Is it ever a quiet time in school? Do we ever just teach the main curriculum without any extra activities? The answer to both these is an emphatic NO!

Since the last edition we have, once again, managed to cram an abundance of additional events in to our already busy timetable.

Before half term we arranged for children in years 5 and 6 to receive first aid training as well as all children in key stage 2 taking part in the ‘Restart a Heart Day’ event. The latter was done in association with The British Heart Foundation, and pupils learned how to give CPR. Everyone learned new and useful skills and as the pictures show, it was thoroughly enjoyable!

Also before the October break, as part of Black History month, Years 3 and 4 took part in an African Dance Workshop. One pupil wrote a piece for our newsletter which said ‘I enjoyed the African Dance very much. I thought it was phenomenal. Almost all of the class had smiles on their faces. What I particularly enjoyed was the action where it looked like we were slicing something and when we got to choose our own ending. It was amazing!’ Meanwhile in key stage 1 and upper key stage 2 children were fascinated to learn more about inspirational black people such as Rosa Parks and Barack Obama and the impact they have had on changing the views of society.

Our fundraising activities also continued in October. As a school we hosted a scholastic book fair which coincided with our parents’ evening. Sales over the week were brisk and allowed us to earn over £700 commission which we plan to use in adding new books to our reading scheme. The last day of term also saw our PTA events in full swing, a sponsored bounce for EYFS and KS1 in the morning and a sponsored Zumba session in the afternoon for years 3 and 4 followed by one for years 5 and 6. Totals raised are still awaited as sponsor money is still coming in. In the meantime orders are coming in thick and fast for Christmas cards designed by the children which will hopefully boost PTA funds even further.

Future fundraising events organised by the school are currently being discussed by our newly elected school councillors. Their first task has been to generate ideas with their peers on how we should raise funds for Children in Need, as well as already considering those that could be carried forward for comic relief in March.  Hopefully we will have photos to share with you in the next edition showing exactly how we supported the first of these worthwhile charities.

We drew breath over the October break and then term 2 started with a bang! On Wednesday 31st October, staff took ten very excited KS1 children to a spooky Beanstalk event at Northampton International Academy. Beanstalk are a charity that support reading for children and they invited a number of schools to meet author Pippa Goodhart, who wrote the popular Winnie the Witch books. Pippa read a number of her books to the children and Halloween related activities followed. The highlight of the event was receiving personally signed copies of books from Pippa herself!

Meanwhile children in one of our year 5 classes were lucky enough to experience a taste of life as an actor. A local film company were making a promotional video for firefighters in the community and asked if we could provide a class to be the ‘audience’ as the actor took on the role of a firefighter giving a talk to school children. Pine class were more than happy to oblige and had great fun taking direction from the crew. Since then a year 6 class has been chosen to preview, and provide feedback for a new online safety video produced by the same company for the police. We very much welcome these opportunities to support our local community.

Our liaison with the police was also visible when two PCSOs visited to deliver important safety messages to our children regarding Halloween and Fireworks. They brought with them their press photographer so that we could help them promote this important aspect of their role.

Of course there are even more items I could include in this article, such as our work around Remembrance which included year 2 children walking down to the war memorial, or the logistical nightmare of getting all individual and sibling photos taken for those customary presents for grandparents at Christmastime. And so the term goes on. Will it calm down? Of course it won’t! We have the pantomime visit to arrange, the Christmas performances by EYFS and year 5 to look forward to, class assemblies, a curriculum in action event for anti-bullying week, the PTA raffle, party day, KS1 disco and Carols on the Playground, not to mention the surprise event I alluded to at the end of last month’s article, and all before Christmas!

• Restart a Heart Restart a Heart
• African Dance Workshop African Dance Workshop
• Sponsored Zumba Sponsored Zumba
• Restart a Heart Restart a Heart
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