NEWSLETTER Issue: 1.07

HEAD'S VIEW
What a wonderful way to finish our first term of the year!
This week we have seen some very strange sights. Roman legions going toe to toe with bean bags and sponge javelins on one day, King Arthur welcoming sixty new knights and ladies at Camelot on another. Humpty Dumpty has been put back together once and for all, while a very smartly dressed team beat the deadline to produce the world’s best newspaper. Some very special puppets have appeared, complete with their homes, and, at the same time, children now understand what it is like to carry ID cards and live under the shadow of World War II. Never mind Beijing, we have seen Athenians and Spartans taking part in a serious Olympics………and there is much, much more.

Learning has truly come alive and I am fairly sure that some of the events of the last five days will be remembered for years to come. Well done to all the staff who have burnt the midnight oil planning such memorable experiences and thank you to all our parents who have given their time and resources to help us provide a very rich experience for our children. As for the children, we think you are brilliant!

Now it is time for half term and a brief rest. It is very well deserved. See you all again on Wednesday the 5th.

PLEASE NOTE CALENDAR CHANGES
Ø The Elm class assembly will now be on Tuesday 18th November at 2.45am and not on Tuesday 11th November as previously stated.
Ø The first NPSA coffee morning (open to all parents & carers) will now be held on Monday 17th November and not on Thursday 13th November. The best coffee and company in Bath in the Blue Room from 9.00 to 10.00am.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY W/B 05/11/08
Wednesday 05/11/08
- Start of Term 2
- Library opens for borrowing books
Thursday 06/11/08
- Foundation Stage parents information meeting @ 2.00pm Blue Room
- Girls' Football v St Stephen’s Away at Kingswood: 3.30 – 5.00pm
- Isle Of Wight Meeting for Year 6 parents & children @ 6.30pm
Friday 07/11/08
- Curriculum Overview (for Term 2) to parents
Monday 10/11/08
- Individual Photos
- School Council meeting
- NPSA Meeting @ 7.30pm
Tuesday 11/11/08
- Girls' 7-a-side Football – Lansdown: 1.00 – 4.00pm
Thursday 13/11/08
- Music recording for CD
- Sex Ed meeting for parents @ 6.30pm
Friday 14/11/08
- 6A Assembly @ 2.30pm
- Football vs St Stephen's Away at Kingswood: 3.30 – 5.00pm
Saturday 15/11/08
- NPSA table top sale – Blue Room & Upper School hall: 10.30am – 12.30pm

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING 'STARS OF THE WEEK'
Foundation Stage
Misty, Edie
Years 3 and 4
Lucyr, Poppy, Sam, Elijah
Years 5 and 6
Wilf, Max, Helen, Sydney, Sherilyn
PPA Drama
Ruby
PPA Art
Tom
PPA PE
Lydia, Katherine
PPA Music
Kate, Emma

PE KIT
Please could everyone ensure that ALL children have the appropriate PE kit in school at ALL times.

There are lots of children not able to take part effectively in PE lessons as they do not have the correct clothing and shoes.
Also please make sure that all of the kit is clearly labelled as items do go missing or are placed in lost property.

BOOK FAIR
Many thanks to all the children, parents and carers who supported the Book Fair last week. We had a fantastic turnout. We will be using our commission to purchase resource books to enhance learning throughout the school.

Thanks again and watch out for our next Book Fair, sometime in the New Year.

('Thank you to Mrs Rhodes for organising a very successful Book Fair.' Mr Croker)

REACH FOR THE SUN
Out with this week's Newsletter is a pack giving full information on 'Reach for the Sun', a whole school approach towards learning and embedding number bonds and times tables.

In addition to detailing the progression towards 'the Sun', the pack includes sample questions and handy hints to help you support your child’s learning.

Should you have any queries, feel free to contact your child's class teacher or Mrs Phillips, Maths subject leader.

('We need your support in helping our children become fluent in their basic number skills. Those long car journeys, times around the dinner table and quiet moments at home present ideal times to practise additions, subtractions, tables and so on in a fun way. The 'Reach for the Sun' sheets are an incentive to help equip our children with such important life skills.' Mr Croker)

LINK ROMANIA – FAMILY SHOEBOX APPEAL
As in previous years, we are again collecting gift filled shoeboxes. This year is slightly different in that we have chosen a new charity. 'Link Romania' is a Christian charity and has been operating since 1991 supporting the poor and needy in Eastern Europe, principally Romania. These shoeboxes are given to a family, rather than an individual child, so the contents may be slightly different from other charities boxes. Included with this newsletter should be a leaflet that explains everything you should need to know to help you complete a box. If you have any questions please speak to Mrs Teresa Bateman (TA in Foundation stage) or look at www.linkromania.co.uk

Please note this is not compulsory – it is completely your choice whether you choose to contribute to this or not. If you would like to contribute could you please bring your completed box in to school by Friday 14th November.

YEAR 6 ISLE OF WIGHT RESIDENTIAL TRIP
There will be an information meeting for Year 6 parents/carers and children
on Thursday 6th November at 6.30pm in the Upper School Hall.

NEWBRIDGE CHRISTMAS CD!
We are all looking forward to cutting our own Christmas Music CD on Thursday 13th November. The whole school will be involved in some way!

Over the holiday, please would parents and carers ensure that there are lots of opportunities for practice for the blues band, orchestra, recorders, choir and brass group. Thank you. Miss Amies and Mrs Houston.

WEAR YOUR POPPY WITH PRIDE
Poppies will be on sale in school on Wednesday 5th, Thursday 6th and Friday 7th November.

INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS
Individual photographs will be taken in school on Monday 10th November.
Don’t forget your hair brush and your sunny smile!

TED'S BIG DAY OUT
We raised a fantastic £455.00. Many thanks to everyone who contributed
to this appeal.

('A huge 'well done' to everyone for contributing towards the RUH appeal. Every penny will help a premature baby in the future. We also had great fun in our special singalong assembly and quite the best singing I have heard as a whole school. Thank you.' Mr Croker)

DINNER MONEY
All dinners must be taken on a weekly basis. The cost of dinners is £9.25 per week. Please send the money in on a Monday morning, in an envelope with your child's name and class on it. All cheques to be made payable to B&NES please.

Dinner money for the coming term is as follows:

November 18 days at £1.85 = £33.30
December 15 days at £1.85 = £27.75
£61.05

NPSA NEWS
Table Top Sale
The good news is that you can now rent a table for a reasonable £5.00. To do so all you have to do is send an email to npsa@hotmail.co.uk or call Sarah on 07833391970. Remember that tables will be allocated on a first come first served basis and must be paid for in advance, so book today! If you only have a few items to sell how about joining together with a friend and sharing a table and the fee! By the way, the tables are actually two tables joined together, so don’t worry about bringing too much to sell! We do still need volunteers on the day - so if you can possibly help - please call or email Sarah as above.

Christmas Fair Update
I start this section with some bad news - Santa's Grotto has been mislaid by the elves whose job it is to protect it! So Santa needs your help and has asked me to appeal to all the parents and carers out there who might have any red, green, gold or silver material or Christmas lights to donate it to the school, so those careless elves can start making a new one!

On a more cheerful note, here is the list of stalls and games for this year's Christmas Fair. Each year group has been given a few stalls and they will be responsible for running those stalls during the fair. We usually ask for volunteers to do a half hour stint but should you feel tempted you are very welcome to volunteer for an hour!

Reception - Lucky Dip, Raffle, Treasure Map
Year 1 - Splat the Rat, Guess What’s in the Stocking, the Craft Room
Year 2 - Frog Game, Hook the Duck, Adult Tombola and Kids' Tombola
Year 3 - Chocolate Tombola, Velcro Dartboard, Glowstick Stall 1
Year 4 - Sweetie Jars, Guess the Weight of the Christmas Cake, Adopt a Teddy
Year 5 - Lose your Marbles, Glowstick Stall 2, Cake Stall
Year 6 - Tattoos, Wrap the Gifts from the 'kids only stall', popcorn sales

Any outside traders who would like a stall at the Christmas Fair this year, should leave a note in the NPSA tray in the main reception or email npsa@hotmail.co.uk

NPSA Committee Meeting
The next NPSA Committee Meeting will be held in the Blue Room on Monday the 10th of November at 7.30pm. Please feel free to come along - it is always great to see new faces and old ones too, of course!

Nearly New Uniform
Now we have a new uniform, it would be great to have some way of buying and selling nearly new uniform. To this end, I would like to appeal to anyone out there, with great organisational skills and plenty of energy, to be our very first nearly new uniform coordinator. If this is something that would interest you and you have some good ideas on how exactly this can be achieved, then please get in touch either via the NPSA tray or by email to npsa@hotmail.co.uk.