8^th December 2023

This week, the children have been completing their autumn term topics, and it has been brilliant to see the culmination of their learning. They have made so much progress since September, and we are all very proud of how hard they have worked.

The worship leaders were magnificent at Tuesday's Advent Service at All Saints and, not only shared what Advent is as well as the meanings surrounding the Advent Wreath, they also talked about how it can be such a busy time, that we lose sight of why we have Christmas. This was the first trip to All Saints with school for the Reception children, and they walked there and back with such energy! All in all, the service was a wonderful family occasion and uplifting too.

I would like to thank everyone on behalf of the staff and myself for their support over the last couple of days and for the incredible response to the OFSTED parents' view survey. It was a tiring and successful few days in which we were able to showcase all the wonderful learning and opportunities that the children at Marlow Infants have. The staff worked even harder than usual, and I would also like to thank them for their dedication to the children, families and each other. Over the 2 days, everything went smoothly, and now we can move on to all of our Christmas preparations.

Next week is a busy one, with all our Nativity performances, Reception singing at Liston Hall, Big Sing and Christmas Jumper Day! Also, on Monday, we will welcome the Year 3 children from Holy Trinity Junior school to come and watch the Key Stage 1 Nativity Dress Rehearsal. It will be lovely to see all the familiar faces. On Wednesday, our Year 2 children will be visiting Holy Trinity to see the Year 3’s perform their Christingle.

Mrs Reynolds

Christmas Jumper Day 2023 – Whole school

On Friday 15^th of December (not the official day), we will be taking part in Christmas Jumper Day to get into the Christmas Spirit, and help raise money for Save The Children. So get your festive jumper ready, and don't forget to make your donation to Save The Children online here or via the QR code we have up at school.

Big Sing! – Whole school

On Friday 15^th December at 10am, we will once again be inviting a number of residents from local retirement homes to come to school for our special Big Sing event. The children will be singing Christmas carols in the school hall, there will be tea, coffee and mince pies for everyone, and there will also be a small raffle.

We would also like to invite the grandparents of our pupils, so please complete the form here if you would like your child’s grandparent(s) to come along too, and we will book them in for this year’s Big Sing event.

Spring term club sign-ups – Whole school

Spring term clubs are now open! If you would like to sign your child up to any of our school-run clubs, please register here. We will let you know if your child is given a place. We will try our best to offer all children at least one club. If your child has not been given a place, they will be added to a waiting list and will be contacted should a place become available for them. They will also be first on the list for next term. We had a number of children on our waiting list for Book Club this term. They will be offered a place for the spring term.

To book clubs run by external companies, you can find the list here, please contact them directly.

Science Week 2024 – Whole school

Are you a Scientist? Do you have a spare hour or two between 26^th February – 1^st March? We would love to hear from you!

At Marlow Infants, we will be hosting Science Week 2024 so that the children can experience an intense, fun-filled week of hands-on Science. They will be taking part in investigations, hearing from Scientists, such as yourself, about how Science is used in the world and generally having lots of fun honing their scientific skills.

In the past, we have had Engineers showing us how Hydrogen cars work, Geologists sharing slides of volcanic rock formations as seen from a hot air balloon, Botanists helping children to plant seeds and classify plants, Medics demonstrating how to attend to broken limbs and how germs are transmitted, the list goes on...

Children love seeing their parents talking about what they are passionate about and Science Week gives them a great opportunity to become enthused about Science at school. If you can offer any support for Science Week, please complete the form here.

Thank you to those parents who have completed the form already.

Reading for pleasure – Whole school

This week's recommendation comes from Ant class. Eva said 'Our favourite book is 'How to find gold' I liked it when they buried the treasure and the map so no one could find it except them'. Arlo said 'I liked it because I saw the sea monster, and it was yellow. We think you should read it!'

Christmas wish list

We have made a wish list of books we would like in school as these will really help with our Core Read Aloud programme, and to instil a love of reading in our pupils in the future.

If you would like to purchase a book from our wish list as a Christmas present for the school, please click here. We will label these to show who they were donated by.

Thank you to the families who have donated books already. These have been labelled and are being used throughout the school already!

Wreath Making

The Festive spirit was in full swing last Thursday at another highly successful wreath-making evening. We were very impressed with the finished creations and are very excited to see your wreaths hung on doors all over Marlow. Thank you to Daphne Howarth, Rachel Bourdillon, Beth Hall, Carly Stage, Caroline Robinson, Claire Robinson and Joey Brown for their excellent organisation, foraging and arranging skills.

Late Night Shopping

Thank you to all who stopped by at the Sandygate/Holy Trinity stall at Marlow Late Night Shopping yesterday evening. We hope you and your families had a lovely time. Well done to Caroline Robinson who did a phenomenal job arranging the stall for Sandygate and thank you to all the staff who came along to help in the middle of an already busy week.

PFA Christmas at a glance…

‘Tis the season to be jolly…but there is a LOT happening in the next couple of weeks. We have put together a bullet point list below to help you keep up:

Christmas Raffle & Silent Auction

Our Spectacular Silent Auction has launched and is doing brilliantly so far. We have some truly incredible lots this year, including a beautiful gold pearl necklace, 4 tickets to Elf! The Musical (with backstage passes!), a Jabra Headset, haircuts, photoshoots, beauty treatments…you are guaranteed to find something to bid on. The auction closes on 8^th December, so it is the perfect opportunity to try some truly unique Christmas gifts. https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/sandygatechristmas2023

Don’t forget our fabulous raffle will be drawn on Friday 15^th December at our after-school bake sale. Tickets are £1 each and can be sold to anyone: family, friends, grandparents, neighbours; just remember to pop their contact details on all the stubs. Please return the stubs with your payment, in the envelope provided, to the PFA post box before drop off on Friday 15^th December.  The post box can be found just inside the main entrance to school, on the left-hand side of the office. 

Thank you to all the parents and local businesses whose donations and time have made this Christmas fundraising efforts so successful.

Christmas Bake Sale

Plans are afoot to bring you a festive bake sale, the like of which you have never seen. It's never too late to pledge your support. We need your donations of cookies, cakes, muffins, pies, flapjacks, brownies etc.! Home-made or shop bought gratefully accepted – extra points for something festive.  Jo has set up a Google form where you can add what you will be baking for the sale https://forms.gle/3Ku8RYsaYSKziZ3VA. Bakes can be dropped off on Friday 15^th at drop off or Thursday 14^th at pickup.

Social Media

Did you know that you could find & follow us on Facebook and Instagram. The idea of a PFA TikTok has been floated but as yet, we don’t know enough dance routines!

Coming up…

• Christmas Bake Sale & Raffle: Friday 15^th December
• Second Hand Uniform: Friday 12^th January
• Wycombe Wanders Football Event: Monday 15^th January
• Family Bingo: Saturday 3^rd February
• School Disco: Saturday 2^nd March
• Wine & Cheese Tasting Evening: Saturday 16^th March