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Christmas Fair on Friday!

It’s not too late for those last minute donations for our Christmas Fair this Friday:

Cakes and biscuits for our cake stall, bottles for the bottle tombola, good quality second hand books and toys, gifts for the ‘secret presents room’ and Red/Green/Gold items such as toys, stationery, hairclips for the kids tombola.

We need your help to make our fair a great success!

The fair will be launched by the school choir singing in the hall at 3.30pm. Please enter the hall using the side door (up the slope). Please also remember that prams and buggies cannot be brought into the building – many thanks.

Thank you to everyone who came to the PTA Book Fair last week. Thanks to your support we have almost £500 worth of brand new books for our school library!

Stir Up Sunday

In assembly on Monday we talked about ‘Stir Up Sunday’ and the tradition of making Christmas Puddings on the last Sunday before the start of Advent. Lots of children were able to help out in assembly as we made our very own Christmas Pudding. It is now ‘resting’ and will be steamed by Mrs Harrington Smith so that all the children can have a taste if they would like to. In previous years the recipe has proved very popular so we thought you might like to know the ingredients if any children would like to have a go at home. (It is vegetarian and nut-free.)

3 oz plain flour
3oz vegetable suet
4oz dark brown sugar;
½ tsp baking powder with ½ tsp mixed spice
4oz raisins
4oz sultanas
6oz currants
2oz mixed peel
2 medium eggs
Juice from a fresh lemon, orange and lime

Did you know these Christmas Pudding traditions?

Stir-up Sunday is the Sunday before Advent, the term comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549:
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It is traditional for all the family to participate in stirring the pudding on Stir-up Sunday, whilst making a wish at the same time.

The pudding should only be stirred clockwise, from east to west, in honour of the Wise Men making the journey to see baby Jesus.

The Christmas Pudding is said to have 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples.

Revd Ann dyed her hair 'Bishop's Purple' for Children in Need and we all supported her by wearing purple accessories with our school uniforms and bringing in a donation towards her sponsor money - we raised a total of £145.

Well done to everyone and especially a very brave Revd Ann!

Thank you to everyone who supported this year's shoebox appeal; we collected a fantastic 65 shoeboxes for children overseas.

Dear parent or carer

Inspection of St Ippolyts Church of England Aided Primary School by Ofsted

We have just told your child’s school that we will inspect it on 6–7 November 2013. The lead inspector will be Keith Williams. We are writing to you because we would like to know what you think about the school.  

Your views about the school are important to us
If you are a registered parent or carer of a pupil at the school (including pupils on sick leave or who are temporarily excluded), you can tell us your views about the school by completing Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, at: http://www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk.

Parent View asks for your opinion on 12 aspects of your child’s school, including the progress made by your child, the quality of teaching, dealing with bullying and poor behaviour. The inspectors will use the online survey responses when inspecting your child’s school.

To register your views, you will need to provide your email address, which will be held securely. It will not be used for any purpose other than providing access to the online survey. Neither schools nor Ofsted will have access to any email addresses.
Please complete the online survey by 11am on 6 November 2013 as this will give the inspection team more time to consider your views. However, we will consider all online responses that are completed during the inspection. Should you wish to provide written comments these should be sent to the school in a sealed envelope, marked confidential and addressed to the inspection team.

Speaking to an inspector
If you are unable to complete the online survey, it may be possible to speak to an inspector during the inspection, for instance at the start of the school day, or to pass on messages to the inspectors if you are unable to speak to them in person. Inspection administrators will be happy to make the necessary arrangements. If concerns are raised about child protection, we may have to pass the information we receive to social services or the police. You can contact the administrators on 0121 679 9153 Inspectors will be pleased to receive your comments, but cannot deal with complaints about individual pupils or settle disputes between you and the school.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the online survey.

Yours faithfully

Naik Sandhu

Huge Congratulations to our boys football team who played in the ESFA tournament at Wilshere Dacre School last Friday. 

We won the district competition! 

This means that not only do we have a fantastic trophy on display, but the team go on to represent the District in the County Championships.

A special mention must go to Mr Jefferies for coaching the team to victory - thank you Mr Jefferies!

Class 5 have had a great first 8 weeks at school with a brilliant year 6 setting a fantastic example and the year 5s hot on their heels.

I'm feeling really lucky to have such a hard working class, who have been busy setting themselves targets and striving to achieve their very best. We are looking forward to giving the parents and the rest of the school a sample of what we have been learning so far during our class assembly on Friday this week; we hope it will be well attended.

As we head for half term the children are looking forward to a well earned rest ready for a busy 7 weeks when we return in November.

Mrs Racher

Yesterday our new girls football team played their first match. We haven't had a girls team at St Ippolyts before so it was a special day! They played against Cockernhoe School and won 6-0! A huge well done to them all and thank you to Mr Jefferies for coaching them so well.

Please note that the school will be OPEN AS NORMAL for all classes on Tuesday 1st October. 

Thank you to everyone who supported our Harvest Festival on Friday by donating Harvest produce, filling a money box or coming along to the service. It was lovely to see so many parents and families join us in Church.

The total collected in the money boxes for the Bishop of St Albans' Harvest Appeal was an amazing £266.86 so THANK YOU!

To read more about the Harvest Apppeal visit www.harvestappeal.org

An exciting new choir is starting!

St Ippolyts Church Youth Choir

Ages 8-18

Rehearsals every Thuesday 5.00-6.00pm in St Ippolyts Church

First rehearsal Tuesday 10th September.

The choir will sing in Church Services and Concerts 

For further details please contact the Choir Leader: Rebecca Masters 01462 620978

All leaders are CRB checked and experienced musicians 

It would be easy to think that everyone had overslept this morning as we were all wearing pyjamas! The School Council came up with the idea as a fun way to raise some money for the ICT Appeal and they collected a fantastic £129.55! There are pictures in the photo gallery of our sleepy heads!

A HUGE well done to all the children who performed in our end of year production, 'Alice in Wonderland'. It was FANTASTIC! 

We hope all the parents and families who came to watch enjoyed the show and we would like to say a big thank you for your contributions to the drama collection - £195 was raised.

There are some photographs in the gallery of the dress rehearsal when the children perfomed to the rest of the school and visitors from the Church and local nursing homes. 

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came along to support this year's PTA Summer Fair today. It was a lovely afternoon in the sunshine and everyone seemed to have a great time. We are so very grateful to everyone who donated, baked, organised, cooked, manned stalls and shopped! We will let you know the total raised as soon as we are able; in the meantime, there are some photographs in the gallery.

Have a great weekend in the sunshine everyone!

Pictures of Class 2's recent trip to Walton-on-the-Naze and the PTA Summer Disco have been added to the Photo Gallery. Take a look at all the fun we've been having!

Photographs of our amazing day at Kentwell have been uploaded. Keep a look out for Class blogs to read more about the trip. 

Yesterday everyone in school tried out some new sporting skills at the Paralympic Roadshow. Organised by the North Herts School Sports Partnership, the Paralymic Roadshow aimed to keep the spirit of London 2012 alive by focussing on the paralympic values of Determination, Equality, Courage and Inspiration. The children enjoyed a number of different activities and had a fantastic time - there are some pictures in the photo gallery of the children in action. 

A selection of photographs from our weekend at Barton Hall are now on the Photo Gallery - take a look at what fun we had!

This evening we have enjoyed camp fire singing to round off our final night here at Barton Hall.  Everyone is now tucked up in bed, asleep already!

Tomorrow morning our activities are fencing and climbing, before we head for home, leaving at 12.30pm.

We will keep families up to date on our journey via text message tomorrow.

Night all!