It was a fantastic week for sport at Earls Hall. The week saw a number of children from across KS2 take part in the Southend ‘Super Sports’ at Garons, a competition which sees the very best athletes from the borough sports compete against each other on the track and field over the course of two afternoons after school.

The events saw the children pitted against the very best sporting talent from across the town and therefore the standard was extremely high. All of the children performed well with some notable positions achieved by our athletes. Kayleen came first in the 600m, Zoe came first in the 400m, Ethan came third in the 600m, Emily came first in the shot put, Connor came first in the rounders ball throw, Katie came first in the rounders throw ball, Alex came first in the javelin and James came second in the long jump. As well as the individual triumphs, our Year Three and Year Four boys both came second and so did our Year Four girls relay team. Our Year Six relay team came a brilliant first. It was a series of brilliant results! Well done to all of the children, we are proud of you.

This afternoon there was more sport taking place as a team of children from across KS1 took part in the KS1 Borough Sports competition. The children took part in a series of events supported by Mrs Critoph, Mrs O’Rourke, Mrs Smoothy and Mr Smith. There were skipping races, sprints, space hopper races, egg and spoon races and relays and the children tried their very best throughout.Our boys came first in the sprint, our girls came second in the bouncy hoppers and the realy and the wonderful team spirit enabled the children to achieve a wonderful fourth place in the whole of Southend; our best result in the competition to date! Well done to all of the children who took part, we are proud of you.

Meanwhile, back in school, our new chickens continued to settle in to their surroundings and are becoming tamer by the day. Today another group of children visited the hen house in order to get the chickens used to being around humans and collected more eggs.

Also today, Mrs Nicklin came and worked with groups of children, setting maths challenges to extend their understanding of calculations, and playing a series of quick thinking maths games. The children also gathered together to reward individuals achievements in our two simultaneous ‘Celebration Assemblies’.

Today the school council started working on posters to remind the children to look after their belongings and keep the cloakrooms tidy. This was an issued raised a few weeks ago. Children chose to either make their posters on the computer or by hand. These will be ready to display in September. It was wonderful to see children help each other on the computer to copy and paste pictures and change the font and colour. Great teamwork School Council!

Meanwhile, throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the children from Willow and Sycamore ventured out of school to take part in a trip to the Priory where they listened to a talk about the monks and how they lived. The children learnt the history of the monastery and drew geographical sketches of their surroundings.

At the end of the afternoon the downstairs hall welcomed a host of parents and other family members at the first of our transition meetings. Mrs Geach, the year group leader for Year One, explained to the adults all about the transition from the Foundation Stage and the expectations of the year ahead. The parents then had the opportunity to meet the new teachers fro September over a cup of tea. Thanks to everyone who made it along.