Dear Parents,

We have had a brilliantly busy couple of weeks, with the Carol Service really making everyone feel very Christmassy, followed this week by our KS1 production of ‘Whoops-a-Daisy Angel’.

The children in both performances were a credit to us, and the choir in particular have been working tirelessly: a great performance at the Octagon as well as recitals in some of our local care homes. Our

Reception children also went to entertain the older members of our community this week with some enthusiastic singing! Children have been enjoying parties and theatre performances this week. The magician in KS1 was a great success – thank you to the PTFA for funding both the theatre and the magician – it finishes off the year in a great way!

As a school, we watched in excitement and wonder at the live transmission of Tim Peake literally rocketing towards the ISS. We have planned many activities for Science Week in March based on the experiments he will be doing, so we are following his journey and adventures closely!

As the end of term looms, it is time for us to say goodbye to two members of staff who have worked very hard for the children of Huish for many years. Mrs Newton will be retiring at Christmas. Her work with small groups will be covered by Miss Moore, SENCO, until October, when Mrs Williams will take over. Mrs Michie, teaching assistant in Year 4, will also be leaving us to travel with her husband to America, where he has been deployed. Mrs Mellors, currently a teaching assistant at East Coker, will take up post in January.

Finally, our new toilet facilities are very nearly ready! Your children have been incredibly patient and well-behaved considering they have lost a large deal of their playing area for a whole term! Hopefully, when they return in January the Yr 2/4/5 toilets will be ready and they will again have a lovely large playground to play on. Fingers crossed!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Dates for your Diary

Friday 18th December End of Autumn Term

Monday 4th January Start of Spring Term

Tuesday 12th/Wed 13th January Class 14 Parents Evening

Thursday 14th January Year 1 Grandparents Workshop

Monday 18th January PTFA Meeting at 7.30 pm

Wednesday 20th January Reception visit to Trent

Tuesday 9th February Reception Class Photos

Wednesday 10th February China Day

Mon 15th – Fri 19th February Half Term

Mon 18th/Tues 19th/Wed 20th July INSET Days

Our KS1 Nativity “Whoops-a-Daisy Angel” has been performed by the children this week. The children have really enjoyed taking part and we hope you enjoyed watching it. Our collections have raised £164 for GB Deaf Badminton. Our NSPCC Bobble Hat Day fundraising also raised £200.

KS1 Nativity

Our Carol Service this year was held at St John’s Church on Monday 7th December, where we followed the story of Papa Panov by Leo Tolstoy. All the children performed, played and sang beautifully. A total of £366 was raised in the collection for the Childrens’ Hospice South West. Many thanks for your generosity.

Carol Service

Lots of international news to report! Firstly, we have been awarded our International School Award, which is a fantastic testimony to Mrs Pugson’s hard work. Secondly, Miss Edmonds had a fantastic time visiting our partner school, Dongcheng Primary, in China. She met some of the 3,500 children and 150 staff and also had the opportunity to teach English and PE. In addition to this Miss Edmonds had a great time visiting some iconic Chinese sights such as The Great Wall and Forbidden City. Links have been secured with our new Polish and Spanish partner schools. A big thank you to Classes 1 & 2 who have been working hard sharing Christmas cultural differences and similarities with our school in Poland .

International School Award

As the Christmas holidays are here, many children will no doubt be spending time playing their new computer games. The following website has help and advice for parents to ensure their children are playing age appropriate games and are enjoy them safely - www.pegi.info More information can be found on the e-safety page on our website www.huish.somerset.sch.uk—Happy holidays!

eSafety

A fantastic £582.50 was raised during our recent

Children in Need cake and Pudsey keyring sales.

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A huge thank you everyone that supported our Travelling Book Fair recently. The school raised £400 in commission which will be spent on books for our library.

Travelling Book Fair

Year 4/5 Strictly Beginners Dancers had a fantastic finale to their club. They performed with sophistication and style to a variety of dances, including the cheeky cha cha, the waltz, samba and jive. They ended the show with the dance craze which is sweeping all ‘Strictly’ fans - The Strictly!

Strictly Beginners

Children in Year 3 visited the Cheddar Cheese factory last week where they got to taste a variety of different cheeses and saw how they were made. They also visited the Cheddar Chocolate Factory where they donned their blue nets and tasted a variety of chocolates. The adults then had a chance to make some chocolate and the children were given the opportunity to knock them out of the moulds and pack them. A truly scrumptious day out!!!

Year 3 Cheddar Visit

Warm Coats Can we remind you that during the winter months children do need a coat in school due to the inclement weather.

Last term, Mrs Newton entered 21 Year 6 children in the Lamda (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) examination in Communication—Poetry and Prose Grade 1. All of the children worked very hard towards the exam and were extremely successful. 16 passed with “Distinction” and 5 with “Merit”. Well done to Sarah, Harry, Riley, Keane, Morrisey, Emily, Rosanna, Amelia, Jay, Ellie Mae, Romy, Aidan, Erin, Mukesh, Callie, Lux, Georgia, Shanice, Ysabel and Jagoda. We are incredibly proud of all the children.

Lamda Results

Year 3 were visited by a Viking storyteller. He brought lots of artefacts for us to look at including armour, clothing and weapons similar to those the Vikings would have used. We talked about how these things would have been made and how they were used then we listened to a Viking myth about Thor’s magic hammer.

Year 3—Viking Storyteller

Neil Brooks, again, visited the children of the Gardening Club earlier this month to present the school with £50 worth of Castle Gardens Vouchers. He also gave the children a selection box. We thank him for his kind generosity and look forward to seeing him again with his donation to the school following the sale of his pumpkins.

Garden Vouchers

The choir visited Cooksons Court where the Winners of the Grandparents Art competition were awarded their prizes and saw their pictures as canvasses on the wall. Prize winners pictured are Lucy, Hollie and Bianka.

The children in reception sang some songs to the residents last week to get them in the Christmas spirit.

Our link with Cooksons Court is one we look forward to continuing into 2016.

Cooksons Court

Next year we are looking to provide some benches for the children to use during breaktime, as

well as new Huish T Shirts. Thank you again for all your support especially leading up to

Huish Primary School PTFA @HuishPTFA

Email us

huishptfa@hotmail.co.uk

Huish Primary School PTFA

Next PTFA Meeting Monday 18th January

7.30 pm in the Staff Room

We raised over £1500 through Xmas events

The PTFA has provided Christmas entertainment for both KS1 and KS2 this month.

The KS1 children had a visit from Malcolm the Magician who entertained them in an hour long show. The KS2 children watched a performance of Hansel and Gretal from the Forest Forge Theatre Company who visited the school in the last week of term. A fantastic performance which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

What better way to learn about different materials used to build a house than visit a building site! Class 3 and 4 visited our very own building site – the construction of the new toilet block at Huish! Site Manager, George showed us around giving us lots of interesting information. We spotted all the materials we have been learning about in class: bricks, concrete, clay roof tiles, plastic, glass, metal and wood.

Year 1-Building Site Visit

The Key Stage 2 Choir were privileged to again be asked to sing at the Salvation Army Christmas Carol Concert on Sunday 6th December at the Octagon Theatre. The choir had lots of positive comments from members of the audience and the Salvation Army and we had a really enjoyable afternoon and evening.

Salvation Army

It is always a treat when Thannah Sarah the story sharer and Arabella the story teller visit Huish. The children from KS1 listened to the story of The Giant, The Baker and the Buns and KS2 enjoyed Grannie Greenslime and the Everlasting Moon. We think you’re great.

Story Tellers

As part of our DT curriculum, the Year 6 children enjoyed a day of baking this week…..I say they enjoyed the baking, I think they preferred the eating

on the way home to be honest!!!

Year 6 Cooking

Mrs Palmer came to visit us from Yeovil Hospital to tell us more about modern hospitals and how she cares for her patients on the children’s ward. We have learnt that Florence Nightingale’s work as a nurse in 1854 was very very different. We will be continuing to learn and compare modern hospitals with hospitals that Florence Nightingale worked in to see how hospitals have changed

Year 2 Visit Mr Vittles talked about the Olympic torch that he ran with in July 2012 as part of the London Olympics. We looked at photos and videos, asked lots of interesting questions and even had the chance to touch the golden torch. Thank you Mr Vittles, and George!

Year 1 Visit

Two more races have been held in the Yeovil and District Cross Country League with lots of runners from Huish taking part successfully. More details available on our blog.

Cross Country

The A team began the season with a match at Westfield. They showed excellent sportsmanship and competed in several matches which resulted in a win, a loss and a draw. They are looking forward to regaining their full netball courts after Christmas when we can resume our training for the next Match in early January

On a cold and wet Thursday evening the B team had their first taste competing in the B team Netball Area League. They all played really well and learnt lots from the experience which they can now take onto future matches. The results at the end of their game against Ash was a draw. The B team should all be very proud of their efforts.

Netball

We went to Stanchester Academy on Tuesday 10th November to participate in a badminton competition. Things were going well after eight matches, losing only two and our highest scoring game with an 11 points difference, (19-8) was against West Coker B. The games were only 4 minutes long and we were split into two teams. There were 8 teams competing in total. Sadly, we didn’t win but we tried our best winning our last 4 games.

Badminton

On Tuesday 17th November 10 pupils from Years 5 and 6 attended an indoor Athletics competition at Bucklers Mead. They had to compete in various activities including: standing long jump, a run, a howler throw, a speed bounce and a balancing contest. The children did really well and although we did not rank in the top three, we were pleased with our efforts.

Indoor Athletics

On Thursday 26th November, Oonagh and Katie from Year 6 went to a Volleyball competition at Bucklers Mead. They competed in 3 games. They improved throughout the competition and Katie was really good at serving. The girls were very proud of their performance.

Volleyball

Huish once again has been investing lots of time in PE and sport and as a result, once again, successfully achieved the Silver accreditation in the Sainsbury’s School Games Mark. We continue to work on promoting opportunities for children to further their interest and enthusiasm in competing in competitions at all levels. The results for the Inter House Competitions are as follows:

Autumn Term Football

Shakespeare

Sports Mark

There have been a number of fixtures this term, with 3 of the boys’ B teams playing fixtures at Westfield and two girls’ teams doing the same. The boys’ tournament was an interesting affair, with most of the matches being played against our own teams which added an element of spice- Bradley showering himself in glory having played exceptionally well! The girls tournament involved games against the other Huish team, Oaklands and Chilthorne Domer. They managed to win 2 and lose one with Katie managing to score a staggering 5 goals! We’ll look forward to some more fixtures in the new year. Well done everyone who has taken part and trained hard.

Football