Hernhill news - October 2023
Our first term of the academic year has been packed to the brim with learning, play and events. Our PTAFA fete in September was extremely successful, raising a record £4874 for the school. We are extremely grateful for all the time and efforts put into this even by some many people.
Our fabulous Year 2 class held their Macmillan coffee morning at the end of September. The children welcomed visitors, made drinks, served cakes, collected donations and cleared up all the rubbish. They can be rightly proud of their achievements having raised an incredible £654 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
In the same week, we were honoured to host the first South East OPAL (outdoor play and learning) conference. Over 50 delegates from schools across the South East of England attended, along with Michael Follett (founder of Opal) and Tim Gill (the UK's leading expert on risk and play, and a global advocate for children's outdoor play and mobility). It was an inspiring day and our children loved showing visitors around our playground and fields.
At the start of October, we celebrated Neurodiversity week. We all learned about the word neurodiverse which is an 'umbrella term' used to used to describe lots of differences in the brain. We celebrated that we are all different with our own gifts and talents. We also found out about some famous people who are neurodiverse. Did you know Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter actor) has dyspraxia, Greta Thunberg (climate change activist) has autism, Simone Biles (US gymnast) has ADHD, Lewis Capaldi (singer) has Tourette’s Syndrome and Tom Holland (Spiderman actor) has Dyslexia? We finished our special week with dance workshops for every class from the Springs Dance Company. All the workshops focused around the picturebook 'You are Special' by Max Lucado. A wonderful week!
Alongside all of this, we have also fitted in a term of swimming for Year 5, a term of forest school for Year 3, digital leader training for Year 5 children across a group of local schools, a Year 2 basketball festival, a junior football tournament and our Harvest festival at the church (with donations to Faversham foodbank). We were especially delighted that our junior choir was invited to sing at Revd. Cathrine's first service, held at Boughton church.
We certainly have been living life in all its fullness (John 10:10)!