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We welcomed Beatrice Hoffman, a local professional sculptor, art therapist and experienced tutor to the school for a week’s hands-on clay sculpture workshop for pupils in Years 3-6.  The children learnt about observation, tool use and the handling of clay and had an opportunity to sculpt animals.  The clay animals will be fired and then permanently exhibited in the school’s garden for the school and local community to enjoy.  The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and they created some wonderful animal sculptures. Beatrice Hoffman lives in Garford and offers Sculpture Workshops for both children and parents of all abilities.

Our school has been awarded the ‘Silver School Games Award’ for our commitment, engagement and delivery of competitive school sport.  This is a real achievement for small schools like ours and our thanks goes to Mrs Setchell’s continued efforts in ensuring such a good range of competitive sporting activities are available for the children.

During the first week of Autumn Term Two Mrs Roberts organised a ‘Secret Reader’ event.  Everyday a surprise member of the school or local community were invited to come along and share a favourite book with the children.  This was a huge success and an overwhelming number of children from all classes arrived in the Library every day to find out and listen to The Secret Reader! Annabelle from Annabelle’s Nursery, The Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service and our Chair of FoSS, Mrs Pugh, shared stories with the children.  Reverend Jeremy read from The Bible the children’s version of Jonah (the Groaner!) and Miss Terrell also dressed up and disguised herself as a book character!

On the last day of the Autumn Term One, the whole school spent the day focusing on different Science and Technology challenges and working with children in different classes in their ‘Family Groups.’  This was followed by a School Open Afternoon when we opened our doors and invited parents and family friends to come and view the school as ‘a working school’. The children always talk about how much they enjoy these afternoons and the opportunity to ‘show off’ their learning to their parents.  Thank you for supporting the children. There was a real buzz throughout the school and the afternoon was a great success.  Our next School Open Afternoon is scheduled for February.  Please see our list of diary dates and look out for more information in our school newsletters.

Throughout 2016-17 Shellingford CE (A) Primary School and ‘The Simon Drew Foundation’ are working together to support the charity ‘Children on the Edge’. Over a million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes and have ended up in refugee camps in Lebanon. ‘Children on the Edge’ is working to provide education for Syrian refugees living in tent school in the camps, as well as employing teachers from the refugee community. The school’s first big fundraiser event took place in October with each child drawing a self-portrait which was then used to produce key rings, fridge magnets and photograph frames.  A magnificent £1074.63 was raised. Thank you to Mr Drew for initiating this fundraising project and to all staff involved. Your generous donations will have made an enormous difference to the lives of vulnerable Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Thank you for your kind support. Our second fundraising event is planned for February.  Please refer to the Spring Term diary dates and school newsletters for further information.

Our Harvest Service took place on Friday 30th September at 2.00pm at St Faith’s church with the Reverend Jeremy Goulston.  It was encouraging to see so many families attend our first church service of the school year and to join us in our harvest celebrations which was led by the children in Classes 1 and 2. This year the school donated a wealth of food to the Faringdon Food Pantry which supports local people in crisis. We also raised £128.23 for ‘The Mission to Seafarers’, a Christian welfare charity serving merchant crews around the world.  Your generous donations for these charities was very much appreciated.

Our school year began with Year 5 and 6 heading to Devon for a fun-filled week of rock climbing, sea-kayaking, surfing as well as a number of other challenging and adventurous outdoor activities. The children and staff had yet another fantastic week away and we look forward to returning to the residential centre again next year.

Our summer production of William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ was just fantastic! Congratulations to the children for two outstanding performances and a huge ‘Thank You’ to Mr Drew in particular for leading the production.  £222.03 was raised in donations for the RNLI.

Thank you to everyone who supported this year’s Family Fun Day organised by the Friends of Shellingford School (FoSS).  The amount raised this year was an incredible £2,350! We would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to the FoSS committee for organising the event and to all those involved in helping to make the day a most enjoyable and successful occasion.

The school and local community are still talking about the celebrations we held to mark The Queen’s 90th Birthday on the Friday 10th June. Every pupil was presented with a booklet of ‘The Servant Queen and the King She Serves’ as a commemorative gift from the school. A big luncheon party was held on the green and we invited village residents, governors and members of the local community to join us. Special activities for the children were organised throughout the day which culminated in staff, pupils and guests forming a big ‘90’ on the field. It was memorable occasion for the children, staff and members of the local community and a day that will be remembered by all for a very long time.