School news

Lots of positive news from our schools so far this term.  Spring news for Diocesan MAT Schools is also available on the MAT website, please click here.

	Pupils at St Gregory CEVCP School, Sudbury wrote about their hopes and dreams in Collective Worship and displayed them in class
	St Mary's CofE Academy, Mildenhall came together for a ‘Journey through Easter’ Day to explore and think about the Easter Story. It was the first opportunity since COVID that the children had been able to explore other areas of school, other than their bubble area; for some it was their first time seeing the whole school! For more please click here.
	Elveden CofE Primary Academy is now an Artsmark Gold Award school. For more about Artsmark, please click here.  Elveden were also highly commended in the recent Platinum Jubilee Time Capsule Competition.
	Pupils at Barrow CEVCP School created their own version of Da Vinci's Last Supper fresco to approximately half scale as part of their 'Eucharist' Beliefs & Values unit.
	Pupils at Barnham CEVCP School designed and created Easter gardens. They were so impressive they were displayed in St Gregory's, the local church.
	Wilby CEVCP School is celebrating 150 years since the school opened. Roisin Wiseman, Headteacher writes: "To mark the anniversary, we performed a special 150 years celebration musical to a packed-out audience on Wednesday 16 February and then on the 17 February we conducted a special anniversary service led by Bishop Mike at St Mary's Church in Wilby. To read more about the wonderful time the school is having celebrating, please click here.
	Pupils at Barnham CEVCP School created beautiful hearts for Ukraine. Amy Arnold, Headteacher writes: "Each child decorated a wooden heart with the colours of the Ukrainian flag and on the reverse added a word to show their support, such as peace, hope, solidarity; clutching their hearts tightly, children closed their eyes and said a prayer for the recipients. Each heart has been put into the pockets of donated military clothing and children's coats and should now be in Ukraine."

Bawdsey CEVCP School has a new purpose-built teaching kitchen which pupils will be able to use for lessons with the school's trained chef. The school’s head Katie Butler said the kitchen was created to continue the good work after receiving recognition, including a Healthy Schools award. The kitchen will be officially opened on 8 April. For more, please click here

Pupils at East Bergholt CEVCP School held two wonderful concerts in St Mary’s Church on 31 March for parents and families. The children sang songs from ISingPOP a Christian organisation which provides songs for children to engage with in collective worship.

St Matthews CofE Primary School. Ipswich raised £695 for St Elizabeth Hospice and £305 for Comic Relief. The school will also be participating in the Big Hoot this summer with their design inspired by the school’s vision - “Whatever you do, do it with all your heart.” Colossians 3:23. Vasile Sandu, a teaching assistant at St Matthew’s spoke at Parliament's education select committee in February on his experience working with Roma families in Ipswich and the need for greater understanding in schools. For more on this, please click here.

Pupils at Kelsale CEVCP School attended a service at St Mary and St Peter's church, Kelsale to celebrate Mothering Sunday. 150 children were present together with 80 adults (staff and parents). The focus of the service was on gratitude and celebrating mothers and all who fulfil a mothering role. The local
church reported: "It was excellent to see each of the classes present something they had made, a poem, or a song. It was also amazing to see the church so full and buzzing with people!"

Pupils at All Saints' CofE Primary School, Newmarket had a Wellbeing Challenge Week to support Children’s Mental Health. Each day they did something to focus on their mental wellbeing. They INCLUDED their whole school community with the events, planned by Mrs Macro but it INVOLVED everyone working together to make it happen. For more, please click here.

Worlingworth CEVCP School held celebrations for World Book Day. Vicki Gascoyne-Cecil, Head: "An alien space craft landed at the school, just in time for book week! During our Sci-Fi themed week, we enjoyed reading, reciting and writing lots of poetry. We had daily cosy reading sessions and on World Book Day we all dressed as aliens!"

	Elveden CofE Primary Academy had a busy start to the spring term. Lorna Rourke, Head writes: "It was wonderful to welcome parents in after all this time to participate in our Shrove Tuesday celebrations, we feel like we have our school family back together again." "This was followed by Mrs Flack, our lay reader, coming into school for our annual Ash Wednesday Collective Worship. Children enjoyed hearing how the ash came from the palm crosses and reflected on their own Lent promises."  Also at Elveden, "the play team have been working hard to develop our OPAL lunchtimes which see children mixing across the school to collaborate, support and achieve to ‘Let Their Light Shine’ and live in God’s image through their behaviour. We are so proud of them and they cannot wait for lunchtimes to play with friends!"
	Ash Class at Hopton CEVCP School raised £410 for the Disaster Emergency Committee for Ukraine by holding a fair at school. The school wrote: "The class totally stepped up to the challenge of putting on a fair: thinking of ideas for fun games; sourcing prizes; and then putting the games together. "We are all incredibly proud of the mature attitude and focus they demonstrated – and also the amazing support from the whole school. Well done!" For more, especially from the viewpoint of the pupils involved, please click here. The school council at Hopton CEVCP School raised over £70 for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. The children had wanted to do a whole school event and organised a pancake race. For more, please click here.
	The Faith Council at Hopton CEVCP regularly get together to arrange and rehearse the half-termly Faith Council assemblies. To celebrate Candlemas, they decided to give a candle to everyone at the school to take home and would turn this into a way of raising money for people in need. The Faith Council became aware of the emerging tragedy confronting children in Afghanistan and wanted to help, especially as the school's current value is compassion, and so the Shine a Light project was born.  The school has raised and amazing £170.00 so far.  For more on this lovely story, please click here.
	Pupils in year 5 and 6 at Ixworth CofE Primary School have helped Green Ixworth, the local environmental organisation, to plant 170 trees in the community in January.  The trees will help reduce the noise and pollution for local residents. This is the second time that pupils from the primary school have been involved in looking after their local environment.   For more on this story, please click here.
	Bentley CEVCP School used the book ‘An angel just like me’ as a prayer and reflection activity before Christmas. One of the pupils struggled to find an angel for his tree which looked like him as they all have white skin and blond curls. The children explored diversity and designed their own Christmas cards to represent diverse communities.

Celebration 2022

Good luck to pupils at the following church schools who are taking part in Celebration 2022 at Snape Maltings from 7 - 12 March 2022:

• Bawdsey CEVCP
• Charsfield CofE Primary
• Kersey CofE Primary
• Sir Robert Hitcham's CEVAP, Framlingham
• St Gregory CEVCP, Sudbury
• St Mary's CEVCP, Benhall
• St Mary's CofE Academy, Mildenhall
• Wilby CEVCP
• Worlingham CEVCP

This annual music festival celebrates the diverse music-making by young people in schools and community groups across Suffolk.  For further information, please click here.