Fellside Community Primary School

Our sponsored event this term raised a wonderful £1594.00, this means we
have been able to give Londoto Primary School twice the amount they need
to complete their kitchen and also donated a superb sum of £1000 to Save
the Children. Thanks to everyone who kindly sponsored the children.
The final count of shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child was 102, thank you to all families, friends and staff who contributed. Finally we had 310 packs of Christmas cards ordered and all calendars sold, this contributes to our school fund which all children at school benefit from.
Well done to the following children whose artwork is included in our calendar this year: Anna Dobbie, Luke Osborne, Dylan Kidd, Jude Caithness, Olivia Pugmire, Charlotte Barras, Jack Pearson, Ben Cassidy, Mia Bullock, Rachel Tate, Jacob Turnbull and Charlie Gillespie.

 Many, many thanks to all parents, friends and families who supported our
sponsored hula hoop event, so far we have raised £1100 for the two charities,
COCO and Save the Children. Could any remaining sponsor money please be sent to
school by Monday 7th November. On the Friday of charity week our stage was covered with a whole host of food items; thanks to your kind generosity, we have helped many families in need through Food 4U.

If you would like to see more about the charity, please click on the following link - COCO Charity 

This year our charity week will be week beginning 17th October. Each class will be learning about the work of Save the Children and we will be catching up with the progress of Londoto Primary School who we supported last year through COCO.
We have decided this year that our sponsored event will be to raise money to help Londoto Primary School finish the kitchen and also make a donation to Save the Children. Our event last year was a huge success and made a real difference to the lives of the children in Tanzania. More details about the event will follow.
To finish the week, on Friday 21st October, we will be holding a special assembly to combine this work with our Harvest celebration. We would be grateful for a donation on the Friday morning to this assembly of an item of food from the following list: Dried pasta, jars of pasta sauce, cereals, tinned fruit, packet soups, biscuits, sugar, tea, rice, tinned peas and carrots. This will then be sent to 'food 4 U', a charity supported by local churches and the community who supply food parcels to people in urgent need.
We will also be launching our Christmas Shoe Box Appeal, if you are interested, details of what to include is on the leaflet which is attached to this newsletter. Children should bring their box to build a wall on our stage during the week 7th to 11th November.

 A terrific £220.28 was raised during the Macmillan coffee morning for the cancer charity, thanks to everyone who came along and gave their support. FOF's next events are the Halloween discos, taking place on Thursday 20th October. Tickets are available on the door costing £2.00, which covers entrance fee, a bottle of water and a bag of sweets.
Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1 4.45 - 5.45 pm
Key Stage 2 6.00 - 7.15 pm
There will be prizes at each disco for the best girl and boy fancy dress outfits.

Please note a change to the Christmas fair date; it will now take place on Friday 25th November, giving plenty of time to buy those Christmas gifts.

Year 6 reached their target. A huge thank you to everyone for their support.

Year 6 are doing their Enterprise Project starting Monday 13th June - Friday 24rd June. Please click on the following link to see their Enterprise Project Newsletter -

Year 6 Enterprise.doc

is the target the children have set and they are working together in groups to try and raise the full amount. The list of activities are as follows- 

support Year 6. Help them reach their target, so they can achieve their dream, and have the best Year 6 school leaver's party ever!

 Ice cream, pop corn, candy floss, cake stall, bottle raffle, surely you don't need any more clues... have you guessed yet?
Yes it's Friends of Fellside Summer Fair.

 

Sarah Balkwill, Sue Wilkinson & Juliet Wrate accompanied by Sock Monkey, are taking part in the annual  'Moon Walk'  Saturday 14th May in London, to raise money for breast cancer. The ladies will all be dressed up in decorated bras for the event, and of course Sock Monkey has made the effort to be appropriately dressed (with light up bra) for the occasion too.
If anyone would like to contribute to the 'walk the walk' for breast cancer charity they can do so by using the following link.    sarah balkwill moonwalk donations 

We wish them luck on the walk and if you would like to leave a comment please do so in the box below.

To make the fair as successful as always we need donations of:

Bottles for the tombola

Children's tombola prizes

Quality raffle prizes

Helpers - to help run some of the stalls

We also need cakes - brought in on the day in a named tin or box

Please take all donations and offer of help to reception, thank you in anticipation.

Who did you see, and what were they wearing red?

 

Please leave a comment if you enjoyed our Red Nose Day. 

Home at last, both safe and sound after their incredible journey.  Well done to John Baines and his fearless companion Sock Monkey, for their heroic challenge (nearly as tough as the challenges year 6 faced at Robinwood) to raise money for the charity COCO. Sock Monkey was so brave throughout the journey, wasn't at all fazed by the altitude, however a little camera shy at the summit. John will be in school soon to talk to the children about his mission, his visit to the school in Londoto and how the money raised will help the children. 

CONGRATULATIONS!  WHAT A GREAT TEAM!  WHAT A GOOD CAUSE!

You can click on the following link to see the amount raised so far for COCO.

 www.justgiving.com/John-Baines

Hi everyone,
We're off up the Baranca wall into the glacial area today - that's the picture.

Sock Monkey is in good form and hasn't had any symptoms of altitude sickness. I have some photos of him on my camera; he has met a friendly toy bunny too! Well, must dash and climb the wall! It is a series of volcanic flows and boulders!

Hope to have a signal when I get to camp and will have more time to write.

See you all soon.

John and Sock

Hi all,

Its 2pm local time and we're at one of COCO's community projects in Moshi. This project works with local 'Mama's' (women) who run this nursery school for pre 7 year old to give them basic education and life skills. The Project is called Uwawayaki womens project and the majority of the children are orphans. 

John and Sock Monkey

Don't forget to leave some encouraging comments, support and good wishes for John and Sock Monkey, I'm sure they will need and appreciate them.

If you would like to contribute to this great cause you can do so by clicking on the link below. You can also see how the fundraising is going.

John Baines our school Chair of Govenors and Sock Monkey set off on Sunday 6th February to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, to raise money for the charity COCO (comrades of children overseas).
Keep watching the website for regular updates of their incredible journey.

   Sock Monkey doing a last minute kit check. All present and correct, including new boots!!

Checking out the flight deck.

Service with a smile!

Sock enjoying the view.

Monkey landing in Amsterdam

Monkey was really helpful on the flight. A 3 year old girl called Poppy was crying an wailing - Monkey to the rescue with tales of cycling Lands end to John O'Groats and talks of the mighty mountain he's about to climb. Hooray for Monkey all the passengers near by cheered! Tune in for more Monkey Tails soon (ok-bad pun! Tales)

Bye for now John & Sock.

If you would like to contribute to this great cause you can do so by clicking on the link below. You can also see how the fundraising is going.

www.justgiving.com/John-Baines

On Monday 10th January 2011 Steve Cram came to our school to collect a cheque for the charity COCO.

Friends of Fellside provided a coffee morning where parents were invited to meet, and listen to Steve talk about the charity COCO. Steve stayed for our school assembly and spoke to the children too. Steve was then presented with a cheque from Mrs Maitland and Mr Baines for £2,024.00.

The money was raised by pupils who took part in a Sponsored Sports Circuit last year. Steve thanked everybody for their time and effort doing the sponsored circuit. He was also very grateful to everyone for their generous contribution to the charity.

Thank you doesn't quite seem enough for the generosity that you have shown for both of our charity appeals this term. The total amount raised for COCO was £2024, a wonderful total; we look forward to a visit next term by Steve Cram to accept the cheque on behalf of the charity. (More details to follow.) We also collected 132 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Appeal, nearly equalling last year's total.

shoe boxes.

      

 

 

Charity Week
The week before October half term saw the first of our theme weeks, Charity Week. The children found out about the work of local and national charities; Mrs Humble (Daniel and Alex's mum) talked to children in Year 1 and 2 about her work with OXFAM, Key Stage 2 learned about Barnardos, David Arbon explained the work he carried out for overseas charities to children in Year 3 and 4, he also kindly launched our shoebox appeal. Alan Barlow, our Bike It officer, explained the role of Sustrans to children in Year 5 and 6.
In the middle of the week we also held the whole school sponsored circuit charity event for COCO, the amount collected so far being £1580! Many, many thanks to everyone who kindly sponsored the children, your generosity is much appreciated. (Could any remaining sponsor money please be sent to school by Wednesday 12th November)
At the end of the week the food from our harvest table was given to the People's Kitchen.

This year one of the fund raising events in our school is supporting the children's charity COCO.

The PDF documents below give information about the charity events, also details of what we are doing to help. 

Coco Lon to Tanzania Brief.pdf        COCO Info.pdf

Children from Reception to Year 6 took part in a "Sports Circuit" to help the charity. Take a look at the photographs of our sponsored event, if you click on each letter you will have a better view of the individual photographs.

If you would like further information or to look at the COCO website please click on the following link. coco.org.uk

We welcome comments from parents, we would also like the children to leave a message if they enjoyed taking part in the sponsored event.

A terrific £137 was raised during the MacMillan coffee morning for the cancer charity, thanks to everyone who came along and gave support.

* * * * * 

 Halloween Disco 

Thursday 21^st October

Tickets available on the door and cost £2 which covers entrance fee, a bottle of water and a bag of sweets.

Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1 - 4.45 - 5.45
Key Stage 2 - 6.00 - 7.00

There will be prizes at each disco for best girl and best boy fancy dress outfits.

Don't forget the cycling challenge ends this week, how many miles can we cycle as a school by Friday? We'll welcome Kevin Doran back at the Bike it breakfast and MacMillan coffee morning. Will we have cycled 1008 miles to match Kevin?

Friday....Home, having completed 1008.9 miles arriving at John O'Groats at 1335 yesterday

I'll update on Day 13 Wednesday and my final day Thursday -

Day 13 Wednesday.

Out to dinner Tuesday night with Pete at neighbouring big house with wonderful host in her eighties who cooked for and entertained nearly 20 guests for dinner (me being the only one in tracksuit, T-shirt and crocks). 25+ lobsters piled on the vast dining table will give you something of an idea of the scale and quality. Wonderful hospitality.

Violent winds with wintery feeling squalls on Wednesday, with similar forecast for Thursday. As we were heading north to fish it made sense to get a few miles of progress on the bike in such challenging, and frankly dangerous (big fish and logging trucks on the A9) conditions. So did 19 miles before Pete caught me up. Climbed the Ord of Caithness and Berriedale Braes, battling into a wind so strong at times that on a relatively flat section one gust had me standing on the pedals in bottom gear to maintain 2 mph.

Anyway we chucked the bike in the back of Pete's car donned waders etc and went fly fishing. River level rising rapidly and water increasingly coloured so not ideal. No luck for me as a novice but an 8lb salmon landed by Pete. Abandoned fishing as river became unfishable and had lunch in hut, designed for such purposes on the river. A fabulous and different day.

Day 14 Thursday. The final day

Up early and really keen to get cracking on the final short leg of 38 miles to J O'G. Strong headwind with vicious and frequent squalls.  Jacky and Nige dropped me and the fully laden bike off where I'd stopped Wed. 35 of the miles into gale force and rising wind.  At 1000 miles Fellside sock monkey (my companion throughout) and I celebrated with a lollypop!  Cresting a hill on the single track minor route taken, the Orkneys were in view, briefly illuminated across a boiling Pentland Firth, confirming the journey was almost done.  Turning east for the last 3 miles was like being fired from a gun with the gale on my back.  As I turned the final bend for the last 400 yards I simply and surprisingly started to cry and continued to do so for a minute or two after crossing the line.  I hadn't bargained for feeling so emotional.  A result of an accomplishment, for sure at a very personal level, but with such wonderful support from so many people. Those of you reading this for starters; Jacky in particular; the money raised, the target for that money; the lovely people I've met on the way; the good fortune and necessary health to have the opportunity to do this... all those things and more.

Final thoughts.

I feel, and presumably am very strong after cycling 8 hrs a day for a couple of weeks; to the point that propulsion of the bike wasn't a problem.  Wind and hills became just part of the ride, not a chore. I've enjoyed the whole experience of seeing our country unfold slowly around me.  Such a variety of topography, dialect, building styles.  From Devon to Dumfries my nose indicated cow country. I'd never appreciated the extent of the dairy industry in the west of Britain before.  Most pleasant surprise was Shropshire. A long weekend in Bishop's Castle (2 breweries) is on the 'to do' list. Biggest shock was South Ayrshire.  Very poor, depressed and rather depressing area.  I wasn't aware of that prior to this trip.

I'd recommend this to any reasonably fit cyclist who can afford to take a couple of weeks maximum. Thanks so much for all the messages of encouragement and generous donations.  Apologies if I haven't responded since Monday when my phone died in the rain.

Calais to Cote d'Azur next year!  Kevin.

 Day 1 Friday Sept 3rd
Warm but windy, unfavourably so. Given wind and countless climbs, some on the limit for gears and my legs, I'm pleased to have 75 miles under the belt. Didn't get away from Lands End until 1100. Aiming for Taunton area tomorrow.

Day 2 Saturday
90 miles in hilly and pretty Devon to Wellington near Taunton. There must scarcely be a 100 yards of flat land in Devon, a real test. All prepared to camp out for the night as couldn't find accommodation. Just before dark found classic hotel of the English genre.

Day 3 Sunday
86 miles to Tintern just north of Chepstow. Easier day but wet for the most part. Somerset Levels ... level of course. Cheddar for lunch and unbelievably no cheese. Tricky navigating round Bristol to Severn bridge and am now in nice accommodation with pub across the road. Heading north tomorrow and feel like I have turned the corner. Photo taken at 17.15 on Severn Bridge.

Day 4 Monday 6th Sept
87miles to Bishops Castle Shropshire. Stayed ahead of the rain until last 5 miles. Wind favourable for most part. Beautiful ride throughout the day. Wye Valley then Golden Valley. Finally the quiet rolling hills of Shropshire. All very Edward Elgar. Fell off bike outside this B&B...forgot to unclip from pedals! Must take more care. Lucky not to break something on me or bike. North towards Lancashire tomorrow.
Thanks for all support. Kevin

Day 5 Tuesday 7^th

Day 5 shorter day today 68 miles to Chester to stay with Colin with whom I shared a room at college back in 71. He's in good form.

A stop and go day with torrential thundery showers and warm sunshine. Tricky route finding on narrow roads.  419 miles in total.  Aim to be through Lancashire tomorrow.

Day 6 Wednesday 8th

107 miles to S Lakes.

It's grim up north...not yesterday it wasn't with cloudless windless warm conditions. Working through Merseyside and s Lancashire is a challenge but helpful open people all the way. It seems true that northern folk are more friendly, excluding my Devon relatives of course! Slept under stars on a river level monitoring device. Thanks sincerely for all the encouraging messages.

FOF's annual MacMillan coffee morning takes place on Friday 24th September,
Clare Walton, MacMillan Nurse, will be explaining a little of what she does, we
will also welcome Kevin Doran back after his amazing bike, raising money for the cancer charity along the way. FOF have also organised a welcome coffee morning for reception parents on Monday 13th September as they leave their children for their first full day, hankies and plenty of coffee at the ready. Thanks to all members of FOF, the support they give to the school is invaluable.

Thank You

Thank You

Thank you....

To everyone who made contributions to the Year 6 Enterprise Projects. They have made a staggering £1175.26 profit, a school record! The end of term party will certainly be one to remember!

Over the last few weeks Year 6 have been planning, researching and developing ideas for their enterprise projects this year. They have had some fantastic expertise and guidance from Louise Levy, a governor and parent, and Mike Wood from Gardiner Richardson. They have been guided through the process of developing ideas, teamwork, planning, marketing and advertising. They are hoping to make a substantial profit this year to pay for their end of year party. Watch this space for more details.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who put a contribution inside the trainers and shoes. We managed to raise a wonderful £430 for Sport Relief. Thanks to Annabel and Mia for the great idea and organising everything! Thanks to Miss Knox for all the counting too!