We are welcoming our Tigers and Leopards back into school on Monday with a lovely little teddy bear that they can keep in school. Our Lions, Pumas and Jaguars will also be receiving a welcome gift of a personalised journal that we will be utilising for mental wellbeing. These have both been kindly paid for by the PTFA. We are hoping to generate some funds from donations towards these to support the Derby Diocese oversees Covid vaccination appeal too.

We can't wait to see everyone again! 

Covid Alert Email: You are aware that we have set up a ‘Covid Alert E-mail’ that should be used by parents to alert the school of any positive tests during out of school hours: covidalert@st-annescofe.derbyshire.sch.uk.  Please use ‘Covid Alert’ as the subject matter of the email, so this can be easily identified.  We have now also set up a number (07949 837535) which you are also required to text.  Please do contact regardless of the time, in order for us to take advice from Public Health England and Derbyshire County Council, so that we can then take measures to close affected bubbles if directed to do so by PHE and the DfE – we will notify you as soon as possible by text, so please do keep an eye on texts from school.  

DfE Online Safety

Updated guidance for keeping children safe online

We have updated our guidance for parents and carers to keep children safe online.

December 2020...life in school...

That magical time of the year is upon us and from twinkling Christmas trees and the anticipated Christmas Post Box to exciting advent calendars and some very naughty elves visiting the classrooms, the children and the staff are fully absorbed in that Christmas feeling.

Christmas jumpers will be worn to raise funds for those in need on the 11^th December, our Christmas dinner will be enjoyed on December 16th and then the party will begin on our last day of school to finish the term off with some festive fun. Leopards – Class 2 will have decorated our very own tree down at St. Anne’s Church with their hand made clay star decorations.

Class 1 – The Tigers have embraced the Gingerbread Man story acting it out with puppets and finishing off with making their own gingerbread man to eat. They have written a letter to Santa with their wishes on for Christmas and posted it at the Baslow Post Office…let’s hope that Santa is not too busy to reply back to our Tigers’ team.

The Tigers Class 1 and Leopards Class 2 used their Enterprise skills to organise a fabulous fund raiser for Children in Need including a sponsored silence in school and an out of school fundraiser, where the children chose an idea based on the national theme of ‘Act your Age’ –  an activity based on their age. We had children reading 6 books in 6 days, riding 6 miles in 6 days and learning their 7 times-tables to name but a few!

We had some fantastic individual fundraisers – including: selling reindeer food, making 6 pizzas in 6 minutes, the selling of delicious brownie with lots more too, with the rest of the school joining in with the non-uniform day. We raised an amazing £602.25 last year, and we didn’t know if we would be able to beat that amount, so we were astounded when the total amount raised came to a whopping £1,833.70! Thank you to everyone who supported this.

Also a big well done to Eloise who completed 2000 burpees over the month of November to raise funds for bone cancer research.

We celebrated International Day of Disabilities on Thursday 3^rd December, embedding our school vision and values, building a good understanding by integrating activities, stories and information within each of our classes around disability. This day promoted an understanding of disability issues and through our key value of diversity, supports the dignity, rights and well-being of any person with disabilities or additional needs; something that is incredibly important for us as a school.

Class 3 – The Lions had a wonderful end to their week on December 4^th when Miss Grant held a Book Day especially for her class. She had transformed the classroom into under the desk dens, with fairy lights and drapes and projected a roaring fire up on her large interactive classroom board (something that was very much in need, as the classrooms are a little chilly due to the extra ventilation that we are putting into place). The children thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in lots of different books and genres, with the added bonus that they came to school in their pyjamas too! Miss Grant finished it in style, where after break she transformed the book dens into a book café and served warm hot chocolate and marshmallows as an added treat.

Due to the restrictions there won’t be our usual celebratory and traditional Reception and Infants’ Nativity this year however, Class 1 – Tigers and Class 2 – Leopards, will this year be celebrating this instead with Reverend Gilbert at St. Anne’s Church, where they will act out the nativity and enjoy and service led by Reverend Gilbert especially for them. The rest of the school will then enjoy their own ‘bubble’ Christmas service on 17^th December with Reverend Gilbert – thank you to Mike for being patient and welcoming each separate bubble for their own services in church; something that is appreciated and important to us as a school.  Although life in school this Christmas is slightly different this year, we are determined that it doesn’t dampen our spirits and that we all enjoy a fun and magical time in the lead up to the Christmas break.

We hope that you all managed a very happy Christmas and we wish you all from the whole team at Baslow St. Anne’s C of E Primary a very happy and healthy New Year!

Kind regards and best wishes

Marie Clark and The Baslow St. Anne’s Team.

Autumn Term 2 2020

Another half term begins and we are delighted to say that we have had the odd couple of days with every child attending school…100% attendance, which is fantastic! As we come back for the lead up to Christmas, the classes have embraced their new topics including:

The Victorians Class 1 and 2 Tigers and Leopards with their book stimulus of’ Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine’ and ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Their topic was also set off with a wonderful wow stimulus with a chance to explore life in the Victorian times. The History Van brought in artefacts (Covid safely) for the children to explore and learn what a typical day would be like for a Victorian child.

Lions Class 3 are embracing Celebrating Difference as their topic with their wonderful books: ‘Little People, Big Dreams…. Be Bold, be brave, dream BIG!’ and ‘The Nothing to See Hear Hotel’.

 Our understanding of Diversity (which is a school key value) and our drive to embed Black Lives Matter into our curriculum has been reinforced with our wonderful Arts’ corridor; Mrs Hayes and Miss Grant have been working hard in building up a plethora of books for the arts from different cultures, races and ‘walks of life’ from music and composers to architecture and modern day artists, such as: Jean-Michael Basquait.  Our arts’ display is focussing on the artist: Lubaina Himid who is a fabulous artist who focusses on telling stories through art about friendship and strength.

William L in Year 5 is also putting his courageous advocacy into place by highlighting wonderful books that support Black Lives Matter that we will be sharing through school for example: ‘Little Leaders – Bold Women in Black History’ and ‘Martin’s Big Words – The Life of Martin Luther King Jnr.’

Pumas, Class 4 are focussing on Our Environment and still championing Cora’s courageous advocacy of making a difference to our planet and the impact of deforestation for palm oil trees and Class 5 the Jaguars are also having this as a key focus by exploring the ‘World of Wonder…Wonders of our Wonderful World’ with the book Wonder being central to their topic covering all aspects of our key values: respect, kindness and diversity.

Remembrance Day has also been commemorated throughout school and ensuring that we continue to educate our children about Armistice Day and the importance of why we remember. We also had a collection for the Royal British Legion with poppies on sale at collection point.

We are delighted too that our outdoor classroom has finally been opened and utilised by the children and staff for an extension of space for learning and for activities supporting mental health – a big thank you to the PTFA for funding this fabulous new addition to school.

Class 1 and 2 have been out exploring this wonderful season of Autumn, which included building their very own bonfire and the pièce de résistance was having a hot chocolate and ginger nut biscuit to finish this afternoon of fun off.

Life is still very busy at St. Anne’s and the excitement will be growing as we edge closer to the Christmas period, which we will look forward to updating you in the next article.

Take care,

Kind regards,

Marie Clark and the Baslow St. Anne’s Team.

Baslow Pumpkin Trail:

https://baslowvillage.com/entertainment/baslow-st-annes-pta-pumpkin-trail/

The whole school took part in a Space themed art competition, organised by Norman Tomlinson of Church Farm Art Gallery. Please use link to view article on artsbeatblog.com about displays of the children’s artwork in the gallery: https://artsbeatblog.com/2020/06/16/gallery-exhibits-childrens-artwork/

Mystery Staff Member #6

Favourite Colour: Yellow

Favourite Subject: Music and art

Favourite Food: A good old curry

Favourite Children's' Book: The Island at the End of Everything

Pets: Dog

Hobbies: Yoga, running, skiing, dog walking, reading, music and calligraphy

Dream holiday: To travel the world, explore and find the mountains

Think you know who it is? Leave a comment on the Facebook post, comment on your Google Classroom streams or email drobb@st-annescofe.derbyshire.sch.uk

Mystery Staff Member #5

Mystery Staff Member!

Morning everyone! We are going to be doing a "Mystery Staff Member challenge" for the next few weeks. Every few days I will post a set of clues on here and on the Facebook page 'Baslow St Anne's School PTA". Either email your guess to drobb@st-annescofe.derbyshire.sch.uk or post in the comments on the Facebook page. The staff member will be revealed via a photo or video (depending on their preference) later in the week. The first questions are below and the first reveal will be Friday 24th at 4:30pm (it's an amazing reveal video - trust me!) Enjoy and good luck!

Favourite Colour - Green
Favourite Subject - Maths
Favourite Food - Chicken Karachi
Favourite Children's Book - Artemis Fowl
Pets - Cat, Fish
Hobbies - Guitar and printing
Dream Holiday - watching humpback whales off Canada

Think you can figure out who the mystery staff member is? Send in your guesses and watch the reveal at 4:30pm on Friday the 24th! Mr Robb.

Grandad's Diary