October 2012 School Newsletter

Clarence Road, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B74 4LD Telephone: 0121 308 5392 Fax: 0121 308 5061

Monday 8th October 2012 DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES Mon 8th Oct Fri 12th Oct Mon 15th Oct

Tue 16h Oct Wed 17th Oct Fri 19th Oct

Mon 29th Oct Tues 30th Oct Wed 31st Oct Thur 1st Nov Fri 2nd Nov

Mon 5th Nov Tue 6th Nov Wed 7th Nov Thur 8th Nov Fri 9th Nov Mon 12th Nov

PTFA meeting 7.30pm - All welcome PTFA Quiz night OWLS INSPIRE WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS – 9.00 am to 11.00 am KINGFISHERS INSPIRE WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS – 1.15 pm to 3.15 pm LIMITED AFTERSCHOOL CLUBS THIS WEEK Parent Consultations KS1 3.30 – 5.00 and KS2 6.00 – 8.00pm Year 6 - visit to Shugborough Parent Consultations KS2 3.30 – 5.00 and KS1 6.00 – 8.00pm Eid Celebration – Year 3 Assembly – 2.30pm Barnardo and Gandhi – KS1 hall Mandela and Pankhurst – KS2 hall BREAK UP FOR HALF TERM Staff Training Day CHILDREN RETURN TO SCHOOL Year 6 -Visit to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Open Morning for Prospective Parents – 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Year 4 - visit to Hams Hall Environmental Studies Centre (Tudors) Parent Council meeting - 2.00pm “Bonfire” Lunch Diwali Celebration – Year 5 Assembly – 2.30pm Barnardo and Gandhi – KS1 hall Mandela and Pankhurst – KS2 hall PTFA Halloween Disco Year 2 – visit to Botanical Gardens (Mapping Skills) PTFA Meeting – 7.30 pm Open Morning – 10.00 am to 12 noon Open Evening – 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm Robins’ Class Assembly – 2.30 pm – KS1 hall SRE for Year 5 – Puberty Robins’ Class Assembly – 2.30 pm – KS1 hall HEDGEHOGS INSPIRE WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS – 9.00 am to 11.00 am RABBITS INSPIRE WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS – 1.15 pm to 3.20pm

CHILDREN BEING COLLECTED EARLY FROM SCHOOL OR BY SOMEBODY DIFFERENT As you know, we now have only one school office which is situated in the KS1 building. Getting last minute messages to classes is therefore sometimes extremely difficult. If your child is going to be collected at the end of the day by someone different, or if you will need to collect them early for an appointment, please send a note into school with them in the morning for the attention of the Class Teacher. This will mean that we no longer need to remind children about who it is they are going home with.

Obviously if there is a last minute emergency and you cannot get to school then we are happy to keep your child/ren safe until you or another adult can get here. You must telephone school however to give us authorisation to let your child go home with another adult.

ARTHUR TERRY YEAR 6 TRANSFER Over the last couple of years we have had a number of parents and children who have been very disappointed that they have not been allocated places at The Arthur Terry Secondary School. This has often come as quite a shock and so we thought that we should bring this to your attention. The catchment area distance changes each year and is due to changes in birth rates and the number of children eligible for transfer to Arthur Terry living in close proximity.

Birmingham City Council is responsible for calculating these distances.

The distance for children starting in September 2012 was 1930metres The distance for children starting in September 2011 was 1633 metres We hope you find this information useful and will be able to use it as a guide when thinking about secondary transfer.

FOREST SCHOOLS What is Tea with Me? Some children may come home and tell you that they have had Tea with Me. This event takes place every Friday.

I invite a different group of children each week and we enjoy afternoon tea together. This time is used as a reward but also an opportunity to ascertain the children’s views on a range of school related issues.

Can anybody help us with a regular supply of firewood or den building materials such as wood or tarpaulin?

We can’t collect it so you need to be able to deliver it to us.

We would extremely grateful.

Please contact Miss Roberts in Owls Class.

PARENT CONSULTATIONS Parent Consultations meetings will be held this term during the week commencing Monday 15th October. Letters asking you to make either a daytime or an evening appointment will be sent home and your requests are needed as soon as possible.

ADVANCE WARNING ……..

Secondary Preference Forms Please note that the final date for receipt of applications for Secondary School places is 31st October 2012.

This year admissions and appeals would like all families to apply on line at www.birmingham.gov/schooladmissions If you have any queries then please contact Admissions and Appeals on 0121 675 0555

POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER ELECTIONS Elections for this post will be held on Thursday 15th November 2012.

Hill West Primary School is a polling station and therefore we are unable to open the school to pupils on this day. We apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause you.

We are pleased to announce that the National Lottery Big Lottery Fund has awarded Hill West a grant of £10,000 to create a Community Orchard in commemoration of the London 2012 Olympics.

We are thrilled and can not wait for work to start.

OPEN MORNINGS/EVENING A very warm welcome is extended to all existing and prospective parents for our September 2013 intake of children.

31st October

Open Morning

10.00 am Presentation by the Head Teacher 10.30 am Tour of school

7th November

Open Morning

10.00 am Presentation by the Head Teacher 10.30 am Tour of the school 7.00 pm Presentation by the Head Teacher 7.30 pm Tour of the school

Open Evening

Please tell your friends and family to come along to meet us.

JEWELLERY

We would URGE you to ensure that your child does not wear jewellery of any description to school.

Thank you

Lost and Found Please, please label your child’s clothing with their name and if you find that your child has brought an item home that doesn’t belong to them—return it as soon as possible.

Many thanks.

RECEPTION ADMISSIONS 2013 If you have a child starting school in September 2013 you should shortly be receiving a letter and preference form from Birmingham Local Authority.

The Authority have produced an information booklet giving details of all the primary schools in Birmingham which you should also receive with your preference form. You can, if you prefer, apply for your Reception places online at www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions The deadline for applications is 3rd December 2012 If you have any queries regarding September 2013 intake please contact Admissions and Appeals on 0121 675 0555.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS ELIGIBILITY Thank you to everyone for returning the eligibility questionnaire. This data will be collected by the Local Authority and Pupil Premium will be paid to the school at the rate of £600 per eligible child irrespective of whether they actually receive Free School Meals.

If your circumstances change and you are no longer eligible or become eligible please let us know.

If you have any queries then please contact the school office.

BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY TEACHER TRAINEES We would like to extend a very warm welcome to two BCU student teachers this term. Miss Jessica Beere and Miss Joanne Lewis who are undertaking their 3rd Year BA honours degree.

They have begun their placement with us and will be working with Owls and Hedgehogs.

BOOK FAIR Monday 15th October to Friday 19th October.

Please come and buy your Christmas gifts. For every book you buy we get a donation for school.

The Fair will be open between 3.00 pm and 4.00 pm every day during the week. .

HEALTHY EATING

Our School Council Is made up of representatives from across the school. This year the officers are as follows;

All children in KS1 receive a piece of fruit free of charge daily. All children can bring a small snack to eat at break time but please only fruit, cheese or raw vegetables or breadsticks.

No biscuits, crisps or sweets as we like the children to eat their lunch!

Snacks are sold in KS2 for those children who do not bring them in from home.

These snacks start at 10p whilst the most expensive item is 55p.

Children should not consume food or drink on the school premises, including the school grounds, unless supervised by a member of staff.

Chair Person = Sophie Elsoueidi Secretary = Mustapha Bin Amar

LOOKING AHEAD Our Christmas Fair this year is on 30th November 2012 Volunteers are needed as always. If you can help please contact Miss Marsh or a member of the PTFA.

INCLUSION: TEAM WORK In order to support our children and their families we work with a wide range of agencies for example the Educational Psychologist, Pupil and School support and the Communication and Autism Team. These agencies come into school on a regular basis and give both staff and parents valuable advice. We will be featuring the work of some of these agencies in future newsletters.

HALLOWEEN DISCO FRIDAY 2nd NOVEMBER 6.30 PM TO 7.30 PM Nursery and KS1 children only 7.30 PM to 9.00 PM All ages and families £1.00 children £2.00 adults £5.00 family Pay on the door All children must be accompanied by an adult.

PTFA QUIZ NIGHT FRIDAY 12TH OCTOBER Everyone is welcome to register a team (max 8 people per team), prizes for winners and spot prizes on the night.

Bar open from 7.00pm and the quiz starts at 7.30pm promptly.

Only £7.50 per person to include fish & chip supper and raffle.

Come along and have some fun!

Parent Meetings

School Photographs will take place on Wednesday 28th November this year.

This is slightly later than usual but do not worry as our photographer has guaranteed a very quick turn around on orders.

We are sure you will be delighted by the results.

A big Thank You to everyone who has attended our Parent meetings so far this term.

We always enjoy seeing you in school and appreciate your support. We hope that you benefited from the meetings and workshops.

Please can all Reception parents who have not returned their Medical Consent Forms please do so without delay.

The School Nurse needs to make appointments to test your child’s sight and hearing and to check their growth.

This is a free service which is beneficial to your child. If you have lost your form please contact the school office.

Thank You.

Voluntary School Fund Contributions An enormous thank you to the 24 families who have already sent in their donations of £10.00 (and in some cases significantly more) to help us provide all the little extras the children receive throughout the year, such as Christmas trees and presents, Easter eggs, party food and theatre productions in school.

We look forward to receiving the remainder of contributions before we break up for October half term.

We are pleased to welcome Mrs Maxine Pugh to school. She will be joining our hard working Administration Team as the full time Receptionist after the half term break.

What is Peer Mediating? Peer Mediating is when a team of Year 6’s, and Year 5’s, are voted to become helpers on Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 playground sorting out your child’s arguments or problems! Before a peer mediator starts to sort out your daughter’s or son’s problem they would be given the choice to be mediated by us or a dinner lady. So in conclusion our job is to sort out other people’s worries in order to be happy and able to concentrate all through the rest of the day.

We are easy to locate as we each will be wearing bright, yellow jumpers every time we are mediating!

Written by Emma Cavendish.

Year 6

The Magnificent Seven! By Paul Maguire (PUMA Football and Fitness) As part of the Arthur Terry Community Fair on Saturday 22nd September, Year 4 pupils were invited to enter a football tournament. Letters went out to canvass interest and slowly but surely we had responses from seven brave players who had put their names forward. The players were Ben, Callum, Jamie, Jude, Lois, Thomas and Zac. We were fortunate that the rain which had fallen on Friday had decided to take a break and so it stayed dry on the day, with the sun making a guest appearance.

Six schools had registered to play but one team did not appear on the day. The games were played on the astro turf pitch. The organisers decided that the games would be played on the whole of each half of the pitch. It meant that the children would have to do a lot of running in each of the games to cover the massive playing area. A further change was to make it a 7 a side tournament rather than 6 a side. For Hill West this would mean all the players playing in every game and no substitutes if anyone got injured! One other factor that must be mentioned is that the way the games were drawn - Hill West had to play all their games through without a break, so one game would finish and then on to the next.

Hill West finished the day in fourth place after a third and fourth play-off place game which they lost 1.0 to Little Sutton with the last kick of the game and having to play part of the game with 6 players when Zac had to come off with an injury.

Hill West were the draw specialists. In every game they ran and ran and ran. They drew 0.0 with Shire Oak, Little Sutton and then Mere Green. In their game against Four Oaks again they lost 1.0, the goal being scored in the last seconds of the game.

I cannot speak highly enough about the Hill West Team. They did brilliantly and were a great credit to the school and to their families. Ben played in defence along with Callum and they worked really well together to limit any chances for the other teams. When you consider they have never played together they did really well. Jamie was our roving centre forward who played a part in some of best chances Hill West had, his shots on goal being either blocked or saved. Zac played in the midfield area along with our Captain for the day, Lois and Thomas. Zac showed us he was keen to battle for possession and turn away from trouble when he got the opportunity. In the final game even though he had taken a heavy knock he still came back on to help his team mates as he knew we had no substitutes to bring on. Lois never stopped running and when she got the ball she was always looking to pass to one of her team mates in a better position. On one occasion she ran almost the length of the pitch, she was determined to stop the ball going out and once she had retrieved it, then she turned calmly and played a great pass down the wing to Thomas. Thomas kept going even when it looked like his boots were causing him some pain. He even had a couple of chances to get on the score sheet. Finally, who could forget Jude who played in goal! He seems to be a natural in that position. He stopped pretty much everything that came his way. He made two fantastic saves in the play-off game, one of which saw him a bit like superman fly through the air, to not only save the ball but hold onto it, when he came back to earth. It brought gasps and cheers from the people watching.

It also brought huge praise from the other teams Managers at the end of the game.

Each of the players should be very proud of their performances. They were playing together for the first time and while they were unlucky not to get a goal they made themselves a team that were very hard to beat. There were joint winners at the end of the Tournament and Hill West had not lost to one of them, Shire Oak and had lost 1.0 with the last kick of the game to Four Oaks. Thanks must go to the Organiser, Mr Ellis Boughton from Four Oaks School, to all our Supporters who got right behind the team on the day and to Mrs Jones for the loan of the Hill West Nursery sponsored kit.