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Butcombe Newsletter

Dr Wendy Bowring, the Headmistress of Clifton College's Butcombe Pre-Preparatory and Nursery School, writes a regular newsletter for parents and friends of the school.

Archive...

Newsletter 8

Dear Parents,

At last half term is here, and everyone at Butcombe is ready for a well-deserved rest. It has been a busy half term, and looks to be equally so in the second half. Science Week was a roaring success, so please ask your children to tell you what they did. We will, of course, put a selection of photos on the digital screen in Butcombe entrance hall.

Operation Christmas Child

Once again Butcombe is taking part in the Operation Christmas Child campaign. For those new parents who are unaware of what this is, it is an enjoyable and rewarding way in which you and your child can directly help children in war-torn communities and those who are suffering from poverty, famine and disease around the world. The project is run by the charity ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ and has been running for eighteen years. Last year Samaritan’s Purse in the UK sent over 1.2 million shoeboxes to children across Eastern and Central Europe.

The children of Butcombe are invited to fill a shoe box with small gifts and goodies for either a boy or a girl of one of three age-groups. The boxes should be decorated with Christmas paper (though not wrapped up as a parcel) and brought in to school by Monday 15th November at the latest. A £2.50 donation is also requested to help with the cost of transportation. With the help of thousands of volunteers, Samaritan’s Purse collects and processes these gift-filled shoe boxes, then, working with national churches and charities, the gifts are delivered to children in hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps, homeless shelters and impoverished neighbourhoods across the globe.

Accompanying this newsletter is a leaflet explaining exactly what to include in the shoe box, and how to label the box so that it can easily be processed. In past years we have enjoyed building a huge wall of shoe boxes in the school hall, and have had great fun creating a long ‘human chain’ to pass the boxes out to the collection van when it arrived. Many parents have commented on just how much they have enjoyed filling the box with their child, giving them the opportunity to really give at Christmas time. It has become something of a tradition in my home - my children and I still look forward to putting together a box or two over half-term. I do hope you will support the campaign and enjoy the whole process.

Today in Celebration Assembly, Mrs Shurety told the children about Operation Christmas Child and showed them a sample box of goodies, so your children will know what is needed and you may like the details to get cracking over half term. The Christmas boxes will be collected on Thursday 18th November, following which they start their journey across Europe.

Please bring filled shoe boxes to Butcombe Hall any time after half-term.

Charities

Thank you for supporting ‘Pink Friday’ today – the children looked great in their pink clothing. It is too soon to tell you what was raised on the day, but I can let you know how much has been made at other events over the half term:

£240.00 - Macmillan Coffee Morning, for Macmillan Cancer Care
£486.25 - Book Fair refreshments and second-hand uniform sales, charity to be decided
£100.83 - Harvest Festival, for the Children’s Hospice South West

Book Fair

At the Book Fair over £1500.00 was taken in sales on the day, which means Butcombe has £900 to spend on books (not just those on sale at the fair). £215 from second-hand book sales and sundry items which will be spent on Science Books.

Rugby Result

Congratulations to the Rugby Club who took part in a very entertaining game against QEH last Friday. Although our visitors scored more tries than our outstandingly spectacular three (just a little bit of bias there), it was a particularly impressive result considering all but four of our team were Y2 pupils. Things look very promising for the future!

All that remains is for me to wish you and your families a thoroughly enjoyable half term, and we look forward to seeing everyone after the break for a busy and profitable time in the build-up to Chr...(no, it’s too early to mention the word!)

With best wishes,

22 October 2010

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