© Copyright Harleston Grapevine 2008
News from Harleston Primary School
It seems a little while since I have written an article for the Grapevine so please accept my apologies, but the past 6 months have been very busy.
Since starting back to school in September our school role has grown significantly. I am sure you are all aware of the new housing developments in our town. These have provided our school with an unprecedented 21 new pupils over the last month. This takes our number in the Primary School to a total of 381.
Some residents may be also aware that we have been fortunate to secure some additional building work at school and on 13th October work began. Please see our separate article written by some Year 6 pupils regarding this. A photographic record detailing the building work can be viewed in the gallery section on our school website – www.harleston.norfolk.sch.uk.
We have held a number of fundraising events during this time. In October we organised a Sponsor Day with Football and Dance activities arranged for pupils who were sponsored to take part. In all we raised over £2,000 towards the cost of our building project. November, we supported the Children In Need appeal and dressed in pyjamas for the day to raise £320. Finally the Friends and Parent Focus groups at school collaborated to run a Fashion Show evening at the High School. Over £1,054 was raised towards our playground equipment appeal. A huge thank you everyone who supported any of these events.
One of our more exciting trips took place in November when our Year 6 pupils went on the train from Diss to visit London for the day. The main purpose was to be taken around the Houses of Parliament. This was a unique opportunity for the children to learn a little about politics and see both the House of Commons and the House of Lords firsthand. We also enjoyed travelling on the tube, walking along the Embankment and visiting the Tate Gallery.
In December our Year 4 pupils went to Gressenhall to experience a Victorian Christmas. This living history day saw our pupils dressed up in Victorian costumes and recreating a December day in Victorian style. They were able to make Christmas cards, traditional mince pies and sing and dance to traditional carols. Roger Walsh
Harleston Primary Building Work
On 7th October the Gill's building work at our school, Harleston Primary, had begun.
Gills are a building company that are working on several school projects at the
moment. They have between 1 -
What will happen first is the road to the car park will be built, then the car park, after that the new classrooms and finally the playground will be built. The road to the car park will run alongside the two new classrooms and you will be able to access the road from the old car park where the coaches and buses come in.
When we had an interview with the project manager, Andy, and our Headmaster Mr Walsh, we learned a lot about the project. The designer of the new 60m2 classrooms is Mr L White and he works for Norfolk County Council. The new classrooms will be used instead of the mobiles which Mr Walsh said were, "awful places". They are too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. The new classrooms will have a sedum roof (a small plant with little white flowers) which is environmentally friendly. Insects and birds will love it! Another clever feature is so that Mr Walsh won't have to climb a ladder to water the sedum Gills are putting pipes all over the roof with little holes in so Mr Walsh only has to turn a tap and it will water the roof!
This will cost a whopping £437,000 and will make a big difference to our school.
Lauren Stokes, Jenny Mabbutt, Brandon Pickess, Louise Goodwin, Lloyd Potter, Oliver Farmer, Harvey Clarke, Andrew Hadingham,
Sophie Long, Jimmy Long, Nathan Ellis.
Archbishop Sancroft High School
A commissioning service was held on Monday 10th November at St John's church, for Mr Richard Cranmer, the new Head Teacher at Archbishop Sancroft High School in Harleston. The Bishop of Thetford, The Rt Rev David Atkinson officiated and gave the address.
Students from the school played a key role in the service.
Dove Trust
As trustees of the Dove Trust, Norman Hart and I recently visited Harleston C E V A Primary School. Roger Walsh the headmaster gave us a conducted tour of the school. We were impressed by the quality of the work, the dedicated staff and the excellent behaviour of the young pupils. They are in good hands in the friendly atmosphere.
The school has a library of 5,965 books and this year the trust is donating £2,146 to further update the library.
In my other capacity as tree warden, with the help of my good friend Ted Thacker we have planted a further 83 trees of various varieties in and around Harleston. This Autumn the colours have been particularly spectacular. I hope they have given you as much pleasure as they have us.
Sid Taylor