Newsletter 6

Autumn Term 2014

Good Things Grow Here

Thank you to

Nyree and Anna-Mai who attended the Chester School Sport Partnership Playground Leaders course during
February half term in Blacon. The areas covered during their included Organisational skills, Communication
skills, Fair play and the STEP Principle of organisation Space, Task, Equipment and People. We are looking
forward to Nyree and Anna-Mai sharing their skills with the other children.

Christmas Jumper Day

Make the World Better with a Sweater! We will be supporting Save the
Childrens Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 12 December again this year!
Each child has the option of bringing in 1 and wearing their own seasonal
jumper (not necessarily Christmas themed if you prefer) for the day. The
money raised goes to support the work of Save the Children across the world
and at home. Just 2 will pay for potentially lifesaving antibiotics to treat 3 babies with infections. For
more information visit the website http://jumpers.savethechildren.org.uk/.

100 Years remembered at Mill View

Last week, the whole school watched a National School Assembly,
broadcasted by Discovery Education. During the assembly the children
listened to war poetry and songs read and sung by school children all
in the grounds of the Tower of London. They were introduced to the
artist of the magnificent art installation, who talked about his plans for
the poppies and his feelings now that the project is complete.
During the week beginning 24 November, the children will be involved in a whole school art
workshop to commemorate 100 years of the First World War. Inspired by the magnificent Tower
of London display of poppies, we will endeavour to recreate out own sea of poppies, which will
take pride of place in the ICT suite replacing the Face Britain artwork. The children will work on
their own piece of art work for one of the days during the week, and will need to come to school
in old clothes. Your class teacher will let you know which day.
The question that was asked during the assembly was:
What does remembrance mean to you?
We will be asking each child that same question and their response will be included in their piece
of artwork. We would be grateful if you could spend 5 minutes talking to your child about
remembrance, and ask them how the remembrance service made them feel. If you want to jot
down your childs response and send it into school that would be great. Please give it to your class
teacher with their name on it. Photographs of the art work will be posted on the school website,
so be sure to look out for them.
Fill a Shoebox with Care
One of our families is collecting shoeboxes filled with care to distribute to the orphans and poor families in
Romania this December. Mr and Mrs Morris would be extremely grateful if you could return your filled
shoeboxes to school between before 19 November. Thank you.

Christmas Lunch

To say thank you to our families supporting the

Windmill Caf we would like to invite our Key Stage 2
children to have a hot Christmas lunch free of charge.
Our Reception, Year 1 and 2 children are entitled to their
meal free as usual. Please look out for your childs
Christmas invitation over the next few weeks.

ParentMail

Please do not respond to ParentMail text messages as the SMS texts do not tell us who you are. Thank
you.

Have you seen that our website now has Google Translate on it?
The Google translate icon can be found on the bottom right hand side of
the screen and gives you the opportunity to translate contents of the
website, including newsletters and policies, into a range of over
60 languages including Arabic, Hindi, Thai and Japanese. Thank you to
Mr Gilbert for installing this.

Christian Aids Harvest Appeal

Thank you to our school community at Mill View Primary, Upton who
hosted a fantastic Sunflower Bake Off at school today, and raised 160 for
Christian Aid's Harvest Appeal.
The children and parents worked to bake cakes and other items containing
sunflower seeds, in order to raise money and awareness for the Sunflower
Harvest Appeal. Christian Aid are providing Sunflower seeds to farmers in
Burundi as it is a high yield crop that will grow in a particularly tough
climate. The children at Mill View worked with a volunteer with Christian Aid to learn all about their work
and how this crop is saving lives. Mrs Hetherington said, "it was a privilege to see our school community
come together for a fantastic cause. I didn't know there was so much you could do with a simple
sunflower seed!"

Christmas Trips

Our children in Years 1 to 6

(Years 1 -3 on Wednesday 17 December &

are visiting St Marys Centre,

Chester to see Theatre in the Quarter present a magical
musical play based on the classic Lewis Carroll tale, Alice.
Fundraising by Mill View PTA and school fundraising has
enabled the cost of the trip to be significantly reduced for the
children and we are extremely grateful to the members of our PTA for providing this
opportunity for all our children.
Years 4 6 on Thursday 18 December)

Reception children will be visiting Erddig on Tuesday 09 December and this trip will
also be reduced for all children.
We are requesting a voluntary contribution of 3 for each child from parents to fund the trips. However, if
there are insufficient voluntary contributions made to cover the cost we may need to cancel the visit as we
would not want to discriminate against any individual children or families. We do appreciate the financial
challenges for our families and consider the cost very carefully before booking trips.
Payment and approval for all school trips throughout the school year can be paid via ParentMail. This
enables families to budget and pay in instalments.

Non Uniform Day

Preparations for our Handpicked Christmas Market are well on their way
and the PTA would like to ask our families for donations to the Christmas
Hampers. On Friday 28 November we are inviting the children to
come into school in non-uniform clothing (not fancy dress) for a donation to the raffle. This year the theme
for each class is ECO friendly products, organic products, Fairtrade products, handmade gifts or ethically
sourced products. The PTA will collect the donations on the playground in the morning. Thank you.

Inspiring Our Children in Sport

Thank you so much for supporting your child in our recent sporting event. The total
money raised was 1303.30. By taking part in the Sports for Champions sponsored
healthy lifestyle challenge Mill View raised 395.32 to help Olympian athlete Rebekah
Wilson, who is locally based, continue to pursue her career as an athlete. Rebekah
has lost all her funding and the sponsorship money will fund her new sprint spikes. She
was extremely grateful to our school.
Rebekah shared her story about how she was selected to
represent Great Britain at the Winter Olympics this year, inspiring the children, and
raising awareness of a sport they may not have been familiar with, motivating them
to actively try something new. Rebekahs story not only inspired the children to
compete and succeed in sport but also encouraged them to strive to become the
best they could be and succeed in everything they do. The children had fun and
enjoyed taking part in the circuit and asked some fantastic questions about
Rebekahs career. Rebekah has inspired children at our school to want to become
champions and become more involved with local sports clubs and competitions. We also raised 907.98
through sponsorship for our school which will go towards new sports equipment (e.g. new competitive
sports kits, new balancing equipment for outside, Frisbees, large balls for Early Years and dancing ribbon
sticks). To hear about how Rebekahs dream became a reality have a look at the ITV news interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5J6INfGk6I. Also read her email to us below.
Dear All,
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the children, staff, parents and guardians at Mill
View for their invaluable support. I am very fortunate to be able to visit schools all over the UK to educate
and inspire future champions. I just hope you all had a great afternoon.
It was a pleasure to work with you all and I hope to see you soon!
Perhaps you will see me on the TV in the new sprint spikes that some of the sponsorship raised will be
going towards :)
Have a wonderful Christmas, be happy and follow your dreams!
Rebekah Wilson
Winter Olympian 2014
2 Woman Bobsleigh

Diary Dates
Friday 21 November - Childrens Commissioners Take Over Day
Tuesday 25 November Family Learning Session 9am 11am (Rec; Year 1 & 2) Making Story Sacks
Friday 28 November PTA Non Uniform Day & Childrens Film Night
Tuesday 2 December Reception visit to Upton Library
Saturday 06 December Inter School Cross Country
Friday 05 December Year 5 bag packing at Marks and Spencer, Cheshire Oaks with PTA
Saturday 06 December Handpicked Christmas Market
Tuesday 09 December Reception Visit to Christmas at Erddig
Wednesday 10 December Key Stage 2 Carol Service at Upton Holy Ascension
Thursday 11 December 1.30pm Choir Carol Singing at Marks and Spencer, Cheshire Oaks
Friday 12 December Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children, Year 2 cake sale
Monday 15 December 10am Choir Carol Singing at Marks and Spencer, Cheshire Oaks
Monday 15 December 1.30pm Reception, Year 1 & 2 Christmas Play
Tuesday 16 December Christmas Lunch in the Windmill Caf for all children
Wednesday 17 December Alice Musical Production at St Marys Centre, Chester for Years 1 to 3
Thursday 18 December Alice Musical Production at St Marys Centre, Chester for Years 4 to 6
Friday 19 December Year 6 bag packing at Morrisons, Upton
Friday 19 December - School closes for the Christmas holiday