School News

Coronation

Mr Johnston’s visit—Following a visit from the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in 2021, Mr Johnston was invited this week to represent Micheldever School at the King’s Garden party. The children wrote prayers and wishes as part of worship which Mr Johnston took to the Palace for the King to read before his coronation.

 

         

Tag Rugby

Well Done to our Tag rugby team for their recent wins.

                         

Science Day

A big thank you goes to Dr Johnston and Dr Robson who came into school  and showed us all some exciting Science experiments

             

                     

            

World Book Day

Merry Christmas

Thank you— A thank you to the PTA for all they have done with the Christmas shopping this week, for supporting the Panto trip and the refreshments in the church this morning. A thank you as well to Tesco at Winnall who donated 100 bags of popcorn for us to enjoy at the Panto on Tuesday. Thank you also to Mr Bushell who provided our Christmas tree this year and of course  Santa who visited us this week.—we are very grateful

 

                                                   

 

 

                             

Tributes to the Queen

Each has put together a tribute to the Her Majesty The Queen, these were then taken up to London and placed along side all the flowers and cards from members of the public.

                    

                       

Queen Elizabeth II

It was with sadness that Buckingham Palace announced yesterday the death of Her Majesty The Queen. We have now entered a period of national mourning that will continue until the end of the State Funeral. Once details of the funeral are confirmed by the Royal Household, we will share with you further information. We have celebrated the life of the Queen in a worship this morning and thought about how we can follow her example of service. If children and young people are upset or have questions,, Minded is a source of information to support children and young people to manage death and loss.

Almighty God, ​

We thank you so much for the life, service and example of Queen Elizabeth​

We thank you for her long life of serving others, and serving our country. ​

We thank you for all that she did to make this country, and the world, a better place. ​

Amen

 

Dance Competition

The girls who attend dance club after school performed two dances, one from the movie Encanto and the other to the song Levitating by Dua Lipa at the Theatre Royal in Winchester. The dance off was with 8 other local schools and the girls won the trophy for the most creative dance. They were all amazing and really made Micheldever proud! 

                             

PFA- Grow a Pound

We hope that those who are taking part in the PFA 2022 Grow a £ challenge are full of plans and excitement to see how their pound can grow! We can't wait to hear about the ideas the children have. There are some fantastic prizes on offer for several lucky winners of the challenge including books, a craft kit and a gift voucher.   Wishing everyone the best of success with this exciting project.

 

Jubilee Celebrations

We have had much fun with the Jubilee Celebrations today; from decorating the school to our tea party this afternoon, to a treasure hunt quiz around the school. We have learnt about the importance of the Platinum Jubilee as well—please ask us what we can remember!

                                             

         

                          

Books

The PFA would like to thank everyone for their support in raising the money for the amazing new books. These books are Phonic decodable books which are used along side the super sonic friends program.

                                                               

 

PFA

The PFA would like to thank everyone for supporting the bake sale held on class exhibition day. Thanks to your generosity (and some delicious cakes baked by PFA committee members - thanks all!) we were able to raised £155 towards the £1500 fundraising target set at the start of the academic year to purchase new books for school. The total raised towards this target following the book week, books for books donations and bake sale stands at £1160.85. Donations from today's dress as you like day will also be added to this total and we'll share details of the amount raised soon. We'd like to invite everyone to look out for the Easter bunny making an appearance across Micheldever and Micheldever Station during the holidays! A scavenger hunt that has been arranged as a joint activity with the pre-school and there are prizes to be won! For any questions about this event or to request an answer sheet please refer to the poster included in last week's newsletter.  Wishing everyone a very happy Easter break. 

Message from Mr Johnston

When war or conflict is in the news, it can cause feelings such as fear, sadness and anxiety for children, young people and adults; the current crises in Ukraine is no exception, and it is important that, as a school and community, we discuss this sensitively with our children. 

What are we doing at school? 

Our children in Birch and Willow Class have shown most curiosity around the conflict in Ukraine. Teachers will be following the Place2Be guidance detailed below and will share any concerns with you that your child may raise. 

How is it best to support children at this time? 

Place2Be’s Educational Psychologists share their advice on how to talk to children and young people about war and conflict, and support them if they’re struggling with the news. As teachers, parents and carers, it is impossible to protect children from frightening and confusing world events, such as war and conflict. We can, however: Create a sense of safety at home and school; Find ways to cope together with uncertainty; Be hopeful for peace and safety for all; Be compassionate; Look after our own wellbeing and seek support as we support others.

Talking to children about war

When talking to children and young people about war, it is important to take into account their age, stage of development and whether they have special educational needs, additional support needs or other needs that may make them more vulnerable. 

• Try to find out what your children already know about the situation, and how they found out about it. Reinforce the importance of getting their news from a reputable source, such as the BBC. You could look at reliable news sources together. 
• Children may be exposed to explicit images that can trigger fear responses. Let them know that you are open to talking about what they have seen or heard. 
• Be open to talking with children about the war, but say that you may not have all the answers. If you are unsure, say that you don’t know. Acknowledge uncertainty and validate the feelings that arise from uncertainty. For example, “It sounds like you are unsure and are worried about what could happen next”.
• Young children may not talk directly about war, but their fears might come out in play. You can join their play to help them explore their feelings. 
• Ask children about their feelings about the war. For example, they may feel worried, frightened, angry or confused or a whole range of other emotions. Listen to their feelings and acknowledge them as valid, rather than minimising them.  At the same time, reassure your child that parents and carers at home, and teachers at school, are there to keep them safe and that many people around the world are working hard to try to resolve the conflict. 
• Children who have family and friends in war-torn countries may feel particularly upset. Children from all communities will need compassion, support and to feel safe. You may need to monitor how people in school (and beyond) are responding to classmates, colleagues and families from the communities most directly affected. 
• Be aware of children and families who are refugees and have fled conflict, as recent events may be particularly poignant for them. 
• If children want to help, encourage their concern and compassion. This might include raising funds, campaigning for peace, posting messages of hope etc. 

 

Children who have members of their families in the armed forces are likely to fear for the safety of their loved ones. Be mindful that these children may need additional space, time and support. Further information and resources are available from Little Troopers. 

Children’s ability to cope is influenced by their teachers, parents, carers and other important adults in their lives. It is important that you look after your own mental health and seek support if you feel overwhelmed. Shout Text Helpline, text CONNECT to 85258 to contact Shout for free, 24/7. Education Support Partnership Helpline, call 08000 562 561 or text 07909 341229 for free, 24/7. The Young Minds Parents Helpline, call for free on 0808 802 5544 (9.30am - 4pm, Monday-Friday, UK). 

 

 CBBC Newsround  - Newsround have put together a resource for children who may be upset by the news at this time.  You may find it helpful to share this with your child.  Factual, re-assuring and age-appropriate news can be found daily for children here. 

 

World Book Day

WOW! Thank you very much for all your efforts to create such fantastic costumes!  We were very impressed by the creativity and imagination. We really appreciate everyone joining in the fun and hope that we have inspired the children to continue enjoying reading. Oak and Pine also had a surprise visit from Mary Poppins who dropped in to say hello on the playground.

                             

             

             

Comic Relief Challenge

We were very excited on Tuesday when Tom Daley cycled past as part of his comic relief challenge.We made banners  and went out to cheer him on.

 

 

 

Our Federation Vision

“Like the river flowing through our valley, the Dever Valley Federation is a place of life. Everyone is welcome in our family where we grow, learn and achieve alongside one another. The gifts given to us by God support us on our journey; LOVE binds us together, TRUST keeps us together, FORGIVENESS transforms us and HOPE carries us forward through life. “

This week, the school councils across our Federation have met to support Mr Johnston and Mr Stangroom in picking a picture to represent our vision statement, We are slowly narrowing down the choice and are hoping to share it with you soon.

 

Thank you to The Dove Inn

A huge thank you to Charlie & Jo who run the Dove Inn who generously donated the Christmas draw money to the school.

They collected a whopping £738.00 which is incredible! We are so very thankful for their support for us as a school and for this donation—it will go a long way in helping all the children at the school.

                           

Sports Equipment

A huge thank you to an ex-Micheldever family, the Tarry family, who have kindly donated some sports equipment to us. The school councillors were delighted to receive the tennis equipment and we cannot wait to start using it.

 

Message from Mr Johnston

As 2021 draws to a close and I reflect back on the past year we have had, I am once again very proud of all we have accomplished together as a school. From COVID lockdowns at the start of the year through to festive celebrations this week, the hard work and dedication of the staff, pupils and parent body has really shone through. It was a pleasure to see the whole school have such large smiles on their faces this week and was a wonderful way to complete the year. A thanks from me to everyone who has helped in any way, however big or small, to make our school community the fantastic place that it is to be. I am sure you will echo my thanks to the staff team who have helped to make the school an excellent learning environment for the children. A very happy Christmas to you all. We look forward to all that 2022 has to offer.

 

Christmas

What a busy week we have had starting with a trip to the panto then Christmas shopping, Christmas lunch and jumpers , stories  and hot chocolate , Pyjama Disco and of course a visit from Santa himself who managed to find time to stop by for a chat and to bring presents.

                      

                      

KS1 Nativity

Well done to our Key Stage 1 children for putting on  super nativity performance's this week.

   

Trashmouth puppets

The whole school enjoyed a visit from Trash mouth puppets this week.

 

Football

A big congratulations to all the children who represented our school at our football matches on Tuesday. Both our boys team and girls team played against Weeke Primary School. Whilst it was a challenging game for both teams, the team spirit and togetherness shown by both sides was superb. Our girls team, despite losing, showed great resilience and determination and our boys team managed to win 4-1.

                  

Anti Bullying Week

This week has been anti-bullying week at school. We began the week with an outstanding assembly led by our School Council who reminded us of the story of Zaccheus and challenged us to think about who the bullies were in that story and what we would have done in those circumstances. Over the week, each class have thought about how we can do more to ensure that bullying is not left unchallenged in our school and we culminated in celebrating Odd Socks day on Friday. As we look forward into future weeks, we will continue to be a place where bullying is not tolerated and we work to make the school a safe and happy place for everyone. 

                             

                  

                  

Remembrance Commemorations

As part of our Remembrance commemorations our Y6’s represented our school at the war memorial on Thursday. 

                               

 

Sponsored Reading Challenge

Beginning Monday 4^th October, Micheldever Primary School and PTA ran a week long reading challenge in school. The purpose of the challenge was to promote the joy and benefits of reading and books to the children and to raise some funds for much needed books at the same time. Here are some of the events from the challenge.

                                

     

      

Macmillan Coffee Morning

Our Macmillan coffee morning raised an amazing £260.00

Home learning 

Millie who is one of Willow class pupils did some wonderful home learning depicting our school's Christian Values using watercolours.

Lunchtime games for Mr Johnston

Our Headteacher enjoyed a lunchtime game of Duck,Duck, Goose with children this week.

End of term

What a year we have had! Reflecting back on the past year, we have certainly overcome much as a community together. Lockdowns in January, whilst I am sure are a very vivid memory for us all, seem a lifetime ago and the journey that the school has been on since then has certainly kept us all on our toes. You should all be incredibly proud of your children, who have all faced challenges and trials of their own and have not just overcome them, but have excelled in doing so. I am proud to have been able to be the headteacher during this time and am excited for the journey that we have ahead of us as we continue to make the school the best it can be for all the children of our community.

 We wish out Year 6 children leaving, along with some others in other year groups, all the best in their new schools and their new ventures that they move onto. We are proud of them and all they have achieved whilst here at Micheldever—don’t be strangers as you will always be a part of our community.

 Please have a restful summer holiday, enjoy time as families together and we look forward to welcoming you back in September.

 

Mr Johnston- Head teacher

                         

 

              

 

 

Bright day

Everyone came into school  wearing brightly coloured clothes and made a donation of £2. We raised £120. Thank you to the PTA for organising this.

Ellis Journey

Pine class have spent the last few weeks learning about the historic event of the Ellis Journey and have written newspaper reports about the event as part of their writing competition. The children were invited to go to the event and interview some of the key figures that attended to celebrate this historic event at Micheldever Station. The interviews were recorded and deposited with the Hampshire Film Archive alongside the Centenary Film so that it can be available on-line for research purposes and as a record of the event.

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Bags 2 school

Thank you  very much to everyone who dropped of donations for Bags 2 school.  We raised £81.00

 

                          

Hi Vis Vests

The Finlay Foundation- We would like to say a huge thank you to the Finlay Foundation for the very generous donation of 100 Hi Vis Vests to the school. Please take a few minutes to go on the link and read about the work they do and the reason why the foundation was setup http://www.finlayfoundation.co.uk/

 

 

An exciting trip coming up.. 

As we reach the end of summer term 1 (and a COVID free term!) we are delighted to be able to be getting back to something that resembles ’normal.’ It was wonderful for Birch class to visit St Mary’s stadium and Oak to visit the farm this week and we have an exciting whole school trip on the horizon which was selected by our school council; on 29th June, we will be taking the whole school to Marwell Zoo! We have managed to secure a grant from the South Downs National Park to support with this and will be sharing some more information next half term.

 

        

 Climbing Wall

Our climbing wall is now complete! Over the next few weeks, each class will be given the chance to have their first turn using it (parents you will have to wait!) and it will become a permanent feature of our green zone on the playground. Again a big thank you to all who have contributed towards sports equipment for the school in recent months and making this possible for our children. There was an audible gasp when we first told them about it last week and it will be hugely beneficial for developing our core strength and gross motor skills.

 

Our school council trying out the new climbing wall—we approve!

 

Science Week

British Science Week coincided with our first week back at school following the national school closures. It gave our pupils a wonderful opportunity to work in teams and groups to collaborate and to rebuild relationships after a long time apart. Across the school, we centred on the theme of innovating and children were encouraged to dream of their own ideas and creations. Children in Willow class had the challenge of designing and creating a boat that could carry the most amount of weight before sinking. In Birch, children had to create an insulator to prevent ice from melting. Pine class have been creating straw rockets whilst Oak has discovered the wonderful effects of chromatography! It has resulted in an excellent first week with everyone back.

 

 

World Book Day

World book day this year took place on Thursday 4th March, which for a number of our pupils was the penultimate day of home learning. Over the course of the week, we celebrated books by all becoming authors and writing our very own one. We were particularly impressed with the dedication to their stories shown by children in Willow class, who produced some fantastic piece of work. On World Book Day itself, everyone took part in a 'dress up' day. Children in school and at home joined together in a special assembly to share their costumes that they had put together. Key Stage 2 encouraged us this year to use what we had around the house, rather than buying more clothes, whish was driven by their project on the impact of fast fashion and global warming. We had some incredible costumes and it was wonderful to see all children, wherever they may be, participate so keenly.

 

Hampshire Music Service Resources

 

Keep Calm and Make Music in KS1 and KS2

Hampshire Music Service have produced some resources that can be used at home, called Keep calm and make music in KS1 and KS2. These are available to download by clicking on the relevant year group for your child.

Year 1-2: Walking The Dog

Year 3-4: In The Hall of the Mountain King (‘Grieg’ sound file available here)

Year 5-6: Music of the Planets (‘Holst’ sound file available here).  Paint is needed for one of the activities, but this could be substituted for other art materials you may have at home.

World Book Day

On Thursday 5^th March, Micheldever Primary School had a fun packed day of activities linked to World book day! These included dressing up as a character from a Roald Dahl book and bringing in your favourite book to share with other members of our worship families! Also, each class were given a fun task to complete such as, drawing and designing your own invention for Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and writing a poem based on Roald Dahl’s “Dirty Beasts” poems. We rounded off the exciting day with a special assembly in which a member of each class came up to the front to share their work. At home time there was a book sale were if you were lucky inside your book there would be a golden ticket giving you the opportunity to choose five free books of your choice.

Skip2Bfit

On Wednesday 26^th February we had Skip2Bfit come into school. We were so happy to have them come! They spent some time with each class showing us how to skip and then we skipped for 2 minutes to see how many skips we could do then we did it again and tried to beat our score, if we beat our score we were a chicken nugget and if we got less we were a chicken dipper. At the end of the day we had a competition with best scoring student against best scoring adult.

Issy in Year 6 said “it’s fun and it’s a good way to exercise, I find myself skipping everyday”.

Max Year R – I like how the skipping ropes count!

African Activities

Here are some of our year 5/6 accounts of our African activities Morning.

I think that the African Activities was really fun as we got to learn new African songs and hear stories Qame told us about what it was like in Africa, I think it was an awesome experience and I would definitely recommend it.

The African experience was enormous fun and has contributed hugely to my understanding of the continent’s culture. The music was particularly interesting as many of us were playing different rhythms. All in all, I thought the morning was hugely beneficial.

On Friday we had a really nice man come in to teach us some funky moves; deafening drumming; tell us some true tales and other cool stuff! It was so fun! We even had a band (us), the instruments were so fun and I loved banging to the beat. My favourite part was definitely doing our own thing with rattles!

Fire Service Visit

On Wednesday 5^th of Feb, as well as beautiful Japanese Fan dancing, Willow and Pine had a visit from the Fire Service Kids Team. We talked about fire hazards in our houses and how we can prevent them from catching fire and what to do if they do. Written by Year 6 pupil

Japanese Fan Dancing

On Wednesday we had a really nice lady come into teach some fan dancing to the school. It was so fun! We had beautiful fans to dance with and go with the slow moves. My favourite part was definitely when we got to act out the story of the sun god. By Year 6 pupil

Christmas festivities

This week has been full of festive fun and cheer with  our winning house enjoying movies and popcorn on Monday. Tuesday parents were invited to our class exhibitions and in the afternoon the whole school went to the Panto at the theatre Royal in Winchester...Oh yes they did!

Wednesday everybody came to school wearing their Christmas jumpers and the children did their Christmas shopping aided by the PFA elves! We all enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch followed by an afternoon of hot chocolate and stories with Santa who came to join us  bringing gifts! 

On Thursday we all enjoyed our Christmas service at St Marys the virgin where parents attended.

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year. 

Green Ambassadors

Our new Green Ambassadors, have already held two meetings and have generated lots of ideas for ways in which the school can become more green. This  term they are reinforcing all the work that was undertaken last year on recycling within school. New signs are being made for our recycling bins and they will be reminding all the classes via presentations and games, what can and cannot be recycled.

Relax Kids

During the Autumn Term, each class will be taking part in a six week 'Relax Kids' program which teaches the children relaxation techniques through yoga and mindfulness. When questioned on how they felt after a session, some of our children said it made them feel relaxed, calm, peaceful and warm.

Fit4Kids

On Friday 20 September everyone took part in the Fit4kids workshops. Paul told us about sugar and the food traffic light system. Paul told us that not only sugar can hurt our bodies but fats and salt too. For example Walkers Ready Salted crisps are green for sugar however they are red for fat as they have 8.0g of fat which is bad for you. So we learned that crisps are ok as a treat but shouldn't be eaten too often. We also looked at lots of other foods and said if we thought they were healthy or not. We thought the Oat Granola bars were healthy but actually they have lots of sugar from the honey. 

Paul also talked to us about how important it is to be fit & healthy. First off we did a warm up which was jogging on the spot. Then he showed us lots of different exercises such as squats, lunges, air cycling and lots more fun activities! At the end we did star jumps to cool down. It's important to warm up so that you don't pull any muscles and the cool down helps your body recover from the exercises. 

It was really fun and now we know more about being fit and healthy. 

By a Year 3 pupil