After months of anticipation, year four have started their residential adventure at Rock UK in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. The coach left school in glorious sunshine and before we knew we it, we had arrived at the centre. After a welcome meeting and lunch, we had a tour of the wonderful grounds and saw some of the activities that await us in the week.

The class have been split into two groups, led by Mrs Sparkes and myself.
Mrs Sparkes’ group took part in archery for their first activity, with Jamie T demonstrating some impressive skills and all of the teachers and pupils enjoying the experience. They then had a go at Bush Craft with some interesting creations emerging.

The second group started with the challenge of abseiling. I was delighted that everyone climbed to the top of the tower to see the wonderful view of the surrounding area. Most then had a go at abseiling down the wall. Freya certainly showed no fear as she bounced her way down while Alex and Oliver were delighted with their achievements. We then moved onto fencing, something many of the children had never tried before. The instructors, Tim and Steve, gave us a great beginner’s guide although Laurence and Cooper looked like old pros as they defeated many opponents, including Mrs Hudson and myself.

Following the return journey up the hill to Oak Lodge, the children unpacked their bags and made their beds (some with more help than others). Dinner was devoured with lasagne, carbonara, macaroni cheese and cake putting plenty of smiles on the faces of pupils and staff alike.

The evening brought a chance to reflect on day one by writing in diaries. The children all took part in the Nightline activity which involved working as a team to overcome obstacles along a course, using only torches to light the way. Some quiet reflection time and prayer then followed before a happy but tired group of children went to bed for the night. Photos will be uploaded later this evening.

To perform to an audience is a wonderful experience for children at primary school. To perform to a whole arena of people is even more special and our year five and six pupils, along with some staff members, enjoyed this opportunity recently by taking part in Young Voices. This is a concert held at the LG arena in Birmingham, with our school joining thousands of others to form a mass choir. The classes have been busy practising for months with Mr Kirkland, including learning some very interesting dance moves.

They then travelled to Birmingham where they took part in a rehearsal with the other children and some professional singers. The children then prepared for the start of the show, watching the huge crowd assemble. The children performed a wide range of songs and were very excited to sing with former X Factor contestant Stacy Solomon.

Eco Club have had a busy year so far with many exciting opportunities for the children to develop their understanding of environmental issues. The whole school project of constructing a green house out of recycled bottles is developing well, please keep collecting everyone!

The children have also continued to work with the Langton Garden Centre, learning more about the work that is done there and even assisting in some of their Christmas preparation.

Eco-Club do enjoy a visit and they were also delighted to be able to visit a local farm where they could learn all about water management. Add to this the whole school assembly they led as part of switch off fortnight and you can see that this group is one of the busiest clubs we have in our school.

I was delighted to be able to join the children at Condover Hall on Wednesday evening to hear all about their adventures. I would like to report they all went to sleep immediately, although on this occasion the fire alarm going off is good reason to be awake a bit later. It was a false alarm but the children handled the situation well and eventually got to sleep.

The next day and the discussions at breakfast were all about what they were most looking forward to. The children have been very supportive of each other, encouraging when a challenge is worrying someone and celebrating in each other’s achievements. The whole class enjoyed Wet and Wild, which involved a range of challenges and games in the swimming pool. They particularly enjoyed when the instructors ‘fell in’.

Body zorbing was a new challenge for many of the children. This involved getting inside an inflatable ball and trying to knock each other over sumo style. Plenty of laughs were had by both groups, particularly when both opponents managed to trip themselves without even bumping each other. Lunch was devoured and the children enjoyed mixing with children from other parts of the country during their free time. We therefore were referred to as Leicester!

The children also completed the shelter building and trust walk activities that the other groups had enjoyed earlier in the week. Abseiling has been a big challenge that many of the children had been looking forward to and enjoyed completing. The view from the top of the tower was fantastic.

Dinner was followed by a birthday cake for Joshua, who had happy birthday sung to him throughout the day! A trip to the tuck shop to buy souvenirs (and a few treats) came before the vital preparation time before the disco. After plenty of dancing the children welcomed Mrs Wilce back before starting to pack in preparation for departure on Friday lunchtime.

Currently on display in the school hall are pieces from each of classes linked to our theme, ‘Around the World in Arty Days’.

Whenever we think about a subject a school it is always good to hear what the children think. Nathan from year 3 says, “You can’t beat art with Mrs Parry” while Lawrence from year 3 says, “Mrs Parry is the best art teacher in the world”.

We also have our annual art exhibition, organised by Mrs Clayton and Mrs Parry, which this year is entitled “Love the Place you Live”. The link corridor is displaying the entries from each of the children and staff, please come a have a look at the wonderful range of ideas and images.

Mrs Parry is already planning ahead for next year and we look forward to art continuing to be something that everyone involved with Church Langton should be proud of.

The first few days of the trip have flown by with the children having a great time. The Cosford Air Museum and Military base was the first part of the adventure with the children visiting the various hangars. The Second World War planes were a favourite, while the dog-sight simulator was very exciting.

The coach then travelled on to the magnificent Condover Hall where the pupils discovered their dormitories. Each team went off on their separate activities; survival or the laser maze and the stepping stones. Both teams threw themselves into the activity and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the evening, the children went to the campfire with two other schools. They had games around the fire (including Britain’s Got Talent), singing, riddles and stories. At the end of the activity, the children gave a wish to a stick which was then placed onto the fire.

On Tuesday, after a long day Monday and not nearly enough sleep, the children got up for their next day of activities at JCA. Once the children had finished their breakfasts the boys filled their spare time with football while the girls decided to chat in their rooms. At 9.30 we assembled for our first activity of the day. Mrs Wilce’s team went off for fencing while Mr Baylis’s team experienced the laser maze and stepping stones. Both teams had to use different skills to complete the activities successfully. Fencing involved independent work using skill and attention to defeat the opponent and laser maze and stepping stones required working as a team to complete the task.

The second activity was fencing or the multi vines for either group. For many children, the multi vines were scary and intimidating standing at the bottom and looking up but it was pleasing to see everyone try the activity and most children completing it. After lunch and more football, the next set of activities commenced with either multi vines or the sensory trail followed by either climbing or tunnelling and buzzing. Once again, the children had to use a multiple skills to complete the activities from listening and smelling to hand-eye co-ordination and determination.

After our evening meal, the evening activity was Busted, a quiz style game which involved a range of knowledge. The children worked in teams to answer questions from different categories to earn points and enjoyed the challenge.

Half way through the week and some of the children have decided they need their sleep! The morning activities were archery or climbing followed by tunnelling and buzzing depending on groups. The children followed instructions well and were able to effectively complete their tasks with some competition between children in archery.

On Wednesday afternoon, the children were kitted out in wetsuits and went out of Condover Hall to the lake where activities of kayaking and raft building were conducted. Children had to work together to manoeuvre the kayaks around the lake, going forwards, backwards and turning the kayak to face a different direction. The children really enjoyed this activity and many of the groups figured out strategies to steer the kayak effectively. After that the children had to follow instructions and work together to build a raft. Once the raft was built, some groups mounted the raft and were able to move the raft through the water, not everyone was able to stay dry! Once these activities had finished, we were back on the mini bus back to Condover Hall.

A busy few days so far and plenty more to come!

My first year as Headteacher at Church Langton has had many highlights but on Thursday 9th May I was able to be part of a very special part of our school. Six children from our Year Six class had their Confirmation service at St John the Baptist Church in Billesdon. They were joined by others from the community and pupils from Billesdon Parochial Primary School for the service. Confirmation marks the point in the Christian journey at which someone affirms for themselves the faith into which they have been baptized and their intention to live a life of committed Christian. The service was led by Bishop Christopher, assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Leicester and involved our own School Chaplain, Reverend Alison Booker. Mrs Wilce, Mrs Denton and myself were able to be part of a large congregation, with many proud parents watching on.

Children from years four, five and six formed a choir with children from Billesdon and sang ‘Today’ and ‘As One’ beautifully. Each child received a gift from the Diocese and a candle which they held aloft at the end of the service. The ceremony had been preceded by Confirmation classes that have been led by Reverend Alison and Reverend Richard Curtis. This is the second year these classes have run and it has been great to see the enthusiasm of the pupils.

We are very proud to be an Aided Church of England School and I personally have been made to feel very welcome since joining the Diocese. We were delighted to welcome Canon Mary Lawson to school last month, who led our Collective Worship and met pupils and staff. The further development of our Christian ethos is something that we have been examining recently and in the next half term we are looking for to Reverend Alison joining each class as we look to identify a set of values that we will adopt as a school. This will be another way of strengthening our status as a Church of England School.

On Thursday 7th March, Year Six enjoyed a visit to London to experience ballet being performed at the Royal Opera House. The children had to be patient as the coach journey took longer than we had hoped but eventually we arrived in Covent Garden. We enjoyed our packed lunch inside the Royal Opera House before taking our seats for the performance. We saw three different ballets, Apollo, 24 Preludes and Aeternum. Each of the performances had different elements and all of the pupils had a favourite. During one of the intervals we went out onto the balcony area and found a fantastic view of Covent Garden.

We were joined by Martin Fosten, former Academic Principal of the Royal Ballet School and were delighted when he was able to give us a tour of the school. We saw pupils practising in the studios as well as walking across the Bridge of Aspiration. This was built to connect the Royal Ballet School with the Royal Opera House and is a very impressive piece of architecture.

After the tour, we walked to The Strand where we had a delicious meal at Bella Italia. The pupils were wonderfully behaved throughout the whole trip and returned back to school ready to share their impressions of a new type of performance.

We were delighted to have been successful in the ballot for tickets this year and hope to take other classes in the future. We were also very grateful to the Taylor Foundation who have provided a travel grant which reduced the cost of the trip.