Burford School

 

Marlow Bottom  Marlow  Buckinghamshire   SL7 3PQ

T:  01628 486655   F: 01628 898103

E:  office@burfordschool.co.uk

W: www.burfordschool.co.uk

Headteacher: Karol Whittington  M.A., B.Ed. Hons

 

 

19^th October 2007

 

Dear Parents/Friends/Guardians                                                                            

 

 

Staffing

Miss Tash Berry will be leaving Burford at Christmas as she has been appointed Head of Drama at an Independent School in Amersham.  We are delighted that she has been given this opportunity to follow her dream, although we will be very sad to lose her. Miss Sian Hicks has been appointed to take Elm Class from January 2008.  Miss Hicks is currently teaching at Chepping View Primary School in Bucks and has a wide range of Key Stage 1 and 2 experience.  She has held the position of Numeracy Coordinator and has liaised with Maths Consultants at County as well as being involved with delivering training for the new framework.  Miss Hicks is also musical and has trained choirs for both district and county events.  Her specialism is History and she has delivered the creative curriculum at her previous school.  She is experienced in running after school clubs in netball and dance.

 

We have appointed Miss Nicola Murrell as the new Year 4 teacher for Cherry Class from January 2008.  Miss Murrell has previously taught in a variety of schools, in both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, specialising in Key Stage 2.  Science is a key area of strength and she also has a strong musical ability playing the piano, clarinet and guitar.  She also brings to Burford her experience of organising and running choirs.  She has represented Oxfordshire in both tennis and squash and is keen to support the development of these areas at Burford.  She also has expertise in ICT as she previously worked for an interactive whiteboard company which produced educational software for schools. 

 

We have also appointed Miss Catherine Loveridge as the new Year 5 teacher for Juniper Class from January 2008.  Miss Loveridge has previously taught at Falconhurst Combined School in Milton Keynes, where she was History Coordinator, and at an international school in Malawi.  She has specialised in Geography and is a trained primary dance teacher and gymnastics coach.

 

Miss Louise Steel has also been appointed as the new Year 6 teacher for Hawthorn Class from January 2008.  Miss Steel has previously taught at Holy Trinity School in Marlow and Holyport Primary School.  She has taught throughout the primary age range, specialising in Key Stage 2.  She is an experienced Year 6 leader, dealing with 11+ and KS2 SATs for a number of years. 

 

We said goodbye to Mrs Tina Elven this week, LSA for Chestnut class. We thank her for all her hard work and wish her well for the future. We have employed Mrs Rachel Wroe in her place, Miss Holly Tuffney as LSA for Sequoia and Miss Hannah Platfoot as an SSA to support SEN and also as LSA in Reception after Christmas in the afternoons.

 

We look forward very much to all the new staff joining our team and are pleased that they will be working alongside an established staff of such high calibre.

 

 

 

Visits

Year 6 enjoyed an excellent day at Kew Gardens, looking at various environments, the plants that live there and the adaptations that plants have in order to cope with the conditions they encounter.  With that well know horticulturist, Mrs Capron at the helm and the children encountering words such as versatile, succulent and epiphyte, it’s easy to imagine that these children will be the allotment holders of the future! Year 4 dressed up as Tudor children when they visited Sulgrave Manor as part of their topic work on the Tudors.  They participated in an interactive theatre presentation, had a tour of the manor and learnt a lot about the history of the period.Y2 had an excellent Florence Nightingale workshop where they undertook many of the duties expected of nurses in the Crimea. Y5 had a workshop based on the Victorians. The children had to write on slates with chalk and used ink quills. They all really looked the part in their wonderful outfits!

 

 

Walk to school Week sticker competition

The winners have been chosen for our walk to school week competition by our JRSO’s, Dylan Soni and Emma Wroe. The winners were Anna Gibbons from KS1 and Luke Ince-Green from KS2. Their designs will be made into real stickers for Januarys walk to school week. The standard of all the designs was very high and thank you to all who entered!

 

 

Charities

Thank you to everyone who brought in donations for ‘Jeans for Genes’. We were able to send £370 to the charity to help with their research.

 

 

Book Fair

The Book Fair has been excellent again this year! It has been set up in the school entrance and all the classes have had a turn to visit. Many have been sold during parents evenings, sometimes after a little arm twisting! Well done and thank you to all the brilliant children from Y6 who have stayed behind to work on the stall. They have done a fabulous job and are a credit to the school!

 

 

 

Competitions

The Orienteers did us proud again at Petworth a couple of weeks ago! The Y5/6 boys came first overall, the Y5/6 girls came second overall, Thomas Salmon came first in the individual Y6 boys and Harvey Barber came second in the Y6 boys. Matthew and Simon Jones came third in the individual Y5 boys and Meg Cole and Olivia Gooddy came third in the individual Y5 girls. Well done to all the competitors!

 

 

 

Lunchtimes

Please could you ensure your child has a coat for going outside during lunchtime sessions as we will encourage them to go out for some fresh air unless it is very wet.

 

 

 

 

Signing in

Please could you remember to enter the school via the main entrance if you wish to see your child’s teacher, rather than walk around the school and enter via a side door.  Please also remember there is not a teacher on duty until 8.30am so please don’t let your children arrive too early in the morning as they will be unsupervised. Thank you for your co-operation.

 

 

 

New or amended dates in bold

 

Dates for your Diary

 

Friday 19^th October                     School closes for half-term 3.15pm

Monday 29^th October                  School re-opens 8.45am

Wednesday 31^st October             Individual School photos

Thursday 1^st November              Orienteering PM

Thursday 1^st November              Y6 Residential Yorkshire meeting 7.30pm

Thursday 8^th November              Orienteering PM – Swinley

Tuesday 13^th November              Orienteering PM – Swinley

Thursday 15^th November            FOB

Saturday 17^th November             Orienteering BSOC

Sunday 18^th November               Orienteering BSOC

Tuesday 20^th November              Y3 Roman Day

Thursday 22^nd  November           Hampton Court trip Y4

Friday 30^th November                 Xmas Bazaar

Wednesday 5^th December           Orienteering PM - Danesfield

Thursday 6^th December              Reception Concert 11.00am

Monday 10^th December               FOB

Tuesday 11^th December              KS1 Concert 1.30pm – 2.30pm

Wednesday 12^th December         KS1 Concert 1.30pm

NFER tests for Y6

Thursday 13^th December            NFER Tests for Y6

Friday 14^th December                 NFER Tests for Y6

Friday 14^th December                 Senior Citizens Tea Party 1.00pm

Monday 17^th December               Tag Rugby fancy dress KS2

                                                Xmas Orienteering 5.00pm

Tuesday 18^th December              Xmas carol concert 7.00pm

Thursday 20^th December            Christmas Parties

Friday 21^st  December                School closes for Xmas

 

2008

Monday 7^th January                    Training Day for staff

Tuesday 8^th January                   School opens for Spring term – 8.45am

Tuesday 22^nd  January                Y3 Vikings Day

Tuesday 22^nd January                 FOB

Monday 28^th January                  Y6 to Tutenkamun exhibition

Monday 4^th February                  NFER tests Y3 – Y5

Tuesday 12^th February                FOB

Friday 15^th February                   School closes for half-term 3.15pm

Monday 25^th February                 School opens after half-term 8.45am

Monday 3^rd March                       Parents Evening 4.00 – 7.00

Thursday 6^th March                    Parents Evening 4.00 – 7.00

Monday 17^th March                     Creative Week

Monday 17^th March                     FOB

Friday 21^st March                       Good Friday

Monday 24^th March                     Easter Monday

Friday 4^th April                           The ‘B’ Factor

                                                School closes for end of term

Monday 21^st April                       Staff Training Day

Tuesday 22^nd April                      School opens for summer term 8.45

Thursday 24^th April                     FOB AGM

Monday 28^th April                       Y5 trip to Osmington Bay

Friday 2^nd May                           Children return from Osmington Bay

Tuesday 6^h May                         SATs week Y3 -Y5

Thursday 8^th May                       FOB

Monday 12^th May                        SATs weekY6

Saturday 17^th May                      FOB Ball

Monday 19^th May                        Yorkshire trip Y6

Friday 23^rd May                          School closes for half-term 3.15

Saturday 24^h May                       Children return from Yorkshire trip

Monday 2^nd June                        Yorkshire Trip Y6

                                                School opens after half-term 8.45pm

Saturday 7^th June                       Children return from Yorkshire trip

Monday 9^th June                        FOB

Wednesday 18^th June                  KS1 sports day 9.30 – 11.00

Thursday 19^th June                     KS2 sports day 9.30 – 12.00

                                                11+ meeting for Y5 parents

Wednesday 25^th June                  KS1 Reserve Sports Day

Thursday 26^th June                     KS2 Reserve Sports Day

Monday 30^th June                       New Reception Parents meeting

Tuesday 1^st July                         Secondary induction day/new class visits

Wednesday 2^nd July                    KS1 Reserve Reserve Sports Day

Thursday 3^rd July                        KS2 Reserve Reserve Sports Day

                                                Summer Music Concert 7.00pm

Friday 4^th July                            Staff Training Day

Thursday 10^th July                      Open evening 6.00pm

Friday 11^th July                          Reports go out

Monday 14^th July                        FOB

Tuesday 15^th July                       Wycombe Swan Concert

Wednesday 16^th July                   Lower KS2 Concert pm

Thursday 17^th July                      Lower KS2 Concert pm

Friday 18^th July                          Y6 Leavers Assembly for School and Y6 Parents 9.30am

Monday 21^st July                        Tea Party for parent helpers PM

Wednesday 23rd July                 End of term – school closes for summer

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Mrs. K Whittington

Headteacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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