Whitehouse Common Primary -

Excellent Work (Week Beginning 23/2/20)

Newsletter 28th February 2020

Please [click here] for the newsletter 

International School Award presentation

On Tuesday we were very privileged to receive a visit from John Rolfe MBE representing the British Council to present our International School Award. 

The International School Award rewards schools that have shown a commitment to embedding international awareness and understanding within their class or school. 
We have been awarded the International School Award three times now, in recognition of our outstanding work on international themes, in collaboration with schools across Europe and around the world, as well as within our school and local community. Every time it gets harder to achieve as you have to show how you have built on your previous activities. In addition you have to show how you have inspired others and acted as mentors for them on their international journey.

During the special assembly on Tuesday, Señora Stevens shared some of the many activities that we carried out last year that helped us gain this recognition:

• The Great International Bake Off
• International Challenge
• Celebrating linguistic and cultural diversity week
• Belonging week (based on the book Belonging by Jeannie Baker)
• Celebrating Remembrance and El Día de Paz - multilingual thank yous
• our eTwinning projects, Let's travel with our mascot and Toys the Travellers
• How's your Christmas? which saw over 200 Christmas cards from around Europe adorning our tree
• Green Kids, an eTwinning project for which we won an eTwinning Quality Label and were highly commended at the National eTwinning prize giving
• Celebrating languages - both in classes with Y1 searching out students at the school with linguistic talents and asking them questions, and also in our special Language Celebration assembly
• Hands of the World project for which we won a National AND a European Quality Label, and a National eTwinning Prize - singing in Makaton with schools across the world, learning a Makaton phrase each week and beginning to exchange postcards too.
• World Book Day - KS2 learned to tell the story Querido Zoo (Dear Zoo) in Spanish and Makaton and then some of them went to FKS/KS1 and told it to them.

You can find out about all of these events and activities by looking back through the school website and the Spanish blog in particular over the last year.

We also looked at how we are continuing our international work through our link with Montessori School Cape Coast, the next phase of the Hands of the World project, and of course, our Erasmus+ project, Let's Go Cultural!

John Rolfe congratulated us on receiving the ISA for the 3rd time, and on our successes in gaining our quality labels and awards which are very hard to achieve. He also shared how Whitehouse Common are used as an example of good practice in International work, and thanked us for all our hard work to celebrate the richness of experience gained from sharing our similarities and learning from our differences.

We thank him for travelling from London just to visit us and join in our celebration!

Mr Horne now has lots of plaques to put up - watch out for them on a wall near you in the near future!

Grants for School Clothing

Every year, the Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust offers school clothing grants, in the form of vouchers, to low-income families who live in the former Borough of Sutton Coldfield and are in receipt of certain benefits.

WHO MAY APPLY?

Parents/guardians of children at Primary and/or Secondary School can apply if they are:

1. a permanent resident of Sutton Coldfield in one of the following electoral wards:- Sutton Mere Green, Sutton Four Oaks, Sutton Vesey, Sutton Wylde Green, Sutton Trinity, Sutton Roughley, Sutton Reddicap, parts of Sutton Walmley & Minworth, and
2. in receipt of any one of the following support payments:

• Income Support
• Child Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit (note: maximum income levels may apply)
• Job Seeker's Allowance
• Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
• Employment and Support Allowance
• Universal Credit

[Click here] to access the 2020 application form. This will need to be printed and stamped by the school to be valid. Full instructions are on the form. 

Birmingham-wide Change for Life Event

Year 3 and 4 Change for Life Festival 

Let's Go Cultural! - A 'welcoming' task

This week in assembly we talked about how we can welcome our Erasmus+ visitors to school in March (9th-13th) and here are two ways that children can make sure we offer the best Whitehouse Common welcome we can!

1. SINGING  We rehearsed our two songs and the children sounded really good. With a little more rehearsal, particularly of our special welcome song, we'll sound positively angelic, and I defy anyone NOT to be impressed!

The lyrics and a link to the music for our Welcome song is here. The Hello song has been shared previously but here's the karaoke version so the children can see if they really have it memorised!

2. DRAWING   We also talked about how the chidlren in Spain had welcomed Mrs Harding, Señora Stevens and all the other visitors with smiles and flag waving. The Language Leaders suggested that children might have a bit of time over half term to have a go at making some Welcome posters or flags that we could wave and display to make our visitors from Austria, Greece, Spain and Turkey feel welcome. Images to help are at the start of the post and here's how to say 'Welcome' in the various languages of our project! 

German (Austria) - Willkommen

Spain - Bienvenido

Greece - Καλώς Ορίσατε

Turkish - Hoş geldiniz

 [The project logo hasn't come out very well on the image at the top but it is on each post on this blog so there are better versions to copy!]

Let's go cultural - A visit to La Casa del Folclore.

During the meeting in Cartagena, Mrs Harding and Señora Stevens along with the teachers from the other participating schools were taken to visit the Casa del Folclore (the House of Folklore) which is a special building where culture and folklore is celebrated and safeguarded for the future. They saw artefacts from Cartagena's history as well as typical decoration, historical pictures and agricultural implements. They were also treated to a demonstration of traditional music and dance.

 Hope you enjoy this snapshot of the visit!

Let's go cultural - Clapping games at CEP Antonio de Ulloa

During the meeting in Cartagena, Señora Stevens was beckoned into a classroom where the children were desperate to share some clapping rhymes and games in Spanish. Some are traditional and some were adapted by the children. Señora Stevens was inspired and you may see and hear some of them in a class or playground near you!

Here's a video to inspire you! Which is your favourite?