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MOON HALL MESSENGER Lent Term Academic Year 2017 – 18

Dear Parents, This term has been a very short one with difficulties of fitting everything in exacerbated by the short unplanned break due to snow. Time has flown by but the children have achieved much, both in and outside the classrooms. Some highlights from this term Following on from the highly original PowerPoints Alpha pupils produced for safer internet week at the start of term, it is encouraging to see their increasingly independent use of laptops for research in everyday lessons – supporting topic based work with what for many appears to be an innate interest, fuelling their excitement to learn as they develop their computing skills. Mothering Sunday offered a wonderful opportunity for children to celebrate their mothers. Y5 pupils produced some beautiful prose, with carefully chosen similes and metaphors enriching their descriptive text. I hope that you were able to enjoy examples on display during the Parent Consultation evenings this week. Visits this term have included a first, to a local waste sorting depot. As recycling grows in importance, we are keen to equip children with a first-hand understanding of the importance of recycling and their role in everyday waste management, as responsible citizens. We are hoping that this will become an annual event for Y6. Farewell to staff, and welcome to new colleagues This term we said a sad farewell to Mrs McEwan, who has left to take up a more local position. We wish her well. Our new driver, David Lamb, is covering our London bus route. After initial teething problems, the service appears to have settled down. Thank you to parents for your patience. We hope to extend the Sussex route in September, so do let Catherine know if you are interested in a place on either route. We are pleased to be welcoming Miss Eve Turner to the team next term. Miss Turner is an experienced primary teacher with a specific interest in dyslexia. She is due to complete her SpLD Level 5 in May, and is looking forward to going on to complete SpLD Level 7 after that. Miss Turner will be working across the school, with a primary focus on Alpha classes, where we are delighted to be welcoming some new children for the summer term. As in previous years, to help prepare children for transition to their next year group, and to provide additional teaching groups, we will follow the pattern of splitting Alpha into two classes. Y3 will register with Mrs Preece in Room 6, which they are familiar with, and Y4 with Miss Wheeler in Room 4. Children will remain in stage appropriate learning groups across

Tel: 01306 731464 23 March, 2018

Email:enquiries@moonhallschool.co.uk

www.moonhallschool.co.uk

2. the year groups for English and maths, with an additional group taught by Miss Turner, to ensure that they continue to be stretched appropriately. Reminder for next term A reminder to ensure that children are properly equipped with uniform, learning and sports equipment required for each day. It is difficult to imagine hot sunny days, but please do prepare ahead so children are equipped with sun cream when needed. Children will be swimming in their PE lessons, so please ensure that all have swimming costumes, caps and towels ready. A reminder, too, about prompt arrival in the morning in time for registration at 8.25am, and observing the correct procedure to stay safe when dropping children off at the turning circle. Parent engagement It was a pleasure to see so many parents at the recent tea organised to enlist new recruits for FOMH; thank you to those who have signed up as post holders or ‘Friends’. We are very grateful to Louise Kitchen, Julie Harper and Helly Jordan who will be stepping down at the end of this term as Chair, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. We are looking forward to working with Tam Rowland, new Chair, Katie Todd, secretary and Jan Lewis as our new Treasurer. It was also good to see so many parents attending the Parent Consultation Evenings this week; we greatly value your support with your child’s learning, and with school events more broadly. Following the success of our ‘Give it a Go’ week last year, we are repeating the opportunity to devote a week at the end of the summer term to activities devised to encourage children to ‘have a go’ at something new or challenging. We would welcome volunteers and support from parents who have a particular interest, skill or hobby that they would like to share in a workshop (supported by school staff!) for small groups of children. Do get in touch if you would like to participate. Give it a Go week will be held 2nd – 6th July 2018. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for their hard work and care. We look forward to welcoming all children back to school on Wednesday 18th April, for a busy summer term. In the meantime, I wish you a very happy, restful, and somewhat warmer Easter than the past few weeks have been!

FOMH

FOMH Healthy Eating Breakfast 23rd February and Mother’s Day Flower Sale 9th March 2018 Thank you to our tremendous FOMH committee members who provided a very appetising selection of healthy muffins (blueberry, orange and apple streusel to name but a few) and organic fruit juices as a breakfast treat for the Moon Hall Dorking children. The muffins were all sold by the end of the day raising nearly £50 for FOMH who are hoping to fund some new, up-to-date camera equipment for the school.

3. Another fantastic event organised by the FOMH committee was the Mother’s Day Flower Sale. It was wonderful to see so many children queuing up outside Delta S to buy flowers for their mothers. The event was a frenzy of activity as photos were taken, cards written and bunches of daffodils tied in brightly coloured ribbons. Not a single bunch remained at the end. Just some exhausted FOMH parents! Thank you to the committee members for organising such enjoyable and successful occasions for the children of Moon Hall School, Dorking. We are grateful to all who attended the recent tea to meet with present ‘Friends’ and find out more about the group. It was encouraging that five potential new members put their name forward. If you feel that you can also help in any way, do let Catherine know and she will pass your details on. Mrs Schenk Deputy Head

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Delta S and W Trip to Biffa – 8th March 2018

Year 6 enjoyed a very interesting visit to Biffa – a Mechanical Biological Treatment plant. This facility processes all the general waste within the Horsham area, West Sussex. The children learnt how the food waste is used to generate methane gas which then provides energy for the local area. They also watched tons of rubbish being moved by large cranes into a shredder before being carried away on conveyor belts which dispersed the materials to relevant areas for further processing. As much of the waste is recycled as possible and as a result of the processing carried out by the plant, they hope to stop using the local landfill site within the next year. Some of the children’s comments following the visit: I liked watching the big crane pick up the rubbish and move it into the shredder. (Scarlett) It is encouraging to think about what is done in order to save the planet. (William) I found the machines really fascinating especially the crane and I also liked seeing what was on the conveyor belts. It was really fun. (Polly) I liked looking at the machines and looking at all the rubbish trucks come and unload all the rubbish. (Ruben) I was most fascinated by all of the machinery and how you use the claw and make their own electricity. (Samuel)

4.

Delta D

Delta D have been from the Poles to the equator this half term as they continue to study biomes and read about the Arctic and Antarctic in English. Some of us aptly enjoyed the snow days earlier in February and then were transported to Africa for the story telling workshop, which transfixed them all. The Mothers’ Day assembly performance was executed beautifully despite Mrs Domican’s failure with the

technology and some tears were shed at Amber’s, Abi’s and Ellis’s lovely poems.

ALPHA W This term Alphas have been working hard on understanding Rivers, how they work and why they are important to us.

They have worked extremely hard to understand some difficult new words including: irrigation, hydro-power, precipitation, condensation, evaporation, transportation, erosion, deposition, meander,

tributaries, source and mouth. They have produced some lovely work and even made their own playground river using soil, gravel and lots of water! I have been so impressed with the enthusiasm to learn some of these tricky

terms. Their attitude to learning is outstanding!

Have a lovely Easter break.

Miss Wheeler

5.

Science

Alpha (Year 4) have been busy finding out more about their teeth, particularly how to keep them healthy. I was really impressed with the children’s knowledge of how they should clean their teeth so you must be doing a very good job of training them at home. Most of the children knew that sugar is bad for our teeth but wanted to investigate further. We used the labels on a variety of drinks to find out how much sugar each drink contained and were quite shocked when we weighed out that amount of sugar on the scales! Last week, we left pieces of eggshell soaking in some of the drinks and were horrified to see how much damage they inflicted. In the end we all agreed that water is the best option if you are thirsty.

Juliet Cliffe (Head of Science)

Curriculum Jigsaws These are now available to view online https://www.moonhallschooldorking.co.uk/curriculum/#welcome

LAMDA parents This year, the performing arts department are putting on an evening to showcase work completed over the year. This will be in the Trinity term and we are looking to do this on Monday 23rd April at 6.30pm (to be confirmed). More details will follow but any questions please ask Mr Fellingham or Mrs Aiken.

6.

Help UK Air Ambulance Services by recycling your Used Postage Stamps

Please hand in any collected to the office.

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SAFEGUARDING

Esafety Thank you all who completed the esafety questionnaire earlier this term on Safer Internet Day. I had over 60% of the forms returned and they have provided valuable information for improving our handling of esafety in school. I have attached below a helpful checklist from CEOP with the newsletter with advice to keep our children safe over half term. More help and advice can be found at the following websites: www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre, www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents

CEOP Parents and Carers Check List.pdf

Many thanks, Christine Domican

8.

EVO Hockey are running a series of world-class, accessible and fun hockey camps in Surrey and South London this Easter holiday. Our camps have been featured by the International Hockey Federation and provide an incredible opportunity for young players to be coached by top international players and coaches from around the world (including GB, Germany, Australia, Argentina, Pakistan, Spain and more). Camps are open to all levels aged 7-17 years, including those who have never tried hockey before. We have beginner to high performance training groups on all days. So whether you have young people looking to try a new sport in an inspiring environment, performance youth players looking to train with international athletes or anyone in between, we will have the right groupings for them. There is specialist outfielder and goalkeeper training on all days. Camp dates and locations

4 April – EVO Hockey Camp @ Dulwich College, Dulwich SE21 7LE

5-6 April – EVO Hockey Camp @ Purley Walcountians HC, Banstead (SM7 3HU)

9-10 April – EVO Hockey Camp @ Langley Park School for Boys, Beckenham (BR3 3BP)

11-13 April – EVO Hockey Camp @ Reigate Grammar School’s Hartswood Sports Ground, Reigate (RH2 8BY) Further information are available at: www.evo-hockey.com/bookings Chris Bowen & Omar Shibli EVO Hockey | Co-founders

W www.evo-hockey.com

T +44 7506 019 901 / +44 7763 181 770 E info@evo-hockey.com

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Calendar Important Dates for the Summer Term Please also check the Belmont website parent portal for sports fixtures and other events

Monday, Tuesday 16th / 17th April STAFF INSET DAYS

Wednesday 18th April TERM BEGINS NB Please ensure Games Kits

are in school

Monday 23rd April LAMDA/Musical Theatre Evening 6.30pm

Monday 23rd April Year 3-5 Science Trip

Monday 30th April Invitation Boarding Night for Yrs

5/6

Thursday 3rd May Year 6 Science Trip

Friday 4th May Class and Whole School

Photographs

Monday 7th May Bank Holiday

Thursday 10th May Year 5 Assembly 8.30am

Mon 28th May – Friday 1st June HALF TERM

Monday 4th – Friday 8th June Year 6 residential trip to the Isle

of Wight

Friday 8th June Year 3 – 5 trip to South of

England Show, Ardingly

9.00am – 4.00pm

Thursday 14th June Year 3/4 Assembly 8.30am

Friday 15th June LAMDA Examinations ALL DAY

Friday 15th June Swimming Gala 2.00pm

Monday 18th June LAMDA Examinations ALL DAY

Tuesday 19th June Year 5 ‘Sensational Science’ at

Box Hill School

8.30am – 11.40am

Friday 29th June SPORTS DAY All Day

Mon 2nd July – Fri 6th July Whole School ‘Have a Go Week’

Tuesday 10th July Reserve Sports Day or Swimming

Gala

Thursday 12th July PRIZEGIVING 10.30am

Thursday 12th July TERM ENDS 12.30pm

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Sports Fixture List

Wednesday 25th April Boys’ Cricket v Handcross Park

Colts A(H), B(A),C(H), D(A)

2.30pm

Thursday 26th April Boys’ Cricket v Handcross Park

U8/9A (A), U8/9B (A), U8/9C (A)

2.00pm

Monday 30th April Barrow Hills Pentathlon U9, U11, U13 2.00pm – 4.00pm

Wednesday 2nd May Boys’ Cricket v Duke of Kent

Colts A (A), B(A), C(H)

2.15pm

Thursday 3rd May Boys’ Cricket v Duke of Kent

U8A(A), U8B(A), U9A(H)

2.30pm

Friday 4th May Tennis v Kingswood House Yrs 3-7

Wednesday 9th May

Girls’ Rounders v Longacre

U11A(A), U11B(A), U11C(H)

Boys’ Cricket v Ripley Court

Colts A(A), B(H), C(A), D(H)

2.30pm

Thursday 10th May

Girls’ Rounders v Longacre

U9A(A), U9B(A), U9C(H)

Boys’ Cricket v Ripley Court

U8A(H), U8B(H), U9A(A), U9B(A)

2.30pm

Monday 14th May Swimming Gala v Ripley Court and Duke of

Kent (H)

5.00pm – 6.15pm

Wednesday 16th May

Girls’ Cricket Festival

U11 (Pennthorpe) U10 (Cranleigh)

Boys’ Cricket v Barrow Hills

Colts A(A), B(A), C(H), D(H)

2.30pm

Thursday 17th May

Girls’ Cricket Festival

U9 (Pennthorpe) U8 (Barrow Hills)

Girls’ Rounders v Chinthurst U8/9(H)

Boys’ Cricket v Barrow Hills

U8/9A(H), U8/9B(A), U8/9C(A), U8/9D(A)

2.30pm

Wednesday 23rd May

Girls’ Rounders v Seaford

U11 (H)

Boys’ Cricket v St Edmund’s

Colts A(A), B(A), C(H), D(H)

2.30pm

2.15pm

Thursday 24th May

Girls’ Rounders v Duke of Kent

U9(A)

Boys’ Cricket v Micklefield

U9A(H), U9B(H), U8A(A), U8B(A), U8C(A)

2.30pm

Wednesday 6th June

Girls’ Rounders Tournament at Windlesham

U11

Boys’ Cricket v MIcklefield

Colts A(H), B(A), C(A), D(A)

1.00pm

2.15pm

Friday 8th June Athletics at Epsom College

Yr 5/6 Boys and Girls

3.00pm – 7.00pm

Monday 11th June Cricket Tournament at Lancing College

U11

1.00pm

Wednesday 13th June

Girls’ Rounders v Pennthorpe

U10(H), U11(A)

Boys’ Cricket v Kingswood House

Colts A(A), B(H), C(A, D(H)

2.30pm

Thursday 14th June

Girls’ Rounders v Pennthorpe

U8(A), 9(H), U8/9(H)

Boys Cricket v Kingswood House

U8A(A), U8B(A), U9A(H), U9B(H)

2.30pm

Wednesday 20th June

Girls’ Rounders v Duke of Kent

U11A(H), U11B(H)

Boys’ Cricket v Banstead

Colts A(H), B(A), C(H)

2.30pm

Thursday 21st June Boys’ Cricket v Amesbury

U9A(A), U9B(A), U8A(H), U8B(H)

2.30pm

Wednesday 27th June

Girls’ Rounders v Chinthurst

U10/11 (A)

Boys’ Cricket v Pennthorpe

Colts A(H), B(H), C(A), D(A)

2.30pm

Thursday 28th June

Girls’ Cricket v Cranleigh

U9A(A), U9B(A), U9C(A)

Boys’ Cricket v St Edmund’s

U9A(A), U9B(A), U8A(H), U8B(H)

2.00pm

2.30pm

Wednesday 4th July Boys’ Cricket v Amesbury

Colts A(A), B(A), C(H), D(H)

2.30pm

Thursday 5th July Boys’ Cricket v Pennthorpe

U8/9A(H), U8/9B(A), U8/9C(A)

2.30pm

11.

Moon Hall Schools Educational Trust

Finance Chair – Mr Bruce Dean

The Finance Committee met on 31 Jan 2018 and 22 Feb 2018. The major issue being addressed was how to improve the financial performance of the Trust so as to generate surpluses each year for investment in the academic functions and in the facilities of both schools. The Committee has therefore produced a three year Business Plan for submission to the Bank which currently provides financial support to the Trust. The Plan has been well received by the Bank and further discussions will be held. The Trust has an excellent relationship with the Bank due to the consistent performance of the Trust over many years in meeting its financial obligations to the Bank. The Committee believes that, by taking decisive actions this year, there will be good prospects for achieving the objectives of the Plan in the following years.

Academic Chair – Mr Michael Fanya

The meeting of the Academic Committee this term was told that the recent Crested Inspection at Moon Hall Reigate had gone very well with many positive comments being made by the inspectors. Especially singled out for praise was the provision of IT. It was reported from Moon Hall Dorking that touch typing was going well, with all pupils having classes as part of their curriculum. For accreditation by the OCR examining board children had to achieve a minimum of 20 words per minute. Both schools reported a healthy amount of interest from parents and Open Mornings at Reigate had been especially well attended. GCSE examinations are nearly upon us and as usual there is extra support, outside of classes, for pupils with drop in revision sessions at MHR as well as additional 'clinics' for those seeking help. Good luck to all of you during this extremely busy time of the year.