In true St.Francis’ style, we have undertaken many fundraising initiatives over the past couple of weeks.

Our Remembrance service was incredibly poignant as we heard personal stories of local soldiers who served in the war. It was wonderful to see so many children attend the service and participate in a variety of ways.  We managed to raise over £200 for The British Legion. Thank you. Our Harvest collection was taken to the food bank on Berry Lane and was gratefully received. Through working together, we can always make a difference, no matter how small it may seem. At a meeting with Canon Luiz, he told us all a story about a little girl who saw hundreds of starfish that had been washed up on a beach. She started to save them frantically with her little fishing net. When she was told that it didn’t make a difference  (because there were so many and they couldn’t all be saved and thrown back into the sea) she replied, ”To that one starfish, it made all the difference.” We will continue to adopt our ‘little but often’ approach to making a difference.

The weather has made all the difference this week, as our sponsored run for Children in Need week was shortened  due to the heavy rain. The children have all been involved with a sponsored run, Pennies for Pudsey and our ‘Spotty Day’-we will let you know how much we have raised for Children in Need next week.

The children have been very busy in all classes. Pendle have been enjoying their space role play area and their Reading Garden. They are enjoying work centred around The Gruffalo. Parlick are enjoying practical science experiments, Roald Dahl study and perspective art in the style of Lowry. Fairsnape have been studying The Plague and The Great Fire Of London and have been engrossed in drama activities for the past week. Beacon have been learning about the heart and have begun a Shakespeare study. We thank Mrs Brice, who has kindly volunteered her passion for Shakespeare and leads the children in this study once a week. An MP is visiting school today to discuss fracking with the class in aim to support the genre of persuasive writing. You will find information about children’s learning in each year group on the class pages.

As we approach our Advent Season, we look forward to many forthcoming events. The Pre-School children will be singing ‘Mini-Carols around the Tree,’ we are going to watch Aladdin, KS1 and 2 are preparing for Advent Services, we are joining our Catholic Cluster for the annual Advent Service at St. Antony’s and we have Preston College visit school to perform a ‘Puss in Boots’ pantomime. We will be having a Christmas jumper day for the ‘Text Santa’ appeal, school Christmas dinner, Christmas Party and much more. The PTFA Cheese and Wine evening is being held tonight at 7.15pm at Longridge Cricket Cub. Tickets are £12.50 each or two for £24. Our active PTFA continue to work tirelessly in fundraising for our school and we are currently raising money for an outdoors amphitheatre!