We need to begin our weekly catch up with a great big 'Thank You' to our wonderful 'Friends' group who organised and ran our fantastic Christmas Fayre last weekend. It was such a lovely fayre with so many visitors pleased with their craft purchases, the prizes which they had won or excited by their visit to the grotto! An outstanding amount of money was raised, totalling over £700 which will support our school and children to make improvements to our outside areas and other learning resources. 'Thank you' to everyone who was able to support the fayre and to the Turner family for hosting our event so brilliantly. 

We also need to say 'Thank You' to the 'Friends' for organising and subsidising the pantomime which was enjoyed by us all on Thursday. As can be seen from the photos, this was another great story and an enjoyable experience for all, with the children talking about Aladdin's adventure all day yesterday. The impact in Year 1 even made it into phonics this morning when someone had the word 'fez' to work on and said 'Like the hat in the pantomime!'

We would like to remind you that our 'Friends' group have one more event in 2025!  On Friday 12th December we have Christmas bingo with everyone invited. Doors open at 5.40pm with eyes down for 6pm.

Our Year 5 girls enjoyed a wonderful morning up at LHS on Monday working alongside Stride Active on a project called 'Our girls can', which has been funded by Children in Need. The project will involve a once-a-term workshop working with Year 7 girls from LHS and this time around involved the opportunity to explore the activity of cheerleading. As you can see from the photos, this was a huge success and the girls appreciated the opportunity to try this sport out.

This week, we have also really enjoyed our enrichment morning where we work with children from each class, from Year 1 to Year 6. The activities which have been so carefully planned and organised by our school staff were brilliant and included community litter picking, considering how to use AI with purpose and safely, learning about India as a world study, performing poetry and songs for an audience, collaborative art through weaving and healthier cooking to make delicious muffins. 

Every day at the moment, our school hall has special moments where year groups are practising really hard to share their Christmas performances with their families in the next couple of weeks. The singing and acting are just wonderful, and we know that the children and staff are really looking forward to sharing their performances with their family audiences. Please check that you have had the chance to read the Christmas letter from Mrs Bretherton which explains all of the timings involved in each performance.

Please do also note that we have put up at entrance points around school new QR codes which will take you directly to this blog and another for the school diary. These are both key areas of our school website where information and updates are regularly shared.

We have been really pleased to hear about a special award which our friends at the Kington Walking Festival have recently been given. We are always so grateful to be part of this special community event each year and would like to say a big 'congratulations' to all involved.

Our building project continues to take shape, and we are, as ever, grateful to the team who are working hard to build our exciting extension. The photos really do show the progress that they are making. Thank you to the whole team involved.

Our assemblies this week have been a chance to understand more about what some Christians consider to be the greatest gift at this time of year with Hannah on Wednesday. Today, we have all been excited to learn more about who in each year group has been chosen for the Headteacher's stickers. We heard today about children who have made huge progress in all of their learning, been a kind and gentle friend to others, for being a consistently wonderful member of their class, for taking their Nativity role so seriously and for working extra hard on their reading and writing. We also found out about children who have done brilliantly at developing their own confidence and skills when swimming, for being responsible and kind around school, for being really focused whilst working on fractions and for giving 100% in everything they do! Wow! What impressive reasons to be rewarded for. Congratulations to you all.

We also congratulated Y6, who won the extra playtime attendance award for their class attendance last week. Well done to you all.

We hope that everyone has a great weekend enjoying whatever you are up to, and we hope that the weather is kind to us all. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday ready for another super week in school.