Community Fortnight

The children had a really super end to the Spring Term. We decided to hold a community fortnight to encourage the children to have a greater understanding of the communities they belong to and to celebrate our links with communities close to home as well as further a field. Over the course of the fortnight we looked at the community of Branscombe, Broadhembury – where our partner school is, Poland as we have a Polish pupil and Ghana because the children’s community fund sponsors a child there through the charity SOS Children.

The Community Fund was set up several years ago and the children choose how it is spent e.g. sending flowers to people who are poorly, regular payments for our sponsor child and one off charity donations. Last year the children gave money to Shelterbox following the earthquake and Tsunami.

The first week began with a walk through Branscombe and on to the beach sketching some of the landmarks. Some of these have now been printed onto a tea towel to sell and raise money for the community fund. 
November 2012

Shown below is a photo of two children paying in £172.30 at the post office for the Children's Community Fund. This was the proceeds from the sale of the tea towels above!
Tuesday was gardening day. Some parents worked with the children on the school allotment, Class 1 replanted our sensory garden following a trip the previous week by some of the older children to Sidmouth Garden Centre to buy some appropriate plants. The National Trust staff based in Branscombe helped us to begin erecting our ‘eco greenhouse’ which is made out of used plastic drink bottles.
Our parish church was the focus for Wednesday. Children visited the church and did some rubbings of the gravestones and items inside the building. The vicar also judged the PTFA Easter Garden Competition.
Thursday was cookery day. The children all worked with some parents, friends of the school from Beer and Branscombe and members of Branscombe WI, to create sandwiches, cakes, fruit juice, sausage rolls, biscuits and pizza. One lady also showed the children how to decorate their cakes. All this was in preparation for our village tea party that was held in the afternoon. We were very pleased so many villagers came to try the delights that the children had made!
Friday was Smartie Day! The school council planned this day to launch a fundraising project. All the children came to school dressed in the colour of a smartie. The school council led the assembly introducing the project. One parent donated enough tubes of smarties for each child to take one home and once they have eaten the sweets they fill the tube with coins that will be paid into the community fund account.
In the afternoon the Key Stage 2 children went to Broadhembury School to look at our partner school community and to take part in a music workshop.
The second week had a focus on communities further a field. On the Monday Rev. Hilary Dawson led a shared Collective Worship between our school and Broadhembury School via video conference. Children from each school sang a hymn and read a prayer to the other school and the vicar talked to the children about the story of Palm Sunday. It was a very special way to hold worship.
Tuesday was Polish Day. A member of Devon County Council’s English as an Additional Language team spent the day with the children. The children heard a traditional polish story, learnt about polish customs and made some Polish Palms. Because the climate in Poland means that palm trees won’t grow, at Easter people decorate willow branches with dried flowers to celebrate Palm Sunday instead.
On Wednesday the children thought about Ghana. In assembly we talked about Grace – the child we sponsor. We looked at a film clip from the charity and read about the things Grace has been doing this year. Then the children read a story about Ghana and created some beautiful Kente Cloth Patterns.
To conclude our fortnight parents and governors were invited to come into school on the final Thursday to work with the children on creating collages of all the activities they had done. The children worked in their mixed age school teams to create a collage for each team. These are now on display in school.