OUR SCHOOL NEEDS YOU!

Our school needs your help to collect Tesco schools vouchers! Vouchers
collected in previous years have exceeded 20,000 and have helped us to obtain
some exciting resources. This year we are looking to set a school record and
collect more vouchers than ever before! Please try to collect as many vouchers
as you can and do not be afraid to ask your friends, neighbours, work
colleagues for their vouchers as well. Many people who do not have children
simply discard these vouchers and we could make valuable use of them.
Collecting boxes are by the school office. Please bring in your vouchers on or
before 01/06/12.

Happy Easter

Today during "Let's Explore" the children had their first play with the new toys.  We have purchased a new go-cart, a Playmobil camper-van and a Safari Station.  They have proved very popular additions to the Year 1 toys.

Please remember to wear pyjamas and bring your teddy and favourite bedtime story.

The children have made an animated film of The Three Little Pigs and we are hoping to show this in the morning.  We will also be transferring it to the school website in the near future.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter from everyone in Year 1. 

Friday

Tomorrow is our Pyjamas and Teddy Bears day so please remember to come dressed ready for bed!!
Also don't forget to bring in your favourite bedtime story, I've chosen mine and can't wait to share this with you all tomorrow.

We are linking up with Year 2 for the day so the children will have a partner from Mr. Spracklen's class and we will be sharing the children for activities we have planned.  These are based around 2 well known fairy stories which will nicely round off this terms topic on traditional tales.

Let's hope this lovely weather lasts for our Easter Holiday, have a great time and see you all in 2 weeks time.

Our trip to the farm yesterday was a great success.  The children all had a chance to bottle feed a lamb and to see the tiny lambs up close.  As we stood looking at the sheep in the field, we were lucky enough to see three sheep give birth - from a distance so no questions were asked!
The piglets were fed, although the parents were just as hungry  and Horace has very big teeth!

Last Chance - Digital Leaders Application

Mr. Spracklen is welcoming children to apply for the role of 'Digital Leaders' within school. If you wish to apply, you will need to fill out a short online form (available now on SWGfL Merlin - see picture) before 7.00pm on 30/03/12. Children from Reception to Year 4 are encouraged to apply with the aim of appointing a child from each class to the 'Digital Leaders' team! The form will ask you why you should be considered for this role and we will be looking for original responses that come from the children. Below the responsibilities of a 'Digital Leader' are listed:

Website/Blogs/Online:

Write blog posts for your class and comment on other blogs across the school
Helping staff to upload pictures/videos to their blog

ICT Clubs:
Plan and lead ICT club at lunchtimes for Years R/1 and 2/3 (1 day each)
Possibly lead an after-school ICT club

Other
Change photographs on the TV screen in the reception

Organise competitions e.g. a drawing competition in Purple Mash

Possibly attend events and other schools to share ICT learning

Attend after-school training for staff and parents - with your parents' permission of course!

Trialling new software as required

Mr. Spracklen Recommends

Mr. Spracklen recommends: http://neave.com/bouncy-balls/ as an excellent site to 'play' with at home. This small activity is a fun and exciting way to introduce your children to the 'control and monitoring' element of I.C.T. Can your child make the bouncy balls move with their mouse? Can they make them jump with their voice? Comments on this activity are encoruaged.

REMINDER - Ofsted Parent View

As you know at the Prince of Wales First School we are always looking for
feedback and encourage you to provide this in a variety of ways. Whether this
is through face-to-face conversation, comments on our class blogs or through
our annual parents questionnaire, we always welcome your feedback. Building on
this, we would now encourage you to go online and express your views using the
new 'Parent View' website from Ofsted. This 12-question survey will help other
parents as they make important choices about their child's education and
provide Ofsted with information about our school that will help them inform
their priorities for inspection. The questionnaire does not allow free text
comments but invites responses to a series of closed questions. To express your
view, please visit our school website now and click on the parent tab and look
for the link to the Parent View website. Alternatively, visit: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/.

Sport Relief Mile

We are planning to join in with the “Sport Relief Day” on Friday 23^rd March by all “running a mile” within the school grounds and dressing up in fancy dress (the theme being “something silly”). There will be a 3-lap course set up within the school. Different groups of children will be covering the mile-long course in different ways- mostly walking, some children using wheelchairs, some running parts of the course, there might be some skipping, dribbling footballs, balancing tennis balls on rackets etc. I’m sure you get the idea. We will be encouraging the children to come up with their own entertaining ideas for the event. Older children will be allowed to cover more than a mile if they are comfortable doing so, though we will be limiting the amount of time participating to one hour. The children will not be put under any pressure to actually finish the mile if they become tired. We will, however, be presenting the activity as a worthy challenge. We will be doing this on the morning of Friday 23^rd March, starting at 9.30, though staggering the classes to avoid congestion at the start. The Reception class will be doing the “run” in the afternoon. We are asking the children to collect some sponsorship money. All money collected will go to the Sport Relief fund. We provide you with a copy of the Sport Relief sponsor form. As well as a funny costume the children will of course need appropriate footwear for the “run”. Thank you for your support. Yours sincerely, Mr D MacBean - P.E. Co-ordinator

Year 1's trip to Scaplen's Court

Year 1 had a great time at Scaplen's Court today. They really enjoyed playing with lots of old toys and learning from the museum exhibits. They found the Victorian schoolroom very interesting: not all were convinced that "Silence is Golden" or "Children should be seen and not heard"!! One boy was quite disappointed that he couldn't be caned! We also looked at the wringer, dolly tub and posset and washboard used for washing clothes before mechanisation. How things have changed! We also all decided we wanted a Sunseeker yacht in Poole harbour: only £2 million!!

Parents are invited to feedback any comments from the children about the success of this trip.

Jurassic Coast Van

As part of our Olympic Humanities Week, all pupils will be visited by the Jurassic Coast Van on Wednesday. This is part of the ‘Big Jurassic Classroom’ project that the school is involved in which encourages us to think about our local World Heritage Site as the Olympics draws closer. On Wednesday why not ask your child what work they completed with the Jurassic Coast Team? Did they see any fossils? Can they remember the fossil names? How is a fossil formed?

Mary Anning Fossil Workshop

As part of our Olympic Humanities Week, pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 will be visited by a visiting Drama group on Wednesday who will be completing some very special Literacy work with us on the theme of Mary Anning the fossil collector. We all look forward to this exciting morning of live drama and inspired writing! In preparation of Wednesday’s visit why not see what your child can find out about Mary Anning or her home town of Lyme Regis?

Dangers posed by Jequirity Bean Bracelets

The DCC Health and Safety team have alerted us to the dangers posed by Jequirity Bean bracelets. These bracelets have been on sale at various retail outlets across the UK,including the Eden Project in Cornwall.  The Jequirity bean bracelet ismade from the deadly seed of the plant abrus precatorious. It contains thetoxin abrin that if swallowed, has the potential to kill in doses of just 3micrograms. Abrin is chemically similar to ricin, a chemical warfare agent.People who have bought, or are in possession of the bracelets, are beingurged to bag them, then wash their hands and avoid touching their eyes.They should then hand the bracelet into their local police station where itwill be disposed of safely.There is further information available on the Public Health Agency websiteon the following link:http://www.publichealth.hscni.net/news/pha-issues-safety-warning-jequirity-bean-braceletsWe have attached an image of the bracelet for your information.

2nd olympic week

Dear parents

Next week we are having our second Olympic week.  In year 1 we are going to concentrate on looking at the four countries which make up Great Britain and also the Jurassic Coast area.  As part of this work I think it will be interesting for the children to identify places in GB where they have friends or family.  Thank you for the good response to the same question from around The World I am sure we will find lots of different areas in our own country on which to stick Post-it notes.  As before please give your child a list and we will provide some Post-it notes to stick on the map of GB.

• We will also be finding out about some of more famous The World Heritage Sites in each of the 4 countries.
• Looking at some of the well-known British athletes who have been or will be involved in the Olympic games and the sports they represent,
• Composing our own Olympic theme tune
• Maybe making some regional recipes linked to the 4 countries.

On Monday we have the children and staff from our Link School in Aldershot visiting for the day.
Tuesday is our class trip to Scaplens Court
On Wednesday we will be having a visitor to tell us about Mary Anning and also looking at the resources from The Jurassic Coast Van.
Friday we will all be taking part in walking/running the mile around the school site.   

So as you see it promises to be a busy and enjoyable week when we will all learn lots of interesting facts.

Thank you for your continued support.

Could you be a Digital Leader?

Mr. Spracklen is welcoming children to apply for the role of 'Digital Leaders' within school. If you wish to apply, you will need to fill out a short online form (available now on SWGfL Merlin - see picture). Children from Reception to Year 4 are encouraged to apply with the aim of appointing a child from each class to the 'Digital Leaders' team! The form will ask you why you should be considered for this role and we will be looking for original responses that come from the children. Below the responsibilities of a 'Digital Leader' are listed:

Website/Blogs/Online:

Write blog posts for your class and comment on other blogs across the school
Helping staff to upload pictures/videos to their blog

ICT Clubs:

Plan and lead ICT club at lunchtimes for 3/4 and 5/6 (1 day each)
Possibly lead an after-school ICT club

Other

Change photographs on the TV screen in the reception

Organise competitions e.g. a drawing competition in Purple Mash

Possibly attend events and other schools to share ICT learning

Attend after-school training for staff and parents - with your parents' permission of course!

Trialling new software as required

week 3

A big thank you to all those who supported us last week it was a great success.

The children worked really well and were very enthusiastic learning about the World.  it certainly sparked their imaginations.

This week we have "found" some very larges eggs in school and are wondering how they arrived here and what they might contain.  What great imaginations the children have but they will have to wait until next week to find out.  Please keep the suspense going.  Thank you

Friday's Celebration Event

On Friday 2nd March, there will be some displays in the hall from each class
showing their work this week on Global Awareness. Each class will also have
some food they have made to sell! We shall also be putting on some dance and
music displays throughout the afternoon. This is intended to be a very
informal celebration of the week's work and you are invited to join us at any
time from 2.15p.m. until 3.45p.m. There will also be a Traidcraft stall selling
Fairtrade items and providing information. If you are not able to come along
you might give your child a small amount of money for them to buy some food
from the other class stalls.