Happy Half Term

It has been another busy and exciting term that has whizzed past. There have lots of exciting things happening, which I hope are reflected in the newsletters you receive. We hope that your children have a lovely half term break.

In the meantime, here are some key dates for next term:
 

Flu Immunisations - 11/11/2015

Pupils whose parents have agreed, will be given their winter flu immunisations in school today. These will be carried out in secondary hall by the School Immunisation Nursing Team.

Children In Need (Non Uniform) - 13/11/2015

Staff Training Day: Pupils not in school - 27/11/2015

Carol Service @ St Nicholas' Church - 02/12/2015

Come and enjoy this wonderful occasion where our School choir will be performing alongside other schools from the area. This event is a lovely way to start the Christmas festivities. More details will come out closer to the time.

Community Choir singing @ Sainsburys - 04/12/2015

Our community choir, which is a collaboration between The Castle School and Spurcroft School, will be singing a selection of festive treats in the big Sainsbury's Supermarket in Newbury from 11.15am. Come along and support their efforts.

Secondary House Christmas Show - 08/12/2015

Key Stage 3 and 4 perform their Christmas Show to parents and carers.

Christmas Carol Service @ St Mary's Church - 15/12/2015

This is our annual Christmas Carol Service which will take place between 9am and 11am. Details will be sent out closer to the time, but places are very limited as space is tight.

Post-16 Christmas Cafe - 16/12/2015

Come along and enjoy all manner of Christmas treats at our student-run Post-16 Cafe

End of Term 2 - 18/12/2015

Have a great half term and we look forward to seeing our pupils back on Tuesday 3rd November.

Thanks,

Jon Hewitt

Protect against norovirus this winter

Norovirus, sometimes known as 'winter vomiting bug' is the most common stomach bug in the UK, affecting people of all ages.

There are simple ways to protect against the virus. Please click the link here to find out more.

Halifax Help Us Out

Today, a lovely group of staff from the local Halifax in Newbury came into school and worked incredibly hard to clear our sensory garden of unwanted foliage. They spruced the area up and have planted lots of lovely spring flowering bulbs in the pots and borders. Our thanks goes to our friends at Halifax Newbury who are:

Caireen Reed
Yola Sanger
Zoe Perryman
Steph Conner
Nell Burgess
Rachel Pawalie

Here are some pictures of their wonderful handiwork.

Success keeps on growing!

Our class teams have been working really hard to ensure that our new beds are cultivated and growing well so that we have our radishes and onions this autumn. The pupils and staff have made them all look lovely with decorations, scarecrows and artwork. There is quite a bit of competition now between classes to see who can produce the best crop.
 
Here are two pictures of what the beds looked like only a few weeks ago at the start of term

And here are pictures of the beds now!! What a difference

Harvest Festival

We had our annual Harvest Festival last week and our pupils excelled themselves again. We had a lovely time singing hymns and listening to what each class had made for the festival. It was a wonderful occasion which brought the whole school together to think about people who may not have easy access to food and shelter. All the food collected by the classes was then taken to Tesco by Windsor Class for collection by West Berkshire Food Bank who were very pleased. I received a lovely email from them as follows:

“When the Warehouse Manager and I collected them yesterday we had the most delightful surprise in that not only were there generous donations but everything was contained in the most beautifully decorated boxes. The children had clearly spent a long time constructing, creating and decorating all the containers. Please pass on my thanks on behalf of the Foodbank to all the children, parents and staff; we really appreciate the donations and the beautiful art work. Your donations weighed 137.9kg which is the equivalent of 126 meals.”

Thank you to all the parents for their wonderful donations which enabled us to achieve this massive total.

Well done