Good Night,

God Bless,

RIP

Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st July, the final two days of the summer term, were spent at Lea green for our traditional end of year residential visit.  What an action packed visit everyone had, they  couldn’t wait to take part and immerse themselves in life at Lea Green.  No one had time to relax as they moved from each activity so you can imagine how tiered everyone was on the journey home at the end of the two day visit. A particular favourite with the children were the soft play and brand new water slide where staff were able to hose the children down with water which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The older children stayed over night in the house which was a new experience for them as they had only ever stayed in the cottage, lodge or the flat, but they loved that the room were so big and they could spread out! Prizes were awarded to the children who Kept their rooms the most tidy and it was a huge surprise for staff who the winners were. As always the children thoroughly enjoyed the meals and they even baked us a celebratory year 6 leavers cake, which was served with a BBQ style burger and chips tea.

This is a fantastic way to end the school year and begin the summer holidays and activity requests have already been suggested for the visit next year by staff and children alike!

On Tuesday 19th July the children performed their end of year musical performance. The songs were all taught by Rachel Wilkes from Music Partnership during their 5 weeks of music curriculum for both class 1 and class 2 children. The repertoire of songs ranged from Raps, traditional African melody’s, friendship tunes with Makaton sign language incorporated into them, to name but a few of the content of the show. This was presented to parents and governors. Rev Adele the newly appointed vicar of St Giles Church closed the afternoon with a final prayer and commented how she had wished music had been this much fun when she had been at school and that she couldn’t believe that 18 children could sing so beautifully and clearly. She thoroughly enjoyed the show and said she hope she would be invited to the next one.

The final Collective Worship for this academic year was held in St Giles Church on Thursday 14th July in front of parents, governors and members from the local community. The children presented the entirety of the service presenting work undertaken and complete throughout the year. They were very proud to share with the congregation their successful completion of the Ambassadors Award and the subsequent presentation made by the National Park ranger Service.  A key factor in achieving this award included work the school undertakes alongside the community, which this year has included the continuation of the Wild Flower project, Walk of Words, Keeping Hartington tidy and the development of the school vegetable plot. The children were also very excited to share how the content of the Walk of Words was linked to the curriculum and to the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

The children have been very excited that their worships can now be delivered once more in the church which has provided an inspiration point which initially originated with Mr & Mrs Briddon from MAST. Our year six pupil has developed and promoted the ‘Open the Book’ sessions as part of the schools Collective Worship sharing stories from the New Testament. It was quoted ‘It’s so lovely to see the children again in the church sharing their work and performing stories from the Bible. I can’t believe that such a small school does so much and are so confident when performing!”

Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th saw Sally from Willow Weaving visit the school again to undertake willow weaving with the children.  During the sessions the children created another tree to adorn the playground fence also a rabbit, owl and fox. The children also wove leaves for the trees and made a selection of insects from sheaves of corn which are currently residing on the schools worship table as a reminder of this very special event. The Willow Weaving is an ongoing project to help create a more spiritual and reflective outside space as part of the quiet garden project.

One of the children asked after the sessions had been completed whether Sally and Claire would be returning after the summer as she couldn’t wait to find out what she would be making next. She was hoping for another tree but this time perhaps squirrels, hedgehogs and a bird of prey. We will have to wait and see what autumn brings!

Please click on the link to read a report written by one of the pupils.

On Friday 8th July the children entertained the parents, governors and members of the community with a display of dances around the May Pole. This took place in the village hall. Members of the community kindly baked cakes and scones in order to provide refreshments for the audience, which we are very grateful for.

The 5 dances were all performed to energetic upbeat songs chosen by the staff and pupils, which included ‘Help’ by the Beatles and  ‘A thousand Hallelujahs’ by The Shires. For one of the dances the children had their ‘Silver Sports’ partners join them. You could say they looked a little worried when fetched from the audience to sit on a chair facing the May Pole but elder children expertly guided them in the correct direction to undertake the platting of the ribbons.

One of the children commented “I love it when we May Pole dance, it’s one of my favourite things we do in school.” A Silver Sport commented “I was holding the ribbon so tightly that my hands went numb, I didn’t want to drop the ribbon as the children were dancing and make them go wrong!”

We would like to thank the ‘Silver Sports’ for being such good sports.

On Thursday 7th July the year 6/5 pupils undertook an outing of their choice to the ‘Deception Escape Rooms’ in Matlock escorted by Mrs Flower & Mrs Teeboon. The session tested their skills for unraveling  clues and keeping their nerve during frightening moments! Sophia was heard to say “Why didn’t I choose the Santa Claus  escape room, it wouldn’t have been so scary and Mrs F and Mrs T ears would have been ringing from all the screaming!” Unfortunately, they ran out of time and were unable to complete their task. There were a few hairy moments during the session and Mrs Flower was instructed to sit with her back to all and any openings the wardrobe to stop the door from opening!

Following this we visited MacDonald’s for lunch. A slightly less traumatic experience! We then travelled to Buxton where the pupils  were treated to nail painting and the hair dressers for a wash and curl. Everyone had a great day. Mrs Blackwell said “its always so interesting what the children’s choices are for the year 6 leavers event. During the years of being head teacher here I don’t think we have ever had the children choose the same activities for these very special days.”