Thursday 27 June 2013

A Message From Mrs Barker

Yesterday afternoon Mrs Barker took 'advantage' of her leaving gift by spending the day at Wimbledon watching the drama unfold. She would 'love' to pass on the following message:
'I would so like to say a big thank you to everyone for my Wimbledon tickets! I had a fantastic day, they were fantastic seats behind the royal box so I had a great view. Mo Farah was in clear view as were Bruce Forsyth and Stephen Fry. And Federer losing too - what an historic day to be there!'
One of our eagled-eyed parents snapped her soaking up the atmosphere...

Rounders Tournament

What a great bunch of kids we have at Earl Soham!


We set off to the rounders tournament this morning with hopes of bringing back the trophy for a second year. Unfortunately it was not to be, but I cannot fault the way the children played today and the great sportsmanship they displayed. We played five matches in total and faced some tough opposition from some of the teams. Our first match against Stonham was an excellent way to start, with a clear win and cutting the game short by getting out all the opposition's batters.


Our next match against Charsfield's A team was a more hard-fought affair. In this match we made some early fielding mistakes which allowed Charsfield to gain a lead, and despite picking up towards the end of the match, they beat us by half a rounder.


We faced Occold in our third match, and this was a comfortable win for the Earl Soham crew. It was in our fourth match of the morning that we faced our toughest opponents in the form of Mellis's B team. They were skilful fielders, and strong batters. Our team held their nerve even when faced with some indifferent umpiring (in my opinion) during the first half of the game. But when we came into bat, it was a hard job to score and Mellis sealed the win.

Our final match of the morning was versus Wortham, who were very sporting opponents. Overall, we won three out of our five matches - a worthy result.

I am enormously proud of all the team, and though we came third in our group and didn't make the play-offs, they were gracious losers and most importantly had a lot of fun.


The Emerald Crown

Rehearsals are now well underway in the rainforest - The monkeys are in full swing, the bats are going barmy and the birds are out of their tree. But will the humans succeed in destroying the animals' homes to build a great highway? Join us on 16th and 17th July to find out.



Tuesday 25 June 2013

Vouchers

Thank you to everyone for supporting us with our recent voucher collections. Pictured below are the 'goodies' we have received which include stopwatches, skipping ropes, bean bags, rounders balls, swimming hats and discus.

Friday 21 June 2013

High Suffolk Primary Schools' Athletics

This morning the rain held off as a large contingent of pupils from Years 3 - 6 took part in a morning of track and field athletics. Thomas Mills High School were the hosts for this event which included Year 3 & 4 children for the first time.The competition was fiercely contested and all of the Earl Soham athletes should feel proud of their achievements in such a competitive arena.






Thursday 20 June 2013

Year 9 Language Leaders

This morning Yellow Class welcomed some familiar faces as three Year 9 children from Thomas Mills High School visited. Their task (which they did superbly) was to develop the children's understanding of healthy food...in French!
The visitors did a fantastic job - we'd welcome them back any day. Mr Pearce was delighted to learn the French for grapefruit! Pamplemousse!!!


Wednesday 19 June 2013

Crucial Crew

This afternoon, Year six pupils headed out to Stowmarket for the annual Crucial Crew event, where they learnt about how to keep themselves safe in a variety of different scenarios. I won't give too much away, as I don't want to spoil it for younger pupils who will go in subsequent years, but I hope that the photographs below give you a flavour of what the event was all about.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

A Lazy Summer's Afternoon

Today the Great British Summer arrived. It lasted for about five hours, which was a little longer than I was expecting. We thought we should make the most of it before the rain comes back, so we took to the outdoors for the afternoon, armed with watercolour paints. Finding a shady spot, we selected a subject and enjoyed the serenity of an afternoon painting session.




Thursday 13 June 2013

Living and Working in Antarctica


On Monday morning the children were treated to a visit from a very special guest, Flo Barrow. 
Suffolk based Flow saw a job advert which read ‘Are you the person we are looking for? Have you got what it takes?’ She headed off competition from over 160 applicants to become ‘Postmistress’ for the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust to work on a base that was built in top secret during WWII –  she still thinks she landed a dream job.  Just back from working the Antarctic season at Port Lockroy 11,000 miles from home with only three other employees and 4,000 penguins for company, Flo shared some of her amazing experiences. In an illustrated talk, she explained what it is like to work in an environment that not only looks incredibly beautiful, but is such an important place politically, scientifically and historically.
Flo's visit (funded by the Antarctic Heritage Trust) really captured the imagination of the children who were amazed at how cold it was, interested in the penguins 'stealing' each others' rocks and not having a shower for a month! 

Quadkids Athletics

On Monday afternoon, ten children from Years 5 & 6 took part in the Quadkids Athletics event at Hartismere High School.
The team of 5 boys and 5 girls each took part in 4 events: standing long jump, vortex throw, 800m run and 80m sprint.
Earl Soham finished a creditable 5th place out of 9 teams. Despite the rather strained looks in some of the photographs, I'm led to believe that they enjoyed themselves!





Dictionaries For Life

On Tuesday morning, Year 5 children were all presented with a personalised dictionary courtesy of the Rotary Club of High Suffolk. Earl Soham are one of three primary schools in this part of Suffolk who have benefited from the 'Dictionary 4 Life' project.

In the past the school has supported the Rotary Club during their fantastic appeals, such as 'Shelter Box', which make such a difference to so many people throughout the world.