Important dates for your diaries:

you to ensure name tapes are secure in cos-

tumes. Please do not use pen as the water is

not forgiving and it makes it hard for staff

distributing costumes.

Mobile Phones

In the interests of courtesy and our children's

safety, we politely request, that mobile

phones are not used within the building.

Change of Clothes

Please remember to return any borrowed

clothing. Any unwanted items to assist us

would be gratefully received to ensure we

have spares in school.

Child illness

Whilst we encourage children to be in school

as much as is possible we do ask that if chil-

dren need to have calpol in the morning that

you do not bring them to school. Recently

this has happened and when the calpol wears

off the children have not been well enough

to enjoy being in school.

General Notices Please take time to read the bulletin published each week it does contain important pieces of Pre-Prep information

Early Birds

Early Birds sessions are offered to those

working parents who need to drop their

child earlier than 8:30am. Please note

that due to limited space Early Birds

places must be booked in advance and

are for Pre-Prep children only. A

prompt 8:10am drop off is appreciated.

Main Entrance

Please do not switch the buzzer off by

the main glass door on exit.

Nail varnish

Nail varnish should be removed for

school.

Swimming

Please can you ensure all temporary

tattoos are removed prior to swimming

lessons.

Children in Years 1 & 2 will need a

towel in a named bag for using when

we swim in the school outdoor pool.

The holidays are a good opportunity for

Car parking

It is sad to report, despite our pleas in

the last publication, that we are still

receiving complaints about lack of

courtesy in the car park. One car was

very badly damaged with no admis-

sion of fault. Please be careful.

Permission for absences

Please could all permissions for

absences of 1 day or part of a day,

including for appointments, be di-

rected for the Pre-Prep to-

sarah.leftley@winchester-house.org .

If the absence is for longer than 1 day

or includes Upper School siblings,

permission should be sought from

Mrs Goldsmith via Mrs Blake -

jenny.blake@winchester-house.org.

All schools have a legal obligation to

record any absence, along with the

reason, when children miss any part of

the normal school day.

Wednesday 20th April Return to School

Monday 25th April Coffee and Croissants in the Reading Room 8:45-

10:00am

Friday 29th April EXEAT & Friends Cake Bake sale 12:00 noon

Colour Run on top pitches 12:00 noon.

Tuesday 10th May No activities today except for Ballet

Wednesday 11th May Reception French Breakfast 10:00 - 10:40am

Friday 13th May Years 1 & 2 Chartwells Healthy Living

Saturday 14th May WHS May Ball

Whole School Open Morning 10:30am - 1:00pm

Tuesday 17th May Nursery Come and Play 10:30 - 11:45am

Monday 23rd May Pre-Prep Parents Forum 11:30am in the reading

room

Thursday 26th May Year 2 Sleepover camp

Friday 27th May Come & Share 11:30am

Half Term starts at 12:00noon

Friday 10th June Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th Birthday

Thursday 23rd June E Safety Talk by Karl Hopwood for parents. 5:30-

6:30pm

Friday 24th June Pre-Prep Sports Day 1:30pm

Tuesday 5th July Move up morning for current children. Taster

day for new children.

Meet the Year 2 teachers for current Year 1

parents 3:15pm

Friends Extravaganza 2:30-3:30pm on the lawn

Wednesday 6th July Year 2 ‘Moving on Ceremony’ School Hall.

Year 2 Parents Welcome 2:30pm

Thursday 7th July Fabulous Finish Fiesta (children only)

Friday 8th July End of Term 12:00noon

Monday 27th June EXEAT

Tuesday 28th June Taster afternoon for new Reception children for

Sept 2016 1:30 - 3:45pm

Thursday 30th June Taster afternoon for new Reception children for

Sept 2016 1:30 - 3:45pm

Meet the Reception teachers for current Nursery

parents 3:15pm

Monday 4th July Meet the Year 1 teachers for current Reception

parents 3:15pm

Thank you for your

donation to Water

Aid following the

Fabulous Finish.

The amount raised

was £62.77!

At the start of the Lent Term

we were wondering where our

journey would take us. All the

children have had a fantastic

term learning as they have

visited places locally, abroad

and even on other planets.

You can read more about their

topic work inside this

newsletter.

World Book Day was a terrific

success. The children had

clearly enjoyed thinking of

who they would be dressing

up as, we had many easily

identifiable characters turn up

for the school day. A great

effort from everyone who

joined in. All the Pre-Prep

children enjoyed the

opportunity of story time in

Brackley Library.

On 11th March the children

were invited to come into

school in sportswear and take

part in an obstacle course in

aid of Sports Relief. Each

year group took it in turns to

complete laps of the circuit

which encompassed all of the

outdoor space available to us.

There were some very brave

children who overcame their

fear of the spidersweb on the

climbing frame. Well done!

Year 1 and 2 were perfect

ambassadors for WHS when

they visited Juniper House

nursing home to share some

songs and poems with the

residents. Their behaviour

was impeccable.

We have enjoyed our final

assembly for the term. Father

James visited to talk to us

about Easter and the

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Lent Term 1

Moving Along 2

The Winchester

House Way

2

Near and Far 3

General Notices 4

Important Dates 4

Mini Winnies

Issue 2015-2016 #6

Date March 2016

P A G E 1

We are collecting the Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers.

Last year we had enough to buy the Jenga blocks for the

playground which the children enjoy playing with. There

are collection boxes in the main corridor and in the Year

2 building and we can collect until 3rd May. Thank you

for helping with this effort.

significance of the eggs we

will be eating on Sunday.

During the assembly Mrs

Goldsmith awarded the

Team Point Cup - well done,

Red Team!

The Easter Egg hunt was as

always a real joy to behold.

Thank you to the friends for

organising this activity.

We would like to extend a

warm welcome to Mrs Jan

Read who is working with us

in Learning Support.

We finish the term saying

goodbye to Clover Levine

and Freddie Cunningham.

We wish you well as you

move on from us.

Moving along

This Half Term Early Years have been sailing the

seas in pursuit of pirates, building ships in the

outdoor area, creating ‘Wanted’ posters and

wonderful images of pirates using their own choice

of art materials.

Following this they have been flying high

in the Science lab with Miss Dodd,

making hot air balloons and watching

them float in the air with a little help from

the heat of some hairdryers!

For the past couple of weeks they’ve been exploring space, creating alien profiles, perfecting recipes

for alien slime, building shape rockets and singing songs about the man in the moon.

Each Half Term we will be focusing on one of the val-ues of our Winchester House Way.

Next Term our value will be:

Be Honest

Please support these values at home.

The Best Self Board is in the main corridor where we celebrate the children's

achievements.

Treat others as you would

be treated

Forgive

Share

Listen

Be honest

Be kind and helpful

Be gentle

Do your best to be your best

self

P A G E 2

The Winchester House Way

P A G E 3

Near and Far Year 2 have been enjoying their travels in India having flown by aeroplane just before the Half Term holiday. Mrs Jandhyala came in to talk about how indian clothes are different to ours. She showed us her wedding photos and told us all about what happens during an indian wedding. We looked at some of Sofia’s different saris and Sofia and Scarlett tried them on. Thank you to Mrs Jandhyala for coming to talk to us.

In the DT room we made indian rickshaws with Miss Politowski. She showed us how she cut the templates using a laser cutter and then we worked together to create the rickshaws. During our time in India, we have been busy making lots of different indian food and crafts. Using different coloured sand, we made Rangoli patterns which Hindus create as part of their Diwali celebrations. We made indian roti and tried it with some traditional mango chutney. We made tie-dye T-shirts using elastic bands, string, marbles and cotton reels to create different effects. Having dyed the T-shirts using special ink we untied them and were amazed at how different they looked.

After the Half Term holidays the Year 1 children brought in their amazing take home projects which helped us to learn more about our own solar system. We have investigated light and the children had fun making and testing their black out glasses. We made and launched rockets with the help of Miss Dodd taking us on a solar system adventure. The star that fell at the start of term was carefully put back in to the sky before the children came home, realising just how special Planet Earth is. We saw how materials change when they are heated and thought about the different properties of materials with the help of Think Tank who came to do a workshop with us. The children have read the story of

The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark.

Plop the owl had huge eyes which let

in lots of light to help him hunt in the

dark. The children used pastels to

draw owl faces.