A surprise visitor...

Robins had a visit from Woody this week. He was supposed to be meeting Jessie and Buzz in town but he got caught in all the rain. Poor Woody was soaked! As a class we decided to help by making him his very own coat. Before we could get our sewing kits out we needed to find out what a raincoat needs. We thought about this really carefully and came up with lots of ideas, the most important being waterproof. After our discussion Miss cole found some different materials for us to investigate.  We used magnifying glasses and even a microscope to look really closely at the materials and made a prediction about what materials would make the best raincoat. Next week we are going to carry out a test so keep a look out for our results.

Southampton Parent Carer Event: 7th October

The Southampton Parent Carer Forum and the Southampton City Council SEND Service welcome parent/carers to join them for the launch of the new Parent/Carer Forum and their first Engagement Event.

Friday 7th October

10am – 1.30pm

The Rose Road Association 

The Meon Room 

Bradbury Centre 

Southampton 

SO16 5NA

• Starting at 10am for coffee and meet and greet
• Presentation from the Southampton SEND Service and opportunity for you to feedback on services within Southampton’s Local Offer
• Presentation from the parent/carer forum team 
• Refreshments and lunch will be provided 

If you are a parent/carer of a child/young person with a disability or special educational need in Southampton and would like feedback/to get involved, please join us.

Booking essential: Email clairepritchard@roseroad.org.uk or call 07410 411344
You can book via 'eventbrite' by going to www.eventbrite.co.uk and searching ‘Southampton Parent Carer Forum Engagement Event’

Jessie needs our help!

With all the rain today we had a very wet visitor in finches class this afternoon. Jessie had arrived. She was supposed to be meeting Woody and Buzz in town but she got caught in all the rain. She was soaked. We as a class decided to think about what she needed.  She didn't have a coat on. We thought about what would make a good coat for her and decided it should definitely be waterproof. Have a look at some of our ideas. We are next going to investigate some materials and make Jessie her very own waterproof coat.

Super scientists visit Winchester

Year 5 visited Winchester Science Centre today as part of their "Space Academy" topic. They started the day with a rockets workshop where they made their own rockets from lemonade bottles and filled them with a chosen amount of water.   They then used a bicycle pump to fill them with air - you can see the results in the photographs!  Some of us got wet but we all learned something and had fun. After lunch we visited the planetarium where we went on a journey through our solar system,  learning lots of fact about other planets.  Finally we spent some time exploring the exhibits,  finding out about air resistance, digestion, reflection and refraction and much more.  Thank you to the drivers for your help today.

Welcome to the PTA!

The Parents Teacher Association is a group of parent volunteers and teachers who work together to come up with fundraising ideas to raise money to make the school a better place for our children.

On Thursday 6^th October 2016, we will be holding our Annual General Meeting at 3.30pm in school.  The AGM is a chance to elect the new committee for the year and we’d love to see you all there!

We have a position of Secretary to fill, as Sarah Bradley is deciding to step down this year, and we would like to find a budding new Treasurer to start taking over the role from Jools Gowans, who has managed the PTA accounts for the last few years.  Please do come and chat to us or Mrs Hayward if you think you may be interested in taking on these challenges (we’ll be gentle, we promise!).  We also need lots of helpers to be on hand to support us at various events, so if you’d like to get involved, please come along!

Last year some of our fundraising efforts included:

·       Discos

·       Cake Sales

·       Book Sales

·       Film Clubs

·       Christmas Presents for Parents

·       Carols in the Playground

·       Christmas Hamper Raffle

·       Sponsored Sports Challenge

·       Ice Pop Fridays

·       And not forgetting our annual Summer Fair!

We try and do as much as possible to create exciting, fun events for both children and adults and are always interested in new ideas.

What can you do to help?

We welcome all contributions of help – no matter how big or small.  Whether you’d like to attend the meetings and be part of the decision making process, give up a little of your time to help prepare or run events, or support the PTA by donating cakes, hamper items and raffle prizes, it’s all greatly appreciated. We don’t expect you to give up huge amounts of your time, but if a lot of people do a little to help, we can make amazing progress!

Oh, and if you shop online, please do sign up to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/bitternemanorprimary as it’s the easiest way to raise funds without having to spend a penny more!

What do we do with the money?

Last year we raised a fantastic £6000, which helped fund the transformation of our tired school library into a funky learning zone. We were also able to purchase new house team flags, designed by the children to fly proudly above the school to celebrate their team successes.  This year, we are hoping to raise sufficient funds to enhance the outdoor play equipment and even build a new outdoor classroom.  With your help, we are confident we can achieve this and even more.

If you’d like to get involved, please sign up to our Facebook group ‘Bitterne Manor PTA helpers’, or email ptahelpers@bitternemanor.net.

Please come along and find out more at the AGM on 6^th October – everyone is welcome!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Jennie Mugridge (Chair, mum of Lucy in Year 4 and Callum in Year 2),

Kirsty Niziolek (Vice Chair, mum of Ellie in Year 4 and Lola in Year 1)

Sarah Bradley (Secretary, mum of William in Year 4 and Henry in Year 2)

Jools Gowans (Treasurer, dad of Lucy in Year 6)

Group B Kingfishers have now started school!

We were very pleased to welcome Group B into Kingfisher class today! They were fantastic and we had lots of fun exploring the classroom and making new friends!


We all very much look forward to having all of Kingfisher class together on Friday! :)

Zebratastic Weekend at The Ageas Bowl

We would like to share an interesting date for your diary: On the 14^th-17^th October Marwell are collecting all the Zebra sculptures - both large and small - for display at a fabulous Goodbye Event at The Ageas Bowl.

You can buy your tickets for this event now for £2.50 (Tickets on the door will be £4.) Tickets are available to purchase at The Marwell’s Zany Zebras Zone in The Marlands Shopping Centre (until 25 September), Online HERE or by calling 01962 777 965.  For more information visit: http://zanyzebras.org.uk/events/zebratastic-weekend/

Nightingales First Week in Year 3!

What a fantastic first week for the Nightingales! It has been brilliant seeing the class back in school ready to learn with buckets of enthusiasm! On our first day back we learnt about the importance of resilience (Our learning value this term) and putting the effort into everything we do to succeed. We watched Mo Farah from this Years Rio Olympics win his gold and understood that even if we make a mistake (he fell over) we can all be winners so long as we try our hardest!

We looked at how we view others in the class positively and how being positive and optimistic means that we remain resilient and friendly towards one another. Each class member had their own hand filled by the rest of the class with positive features about that person (See below!) Nightingales have already proved how friendly we are as we won the Kind Kevin award last week! Well done Nightingales! :)

Nightingales were also tasked with creating the tallest tower they could. In groups they were all given the same type and amount of materials to see which team could build the tallest tower. The class had to show fantastic teamwork but above all great resilience as many times their towers fell over but Nightingales would't give up and persisted until 5 tall towers were standing in the classroom! Great effort!

Nightingales also played a question and answer game called The Key Jar. Some questions examples included 'What was the hardest thing you have done this week?' and 'Who in your class do you admire and why?'. This made the Nightingales really think about the week and reflect on what they have achieved.

Nightingales Science experiment this week was Blobs In A Bottle. The class made their own lava lamps and made predictions on what would happen if some variables were changed. They also found out that oil is lighter than water.

Moving on into Week 2 the Nightingales have also won SAM and PAM the punctuality and attendance awards! So, all in all, an outstanding start to Year 3!!!

A very big welcome to our new children in Kingfisher class!

We have had a fantastic day with our first group of new Bitterne Manor children! We spent the day making new friends, learning new names and exploring the class! We had a lot of fun playing in each area of the classroom and finding out more about one another! We can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!


We very much look forward to welcoming our second group on Wednesday! :)

Rooks - First Week Adventure!

After the long summer holiday, Rooks have had a fantastic start to the new school year.  Our class charter has been defined (how we intend to be 'the best learners we can be'), new jobs assigned, and we have started applying ourselves to our work.

Having said Goodbye to two Nightingales at the end of last year, we are very happy to welcome Kiranjit to Rooks.

This week, we have looked at place value in Maths; what makes up a 4 digit number, ordering and comparing 3 and 4 digit numbers.

In English, we have been looking at poetry.  The children have investigated a number of different types of poetry including nonsense poems, haikus, rhyming poems and story poems.  The favourite being nonsense and rhyming poems.  We have also turned our hand to writing our own poems.

Our Topic this term is Save Our Rivers.  Well done to all those children to have returned their amazing holiday projects.  These are currently being displayed in the classroom.

A fantastic start to the school year!