Hilltop Residential, Year 4 – day 2

Today was our main day, and has really lived up to our expectations. After a hearty breakfast, we divided into two groups. One group learned bushcraft skills (including how to make a fire) and the other group learned how to use a huge zip wire.  Half way through the morning, we all swapped over.  Well done to everyone with your firelighting skills. One needs to find great kindling before attempting a fire, and so everyone’s eyes were peeled for silver birch. Marshmallows were then roasted by all. 

After a warming lunch of jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, plus birthday cake (yummy), we had our best session yet on the climbing ropes. Fantastic work was seen all round, with children all pushing themselves, Kayden, Caleb, Rio and Eden especially, and great collaborative work from children supporting the climbers. That took 100% concentration!  We are all so proud of Fressingfield children today. They rose to a massive challenge and did us all proud!

Just before tea, we opened the tuck shop. Mrs Tooley and Ms Perry had learned from our last Hilltop visit, and so managed to make this as painless as possible (for the adults). 

We will be celebrating our last evening with a disco, although will keep the ‘quiet room’ open, for anyone who’s not so keen. 

Hilltop Residential, Year 4 – day 1

Well, we’ve arrived to find some sunshine, and a very warm welcome from the crew at Hilltop. After eating our packed lunches outside, we then grouped up and either played some very challenging team games or went on the awesome Super Swing, a contraption of wires and pulleys, which would rival any ride at Pleasurewood Hills. Well done to our fearless few, including Reuben, Kayden, Bonnie and Amelia. Fabulous teamwork from Fressingfield too – you’d never have got through the spider maze without that. And who knew that Summer would be so great at directing children through the maze? 

After our delicious dinner of sausages, wedgies and chocolate pudding for afters, we took a visit into the woods. Who needs Hallowe’en when you have your own Enchanted Forest?  Well done to Edward and Hector for sone great team work, and also to Oscar who really got the hang of the woodland game. 

We ‘hit the sack’ at half past eight although, for some of us, it felt like midnight!  Thanks to the amazing Hilltop staff, who are both kind and professional.

It’s Another Harvest Festival… 

What a fabulous morning we had at St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church this morning for our Harvest Festival. Thank you to Revd Susan, her team and her parishioners for making us all feel welcome.  

One of our curriculum drivers is the phrase, ‘At The Heart Of Our Community.’ We are proud of the role we play representing and serving our community and keen for the children to play their part in community life. This never seems so true as at this time of the year when we are celebrating the Harvest together with our families. It was a lovely service too. The children sang beautifully, thanks to the expert tuition of Mrs Clarke; and each class’ presentation was wonderful. I was so impressed with the their enthusiasm, enjoyment and confidence. 

The generous Harvest Donations have been given to the Trussell Trust, the organisation responsible for our local Food Banks. As we said in the church, the cost of living crisis is having a profound effect on families across the UK including in our community. If you are suffering and you need food for yourself and your family, please contact Revd Susan in confidence on 01379 388493. 

I hope you all have a lovely half-term holiday.

Success on the Football Field!

We are very proud of our Girls Football Team who won the Sports Values Award at the tournament on Monday. The Award, which is voted for by the teams we played against, celebrates the team that best-displayed the values of Honesty, Passion, Determination, Self-Belief, Respect and Teamwork; and our girls had each of those qualities in abundance.  

We talk about that ‘Fressingfield Feeling’ all the time and we’re really pleased that, when they pulled on the Fressingfield shirt, they carried our Fressingfield values with them to the tournament. I was particularly impressed with their teamwork: the girls communicated excellently – they were clear and encouraging; they each knew their roles and how to back each other up; and they played with enjoyment and enthusiasm.  

Not only that, but they were successful in their matches too. Having drawn their first match against Debenham (who later finished in third place), the team went on to win 3-0 against Laxfield. The girls lost to Mellis, but played with determination, respect and passion throughout. Well done girls!

And now we look forward to the mixed football competition in November. Let’s hope we can be just as successful there.

THE GREAT CHARITY SHOP BOOK SCAVENGER HUNT!

The Great Charity Shop Book Scavenger Hunt is now ON and books are being sent in across the school. Thank you for your contributions so far.

Last year, with the Walk on the Wild Side, we raised £1,500 to buy as many of the books on the Essential Guides as possible, but we still have more to do to complete our collections and we need your help.  

So this year, we have launched the Great Charity Shop Book Scavenger Hunt. We would like you to scour the book shelves of charity shops wherever you go to find as many of the books on the Essential Guides as possible, buy them and donate them to the school. The books on the lists highlighted in yellow are the books we already have in school. (Children’s books in charity shops normally sell for about £1, so please don’t spend more than this.) The School Librarians will monitor how many books from the lists we have managed to collect and will keep track of our progress with a special display. If we manage to meet our target by the end of term, there will be a special treat for everyone during one of our Book Worm Sessions on Friday afternoons.  

We will add a special sticker to the inside of all donated books to read, “Kindly donated by the _________ family.” 

We hope you can help us with this initiative. The local charity shops are full of fantastic children’s books that would make a huge difference to the quality of our class libraries. With your help, and with the money raised earlier this year, we hope to be able to complete our collection of every book on the Essential Guide. How good would that be?!

Team Building

Congratulations to some of the key stage 2 children who attended a recent Team Building event at Hartismere School. Using a range of equipment, and led by Hartismere team leaders from Years 10 and 11, the children undertook a range of challenges, alongside around ninety children from other local schools. Niall even won a prize for great team skills. Finn said his favourite activity was the blindfold game. Maisie liked the ladders game, which involved working together and trusting each other.   Once again, Fantastic work, Fressingfield Primary!

Congo and Yangtze Class Summer Performance: Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty!

Congratulations to all the children involved in the Congo and Yangtze End of Year Performance. It was such a great show and we are so proud of you all. The singing was lively and raucous – it was wonderful to see how much you were enjoying it (but thank goodness we had Mrs Foster on the piano holding everything together!). 

Our soloists were amazing and had the audience in raptures: well done for singing so clearly and beautifully Ruby, Ivy, Imogen, Sonny and Lily, and well done Jayden for channelling your inner Rock God! We loved it! 

The acting was sensational and so convincing. Every word was clear, and your facial expressions added to the overall effect, so you had the audience in the palms of your hands: they laughed at all the jokes, cheered all your successes, booed the baddies and loved every minute of it. 

Thank you to everyone who helped us put on such a great show.

What a great occasion! Well done everyone. 

Mr L

Wow!  What an amazing building!

Children in Fressingfield could not believe their eyes, as they walked first around, and then through Norwich Catholic Cathedral of John the Baptist. We had an amazing talk by Tania, who told us all about the gothic style of the building (arches pointing to Heaven, stained glass and flying buttresses), and also about the symbolism of the artwork in a Catholic church. We had a fantastic time, and saw some stunning spectacles. Some of our favourite things were the awesome stained glass, and the stories it tells, and also the 3,00 year old fossil-encrusted pillars.  Can you spot three local saints in our pictures, including St Edmund and St Felix?

Norwich Synagogue Visit

Children from Fressingfield had an amazing time visiting Norwich Synagogue. With a very warm welcome from Deborah, we learned all about preparing for Shabbat, including the food, drink and prayers used. We then looked more closely at some Jewish artefacts, including caps (kippah) and prayer shawls (tallit). But our two favourite things were seeing the amazing, shiny, clinking torah, and then having a go writing our names in Hebrew. 

Howzat! Well done to our Cricketers! 

Fressingfield sent a team of 9 to the U11 Dynamos Cricket tournament on Thursday to compete against teams from across our region of the county. We enjoyed some tightly fought games in the idyllic surroundings of Mellis Cricket Club. The whole team performed well, and huge improvements in both individual skills and team tactics were made over the course of the afternoon. Some of the highlights included Amelia, Chloe and Summer’s energetic, focused fielding, Poppy’s enthusiastic encouragement of her team-mates, Liam and Ella’s catching, Shawn and William’s batting, and Calum bowling someone out, catching a second and hitting a six all in the space of one five minute spell.  

Over the five games we played, we lost three, won two and finished in joint fourth position in our group. Well done Team Fress!