Rob

Our School Choir performed at the Oxfordshire County Music Service Big Christmas Sing event in Oxford with many other primary schools. The Choir also performed at the Carols by Candlelight Service held at St Faith’s Church in Shellingford.

We have had a very positive ANTI-BULLYING WEEK which focused on this year’s message ‘Choose Respect.’ Across the school we have been delivering lessons and different activities to remind everyone whether it’s in school, at home or in the community to focus on the actions they can take to choose respect and what they can do to stop bullying.

The whole school experienced a wonderful day out at our annual visit to The Watermill Theatre to watch the Michael Morpurgo adaption of PINOCCHIO.  The children were a credit to our school.  We all were mesmerised by the superb acting, music and dancing and some of our older children enjoyed some audience participation, fully immersing themselves in the creative production.

Our service of Remembrance and Dedication was held this morning in St Faith’s church. It was a very poignant occasion for the school community.    We would like to give a very special thanks to Mr Matt Mortiboy and Mr Steve Cloete from The Royal British Legion who were in attendance and to The Reverend Jeremy Goulston for leading the service.  As a mark of respect, pupils were invited to wear their Brownies, Rainbows, Guides, Beavers, Scouts or Sea Cadets uniform. The school sang three moving songs, each class presented a wreath and poppies were laid as a mark of respect: Thank you also for supporting The Poppy Appeal. Every poppy shows that we care about the lives of our Armed Forces Community. The Royal British Legion wish to send their heartful thanks for your very generous donations. Our service of Remembrance and Dedication was held this morning in St Faith’s church. It was a very poignant occasion for the school community.    We would like to give a very special thanks to Mr Matt Mortiboy and Mr Steve Cloete from The Royal British Legion who were in attendance and to The Reverend Jeremy Goulston for leading the service.  As a mark of respect, pupils were invited to wear their Brownies, Rainbows, Guides, Beavers, Scouts or Sea Cadets uniform. The school sang three moving songs, each class presented a wreath and poppies were laid as a mark of respect: Thank you also for supporting The Poppy Appeal. Every poppy shows that we care about the lives of our Armed Forces Community. The Royal British Legion wish to send their heartful thanks for your very generous donations.

Earlier this week BeSpace and the Uffington Benefice of Churches organised a Prayer Space in St Faith’s Church to give the children an opportunity to experience prayer in a personal way.  We were very grateful to the volunteers and for everyone’s hard work in providing this experience for the children. Activities focused on Max Lucado’s book ‘You Are Special’.  The children wrote prayers about forgiveness and watched the ink fade away in water. They used plasma balls to think about God’s presence in the world, thought about our uniqueness and what makes us special by looking at themselves in mirrors and focusing on personal qualities.

Our Year 5 children were trained as Active Junior Leaders this week. The training programme took four days to complete and was led externally by ‘Active Leaders’.  Our Year 5 pupils are now trained in leading practical outdoor playground games for younger pupils with an emphasis on teamwork, confidence building and being confident role models.  It also included First Aid and CPR training. The trainer was very impressed with the children’s enthusiasm and attitude and was extremely complimetary about the school’s ethos.  Thank you and well done to Year 5.

We had the most enjoyable Harvest Service and it was so lovely to see so many parents and families attend the celebration.  The church was full and the children sang their hearts out!  We would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to The Reverend Jeremy Goulston who led our service.  Thank you also for your generous donations in support of The Fisherman’s Mission which raised £182.45.

Class 4 enjoyed a wonderful week at Yenworthy Lodge in Somerset, embracing a range of outdoor and adventurous activities - not even the rain could dampen their spirits!  During the week, the children had the opportunity to learn many new skills including canoeing/kayaking, surfing, coasteering and mastering the centre's ropes course.  We all enjoyed a night walk on the moors as well as rock pooling, scavenging for evidence of the Lynmouth flood of 1952 and making the most of the coast.  As always, we were so impressed by the behaviour and resilience of the children, all of whom challenged themselves and made fantastic progress in such as short space of time.  We are sure that they have many tales to share with you and made memories that will last a lifetime. Mrs Sucksmith and Mrs Carter