King’s Hawford, Lock Lane, Worcester WR3 7SD • 01905 451292

@KingsHawford

Half TermAs we break for half term it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the remote learning of the past month and a half. We are so grateful to you for assisting our children at home and for your support of our online learning programme. We appreciate that this will have been a challenging time for all families. Hopefully, over half term, we will hear some encouraging news from the Prime Minister in relation to a potential school return. There is no doubt that, regardless of the quality of remote learning provision, children need to be at school in order to engage fully with their lessons. They also need to be with each other, sharing experiences and rushing out to enjoy play time together. This has been, for all of us, a most trying period and fully understand the pressures that our parents have faced. Let’s hope that it will not be too much longer and, as the days lengthen, we can look forward to a return of some sort of normality. We wish you all an enjoyable half term week.

Art ExhibitionWe wish to submit a selection of artwork from our Hawford pupils to the Royal Academy Young Exhibition 2021. Any pupil may enter this competition. The work should be independently produced and any art form is accepted. Please contact Mrs. Gregory or Mrs. McCullough for further details. Artwork along with a short description must be in school by Monday 22nd March. We may need to look at how this will be collected in, given the current regulations, but it would be good for the children to make a start on this over half term.

Informal Concert goes LIVE!In an addition to the recorded Informal Concert, please note there will now be another Informal Concert on Thursday 25th February after school and this will take place in a live format via Zoom. Should your child wish to perform, their peripatetic music teacher will pass on a Showbie code to join the INFORMAL CONCERT CLASS where all details can be found, including how to request to perform and how to access the concert via Zoom on the day. Children not wishing to perform live can still submit a video of a performance which may be included during the live concert if space is available, or alternatively will be considered for an assembly. Please email shughes@ksw.org.uk if you have any

questions or if your child receives music tuition out of school and would like to be included in the live concert.

KH RadioCongratulations to the group of Year 5 children who have been putting the KH Radio programmes together this half of term. They have coped brilliantly with the lockdown situation, recording interviews both at Hawford and through the internet, and covering a huge range of subjects such as: life in lockdown, winter wildlife, book giving day, the power of laughter, the Hawford birds and baking on Zoom! One of the highlights this half term was interviewing Mrs Phillips, our new Headteacher. Another was the ‘guess the laugh’ competition – it was amazing how uplifting recording laughing was on everyone! This small team of Year 5 children has been particularly creative and inventive, regularly coming up with their own jingles and other ideas. Thank you to them all, and Mrs Letts looks forward to meeting a new group after half term. This week’s show can be found on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/H1c7YDM4-0E

IT experts needed to help Second Hand uniform sales!The PA writes: The second-hand uniform sale team are working to put the sale process online and to create a basic eCommerce site to do so. We feel it is important that we can provide this service, but due to the lockdown restrictions we cannot hold physical sales. We have researched various ways of doing this, but would appreciate an expert (are you in the business of making eCommerce sites?!) to help guide us and possibly build us a very simple site. If this is something you feel you can help with, please contact Sally Stevenson (sally_tidmarsh@hotmail.com). Thank you!

Wellbeing SessionsWhen we return to school for the second half of term, as part of our enrichment programme, all children from Years 1 to 6 will be receiving weekly wellbeing activities with TriWellness, a multidisciplinary team of personal trainers, psychologists and nutritionists. They will deliver age appropriate sessions across the five weeks on: Mindfulness, Gratitude and Growth, Mindful Movement, Breathing as a Superpower and a Mind and Body exercise session. The sessions will be delivered via Zoom and facilitated by a member of the school staff. This is a very exciting development that we believe the children will both enjoy and benefit from.

ABBA Evening Mamma Mia! I have a dream and am sending out an SOS to all Hawford families to see if ‘Vous Voulez’ join us for our ABBA Evening on Wednesday 10th March at 6-00p.m. This is a genuine opportunity to get the whole school community together for a concert that will mix live and recorded songs and merriment, including a number of staff performances (never to be repeated) and Mr Turner’s performance swan song. Put the date in your diary and we will send out full details after half-term.

World Book Day - Wednesday 3rd MarchOn Wednesday 3rd March, we will be celebrating World Book Day in school. This is an opportunity for children to share their love of reading, learn more about particular books and authors and have some fun. In assembly time, the children will learn about the favourite books of some of our staff and hear them read extracts from them as well as have a go at a book quiz. If the children would like to, they can dress up for World Book Day. They could wear an outfit which depicts either their favourite character from a book OR their favourite book OR a word (i.e. defining a word through what they are wearing). They can share what they have dressed up in with staff during their lessons that day. The children also have a challenge linked to World Book Day which was announced in assembly on Monday. The challenge focuses on book covers. They need to think about a book cover and either redraw, recreate or redesign the cover it already has. They can use paint, crayon, pastels, collage - whatever they desire to redraw it. To recreate it, they could think how they could use things at home to create the front cover, similar to how we recreated famous pieces of art during the last lockdown and take a picture of their recreation. Alternatively, they can redesign the front cover, designing and drawing an alternative front cover for the book. This could be a lovely project to do over half term. All entries need to be emailed to Mr Stigant or Mrs Atkins and the closing date for all entries is Wednesday 24th February. If you would like more information, the video about the challenge has been posted on the school Class Dojo account.We are all looking forward to sharing our love of books and reading with the children on World Book Day.

Newsletter: Thursday 11th February Newsletter No. 21 (2020-2021)

King’s Hawford, Lock Lane, Worcester WR3 7SD • 01905 451292

Recent AssembliesThe assembly on Monday, which is available on YouTube, featured some terrific Year 2 videos, an explanation of Coronvius and the usual great musical performances. The assembly can be found at: https://youtu.be/1hubhuXiNq0

Free Hawford PrintsWe produced some prints is 2015 to mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of the founding of Hawford Lodge, as it then was, by Douglas and Mary Ann Garrad in 1955. The prints were based on an illustration commissioned from David Turner and they proved very popular when made available to parents. It will also be familiar to current children as it is the illustration used to begin our online Hawford assemblies. We have a number of these prints remaining, sized at 50cm x 35cm with a white border for framing. If you would like a free copy, please send a message through to Mr Turner (jturner@ksw.org.uk), who will put aside one for you to collect from the office when possible.

Valentine’s Celebration and Duvet DayTomorrow sees our Valentine’s Celebrations. Our activities begin with a special Valentine’s Assembly in the morning and end with Mrs. O’Brien’s whole school hip-hop session starting at 2-30p.m. As it is a Duvet Day, everyone can wear lounge gear, PJ’s, dressing gowns, etc. (parents, feel free to dress down). Children at home can be snuggled up with duvet (but not in bed please) and the critical worker children (attending school) can bring in their favourite pillow but, for obvious reasons, we will have to ask that it is in a newly washed pillowcase. We hope that all pupils enjoy the day and take a well-deserved opportunity to socialise with their friends under our guidance.

Pancake DayTuesday 16th February is Pancake Day. Unfortunately, we will not be at school on that day and we will be unable to have all the children involved at school when we return. In order to mark the day, we are asking instead for the children to send in a short video of the

children running around the garden or similar place, with pancakes being tossed, wearing a hat, scarf and apron to Mr Stigant at lstigant@ksw.org.uk. Videos will need to be with us by Wednesday 17th February for putting together and getting out to mark the big day. We hope our children enjoy the races, albeit from home!

BirthdaysThe following children will be celebrating their birthday before the next newsletter. Children who are celebrating birthdays may wear home clothes on that day or the day nearest to their birthday if it is at the weekend: Toby Fuller, William King, Robert Lee, Pippa Preston, Olivia Ogden, Arthur Gibson, Isla Hemming, Ava Martin, Bertie Davis and Eleanor Nicholls.