Claires Court Bulletin
JUNIOR BOYS
Bulletin 2 | Lent Term 2017
Email: dsp@clairescourt.com
Website: http://www.clairescourt.com/news-and-media/bulletins
Location: SL6 3QE for sat nav SL6 4QQ
Phone: 01628 411490
Facebook: facebook.com/clairescourt
Twitter: @clairescourt
FROM THE HEAD'S DESK
I am very pleased to officially announce the birth of Mr Barber’s baby girl, Lily Olivia, over the Christmas break. Mr Barber is enjoying some paternity leave at the moment (although we cannot keep him away from the football field and I saw him reffing the Under 10’s on Wednesday!) and he will be back with us in the middle of next week. I am also delighted to announce the birth of Susan Payne’s first grandson, Frederick Henry, several weeks ago. Grandma has been proudly showing lots of pictures of Frederick around the staffroom. Susan continues to recover from her illness and will be working with us throughout this term albeit on a part time basis. It is wonderful to have her back.
Thank you to so many of our boys and parents who have donated toys to charity this week. The Link Foundation, our wonderful local charity group, are helping to distribute them to worthy causes in the area, and thank you to Thomas Scargill who inspired the school to give in such a generous way.
As Mr Butterfield will elude to in his words, we had our first football matches of the season against Oratory Prep School earlier in the week, and although we came second more than we came first, the boys have nevertheless enjoyed their maiden run out onto the slightly boggy pitches. Very well done to Dan Greenwood and Ben Babcock in Year 6 who both enjoyed tremendous success in the Under 11A team, with Mr Goddard telling me their goals are genuine contenders for ‘Goal of the season’. They also contributed two assists in their fiercely competitive game. I watched some of the under 9 games on Tuesday and must say that Jack Toker, Oscar Griffin and Ishraj Samra stood out for me with their excellent attitude and skills.
On a slightly different note, please do ensure that your sons (of all ages) have their tracksuits with them for every sports lesson - the weather does not seem to be getting any warmer!
Our assemblies this week have focused on Pupil Voice matters with a little snowy poetry thrown in for good measure!! I also explained to the boys the history behind inaccurate weather forecasts!
More importantly I was able to award several of our boys with their music exam certificates for piano, violin and guitar…..very well done to Noah Olikara, Fraser Jones, Kerim Yilmaz, Alex Pearce, Kida Zhu and Junwen Liew. I would like to wish the best of luck to all of our chess players for their matches on Saturday, and the Key Stage 2 General Knowledge quiz team who are competing against lots of schools on Monday in a tournament at Davenies. Very well done to the young man below who has made exceptional progress with his reading, writing and Maths
Our Year 6 pupils have been concentrating on Persuasive writing since we started back, and Mrs Vine has been delighted with the outcomes - it would appear a number of our older boys are very good at compiling letters of complaint and persuading local councils to part with money!!!! This is a very useful skill!!
I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend break.
Justin Spanswick
Some beautiful writing from a Reception boy.
IMPORTANT NOTICES
- Apologies for the postponement of yesterday evening’s parents' evening. This will now take place on Thursday 19 January starting at 6pm. For those parents attending on Thursday evening, your appointment times are unchanged and remain exactly as they would have been yesterday. We do however, appreciate that some of you will may not be able to attend on the 19th. Please inform the office if this is the case or write a note in your child’s homework diary and we will endeavour to book new appointments.
- Please note that we are unable to make any last minute changes to bus arrangements. If you wish to make alterations please call or email the office before 4.50pm Monday - Thursday or before 3.50pm on a Friday.
- Parents of children doing after school activities please note when you collect your son please wait in the playground for your son to join you. In inclement weather you may wait in the dining room. Unfortunately, due to hygiene and safeguarding rules, we cannot allow parents to enter the pool area unless invited.
CAMPUS CALUMNY
This week’s edition of the Maidenhead Advertiser reports on a meeting held on Tuesday evening last at Cox Green Community Centre to consider the Borough Local Plan. Together with my brother, I attended this meeting at the invitation of one of the Cox Green councillors. At the end of the meeting, there was discussion about our own proposals to create a new campus alongside our Junior Boys site. During the course of this, a local resident stated that he had received letters from parents alleging that the School would ‘pick on’ the pupils of any parent who voiced opposition to the move. As professional educators of long standing, my brother and I wish to categorically refute this slur. We have always welcomed an honest and open interchange of views and opinions with you, our parents, in all matters including these proposals. On occasion we may even agree to differ but whatever the outcome, this would never be visited upon those in our care. We hope shortly to be able to make an announcement about the scheme but if parents do have concerns about our proposals then please feel free to contact me, Hugh Wilding, at hsw@clairescourt.com
BULLETIN QUESTIONNAIRE
Thank you to everyone that has completed our Bulletin Questionnaire. If you haven’t done so, the form will be open for your feedback until 12 noon on Monday 16 January.
PTA NEWS
We hosted our first PTA CCJB meeting, of the term, on Wednesday. We had excellent ideas from various staff as to how to spend our funds to further our children's education at CCJB. More details will be available in the minutes. Please read our minutes that will be published on our Facebook page or will be available via a link in next week's Bulletin.
We are delighted to announce that we are now working to organise our Easter Event on Saturday 18th March. It will run from 12-2pm, There will also be a Nearly New Uniform sale. The theme of the event is Alice in Wonderland . We are looking for volunteers to participate in the subcommittee which will include areas such as marketing, food and drink. Please click the link if you are interested in helping.
Another subcommittee will be working on a NEW MERCHANDISE project for our PTA. This exciting new project needs your input and it will be of great help to the PTA. If you are interested in helping us, open this link Easter Event committee & New Merchandise project or send an email to ptaccjb@gmail.com.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 1st February at 7.30 pm at CCJB.
Meanwhile, I hope you all have a good weekend!
All the best,
The PTA CCJB TEAM
Whatever the weather….
As the weather gets colder, may we take this chance to remind our parents of the School’s Emergency Closure Guidance in case we need to close the School due to adverse weather conditions.
FORTHCOMING DATES
Tuesday 17 January - PTA Main Board Meeting
Tuesday 17 January - Reception - Y6 Parents Evening commencing at 4pm.
Thursday 19 January - The Learning Dome Year 1 & Year 5. This is taking place in the Sports Hall.
Thursday 19 January - Reception - Y6 Parents Evening commencing at 6pm. Rearranged from last Thursday. Your appointment times remain the same. Please advise the office if the revised day is inconvenient for you. Thank you.
Wednesday 25 January - Class Photos. Clean and tidy uniforms please.
FROM THE SPORTS MASTER
This week all pupils have started gymnastics in their PE lessons. Pupils have been learning how to create different shapes with their bodies and hold balances and also how to move in different ways. I know Year 5 have enjoyed learning how to perfect their technique of the forward roll.
Year 4, 5 & 6 have all had their first football matches against Oratory Prep School. There were good wins for the U10C & U10E teams and a hard fought draw for the U9C team, with Eren Bartlett (U10E) and Dylan Gibbs (U9C) both scoring a brace to get their seasons started. However, it would be fair to say that this round of fixtures has been a tough way to start the season. Although, it has given the coaches and players alike, a very good idea of what each team needs to work on as the season progresses; passing and communication seems to be areas all players need to focus on.
I would like to remind parents that all pupils from Year 2 to Year 6 need to have shinpads with them for every Games lesson, training session and match. Pupils will also need trainers and football boots with them, as occasionally wintery weather will force some lessons inside.
Nick Butterfield
Head of Sport
FROM THE CHESS GRAND MASTER
Another term of chess has begun and it has seen a huge number of our boys signing up.
The after-school chess club on Monday has proven so popular that we have taken the step of expanding beyond 40 pupils, bringing in an extra member of staff to help out! This bodes very well indeed for the future of chess at Claires Court.
Our thanks go to Miss Morris and the PTA for agreeing to buy chess notation books for the boys attending chess club. These books can be used to keep track of boys' games and help them to improve their chess by playing back past matches. This will enable them to relive their victories and, more importantly, learn from their mistakes. I am planning for the boys to keep these books at school during term-time so they do not get lost.
Just a reminder that boys should be looking to play as much chess as they can in order to improve. Chess books and online chess sites will also help.
Here is a handy one! Handy Homework
And finally as GM Rudolf Spielmann put it:
Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.
Richard Hogg
MUSIC AND DRAMA NEWS
Please note that lessons are subject to times/days altering so it is imperative that you check the timetable regularly thus ensuring boys have their music and/or instrument in school on the correct day. Thank you.
RABBITS
HOLIDAY CLUB
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