Thank you to all the children who took part in our ‘Matchbox Challenge’. The aim of the challenge was to raise money to purchase new Accelerated Reading books for school. So far we have raise over £3000, which does not include the £668 raised from our recent Scholastic book fair. All of this money will go towards new Accelerated Reading book for the children to enjoy. We had some fantastic entries as you can see from the pictures below!

Three prizes (for Juniors and Infants) were available; the Best Decorated Box, Most Money Raised and Most Items in the Box. Prizes were given to children in assembly this morning – here are our winners.

Well done to:

Juniors

• Ocean Flanagan 4A – Most Money Raised
• Harry Sneddon 6H – Most Items in the Box
• Kaitlyn Watterson 6K – Best Decorated

Infants

• George Burdis RT – Most Money Raised
• Sophia Steer 2W – Most Items in the Box
• Chloe Collings 2H – Best Decorated

Congratulations to the year 5 and 6 netball team who came third in their group at last nights tournament.

Representatives from the NSPCC visited our school today to talk to the children about staying safe and sharing worries with trusted adults. They were accompanied by Paralympic silver medallist, Tom Hamer who brought two of his medals to show the children. Tom talked about how he had overcome childhood difficulties with bullying and achieved his dream of being a successful swimmer. He explained how he had trained daily and dedicated his life to swimming, eventually winning two silver medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics. He admitted that sometimes he had faced difficulties but he had shared his worries with his parents who had understood him and supported on his journey to success.

The NSPCC gave us lots of advice about staying safe and encouraged us to tell someone we could trust about our worries so that they could help us. The children in Year 5 and Year 6 also took part in workshops about bullying, hitting and emotional abuse with the help of Buddy the mascot. It was great fun and very helpful. We all loved meeting Tom and hearing his inspirational story. Thanks to the NSPCC for making this a great experience and helping us to keep ourselves safe.

Today we all had a super day in school celebrating World Book Day. The children and members of staff came to school dressed in fabulous book character costumes. In Assembly the children enjoyed showing off their costumes to their peers.  There was also the opportunity to join in songs about reading and learn some simple dance moves.

During the morning the children were invited to visit the book stalls to buy used books that had been kindly donated. There were lots of fun reading activities and quizzes organised in classrooms some of which were designed by the children themselves.  Everyone had a great time and celebrated reading in true Helmshore style!

Read All About It!

The Year 5’s have had a fantastic time on World Book Day, engaging in lots of exciting activities such as: dressing up as a book character, sharing their favourite books and challenging their friends to their own quiz that they have created as part of their homework!  Some of the children also brought in books to sell on the book stall!

17 children from Years 5 and 6 took part in an athletics competition at Fearns High School. The children had to take part in track and field events ranging from javelin and long jump to an obstacle course. All children performed brilliantly and came in 2^nd place.

WINNERS!!

Congratulations to Kate Holt, Connie Masser, Daniel Clements and Jack Stubbs who all took part in the mini tennis final at Fearns on Tuesday 6^th December. They came in first place and are now heading to represent Lancashire in the Lancashire school games in July.

Two Year 5 children attended a Young Ambassadors Conference at Fearns, we are now in the process of setting up our own Sports Organising Crew – more information to follow soon!

Well done to our Year 5 and 6 mixed football team who won their qualifying round and went through to the finals finishing in 3rd place.

Two children from Year 5 were chosen to participate in Rossendale Schools Sports Partnerships Gifted and Talented Academy. Daniel and Alannah had a fantastic time. They participated in a judo workshop with British Judo player, Sophie Cox, listened to a talk about nutrition from an Olympic Handballer and took part in sports testing and analysis.

Well done to our Year 5 & 6 mixed tennis squad who came second in the mini tennis red competition at Fearns High school.