February 2020

Welcome to our Spring Newsletter...

Holland Park News

Dear Parents/Carers

This week, we were delighted to receive the Bronze Award

in recognition for all the work and support we do for our

young carers at Holland Park.

In January, two key workers from Young Carers came into

school to deliver an assembly about the role of a young

carer and the impact that it has on them.

As a result of the assembly and a letter sent out to you,

several children were identified as young carers and were

referred to the support team. We are pleased to report

that 12 children are now receiving support from them.

As many of you were aware, on the 30th of January we

participated in the Young Carers Awareness Day. Our theme

was ‘Funky socks’ and many of the children and staff came

to school wearing an interesting collection of colourful

socks! It was great to see so many children walking through

the gate in a variety of ‘funky socks’! Thank you for your

support with this.

All of the children designed a pair of socks, which was made

into bunting and strung all around the school. The children

also participated in actives during the day and watched

video clips about the role of a young carer and all that it

involves.

This week, we held a ‘coffee (or juice!) and cake’ morning

for our Young Carers to find out what other support we can

give them and how else we can raise awareness of Young

Carers. We are hoping that this will be a half termly event.

Mrs Penn.

Wild Well Being

We are very lucky to have Essex

Wildlife Trust running some

Forest School sessions with us at

the moment. Children, along with

a family member, are learning

and experiencing the benefits of

getting outside for our health

and well-being.

Inclusion Ambassadors...

Multi Schools Council Meeting On January 29th we took our School Council and

Inclusion Ambassadors to Holland Haven for the

next Multi Schools Council meeting.

There were a number of items on the agenda,

including: a talk from the Essex Well-Being

Team on who we can talk to when our mental

health is suffering, ideas for spending Sports

Premium money, voting for Head Girl and Head

Boy, and the MSC song ‘We all Stand Strong’

which was wonderful to watch and can be found

on YouTube.

We would like to congratulate Alina for being

the Star of the Meeting! Well done.

For more information on the Multi Schools

Council visit:

http://www.multischoolscouncil.org.uk

Look out for an exciting Home Learning competition being

sent out for the half-term break.

We have been invited to decorate an octopus sculpture

that will be on display (along with those from other local

schools and businesses) in Harwich, in May.

The project has been set up to celebrate 400 years of the

Mayflower ship setting sail on it's maiden voyage to

America.

We have asked the children to design how they would like

to see the octopus decorated, and give him/her a name.

Please send your entries in on Tuesday, 25th February

ready for the School Council and Inclusion Ambassadors to

judge.

The winner will then decorate the octopus (with the help

of a local artist) before it is collected and put on display in

Harwich.

Good luck!

Inclusion Ambassadors...

Small, Great Things…

This February we launched the Small, Great Things project

in assembly. The whole school have been set the challenge

of passing on small acts of kindness to each other and

creating posters to promote the project around the school.

Show Racism the Red Card

On Thursday, 6th February our Inclusion Ambassadors took a trip to Colchester

United for their ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ event.

The afternoon involved a variety of activities including educational videos, games, a

walk down the tunnel, a ‘question and answer’ session with players and photo

opportunities with past England player Paul Parker.

This was a great opportunity for us to learn about how everyone involved in football

should behave, and how everyone should expect to be treated.

Sports News…

Boccia

Well done to our Boccia team who qualified for

the Essex County Final on 13th January. This

was held at Basildon Sports Village. There were

some very close games which, in some cases,

were only decided by a tape measure! Out of 20

teams that qualified we finished in 14th place.

Well done to Sonny, Chris, Alex, Malcolm and

Dolci. Sienna also helped the team to qualify for

the final.

The photo shows our team with Paralympic

athlete Dan Bentley who won a Boccia gold medal

in the Bejing Olympics and a bronze medal at the

London Olympics in 2012. It was a pleasure to

meet him.

Climbing at Birch Hall

The Year 4 climbing sessions have just

come to an end after two very

successful courses at Birch Hall

Adventures. There will be an

inter-school climbing event in March,

based in the new Olympic format for

the Tokyo games.

New Age Kurling Festival

A team of our Gym Trail

children competed in a

local School Games New

Age Kurling event and

finished in joint third

place. Well done to

Sienna, Dolci, Noah and

Chris.

Well done to our indoor Sports Hall athletics team who performed superbly in a

local CDPSSA event held at Tending Technology College in Frinton. There were

many individual winners in events such as the soft javelin, speed bounce, triple

jump and vertical jump, as well as in the track events. Final scores were very close

and our team finished runners up by only two points. They were just pipped by

Great Clacton. We are waiting to hear if we have got through to the County Final

—but well done to everyone involved!

Ruby, Bethany, Poppy, Lilly, Grace, Lottie, Caitlin, Lucy-May, Faith, Kayden, Logan,

Jacob, Kyle, Charlie, George, Sonny, Flynn and Jude.

A special THANK YOU to Mrs Wagland and Mrs Lodge for all their help with the

overall scoring for the whole competition—Your help was very much appreciated.

Miss Hughes.

Sitting Volleyball…

Well done to the children who took

part in a sitting volleyball

competition yesterday against

other schools. Great fun was had

by all and they also had the chance

to try Boccia, New Age Kurling and

standing volleyball. Our team

consisted of: Sam, Tyler, Charlie,

Harrison, Joseph, Ellie-May and

Honey.

Duxford Trip

Year 6 enjoyed their recent trip to the

Imperial War Museum at Duxford near

Cambridge. During the visit they completed an

activity with the Duxford staff where, having

completed their own research, they made short

news films about the Battle of Britain . They

visited the main hangers where they learnt

about the Spitfire and Lancaster aircraft,

D-Day and saw many of the American aircraft

that were based in the UK during WWII. They

were also extremely lucky to see a Spitfire

flying as one of the privately owned planes was

being put through its paces after a rebuild.

A brilliant day out was had by all.

What’s been happening this term…

Here is a photo of some

of our teachers with new

books for their classes.

The money to buy these

was raised by the

Scholastic Books Fairs.

Thank you to everyone

who came along to

support the book fairs

which enabled us to buy

these.

Year 6 were recently visited by Essex Fire Service’s Education Department who work closely with

Essex Police to teach children about keeping themselves safe online. The children were reminded

about how to stay safe online and what to do if they felt unsafe. Year 6 were also taught about

different dangers they may face as they get older along with how they can be avoided and dealt

with. The key facts they were taught were:

Never give out personal information.

Make sure you do not post images which could give away your location (including photos

showing your school uniform.

Only talk to people online that you already know well (i.e. a close friend or family member).

If something happens you are not happy about—REPORT IT (to adult family members,

school staff, the police or CEOP).

Dates for your Diary

February: 17th—24th Half term.

25th Return to school.

March: 16th Spring Learning Reviews - 4pm.

18th Spring Learning Reviews - 4pm.

Thank you for supporting

NSPCC Number Day.

We raised an amazing

£273.32

Congratulations to the

following classes who have achieved the

highest attendance this month:

1st - 3 Hughes with 96.9%

2nd - 2 Blake with 96.1%

2nd - 2 Blyton with 96.1%

2nd - 6 Carroll with 96.1%

3rd - 6 Dickens with 95.74%

The children will be bringing home a

template to design a programme

front cover for the Tendring Show.

All children who enter will be given

a free pass to the show.

We look forward to seeing their

entries when we return to school on

Tuesday, 25th February.