We were delighted to welcome back to Stanley our brilliant Top Class team who performed so well in the CBBC show hosted by Susan Calman.

Declan, Mia, Flynn, Eliza and reserve Arthur were in Year 6 when the series was filmed in Scotland in May. They have now moved on to their new secondary schools but all returned for a very special school assembly.

The assembly heard about their fantastic achievements beating some very good competition to appear in the Top Class final where they lost out by just 2 points 29-27 to Cardwell School. The assembly also saw some of the highlights of the show.

Mr Dickinson and Mrs Luing Turnbull, Year 6 teacher who also took part in the quiz, congratulated the team and presented them with their “Top Class Finalists” certificates.

We are very proud of the team and completely agree with Susan Calman who said: “You were absolutely magnificent in the whole competition, you are a credit to your school … you are absolutely brilliant!”

We have had a good term of sport and would like to thank all the children who have represented Stanley during Autumn term. You have all performed really well and been a credit to the school.

Featured below are pictures from the recent Cross country event, Gym tests and Girls football tournament.

Summer has had a haircut for a very good cause ... she explains more here:

"My name is Summer and I'm in Oak Class in Year 2. I'm about to cut my lovely long hair short and give the hair to the Little Princess Trust. They make wigs for people who have cancer and their medicine makes their hair fall out. I'm cutting my hair on the 7th December and so would really appreciate any donations - Thank you!"
 

You can donate to Summer on her Just Giving Page:

http://www.justgiving.com/Gemma-White83 

The Little Princess Trust provides realhair wigs free of charge to children and young people up yo the age of 24 that have sadly lost their hair due to cancer treatment and other illnesses. 

Well done to The Little Princess Trust and Summer!

Congratulations to the winners of FOSP's Snowman Competition.

Year 6 House Captains had the difficult job of picking the winners from some very impressive entries. Thanks to everyone who entered … look out for all the great designs at the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 8 December 3pm-5:30pm.

The winners are:
Pre-School: Shanan A-B - Pre-School am

Reception:  Rifat A-B - Willow

Year 1: Camille W - Walnut

Year 2: Josh B - Oak

Year 3: Damian V - 3P

Year 4: Megan C - 4PB

Year 5: Zara L - 5W

Year 6: Dougie H - 6B

The children were awarded vouchers in the celebration assemblies and the winning entries are on display in the office.

After all the good work on the Living Classroom on Dig Day, Sarah Chipperfield and her fellow volunteers have been doing some great work with Year 1.

Sarah explains just what they've done:

"This year we are working with the Year 1 children to create some lovely Fairy and Dinosaur gardens in the Belfast sinks located in the Living Classroom.

The children have been helping to weed the sinks, prepare the soil, plant some alpine plants and decorate their sinks with fairies, dinosaurs, pebbles and all sorts of lovely magical objects! As well as a great introduction to planting, we are also hoping to use the project for some RHS School Gardening awards for our green fingers children!

We are enormously grateful to Percy Chapman and Son Ltd who were very generous and donated all of the plants. We are hoping that these planters will grow and look beautiful for many years to come!"

Thank you Sarah and the Fairy Gardens team!

Year 3 enjoyed visits to Teddington Lock to study rivers and river linked topics.

The children were able to experience the river, consider environmental issues and carry out water experiments.

The children used the boat The Venturer as their base to explore the banks of the river and foreshore to study plant life, animals and human activity. 

A big THANK YOU to Sarah Chipperfield and all the helpers who came along on Dig Day to work on the Living Classroom - here's Sarah's report of the day:

"We had a really successful Dig Day on Saturday 3 November and lots of amazing parents and children - as well as Mrs Keogh - came along to help! We managed to complete loads of jobs such as weeding all the beds, pruning the herb patch, digging over and mulching the fruit patch (huge job!), pruning the apple trees, clearing out the greenhouse, planting new fruit bushes and raspberries, prepping the raised beds for Spring planting, weeding the paths and prepping the Belfast sinks ready for the Year 1 Fairy Garden projects.

We are so grateful to our team of amazing helpers who have transformed the Living Classrroom ready for all the lovely gardening projects we have planned for next year."