It was wonderful this lunchtime to see so many parents and grandparents able to join us to celebrate at our harvest lunch. There were lots of smiling faces and everyone certainly looked to be enjoying the fabulous roast dinner produced by our wonderful cook, Caroline, who served nearly one hundred dinners!
Thank you, Caroline, and thank you to all our visitors for joining us today.
This morning saw the whole school troop over to the church for our Harvest Festival celebrations. The many gifts of food brought into school had been placed in the chancel and the church had been decorated beautifully with examples of our county's bounty.
The children listened well as Mr Pearce talked about the importance of food to everyone, people and animals alike, and the many varieties of food available around the world. And even the distraction of a robin flying between roof struts did not disturb their concentration as they heard Reverend Brian talk about eyes of potatoes, ears of corn, heads of celery, hands of bananas and artichoke hearts and the way that each of these foods reminds us of our responsibilities to others and the importance of loving one another.
Each class sung a harvest song. Orange Class gave a heart-warming rendition of Cauliflowers Fluffy, complete with actions and Green Class reminded the congregation that teamwork was the key to success in The Enormous Turnip Song.
Finally, everyone sang together a rousing performance of Food, Glorious Food from Oliver.
Earlier today we celebrated the upcoming Mothers' Day in style. During the week the children had been making and decorating muffins whilst also making a personalised box for them to go in. These were presented to parents on arrival.
Just under 100 children and adults had a rather yummy roast lunch with over 30 of our parents able to join us. It was great to see the lovely smiles on the faces of everyone - we're delighted that so many were able make it a special occasion.
Special thanks must go (again) to Caroline in the kitchen for her tireless work.
Last night St Mary's Church was heaving with people coming together to celebrate Christmas at our school Carol Service.
The service opened with a medley of Christmas Carols performed by the recorder group, which was followed by readings, poems and songs. Red class made a Nativity tableau, the choir sang beautifully and the staff choir finished the evening with a surprise sketch and Italian carol. What a fantastic night!
All of this excitement was followed by a party in the school hall to say a fond farewell to Mrs Barker, who is retiring at Christmas. We wish her all the best as she embarks on a new phase of her life, and hope that we will see her pop into school in the near future.
Earlier today, we were joined by a number of our parents for our Fathers' Day Lunch. Yet again, Caroline did a fantastic job with the cooking and we were fortunate that the sun shone on us.
It was great to stand back and watch all of the children playing so happily together, parents joining in and all amid a delightful atmosphere.
Our special Mother's Day Lunch was a huge success today, with more than a hundred dinners served. Mums, Dads and Grandparents came to share lunch with their children, and despite a rather longer-than-usual wait due to the sheer number of dinners being served, everyone was satiated and had an enjoyable meal.
Our thanks must go to Caroline, our superb cook, who toiled over the cooker and prepared more vegetables than it seemed humanly possible to prepare!
Today was Safer Internet Day, and we held a SHARE morning to which parents were invited to find out how we teach E-Safety in school.
We began the session by watching this video produced in 2009 to outline the reasons why we teach ICT in schools.
This was followed by a session in which we discussed our online activities. We watched a video about the five SMART rules:
S - Safe: Keep safe by being careful not to give out personal information when you’re chatting or posting online. Personal information includes your email address, phone number and password.
M - Meeting: Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. Only do so with your parents’ or carers’ permission and even then only when they can be present. Remember online friends are still strangers even if you have been talking to them for a long time.
A - Accepting: Accepting emails, IM messages, or opening files, pictures or texts from people you don’t know or trust can lead to problems – they may contain viruses or nasty messages!
R - Reliable: Someone online might lie about who they are and information on the internet may not be true. Always check information with other websites, books or someone who knows. If you like chatting online it’s best to only chat to your real world friends and family.
T - Tell: Tell your parent, carer or a trusted adult if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, or if you or someone you know is being bullied online.
Then the children and adults discussed a range of scenarios and how they would react in each situation.
Finally, our digital leaders gave a brief presentation to sum up what we had learnt during the course of the morning.
Thank you to the parents who came. I hope you enjoyed the morning. If you have any further questions about how we teach e-safety, please don't hesitate to contact the school or for more information on keeping your children safe online, visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
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.
This afternoon, parents were invited to come and share in some of the excellent work that the children in Blue Class have done over the past term in their Growth and Change project. There was an excellent turn-out and the children thoroughly enjoyed talking to parents and explaining what they had learnt. The highlight of the afternoon was the performance of the class dance: The Life Cycle of a Plant (a copy of which is available to view on the school's blog if you missed it).
Well done to all of Blue Class, who have put in a huge amount of work and produced some stunning results.
Many thanks to the mums, dads, aunties and grandparents who joined us for lunch today. An incredible 118 roast dinners were served, which is a quite phenomenal number for a school of 82 children! It appeared that everyone had a great time and that the food went down extremely well. Thank you to all who were able to attend, we hope that you enjoyed the food and the company.
On Wednesday and Thursday, parents and grandparents joined in with maths lessons in Blue and Yellow Classes. Blue Class were learning the grid method of multiplication (examples of which are shown below) and Yellow Class were learning about angles.
Feedback from the parents who came has been very positive and the teaching staff were all pleased to be able to involve so many parents in their children's learning.
Plans will be under way soon for another similar event. In the meantime, please enjoy the photographs below.
This morning our first ever 'SHARE' day was held in Red Class. We were delighted with the support received from all parents in setting this up and it was pleasing to see so many able to attend. The main focus was on subtraction with a number of activities set up both inside and out. The children were delighted to have so many adults to share their learning experiences with and we hope that this is the first of many opportunities for parents to fully take part in the classroom experience!
Wednesday 7th October saw an incredible 83 people take part in our special lunch. Considering we normally average 30 hot meals per lunchtime, this was an incredible feat.
Children, parents and grandparents patiently waited to be served with a menu of: Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Carrots, Cabbage, Broccoli and Gravy. This was followed by a delightful Syrup Sponge and Custard.
The children were very excited by having so many adults join them for lunch and the feedback from our guests has been so very positive - thank you.
Some adults then joined the children on the playground, encouraging them to play traditional games. The smiles on everyone's faces said it all.Huge thanks to everyone who was able to join us - we hope you'll be able to do so again - and a very special thank you to Claire Keeling in the kitchen for doing such a fantastic job.
On Thursday, over 30 parents and grandparents joined their children for a special Mother's Day Lunch. There were also a number of little brothers and sisters who joined us for the meal.
Temporary Head of Kitchen, Linda, was delighted with the response which saw her serve over 80 meals. Linda was the driving force behind the meal of:
Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding/Mushroom Bake, Roast Potatoes, Broccoli, Carrots and Gravy. This was followed by Apple Crumble and Custard/Jelly.
There were plenty of empty plates and a good time was had by all. A big thank you to those who were able to attend - we've got something to build on next year!
