Zany Zebras at Marwell

Most of us will remember all the amazing Rhinos appearing around the town in 2013 and what a great idea that was. Marwell  Zoo have announced that some 'Zany Zebras' will now be appearing in the Summer of 2016. Bitterne Manor will be supporting the project and we are very excited! For more details head over to the Marwell Zoo website here.

Cleaning Up Chessel Bay Again

This years JPCSO team have been out, hard at work, helping to clean up Chessel Bay. We managed to fill up a lot of rubbish sacks in a short space of time - which is great! Just a shame it had all ended up there in the first place...

Tubs4Tabs

We would very much like everyone to start collecting Tubs4Tablets tokens now! This autumn Flora and Stork, in partnership with Tesco, are running an amazing scheme called Tubs4Tablets which aims to help our school bring cutting edge technology into the classroom. The scheme gives primary and middle schools in Great Britain the opportunity to collect tokens from special tubs of Flora and Stork on sale at Tesco from early October and exchange them for FREE touch screen tablets!

To help us make our campaign a success we need to collect as many tokens as possible. These can be found on promotional 500g tubs of Flora Original, Light and Buttery and Stork (subject to availability). Hand us your tokens… Just 50 tokens will get our school one brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0” Wi-Fi 8GB tablet so help us to claim as many as we can.

Please do spread the word! 
Remember, if friends, neighbours, work colleagues and family can help too we could collect even more tokens to exchange for tablets. There’s no limit to the amount of FREE tablets we can claim for the school!

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any support you can offer will help us to introduce modern technologies to the classroom and open a world of possibilities for our pupils.

Road Safety Message...

Our JPCSOs have been working on a road safety campaign and have produced a short film and poster. We get rather too many complaints about the traffic around our school for all sorts of reasons! It doesn't hurt to remind everyone to be careful on our roads and near our children now and again.

A Special Day

Our special celebration day in memory of Lydia ended with a dedication by the Rev Andy Smith in our learning garden. Parents and children got the chance to see our new Lego bench (orange was Lydia's favourite colour), the bring a brick school logo (Lydia loved Lego), the broomsticks (she loved 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson) and all the funky hats and loom bracelets the children had been wearing and making. There will always be a little space at Bitterne Manor that's hers...

Visiting the Mayor's Parlour

Here are some pictures of the School Council's visit to the Mayor's Parlour in the Civic Centre, Southampton. We were very kindly hosted by the newly appointed Sheriff of Southampton, Linda Norris and one of her Town Sergeants, Alan. The visit is a fascinating look at Southampton's traditions and history and we always learn something new about the city each time we visit.

Scratching the Surface...

This week we were visited by staff and pupils from Townhill Junior who were giving us an insight into the new computing curriculum. They were demonstrating 'Scratch' which is a free program that allows you to be a programmer yourself using a very simple and effective system of dragging and dropping blocks of 'code' - sounds complicated? It is - but a lot of our pupils are already enthused about creating their own games and taking this further. You can encourage them by heading over to http://scratch.mit.edu/ and giving it a go.

Mayor Making 2014

Two of our school councillors were invited to attend the annual Southampton Mayor Making ceremony at the Guildhall. This is the occasion where the existing Mayor of Southampton passes on the office to a new Mayor, a tradition which goes back several hundred years.

Get Caught Reading!

Well done to all of you who sent in their 'Get Caught Reading' photographs - they were truly wonderful and we've enjoyed looking at them. Here are just a few of our favourites!

Keep Pedalling!

Keep up the good work everyone - we are doing amazingly well with our 'Big Pedal' events. Thanks for all your support!

JPCSOs: The Police Van!

The JPCSOs were exploring the inside of a Police transport yesterday. We were learning about how the Police work and the equipment they use to keep us safe. We were very careful not to touch anything. The siren wasn't working either, at least that's what they told us...

A Request from the Mayor...

This is a personal request of help from the Mayor of Southampton Councillor Ivan White and Mayoress Mary White. This year Southampton celebrates 50 years of becoming a city. Will you join us and help break a Guinness World Records® Record?

At 11.00am on Sunday 23^rd March 2014 we plan to amass the largest swarm of human bumble bees to participate in the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile being held in The Guildhall Square, Southampton.

In recognition that Southampton is truly a diverse city to live and work we fully expect to see bees that represent all ages and occupations from our community.  So whether you are a diva, diver, driver, student, mum, dad, gymnast, teacher, barista or barrister do join us. Individuals can run, walk, buzz, hop, skip or jump the mile. The important part is everyone joins the swarm dressed in some way as a bee. This is your opportunity to be innovative and create hives and bees of all descriptions.

To register go to: 

http://my.sportrelief.com/search/event/result?id=2945&location=southampton&event-type=run

Once you have registered, you will then be asked if you want to join a team. Please nominate:

https://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/southamptons-swarm-of-bumble-bees.

The money raised through Sport Relief is used to help vulnerable people facing incredibly tough lives both at home in the UK and in the world’s poorest countries.

The numbers of bumble bees are declining and we are hoping to raise awareness: 

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/

Bees are great champions of terrific teamwork.

Chessel Bay Cleans Up...

The JPCSOs must have picked the one sunny day this week so far to do their bit for the community and enjoyed doing their clean up at Chessel Bay.

Senior Citizen Concert

 Local senior citizens and grand parents were welcomed to school yesterday to enjoy the KS1 nativity and songs by our KS2 choir.

JPCSOs Complete Training!

Our Autumn team of JPCSO have successfully competed their training working alongside our PCSOs! Here they are receiving their certificates and being shown around a Police van. All the children have gained a tremendous amount from the experience and we look forward to working with the next team in the Spring.

Year 5 visit Pizza Hut

This week, year 5 had the opportunity to visit Pizza Hut and make an individual pizza to bring back to school! Whilst we were there, we were given a tour of the restaurant and kitchens. We were then taught how to make a pizza, pizza hut style! It was lots of fun and the classroom smelt delicious for the rest of the day! Since our trip, we have used our experiences to write some instructions and we are really looking forward to inviting the parents to our own cafe on Wednesday 21st March!

Fair Trade

As part of their Africa topic, Year 6 have been finding out about Fair Trade and put together a short film about it - here's an example!

Unveiling Southampton's New War Memorial

Our school councillors were proud to take part in the unveiling ceremony of Southampton's new war memorial today. Together with children from other schools, we helped to reveal the new wall to remember the people of Southampton who had given their lives in conflicts since the First World War.

This was a chance for old and young to meet and we talked to representatives of the Royal British Legion and this was a reminder that many people are still suffering today as a result of conflicts around the world. The original memorial is nearly 100 hundred years old and many of the names are now worn and faded so this new wall commemorates a further 1,992 citizens of Southampton who lost their lives and will be a lasting tribute to their sacrifice.

News From The Maasi

We were delighted to hear that one of our Maasi friends has recently become engaged. Grosper has sent us some photographs of his engagement celebrations. We wish him lots of luck.
Parents and friends....if you would like to find out more about the Maasi or indeed about sponsorship, visit http://www.serianuk.org.uk/