Happy Christmas

December 2014
Mon 15th
Tue 16th
	Lower School Church Service @ 2.30 pm
	Transition Christmas Party 2 - 5 pm
Wed 17th
	Upper School Church Service @ 2.30 pm
	autumn term ends A Happy Christmas to all visitors to this blog.  I have included a video which can be left on in the background while you peel your sprouts or stuff your turkey.

Monday 8th December

December 2014
Mon 8th
Tue 9th
	Rehearsals for Christmas Production
Wed 10th
Thu 11th
Fri 12th
	Transition Christmas Concert 11 a.m.
	Singing at Southwell Court p.m.
Sat 13th
	Christmas productions A busy week at Salterford House.  Looking forward to the performances on Saturday evening.  Fingers crossed that we don't have any weather problems and need the "shovel army" called into action. The choir are performing in Southwell on Friday afternoon. Can you answer any of these questions. 1.  "Christian children all must be mild, obedient, good as he." The prescriptive lyrics from which Victorian carol? 2.  Add the number of drummers drumming to the amount of golden rings, then subtract how many maids were a milking, and what do you get? 3.  "Its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom." Which of the three kings' gifts had these properties?

The first Salterford House Snail Race

A thrilling race took place in Year One on Friday.  Over an official distance of 13 inches, nine snails battled their way to the ultimate prize.  A nail biting six minutes ended when Charlie's snail crossed the finish line in first place.  After a photo finish, second and third went to Luca and Jan.

December 2014
Mon 1st
	Preprep Assembly
Tue 2nd
Wed 3rd
	Rehearsal for Years 3 and 4 - pick up 4.30p.m.
Thu 4th
	Trip to Pantomime
Fri 5th
	GedlingPop Lacrosse Festival

Snails

Mon 24th
	Year 3 Assembly
Tue 25th
	ISA Under 9 10 and 11 Regional swimming gala
Wed 26th
	Under 11 Mixed Hockey v. Saville House 2p.m. Home
	Rehearsal for Years 3 and 4 - pick up 4.30p.m.
Thu 27th
Fri 28th Year one are currently taking care of sixteen, specially selected garden snails.  They have prepared a home for them and have fed and cared for them.  On Friday, they will take part in the inaugural Salterford Snail Racing Championship.  The winning trainer will receive a prize and the winning snail will get extra cabbage for tea.

Monday 17th November

November 2014
Mon 17th
	Year 2 Assembly
Tue 18th
Wed 19th
	Friendly Swimming Gala v. The Elms
	Rehearsal for Years 3 and 4 - pick up 4.30p.m. - cancelled
Thu 20th
	Cross Country at Highfields
Fri 21st
Many thanks to all the boys who turned up on a very rainy Saturday.  The second round of the cross country championship took place at Ashfield School.  Salterford had two boys in the counties top twenty under 11s.  The team moved up five places in the overall standings.  Roll on Thursday at Highfields! Year Two are leading the assembly on Monday.  They are using some very famous music from Chariots of Fire.  Some of you may remember the film, others the performance of Rowan Atkinson at the 2012 Olympics.

Remembrance Day

November 2014
Mon 10th
	Gedling Indoor Athletics Heats for years 5 and 6
Tue 11th
	Parents Evening From 4p.m.
	Year 6 Assembly- Remembrance Assembly 10.45am
Wed 12th
	Rehearsal for Years 3 and 4 - pick up 4.30p.m. ISA Mixed Hockey Tournament Cannock
Thu 13th
	Childline Services Workshops year 5 and 6 only
Fri 14th
Sat 15th
	Cross Country - 10.30a.m. Tuesday 11th November 100 years after the start of the First World War, our Year Six will lead our Remembrance Assembly.  This will include a two minute silence at 11.00am.  Please remember to wear your poppy.

Fireworks

November 2014
Mon 3rd
Tue 4th
	Year 5 and 6 assembly with Childline Services
Wed 5th
	Under 11 Boys Football v Saville House - Home 2p.m.
	Under 11 Girls Netball v. Saville House 2p.m. Home
	Rehearsal for Years 3 and 4 - pick up 4.30p.m.
Thu 6th
Fri 7th
	Bonfire Display at Salterford
	Under 11 football v Plumtree - away
	Under 11 netball v Plumtree
	Y5 trip to Calverton Church Hope you have all got your tickets for Friday's Bonfire Display.  If you are having your own party, please follow the Fireworks Code. 1. Follow the Fireworks Code.  Keep fireworks in a closed box   Follow the instructions on each firework   Light all fireworks at arms length   Stand well back   Never go back to a lit firework   Never put fireworks in your pocket   Never throw fireworks  Keep Pets indoors [ click here ] for more on pets and fireworks 2. Use only BS 7114 Fireworks Check this when you are buying. All reputable dealers will only sell fireworks to this standard and if you are ever offered any others leave them alone! 3. Take special care with sparklers Sparklers can be beautiful and enjoyable for young children but adults must be aware of their potential. Sparklers are the cause of a disproportionate number of injuries but only a few simple precautions are necessary.  Always supervise children with sparklers.  Teach them to hold the sparkler at arms length, but not near anyone else  Sparklers are not for the under 5s. They will be labeled as such and it is yourresponsibility.  Have a container of water handy, big enough for the spent sparkler. Dump the sparkler in it as soon as it goes out.

Netball

October 2014
Mon 20th
	Year 5 Assembly
Tue 21st
Wed 22nd
Thu 23rd
	Break up for half term Saturday was open day at Salterford House School.  It was a pleasure to meet so many people and show them around the school.  Mrs Sanderson took the opportunity to have a marathon Netball session.  For any of the children still desperate for more netball, I have found some training videos to watch.

Enjoy half term and don't forget to buy your Bonfire Tickets from the school office.

World Food Day

October 2014
Mon 13th
	Rehearsals for Panto Pandemonium
8:30 am	School Photographer
Tue 14th
	ISA Under 9 and Under 11 5 a side football
Wed 15th
	Under 11 Girls Netball v. NGHS
Thu 16th
Fri 17th
Sat 18th
	Open Day
	Netball Training

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The World Food Day theme for 2014 is Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth”

Thanks to Olivia in Year 4 for the joke.

What do you get if you cross a phone with a dog?

A golden receiver!

Cross Country

October 2014
Mon 6th
	Year 3 Trip to Creswell Crags
	Year 4 Assembly
	Rehearsals start for Panto Pandemonium
Tue 7th
Wed 8th
	Under 11 Girls Hockey v. NGHS
Thu 9th
Fri 10th
Many thanks to all the boys and their parents who turned out on a rainy Saturday morning to represent the school in the Nottinghamshire school's cross country championship.  Every one of the team gave a fantastic effort and should be proud of their performance. The team will be back next month for the second round of the competition.  I hope to see you all there again and hopefully persuade others to take part.  I will, hopefully, put some pictures up later this week.

Conkers!

September 2014
Mon 29th
	ISA Under 10 football
	Year 1 Assembly
Tue 30th
October 2014
Wed 1st
	Years 5 and 6 Trip to Creswell Crags -Ice Age Survival
Thu 2nd
	ISA Under 11 High 5 Netball
Fri 3rd
Sat 4th
	Cross Country at Sutton Lawns

The 2014 World Conker Championships will be held at Southwick, near Oundle, Northamptonshire on 12th October 2014. The event starts at 10:30 a.m. and finishes at 3:00 p.m.

How to play conkers?

Each player has a conker hanging on its string. Players take turns at hitting their opponent's conker. text taken from and copyright of projcetbritain.com

If you are the one whose conker is to be hit first, let it hang down from the string which is wrapped round your hand. The conker is held at the height your opponent chooses and is held perfectly still.

Your opponent, the striker, wraps his conker string round his hand just like yours. He then takes his conker in the other hand and draws it back for the strike.

Releasing the conker he swings it down by the string held in the other hand and tries to hit his opponents conker (yours) with it.

If a player misses hitting his/her opponents conker they are allowed up to two further goes.

If the strings tangle, the first player to call "strings" gets an extra shot.

If a player hits his/her opponents conker in such a way that it completes a whole circle after being hit - known as ‘round the world’ – the player gets another go.

If a player drops his conker, or it is knocked out of his hand the other player can shout 'stamps' and jump on it; but should its owner first cry 'no stamps' then the conker, hopefully, remains intact.

The game goes on in turns until one or other of the two conkers is completely destroyed.

Scoring 

A victorious conker assumes the score of all its victim's precedent foes.

Thus, in a contest between two fresh conkers, the winner would then have a score of 1 (known as a 'one-er'). If it then beat another three one-ers, it would become a four-er.

However, if the same conker then beat a conker which had previously conquered (no pun intended) 5 fresh opponents (and thus was a 'five-er'), our steadfast nut would then become a ten-er (its own four, plus its latest victim (1) *plus* its victim's previous count of 5).

You won't find this rule for a world championship as it doesn't make sense for a one-day event. But it certainly does at school, where a good conker could go for several seasons or even be passed on to a younger sibling.

I remember there being sixty-ers around in my youth but, sadly, have no recollection of ever beating one...

How to choose a good conker.

Ever wondered why some conkers float in water but most sink? When placed in water, all the conkers that have damage inside them will, due to their lack of density, float to the surface.

For children who wish for 'killer' Conkers. you simply discard the floaters and concentrate on the much harder ones at the bottom of the bucket.

Hints on how to make your conkers harder.

You could try one of the following, although it is considered cheating:

• Soak your conker in vinegar.
• Bake your conker in the oven.
• Use an old conker from previous years.

World Conker Championships

This event is held every year on the second Sunday in October on the Village Green at Ashton in Northamptonshire. Contestants are not allowed to use their own conkers. Nuts are supplied for each game after being gathered and strung by the organisers. Each game lasts five minutes. If neither conker has broken a shoot out takes place. Each player has three sets of three hits and the one who lands most clean hits is the winner.

Visit the official World Conker Championship website for more details.

Interesting facts about Conkers

Britain is believed to be the only country in the world where the game of conkers is traditionally played with horse chestnuts in the autumn.
Horse chestnut trees were first introduced to England in the late 16th century from Eastern Europe.
Horse chestnut conkers, unlike many other kinds of chestnut seed, are unfit for human consumption.
Conkers are edible by deer, cattle and not surprisingly, horses.
The first recorded game of conkers was on the Isle of Wight in 1848 and was modelled on a 15th century game played with hazelnuts, also known as cobnuts.
The origin of the name 'conker' is unclear, but one popular explanation is that it stems from the French word cogner, meaning to "hit" or "biff".
Extracts from horse chestnuts have been used to treat malaria, varicose veins, diarrhoea, frostbite and ringworm, as well as being a component of sunscreen products.

Monday September 22nd

September 2014
Mon 22nd
Tue 23rd
Wed 24th
Thu 25th
Fri 26th
	Under 11 Football v Old Vicarage
Sat 27th
	Southwell Ploughing Match Every year on or around 22 September, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society. But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to "normal" life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars. Let World Carfree Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars…365 days a year. As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.

Harvest

Mon 15th Hockey Y5/6 Practice, Netball Y3/4 Practice, Football Y3/4
Tue 16th Cross Country All Years 12.30pm, Netball Y5/6
Wed 17th Cross Country All Years 4.00pm Calverton
Thu 18th Hockey Y3/4,  Netball Y5/6
Fri 19th Football Y5/6,
	Year 4 York Visit

In churches around the country, Harvest Festivals are being held.  It is a time to give thanks for the food we have and to think about people who are not as lucky as we are.  

In Britain, thanks have been given for successful harvests since pagan times. Harvest festival is traditionally held on the Sunday near or of the Harvest Moon. This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23). In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. The celebrations on this day usually include singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival, Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving.

Year one are finding out about Harvest as part of their R.E studies.  They are learning a song which they may perform to the rest of the school during hymn practice.

You can sing along with them!

New Computer Curriculum

Mon 8th
Tue 9th
	School swimming lessons begin today
Wed 10th
Thu 11th
Fri 12th The subject previously called ICT is now called Computing.  The school is now fully networked and has a new computer suite in Mrs Stopher's old room. Children will be given lessons in coding.  It is going to be exciting and challenging for all pupils and staff. If you have an ipad, there are a whole range of apps which introduce you to the new world of coding. Cato's Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey Tynker - Learn programming with visual code blocks Daisy the Dinosaur Kodable Pro Lightbot - Programming Puzzles Move the Turtle. Programming for kids There are many others available.  Most classes will be using SCRATCH.  It is free to download and is available here Have fun and if you make anything you would like to share with the rest of the school - show it Mr Britten and he can put it on the blog.

Last week of term

July 2014
Mon 14th
	Year 6 Graduation
	Year 1 trip to Conkers
Tue 15th
	Finals of Salterford House Tennis Tournament
	End of Year Service for Pre Prep Years 1 and 2
Wed 16th
	End of Term
	End of Year Service for Years 345 and 6
Thu 17th
Congratulations to all involved with prize giving on Friday night.  If, like me, you went home humming the songs, I have added some of them below.