Wall of Fame

All Aboard the SS Galaxy

What a show! After weeks of auditions and rehearsals, all of the hard work finally paid off with three incredible performances of this year's production - All Aboard the SS Galaxy.

Inspired by his daughter's choice in music from a popular children's TV show, Mr Mansell began the work of writing the script well over a year ago.

The play certainly had everything, young astronauts, proud and loving parents, space pirates, aliens playing air guitar, news reporting at its very best as well as the usual singing dancing and ad libbing!
What was incredible to see was the infectious enthusiasm and effort that the children put into their performances, resulting in a show to remember!

Year 6 Leavers

This morning we said our formal farewells to our Year 6 children during their Leavers' Assembly.

Quite simply a marvellous group of children who have exceeded expectations in everything they've done. It's been a pleasure to see them 'grow' as individuals, whilst never forgetting the importance of teamwork - everyone is so very proud of you. 

Good to see that you've not forgotten how to have fun!

DanceEast Performance

What a fantastic performance!

Thursday 12th July saw the culmination of weeks and weeks of hard work in putting together a dance worthy of performance in public, by the 14 members of Mrs Jarvis's after school club. Boy was it worthy! When I saw their final rehearsal in school I was moved to tears, today they took it to the real stage at Jerwood House, home of DanceEast, Ipswich. After a technical rehearsal in the morning,where Mrs Jarvis put in the finishing touches, the very excited children returned in the evening to showcase their work alongside 6 other school groups. They were superb!! Even though by this time I had seen it 3 or 4 times, each time I spotted something new that I hadn't seen on a previous occasion, such was the variety of movement, use of space, timing, paired and individual work...I could go on!

We were not allowed to film in the evening, but the video above is from our rehearsal. The photos below are from the mass warm-up, just before the show started, from the hairdressing salon in Red Class at the end of school (thank you Mrs Robinson) and of the children showing their appreciation to Mrs Jarvis. Thank you so much Mrs J. - they were great!

Quadkids Suffolk Final

This morning, we travelled to Bury St. Edmunds for the re-staging of the Under 11 Suffolk Quadkids Final.Fortunately, the weather was kinder (but not much) than last week.

The children had already achieved great things by reaching this stage, having won their heat at Hartismere High School. With smiles on their faces they set about competing against schools which were, in some cases, ten times the size (in pupil numbers) of us!
The competition was tough, in fact gruelling at times - but we kept going to the very end. Every child took part in four events: 600m run, Vortex throw, Standing Long Jump and 75m Sprint.Times and distances recorded were equated to points, with the top four children from each team in each event having their points combined to create a team total

If only... the starter's pistol hadn't been so loud, the sand so sandy, the rain so wet and the track so oval, maybe it would have been different! Like I said, you kept smiling and made me laugh with your comments.

As a school, we've had an unprecedented year of sporting success... to finish 11th in the County is a tremendous achievement - I sincerely hope that you realise how proud of you we all are.

Sports Day

What an exciting afternoon! This year our sports day had an Olympics twist to it. We began with our own opening ceremony, with each of the five teams (one more than normal to match the Olympic ring colours) parading around the playground and performing their songs and pom-pom routines. Each team had prepared a flag to represent their discipline and they looked fantastic as the children held them aloft.

The parade was followed by a rotation of ten activities, with some old favourites plus some new challenges such as archery and badminton!

The afternoon was finished off with the track events: sack race, egg and spoon race, skipping race and sprints, and the final traditional team relay while the points were added up.

In the end, the red team took the trophy, but everyone had a great time and tried their hardest.

A very big thank you to Mrs Barker for all her hard work in organising today. Super job!

You can find all of the photos below.

PTFA Summer Fete

This afternoon saw the annual PTFA Fete take place. The weather, considering the forecast, was extremely kind an a great afternoon was had by all.As always, it was great to welcome back so many past pupils and reminisce about 'the good old days'.

There was singing, a range of stalls and games, an on-site artist, hairdressing, scrumptious cakes, yummy burgers, sizzling sausages, plenty of liquid refreshment and the now traditional water slide and soak the teacher/headteacher/governor.

A great deal of effort had clearly gone into making today, not only a memorable occasion, but also into an event to generate money to enable the PTFA to continue in their sterling work in supporting the school.

A very big thank you, on behalf of the school, to everyone that made today possible in many different ways.

Suffolk School Games

This morning, we travelled in anticipation to Bury St. Edmunds Leisure Centre to compete in the Suffolk finals in the following disciplines: Under 7 & Under 9 Gymnastics and Quadkids Athletics.
Unfortunately, the weather was not kind which meant that the planned opening ceremony was held inside. Sadly, the rain continued, meaning that the Quadkids Athletics was cancelled. However, our two gymnastics teams started to 'warm up', ready for their competitions...

The children were fortunate to be able to meet Olympic silver medalist Slalom Canoeist, Cameron Walsh and also Amy Linton, an Olympic torchbearer, who carried the torch through Ipswich this morning.

Hopefully, there will be some more action shots of the gymnastics team who took note of the opening speech by 'smiling' and 'enjoying the moment'. A special mention must be given to the Quadkids, who had to endure a great deal of hanging around, for their excellent behaviour and attitude - again.

Caterpillar Diary

 Explored environment. Found food!

 Hungry, ate.

 Made silk, got hungry, ate.

 Environment seems to be getting smaller. Still hungry.

Busy making a silk sheet and sticking it to the lid.  All this hard work is making us...................hungry!

Watching the Olympic Flame Go By

Wow! In an already eventful week, this afternoon topped it off. The whole school bundled onto coaches just before lunchtime and headed over to Wickham Market school where we first welcomed the Pyramid Flame from Sir Robert Hitcham, Framlingham.

We then joined the crowds on a very busy high street to await the arrival of the real Olympic Flame bearer.



After an exciting wait, the moment finally came. A thrill of excitement buzzed through the crowd as the procession began.



This built to a climax when the torch bearer jogged by.



Although it only lasted a a few moments, I'm sure the memory will be treasured by all those present. A huge thank you to all the people who made today possible.



Follow this link for all the photographs.

Cross country finals

As if a hectic morning in school rehearsing the play, then going off to Wickham Market for the Olympic Torch relay wasn't enough, 5 children went off to the cross country final at Mellis on what turned out to be a VERY hot afternoon!

After what seemed an interminable wait, the Y3/4 races got underway.  Parents waited anxiously and then we saw the runners approach the finish. We have a bronze medal winner!! Hurray!!! Then it was the turn of the Y5/6's.
Our very creditable finishing positions were 7th, 12th, 13th and 19th. Well done everyone - and thanks to the mums who took us there.
Next stop Bury St Edmunds tomorrow.

Quicksticks hockey final

Today our hockey players finally got to play the County Finals after weeks of practicing on Friday lunchtimes. If you recall we qualified for this by winning the local tournament months back.
We travelled to Bury St. Edmunds on a beautiful sunny afternoon and were the first to arrive. The other teams duly turned up and we learned we were to play teams from Lowestoft, Sudbury, Newmarket and Stowmarket (3 of which are middle schools and the only other primary was much larger than us too.)
We started off by going a goal down, some say it wasn't touched in the D, and then we thought we had an equalizer disallowed, but bizarrely after the half- time interval the ref. came back from the organisers and said that goal stands! So it was 1-1, and heads up we battled on to score again, thus winning 2-1. Hopes were high.
In the second game, we were soundly beaten 3-0, so hopes went down a little, but then we won the third 3-0.  Other teams seemed also to be having mixed fortunes so all was to play for on the last game. We really needed a win, but could only manage a 2-2 draw.

The end result was very close and positions were decided on goal difference - we were placed a very creditable 3rd. Well done all who took part - we did actually beat the team who came first!!

What did Yellow Class do in Southwold?

Firstly they were challenged (in groups) to prove that the beach and dunes can be a habitat, as at first glance there looks to be nothing alive there. Finding the creatures wasn't any problem - photographing them was!

Not sure whose idea this was for beach habitat!!!

Our second challenge was a scavenger hunt whilst returning to the pier, then after lunch the children created a picture with their scavenged items. We still don't know whose was judged the best!

All in all, despite the weather, we all had a great time.

Sea, Sand and Plenty of Fun Just Goes to Show You Don't Need the Sun!

Paying no heed to the Great British Weather, all the classes set off this morning for a lovely day at the beach. We arrived at Southwold, where we were met by Mr Pearce, who had gone early to check out the quality of the fried breakfasts on the pier (apparently very tasty).

We ignored the grey clouds and set off along the seafront, enjoying the brisk breeze blowing in from the South-East. When we reached a suitably wide section of beach, we made camp and let the fun begin.

There were cracking sandcastle competitions:



Some fun geography fieldwork:



Plenty of paddling:



Parading on the pier:



Not to mention messy ice-creams:



What a fantastic day! A big thank you to the School Council, without whose planning today would never have happened. Thanks also to all the parents and staff who helped make the day so much fun.

Here are all the photos, for you to enjoy. (I haven't added the pictures from Yellow class yet, but if someone could let me have them, I'll make sure they are added to the collection.)