Dear Parents and Carers

 

I hope that your children all had a great half term holiday; they have certainly seemed refreshed and ready for the run-up to Easter this week.

 Yesterday was a very exciting day in school as Howard Rose (our guitar and ukulele teacher) came into school with the BBC to perform his song from The Voice. The children really entered into the spirit of the event with their banners and t-shirts – they didn’t even seem put off by filming the same part several times! Many thanks to Mr Blackburn and Mrs Barrett for enabling Howard to come in and perform for us.

 We have several events coming up over the next few weeks which will be outlined in the newsletter such as World Book Day, Science Week, Red Nose Day and Parent-teacher consultations.

 My best wishes for the weekend

 Yours sincerely

 Mr MJ Shaw

Headteacher

 Private Fostering Arrangements

Is your child living with someone else, or is someone else’s child living with you? If this is the case and it has lasted more than 28 days, you will need to let Stockport Children’s Social Care know about the arrangement so that you can gain the right kind of advice and support. If this applies to you, please call them on 0161 2176028 or email cyp@stockport.gov.uk

World Book Day – Thursday 5^th March 2015

Next Thursday is World Book Day — a celebration of all things wonderful about books for all ages, with author events and a £1 book token given to all schoolchildren under 18.

Ten children’s books are being published for just £1 — they can be exchanged for the token, or it can be set against a full-price book in local bookshops. There’s also a range of great books for adults that are also priced at just £1. In school we will be celebrating this opportunity to raise the profile of reading. On Thursday, your child may like to come dressed as their favourite book character or bring a prop from their favourite book for their classmates to guess which book it is from. We will also like to encourage the children to bring in a book from home as during the day, we will be ‘dropping everything and reading.’

Science Week – 9^th-13^th March 2015

From the 9^th March, we will be holding our annual science week. Many thanks to the four parents who have already contacted us about coming in to talk or deliver workshops to the children – we are so fortunate to have so many scientists in our school community. If you would like to be involved, please email Mr Shaw – headteacher@tithebarn.stockport.sch.uk

Red Nose Day – Friday 13^th March 2015

We will be joining in with the Red Nose Day theme of ‘Make your face funny for money’ on Friday 13^th March. Children and adults may come to school with a funny face and may like to make a donation of £1 to this charity. More information can be found at http://www.rednoseday.com/

Big Dig – Thank you

Friday 13th February was the first of our Tithe Barn Big Dig. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped to start this year’s growing season. The children and adults had a great time preparing the allotment, digging over the beds and clearing away. We also had some great learning moments whilst planting the bulbs, which were very kindly donated. The children were very knowledgeable about the difference between seeds and bulbs. We learnt all about the different parts of the bulbs and guessed what they would grow into. They also figured out which way up they should be planted and learnt about different growing conditions for plants. We discussed how squirrels liked to dig for the bulbs and what we needed to do to stop them. We even had some great conversations about what plants need to grow and that Nitrogen fixation occurs naturally in the air by means of lightning, I think we have some budding scientists !! But most of all we all had fun getting dirty and getting out in the fresh air.

We will let you know when the next Big Dig will be and everyone is welcome. It was wonderful to see so many Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles. So if you can spare an hour to join in with the learning and growing please come along. Thank you to everyone who made this such a fun great afternoon.

Growing School

Next month, we will be having some hedgerow plants arriving from the Woodlands Trust to develop our hedgerow along Laurel Lane and we have obtained potatoes from the Potato Council who have an excellent website. If you are a childminder or work in an educational setting, you will also be able to make use of this project by registering on their website http://gyop.potato.org.uk/

This week, the teachers have been planning their growing activities for Spring planting in the allotment. If you are able to donate any compost, gardening tools and gloves or plants to school, we would be very grateful for all items received.

Staff Changes

Unfortunately at the end of next week, we will be saying goodbye to Miss Hay who has been working 1:1 in Reception, Year 1 and last year in Year 3. Miss Hay has gained a fabulous and exciting new position at a school much nearer to where she lives. We would like to thank her for all of her hard work and dedication in her role at Tithe Barn and wish her well for her new position. Today, we have been interviewing candidates to fill her position in school but we know she will be a hard act to follow.

Rotary Public Speaking Competition

Just before half term, we were delighted to be hosting the annual Rotary Public speaking competition for Primary school children for the second year running. Our fabulous team of Grace Brimage (Chair), Rebecca Roberts (Speaker) and Vijay Delange (Vote of thanks) did a great job in informing the judges and audience of their topic ‘Are footballers paid too much?’ Congratulations to Broadstone Hall who were this year’s first placed team. Our thanks go to Mrs Babinska for hosting the event and to Stockport Lamplighter Rotary Club for organising the competition.

 

Sports News – Sponsored by SGM Solicitors

 Lacrosse Team

 Our two lacrosse teams performed magnificently in our recent qualification tournament at Priestnall with both team scoring victories. One of our teams qualified for the Stockport Lacrosse Final on Wednesday 4^th March and we will be aiming to retain the winners shield and progress to the regional finals later in March. We will be joined by Norris Bank at the final with our two schools representing the Heatons’ Cluster of schools. Well done to all of the children involved; we are very proud of your achievements.

Swimming Team

We will again be participating in the Rotary Swimathon on 7^th March with children from Years 5 and 6 participating and raising sponsorship money for local causes. We are delighted by the number of children taking part and it is likely that we will be the largest group taking part for the second year running.