It was an exciting day for two groups of children from across KS1 and KS2 today as they represented Earls Hall as we took part in our very first ten pin bowling competition! Eleven children from across the school were chosen and were given the challenge of not only trying to score highly as an individual on the alley but also to try a =nd beat a host of schools from across Southend as part of a dream team! Accompanied by Miss Childs and Mrs Minney, the whole team had a blast by scoring lots of strikes and spares throughout the morning and were awarded a medal each in recognition of their participation. Well done children, we are proud of you!

Meanwhile, back at school, it was the first day of our week long celebration of ten years of Forest Friends at Earls Hall and the celebrations began with the children in Year One enjoying sessions outside where they created their own potions. They foraged for natural ingredients before mixing and stirring them together to make individual smells and liquids. Meanwhile, over at base camp, the children developed their tool use by hammering golf tees into pumpkins.

As Mr B enjoyed listening to some wonderful readers from Owls, the children in Kites took to the field in order to develop their ball skills. They used various body parts in order to control the ball around a given course and showed great determination to complete the course. Meanwhile, inside, the children in Elm identified what it means to be part of a team and communicated their thoughts by creating collaborative posters.

Todays assemblies in KS2 focused on resilience and, in the upper KS2 assembly, Mr B shared his own personal story of how he struggled to learn to swim as a child but had to become resilient when dealing with the disappointment of not quite gaining his 10 metre swimming certificate and, at first, only making it to nine metres! With the assistance of some willing volunteers, the story was acted out in the hall before the children identified other times they may have to show resilience in life.