“Proud to do our Best”

Farewell to Mrs Deaves

Some sad news this term - we shall be saying goodbye to Mrs Deaves, a long-serving and well-liked member of

the Halifax team. Mrs Deaves has been with Halifax school for 13 years, teaching in a variety of roles and facing

all the challenges of school with a smile on her face! She has decided the time is right to move on and we wish

her and her family every success.

Respect for All

This term there have been a couple of incidences where parents/carers have communicated in an inappropriate

or unacceptable way to staff. At Halifax School we believe everyone - children, staff and parents/carers - should

to be treated with respect as they go about their work. All staff are ready to listen to your concerns about your

children, but we would request that you raise matters respectfully. The school has a process where parents/

carers who remain dissatisfied can then raise their concern with a senior member of staff. I know these are very

rare incidences but I would appreciate your help in keeping the school a happy and enjoyable place to

learn. Thank you for your continued support.

Pupil Absence Calls

Please can we respectfully remind all parents and carers of the importance of contacting the school to report a

pupil absence. It is vital that any absence is accurately recorded. We also have a duty of care to safeguard our

pupils’ welfare and we can only do so by receiving confirmation from parents or carers that the pupils are safe at

home.

Parking in Aberdare Close

We have had a complaint from an owner in Aberdare Close who has included a photograph showing a car

blocking his driveway. I would like to remind everyone that Aberdare Close is a private road and should not be

used for parking no matter how short the drop off time is. I would appreciate your support on this as the School

likes to have good relations with all the community.

Happy Easter

It’s been a really busy term with the added challenges of the snow. I hope you will enjoy reading about the

events contained in the Newsletter. I would just like to express my personal thanks to the parents and carers,

staff and children for their positive approach when we had the bad spell of weather. I know it can be very

disrupting for parents and carers when the school changes its hours or closes unexpectedly; but everyone was

positive and supportive as we made these difficult decisions trying to balance safety against the importance of

continued learning. Have a restful and fun time over the Easter break and I look forward to seeing you all back,

raring to go, on Monday the 16th of April. Happy Holidays! Mrs Krishna

Year 1 and 2 & Year 3 and 4 Open Afternoon

We would like to thank you for attending our ‘Reading Café’ Open Afternoon earlier this month. We were very

pleased to receive such positive feedback and would like to thank you for this. We hope that the afternoon

provided you with an opportunity to share a love of reading with your child and also gave you an insight into how

much we value the importance of reading at Halifax Primary School.

Halifax Choir and Percussion Club Rock Snape Maltings!

On Saturday 10th March the Choir and Percussion Club had an amazing day out as part of Suffolk County Music

Service’s week of celebration events. Around ten schools were performing along with us on the Saturday even-

ing, in the world famous Snape Maltings Concert Hall. Once we arrived we were shown to our own dressing room

and were then treated to an inspirational singing workshop from the unstoppable creative force that is the Ugan-

dan composer and vocalist, Aga Serugo Lerugo. He got everyone up on their feet chanting, dancing, singing

and smiling to a song he’d written especially for the event. Still buzzing from this, we then had our technical

rehearsal on the main stage, where everyone could get used to the incredible acoustics and the electric atmos-

phere that this special place generates.

Before we knew it, the evening had arrived and the Concert Hall started to fill up with families, friends and music

lovers from all over Suffolk. We were third on, and the presenters were keen to have a quick chat on stage with

us before we started our performance. Our fantastic year 6 Djembe drummers demonstrated their skills in

performing bass, tone and slap techniques to a curious audience, some of whom had never seen drums

performed live in this way before. The theme of this year’s Celebration events was ‘Journeys’. Throughout the

piece the drummers interweaved with the choir, punctuating their song excerpts with complex drumming rhythms

based around the rhythm of spoken journey phrases such as, ‘The emergency exits are here, here, here and

here!’ and ‘Press the bell ONCE to stop!’. The Choir were in fantastic voice and performed a selection of travel

related songs beautifully, including ‘500 Miles’, ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, ‘Morningtown Ride’ and ‘Bicycle Race’.

The Choir then rounded off their performance with a stirring rendition of the refrain from ‘Coming Home’, with the

drummers joining in to a rousing conclusion.

After the performance the children were very excited and proud of their achievement, but more was still to come

as we all took to the stage at the end of the night to sing Aga’s euphoric finale song. The whole audience were

encouraged to join in too, so it was a fantastic night of performing for every single person in the whole Concert

Hall!

Congratulations to the Choir and Percussion Club for taking part in and putting on such a great show. Huge

thanks too to Mrs Lee, Mrs Landers, Miss Voller, Miss Johnson and Mr Lee, who supported the children by

playing their accompanying instruments so well, calmed nerves effortlessly and who made this event so much fun

for the children to take part in.

Year 2 - Visit to the local Church

On Monday 18th March Year 2 visited the local Church to learn about

Easter. We enjoyed listening to the Easter story, taking part in a scavenger

hunt and eating a hot cross bun! We would like to say a big thank you to

the Open the Book Team for such an enjoyable and informative

experience.

Matilda

Over the Spring Term, Year 3 and 4 have been working extremely hard to prepare for

their performance of Matilda this week. From the feedback received, it is clear that it

was a huge success! The children's acting and singing were on top form as they

performed with enthusiasm and enjoyment. A special thank you to Mr Thorpe and Mr

Daines for their support with lighting and sound as well as Mr Willey for his hard work

teaching the songs to the children in Music lessons. Thank you, also, for your support

with learning lines and preparing costumes.

Halifax Radio

This half term in Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) pupils have been looking at careers and the

world of work. Ms Johnson used to work at a radio station before becoming a teacher and on Wednesday 14th

March Ms Johnson created our own Halifax radio station and interviewed 3 people that work at Ipswich

Community Radio (ICR fm). The pupils learnt all about working in radio. Lots of the skills that we practice at

school are essential for working in radio, for example; writing, using computers and excellent team work.

Kip on the Ship 2018

Year 5 had a fantastic three days in London on the Kip on the Ship adventure! On a jam packed first day the

pupils enjoyed the views of the Thames from the Clipper and even more so on their flight on the London Eye!

Many selfies were taken with the landmarks in the background. The children were superb at the House of

Parliament, watching debates in both of the houses and asking questions throughout to our guides. Meeting our

MP Sandy Martin also showcased our pupils’ skills in asking challenging questions and may have inspired future

parliamentarians.

After a mixed night of sleep on board - the girls slept well, the boys not as successful, we enjoyed the

experiments in the Wondelab at the Science Museum - creating tessellations, going down slides, using pulleys,

to name but a few. After lunch we headed to the National Gallery, learning many new facts about Trafalgar

Square and making new friends at Horseguards Parade. In the gallery the pupils were superb as they listened to

Ms Hennell James leading the group analysis of several pictures.

After a well-needed dinner at Cafe Rouge we headed to the theatre to watch the Lion King. Superb seats near

the front led to all the children and adults being mesmerized as the performers made their way to the stage! A

fantastic show which was talked about well in to the evening! After a much better night's sleep and a fascinating

insight into the history of our home for two nights, we visited the Tower of London on our last day. We viewed the

amazing Crown Jewels and learnt about the ‘power of the tower’ before finally setting off for home. Overall, a

wonderful trip that was enjoyed by everyone with the pupils being great ambassadors for our school! Thank you

to all the staff involved and a special thanks to Ms Hennell James, who has led this trip for the last sixteen years!

Is it bedtime yet?

Mid-day Supervisors

Would you like a job that is rewarding and fun?

Do you want a job that is term time only and allows you holidays with your children?

Then we could have the job for you! We are currently looking to recruit a new lunchtime

supervisor to work with our wonderful children. If you are patient, kind and able to work with

children we would like to hear from you! Please come into the school office to collect an

application pack.

Summer Term Upcoming Dates

April

Monday 16th - Term Starts

May

Monday 7th - Bank Holiday

28th May to 1st June - Half Term

June

Tuesday 12th - Year 5 Performance

Wednesday 13th - Year 5 Performance

Friday 22nd - Sports Day

Wednesday 27th to Thursday 28th - Year 4 Hallowtree Trip

July

Monday 2nd - Year 6 Performance

Tuesday 3rd - Year 6 Performance

Friday 13th - School Disco

Tuesday 17th - Open Evening

Thursday 19th - Musical Extravaganza

Friday 20th - Year 6 Leavers’ Assembly

Monday 23rd - PD Day

Tuesday 24th - PD Day

Wonderful Word Book Day 2018

After having to postpone World Book Day on 1st March due to the snowy weather, the children (and staff) finally

got a chance to dress up as their favourite characters from a fictional story, and what wonderful characters we

saw: multiple characters from Julia Donaldson stories; lots of 'Where's Wally?' children; so many from Roald Dahl

books; and many many more from the world of children's literature. On top of the outstanding outfits, the children

also spent the day enjoying all sorts of activities based on books by Children's Laureates past and present. If you

get a chance please look at the display along one of the corridors to see the amazing array of activities that were

completed across the school. Thank you for your support and we hope that you will continue to encourage the

love of reading.