FRIENDS OF W.I.S.

H NEWSLETTER

Issue 6

W.I.S.H.

Friends of

Newsletter
20th December 2013
Hannah & Matthew at the Christingle Service Photographs by P.Lack IN THIS ISSUE

Pheasants & Presents & Christmas Events

Welcome to the last newsletter of 2013! And what an eventful year it has been. Little did we imagine what we were taking on when we first formed as a fledgling group back in February to try and find a way a way forward for the School after that first meeting with the Council. It has been, and continues to be, an almost all consuming venture but one that has delivered one that has delivered so many rewarding experiences, being able to see the children develop and grow as individuals and their enthusiasm for learning is just infectious! Watching them thrive over the past term has made all the hard work and struggles worth it. The word educate has its roots in the Latin educere meaning to lead or draw out, a definition that more keenly fits our view of education than the more modern to impart knowledge by formal instruction. It has been fascinating to watch our beliefs be validated by the way the children have responded to the fabulous and rich learning environment provided for them at the school, and how skillfully this is being facilitated by our amazing teachers. We would like to thank them for all their hard work and dedication over the past term. Our various Christmas fund raising efforts and several more very generous individual donations have helped swell the coffers by over 2000, which puts us well on the way towards our 20,000 target for the year. Having adequate funding is still a constant issue for us however, so do please come and support our events next year, starting with a coffee morning

Fundraising Updates
How are well are we progressing towards our target? Page 2

Can You Help?

Do you have a few hours to spare? Page 2

W.I.S.H.
The School Page! Find out how the children are getting on. Page 3

Friends of W.I.S.H.
The latest membership news. Page 4

COFFEE MORNING
Saturday 25th January 10-12pm at Whitbourne School Join us for a chat over a cup of coffee and slice of cake

Contact details
How to get in touch. Page 4 coffee morning at the school on the 25th January.

FRIENDS OF W.I.S.H NEWSLETTER | Issue 6

Can You Help?

Now that the school has been operating for a term we have been able to identify several areas key areas where volunteer help is most needed to help the school run more smoothly and efficiently. The first, and most keenly needed, is support staff for the school. We need a third adult who is able to sit in the office, answering the phone and greeting any visitors that may arrive to stop the teachers being interrupted in the middle of lessons. This is not something that would require a commitment to a regular time and day every week. With a bit of organization we should be able to operate it like the shop rota with peopling filling in as and when they have the time. The second area is for a classroom based volunteer on a Wednesday. We would ideally like this person/s to have already had experience working in a classroom setting and to be prepared to help out on a more regular basis than that required for the support role. This is principally to be able to provide the children with some continuity, consistency and stability. Linda Dodds will be contacting everyone who has previously indicated that they may be able to offer some time to help out in the school before the Spring term starts on the 13 th January. However if there is anyone else out there who feels they would be able to offer some assistance, please contact her on 01886 821445. As a small group we are also finding it difficult to find the time to organize as many fund raising events as we would like to. It would help us out enormously if we had a few more people (or groups of people) who were able to run an event for us. If we had 6 different people able to do something each for the first 6 months of the year that would free up so much time and allow us to concentrate on the important aspects of school development and following up alternative sources of funding (an exceptionally time consuming and paperwork heavy task!)

One in A Hundred?
Buy a square and help us reach our 20,000 target
Each square represents a different annual donation those we have received have a smiley face

Could you be

If you are a UK taxpayer your donation could be worth even more to us through Gift-aid Even the smallest amount can make a difference (50 is less than 1 per week!)

Christmas Draw

W.I.S.H.

THANK YOU
We would like to thank all the companies and individuals who were able to donate a prize to our various Christmas fund raising activities. Thanks must go to: Linda & Mark Dodds for the 2 night stay in their Snowdonian Cottage The Severn Valley Railway for a family day ticket to their wonderful railway Cargills Hereford for the 25 voucher for their retail shop on Grandstand Rd, Hereford The Village Shop who donated a beautiful tin of teas and a chutney gift set All the individual members of the community who donated a fantastic selection of things that made it possible for us to create a number of amazing hampers, provide prizes for two raffles and also the bingo!

Winning ticket numbers

1st (2 night holiday in Snowdonia) - 0013 2nd (Severn Valley Railway family ticket) - 0357 3rd (Christmas Hamper) - 0040 4th (3 bottle of Wine) - 0588 5th (25 Cargill's Vouchers) - 0448 6th (biscuits & Tea gift pack) - 0123 7th (bottle of Sherry) - 0208 8th (Box of Ferrero Rocher) - 0486 9th (Box of Quality Street) - 0358 10th (Hot Chocolate Gift set) - 0451 11th (photo frame & earrings) - 0323 12th (Christmas Chocolates) - 0253 13th (Assorted games) - 0431 14th (Picture & window decals) - 0572 Congratulations to everyone who won and thank you to everyone who bought a ticket.

A great turn out for our Christmas Fair, and a fantastic day

FRIENDS OF W.I.S.H NEWSLETTER | Issue 6

W.I.S.H.
Whitbourne C of E Independent School & Hub www.wishlearning.com
Christmas Nativity

School Days
By Matt Bennett
The Christmas season has been great at WISH. The children have been inventive and enterprising. Cards and gift tags have been made alongside custom wrapping paper and paper-chains. All the costings and special offers were calculated for our very successful Christmas Fair and all the money raised is going towards making sure that WISH is an ever increasingly exciting place to learn. In Maths, the older age groups have been tackling a wide range of problems, from code breaking with Mike Tobin to making card games that help mental arithmetic speeds. Physical actions are now associated with many mathematical concepts so feel free to ask Josh what the action for "Isosceles Triangle" is - you'll be amazed! Our forest experiences are gathering pace. We've had several fires and now have multiple rope swings (independently constructed), a seesaw and various slides, of both the muddy and not-so-muddy variety.

FOREST SCHOOL
One of the unique opportunities we have at WISH is open access to our own Forest Site throughout the week, generously donated to the school by the Evans family at Longlands Farm. This site is, and can be, used for many different things. With imagination and creativity, any curriculum area or teaching subject can be taught outside. However, this is not what we describe as 'Forest School'. Reading, writing, phonics, maths, science and geography are regularly taking place alongside times when the children are increasingly connecting with nature and their own creativity. 'Forest School', however, stands proud of this outdoor learning. The ethos and vision behind 'Forest School' is largely centred around three main areas of development: Self-esteem Confidence Emotional Intelligence It is well recognised that time outside, in an appropriately free and safe environment, touches the human soul. When surrounded by woodland and wildlife, and with all the senses being calmly stimulated, children (and adults!) find themselves able to just be themselves. There are boundaries and rules for respect and safety reasons, but largely Forest School sessions are child-initiated, led and reflected upon. There is an encouragement throughout sessions to be creative, use materials readily available in the wood and we have found that naturally conversation, explanation and evaluation all come pouring out through genuine interactions between the children themselves or between children and the facilitating adults. There are many conversations about risk-taking as children work out how far to climb up a tree, there is the realisation that often working as a part of a team allows you to get more done, there is simply time to process all that has gone on in their, and our, lives and in an evermore pressurised society this may well be the only quiet 'me' time they experience in the week. In the next Forest School write up I will endeavour to talk about the reasons for, use of and impact of making fire at our woodland site.

The children have been learning lots about their emotions and those of others and we have begun discussing, processing and naming a wide range of emotions that we all seem to have at least once a day! This 'emotional intelligence' is a key part to helping all children and adults cope with changes, adapt to situations and gain empathy for others around them. On a lighter note, the school is draped in many Christmas decorations and fairy lights and we're looking forward to a few surprises towards the last few days. However, I'm not sure if we can top the real-life Longlands Farm Nativity, with real baby and procession of shepherds guiding actual sheep! Do check out the website for the latest news and updates.

Christmas Poem
By Hannah & Emily (age 6 & 5)

Christmas

Upon a star, you can look far. The Girls twirl, the boys want their toys,

Our Christmas tree, that was free, BOYS and JOYS Had lots of presents, under the With lots of TOYS pheasants. The laughs of calves In the barn of the farm When the pheasants are roasting And the presents need unwrapping The bow on the Christmas tree The snow on field And a happy new year

by Josh (aged 9)

FRIENDS OF W.I.S.H NEWSLETTER | Issue 6

What a fantastic month! We were all extremely pleased to have our 100 th Friend, Alistair Maxwell-Stewart signed up at the Christmas Fair. This meant that we were able to hold our 100 prize draw which took place at the Bingo Evening on the 14 th December. Congratulations to our winner, Karen McGowan, who is hopefully enjoying her Christmas Hamper! Dont forget that the next draw will take place when we reach 150 friends (only 37 to go!) and the prize on offer when we get there is a voucher for a meal for 2 courtesy of our local fine dining establishment, Green Cow Kitchens. Our various christmas fund raising efforts proved very successful! The Christmas Fair & Bingo Evening raised almost 600 between them. It was fantastic to see so many people, both from the village and outside, at the Fair and the School had a fantastic buzz around it for most of the day! As well as new Friends signing up, we also had interest from several parents of potential pupils and received some further, very generous, individual donations that will go a long way to helping the School in the New Year and beyond. The Bingo provided an enjoyable evenings entertainment for all who came many of whom had never played before. A big thank you must go to our caller for the evening, Jenni, who helped the event run so smoothly. Our Whitbourne 2014 calendars were extremely well received and we are pleased to say we sold the lot! Thank you to all our photograph contributors, Alice Evans, Rachel Evans, Liz Graham, Liz Cousins and especially Paul Lack who not only allowed his photograph files to be raided, but also spent many hours editing the images. Thank you all for your support over the past year and we would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Hope to see you all again in 2014!

Friends of

WHO TO CONTACT
MAGAZINE EDITOR
Anna Adshead 821887 or 07903 763899

W.I.S.H.

MEMBERSHIP ENQUIRIES
Anna Adshead as above

FUNDRAISING CO-ORDINATOR
Deb Walker 07814 399918

SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS

Linda Dodds 01886 821445

- CLASSROOM & SUPPORT

- MAINTAINANCE - ADMIN

Rebecca Finch 07855 044940 Anna Marshall 07790 886432 Or email - info@friendsofwish.co.uk
________________________________________________________

SCHOOL ENQUIRIES
Sheenagh Davis 07812 060549 Matthew Bennett 07846 088379 Or email info@wishlearning.com

Dene Hollow, Whitbourne, WR6 5RN www.friendsofwish.co.uk www.facebook.com/FriendsofWISH

Friends of W.I.S.H. Newsletter

BECOME A FRIEND OF W.I.S.H

Please help support us by signing up to become a Friend of WISH. Membership is open to everyone, is completely free and does not commit you volunteering, participating in the school or attending fund raising events (though we would love it if you were able to do some or all of these things!) Becoming a member is simply one of the easiest ways to demonstrate your interest and support for Whitbourne School. As a member you will receive a copy of our regular newsletter enabling you to stay up to date with new developments and the progress of the School. Should you wish to further your support for the school by offering some financial assistance you will enjoy an advanced level of membership and will receive, in addition to the newsletter, a discount at any event organised by friends of WISH. Name________________________________________________________ email _____________________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone ________________________ Please send the Friends of W.I.S.H. newsletter to my email/home address (delete as appropriate) Please tick the box if you wish to become an advanced member further details about how you can donate will be sent to you and a committee member can visit you to help fill in the forms if you would like them to. Please indicate below if you are interested supporting the school by volunteering Fundraising/events Publicity/newsletter Non classroom (eg maintenance/cleaning/admin) Please return your completed form to: Any of the Friends of WISH committee members The Village Shop Dene Hollow, Whitbourne, WR6 5RN Teaching/Classroom help Other ___________________