What have we been up to?

As the Autumn term comes to an end we are busier than ever with our Christmas productions and parties. We have had a really good half term with lots going on.

In November we welcomed parents and grandparents to our Open Day which was enjoyed by all. Our Y5 class took part in a dance festival at Radcliffe Civic Hall and some of our Y6 class represented the school in Athletics, getting through to the finals at Castle Leisure Centre.

The whole school watched a live performance of Beauty and the Beast by M&M productions and Y5 and Y6 went to Bury college to see Alice in Wonderland.

We were very excited to welcome a bikers demonstration team to school who thrilled us with their stunts and skills. This was our prize for winning the virtual Tour d’Afrique last term.

At the beginning of this month we took a 50-strong junior choir to the Young Voices Event at the MEN Arena where they performed with 8000 other children from schools from all around Greater Manchester.

This week our infant children performed in their nativity play “Are we nearly there yet?” which delighted everyone who came to watch.

Next week the juniors will take part in two performances of their pantomime “Goldilocks” and all the children will be having a Christmas party.
We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PTA News

The PTA met on 4th December to review events and fund raising this term and arrange events for the Spring Term.

Christmas cards and calendars orders will be sent out before Christmas.

The 100 club draws will take place at the junior production next week.

Unfortunately, the Ceili has had to be cancelled in February as there were not enough parents available to organize the event. The PTA will be meeting to try and organize another event later in February. The meeting will take place at the Queen Anne on Thursday 8th January at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The PTA has agreed to put £5000 towards a refurbishment of our large PE apparatus in the school hall and also provide laboratory coats and goggles for our young scientists in the Science Club.

Class Assemblies

Class assemblies will take place on the following dates:

• Thursday 15 Jan 9.10am—Y4
• Thursday 29th Jan 9.10am—Y1
• Thursday 5 March 9.10am—Y3
• Thursday 19th March 9.10am— YR

Refreshments will be served after each assembly

Holidays in term time

All holiday requests must be made on the Holiday Authorisation Request Form to the Headteacher prior to the holiday being taken.

Any holiday that has not been authorised by the Headteacher will be classed as an unauthorised absence.

Requests will only be granted for the following reasons:-

• For service personnel and other employees who are prevented from taking holidays outside term time. Proof would need to be provided.
• When a family needs to spend time together to support each other during or after a crisis.

School Closes

Please remember that school finishes on Friday, 19th December at 2pm. There is no After School Club provision that day.

Developing The Playground

Y5 have been developing the school grounds with an artist called Sean Creagh. He came into Y5 before the autumn half term to announce that Y5 would be developing the school grounds. Y5 went around and looked at the school grounds and looked at places where there was nothing to do and areas that were not being used for play.

We asked people what their favourite areas were and the places they wanted to keep and where they wanted to improve. It turned out that most people liked the tyre park. We found out that Yr5 wanted quiet areas, places to hide and places for adventure. We also wanted more colour and nature. Then we went to look at the orchard and saw that there were not a lot of fruit and flowers.

After our research we drew a map of the school and divided it into six sections. We planned what we wanted in each area taking into consideration everyone’s ideas.
We then moved the tyres and made them a level higher so it was more interesting to walk on. We made islands surrounded by tape, so that grass would grow long. Once the grass has grown long on the islands the artist will put stepping stones in and benches of oak (which we helped clean and carve). The trees will start to grow fruit and it will be a nice place to chill. We will be making chilling areas, scary areas, adventure areas, nature areas and active areas.

We went into reception’s garden and played with some of the toys. We thought that we would like to have some of this equipment, such as skateboards, twisters and basketballs.

On Wednesday 10th December we thought about developing the tepee and how we could make it better. Sean, the artist brought in some old bits of wood, material and cardboard to test and experiment with to get inspiration and ideas for our project. We wanted to make the tepee more interesting and exciting. Some people worked on the computer to do designs for the tepee, some people drew plans of their ideas. Sean, the artist, will come back and will start to put things in the tepee that will work. Then we will concentrate on developing the nature trail.

We will carry on developing the playground and once its done it will be a better school environment for the children to play in.

By George
Year 5

Allotment Plans For The Spring Term

As you know, we had some fencing erected over the summer to develop an area of the school grounds for an allotment.

The idea is that the children will work the area and begin to understand the yearly cycle of growing and harvesting produce and all that this involves.

The next step will be to prepare the ground. We will need a team of fit adults to volunteer for this work. It will involve digging and lifting.

If you feel you would like to volunteer and are fit enough to do so safely please contact Mrs Reynolds or Mr Glenn Smith (Parent Governor) via school on 0161 766 4876 or contact us.

If you have any tools or equipment in good condition that you could donate to our allotment we would be very grateful.

Thank you for sending your Morrison’s “Let’s Grow” vouchers into school. We received around 3000 vouchers and will be ordering a range of equipment from the scheme in January.

If you could let us know if you have any equipment before Christmas then we will avoid duplicating that when we order from Morrison’s.

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