Read For My School 2014

We are writing to let you know that this term our school will be taking part in a national reading competition called Read for My School, which is open to all children in years 3 – 8 in England.

The competition website www.readformyschool.co.uk is hosting a free online library of over 100 books. If they participate then your child will be able to read those books online wherever they have internet access. They can of course choose to read books in print or that are not part of the online library – the goal is simply to read as much as possible this term.

100,000 books will be distributed by Pearson in prizes for the schools and children who read the most. Individual children will be drawn as prize-winners from the pool of all children around the country who read eight books or more. Prize packs of 100 books for whole schools will be awarded after a draw from the pool of all schools where 250 books or more are read.

100,000 books will also be donated to a Book Aid International programme in Tanzania that distributes books into schools where children currently have very limited access to reading material. A new feature of the competition this year is that children will have the option to write a short letter to the children in Tanzania who will receive these books. Regional and National awards will be won by the children who write the most powerful letters, and by those who read the most books.

Any encouragement that you can give to your child that supports them as they try to read a little more this term would be invaluable, whatever form it may take. If they do participate in Read for My School fully then your child will reap benefits for themselves, for our school and for children in Tanzania.

HOW IT WORKS:

With you child, visit: www.readformyschool.co.uk

Choose sign up as a pupil then follow the simple instructions - you do not have to provide any personal details. 

The READING GROUP CODE is 195961

There is a list of Recommended Reads and a range of books available to read online. If you have a computer or tablet computer at home, you may need to enable Adobe Flash Player to ensure that your child can read the online books. Unfortunately the website won’t work on iPads, but if you have an Android device then you should be able to read the online books.

If you are using Internet Explorer 9 or below, please update to the latest version to be able to take advantage of everything this brilliant scheme has to offer! On Android you can try the Dolphin browser, which enables Flash to work.

Children can also log paper books they have read offline, and they will be counted towards their total number of books read in the competition. To do this, your child needs to log in, then next to their Reading Record, click on 'Toggle more', then 'Click here to add a book read offline' – your child should then be able 

to add any book s/he has read offline...

Have fun reading!

Proposed Admission Changes

Please follow the link below for an update from Southampton City Council regarding the proposed changes to admissions in 2015.

Southampton City Council Update

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.

Victorian Day

On Thursday 13th February,  Year 5 had a victorian day to celebrate the end of our topic. We were joined by Trcia from Creative Histories who really helped us bring the day to life.
In the morning,  we learnt about a rich Victorian family and did object drawing, Victoran PE and waltzing. It was hard but fun.
The afternoon was great fun, we had a carousel of activities that included writing with a pen and ink, shopping in a market with shillings,  making a victorian tea and creating a poor victorian childs toy.
We had a really great day and enjoyed all of it!
We hope you like our pictures below.

Football-postponed

Bitterne Manor attended a football tournament today only to find out it had been postponed until next month. However they were very lucky to be able to use the facilities for a friendly mixed match. There were lots of goals!

Good practice for next month!

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.

The Romans Are Coming!

Year 4 definitely looked the part today and enjoyed their Roman day. One particular Roman was looking a little too realistic...