Junior Boys Bulletin
Claires Court Maidenhead - from Nursery to Sixth Form
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Mr Spanswick's Words Autumn 1
Mr Spanswick's Words Autumn 1
Welcome back, and a warm welcome to all of our new parents and pupils to the school. Every week I will be writing some thoughts, comments and my highlights of the week in this blog, and hopefully it will give you a little flavour of the things the...
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Friday 08 SeptemberNew Parents introduction to PTA2:30pm - 3:30pm
Friday 08 SeptemberHouse Winners Treat4:00pm - 6:00pm
Monday 11 SeptemberJunior Boys Individual PhotographsAll Day
Monday 11 SeptemberB3-6 Curriculum Meetings9:00am - 9:30am
Tuesday 12 SeptemberY6 Bucks Preparation TestAll Day
Tuesday 12 SeptemberBR-2 Curriculum Meetings9:00am - 9:30am
Thursday 14 SeptemberY6 Bucks Secondary Transfer TestAll Day
Friday 15 SeptemberYR First School Photo tbcAll Day
Friday 15 SeptemberJB Tour Fund Raiser5:00pm - 6:00pm
Thursday 21 SeptemberSPEECH DAY - Senior & Sixth Form12:30pm - 4:30pm
Friday 22 SeptemberY2 Trip to The RyeAll Day
Friday 22 SeptemberY5 Marchants HillAll Day
From the Office
Coaches
Late coaches begin next week Monday 11 September.

Reminders and a few changes:
  • In the mornings, our school bell will sound at 8.45am rather than 8.50am. This is to gather the boys together earlier as they tend to take a while to get to their classrooms and onto assembly! This will not affect our bus service or any other timings.
  • The Kiss and Drop service runs from 8.30am at the front of the school and there will be staff present to see the boys into school. If pupils arrive before this time they will join our Breakfast Club.
  • Junior Girls are able to be dropped off with us for Breakfast Club and will be transferred to the college site at 8.15am. Further details are available below. Mr Grose, who runs our morning club, is also delighted to announce that bacon rolls will be on sale along with cereal, yogurts and toast.
  • While you will have access to the staff email addresses, we would urge you to use the Homework Diary (Yr 2-6) and Reading Record (Rec and Yr1) as the first point of contact with the form tutor. This is seen every morning, and any little notes or messages can be passed back and forth in these booklets.
  • Our Car Park remains too small, but hopefully our strategies to alleviate the bottleneck periods are working, and more will be introduced as we move through the term. I would ask that Reception and Year 1 use the pick up service on Wednesday and Friday afternoons at 3.30pm (at the front of the school) whenever possible, and the 4pm-4.30pm stagger on Friday is still available for Years 2-6.
  • After School Study, homework club and rugby start next week, all other activities will start the following week.
Library Open Morning - 14 September, 8.15-8.30. More details here.

Jeans for Genes - Friday 22 September
School will be supporting this charity, we will ‘Wear Jeans Change Lives’ on this day, we ask for a donation of £1 for the pleasure of wearing your jeans to school for the day.  This is staff too.

NEW INTER-SITE TRANSFER
For the benefit of our parents with children at both Junior Boys and College Avenue a new inter-site transfer has been introduced and will run each day from Junior Boys to College Avenue departing each morning at 8.15 am, and from College Avenue to Junior Boys departing at 16.00. Further information can be found here.

Rabbits  
The Rabbit winners this week are Jack Toker and Oliver Thorpe. Both Jack and Oliver had a super first day in school, where they supported their friends and new boys really well, and helped their new form tutors with kindness and thoughtfulness. Oliver volunteered without hesitation to sit next to a new boy in class to help him settle in at Junior Boys, clearly demonstrating our golden rules. Well done to both Jack and Oliver.
SPORTS FIXTURES AND RESULTS
New In The Junior LibrariesNew In The Junior Libraries

Over the summer the Junior libraries have had a re-vamp! Junior Boys received lots of new books using the money raised at their Travelling Book Fair before the holidays.
Next Stop... The Americas!

The worldly adventure continued as Holiday Activities celebrated in the good old USA. There was a lot of patriotic red, white and blue fun including a giant game of ‘Capture the American Flag’.  Throughout the week children...
Next Stop... The Americas!
Holiday Activities Travel to EuropeHoliday Activities Travel to Europe

Last week we were fortunate to experience a few sunny days as the children hopped across the pond to say “bonjour” to the sights, sounds and tastes of Europe. From windmill crafts, castle building and fuzzy felt beach scenes to...
News from the Sports Master
A huge welcome back to all pupils and parents. We as staff are all looking forward to the rugby season ahead and fixture cards were given out to all pupils this week and should have arrived home. Fixture details can also be found on the school's website under the Parents section. With our first fixtures coming quickly, it was great to see so many Year 4, 5 & 6 pupils turn up to pre-season training. These three Year groups all have fixtures next week so bearing that in mind your son will be bringing home a letter that details how we as a Sports Department go about selecting pupils for the various teams. Our aim is to always do what is best for the pupils to nurture them as individual sportsmen.

All pupils in Year 4, 5 & 6 will need a gum shield for every Games lesson. We would also like to encourage all base layers worn under rugby kit to be either black or dark blue. These two things will unable you son to be both safe and smart on the rugby field.

We look forward to seeing many parents on the sidelines supporting their sons and the school through the course of this term.

News from the Chess Master
Whilst afternoon chess does not get underway until Monday 18 September, there is still a lot to write about.

Téo Rybak and Houning (Kida) Zhu played in the Delancey Terafinal, the concluding round of the largest chess tournament in the world which began, for us, back in February in the dining room. Both of our boys finished with 3.5 points from 6 round - a fine performance. Both boys defeated opponents who out-graded them, which bodes really well for this year! Kida also ventured out to warm and sunny North Wales to play in the British Championship in Llandudno. Kida finished 6th= in the U9s with 4.5/6, only one point off the lead. Not only this, Kida then played up an age group to finish 7th =  in U10s with 4.5 /7! Very well done!

The 17th Claires Court PTA Chess Festival will take place on Saturday 11 November 2017. We hope that the tournament will be as successful as in previous years. Entry forms are available from me or by downloading this link. There is one 30 minute lessons with Mr Tuck available this year. If anyone would like a lesson (or would like another one) please get in touch with me - first come, first served!
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Ridgeway, The Thicket, Maidenhead, SL6 3QE
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