of Jacob on the school notice board.

I am very sad and sorry to let you know that Mrs Kenny has resigned from her position and will be leaving St. Peter’s School in July at the end of the summer term. Mrs Kenny has worked at St. Peter’s School for six years in the school office. Mrs Kenny has decided that the time is now right for her to move on and further her career. She will be greatly missed. We thank her very much for all her hard work, commitment, dedication and valued contribution to St. Peter’s School during the time she has been here. We wish her every success, happiness and good health in the future. If you would like to contribute please send a donation in an envelope marked “Confidential” and as a token of appreciation we will make a presentation to Mrs Kenny at the end of term. The vacancy is currently being advertised. Details are available from the school office and/or www.warwickshire.gov.uk/jobs.

Well done to the School Netball teams who have played all their matches this season with respect and determination. They came third in the netball league and were or runners up in the Year 5 netball tournament.  Congratulations!  Thank you to
Mrs Giacalone for her work with the netball teams during the netball season and to the parents who help with transporting the children to the matches.

Some Year 4 and Year 5 children have taken part in the Warwick Young Student Researchers’ Programme with other children from schools in Warwickshire and Coventry.  Children wrote stories in a historical setting and did their own research for this. Congratulations to Elspeth Mott, Emily O’Riley, Fergus Sleight and Peter Vaughan who attended the Student Research Conference at Warwick University last week and very well done to Peter who was highly commended for his writing on “Charlie’s War”.  Very well done to all of the children and thank you to
Mrs Quayle and their parents for supporting them in their writing.

School Photographs will be taken in school on Wednesday 22nd May by Bentley Photographic Company, starting at 9.00am. There will be a whole school group photograph, family groups and individual photographs taken.

Please make sure you send all money in a named envelope on Monday morning, especially Dinner Money. The Governor’s Fund, £5 per family, is now due for this term.
As a number of cases of head lice have been reported in the school, I would advise you to check thoroughly for both lice and nits.

Please will all children have shorts, T-shirts, plimsolls and socks in a bag on their peg, in school every day. In addition to this please will all children in Key Stage 2 classes, Y3, 4, 5 and 6 have trainers to change into on Fridays when going to the athletics track and bring a waterproof coat.

The Year 6 Statutory Assessment National Tests (SATs) will be taking place for all Year 6 children every day during the week of the 13th – 17th May. The Year 2 SATs will continue until the end of May.

The Topics covered this term will include: - 
Foundation Stage –   Growing;   Minibeasts – animals in the local habitat; Electricity; The Seaside: Going to the Seaside.
              
Key Stage 1 – Year 1 and Year 2 children
Minibeasts and their environments; Growing Plants; The Seaside; 
Seaside Holidays in the Past.                  

Key Stage 2 – Year 3 and Year 4 children
Religious Education - First Holy Communion, Easter, Pentecost,
The Eucharist, Prayer;
Science – Rocks and Soils; Solids, Liquids and how they can be separated;               History – World War II; P.E. – Athletics; Swimming and outdoor games;
Art and D&T – Construction of World War II objects, paintings and artwork.         

Year 5 and Year 6 children
Religious Education - Easter, Pentecost, The Work of The Apostles;
Science-“Changing State” and “More about Dissolving”;
History – How did life change in Leamington Spa in Victorian times?
Music – Performing Together;
P.E.  - Athletics, Swimming and Outdoor Games; 
Geography – Mountain Environments.                 

These are the areas of learning for your children this term.

Hopefully you will be able to support your children as they ask questions and show you their work. During the course of the term through letters, dates for the diary and other information from school you will learn more about the work the children are doing in school. If there are specific ways you can support in the children’s learning we will let you know.

We are continuing to collect Sainsbury’s vouchers. Please put them in the box, which is at the entrance where you come into school.

Please support the PTFA events: -
PTFA Auction Evening at St Peter’s Parish Centre – Saturday 27th April, 7.30pm
PTFA meeting in School –Tuesday 30th April 7.30pm
Summer Fayre - Saturday 15th June which will take place in school.                   
The current PTFA Fund Raising is for The Multizone Project.

On Thursday 26th June 2013 St Peter’s School is one of schools chosen to participate in the Intercultural Performing Arts Festival again this year, held at the Spa Centre.  A few of our children will be performing a display of Irish Dancing.  If you would like to come and support them, the tickets are £6.00 for adults and £4.00 for children. The tickets are available on a first come first served basis,

We have received a request from LIFE Charity for donations that are needed to provide support for families, by offering practical and emotional support, to help continue their pregnancy and supporting them afterwards for as long as necessary.
If you have any old or unwanted baby/children’s clothes or equipment that you would like to donate please bring them into school and leave in the box provided in the entrance by the double blue doors for collection. Your donations will be kindly received and provide great assistance to families in great need of practical support.

Thank you all once again for your continued support enabling us to work together for the children’s well being and development.