Aladdin Visits Fressingfield Primary School

The Christmas Season was launched with a song and a dance and a lot of silliness yesterday when Aladdin the Panto visited Fressingfield Primary School for a special performance. Judging by the laughter, the enraptured faces and the raucous calling out, it was clear how much our children enjoyed the shenanigans of Wishy-Washy, the Genii, the Princess and Aladdin himself. Poor Miss Adamson might have regretted sitting so close to the front though, as she was asked to join Aladdin on stage to take a bow – which isn’t easy when you’re seven months pregnant!

We would like to thank FOFSA who organised and paid for the panto to visit us this year so we could continue to enjoy this great tradition without the cost for our families. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we have already booked up next year’s show: Jack and the Beanstalk! Oh, yes we have!

The Panto launches a week of festivities at Fressingfield which will include: today’s Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas Meal and the FOFSA Christmas Fair: the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 Nativity – Humpf the Camel; the choir singing at tomorrow’s Christmas Market; and a Carol Concert at St Peter and St Paul’s Church on the last day of term. Happy Christmas all!

Christmas Around The World 

The children of Key Stages 1 and 2 had a fantastic trip around the world on Tuesday when they were invited to our parish church by Rev Susan. The theme was Christmas Around The World and the visit took the form of a journey around the church visiting many countries along the way to find out how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world. Amongst other places we visited Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico and France joining a musical procession, using Indonesian shadow puppets to create a Heavenly host of angels and  and told the Christmas story as we went.  

Thank you to Rev Susan and her team of volunteers for organising such a memorable trip and for launching Christmas so wonderfully.

Fressingfield Litter Pick

Eco Group has finally managed to borrow some ‘grabbers’ and members have been around the school litter picking. Everybody found it great fun, and fascinating when we analysed our findings. 

With the help of some of the older children, we grouped the categories of litter, and tallied up our data. And we have now found that we’ve raised more issues than we have answered! 

 We have 3 main issues to put to pupil voice assembly. Here they are: firstly, bearing in mind over 100 pieces of litter came from the plastic pom-poms for playtime, what do we want to do about this? As you can see from some of our pictures, there is so much plastic from these toys that some birds have actually used it in one of their nests! Secondly, a critical place for litter is near the guinea pigs. We need to deal with this, to make sure we keep our pets clean and safe; thirdly, we found some materials which should have been composted. Are all our classes remembering to use their composting bins?  

We will be discussing these issues over the next few weeks during pupil voice assembly.

Christian Reconciliation

Here is a selection of some great work from children in key stage 2. The theme of their learning was Christian Reconciliation. 

Jewish People and their Religion

Here are some examples of great RE work in key stage 1. The children have been learning all about Jewish people and their religion. 

Dr Dan Poulter MP questioned by the School Council

The School Council were given an opportunity to meet with their local Member of Parliament, Dr Daniel Poulter, today and to ask him a few pressing questions about some of their concerns.

Gino and Summer began proceedings by welcoming Dr Poulter to our school and by explaining briefly what the School Council have been focusing on. They explained that, following a survey of the school they conducted recently, they are campaigning to improve the playground toys available at playtimes, trying to vamp up the changing rooms so they are more inviting and trying to fix some things that need repairing.

Kayden and Hannah then shared an issue facing many of our families and of which they had personal experience: the difficulty in finding an NHS Dentist at the moment. Dr Poulter explained that there are plans in place to introduce Dentistry Schools in both Ipswich and Lowestoft, which could make access a little easier for some of us.

Daisy and Isaac then explained that at Harvest we collected food which was donated to the Trussell Trust Food Bank. They shared that many families are finding it difficult to buy food and that prices are going up and up. They asked what Dr Poulter was able to do to make sure all families can afford to buy food. Dr Poulter explained how there were lots of pressures at the moment that are causing food prices to go up, including the war in Ukraine and the cost of fertilizer. Kayden was able to contribute that delivery and supply chain problems were also an issue and that it was like a chain reaction.

Finally, William and Emily shared their concerns about climate change. They explained that pollution was leading to increases in carbon dioxide which is causing the climate to warm which is endangering animals at the North and South Poles. William asked what Dr Poulter was able to do to keep climate change under control. Our visitor explained that it was something we all have to work on together – the government and people in their own homes. He said that lots of wind farms have been built off the Suffolk coast and that we also needed nuclear power for when the wind isn’t blowing. The Councillors also discussed some of the things they had done in their own homes to reduce energy and waste.

The Key Stage 1 School Councillors – Sol, India, Emily-Aliza and Alfie – joined as observers and listened carefully to the discussion.

Well done to all of them for their thoughtful questions and contributions.

Missing Socks Found!

The gardening club have found a pair of socks at the very bottom of the compost heap!

During the holiday, Mr Roome came into school to take away the huge pile of garden waste at the back of the school garden (for which we are very grateful). This has allowed the gardening group to start a Big-Clean-Up and Sort-Out.

Last week, as the school gardeners were emptying the compost heaps to use on the raised beds, they were surprised to find an old pair of grey socks buried under many years of garden waste. There is no telling quite how old they are, but Mr Leicester thinks they predate his arrival at the school some 8 years ago because the compost bins haven’t been emptied in that time. Mrs Lindsey, who helps the gardeners each week, took them home to wash.

So, if you attended the school more than 8 years ago and remember losing a pair of grey socks, please contact the school so we can reunite you with them!

Remembrance Day Service 2022

Poppy and Arieanna represented the school with great dignity and respect at the Fressingfield Remembrance Day Parade, laying a wreath on behalf of all the children and staff at the village war memorial. The event included representatives of the armed forces, the British Legion, the Guides and Scouting movement, and other village groups, including our school. The names of service people from Fressingfield, Cratfield, Weybread, Metfield and Withersdale Street who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars were read out both at the church and at the war memorial and two-minutes’ silence was held.

Thank you girls.

BRIGHTNESS DAY!

Many thanks to our Junior Road Safety Officers, who recently organised a Brightness Day, to highlight the importance of BEING SEEN when you are out and about, as the days get shorter and the nights draw in.  What an amazingly bright spectacle we saw!  And thank you also to everybody who entered the Brightness Day competition.  There were so many entries that our JRSOs took a very long time judging the competition.

Forest Schools – Tuesday 22nd November