Super Swifts are...SCIENCE-TASTIC!

Wow! What a great start to the week it has been in the SUPER Swift class! As you know this is `Science week` and in year 2 we LOVE being creative! So... in true Swift style we are taking part in  practical (and fun) experiments each day to apply all of our amazing skills (Science, writing and of course Maths!) Take a sneak peak below at yesterdays experiments, it was... SCIENCE-TASTIC! That's my class`s words, not mine :)

Day 1: White flower vs Celery stick
The first experiment allowed children to test which would change colour first, white flowers or a celery stick.  strange right? Children used a coloured dye and added it to some water. They made sensible predictions and now will watch closely each day to see what will happen. We had some amazing predictions so it will be faacinating to see who predicted correctly and why!

Snowy Pictures...

Thanks for the Snowy pictures below which we have been talking about in school. It seems we made the most of our short disruption to normal service. Our thoughts go out to those parts of the country still experiencing and working through this spell of poor weather. Don't forget we're also collecting pictures for our World Book Day rerun!

Southampton Carer Parent Forum FREE INFORMATION DAY For Special Educational Needs & Disabilities this Saturday

This free event for families of pupils with SEND, will take place on Saturday 10th March 2018 from 10am to 3pm at the Oasis Academy, Romsey Road, Lordshill, Southampton, SO16 8FA

When you arrive, please head to the Forum Reception to sign in and receive further information. You will also be entered into a FREE raffle (one entry per family) for a selection of fab prizes. The Mayor of Southampton attending the event between 10am – 11am so if you would like to meet him, pop in earlier rather than later.

Parking: 
There is a large car park at Oasis Academy, Lordshill so parking will be really straightforward. During the day you are also able to use the Rugby Club Car Park just down the road (next turning off Redbridge Lane after Oasis Academy) from Oasis Academy for overflow parking.

Food and refreshments:
The wonderful young people from Café Down the Lane, Southampton Mencap are providing the catering for the event. There will be a selection of savoury and sweet baked goods, sandwiches, canned drinks and chocolate bars on sale. There are some Gluten Free options also available. Tea and Coffee and Orange Squash is FREE for anyone attending throughout the day and will be available from the Café Down the Lane area.

Workshop and Talk Providers/Minecraft Café/Kessy Therapy Dog:
The Workshop and Talks will be based in the classrooms at the end of the corridor that is to the left of the Forum Reception, there will be signs on the doors noting which workshop/talk is in which classroom. To book onto the workshops/talks, there will be a form to book your place at reception when you arrive or you can request to attend a workshop/talk later in the day depending on spaces available. NO BOOKING AVAILABLE PRIOR TO THE EVENT. The organisers are only running one of each workshop and in some cases spaces are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

The organisers have invited a wonderful Facepainter, Caroline Blay who will be providing Glitterart tattoos FREE of charge to families and have also invited Mr Giant, a children’s entertainer who will be entertaining the kids throughout the event.

Asperger’s Adventures – Minecraft and Meltdowns Minecraft Café: 
Michelle Rebello will be travelling down for the day to provide a “Minecraft Café” for the event. Kids can log onto their unique Minecraft server, join the game and play together. This will be available throughout the day but Michelle will take a lunch break at some point, most likely 12pm – 1pm. Please bring a laptop so that your child can take part in the café if they would like to – unfortunately the organisers cannot provide spare laptops.
Please note – children will require parental supervision.

Kessy the Therapy Dog: 
Kessy, Anna and Ben will be at the event from 11am until 3pm and families will be able to meet Kessy and watch her do some tricks. Anna will be giving an overview of Canine Therapy and the benefits of this type of therapy. Access will be restricted to 3 families at a time to ensure Kessy and Ben do not get too overwhelmed. This will be happening in the one of the classrooms down the corridor to the left of the Forum Reception. And of course, Kessy will be taking a few short doggy breaks!

Other local service providers attending the event include: 

• The Challenging Behaviour Foundation 
• Alex Kelly Ltd 
• Saints Foundation 
• SEND Service Team, Portage, Post 16 (Southampton City Council) 
• Epilepsy Action 
• Active Nation 
• The Rainbow Trust 
• Break Out Youth 
• The Rainbow Centre (Fareham) 
• Early Years Advisory Team (Southampton City Council) 
• Southampton Opportunity Group 
• Naomi House 
• Re:minds Support Group 
• Autism Hampshire 
• The National Autistic Society 
• The Buzz Network (Southampton City Council) 
• Adhara Autism Trust 
• Sophia’s House 
• Great Oaks and Rosewood Post 16 Pop- up Shop 
• Guide Dogs for the Blind Association 
• Rose Road Association 
• Solent Youth Action 
• Usborne Books 
• The Supported Internship Programme Team (Southampton City Council) 
• The Community Nursing Team 
• Southampton SENDIASS Team 
• CAMHS (West) 
• Carers in Southampton 
• Southampton Mencap 
• Southampton City College 

Assistance throughout the day: 
There will be a number of Southampton Parent Carer Forum representatives in pink t-shirts at the event if you need any help with anything throughout the day.

Science Week: 12th – 16th March 2018

Science Week is fast approaching and will provide our pupils with a great opportunity to get stuck into some investigations, with opportunities to apply their literacy and maths skills in a scientific context. You may also be interested to know that you can also get involved, by taking part in the Citizen Science Project. The Plastic Tide are working hard to keep our beaches and oceans clean and are asking people at home to help train their algorithm to automatically detect plastics and marine litter on beaches by tagging plastics and litter on their online drone imagery.

To find out more and to get involved, please visit their websites:
https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/citizen-science/
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/theplastictide/the-plastic-tide

Currently, 60% of our oceans are heavily contaminated with plastics, which take over 450 years to degrade. This is having a huge impact on our marine life, as many of our precious sea creatures are ingesting and being trapped in plastics. In turn, this can contaminate the food chain, including our own food. Therefore, in order to our bit to help reduce plastic waste, we would like to introduce Waste Free Lunchboxes for the week (and hopefully beyond). This means that if your child brings a lunch, drink or snack from home, they are being asked to bring it in reusable, washable containers rather than single use packaging. The goal is to have little to no packaging waste.

Tips for creating a waste free lunch:

• Use a reusable container for sandwiches or wrap in kitchen roll / greaseproof paper (which can be
• composted) instead of foil or clingfilm.
• Bring drinks in a reusable bottle rather than cartons or foil pouches
• Instead of buying separate individual servings of snacks (yoghurt, raisins, biscuits, crisps etc), buy one large pack and then put a serving each day in a smaller reusable container - also a money-saver!
• Use cutlery that can be washed and used again
• Choose fruit as your snack of choice, not only is this a healthy option, but the leftovers can be composted - win-win!
• Only pack what they can eat. This will save your pocket, as well as the environment!
• Check what they like and don’t like - don’t waste time and money putting something in that’ll just end up in the bin
• Waste not, want not - pack up last night’s leftovers in reusable containers for a lunch time treat
• If you don't do so already, try packing lunches the night before and keeping them in the fridge overnight

Small changes really can make a difference and by making minor adjustments, we can all help reduce the negative impact we have on the environment; therefore, please join us in our attempts to reduce, reuse and recycle.

School Admissions: Secondary Transfer

Some useful information for parents of Year 6 pupils. Email offers of secondary school places to parents of Year 6 pupils should have gone out in the early hours of Thursday 1st March. Places offered in Hampshire schools to pupils should have been notified at the same time. Parents who applied online, requested email notification, and who have been offered their first preference school will receive an email notification – they will not be sent a letter. Parents who applied online but requested a letter rather than an email notification will receive letters that will be posted on Thursday 1st March by 2nd class post. However, these parents can see the outcome of their application if they log in to their online account. All parents who have not been offered their first preference school will receive a letter posted on Thursday 1st March by 2nd class post giving the reason for the refusal and details of how to appeal against that decision if they wish to do so.

Parents need to respond to the offer made to them by Thursday 15th March. Parents are advised to accept the offer made in order to secure a school place for September. This does not affect your right of appeal, or your place on any waiting lists. If a place becomes available at a higher preference school, the local authority will offer the place automatically and immediately remove the earlier offer. Parents cannot hold 2 offers at the same time.

 Late applications have not yet been processed. Parents who applied late (after 31st October 2017) will receive a letter once all late applications have been processed.

We hope that makes sense!

Snow Day 2...

Given the ongoing situation with the weather, it is looking certain we will be closed again tomorrow. Right now, I am being told the roads around the school are challenging and travel is proving difficult in and out of town. I have already heard that our kitchens will be closed again tomorrow. We felt it important to allow you time to plan so we have made that decision now rather than wait till tomorrow morning. This not a decision we have taken lightly and we aware of the inconvenience it may cause many of you. We have to weigh this up against the risks of accessing our site, not being able to provide food or enough staff to ensure the school is safe to run. Many other schools have also take the decision to close.
Obviously, I had my Wookie Onesie ready this morning for Book Day. It's actually ideal for this sort of weather as it happens. We will be holding Book Day again - we promise - once things calm down. We will all be back to normal Monday. Please keep safe in the meantime!

School is Closed Today

It is with regret that we are having to take the decision to close Bitterne Manor today, We will be in touch regarding tomorrow later.
We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause.