So many lovely things to write about in this week's blog.

Today children have been awarded Head Teacher Stickers for many reasons; including making good choices, playing well with others, enthusiasm and for showing our value of 'understanding'.

Well done to our Sports Council for organising and running our Santa Dash, which saw children across the school being active and taking part in fun challenges.

Thank you very much to many of our Year 6 children, who helped to bake and raise money for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young).  All the children across school really enjoyed the cakes and together we raised £90 for this special charity.

Also this week, the children were treated to a lovely pantomime of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.  Thank you again to the 'Friends' committee for organising this and using raised funds to subsidise so all our children could enjoy it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in school now with our Christmas lights up and tree in the main entrance.  Thank you also to Tack Barn Farm for donating a beautiful tree for the garden again this year; we really appreciate it and it looks lovely.

A very busy week and there's yet more exciting things to come in the last few weeks.  Have a lovely weekend.

We thought we would wait until Monday to publish last week's blog so we could include some pictures of the Christmas Fair that our PTA held on Saturday down in the barn at Turners. It was such a lovely occasion with plenty of wonderful Christmas cheer, sparkle, food and gifts and was really well-attended by the local community. Thank you so much to our fabulous team of hardworking parents and staff that make up the Friends of KPS and to all the stall holders who joined us for the fair.  We were very lucky to have Father Christmas with us too along with his team of Elf-dogs!  A huge thank you to all at JP Turners for hosting the event and also for keeping our school flower beds looking beautiful too.  

There was lots of celebrate in our Friday Headteacher Sticker assembly too with our teachers choosing children who had shown super progress, great choices and lovely enthusiasm in their learning.  Well done to everyone. 

Some were also chosen because they had tried out their bread-making skills to contribute to the World War 2 themed dance and soup event that Year 5 and 6 put on for their parents and visitors on Thursday.

Our School Council, made up of representatives from Year 2 to 6, presented an Anti-bullying assembly to the rest of the school last week too.  The children acted out some scenarios encouraging children to be kind and look after each other but to tell someone if they feel someone is being unkind to them.  It gave us lots to discuss and we have continued to explore the theme this week too.

And lastly some photos of our youngest children going on an animal hunt with Mr Haines in the hall - they found lots of tigers and elephants and had so much fun!

Firstly, we would like to say thank you so much to our Year 6 pupils and staff for sharing a really thought-provoking and creative Remembrance assembly.  This is a very important job that our oldest pupils perform each year and it was great so hear some famous poetry as well as our children's own work. Some of our Year 6 will also be representing the school at the Remembrance Sunday parade on the weekend where we will place our very own hand-made wreath on the War Memorial along with other community groups.

Luckily, the weather eventually came on our side this morning so that the Mitchell Hamer netball and football tournaments could go ahead as planned. Mr Ward-Wills and Mrs Welson work so hard each year to organise and run this important tournament with other local schools so that they can win the prestigious trophies that date back over 100 years.  There was such a brilliant atmosphere throughout the matches, with some super team work, resulting in one of our teams coming third in both netball and football.  Well done to all of our players and thank you so much to Mrs Welson, Mr Ward-Willis and Mr Haines for running all the matches.  A huge thank you to our adult helpers who also encouraged and supported the teams. Congratulations to Radnor Hills School for coming first in the netball and Eardisley for winning the football trophy and thank you to all the schools who came to join us.

Back at school, we have had lots to celebrate in our assemblies this week.  Joe's assembly taught us all about making self-less decisions and Mrs Welson announced the winners of our 500 words writing competition (which will now be displayed in the library) who were able to choose a free book from the Book Fair on Wednesday.

Our Headteacher's Stickers today were shared for so many lovely reasons - being independent, helping others, settling in well, fantastic homework and handwriting, working really hard during our assessment week, perseverance and excellent cooking skills.  We were also able to award our Achievement Certificates to our Nursery children, many of whom have been enjoying their new trikes, kindly provided by the Friends of KPS.  Mrs Turner has also announced a KS2 class competition on Times Tables Rock Stars running from Tuesday to Thursday next week so look out for the results of that and then there was the school disco!  A huge thank you to our wonderful team of volunteers who made it all possible, particularly Mr Perkins for being the cool DJ!

It's been such a busy week so please have a lovely restful weekend everyone!

Another busy assembly to end a lovely week.  Our new School Council representatives received their prestigious badges, ready to start their first meeting next week with Miss Minett; lots of proud children were awarded their House Point badges by the House Captains; and, of course, we heard all about the wonderful achievements of our Headteacher's sticker winners.  Just some of the reasons included brilliant organising during a team task, excellent efforts in swimming, working really well with others and approaching everything with a smile. Well done everyone.

We also held an inter-house competition this week (videos available in our Gallery), where each House team had to create their own orchestra including making all their instruments.  The results were really good fun and the audience loved joining in with the wonderful renditions. Congratulations to Scotland who won by one point! A very close contest and thank you to everyone who took part including any parents who helped with making instruments!

Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to our Year 6 Ambassador team who presented the school so brilliantly at our recent Open Evening.  They showed round our groups of visitors really politely, answering questions in detail and sharing everything that we do here.  We look forward to making very good use of them throughout the year. If you would like a tour of the school with some of our Ambassadors, please do get in touch with Mrs Bretherton. You'll be very welcome.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Year 5 and 6 were on their annual hike up to Hergest Ridge on Friday, brilliantly again led by Tony and Keith, so we've included some photos of the keen walkers up on the windy top along side our worthy Headteacher Sticker winners. Lots of lovely reasons, ranging from being able to work more independently to being a good role model to others. One of our children won two - one because they have shown a really positive attitude to their learning and because Mr Haines also chose them for supporting new members of the class in PE! Well done to everyone.  

We'd also like to extend a very big thank you to Ann, Eileen and Philip who welcomed us to St Mary's Church on Tuesday so we could share our Harvest songs and poems. We were able to pass on lots of tins and packets to the Kington Food Bank too so our thanks go out to you all!

We had a very busy Friday assembly today! First we have our Headteacher Sticker winners who have all showed wonderful kindness and friendship throughout the week. The words 'role-model' was mentioned so many times as our teachers shared their choices today and the children were very proud of themselves.  The Values Beads are mounting up too and it's so lovely to hear all the reasons they are being awarded every day.

Thank you to our new librarian team from Year 4 who have volunteered to look after the library every day. It's a wonderful space in the school and we look forward to seeing you in your new roles.

Our new House Captains (voted for by the whole school last week after Year 6 made some very impressive speeches) had their first assembly in role today so, after some training, they presented the house point badges for their house. It's a nerve-wracking time but they were brilliant!  They have also launched a new inter-house competition where every child from Year 1 up to Year 6 can make their own instrument at home or in school and then can join their house team in an orchestra - led by our new House Captains of course.  An exciting competition to start the year with and we can't wait to hear their compositions.

Have a great weekend everyone.