Claires Court Bulletin
JUNIOR BOYS
Bulletin 7 | Lent Term 2016
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 HEADS DESK
It has been a very difficult week at Claires Court Junior Boys with the sad news that Mrs Susan Payne, our Deputy Head, is very unwell in hospital. I would like to thank so many of you for your kind words of support, and I can inform you that having spoken with Imogen, one of Susan’s daughters’ this morning, the family would be happy to receive any get well cards and well wishing messages from the parent body. If you would like to send a card, please drop it into the school office at Junior Boys school, and we will ensure that it reaches Susan. Please do not send emails as we will not be able to pass these on.
Yesterday I went on a ‘Learning walk’ around the school - I visited every classroom with my Head of Maths, Miss Jones, and we really enjoyed observing the significant amount of independent work being done. We also marvelled in the quality of the problem solving strategies that the boys are starting to use. A major academic focus for me over the next twelve months is to develop further our ability to introduce the pupils to new, challenging and ever changing academic situations to improve their application skills, and their understanding of specific learning patterns. They will only do this by trying, sometimes failing, persevering, trying again, and working it out for themselves to achieve a set goal - success in the classroom gained in this fashion has a far greater impact on the learner than just being told how to complete a task. Resilience, confidence and drive are required in bucket loads! And I feel very strongly that is our job as staff to inspire our boys, to encourage them, to guide them, to allow them the chance to find their own strategies, and to steer them in the correct direction to gain success. Please have a look at some of my pictures of the boys in action.
Our boys have enjoyed some of the sunshine this week….and the brisk, cold wind! Certainly I was very impressed with our Under 9 boys who played some great football on Tuesday against Chesham. However, one of our Under 9 groups who did not get a game against another school in fact impressed Mr Gillespie most with their wonderful attitude and with the substantial progress they have made. Two of our Year 4 teams travelled to Chesham and came back with 19 goals, without conceding any!! Congratulations to Téo Rybak who scored a hat trick. Talking of hat tricks, well done to Ben Savidge in 3G who struck 3 goals in quick succession at training on Tuesday. You can see the proud Under 9 away teams in our gallery. Well done boys! Not to be outdone, our two home teams played very well, and Henry Dargan must take a bow for his amazing goal. I am told that he struck the ball over the opposition keeper…….Henry was still in his own half of the pitch when he did this!!! Wow!!
I enjoyed refereeing the Under 11 B team on Wednesday and was quite dazzled at how well they did against a Chesham side boasting half of their A team. Although they came second, they certainly didn’t deserve to! I hope the pictures tell our story well this week. I particularly like the picture I took of our locker room…...not one item of clothing on the floor. Long may this continue!!
Have a lovely weekend - I am looking forward to watching the Year 3 boys play in the first ever Claires Court Junior Boys Inter School Football Festival tomorrow. I hope to see some of you there.
Justin Spanswick
PTA NEWS
We've already sold lots of tickets for our Easter Event, so if you haven't got yours yet don't forget to get your forms back in. Can we ask that if you pay for your tickets in the pay portal that you also return the ticket order slip to your school office. This also applies to the Egg Drop Competition so your entry can be registered.
We are also thrilled to have already received lots excellent entries for Willy Wonka's sweet drawing competition and we've heard lots of you have already constructed your egg drop entries. Don't forget to get these into your school office by Friday 11 March for initial judging.
Large quantities of chocolate has been purchased, bouncy castles are booked and we have put in an order for sunshine so look forward to seeing you all at 12.30 on Saturday 19 March!
Emma Robertson
PTA Summer Ball - 14 May 2016
Reserve your tickets now for ‘The Great Gatsby’ Ball send your table reservations to pta.ccgs@gmail.com. More details found here.
FORTHCOMING DATES
Tuesday 1 March - Ridgeway's Got Talent Final in the afternoon. Parents of finalists are welcome to come and watch. Performances start at 1:45pm
Tuesday 1 March - Tickets go on sale for the Summer Ball
Wednesday 2 March - Reception - Year 6 Resilience Talk 7pm Main Hall, College Avenue
Friday 4 March - U10 Football Tournament
Saturday 5 March - EPSCA First Round Qualifying Chess Tournament
Saturday 5 March - U11 OPS 7's Rugby Tournament
Tuesday 8 March - 7pm Joint Junior Boys and Junior Girls concert in the Sports Hall 7pm
Friday 11 March - Year 3 Electric Lego
Friday 11 March - U9 Football Tour and Bushcraft
Saturday 19 March -Join us for our Annual Easter Event with activities including Easter Egg Hunt, competitions, face painting and much more…
Saturday 14 May - The Great Gatsby Ball
IMPORTANT NOTES
Congratulations to Lorraine and her catering team for holding onto their 100% track record 5/5 'Scores on the Doors' with the RBWM Environmental Health Office.
Mars Chocolate Recall
Would parents please be mindful of the recent Mars Chocolate UK recall with 3for3 next week. You can refer to the Foods Standards Agency here for further details.
LIBRARY NEWS
Boys and Girls in Years 5 and 6 will be meeting Children's author Megan Rix on Wednesday 2 March at the College site as part of these celebrations. They are travelling by coach at 9.30am and will be back in time for lunch. More details have been emailed to parents today.
RIDGEWAY'S GOT TALENT
The final is being held on the afternoon of Tuesday 1 March at 1:45pm and parents are welcome to come and watch.
Props and costumes must all come in with the boys on Monday morning for rehearsals.
3for3 Charity Fundraising
Year 5 Tuesday 1 March
Year 4 Thursday 3 March
Year 3 Monday 7 March
Year 2 Thursday 10 March
R and Y1 Monday 14 March
Please be reminded all unlabelled i.e. home made cakes and biscuits being sold for 3for3 week will require an allergen label. We have a strict 'No Nut' policy here at Claires Court therefore please do not bring in anything homemade or manufactured which contains nuts or is processed in an environment which has nuts.
The labels can be downloaded from our website
Year 6 raised £319.78 with their fundraising and cake sales today. Well done boys and Mums too for baking or buying. We would have raised more but there were quite a few foreign coins / out of circulation coinage collected. Please check the change you give the boys to spend carefully. Many thanks.