NEWS

SWIMMING GALA AT ST HUGH'S

On Friday afternoon (29th November), swimmers from KS2 competed in a friendly gala at St Hugh's School, Woodhall Spa. Our team competed against St Hugh's A and B teams and a team from Greenwich House.
With two of our older swimmers absent due to illness, some of the younger children volunteered to 'swim up' an age group or two. Some pupils were swimming competitively for the first time, some were nervous and others had the benefit of experience, however, everyone swam with determination and to the best of their ability.
There were so many reasons to celebrate - children swimming a least favourite stroke, those who were nervous and overcame their anxiety, those who swam and made up a huge distance for their team. However, a special mention must go to GS (year 4) who swam in not only his own races, but those of the absent year 6 child. When he climbed out of the pool, he ensured that he gave encouragement to the team member who was about to compete next. Well done everyone, three dojo points have been added to your accounts!
Thank you to the sports staff at St Hugh's for a very enjoyable afternoon and thanks also to our loyal band of parents for their support.

PLANTING HYACINTH BULBS

Some of the children from Willow Class helped Mr Dunmore to plant lots of hyacinth bulbs. They will look and smell beautiful in the springtime.

CHILDREN IN NEED

Pudsey Bear ears were worn on 15th November to support Children in Need. See our Facebook page for lots more photos.

CHRISTMAS IN NOVEMBER!

The PTA have generously donated a variety of items to the school. These include:

playground equipment and picnic bench

armchairs for library

stools and a mobile easel for the atelier

maths textbooks

overhead projector

CD players

2D and 3D shapes, dice, HTO blocks

rock samples

funnels, measuring cylinders, digital scales

magnets

Thank you so much; the children and staff really appreciate your generosity

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM...

Year 6 attended the Opening of the Garden of Remembrance yesterday (8th November). This is a short service, attended by local schools; it has a firm place in our school calendar. The Head Boy and Head Girl placed a wreath (made by the children) at the Cenotaph. In school, the children have written a collaborative poem based on W.H. Auden's poem.

U9s TAG RUGBY FESTIVAL

On Wednesday 6th November a team of boys travelled to St Hugh's School at Woodhall Spa to play in a festival against teams from other local Independent Schools. The boys played together well, with some superb passing and agile dodging. LS was unlucky to be disallowed a try when he dropped the ball on the try line. The matches weren't officially scored, but we're pleased to announce that we won 4 and drew 2 games. Well done boys! If you would like to see more of the match day photos, please click here.

BONKERS FOR CONKERS

On Friday 18th October, the whole school gathered on the lawn to play in our annual conker competition. There were no safety goggles or gloves in sight! Parents and staff joined in the fun and the pockets in our new blazers provided the perfect keeping place for spare conkers! Everyone had lots of fun and the relaxing afternoon led happily into the start of the half term holiday!

NEW BLAZERS ARRIVE

CL (Year 6) models our stylish new blazers. At the moment, the blazer is an optional uniform item, however, they become compulsory for Key Stage 2 (years 3-6) from September 2020.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

On Thursday 10th October, we celebrated World Mental Health Day by wearing something yellow. The children learned about the importance of mental health and participated in workshops such a yoga and mindfulness. To view the photos, click here.

.LINCOLNSHIRE DAY - 30th September

We are known as the county with 'big skies.' However, we're famous for much more than this, so today, on our special day, we celebrated the best of our county in style!

Who hasn't heard of our yummy Lincolnshire sausage? Years 2, 3 and 4 visited Carl Dunham's butchers to find out how sausages are made. Our very own Miss Dunham (Carl's daughter) came along too and explained the process to our children. Every child made sausages and took them home for tea. They ended their visit by tasting cooked sausages. What a super visit!

Three very kind parents delivered tractors to school so that the children could climb aboard and find out about tractors old and new.

The older children made a casserole using the finest Lincolnshire vegetables. They also made Lincolnshire plum bread. Mrs Bray served up Lincolnshire sausages and vegetables for lunch.

CLASS DOJO

We have introduced a new reward system to replace Smart Points in school. We are using the Class Dojo app. Each child has taken home the details so that their parent/s can log in and register to receive instant notification when their child receives a Dojo point Points are awarded for a variety of reasons such as working hard, being kind and helping others - values which we hold high at our school. Each child has a different avatar  and the teacher clicks on the appropriate reward. Parents can also use the app as a means to contact their child's teacher. Staff only reply during school hours. For all other enquiries, parents should use the established means of communication.

• Keep up to date on our Facebook page.

• Read our latest newsletter here.

CHRISTMAS ENTERPRISE MARKET

On Friday (22nd Nov) morning, parents and friends of the school attended our annual Enterprise Morning. The children had been busy making crafts and organising Christmas games which were sold to our visitors. Each class is allowed to keep the money that they make and to decide how it is spent. Over £690 was raised by our entrepreneurial children!

YEAR 2 VISIT

Chestnut Class visited the Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield to reinforce and extend their learning in this area.

YEAR SIX AT BURGHLEY HOUSE

Year 6 are studying the Tudors in their history work. To reinforce their learning, they visited Burghley House at Stamford and immersed themselves in the period. They played typical Tudor games, learned a Tudor dance and found out about Tudor banquets.

U9s HOCKEY FESTIVAL

What a difference a year makes! Last year when our girls were invited to take part in this festival, they tried hard, but were beaten by stronger sides. This year they returned, with determination to succeed. They played against teams from other local Independent Schools and secured a place in the final. With great team work and digging deep to make tired legs work even harder, the girls were victorious. Well done girls! A special mention to MM (year 3) who stepped into the team with minutes to spare! You can see additional photos here.

THE SCHOOL OF ROCK

We will probably remember this visit on Thursday 17th October as the trip that nearly didn't happen! Early in the morning, a water main burst in the middle of town, so by the time that our children were travelling towards school, full of anticipation about the day ahead, the town suddenly ground to a halt. No traffic and no one was going anywhere!
Registers were taken at school and it was clear that many children still hadn't arrived. Worse still, the coach company had no idea about the time that transport would arrive. We were given an absolute cut-off time of 10.30a.m. before we would be faced with a harsh decision to announce.

Luckily at 10.30 the coaches drew up, children and parents boarded hastily and we were eventually London-bound. We were unable to stop en-route and arrived in London with twenty minutes to spare.

The show was an amazing experience for everyone. The children sat spell-bound as the actors and actresses captivated them with their rock songs and musical skills.

Thank you do much to Mrs Jackson for organising a wonderful day - one which will be remembered for a long time to come.

TAG RUGBY TOURNAMENT

On Wednesday 16th October, a team of girls and boys from years 5 and 6 played pupils from other local small schools.

Our pupils played incredibly well and started to gel as a team as the competition progressed. The team showed determination as well as speed and agility. Unfortunately on this occasion they didn't win, but have learned much from the experience which they will take forward into their next matches.

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Our annual Harvest Festival took place on Friday 11th October. The children have been busy making scarecrows from recyclable materials as part of this term's homework. The service began with a parade of scarecrows, followed by fantastic singing of a mixture of traditional and modern songs, plus recitals of poetry.

The generous donations of fresh, local produce and tins and packets was gratefully received by Mr Trevor Baily from the Boston Food Bank.

See the photos here.

FOREST SCHOOL

Willow Class were enjoying their Forest School session in our woodland this week, when a little voice called out,

"Mrs Whelan, come and see my den."

I couldn't resist capturing this smiley face!