Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone, everywhere, a very 'Merry Christmas' from all at Earl Soham Community Primary School.

Ipswich Town v Derby County

This afternoon saw the final event of this year's school calendar... a trip to the football. There were a total of 20 in the Earl Soham party, in amongst an official attendance of 17,256.
Whilst it wasn't the most stimulating of matches, a 1 - 0 victory for the home side saw most fans go home happy. The goal, which came courtesy of Keith Andrews early in the second half, in many ways summed up the whole match...rather confused and unsure.
This is the 3rd match of the season that we have attended so far, witnessing 2 wins and a defeat very much in the style of one of the best westerns ever - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Last Day of Term - SNOW!

Just how much more can happen this week!?
At the end of this morning's 'karaoke' Christmas, much excitement was in the air as the first few flakes of snow descended. By lunchtime, the earlier 'wet' snow had turned into rather large flakes. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so those that wanted to had five minutes fresh air. Rosy cheeks and broad smiles in abundance.

Christmas Parties

The annual Christmas party, funded and organised by our wonderful PTFA, was soon in full swing this afternoon. The children (and staff) enjoyed dancing and singing along to a great set of tunes at the disco, and enjoyed an array of crisps, cakes and drinks.

Mr Pearce "got his groove on", setting the standard for the dancing...

...& the children adored the snow machine.

Everyone had a fantastic afternoon. A very big thank you to the PTFA for organising and paying for the disco and food.

Rock 'n' Roll Panto Trip

This afternoon, children in Year 2 - 6 went to see a fantastic performance of 'Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood' at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. This traditional annual trip to see the Rock 'n' Roll Pantomime was yet again tremendous fun.It was a truly great afternoon with plenty of singing, dancing, innuendo, double entendres, slapstick and laughter.How we cheered brave Robin Hood and booed the nasty (or maybe just misunderstood) Sheriff of Nottingham.
However, the highlight for all connected with Earl Soham was how the pantomime 'dame' (Nelly) took a shine to our very own Mr Mansell - and didn't he just love it!Yet again, the children were a joy to take out and it was great to see them enjoying themselves so much.
Thank you to the PTFA for funding the transport.

Talent Show

On Tuesday afternoon, the children took their seats for the big event of the year: the Talent Show. On offer this year were a range of talents - singing and dancing, playing instruments, comedy, impressions and even a Zumba Fitness workout routine.

Below are some of the highlights of the afternoon.

Piano Recitals

"We Three Kings"

The Pink Panther Theme Tune

Theme from The Piano

Instrumental Pieces

"I Predict a Riot" by The Kaiser Chiefs

"Talking About a Revolution"

"Granite"

Dance

Smooth Criminal

Zumba Fever

Singing

"Jingle Bells" in Latvian!

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

And finally, with the winning entry...

"The Ash Grove"

Christmas Dinner

Yesterday lunchtime we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner prepared by our fantastic school cook, Caroline. There was a great atmosphere as the children sat down in the hall and were joined by staff and governors. Blue class had been busy preparing crackers, hats and favour boxes for the tables, which lent a particularly festive feel to the occasion. The year six children, ably accompanied by our midday supervisors and Mr Pearce (who looked rather fetching in his Turkey hat!), served and waited tables. We all had plenty to eat, with enough food for seconds. Thank you to Caroline for the hard work cooking it all, Tracey for peeling the mountain of potatoes and James, Katie and Charlotte for setting up and clearing away all the chairs, tables, crockery and cutlery.

We hope you enjoy the photos, which I think show just how much everyone enjoyed their meal.

On the Christmas Carol Service, My True Love Gave to Me...

400 Posts!

Yes, this is our 400th Blog post, and what better way to mark the occasion than by sharing with you the best bits of our school carol service.

We begin with a beautiful rendition of Away in a Manger, with the first verse sung by Red Class, and all classes singing verses 2 and 3.

Next is the heart-warming, if rather high, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, sung by the whole congregation.

This is followed by two songs from the School Choir: Snow Song and White Christmas.

I would like to post the Staff Choir's 12 Pains of Christmas here too, but don't have any photographs. If you happened to take a shot or two, please email them to me at jamesmansell@earlsoham.suffolk.sch.uk and I will add them to the blog.

Since this post is a rather special milestone, we would really like it if you could take a moment to leave us a comment and let us know what you think of our blog. Whether you have commented before, or are completely new to it, we would love to hear what you thought of the carol service (if you were there), or what you like most about our school blog. It's really easy to leave a comment - just visit the blog and click the comment button. You can leave a post anonymously, or sign in and leave your name.

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Red Class Trip - 'PENGUIN'

This morning, Red Class visited the Wolsey Studio in Ipswich to see a performance of 'Penguin' by Long Nose Puppets. The show was based on the book by Polly Dunbar where a young boy (Ben) receives a penguin as a present.
Unfortunately, nothing seems to make the penguin talk - even some audience participation in singing, blowing 'raspberries' and pulling silly faces didn't help!
The children had a great time interacting with the puppets, which they got to meet at the end of the show.
There were gasps when Ben was eaten by a passing lion, followed by laughter when the penguin bit the lion on the nose and made him 'cough up' Ben.
Read Class, you were fantastic - we hope that you enjoyed the show as much as the adults!

Early Evening News...Friday 2nd December.

The pirate ship has been sunk!
Red class this afternoon received another letter - a cry for help from Sweep! It was addressed to the Red Rescuers ( if you recall they rescued the mermaid earlier in the week), but they needed to enlist the help of Yellow Class and Jennie ( because she was the tallest) for the mission to succeed.

They had to teach the pirate dance to Yellow Class, then we all had to do it together! Chaos - but mission accomplished - Sweep was rescued and returned safe and sound to Mr Pearce.


The ship sadly floundered in the storm - and is no more.

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Friday 2nd December - Newsflash!

Parrot eaten by crocodile!

Sweep stuck at the top of the mast!

Map discovered!

Yellow class investigators have been chasing around all morning looking for clues and trying to decipher the map. They are looking for a mysterious 'x' . We will bring you more information on the early evening bulletin.

Pirate update!

Thursday 1st December

This morning Yellow Class children reported seeing a crocodile guarding a small box, that looked to be a treasure chest. Those brave enough tried to get to the box to see if it was indeed treasure, and all they found was a coconut and a few rings inside it. But there ensued a fervent discussion about whether there was anything inside the coconut! Could it be gunpowder? Could it be Tinkerbell?! Could it just be a food source for hungry pirates?

Later on in the afternoon another mystery was discovered in the school storecupboard - a huge crack in the ceiling tiles, prompting thoughts that the pirates must be hiding in the loft!

What's going on in our school hall?

On Tuesday 29th November we all arrived at school to find warning tape around the hall doors and a no entry sign on the window. Having been given clearance to investigate, the Year 2 children discovered that a cardboard pirate ship had mysteriously appeared overnight! Being intrigued and very inquisitive they set about thinking about why it was there and who it belonged to. (Strangely co-incidentally they had only been watching Peter Pan the day before as part of literacy.) Many ideas rebounded around the rest of the class - some thinking that pirates were off burying treasure in the hideouts - or even the ship might be a decoy and they are really marauding around Earl Soham.

On Wednesday morning the children were startled to find the mermaid from Red Class had been kidnapped, and was tied to the mast by her hair! There was also a pair of boots lying nearby.

Red Class Children, at first, thought Yellow Class had kidnapped her but they had a note delivered to their classroom saying "We kidnapped your mermaid, haarr! Don't tell those scurvy yellow kids!"

Well - Yellow Class were a little indignant at this as you can imagine, and protested their innocence, loudly!
After lunch Red Class found another note claiming to be from the mer-nappers saying "We might release her if you do a dance for us, haaarrr!!"  So Red Class did successfully perform a dance and managed to rescue their mermaid safely.
But what will tomorrow bring...?

A Trip to the Vets!

This afternoon, as part of their topic on animals, Red Class walked up to the Earl Soham Business Park to visit the vets!The children were shown around the reception area where appointments are made. Then, they looked around the preparation area and saw some x-rays and scans. They were also able to see some animals recovering following illness.
The children looked at some of the instruments used in the vets when they try to find out what is wrong with the animals brought to them.
Many thanks to Mr Cloete and his team for making us feel so welcome and giving us a tremendous experience - it really helped to bring our topic to life!

Ipswich Town v Reading

Twelve members of our school community attended the latest offering at Portman Road this afternoon. Whilst the tickets were exceptionally good value, the same cannot truly be said about the level of entertainment on offer. Although there were a total of five goals, unfortunately, only two were scored by the 'Tractor Boys'.It all started quite promisingly with Ipswich taking the lead in the 2nd half and then regaining the lead having conceded a rather soft equaliser. As the clocked merrily ticked its way into 'added on time' Reading hit the home side with, firstly ,another equaliser, and then the winner with just seconds remaining.
Still, football is a 'funny old game' so, who knows what is in store for the next school ticket special on 17th December against Derby? Ho hum!

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PTFA Christmas Fayre

The recent PTFA Christmas Fayre was a huge success. There were a variety of things to do including the highly popular sand art, games, competitions, sales and the new school calendar for sale. Scrumptious refreshments were served, as Mr Mansell will testify after his hard-working stint with the School Choir for their first public performance of the year!
Yet again, the PTFA were simply amazing with their hard work.

Anti-Bullying Week

We feel that it is important to keep the children informed on what bullying is, and how to deal with it so that it doesn't become an issue at our school. So, anti-bullying week was an opportunity to remind the children of ways to deal with difficult situations and dilemmas.
During the week, we looked at a number of dilemmas relating to bullying, both in assembly and PSHE lessons. Yellow and Blue classes watched the film 'Ant Bully' and then produced storyboards for the key events.
Blue Class took part in a poster competition, the winning entrants shown below.

Sportshall Athletics

Earlier this evening, Earl Soham finished a highly credible 5th place in the Sportshall Athletics Tournament at Thomas Mill High School. Lining up against many school that were considerably larger in size, Earl Soham children did themselves proud with their refreshing attitude towards the competition. There were smiles all round as the children made the most of the opportunity. I am also delighted to announce that Earl Soham came 1st in the 'noisiest' supporters category! Parents, your support and encouragement was 'top notch'!
Many thanks to Mr Bosley for providing the photos below, mine were rather 'blurred'.

Children in Need

The total raised from last week's fund raising activities for Children in Need now stands at £142.38. This is a tremendous achievement and is by far the largest amount that we have ever raised.
So, thank you to the children for their costumes and coppers, parents for your great cakes, School Council for your ideas and organisation and anyone else who made a contribution in terms of time, money or effort.