It is the final week of term in school with “Christmassy mode” now in full swing! I am incredibly proud of our wonderful Reception children who have performed three superb nativity plays to a packed house. These children are only 4 or 5 years old; have only been in school since September and performed with great clarity of speech, confidence and tuneful singing which was a joy and privilege to witness and caused a few tears of joy!  Every child (all 70 of them) was fully involved in retelling the Christmas story words and using actions and singing along beautifully to all of the songs. Thanks to their parents and carers for their continued support and interest and to our talented and dedicated Early Years staff team. 

A group of Senior Choir members were also bringing smiles to the faces of the residents of Grangefield Care Home as they performed a selection of Christmas carols this week. The children were excellent ambassadors for the school and we hope to build on and strengthen this relationship with the care home in the future. 

Last weekend, our hard-working PTA put on a wonderful Christmas Fayre in EB Working Men’s Club – thank you for hosting and thank you to everyone who attended. This event was a fundraiser for the PTA but also a lovely coming together and celebration for the community. This time our Junior Choir provided the entertainment and sang to a packed hall.  

Tomorrow we will have our “Carols on the Playground” event where the entire school community will gather and sing lots of carols together by torchlight and fairy light. Last year we had well over 500 people present and this year we hope it will be bigger and better. Our children are also practising “It was on a starry night” so they are well-rehearsed in this song for the Carols on the Square event on Christmas eve. 

Christmas time in school is always a busy, manic, joyful and occasionally chaotic period but it is always a joy and a pleasure to be part of it. Once Christmas is over and the trees and decorations are down, we start to think about the New Year and resolutions we will make for 2023. 

As a school, next year we have lots of plans and ideas to further enhance the learning and experiences we give to our children. We will be continuing to develop our phonics and reading, as well as working hard to ensure every child succeeds in maths. Another development we are working on is refining and improving how we support and challenge children in the other areas of the curriculum: history, geography, art, music, design and technology, PE, RE and PSHE. We want to ensure that our curriculum remains broad and balanced and inspires children, ignites a spark, develops a talent and instils a love of learning in at least one subject! By giving every subject an equal and higher status, we aim to ensure that we are nurturing every child’s talent and helping them to achieve excellence. 

If you as an individual or business feel you have anything to offer to the children at our school or would be interested in supporting us on a one-off or regular basis, either through volunteering your time or arranging a sponsorship deal, we would love to hear from you! We are actively seeking a business to sponsor an EBPS “Passport Initiative” which we would like to roll-out as soon as possible! This requires every child in the school to have a printed passport and associated badges to work towards (much like the Scouting movement). The badges cover a whole range of ideas to help develop the children and encourage them to work in and give back to their local community. Please call the school office if you would like to learn more. 

On behalf of Earls Barton Primary School, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2023. 

Marie Lally 

Headteacher