No.  45

27^th November, 2009

MORRISONS 'LET'S GROW' VOUCHERS

Have you been saving the Morrisons 'Let's Grow' vouchers.  If so please could you bring them into school this coming week to enable us to exchange them for free gardening equipment so that in the spring the children can grow their own produce.  Thank you for your help with this.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

WEDNESDAY, 9^TH DECEMBER, 8AM-9AM IN THE MAIN HALL

This event will take place in the School hall between 8.00 and 9.00.  This is for the Junior school pupils, their parents and friends (please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult). A breakfast of muffins and hot/cold drinks will be provided, along with a visit and gift from Santa. 

Tickets are now on sale from Mrs Farley in the Junior School Office for £1.00 per adult and £2.00 per child.

Please come along and support what is always a fun start to the day.

Mrs D Williamson - PTA

AUCTION OF PROMISES

We are thinking of organising an Auction of Promises.  An event where parents and friends can donate anything from an evening's babysitting to the use of a holiday cottage (!), a bespoke birthday cake to a ride in a dream car, anything goes.  These 'lots' will then be auctioned and the proceeds will help the P.T.A supply wonderful things for our children.

Please see Donna or Dan if you have something you could promise.

'MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE – SUNDAY,

29^TH NOVEMBER IN THE SCHOOL HALL

7PM TO 10.30ish

The Boarding House will be hosting a Michael Jackson tribute night starring "Mikki Jay", one of Britain's best live vocal professional Michael Jackson impersonators and a hired disco from outside of the school known as "Wizard".  Tickets will be £6.50 each, this will also include food and a drink.  All students, family and friends are welcome to come along and join in this amazing night which is not to be missed.  All money raised will be going to the KMP Church, Bangalore, India for their orphanage. 

All tickets are available from the office.

BE QUICK!!  DON'T MISS OUT AS TICKETS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY.   PLEASE GET YOUR TICKETS ASAP SO THAT THE WE KNOW NUMBERS FOR CATERING

SCHOOL UNIFORM SHOP

Please note that the School Uniform Shop will be CLOSED on:-

Thurday, 3^rd December – Junior Nativity

Thursday, 10^th December – Carol Service

Should you have any urgent uniform requirements please contact Mrs Williamson who will endeavour to help you.

 DEBATING CLUB

The Club took a large following to Downside School on Wednesday, 25^th November where we competed against five other schools in the English Speaking Union Mace Competition.  Our platform speakers

Emily Mangles and Philip Bakardzhiev attacked the motion that "Voting should be compulsory", with their unique combination of subtle wit, forensic precision and high rhetoric, and our other speakers so dominated the floor debate that the Chairman twice had to issue a desperate appeal to speakers from other schools to join in!  It is good to see The Park School going up into the Mendips and taking on the likes of Millfield with such panache.  Our floor speakers included Musa Konteh, Aaron Newbury, Hattie Stanley, Chris Bunker,

Adam Coppard and Sam Ashdown.  Two of our regular speakers (Charlotte Rock and Yarong Chi) were so disappointed that they were not called that they were moved to have a quiet work with the Chairman after the debate!  It was not altogether surprising that The Park School won by a large majority (36-18, with 6 abstentions).

The following day we staged our first full length debate in school, and despite the rival attraction of auditions for Annie we still had a substantial number of participants.  Aaron Newbury deployed his formidable array of rhetorical gifts – wit, fantasy, split-second timing and reductio ad absurdum – to bludgeon the opposition with the motion that "This house thinks that murderers should be executed".  Musa Konteh seconded.  He started quietly with a very thoughtful speech, but when he put his notes down and addressed the House directly, with remarks drawn from his personal experience, you could have heard a pin drop: it was a compelling performance.    Ranged against this formidable team were Matthew Hoskin and

Matthew Green, both making maiden speeches.  Not only did they survive their baptism of fire, they carried the fight to their opponents most effectively – particularly when they answered one of Musa's interventions by reeling off a battery of pertinent statistics which silenced the Proposition – for a moment.  The lively floor debate included fine maiden speeches by David Cook, Edward Williamson and Sasha Skinner, and by a number of battle –hardened regulars including Paul Lang (who was still trying to get his third speech in when the Chairman called time!), Magenta Cousins, Dominic Stephens,

Hattie Stanley, Yarong Chi, Philip Bakhardzhiev, Charlotte Rock and Emily Mangles.  Tamsin Eddey made history in her maiden speech by being the first member of the Club to argue, most persuasively, that the only sensible thing to do was to abstain.  However, her arguments were swept aside in the fervour of the summary speeches, and the Proposition carried the day with a large majority.

The next meeting of the Club will be at Leweston School on Thursday, 3^rd December, 6pm-8pm for a special Christmas Debate.  We will be debating the motion that  "Festivals such as Christmas and Valentine's Day lost their true meaning?" and one other motion which is yet to be decided.  All are welcome to what should be a lively and enjoyable end to the Club's successful first season.

HOT CHOCOLATE CAFÉ FOR THE

BAKER KILIMANJARO EXPEDITION

From the 11^th to the 20^th December I am planning to repeat my climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Ndubaluba Outdoor Education Centre in the farming heartland of Zambia where I used to live.  I will be accompanied by two members of my family, two neighbours and a friend.  The centre is a marvellous success story where companies and fee paying schools subsidize children from local African schools so that a wide section of the community can benefit from the canoeing, cycling and camping courses that are available all with a strong Christian ethos.  We hope to avoid mountain sickness, elephants and being delayed on the return flight so that we can be home for Christmas.   If any parents wish to join the trip at this late stage, please feel free to join us.

The Hot Chocolate Café is being held on Mr Stevens' room on Wednesday, 9^th December between 10.35 and 10.55. On this one occasion please feel free to give your children something extra to help Ndubaluba make a real impact on the lives of Zambian young people.

Mr S Baker

TIMES BOOKS FOR SCHOOL

We are currently part of a great collection scheme that could provide us with hundreds of new books for the school library, and by collecting the special tokens printed in The Times and The Sunday Times, you can help claim dozens of free books.  Autumn term tokens will be available from 13^th September to 6^th December with four tokens in The Sunday Times News Review, three tokens in The Times on Saturday and one taken each day in Times from Monday to Friday.

Please collect as many tokens as you can and give them to your child to bring to school, marked for the attention of Miss Williams.

Many thanks, in advance, for your support.

Miss Willams (Year 4)

CHILDREN IN NEED

The total amount of money in so far for Children in Need is £217.29.

Many thanks to everyone for taking part.

CHRISTMAS FAIR

The PTA are delighted to announce that just over £500.00 was raised at the Christmas Fair.  A BIG THANK YOU to all Pupils, Staff, Parents and Friends who participated in any way.

Mrs D Williamson – PTA

OFFICE HOURS OPENING TIMES

Please be advised that the office will be closed from

22^nd December at 1600 hours for the Christmas break.  It will be open for a short time on 29^th December from 0900am till 1200noon.

SCHOOL FEES

A 1% Prompt Payment Discount will be deducted from fees which are paid on or before 5^th January, 2010.  If you are paying by BACS, make sure you allow for three working days for the payment to reach our account.  The reference used when paying by BACS will be the 5-letter 1-number code on the top right hand of your invoice.

PUPILS IN SLESSOR

A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who provided cakes for 'Children in Need', bottles and cans for the Christmas Fair, manned different stalls, and, of course, to those of you who purchased items or sponsored people.  A great effort, well done!

Mrs T Gordon – Head of Slessor

HPV VACCINATION

For the girls of Years 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 who had the first jab for the protection against cervical cancer on the         13^th October, the second jab is now due and nurses will be in school on Tuesday, 8^th December.  Students will be called as soon as the nurses are ready.

FUTURE DATES

Thursday, 10^th December – Carol Service St John's Church

at 2pm

Friday, 11^th December – Last Day of Term (finish normal time).  No Late Room available for the last day of term.

Tuesday, 5^th January, 2010 – First day of term for all pupils

Please note the following dates for your diary from PTA:

Wednesday, 9^th December – Breakfast with Santa.