We are now on Twitter - https://twitter.com/NeedwoodOF
Our read all about it page has pages of wonderful photos of the learning in our school. From September 2019 we will not be adding any further photographs here as we are using Twitter! Please join us!
The children in KS2 went to church to find out what happens in a Communion service. Mrs Rees and Mr Harrison explained to the children in the detail the significance of the service and what the bread and wine represents. The children were able to watch a demonstration of how to take communion and sampled the wafers (but not the wine!).
Families had an excellent Fathers’ Day celebration this week with an amazing PTA led breakfast and then a beautiful service where children shared memories, thoughts, the job description for a dad, singing and prayer to consider the role of dad, and to think about dads in school, absent and ill dads and people undertaking the role of dad. It was special. Happy fathers’ Day.
Our school choir had a truly fabulous Flash back to the future 80s singing event this week at Hill Street Baptist church as part of their learning with Mr Mansfield. All the congregation knew all the words and of course so did the children, they sang amazingly! What a great night.
Sun Safe School Award
Class 3 at Needwood and class 4 at Rangemore had a truly fantastic day visiting Birmingham. They thoroughly enjoyed the concert at the Symphony Hall which used the full CBSO and music by Mendelssohn, Britten, Walton and Prokofiev to explore how composers down the centuries have let Shakespeare’s poetry ignite their imagination, this included songs from the Lion King, West Side Story and the theme tune to 'The Apprentice' originally written by Prokofiev for Romeo and Juliet! The also sketched in the square and visited to the Museum and art gallery where they explored many exhibits ranging from ancient cultures to the history of Birmingham's people. It was a fabulous day.
A visit from Inspector Neeson from Staffordshire Police started our Safety Week on Monday. He talked to us in our classes about road safety, stranger danger, E-safety, knives and anti-social behaviour to name a few! During our whole school assembly he also talked about the role of the Police in keeping us safe and we had the opportunity to ask lots and lots of questions! We thank Inspector Neeson for giving up his time to come and see us.
We have lots of other things planned for Safety Week such as how to stay safe in the sun, Water Safety, Fire Safety and Class 3 will be taking part in a visit from the Prison Service.
The forest federation took part in YMCA day today in order to develop the children’s understanding of our local community needs and the need and emotions of homeless people and how we can help. They raised funds bringing donations and provisions to support vulnerable adults without a home who turn up at the YMCA with nothing and have the opportunity to have their own toothbrush and toothpaste a towels and shower gel in order to start to get back on their feet. The children entered a competition to design their own dream house and there were a large number and variety of entries with some fantastic ideas! The YMCA do an amazing job and the children got a real understanding of the need for this charity and service and were so pleased to take part. Mrs Gethin commented, “It was a really emotional day, we were overwhelmed with the amount of provisions that the children brought in and how articulate and the level of understanding the children and about this local need, we are very proud of them and hope to continue supporting this very worthwhile, local branch."
The cross country tournament was fantastic. Despite being completely drenched and quite cold the four year groups did extremely well yesterday with the year 3 Federation boys team winning overall in that category and achieving a place at Keele university for the school games festival! Well done to all of the children who took part and to the boys for their achievement.
On Wednesday, as part of the FA’s Girls Football week, all of the KS2 girls across the Federation took part in a football tournament at St. George’s Park. We entered four teams each playing four matches. The girls were enthusiastic and had an enjoyable morning proving, as the motto of the morning said: #WECANPLAY!
Despite the terrible weather we had a fabulous day at Newborough Well Dressing. The church service to dedicate the wells and crown the May Queen with her Princesses was beautiful led by Rev. Frances and Archdeacon of Stoke, Matthew Parker with readings from Mayor David Lees, dancing by the Morris Men and worship singing around the wells led by Mrs Smith. We also enjoyed 2 lots of wet Maypole Dancing, singing, a King/Queen grass head competition, stalls galore and other events such as a band and dog show! What a special day, thank you to the whole community and well dressing committee for their hard work, to Mrs Neeson for her fabulous commitment in putting it together with all the community leaders, to Mrs Pendleton and Mrs Elis for the Maypole dancing and singing and to all the staff for their hard work and families for attendance and fun!
We were invited to attend the launch of the Midlands Air Ambulance Education Initiative at Tatenhill Airfield. The children explored some of the resources in the education pack as well as meeting many of the staff involved in the charity as well as Lee Pearson 10 times Paralympic games gold medalist who is one of the charities ambassadors. The children were able to see some of the new state of the art equipment in the new training centre including a talking, breathing dummy for the crew to train and simulate real life medical emergencies on as well as explore the inside of an Air Ambulance. For further photos please explore the gallery.
On Tuesday, the boys’ football team took part in a friendly tournament at John of Rolleston Primary School. It was a wonderful sunny afternoon and the boys worked really well together leading to a fantastic team performance. They played 3 matches and all the games were very close. Well done we are very proud of you all.