Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir

We recently had the privilege of having a visit from The Pearl of Africa Ugandan Children’s Choir. Pearl of Africa is a non-profit organization who aim to break the cycle of poverty for Ugandan children by investing in education, health, water and sustainable food programmes, in consultation with their Ugandan partners. https://pearlofafrica.org.uk/

The choir spent the day at both sites, teaching the children singing, drumming and dancing workshops before giving the school children and their friends/ families an uplifting, energetic evening performance at Freshwater and Yarmouth CE Primary! A fabulous time was had by all! Thank you to everyone involved in making the day possible and to everyone who came and supported!

Here are a few quotes from the staff and children:
It was really good. I liked the clapping -Bruce
The dances were amazing – Annaleigha
They were amazing! They sung acapella using only drums to keep in time. It was fabulous! – Mrs Harris
The exploded into the hall with so much confidence, they were so inspiring and left us all feeling elated – Mrs Whitehead

OUR VISIT FROM FREESTYLE FOOTBALLER … ASH RANDALL

We had the privilege of a visit from a professional freestyle footballer, Ash Randall, who showed us some of his favourite freestyle tricks and showed us some which lead to him breaking (and setting) over twenty-five world records and has put him in the books of Guinness World Records at least three times. He showed us pictures of his accomplishments (and one of when he met Pele). He also picked some of us to try to do some tricks (which managed to go very well) and encouraged us to always try again. Then he even got Mr.Westhorpe and Mrs.Poulton to try some tricks and later got them in a little competition against Malachi (Year 6) to see who could keep a ball from touching the ground, eventually Malachi won. Then he finished with some more amazing freestyle tricks and that was  the end. It was an incredible experience and we give all our thanks to him.

By Ryleigh Yr 6 Freshwater & Yarmouth

Kings coronation in Yarmouth Square

Thank you to all of you, that were able to join us at the Kings Coronation singing event in Yarmouth on Sunday. It turned out to be a lovely sunny day and the children were all amazing. They sang 5 songs & the national anthem, beautifully. Well done!

Freshwater & Yarmouth C of E Primary School Opening Ceremony

On Thursday 30th March 2023 our new school site was formally opened with a wonderful lively collective worship led by our pupils. Each year group contributed to the worship, singing songs, reciting poetry, showing artwork and even a comedy video created by year 6 pupils revealing their favourite bits of the new building. Local dignitaries, politicians, community leaders and parents were welcomed in the new school hall for the celebration. Rev Leisa Potter led the school community in prayers and the Bishop of Portsmouth, Jonathan Frost, finished the celebration with a short talk before cake and tea was served.

The former Victorian building that housed All Saints C of E Primary in Freshwater needed to be demolished as it was suffering from subsidence and structural problems. The new building was designed by Hampshire County Council architects and is more appropriate for modern educational needs. All the classrooms are accessed via a single corridor which has multi-coloured breakout rooms and roof windows allowing pupils to learn in light, well ventilated, free flow areas. There are hard and soft play areas, a bright inviting library, a music room, a technology suite and a special needs resource base to name just a few of the assets.

Some of the original stone from the Victorian building has been incorporated into the new frontage and we have managed to keep the beautiful stained glass window and a safe that was used by Lord Tennyson, which had been in All Saints primary. The display boards showing the winners of the annual Effie Pitman award have also been transferred from the former Yarmouth building.

Below are some photos of our new school building and our opening ceremony.

Some of the animals caught on our new wildlife camera!

Dementia Friendly Choir

On Wednesday mornings children from Year 5 & 6 have been given the opportunity to join with the West Wight Dementia Friendly Choir.

‘The dementia choir has a wonderful atmosphere to it. The children of year 5 and 6 love going to the choir and leave feeling happy and excited to go again. At the moment in the choir we have been singing songs by Mary Poppins, one of our favourites being Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. People at the choir are really kind to us and very helpful. At the break we help hand round the snacks and sit with the people, talking about all the things we have been up to. When we are singing we have instruments like maracas, bells and mini drums. We are so grateful for this opportunity.’

By Annie & Summer

Farewell to Yarmouth School Site

We held a wonderful final farewell collective worship at Yarmouth Primary. The collective worship included some of our favourite songs. River and Coast class did a nativity reading, Ocean class a Christmas poem. Golden tickets were awarded to Malachi Y6, Scarlet Y3, Nina Y4 and George Y4. The sports award went to Isla in Y5. After the birthday celebrations, Solent Class presented the real meaning of Christmas. Memories were shared by the children and the teachers. Thanks was given by Mrs Grainger, prayers from the children and a final blessing given by Rev Leisa Potter.

Outdoor Learning Bug Hunting

Jubilee Banners

Every class was asked to study a decade of the queen’s reign, starting with year 6 looking at her first decade, 1952-1962. With a canvas, they were then asked to decorate it with events from that period.

Randonnee

The Randonnee is a yearly cycling event following a route around the Island (please see the map below).  The word Randonnee actually means ‘a long bike ride, usually over 100 miles’!  This event is very popular, in the past attracting over 3000 cyclists from all over the country!  This year, due to COVID, the event has been restricted to 2500 keen cyclists and all the places have already been allocated.

For many years, Yarmouth CE Primary has been asked to act as a checkpoint for the participants, providing refreshments for the cyclists.  Each year this has raised thousands of pounds for our school, so it is a big fundraising event.

Last week’s Randonnee was a massive success & we raised almost £2000, which will go towards new play equipment for our new school. This event wouldn’t have been possible without the support & generosity of so many local businesses & people.

With that in mind, we would like to say a massive ‘thank you’ to the following people:
Freshwater Tesco Store for donating 300 bottles of water and their staff member Hazel who baked some rocky road to support the cake sales.
The Millar family for boiling and shelling over 100 eggs.
Leanne Jordan for baking what seems like hundreds of cakes at very short notice.
Dorset Tea for donating tea bags
Iceland & Aldi for suppling food & drinks
Warbartons for all of the bread rolls

A huge thank you to the Yarmouth PTFA, particularly Rachel Dunleavey for her efforts and support in this event.
Also to all of the staff and children that gave up their Friday evening, and Sunday to facilitate the event.

Back in March, Year Two at Yarmouth had the opportunity to work with The New Carnival Company, Schools Heritage and Dimbola Lodge Museum too!
We prepared for our visit to the Freshwater home of Julia Margaret Cameron by learning about her Victorian life and works and by immersing ourselves in the sights, sounds and smells of India. The museum trip was so exciting and we got to make photograms in the darkroom and Estelle taught us about Julia’s home and who would have lived and worked in their  house.
Hannah and Katy from The New Carnival Company came to school to teach us how to make special drums, create a ‘pandal’ statue and to perform a celebratory dance –
we already knew about the Hindu festival of Durga Puja and our clay and rangoli pandal is spectacular!
Chris and Frankie from The New Carnival Company came to see our final dance performance and they had wonderful things to say about all the creativity and hard work the children put into it.

For more photos please click to download – DIMBOLA WRITE UP

PEACH – Relationships Art Exhibition at Quay Arts

In collaboration with the Executive Head-teacher Group, IWC Public Health worked with key stakeholders to co-produce and develop a new ‘whole-school’ framework for Island primary schools. This partnership, known as PEACH: Partnership for Education, Attainment and Children’s Health focuses on four domains:

• Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE)
• Physical activity
• Healthy Eating
• Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health

Excitingly, the ‘Relationships’ Art project allows us to bring PEACH into the wider community, showcasing and celebrating both the great work that takes place in Schools and the creativity of our Island pupils.

The exhibition brief for Schools was “creatively demonstrate what ‘Relationships’ mean to you? This could be around friendship, family, relationship with oneself or even linked to community and wider planet through the likes of the Island’s UNESCO biosphere status or COP26 agenda.”

Earlier this year both Yarmouth and Shalfleet schools were invited to take part in an exhibition in collaboration with PEACH and the Quay Arts Centre, in Newport. Schools from across the Island took part, interpreting the theme of “Relationships”. As one of our school values, it was a theme close to our hearts and the children had a wonderful range of ideas and interpretations.

It was an amazing opportunity for some of our most talented artists from all year groups to see their artwork in a real gallery. I also managed to work with Reception at Yarmouth to create the beautiful heart of handprints, something the children really enjoyed. The children were involved at every stage of the process, from brainstorming ideas and deciding on materials to designing and painting the final pieces. Each week children gave up their time to meet and work together on their artwork.

They all worked so hard and can be very proud of their achievement. It was a proud moment for me to see their work in the Clayden Gallery at the Quay Arts Centre and to receive such wonderful feedback from those who had managed to view the exhibition with their families.

By Gemma Whitehead (Y4 Teacher at Yarmouth)

Rachel from Natural Enterprise in association with  the Isle of Wight Royal Agricultural Society came to both schools to plant trees as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy for the Jubilee.

At Yarmouth, we have planted an Oak tree that we will move to our new site in Freshwater next year. The tree was planted by the Year 6 children so they will have an ongoing connection with the new school. Who knows, perhaps one day they will be able to tell their children about the history of this special tree.

The tree we planted at Shalfleet was grown from an acorn from a 700 year old oak tree at Nunwell. We will be able to watch this tree grow and nurture our own little acorns for many years to come.

We were very proud to help celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee by planting our trees. Do look out for them when you are visiting our schools.