APPLE DAY

Thank you so much for supporting our first Apple Day. We had such a good time. The festivities started after the Harvest Festival in the Baptist Chapel as we split into our house groups to prepare the food we would need for the evening’s events. Columba spent the morning chopping vegetables from Mrs Tooley’s garden to make a delicious chunky vegetable stew. Cygnus were set the task of preparing sweet potatoes and butternut squash to make a fiery, bright orange soup that was delicious with a dollop of crème fraiche and parsley. Apus’ job was to prepare the dough for our bread rolls. They kneaded four kilograms of flour to make over 70 super tasty rolls. Meanwhile, Aquila’s job was to cut up several hundred apples so they could be pulped and then squeezed to make apple juice. This was a hugely sticky affair and the wasps were quickly interested in our efforts, but the results were several litres of really appley, slightly tart but absolutely delicious juice that everyone who tasted it really enjoyed.

The evening was delightful: it was lovely to invite our families back to school to taste all the things we had prepared. The atmosphere in the hall was lovely and the children were really proud of their efforts. Having eaten our fill, we made our way out to the Forest School to admire the pumpkins in the competition, play on the field, then settle down around Miss Adamson’s fire to enjoy some baked apples with crushed biscuit crumble and some campfire songs. It was great fun.

The pumpkin competition was hotly contested and there were some brilliantly carved offerings, including toadstools, vegetables and farmers. Our winners were, in second place, Layla’s wonderful owl and, in first place, Dexter’s brilliant combine harvester.

Thank you to all our volunteers for your support in the morning and the afternoon.

Shed Monitors

Thank you to Belle and Oliver, two of our new Shed Monitors. They have been helping to decorate or new super-sized prayer tree in the reflection shed. We can’t wait to introduce our tree in assembly. Read a prayer, write a prayer, use the feeling bag to help you with ideas!

HARVEST FESTIVAL

The children did so well on Tuesday when we celebrated Harvest at the Baptist Chapel. They sang with gusto – especially the Conkers song – and real enthusiasm and performed brilliantly. We really enjoyed Thames Class’ rendition of Dingle Dangle Scarecrow and Rhine’s performance of Bonkers About Conkers. Zambezi Class entertained us with another Mrs Buckenham special called Thank You, to the tune of Valerie by the Zutons. Amazon Class led the school in a prayer for the farmers and performed a story about the King and the Seeds to underscore the meaning of Harvest – we all reap what we sow. We are grateful to Pastor Stuart and his team at the Baptist Chapel for hosting us, and to Rev Susan for joining us and leading us with a beautiful blessing. Well done Fressingfield.

GIRLS ACHIEVE BRONZE IN THE HSSSP GIRLS’ FOOTBALL COMPETITION!

On a beautifully mild and sunny afternoon, nine of our key stage 2 girls went to Hartismere High School for the High Suffolk girls’ football tournament. 

These games were short (12 minutes), seven-a-side and with no half-time change.  In the first round, Fressingfield played six games, aiming for enough points to go through to the next round.  For each game, the girls needed to quickly sort themselves into a team of seven, working out who was attack, defence and goalie, and who would be substitute.

In the first game, Imogen scored two goals in rapid succession.  What a positive start that was!  Quite near the start, we realised that the sun was bright, and this affected the goalkeepers’ ability to see.  As a consequence, we decided to make sure our goalies got to the right end of the pitch for each game!

Harriet and India both took it in turns to be in goal, and did a great job defending the goal mouth.  Amy was also in goal once, making a magnificent save!  Jasmine was an absolute little terrier – wherever the ball was, Jasmine seemed to be there.  What incredible fitness that player has!  Bonnie was very enthusiastic, and did a good job of marking some strong opponents.  Ella’s strength was strategy, and she played a great role in deciding who was on or off, and what position they played.  Sophia used her match experience in hockey to be in the right place, at the right time.  Eden and Imogen used their experience as local club players to make some great tackles, and move the ball nicely towards goal. 

In the first round, Fressingfield played six games.  They won four, drew one and lost one.  They even felt proud about losing the one match, as some of the opponents were clearly very experienced players.  Because of the points scored in those games, Fressingfield went on to the play-offs, for bronze medal position.  A confident, early goal from Jasmine meant that, from the start, Fressingfield had the edge.  They held onto the 1-0 lead until the final whistle, to gain a well-deserved third place.

Mrs Scott and Ms Perry were so impressed by the girls’ attitude throughout the entire afternoon.  Showing all our sporting values of honesty, respect, determination, passion, teamwork and self-belief, our girls’ team made us proud!

Baptism

Years 1 and 2 visited Fressingfield Baptist Church this morning to find out about baptism. We learnt that baptism is a commitment to Jesus and shows a belonging to the community of the church. Pastor Stuart then showed us how the floor moves away to reveal the special pool beneath!

Turner Prize-winning Artist Chris Ofili

Children in Amazon Class have been learning about the Turner Prize-winning Artist Chris Ofili and his artwork. Inspired by his West African heritage, the artist created his famous work, named Afrodizzia. In fact, he made several copies of this abstract work. Unlike Chris Ofili, we did NOT use elephant dung in our paintings, but built up layers using oil pastels and thick poster paint. We have tried to show the energy of Ofili’s work in our own pieces – and, as you can see, have done a pretty good job!