Birstwith Primary School

Our annual talent contest was bigger and better than ever this year. The year six children organised, advertised and judged the contest and provided the prizes. It was a fantastic showcase for the best of Birstwith's talent.

Our whole school production this summer was 'Robin Hood'. Everyone worked really hard rehearsing and learning their parts and we were thrilled with the final performance. The Year sixes showed off their dramatic talents beautifully and we'll never forget Adam's wonderful voice and Jacob's evil laugh.

To raise money for 'Save the Children' the children took part in a sponsored den building day on a sunny day in June.

All the children were involved and worked in mixed year group teams. The challenge was to design and build a den that provided shelter, was strong, comfortable and attractive. Each team worked together on their design, chose a team name and collected their materials together to build their den. We then took all of our materials out onto the school field and began our building. After the dens were finished everyone had a den picnic and parents and Governors arrived to view the dens and vote for their favourites.

Everyone had an absolutely fantastic day working together and we were all very proud of the finished dens. When all the adult votes were added together, the winners were...

Best den  -...

Best decorated den -...

Best team work -...

Altogether we raised - ...for Save the Children

One of the highlights of the school year is our Easter Bunny Drive. Everyone met in the hall after school and instead of a 'Beetle Drive' we had a 'Bunny Drive' with prizes for the highest and lowest score. Mrs Holland provided the refreshments and a great time was had by all. Roll on next year!

Instead of our traditional Christmas Craft Day the teachers decided to try an Easter Craft Day. Everyone got to choose the activities they would like to try and the older children worked hard helping the younger children to complete the tricky parts. We had helpers from the local community who all enjoyed working with the children. It was fantastic to see everyone working together and feeling so proud of their results.

We were lucky enough to have a lovely day for our school games this year. The children from Bishop Thornton joined us and we were cheered on by some very enthusiastic parents. The Friends of Birstwith School kindly provided the children with iced lollies as refreshment and provided a very flowery tea tent for the grown ups. A super afternoon for all involved - including our Governors in charge of the score board!

This year's whole school trip was to Thorpe Perrow Arboretum. Everyone really enjoyed playing in the trees and the adventure playground, but the most exciting part of the day was meeting the birds of prey and seeing them fly so close to us.

The children celebrated 'Le Grand Depart' with a special celebration day in school, including a wonderful performance by the choir, and every child decorated a yellow t-shirt. A fantastic time was had by all.

On the afternoon of Friday 21^st March the children joined together to complete a ‘Mad Marathon’.

The 42.195 kilometres of a normal marathon was divided between the children in school so that each child completed 0.5km or 500m around the school field. This meant that by working together the children completed a Marathon.

The ‘mad’ part was that the children chose how to complete their distance. We saw all sorts of crazy things, from a troop of drummers, a space walking spaceman, somersaults, legs tied together and the unforgettable tipping wheelbarrow.

Before the children completed their 'run' the Young Leaders from Class 4 lead short warm up sessions.

Amazingly, altogether the children’s hard work raised a massive £723.14 for Sport Relief. We were all so proud of their fantastic fundraising efforts. A big thank you must also go to all the people who donated or sponsored us so generously.

Well done everyone – a great afternoon for a great cause!

We started the New Year with a lovely Christingle service in Church, lead by the Year 6's and Mrs Bedford.

All the children worked hard in the morning preparing their Christingles, guided by some of our friends from the Church.

Our Christmas festivities in school this year were great fun and a super opportunity for us all to come together and celebrate.

They started with our traditional Christmas lunch, cooked for all the staff, children and Governors by our fantastic cook Charlotte. Everyone sat down and shared lunch together.

On the last day of term the children enjoyed their Christmas parties with lots of party games and skillful dancing. We all had our party lunch altogether in the hall, made by Charlotte with The Friends adding some extra treats.

After lunch we were very excited to get a very special visit from a very busy man...

As part of our Art Week we went on a whole school trip to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens.

We had a wonderful time and were very lucky to have a dry and sunny day. Each class took part in an Art based workshop lead by the Harlow Carr teachers and enjoyed lots of time completing other art activities with their class teachers.

We also worked in our mixed aged house teams, creating a textile wall display showing different Geographical areas of the world.

We were lucky to have a wonderfully sunny day this year. Yellow team were victorious, but everyone had a great time competing in activities and races while the spectators enjoyed tea and cakes in the sunshine.

Eloise in Class 1 arranged for The Donkey Sanctuary (Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys) to bring a donkey to school to meet everyone. It was fascinating to learn about what donkeys and the Sanctuary does and everyone enjoyed having a stroke.

Every year we have a very special tradition of dressing the Christmas tree. Every child in the school gets to choose a bauble and place it on our tree. It's a lovely way to start the Christmas festivities in school.

This year to raise money for Children In Need everyone in school wore their pyjamas to school for the day - including the teachers! We had a very comfy day and raised lots of money, helped by one of our very popular cake stalls.

Years 1 to 6 enjoyed working together to build a model of our village as part of our whole school 'Where we Live' topic.

Each team, made up of children from each class was given a different section of the village to build. Class 1 even joined in and took on the job of building the Reading rooms and cottages opposite school and made a fantastic job of their construction.

The teams designed, built and decorated their models and then they displayed them in the hall for the parents to see. Litres of glue and paint, metres of brown tape and sellotape and literally hundreds of cardboard boxes and technical discussions contributed to the process and everyone at school was very proud and delighted with the finished result.

To celebrate the Queen's Jubilee we held a huge afternoon tea for the school community. We showed off our country dancing skills, the choir performed and we had a patriotic sing song in the hall where we all enjoyed waving our flags. It was an afternoon to remember!

Each Easter we hold an egg rolling competition, organised by the Friends of Birstwith. There are prizes for the best decorated eggs and for the eggs that travel the furthest distance across the playground. We always have a wonderful time cheering each other on.