Years 1 and 2 had a fantastic morning in the snow on Tuesday. We had snow ball

fights, built snowmen and made snow angels. Some of my favourite moments were

Bethany teaching Nursery and other Year 1s how to slide down a small hill; Adam’s

method of transporting snow in a cone ready for a snow ball fight at a moment’s no-

tice; Ethan’s snow castle and Madison teaching another child how to make a big

snow ball. We then went inside to warm up with hot chocolate! In the afternoon

Peacock Class came up with some amazing

adjectives to describe their morning, Gate-

keeper Class wrote a brilliant riddle and Mon-

arch Class enjoyed their class treat.

Gatekeepers’ Riddle

I am white.

I get thrown around.

Penguins can slid along me on their tummies.

I am cold.

I turn into a puddle when it is sunny.

I can turn into a ball.

You can play in me.

I fall from the sky.

What am I?

The Carswell

Times 6th February 2015

Our FOCS Quiz night was a huge success last week with 50

people arranged into 10 teams arriving to battle it out for the

prize trophy. Searching for answers within our brains rather than

on Google certainly got us all going on a Friday night with some

most enjoyable questions in the categories of music, connec-

tions, geography, general knowledge and sport! The top score of

the night was achieved by ‘The Doozers’ with a whopping 70!

Many thanks to Sarah Cripps and her team of FOCS helpers

(particularly Karen Gerard for helping with a huge supermarket

shop) for taking the time to organise such a fun event.

Year 5’s morning of Space Exploration

On Friday morning, Year 5 took a tour around the So-

lar System when they were visited by two Science,

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

Ambassadors from the Appleton Rutherford Labora-

tory.

We started with an interactive talk about the Solar

System with the opportunity to handle some real

meteorites. This was followed by a planet making

demonstration which involved the use of dry ice! We

then designed, created and named our own planets

(not using dry ice) and finished by making a comet.

As there was some dry ice remaining at the end of

the session, Mr Crandon was able to carry out some

amazing sublimation demonstrations for the rest of

Key Stage 2.

Many thanks to Mr Brower and Mrs Stowell for such an enjoyable, activity packed morning

which has extended our knowledge of the Solar System.

Chrysalis class would like to say a big thank you to FOCS for all the lovely outdoor re-

sources we have recently received. Their generosity has allowed us to begin the pro-

cess of making our outdoor space a proper extension of our classroom. We have

bought watering cans, planters, forks and trowels, a small parachute, buckets and

much more. On Friday we used our newly purchased den building kit and magnifying

glasses to explore the school garden. Following the success of the first session we are

going to spend quality time every other week using this area as mini forest school ex-

perience. We have also been lucky enough to purchase a weaving wigwam and so we

are in desperate need of ribbon, fabric etc. so we would really appreciate anything

you can offer. Finally we must say a big thank you to Mr Rutty for mounting our

guttering track on our fence. We love it! It will be used for water play as well as balls

and vehicles.

Can we please remind parents to be

on time collecting your children from

the school bus. Thank you.

Tuesday 10th/Weds 11th February—Prayer Spaces in Hall

Friday 13th February—3:05pm—End of Term 3

Monday 23rd February—8:45am—Start of Term 4

Friday 6th March—World Book Day—NEW***

Thursday 12th March—FOCS meeting 7pm Brewery Tap

Monday 16th March—Parents’ Evening Carswell

Tuesday 17th March—Parents’ Evening Dalton Barracks

Thursday 26th March—Class Photos—NEW***

Thursday 26th March—FOCS Easter Disco (times TBC) - NEW***

Friday 27th March—1:15pm—End of Term 4

Tuesday 19th May—7pm—Internet Safety Evening—NEW***

Dates are also available through our school website calendar

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a fantastic time was had by all in the snow on Tuesday! The children did well to come into

school and begin their learning so that they could go out and enjoy building snowmen, animals, Olafs,

make giant snowballs and, most importantly, enjoy a good old-fashioned snowball fight with their

friends as you will have seen in the photos.

Should we get a heavy fall of snow, at any point, which means that we need to close the school, we

will text you at the earliest possible time to let you know. If you aren’t sure, you can always check in

the following places:

School website front page

Oxfordshire County Council School Closures page

Heart FM/Jack FM/BBC Radio Oxford

We will always do our best to stay open!

A future date to add to your diaries is the evening of Tuesday 19th May when we will be holding our next FOCS Cheese and Wine Evening at 7pm. The focus of our summer event will be, ‘Internet Safe-ty’ in response to the growing need to help staff, children and parents understand how to stay safe online. For part of the evening, there will be a talk given by Nick Speller, a consultant from www.123ICT.co.uk as well as a chance for parents to discuss the different approaches you may use at home. I am sure we will all agree that with increasing access to the internet through PCs, tablets and games stations we need to be absolutely sure that we are in agreement about safe usage. As you will have seen last week, the children will be learning more about this subject on Tuesday’s ‘Safer Internet Day’. For a Parents’ Pack, please follow this link http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2015/education-packs/parents. Thank you to all of you who came to our FOCS Coffee and Cake morning today and to our organisers

for their hard work making cakes and advertising the event. Also to those of you who kindly filled out

my questionnaire about assessment…!

Next week we will be enjoying Trinity Learning’s Prayer Spaces in our school hall. Please join us at

any point before and after school in the hall if you would like to see what is set up to help children

take time out of our busy world to reflect. This was a lovely event last year which children and staff

enjoyed immensely.

It was great to see Daisy and Earl this week who came to show me their wonderful writing based on

their toys coming alive. They had worked really hard independently to complete some excellent work.

One more week until half term; please note that we finish on Friday at the

usual time of 3:05pm.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Warm wishes,

Tina Farr

Headteacher