A busy Autumn Term for Spaldwick Primary School

After a very hectic and exciting summer term everyone at Spaldwick Primary School is looking ahead to an equally busy and interesting autumn term. Aside from all our usual learning experiences we will be looking forward to making scarecrows for part of our harvest celebrations. We will be celebrating the renewal of our Quality Mark accreditation and receiving 2 new pianos purchased for the school by FOSS [Friends of Spaldwick School]. FOSS have raised £1800 for the pianos, including contributions from several local businesses.

Music will continue to play an important part of the Spaldwick School experience - with over a third of our pupils learning a specific instrument [from piano to saxophone] and all classes participating in wider music opportunities. This involves every class and their teacher playing an instrument; our Samba band now performs at village shows, and we hope that this year our African Drums and Tin Whistle groups will also perform at the shows.

We will be commencing a new project to develop areas of our school grounds into learning zones. Working with Cambridgeshire Educations Environmental Services the pupils and staff will be designing learning zones for development over the next two years - these will include the Spaldwick Bird Garden, school allotment and a Secret Garden.

Each class will again be selecting a charity to support throughout the school year. Last year, through a variety of activities we proudly donated over £1,600 to the selected charities.
For a school of 180 pupils this is an achievement we are very proud of.

Our term will culminate with the Key Stage 1 production to celebrate Christmas and an illuminated evening of Carols in the school grounds.

Our Pupil Voice Groups will be working on some specific projects in the next term.

The Fruity Tooties, our healthy eating team, already have one special event marked on the calendar this is a visit by to a pig farm, production plant and Sainsbury store. This is a prize won in a competition run by Sainsbury's Active Kids Get Cooking.

Hoots Parliament, our School Council, will be working with the Headteacher and Governors to discuss our Homework Policy.

The Library Voice, will be collecting ideas from other pupils about how to improve our Library area.
The Sound Squad, our new pupil voice group will be supporting the school as it goes for Gold as a ‘Sing Up School'. To achieve a gold award singing has to occur across the curriculum and throughout the day, also all staff-including the Head- have to participate!!

Some of the extra activities enjoyed during the summer term included a trip to the theatre to see a musical version of James and the Giant Peach., a visit to Hinchingbrooke park to learn about minibeasts, the Year 6 end of term trip to Wicksteed Park, the Year 2 Ocarina group playing in the regional, Music for Youth final at Birmingham Festival Hall, and our Year 3 class coming second with their film entry, (Mr Hoooo's Adventure) in the Cambridgeshire film festival.

There was also a fantastic week when the whole school joined in with the National Shine Week and included every pupil participation in a musical performance by either playing a musical instrument, singing or dancing , sometimes all three!

Do you have any interesting news stories?  Let us know if you do.

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