Ickford News

“A man gets rabbit in his blood and he runs” so says the insidious Captain in Cool Hand Luke (my favourite film) after putting shackles around a recaptured convict who had made a break for freedom. On Tuesday, as I was helping to put the KS1 children on the coach bound for Wendover Woods, I got ‘rabbit’ in my blood, hid under a seat and ‘escaped’ with the children. It was, I hear, quite some time before Mrs Addis, Mr Partington and the indomitable Mme Basnett realised that I was missing and too late to set the hounds on me!

Undaunted by my lack of a packed lunch or suitable clothing I was soon enjoying the feeling of adventure that had seized all of the children as we went in search of the Gruffalo. If I am honest, finding the aforementioned beast was not that difficult and the children had soon shattered Miss Vukomanovic’s vision of an extended exploration full of excitement and suspense by spotting the rather large and dare I say it, rather exposed, Gruffalo as soon as they stepped from the coach!

Our dauntless band did not care, we headed for the ‘den building’ area and spent ages absorbed in moving logs, and branches in our attempts to build the best naturally resourced hideout. I worked with a great team which included Megan, William A, Gabriel, Matilda and Jamie S and managed to come up with a bijou residence fit for Bear Grylls himself!

After exhausting our creative concepts, we enjoyed our lunches ‘al fresco’ and then headed at full speed to the climbing area where the children could really challenge their climbing, swinging, jumping, balancing, laughing, smiling and any other skill required to have fun!

When the time finally came to get back on the coach and return to school, I realised that I may be in trouble. Leaving had been easy but getting back in past my admin team and Mme Basnett suddenly did not seem quite so appealing and trying to look inconspicuous amongst the children is not easy when you are the only bald one!

Of course, I say this in jest as everyone was pleased that I had gone (rather more worrying perhaps) and I really enjoyed spending time with the children under the great care of Miss Vukomanovic who must be thanked for arranging such a great day as must the PTA who covered the costs.

Mr Ronane

Summer Fayre

Tomorrow, May 21st is the day of the May Dancing and Summer Fayre and I look forward to seeing everyone there. I cannot predict the weather although there seem to be several people who are directly in touch with God and have the inside track on momentous storms coming our way (can I have the lottery numbers?).

I went out onto the field today with the Year 6 children and they told me that the Fayre must go on, it must be on the field and that if it rained then everyone should wear appropriate clothing as it was and English summer. So, thank you to the children for being so honest and practical. The Fayre will be on as planned unless there is horrendous rain in which case you will be notified if we have to cancel.

Disgruntled former Teaching Assistant

I had hoped to ignore this but a disgruntled former employee who chose to leave has been saying rather nasty things about us. This is her privilege and would not be the first time it has happened. However, it is now upsetting some of the staff as she appears to have the ears of parents. If anyone would like to come in and discuss this then I am happy to give another side to the story and to explain why the children come first.

Crendon Corinthians

I promised a special mention to this football team as quite a few of our pupils play for them and a team made up of boys from our school, Dylan, Harry, Charlie and Ewan won their first tournament last weekend. If anyone is looking for a nice environment to play football then they may want to explore going up to Long Crendon playing field and joining in.

Mr Gleed

You may have noticed that we have managed to concrete some of the areas on the playground that have for a long time been simply stones. This is thanks to Mr Gleed of HMC who carried out this work completely free of charge as part of his continued sponsorship of our school. I would like to thank him sincerely and his team who were here last Saturday.

Science Week

Next week is Science Week and we have some great activities planned. I know that Mrs Honey has requested a donation of £5 towards costs and I would be very grateful to everyone who could do this. I can assure you of value for money.

9th June
9am / School Photos
24th June
6.30pm / KS2 Summer Music Concert
12th July
1.30-2.30pm / C4/5 performance -Grandparents & pre-school age children welcome
13th July
7pm / C4/5 performance (no pre-school age children please)
30TH June
9am / Ukulele & Guitar Assembly

Academy News

We are still on track to convert to an Academy on June 1st and on this date we will become Ickford School. Please forgive us if the website is undergoing changes during this time. I will be sending out a separate and more detailed letter to outline all of the changes due to the conversion in due course.

Musical Evening

Our musical evening will be taking place on June 24th and many children will be performing. Due to the constraints of space, the evening will be a ticket only affair and tickets will be restricted to 2 per family and over 18’s only. A letter from Mrs Shackleton will be sent out next week with more details.

Hair

Please be aware that boys whose fringes hang below their eye line will be asked to clip them up just as the girls are.

Apology

Two weeks ago I wrote that Mrs Goodman would be joining our team as a teaching assistant after half term when in fact it is Mrs Drummond who will be joining us.

Mr Boardman

Thank you to Mr Boardman who is also a named sponsor of our school who completed a number of works at the school last weekend. The work he has carried out has ensured Health and Safety compliance and helps a great deal in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your children.

Boardman Windows

Sponsors of

Ickford Combined School