November and the beginning of December have come and gone in a blink of an eye, we have been so busy!

Our class assemblies have continued to showcase learning to parents and peers alike.

Poppy class showcased their learning in a number of subjects. For English, descriptive extracts were read out. To highlight learning in maths, there was an excellent demonstration of how to multiply by 10, 100 and 1000. For science, a chocolate bar hit against a stool certainly proved it was a solid! An understanding of the continents (with comical penguin walk to represent Antarctica!) was shown for Geography and finally, for PE, some first class points and patches balances were displayed.

A special mention must go to the group who retold the story 'The Days the Crayons Quit'. It was word for word perfection!

Primrose class meanwhile told everyone about the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes. They related some interesting facts about fireworks and showed us posters about staying safe on bonfire night before using instruments to accompany their singing of 'Bonfires Burning' and '5 Little Fireworks'.

Sycamore class assembly was a celebration of their whole term’s work on the Battle of Britain. There was poetry and information on Anderson shelters and planes. There was some coding parents had to work out and even a quiz. The assembly finished with a popular wartime song.

When it was the turn of Snowdrop class they told us about their visit from the fire breathing dragon and the letter they wrote to Mrs Shacklady to warn her about the dragon! They did a fantastic retelling of the story ‘George and the Dragon’. They also told us about the months of the year and sang a song about winter. Each child spoke with a loud, clear voice and we are extremely proud of them all. Well done Snowdrop class!

Throughout all we do we of course continually encourage all in our school to demonstrate our values. One such value is ‘kindness’ so as part of our anti-bullying week activities we invited parents to join us for a creative afternoon. In upper key stage two they were able to join in with discussions about what actions constitute bullying as well as helping to create storyboards linked to the theme with the children. Lower key stage two used the stimulus of ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ to create a wonderful display for the school showcasing just what can be achieved when we realise that everyone is important and valued . Meanwhile in EYFS and key stage one they watched a short clip called ‘The Birds’ and discussed how the small birds were unkind to the new big bird. They used this as a stimulus to discuss how they are good friends. They created beautiful butterflies with different explanations on to explain how they are a good friend. Examples included, sharing, being respectful, caring, listening and being helpful. They then got crafty and collaged different petals to create a whole friendship flower which is now on display in the key stage one building with their butterflies.

Again linked to our values, it is important to us in school that we help our children understand how they can help not only each other, but also those in the wider community. So, on 17th November, we supported Children in Need by encouraging everyone to wear something spotty and by holding a bake sale. We were delighted by the resulting £645 raised for this worthwhile charity.

Although not one of our published values, teamwork and good sportsmanship are important qualities for us to promote with our children so on Wednesday 15th November, Earls Barton Primary School took part in an athletics event. We were against over 23 schools, but there were two local schools in our heats. Children described their favourite track event as being the under and over, where they had to duck under tunnels and jump over hurdles. Their favourite field event was the standing triple long jump. The children said “It was an amazing experience and so much fun!”

Then, in December, 47 Children from year 3 to year 6 set off to compete against 19 other schools in the Wellingborough and East Northants cross country competition. All of our runners were incredible and gave 100%. As well as some individual medals for coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd, we are very proud to retain our title of overall winners. Well done EBPS, a fantastic achievement by all even though it was very, very cold.

As a school we are always very eager to play an active part in our local community and what better way than to participate in the recent Christmas Tree Festival at All Saints Church.

The children across the school had a fantastic afternoon preparing their decorations for this term's house challenge. On Friday 1st December, the House and Vice captains, armed with creativity and ambition, made their way to All Saints. In under an hour they had decorated the four trees, which we are very proud to say had a fantastic spot in the church. Four empty white trees were quickly adorned with all the decorations in house colours and looked rather spectacular. The challenge didn’t stop there. Visitors were asked to vote for which one they thought was the best and the winning house was awarded 100 extra house points!

We hope many of you also had the chance to hear our school choir when they performed at the Methodist Church during the ‘Action for Children’ event on 9th December.

As I write this the snow is laying thick on the ground, the school has had to close for the day and staff are busy re-scheduling Christmas performances and meetings. We have an extremely busy few days planned to mark the end of term and we can’t wait to tell you how they went when you read the first news edition in 2018. We wish you and your families a very safe and joyful festive season.