It was a busy and exciting start to the new half term today and one which saw both of our halls being used consistently throughout the day!

The morning started with the downstairs hall full of parents all eager to find out more about the Foundation stage curriculum. Mrs Critoph started the session with a brief presentation outlining the curriculum and how we teach the objectives in class. She gave the parents some examples of the types of activities the children would undertake on a typical day and explained how we plan on a daily basis based on the interests of the children. The parents then took the opportunity to join the children in class to take part in some of the activities alongside the children before returning to the hall where Miss Toms explained all about the different areas of the curriculum and how the parents could support learning at home.

A while later it was the turn of the upstairs hall to be used, this time for the KS2 assembly. Mr B talked to the children about some of the famous and fictional superheroes they may be aware of. The children discussed some of their super powers and how they saved the world before they focused on examples of real life heroes as opposed to those in comics and movies. Mr B explained that real life heroes are people to look up to who inspire, encourage and motivate others and provided some examples, such as doctors and fire fighters, before revealing that we had a real life hero of our very own at Earls Hall! Mr B then explained to the children that our school had been triumphant at the recent Southend Sports Awards ceremony held last week and that Mr Smith had been presented with the award of ‘Coach of the Year’ , making him a real life hero to the children. The whole hall gave Mr Smith three cheers and a huge round of applause in recognition of his award. Mr B then explained that there was further excitement as a result of the awards as our KS2 rounders team had been chosen as ‘Team of the Year’! The hall once again applauded the team as they shared their magnificent trophy before Mr B told them there was yet more news…….Earls Hall had been chosen as ‘Sports School of the Year’! The hall erupted with cheers and applause at such a wonderful achievement!

Later in the morning the downstairs hall was full once again, this time with children from Year One and Two. Mr B explained to them that there was a recent episode of the tv show ‘X Factor’ which they may have missed. The show had held a ‘Winter Special’ where contestants were invited to sing Winter songs to thrill the panel of famous judges, with some familiar faces taking their turn in the audition room to try their chances at a bid of stardom! The children were aghast to see Mr Geach, Mrs Draycott and Mrs Rick each take turns to sing infront of the judges with some amusing results. They then saw Mr B take his turn, singing the school favourite ‘In the Jungle’ before being asked to sing something more seasonal for the ‘Winter Special’ by Louis. Poor Mr B forgot the words to ‘White Christmas’ and failed to get through to the next round of the competition. The children saw him promise to return to the audition room in order to follow his dream but were asked to help him with the process. After watching the clip Mr B challenged the children to help him by composing their own Winter songs. They needed to investigate Winter poems, songs and then use the most striking adjectives in their own self composed tunes. Once they had written them they were to return to Mr B to see if he could be more successful in the competition!

Today the school celebrated ‘World Magic Day’ in style! During lunchtime we were joined by former pupil Amber who shared her impressive magic skills with both staff and children. She thrilled the ladies in the office with a series  of close up magic tricks before repeating the experience for the children in both the KS1 and KS2 pagodas. Amber amazed the children by magically making boxes appear from a seemingly empty bag, turning playing cards blank and turning a chain of circles into one large one before their very eyes! It was lovely to have one of lovely former superstars back and we were very grateful that she gave up her own time on an inset day at senior school to entertain our children.

In the afternoon the upstairs hall was the venue for even more magic as we were joined by ‘Marco Sparko’ who came into school to help us celebrate ‘World Magic Day’ in the form of two thrilling shows, one for each key stage. Marco amazed the children as he changed the colour  of a die, made balls appear, disappear and multiply and make a newly drawn face come to life on a whiteboard. In the KS2 assembly he appeared to chop off a volunteers hand whilst in the KS1 assembly he made water pump magically through a volunteers tummy! Thank you to Marco for coming into school and to the PTA for funding the curriculum enrichment experience for the children.