All the latest news from School!

• Virtual Tour for Prospective Parents

  Tue 29 Dec 2020

  Due to the current Covid 19 situation we are unable to offer prospective tours of our school to those wishing to join our community. We have therefore created a 'virtual' tour for you to see our school facilities and to meet some of our staff. If you have any questions please email the office at office@holtspurschool.co.uk in the first instance. Our website can provide you with lots of information about school life as well. 

   

  To view the school tour please go to https://youtu.be/rGUwn5dok6E we look forward to meeting you as soon as we can face to face.  

• Year 1 - Making a difference to the Community

  Thu 17 Dec 2020

  Year 1 have been learning about ‘The Jolly Postman’ and ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ as part of their Power of Reading English lessons this half term. Part of the writing has been writing for a purpose and during one of the lessons several children genuinely said it would be nice to write a Christmas card to people who have been amazing by helping others during lockdown. The children created a list of people they thought should receive a card, the list included: the police and Holtspur Fire brigade for flashing their blue lights every Thursday outside hospitals, the NHS and Wycombe Hospital for being amazing, our local MP Joy Morrissey for looking after Beaconsfield community, Kiln Court for caring for the elderly whilst their families can’t visit them plus staff at Tesco and Sainsbury’s for making sure we have food and groceries during lockdown; the list also included Boris Johnson and The Queen! The children then wrote amazing messages using their understanding of sentences, capital letters for proper nouns and sentences using and/because. After that they made cards (and got covered in glitter!), wrote their lovely messages in their neatest handwriting and finally walked to the post box to post them. One child happened to ask if they would get a reply and we explained that wasn’t why we had written them, but it would be a lovely surprise if we did – we told the children to expect nothing! Little did we know that 2 days later, a lovely lady called Beverley Knight arrived at Holtspur from Beaconsfield Sainsbury’s asking to speak to Samuel in Year 1. She had opened his letter and read ‘Dear Sainsbury’s, Thank you for looking after us during Coronavirus and thank you for giving us food and drinks. We appreciate you helping us. I like Sainsbury’s because we get our food there. Have a lovely Christmas. From Year 1 Holtspur School. She said the words were exactly what staff needed to read to lift their spirits right now and everyone who has read the card has appreciated the card being made and sent to them. We took some photos of Beverley with Samuel and she thanked him once more then gave him 2 tubs of sweets to share with Year 1 as a thank you from Sainsbury’s. Mr Tagg and Mrs Blackmore were blown away by the impact the letters have had on so many people. Sainsbury’s do not realise the impact that 2 tubs of sweets have had on Year 1 (who had to be scraped off the ceiling when Samuel took them back to class!!) Isn’t it amazing what a little hand made card from a child in Year 1 can make to so many people! Well done Year 1.

   

  

• Christmas Reading Challenge

  Tue 15 Dec 2020

  Mrs Orchard and Mrs Blackmore would love to hear about all the reading children are enjoying over the winter holiday. Please take the winter reading challenge at home and see how many of the 12 challenges you can complete. Hand your completed challenge sheet into school by the 8^th January for an award certificate. Be ready to share all the interesting reading you did with your teachers when we return in January. If you want to take photos of some of the challenges we will add them to our reading display board in school.

   

  

• Christmas Jumper Day - Friday 11th December

  Fri 27 Nov 2020
  We are encouraging all members of the school community to wear a silly (Christmas themed if possible) jumper in school on Friday 11^th December to show our support for the Save the Children Charity. We are not asking for any contributions this year as the school has recently supported a number of charitable causes so please do not send your child in with any money. Hopefully we’ll have some pictures of some of the most interesting / fun jumpers in the next newsletter

• Wonderful Gesture

  Fri 27 Nov 2020

  A big thank you to our ex-Chair of Governors, Deirdre, for her donation to the school of £523. This has enabled us to purchase new and modern occupational therapy equipment for use across the school and purchase Lego for Lego Therapy sessions for each year group. Thank you again for this kind and generous gift from which many children will benefit.

• Sponsored Read Update ... Wow! Holtspur you are amazing!!

  Sat 14 Nov 2020

  We are proud to announce that the Sponsored read was a huge success. It was wonderful to see so many children eagerly taking part and to watch the love of reading returning for so many children. It has been wonderful hearing childrens’ experiences exploring the wonderful world of Harry Potter, getting lost in the Viking adventures in How to Train your dragon and laughing hysterically at the antics of Andy and Terry in the Story Tree House plus many more. The sponsored read has not only created a wonderful buzz of children sharing books and ideas, it will also will enable us to update our reading corners, library and home reading book selections along with updating school Atlases, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and thesaurus. As a school we raised an incredible £1916.12 with the additional 60% Usborne provide, we have staggering £3065.79 to spend on books!

• Armistice Day

  Sat 14 Nov 2020
  We have been remembering those who have served the nation in wars and conflicts in the past and those who continue to keep us safe in the present as well as everyone affected by conflicts throughout the world. The children have been supportive of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, purchasing poppies and other items that our Year 6 children have been selling in school. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the fundraising and to our Year 6 pupils for running the sales. We marked the 2 minute silence for Armistice Day in school whilst our head boy and girl joined others at St Mary’s Church in Beaconsfield at the local Remembrance event. My thanks to Mrs Blackmore for accompanying them. In school 4L created their own wreath in class using recycled materials.

  

• TT Rockstars Challenge!

  Fri 06 Nov 2020

  Next week, is Maths Week in England and Times Table Rockstars (TTRS) are asking us to ‘Rock Out’ to celebrate!

   

  Your child should be accessing TTRS everyday to help learn their multiplication tables fluently and all next week their great efforts will not go unnoticed. If they are one of the top performers next week, not only will they earn a custom certificate but they could be in with a chance of winning a very exciting Amazon gift card up to the value of £100!

   

  If your child is unsure of their login details then please ensure you make contact with your class teacher who will make sure they have all the right information to rock until they drop!

  Have fun and I can’t wait to see how we get on.

  Kind Regards,

  Miss Wakefield

  Maths Lead

   

• Harvest Festival

  Thu 08 Oct 2020

  At this time of year, people all over the country are celebrating Harvest and using it as an opportunity to help people less fortunate.

   

  This year, on Thursday 22nd October, we will be collecting produce to donate to The One Can Trust. The foodbank serves High Wycombe and South Buckinghamshire including the Beaconsfield area, providing food parcels to those in our local area who find themselves temporarily in difficult circumstances. The organisation is dependent upon donations of food and it is staffed by volunteers, so all contributions will be most greatly received.

   

  Unfortunately the food bank are unable to accept perishable items, we would be very grateful if you could bring one item to donate. Below is a suggested item for each year group to bring to school based on their urgent shopping list, ensuring that our donation is as varied as possible.

   

  Pre School	Pack of biscuits
  Reception	Can of beans, lentils , pulses etc
  Year 1	Can of fruit or vegetables
  Year 2	Canned meat eg tuna, meat pies including halal meat.
  Year 3	Long life milk
  Year 4	Rice, pasta, oats etc
  Year 5	Jar cooking sauce eg pasta, curry
  Year 6	Toiletries eg shampoo, shower gel, deodorant including mens

   

  There will be a designated donation point at both school gates and at the front of Pre-school during the morning drop off.

   

  Thank you for your continued support.

   

  Mrs Vandyken

• Get ready, get steady to read!! Monday 12th - Sunday 18th October

  Tue 29 Sep 2020
   

  Dear Parent/Guardian,

   

  To encourage a lifelong love of reading at home and school, we will be running a school sponsored read between Monday 12^th to Sunday 18^th October.
   

  The project is being organised in conjunction with our local Usborne Representative, Lisa Colley, and all the money raised will go towards brand new books for our school.
  
  In addition to the sponsorship money, Usborne will donate up to 60% of the total raised in EXTRA FREE BOOKS to the school. So if we raise £600, we will get an extra £360 in FREE Usborne books!

   

  There will also be a competition running – the 3 children that read for the most amount of minutes will each win a book!

   

  Please help us to enhance our reading resources for pupils by encouraging your child to spend a small amount of time each day either reading to themselves, to others, or being read to. They can read anything with words (for example comics, recipes, magazines) for as long or as little as they like. 

   

  Should you wish to support our sponsored read, please find enclosed a sponsorship form for your child, which includes a reading log to record the minutes they have spent reading at home. The school will encourage the children to record their minutes reading in school in their homework diaries.

   

  After the sponsored read, please send all the sponsorship money that your child has raised to the school by Friday 23^rd October. 

   

  Cheques should be made payable to Lisa Colley.

   

  Please support our sponsored read so that your child has more books to read, share and enjoy.

  JBlackmore

   

  Deputy Headteacher