Latest News

Fantastic Fundraising for Children in Need

Fri 18 Nov 2016 Mr Phoenix

Well done and thank you to our CTA, who have done a fantastic job for Children in Need 2016. Our Year 6 committee have worked really hard to prepare activities, competitions and challenges to raise awareness and money for the charity. Co-ordinated by Luca, Chair of the CTA, the children wrote a letter to parents, ran a colouring competition, organised games and activities and a non-uniform day.

Children in all classes took part in a wide range of activities during the morning, including art, PE challenges, dances and competitions including 'put the bandana on Pudsey' and 'guess how many sweets'. Money raised was stuck onto a large Pudsey Bear picture, and later counted up by the CTA committee and treasurer. It was a great day for everyone, (with a Pudsey Bear lunch in the middle) finishing with a grand Cake Bake. The total raised was a brilliant £260.

New Mouseman gate unveiled after Team Unicorn's fundraising

Thu 17 Nov 2016 Mr Phoenix

Back in 2014, Team Unicorn were studying the village and were interested in the Mouseman mice carved into structures at Hampsthwaite church. They noticed one mouse that had worn and weathered away over the years, and began to think of stories about where the mouse had gone. We developed their stories into a film - of 'Mr Mouse' and his adventures around Hampsthwaite.

The children's film became a focus for fundraising, and after being shown at the Village Society and with donations from the local community, £750 was raised. This was sufficient to see the church gate repaired and restored by the Mouseman team at Kilburn.
Today, a special dedication service was held at the church, as the new gate was put in place. The whole school gathered around the lych gate, and we sang and had a ceremonial precession through the gate. The children smiled as they were the first ones to pass through the newly restored gate, and they admired the new mouse, which is carved in beautiful detail including whiskers!

Rev Chrissy led prayers and blessings, and spoke about the importance of the gate to the locality and the people who will pass through the gate.

It was wonderful to have been able to play this small part in the upkeep and history of the church. Today's dedication service had a lovely sense of celebration and blessing for us all, and we were pleased to be joined by parents, members of the church, folk from Hollins Hall and others from the local community. The Diocese have launched an article on their website about today's service, which you can read here:

http://www.leeds.anglican.org/news/children-celebrate-return-their-church-mouse

Many thanks to Rev Chrissy for helping with this project and for today's service, and to Jud Charlesworth, our church warden, for working hard in the final stages of this project and getting the gate to and from the workshops in Kilburn. It is lovely to see this super outcome from the children's fundraising.

Mini snowmen and Snow sculptures

Wed 09 Nov 2016 Mr Phoenix

Breaktime and lunchtime was filled with excitement and energy as the children made the most of every minute in the first snowfall of winter.

It was great to see the teamwork and creativity the children showed as they first of all made various mini-snowmen and then went on to build bigger snowmen and sculptures. There were three mini-snowmen to find around the playground, and the children made their own to join these. The bigger constructions on the field were very impressive, including a large horse!

Below are the mini-snowmen that started the challenge, and our gallery has more pictures of the children's creations.

http://www.hampsthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk/mini-snowmen-and-snow-sculptures-november-2016/

Snowy Weather - School open

Wed 09 Nov 2016 Mr Phoenix

School is open today as normal, for all those who are able to get here. Please take care travelling and arrive when you can.

Posted at 8:05am

Well done everyone for arriving safely, all wrapped up well and equipped for the weather! Lots of excitement from the children at the first snowfall of winter. We'll have a mini-snowman challenge at playtime if the snow hasn't melted by then!

Posted at 9:35am

New Curtains bring school hall to life

Mon 07 Nov 2016 Mr Phoenix

There was a tremendous buzz of excitement as the children came into the hall for assembly this morning.

After months in the making, our very own custom-made curtains are here! The curtains include artwork from all the children in the school, with each section made up by one of the classes.

The designs begin at the bottom with sea creatures by Team Titan, then animals by Team Phoenix, above which are trees and birds by Team Unicorn. The upper part of the curtains shows off hand-print birds made by the Nursery, with scenes from outer space, planets, aliens and astronauts at the very top by Team Dragon.

The children were delighted to see their art displayed in such a colourful and prominent way.

Our PTA have done a fantastic job in raising funds to support this project, and their contribution to the cost of the curtains has meant the difference between having plain functional curtains and being able to bring these to life with the children's own work.

Members of the PTA joined us for our special assembly, in which the curtains were ceremonially closed for the first time by former school governor Mrs Nami.

Mrs Nami said to the children "What a wonderful privilege to have such beautiful curtains that you yourselves have designed. We are perhaps the only school in the country to have our very own artwork on our curtains. Maybe one day some of you will become fabric designers!"

After the assembly, children gathered eagerly to get a closer look. They were commenting on the origin of different animals, the species and where you'd find them in the world.

"There's so much to this design. It's really rich with ideas, and there's enough here to be able to teach whole sections of the curriculum - about rainforests, geography, the environment, space, weather and so much more." added Mrs Nami.

Thank you to our PTA for their fundraising, and to Sanderson's Interiors for creating and installing the curtains from the children's designs. And a special well done to Isobel for threading on the curtain hooks to help with the final installation! A fantastic result!

A whoppsy afternoon with the BFG

Wed 19 Oct 2016 Mr Phoenix

The whole school enjoyed a winksquiffling fizz-whizzing afternoon all about the BFG today.

Working in house team groups, the children spent the afternoon thinking up dream ideas, drawing dream jars, making dream-country leaves and painting a full-size BFG. The older children searched through the text of the BFG book to find interesting quotes to illustrate, and we thought about the science of Frobscottle, and what would happen to a drink if the bubbles did indeed only go downwards.

Using the iPads was one of the most popular activities of the afternoon, as the children learned about the BFG and Roald Dahl using the Discovery Espresso resources, and found all sorts of interesting backdrops to create 'cloaks' to photograph behind a BFG cutout picture.

All in all, a very busy but fantabulous afternoon!

Gold Medals for Hampsthwaite Swimming Champions

Tue 18 Oct 2016 Mr Phoenix

Congratulations to our swimming team, who were crowned Harrogate Area Champions at the finals of the Tolly Richardson swimming gala.

The Hampsthwaite swimming team put in an excellent performance, and were in a strong position throughout the finals at the Hydro pool. Taking first place in most of their races, the children were full of determination and enthusiasm.

"All the children swam amazingly," said Ms Reynard, who accompanied the team to the event, "they showed excellent technique, stamina and speed."

By the second 4 heats of the competition, Hampsthwaite were in 1st place, which they held onto in the relay events.

Our Hydro buddy, James Franklin, ex-pupil of Hampsthwaite school, supported our team throughout. "Keep swimming the way you are," he told the team, "and you'll be bound to come in the top 3 places."

But the Hampsthwaite team did better than that! Their hard work paid off and they were delighted to be declared the champions. All the children received individual gold medals and were presented with the Harrogate Area Swimming trophy by the Mayor.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the event, and are very proud of their achievement. "I know some of the other swimmers, because I swim with them in squads" said Lucy, "but I managed to come in first place this time!"

Winning by just 17 points, the team put in a fantastic effort and have represented the school brilliantly. Very well done to you all!

Shoebox Assembly

Mon 17 Oct 2016 Mr Phoenix

We welcomed special visitor, Mrs Knight, to our assembly this morning. She came to talk about the Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal, and explained to the children about the shoeboxes. She described each shoebox as a gift of love to needy children, who might otherwise not get any gift at Christmas. We watched a video and saw children delightedly receiving and opening their shoeboxes, and we realised how thankful these children are, even for such simple gifts.

Mrs Knight said "You will never meet the person who receives your box, but that person will never forget you."

Our children were very good at remembering what can and can't go in a shoebox, and Mrs Knight showed us two lovely examples of the kinds of ways a shoebox might be packed. It is often boxes for older boys that are needed, as this tends to be the group fewer people make shoeboxes for. Mrs Knight showed us one of these, with lots of older-boy things in, such as stationary items for school, solar calculator, bouncy balls, handkerchief, model glider kit and so on.

Children have brought home a leaflet about the charity, and if you able to support in packing a shoebox, we will be collecting these after half term until 14th November.

Harvest Celebration

Mon 10 Oct 2016 Mr Phoenix

It was great to see a packed church for our annual Harvest festival service, and lovely to have every child in school contributing to our harvest celebration.

This year, our theme was 'Sharing' and we thought about the need to share in a world where we all share one sun, yet our harvests are so unequal. We learned about the wide range of products that are available as Fairtrade - in which we can be sure a fair share of profits goes to the producers.

Along with whole-school songs, poems, drama and artwork, the school choir gave a very moving performance of John Rutter's 'Look at the World', as we moved into reflection on the good things that we have and the farmers and producers who supply our food.

The service finished with a rousing song 'Harvest Samba', with our Reception children dancing down the aisle in their fruit costumes, and the congregation joining in with percussion instruments.

A wonderful celebration to end the service!

Harlow Carr visit

Fri 30 Sep 2016 Mr Phoenix

What a super day we have had at Harlow Carr. The children thoroughly enjoyed the gardens and were expert at making all kinds of interesting observations of nature around us. They spotted flowers, berries, fungi and tiny creatures, as well as signs of autumn in the trees and the bigger features like waterfalls and artwork. The children loved using the new school cameras to take snaps of their finds too!

A highlight of our visit was meeting the BFG himself. We sat underneath his towering figure and read some of the BFG story together.

After picnic lunch on the grass, we had a lovely afternoon workshop finding scented leaves, flowers and seeds to make perfumes, before collecting autumn finds to make into fantastic crowns.

Of course, we also made sure we had time to go on the adventure play areas, and after that, with all the walking too, I am sure the children have gone home very tired but very happy!

Have a look at more photos of our visit in the Gallery section of our website.

http://www.hampsthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk/y12-harlow-carr-visit-september-2016/