Houghton Conquest Lower School and Pre-School

Newsletter 16 (16th June 2017)

Value of the Month: Tolerance

Doves Trip to Woburn Safari Park

On the 25th of May Doves went on their trip to Woburn Safari park. The

children were very excited about which animals they were going to see and who was sitting by the window on the coach! We set off with the sun shining and looked forward to the exciting day ahead.

First we experienced the road safari. We had a very informative guide from the park on board who gave us lots of interesting facts. The chil-dren learnt a lot about the animals and also shared their learning with the guide!

After the coach ride we walked around the Foot Safari. We liked seeing the cheeky meerkats, otters, porcupines and penguins. The sun was very hot so we enjoyed our indoor picnic and chatting to each other about our day.

Following on from lunch we headed off to the sea lion show and 3D mov-ie, which was very fishy! The children learnt about the importance of keeping the oceans clean of litter to protect the marine life. Next we had a really relaxed visit to ‘Monkey Business’ where we saw lots of squirrel monkeys up close. We went to visit the Lemurs who had a real interest in some of our backpacks! Finally we had a look at the Australian Walka-bout where we observed some Wallabies playing and sunning them-selves in the sunshine.

The children were an absolute credit to the school and I was extremely proud of them. The class thoroughly enjoyed their day and have been inspired to produce some brilliant work.

Thank you to parents for their voluntary contributions that enabled the trip to take place. A massive thank you to the volunteers who accompanied the trip; Miss Dancer, Mrs Birch, Mrs Gruzelier, Mrs Peck, Miss Sutton and Mrs Spencer. A fantastic support that you provided, to make these incredible learning experiences possible.

Food and Farming Day - whole school trip

Please ensure that your child’s permission slip and photo consent form is returned by Monday, 19th June and that the necessary payment has been made via WisePay. Thank you for your co-operation.

Dear Parents & Carers,

Our children have been enjoying the sunshine and learning about feelings and growing. The class of 2017 have enjoyed their transitions at the school and are looking forward to our school leavers assembly at the end of term (further details to follow). Can we please remind parents to provide sun cream for the children. They must come into preschool with sun cream already applied. For those children who are in preschool all day can you please bring in the sun cream and place it in the blue basket. We also have a box for your children's sun hats to keep them safe. A gentle reminder that shoes must be closed toe due to safety reasons. To support our mud pie kitchen we would really welcome and appreciate any donations of pots and pans and kitchen utensils (not knives) to enhance the children's learning further. If you have any queries with regard to billing or payments please don’t hesitate to contact us on hceyc@cbc.beds.sch.uk.

Please note that the Clinic on the Tuesday, 27th June is being held

in the school hall at Houghton Conquest Lower School.

Diary Dates (new items in bold)

June 2017

19th Music Assembly at 9.15am (parents of children who

are performing, as they have lessons with Inspiring

Music, will have received a letter inviting them to

join us)

21st Rev Toze - values assembly

21st KS2 ICT Event at 3.30pm - school hall

23rd Last date for Pupil Progress Books to be return

23rd Robins trip to Conquest Woods

24th Food and Craft Fayre at Houghton Conquest Vil-

lage Hall - see Friends Newsletter

27th Marston Vale Middle School visiting some year 4

children.

27th Question/Information Session with staff from

Marston Vale Middle School 3.15pm in our school

hall.

28th Robins in Action at 2pm (parents of children in

Robins class invited to join us)

30th Food and Farming Day at Peterborough (whole

school trip)

July 2017

4th School Sports Day (9.30am til 11/11.30am)

6th Sports Day (reserve date should weather be unkind

on the 4th)

10th Sounds Garden Day in school

11th Friends AGM

13th Houghton Conquest Lower School Review at 2pm

and 6pm (more information regarding tickets to

follow)

17th Year 4 Leavers Assembly (parents of children in

year 4 invited to join us) - 2pm

18th Step Up Day (all children including those in the EYC

starting school in September)

19th Friends End of Year Disco

20th Mufti Day

20th Last day of summer term

September 2017

4th First day of autumn term

Values Artwork Children in Eagles' class have created a piece of values based artwork for display at Chicksands council offices. The children were thinking about their work with the forest schools and how it adds value to our community, as well as develops their understanding and respect for the environ-ment. The children searched and used natural materials for the tree trunk, powder paint for the background and their ICT skills in manipulating imagery for the leaves. Members of the public can see all the artwork from 20 different schools in the foyer of the council offices 7th July 2017.

Notes and Reminders: Now that the warmer weather is upon us please

ensure that:-

Your child has a sun hat and their water bot-

tle in school every day.

When sunny, your child has an all day sun

cream applied before coming to school. No

sun cream should be brought into school.

Your child will also need to have a waterproof

coat in school as the children do still go out at

break time and lunch time when it is lightly

raining.

Robins - Grand opening

of outdoor area

Robins would like to invite their par-ents to the grand opening of the fantastic new out-side area on Wednesday 28th June 2017 from 2pm. A small team of volunteers have been working in-credibly hard to create a new outside space for the children to enjoy and work in.

The afternoon will consist of seeing Robins in ac-tion in the classroom and sharing a learning experi-ence with your child, the grand opening of the out-side area and a small performance by the children.

If you are able to attend please let Mrs Brown know by Monday 26th June 2017.

Judo Coaching As well as the gymnastics coaching last week, all the classes received a taster session in Jun-ior Judo from a British Judo coach. The session focused on the main principles of junior Judo including looking at the physical and social elements. All the children enjoyed playing games relating to skills that are needed to take part in the sport and each class learnt a Judo skill that was appropriate for their age. The feedback after each session was fantastic and all the chil-dren across the school thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gymnastics Coaching

During the first week back after the May half term, all the classes received high quality gymnas-tics coaching from Carl Denham who is an elite coach at Falcon Gymnastics club in Bedford. Each class teacher chose an area in gymnastics for their class to develop. Some of the skills covered included different types of rolls, creating different shapes and gymnastic routines.

It was fantastic to see how far the children had progressed in just a very short space of time.

Writing Progress Books

The children’s pupil writing progress books have gone out today (Friday). Please read and send back signed by next Friday 23rd June - all children returning their book within the deadline will earn 2 team points. Thank you.

Le Club Français is coming to Houghton Conquest

Lower School!

Le Club Français (LCF) is a well-established provider of French, offering language learning opportunities for children from 3-11 years old. From September 2017 you will have the opportunity to send your chil-dren to an LCF after school club at HCLS giving them the chance to enhance their language skills in a fun and interactive environment.

The club sessions will run from 4.00 – 5.00pm and will be either be held on a Tuesday or Thursday, de-pending on demand. For more information or to register your interest and express a preference as to which day you prefer then please contact Catherine Tobin, LCF Area Organiser, at lcfbedford-shire@gmail.com or on 07568154087.

To learn more about LCF please visit info@lcfclubs.com

Ways to get in touch or find out information

School and Early Years Centre Telephone: 01234 740202

Our Website: www.houghtonconquest.beds.sch.uk

Email address for parents (Miss Weston): office.hcls@cbc.beds.sch.uk

Celebration Assemblies

Here you will find the awards that have been given out in our Friday Celebration Assemblies

Friday, 19th May 2017

Star of the Week (TA):

Mrs Park: Niamh-Marie Furey for fantastic writing in literacy.

Mrs Sebborn: Mikey Bathers for trying really hard with his phonics.

Miss Taylor: Daisy Edwards for always co-operating with others in teamwork and listening to their ideas.

Golden Certificates: Mason Whelan, Paul Sebborn, Laura Guiness, Lily Baker and Kaitlyn Shade.

Reading Rewards: Morty Burrows, Ruby Dobson and Joshua Blake.

Headteacher Awards:

Tommy Spencer - swimming 10m.

Lilly Whitfield - level 3 swimming.

Lily Burton - Ballet grade 1 merit.

Gene Tobin - winning Clubman of the Year (under 9s) at Flitwick Eagles.

Finer Diners: Aaron Bracher, Daisy Edwards, Jayden Peach, Joshua Gruzelier, William Middleton, Laila Peck, Tommy Spencer, Madalyn Whitfield, Kyle Whelan, Conner Peach, Leo Graves and Sophie Spencer.

Friday, 26th May 2017

Star of the Week (Teacher):

Robins: Taylor Riley for making a super rocket using junk modeling.

Doves: Cerys Sebborn for an excellent attitude in the class and the whole of Doves Class for being an absolute credit to the school.

Owls: Kaitlyn Shade for super effort in maths and Tony Starr for achieving all of his targets that he set in class.

Hawks: Lily Burton for writing an amazing free verse poem that creates a dramatic atmosphere.

Eagles: Hugo Fraser for a fantastic reading assessment and Thomas Pestell for enthusing peers during cooking.

Miss Thompson: Katelyn Pestell for excellent encouragement towards her team members.

Mrs Park: Harry Exworth for encouraging his team mates.

Golden Certificates: Danielle Guiness, Cody Riley, Jack Fuller, Aaron Bracher and Callie Edwards.

Finer Diners: Katie White, Olivia Pilsbury, Zoe Robinson, Amelia Sutton, Grace Fuller, Lizzie Golding, Harry Ex-worth, Tony Starr, Gene Tobin, Paul Sebborn, Taylor Riley and Brandon Thomas.

Reading Rewards: Niamh Davis, Evie Busbridge, Brandon Thomas, Tommy Spencer, Sway Hyndman, Blaise Barlow, Holly Vaughan, Faith Poultney, Danielle Guiness, Jonathan Regan, Millie Gibson, Jamima Fraser, Tony Starr, Harry Exworth and Taylor Lock.

Headteacher Awards:

Gabriel Arnold - swimming 10m. Zoe Robinson - swimming level 3. Holly Vaughan - swimming level 3.

Danielle Guiness - end of term rugby medals form Ampthill RUFC.

Lucas King - showing confidence and skills learnt in drama to speak at a very special family gathering.

Grace Fuller - Eagles FC Clubman of the Year and Houghton Hawks award.