Newsletter 3rd February 2015

Newsletter 3rd February 2015

Parental class called Goed, beter, best
We like te repeat once again that all parents of children attending either Ukkepukkies or one of the infant groups of Oranjeschool can attend the special parental class called Goed, beter, best. Tomorrow (and every Wednesday afterwards). Even if you had not yet handed in your application do not hesitate and attend the meeting at 8.30am in the room upstairs near to the elevator and get to know more about the programme
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National infant activity: Voorleesdagen
Teacher Lotte was looking for a farmer, did you manage, Ms Lotte? Farmer Boris is a real nice farmer, is he not? You will probably succeed or may be not? Perhaps it would be best to keep on looking out for a nice farmer. The farmer was rather nice and he felt quite at home reading to the children. During this morning I saw a number of farm animals like cows, pigs and many more animals that live at a farm.
School family service
For Sunday 8th February, we have planned the annual school family service in the church called Prinses Julianakerk located at the Tesselseplein. A number of children are busy rehearsing for the choir or playing the violin! Some children will even recite a poem.
We hope you will all be able to attend the service where the theme will be “Welcome in church”.
Group 8
Secondary education. The children of group 8 are going through exciting times at the moment, since the children had the conversations in which the teacher discusses their school advice with their parents. Children and parents are busy trying to find the next school they will be heading for after Oranjeschool. Registration is possible but you will all hear whether you have been accepted after the final tests for CiTO. This year, for the first time, the children will be doing those tests in the first week of April. Until then the children need to be patience but they also get to practice a little extra for the final tests. We like to wish both the children and the group 8 teacher lots of strength keeping himself and the children motivated.
Work week for groups 7 and 8
Monday, 9th February next, children of groups 7 and 8 will be able to make a special bus trip to Wilhelminaoord, which is located in Drenthe, an entirely different province. The children will be spending a number of days there. The location is special since all schools in The Hague will visit the place for a number of days for the traditional work week. The house, that is built by gemeente Den Haag for all elementary schools in the Hague. The children will do a number of special activities; visiting the historical town called Zwolle, building cabines and participating in many different activities including the trip going by bike. Children of group 5 will have to miss their favorite teacher for a while but they will have a fine substitute teacher called Marianne. The after school activities done by Ms Mariëlle Sabee are being cancelled as well, since she will be joining the groups and teachers heading for Wilhelminaoord. We like to wish everyone a splendid time!
Birthday celebrations: handing out treats
Children celebrating birthdays get to hand out treats to the teachers as well. We like to start the year with a minor change: Children only go to groups located at the same floor as their group. This way, things do not change for the infants who were not allowed to use any stairs all by themselves. For groups 3 and 4 this means that they stay at the ground floor. The only exception are children of groups 5-8 who are allowed to go to group 6 and vice versa (group 6 is allowed to visit groups 5,7, 8 including Taal). All this is to guard that children spend their time doing school work. We would, however, like to see more healthy treats. Check out some ideas at www.kindertraktaties.nl. During the past week we saw a number of healthy treats, which we really appreciate! Candy being treated to the children will be given to the children to be eaten at home.
Lice check:
Hooray, we are still free of lice. Unfortunately, we are no longer free of nits. The groups concerned received a letter and will have extra checks. Please keep checking the children’s heads by combing the wet hairs, since the next check will be on Friday 6th February 2015.
Lunch hour
Children can only spend their lunch hour at school when a card for lunch has been bought with Ms Hannie in the kitchen upstairs. Ms Hannie is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Could you also please fill in the form at our school website? This way we get to make an overview for the teacher what the children’s regular days will be for having lunch hour at school. Without a card for lunch hour children cannot spend their lunch hour at school. We like to thank you in advance.
Coming to school too late:
Many children still enter the school after the second bell, which is too late. We would like to stress that coming to school on time is a necessity. It is not good for anyone if children enter the classroom late. When children of groups 3-8 are late: it is no longer necessary to get a “red” card, since sometimes that could mean loss of time (and at times even disturbing the group twice). The teacher makes note of children that enter the group late. The first bell is at 8.25am, if everyone could make sure to be in the group at that time, the lessons could actually start at 8.30am. (second bell) When children come late to school too often we have the obligation to notify the Hague department for leerplicht, which is when children are late 9 times or more.
It goes without saying, that children cannot go home earlier without any particular reason. The teacher or member of the direction needs to be informed prior to taking your child home earlier with a legitimate reason. (doctor’s appointment, or any other appointment during school hours)
School trip Thursday 30 April 2015 we can look forward to the annual Oranjeschool school trip! This time, we made arrangements for amusement park Drievliet.
The expenses will be estimated at an amount of €25 per child. For now, we are busy calculating and you will be informed additionally about the exact amount.
Applying as guide for the group is not necessary just yet, since it is not clear for us yet what number we need to think of per group.
The school trip will be for the groups 1-6, since groups 7 and 8 will be off to Werk week. We will inform you separately as soon as possible.
Calling sick/ absence
Could you please contact our school when your child is ill before school starts (which is at 8.30am) using phone number 070-3540457. This is new policy which we are obligated to do on account of leerplicht. We need to get a phone call from home as long as your child is ill (or not feeling well) every day, preferably before the lessons start. This is another obligation of the department of leerplicht. The administration makes a round along the groups and in case the teacher had not yet received a message from you then you can expect a phone call from school. If we still do not get contact with you we are obliged to report that your child is absence illegitimately and when a child is absence more than 2 days we need to inform the department for leerplicht. That is the reason why we like to stress that you please let us know on daily basis that your child is absence, for which we like to thank you in advance. In case of an appointment for doctor(GP), dentist or any other appointment, please hand your child a note to inform the teacher. The teacher has a standard note that can be used.
Taalklas for infants At our school, a pilot just started on 12th January; a Taalklas for infants. In this group the teacher likes to emphasize learning Dutch in a playful way, particularly for children of the ages 4 and 5 years. The teacher’s name is Saskia van der Schans who will be guided by HCO (The Hague organisation for guiding primary education)!
Spelenderwijs
Every Wednesday between 8.30am and 10.30am the group called Spelenderwijs can be attended by children of the ages between 2 and 2 ½ years old with a parent at the Ukkepukkies
The group works along with the same themes that the Ukkepukkies work with. This way, children get to get used to the teachers, the structure and rhythm of the day.
Ukkepukkies
The parents of children attending Ukkepukkies have been invited as well to attend the school family service at Prinses Juliana church. We hope you will be able to join in this activity with your child. You will come, won’t you?
In the month of February, we like to visit the library as well.
The dates and schedules are mentioned below: please put the dates in your agenda so you will be able to visit the library with your child!!!
Thursday 5th February, at 10.15am the blue group will visit the library.
Thursday 5th February, at 1pm the yellow group will visit the library.
Monday 9th February, at 1.00 pm the red group will visit the libary.
Last week, we finalized the theme called Hatsjoe with the children who brought a doll or teddy bear who was sick to be checked out by the GP. Fortunately, the children had not that many teddy bears or dolls that were sick.
The next theme we will work on, will have everything to do with the circus. In this theme as well, we have planned a number of activities for spel inloop for which the schedule will be as follows: with Theme Circus:
Thursday 12th February next for all the groups.
Wednesday 18th February next for the red group.
Friday 20th February for the yellow and blue groups.
Monday 2nd March for all the groups
Tuesday 24th March for all the groups
This will be the final activity for spel inloop with Circus theme, for which it would be nice if you could all attend the activity.
We wish you a nice week!