Spring is finally upon us! Each morning when the sun shines and the blossom trees bloom, there is a noticeable shift in everyone’s mood and a huge increase in smiles! We certainly need some positivity and spring sunshine at the moment! 

Led by one of our kind and thoughtful children, we held a whole school mutfi day last week for the people in Ukraine. The children wore yellow and blue and donated £1 and we had some silent reflection time in our assembly to think about those people fleeing dangerous situations and seeking sanctuary and safety in other countries. This builds on the work we have done as a school over the past 12 months looking at the plight of refugees worldwide, as represented by the giant puppet “Little Amal” and her symbolic walk. As ever, the children of Earls Barton have shown our school values of Self-belief, Honesty, Respect, Excellence and Kindness are lived and in evidence every day.  

We also encourage the children to reflect on how lucky they are to live in a community where these values are upheld; where they are safe; where they have individual liberty; where they can attend a school full of resources and learn about the world around them: the past and the present. We want our children to have a global outlook and to appreciate and celebrate diversity and differences. Our mantra in school is it would be a very boring world if everyone was the same! However, children are only in school for a fraction of their overall lives and we know there are other influences at play too. I would like to think that all adults, parents and carers also talk to their children and about others in a respectful and kind way which celebrates diversity in all its forms and challenge any discriminatory behaviour or language. As the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.”  

It felt like we had the entire village join us on World Book Day! We had almost 200 parents, carers, and relatives join the children for our World Book Day events this year and it was lovely to be able to welcome them into our classrooms to share reading and a love of books with the children. We are also fortunate to have restarted our weekly library visits to the Earls Barton library, with Reception classes currently visiting along with their chosen adult. We are also very fortunate to have a great number of reading volunteers in school each week to listen to our children read. This is part of what we do to celebrate a love of reading! As the weather improves, we also hope to make better use of our outdoor reading areas. 

An exciting development at our school is the addition of a holiday club during the two-week Easter Holidays. There will be a great range of activities from yoga, arts & crafts, sports to circus skills and music. The holiday clubs are open to all local primary-aged children, not just those who attend EBPS so we would welcome other children joining in too! The bookings must be made via https://northamptonesco.co.uk/  

As we look forward, we are planning our summer term events and hope to join in many of the village traditions during the summer months. 

Miss Marie Lally - Headteacher