Shadow dancing

A great start to the last day of term with our wake and shake taking place in beautiful sunshine - long may it continue! 

Hugh thanks to Mrs B for her continued inspiration! 

Egg rolling

Growing up as a child in Yorkshire we had some interesting Easter traditions, that many in the Midlands seem to find quite strange!

One of those was egg rolling on Easter Monday. Now that might sound quite tame, but it was a very competitive sport, well within our family anyway! The tradition is one that I have passed down to my own children and we have had great fun finding the most challenging places to enable this event to take place.

A number of years ago we found ourselves in Scotland for the Easter holiday and my oldest daughter and I encouraged our friends to take part in this event. We boiled our eggs, decorated them and set off to find a suitable place.

Driving out of the town we found an ideal spot, slightly steeper and rockier than we would normally choose, but it seemed very appealing. We climbed to the top of the ridge and braced ourselves in the wonderful Scottish weather - yes strong winds and drizzle was the order of the day.

Experienced ‘egg rollers’ know that the survival of the egg is all about the technique of the throw. In the excitement, my daughter, at the grand age of four, wanted to go first. Her egg sailed out of her hand more in an upward projectory than a controlled roll. The result was very spectacular – the egg hit the ground and exploded.

The tears very quickly followed and the look  of dismay on her face was heart-breaking. I remember reaching into my pocket and without thinking, placing my egg into her hand. Her tears stopped and a smile grew across her face. ‘For me?’ she asked. ‘Yes!’ was my simple response.

The Easter story is about God taking action to respond to our broken world through Jesus. His gift is for all of us and in the same way that my egg brought joy and hope to my daughter, may this Easter remind us of the hope and joy that God wishes to bring to us.

An inspirational young lady

This week I had the great pleasure of talking to one of our year 4 children who had, on her own initiative, sought to encourage her peers to be more thankful.

Her decision was to hold open the door in the cloakrooms for everyone who came through. She reflected that not many children said thank you and she decided to challenge this. Her technique was to say ‘you're welcome’ to every child that passed through. This, it seemed, struck a chord and slowly they began to acknowledge her efforts by saying thank you to her.

She has continued to do this and the number of thank yous have increased each day. I reflected with her how her decision had not only had an impact on people saying thank you to her, but that the ripple effect was that they would consider saying thank you to others, and there was clear evidence that they were.

Her individual action made a difference and this is something she should be very proud of.
It’s interesting that small choices can lead to such an impact. Mother Teresa is quoted as saying that ‘we can do not great things, only small things with great love.’

In a world that promotes love as an emotion rather than an action towards others, this one young girl sets an example to us all.

Easter foyer

As ever our foyer contains a thought provoking and interactive display that helps us to engage with the Easter story.

Easter in FS2

Wonderful display of Easter bonnets and eggs across all three Foundation classes today.