It was a special day at Earls Hall today and an incredibly busy one too! The morning started with our school council leading two special assemblies where they delivered a presentation to the children and governors about their chosen charity for the year. Earlier in the term the council debated supporting a number of charities before taking part in a democratic vote and deciding that Essex Air Ambulance would be the winner. This morning the children delivered a self created powerpoint presentation, first in the KS1 assembly and then later to the children in KS2, all about the work of the ambulance team, how their work is not funded by the NHS and how much money they spend saving lives each day. After the presentation the children detailed ideas they had debated of how to raise money throughout the year including holding a non-uniform or pyjama day before answering questions from the governors and the children in the audience. The presentation was brilliant! Well done to all of the children from the council, we are proud of you all.

Throughout the day the children from across the KS2 classes visited our magical grotto where they had the chance to meet Father Christmas himself and receive a special gift. The children were once again supported by a series of elves from our Year Six classes and everyone enjoyed the experience. Thank you so much to Father Christmas and our volunteers from the PTA for once again taking time out of their busy schedules to help make our children’s Christmas a special one.

The main event of the day was the Christmas Dinner which saw Mrs Warren-Hardy and her merry crew start work at 6.30am in order to prepare a mouth watering Christmas meal for all of the children across the school. The children and staff were treated to turkey and all of the trimmings which they ate to the soundtrack of Christmas hits! the teachers and teaching assistants served the children at their tables whist they pulled crackers which were kindly donated by the PTA. There were plenty of empty plates and full bellies at the end of service and at the end of lunchtime Mrs Warren-Hardy and her team were given three cheers by the children in a display of appreciation. Thank you to the adults in school for giving up their lunch break to serve the children and, of course, to all in the kitchen for making such a delicious meal on such a large scale. We consider ourselves very lucky to have such an amazing team of talented cooks in school.