Welcome to Hope CE Primary School Blog

Mrs Lewis and Mrs Longland will be holding an Unwanted Christmas Presents Sale, on Friday 29th January after school. If you have any unwanted presents please bring them in and we will sell them to raise cash towards the Amsterdam visit.

Future fund raising events planned for this term:

Cake sale-Tuesday 9 February

Valentine’s Disco - Friday 12 February 6-8pm

Easter Egg Raffle-draw on Thursday 1 April 2010

There have been a few changes to our governing body recently and as they step down from the role, I would like to say a special thank you to Mrs Ann Perkins and Mrs Alison Powell, for all the time and support they have given Hope during their terms of office as governors.

Following the recent parent-governor election process, Mrs Anna Bayliss will continue in her role as Parent-Governor and we currently have a vacancy for a second parent-governor. We also have a new Foundation governor, Mr Alistair Bates, who will be stepping into Ann Perkin’s shoes.

Parents and Friends of Hope will have opportunities to meet our chair, David Dodds, and some of our other governors at the following events:

Parents’ Forum at 2pm on Thursday 18 March 2010

Parents’ Evening from 3.30 -6pm on Wednesday 17 & Thursday 18 March 2010

The Hope community welcomed a new teacher to its school this term, Mrs Elie Miles. She will be Class 1’s new teacher but will also be teaching in Class 2 for some lessons. Mrs Miles has come to us from another village school in Barrow. Her special interests include science, design and technology and ICT. We hope she will be very happy with us and look forward to bringing you more news about all the exciting activities she will be doing with the children at Hope school.

What a start to the new term! Hope has been snow bound for days and days.  The school has had to close on 3 consecutive Wednesdays because of the bad weather. Nevertheless it’s been beautiful  travelling up through the valley to school each day, just like a little Austria. The trees have looked so picturesque with the snow on their branches, although I have to say I have dreaded going up ‘the bank’ in the snowy weather, particularly after I got stuck half way up one morning. I would like to say a huge thank you to the local driver who rescued me and guided my car, as it slid this way and that, back down the bank and also the local vet, who drove me back up to school in her 4×4.

We had a super time at the pantomime. Many of us had not been to the new theatre and we all thought it was lovely. The seats were comfy and we had a good view -even from the upper circle.The children loved Wendy, Peter Pan and the lost boys. The singing and dancing was great.  The show was very interactive and the costumes were colourful. It was a great show and made everyone laugh too!

This year’s Christmas concert was a little different. Imagine a small Austrian village getting ready for its annual Christmas pageant. Snowy weather sets in and the church organ won’t work. The mice have been nibbling at it! Not to mention Father Joseph’s manuscript for his Christmas sermon. What will they do? Never fear- with a little help from the village children, Herr Gruber, the school master, and of course the church mice-the pageant goes ahead. All our pupils put in brilliant performances- what talents they have!  Performances from Luke and Warren were full of humour, and the addlibbing contributed to their performances. Their enthusiasm for the drama was infectious. The young soloists in particular - Max, Matthew and Gurdas were fantastic and who would have thought six of the older boys, wearing Green Austrian hats and lederhosen, would have been such good Bavarian dancers. The costumes were colourful and authentic to the Austrian setting and our thanks must go out to Mrs Bayliss for her invaluable support with the costume making.

The positive feedback received from family and friends of Hope was much appreciated and I would like to say a special thank you to all the staff for their wonderful and unstinting support.

I always feel the Christmas concert is a lovely start to the traditional Christmas festivities at Hope and our Carol Service at the church on the last day of term is also a chance for the whole community to come together in celebration. The children are looking forward to Christmas parties, a Christmas lunch with the Governors and a visit to the pantomime ‘Peter Pan’ in our last week of term. Parents are most welcome to call in a little earlier on Friday afternoon (2.45pm) as we are expecting a special visitor (in a red suit).

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

Karen Mosedale

Headteacher

Today Y4, Y5 and Y6 pupils from Hope visited Bishop’s Castle Primary school to take part in a Shakespear workshop, organised by the Young Shakespeare Company. All the children took part in some form or another and it was a brilliant day. The actors brought Shakespeare’s Macbeth to life for the children and I’m sure it will be a day they will never forget. Thank you to Mr Andrew Davies, headteacher at Bishops Castle for inviting us to join his school for this wonderful event!

Four new pupils visited Class 1 today. They will be starting school after Christmas and came for a visit. We hope they had a good time and look forward to seeing them again next week and on 3 December, when they will join us for lunch with their parents.

What a fab day everyone from Class 2 had at Worthen. We all went orienteering and it was so much fun, some of us have decided to set up a route at Hope. Christian, Luke, Abigail and Leah are working hard to organise a similar event for everyone at Hope. Watch this space for more details!

The week began with a visit from our local community police officers PC Williams and PC Jones. They talked to us in assembly about feeling safe and what to do if we get bullied. They also talked to us about how to deal with cyberbullies. Then on Wednesday we invited all our parents to come for coffee and to see a special assembly about bullying. Class 2 put on a play about a friendly alien Scoot, who was bullied by two of his classmates. Class 1 showed everyone their anti -bullying posters -look out for them when you next visit school.