Here we are starting to wind down to Christmas once more. Today we have seen ‘Zoo Lab’ in school teaching younger children about nocturnal animals. This follows on from an exciting visit to ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ last week. We were also treated to an impromptu lesson about the lives of golden eagles when one of our parents brought ‘Woody’ in for a visit.

Last Tuesday everyone was very moved when we all attended a Remembrance Service at Cropthorne Church led by Graham Pharo. The children had made a selection of poppies both within class and at home and Mr and Mrs Pharo displayed these at church for the community to see. It was a fabulous sight and the children clearly thought about the significance of the occasion especially when impeccably observing the two minutes silence. We all sang beautifully and shared poems from the various classes, a memorable occasion which has clearly had an impact on the children.

We are extremely proud of how wonderfully the whole school sings and as a result Miss Wyatt has entered our school choir into the ‘Free Radio Christmas Stars’ competition. There was much excitement when the radio station came to record the choir and we will all be listening out to hear the children singing on air. The voting commences on Friday at freeradio.co.uk/Christmas-stars. We are keeping our fingers crossed to win through to the next round!

On a sporting front our Year 4 and Year 5 participated in the South Worcestershire Schools Cross Country Championship at Bredon School. The enthusiasm from the children was amazing especially as it was such a wet miserable morning. However their encouragement for each other was fabulous to see and they were rewarded with some excellent overall positions, the majority of the children finished higher than expected because of the shouting and cheering from class mates. We were all extremely proud of Lara Meredith who finished in first in the Year 4 girls race and she will be going on to represent South Worcestershire in the district finals.

In school over the last few days there has been a frenzy of activities to raise money for our Moldovian charity. The children have been making Christmas items and working in ‘apprenticeship’ style teams to raise money for the charity and they are looking forward to selling these at our annual open morning on Friday 21st November 10 – 12. We really enjoy seeing old and new faces at the open morning and it is a real chance for us to show how proud we are of our school. Parents, grandparents, children old and new friends are invited to see our colourful and creative displays, school work and see the pupils in action.

Finally all of us at Cropthorne wish you a merry and peaceful Christmas as we start to prepare for our much loved nativity play. Helping us prepare for Christmas our hardworking PTFA have organised a shopping evening at Cropthorne Village Hall on Friday 28th November between 6 – 8pm, tickets available from the school office. We look forward to telling you all about our festive celebrations in the new year.

All at Cropthorne with Charlton CE First School