“Developing the whole child, spiritually, mentally and physically in a caring Christian

Environment through close links to the Church and Community”

Dear Parents and Carers,

It is always lovely to speak with the children when they return from their educational visits.  Last Friday, our youngest two classes enjoyed a trip to the Welbeck Estate with a focus on farming. A huge thank-you to Mr Owen and everyone involved, for ensuring the visit was memorable despite the extremely wet weather.

This week, Class 3 returned from their trip to Creswell Crags with big smiles on their faces.  As Mrs Goodall reported, she “had never walked so far and her wellies were worn out!”

We have welcomed Emily into Class 4; I am in no doubt that the class will help her settle quickly and she will soon get involved in life at St Anne’s.

With the colder weather now settling in, please ensure that children come to school wrapped up warmly and with a suitable coat.

A reminder that our Christmas Fayre is fast approaching.  Classes 5/6 will be supporting the event with their games, and we would be very grateful for additional help. The FOSAS committee is a small but dedicated group, and extra hands would make a real difference as they work to raise funds for our children.

For a number of years, we have worked closely with the local charity ‘From the Heart’, who support families that may find Christmas a struggle. If you feel this may be relevant to your circumstances, please speak confidentially with Mrs Middleton or contact the school office.

Monday (24^th) will be the final football session for Classes 5/6 this term; training will resume in the New Year.

Other Notices

• Please ensure all personal items—especially hats, scarves, and gloves—are clearly labelled.
• Lost property is building up again; next week we will put it all out on tables for you to check for any items.
• As we move towards December, keep an eye on upcoming dates and events on the school website and weekly updates.

Wishing you all a warm and restful weekend.

Christmas Fayre – Thursday 4 December 2.30pm – School Hall

🎄 Join Us for Our Magical Christmas Fayre!

We are delighted to invite you to our annual Christmas Fayre, a joyful celebration packed with seasonal treats, community spirit, and plenty of sparkle. You can shop for some last-minute Christmas gifts! There’s something for everyone to enjoy.

✨ What’s Happening on the Day?

• Festive Stalls: Discover handmade crafts, unique gifts, decorations, and delicious homemade goodies (stalls are priced at £10, please email the office if you would like to have one)
• Santa’s Grotto: Meet Father Christmas himself and share your Christmas wishes. Don’t forget your camera!
• Seasonal Refreshments: Warm up with mulled drinks and cakes from the bake sale
• Raffle & Prizes: Enter our Christmas raffle for a chance to win some fantastic prizes donated by our wonderful supporters.
• Tombola stall and Lucky Dip

🎁 Support Our Community

Every penny raised goes directly to FOSAS and towards supporting our school projects and activities throughout the year. Your participation helps us continue to make a positive difference—and we’re truly grateful.

📅 Event Details

Thursday 4^th December 2025

2.30pm

School Hall

What do we need?

We are looking for:

• Good quality toys and books which we can sell to raise funds for school. 
• New raffle donations
• Contributions for the bake sale

Bring your friends, family, neighbours—and your festive cheer (and Christmas jumpers)! We can’t wait to celebrate the season with you.

We are also looking for volunteers to help make this event a success – if you can spare a couple of hours we would love to have your help. Please contact the office.

Warmest Christmas wishes,

The FOSAS Christmas Fayre Team 🎅✨

Christmas Tree Appeal

We have STILL not yet had any luck with our Christmas Tree appeal! Are there any artificial Christmas trees out there, looking for a new home?  We are seeking at least a 6 or 7-foot tree to be used annually for the Christmas Tree Festival.  If you have anything suitable, please contact the office on 01909 473 223.

Bag2School – Bags and Shoes – bring to school on Tuesday 9 December.

Please fill your bag (sent home a couple of weeks ago) with all unwanted textiles – this can include adults’ and children’s clothes, shoes (tied together please), hats, belts, handbags and soft toys, (please refer to https://bag2school.com for full details). In addition to raising much needed funds, it will also raise awareness amongst the children of the benefits of recycling and reuse.

Bag2School will be collecting from St Anne’s School on:

Tuesday 9th December ONLY

Please do not bring bags before this date as we have nowhere to store them.

Arbor App

Thank you to parents / carers for engaging with the App.  Please make sure that you have registered in the app for ‘push notifications’ as messages.  We will be using these more to communicate messages with you.

News from the Classes

Reception and Class One

On Friday, Class Reception and Class 1 visited the Welbeck Estate to learn all about where our food comes from.  Despite the very wet weather, the children had a fantastic day. In the morning, the groups headed to the farm, where they were welcomed by the farmers and introduced to a friendly calf named ‘Sydney’. The children learned about how cows are cared for, and they especially enjoyed having a turn at “milking” the educational model cow. There was plenty of excitement as they explored the large farm machinery, getting a close look at the enormous combine harvester and tractors.

Afterwards, they met Farmer Steve and Farmer Callum, who taught them about the vegetables they grow at Welbeck. The children were shown an impressive selection of produce, including cabbage, cabbage seeds, carrots, rainbow chard, four different types of kale, and beetroot. They had the opportunity to handle the vegetables, feel their textures, and talk about which ones they like to eat at home. The children were the introduced to Sydney, Red and Bob, the farms three sheepdogs. The children learned about how the sheep dogs herd sheep, and looked closely at shepherd crooks.

In the afternoon, the learning continued with two exciting hands-on activities. The children made their own bread dough, carefully mixing, kneading, and shaping it. They also planted their very own broad bean seeds, which they will now take care of and observe as they grow. We hope the children will keep us updated on their broad bean plants!

 

Class Two

Class Two have been learning about the personal pronoun 'I' in their writing and how to use the past tense in preparation for the diary entries. They have been learning that 'al' can make a tricky sound like in 'ball'. In maths, they were problem solving by rolling the dice, creating a two-digit number and finding 10 more and 10 less, 1 more, 1 less and deciding if it was odd or even. In art they were practising their line drawings of Victorian vehicle. In Geography, we have been comparing places in Worksop from Victorian times to now, looking at what has changed, what is still here and what has been knocked down. In PE, children have been looking at the skill of volleying and overarm throwing.

Class Three

Class 3 had a fantastic time at Creswell Crags learning about the Stone Age. They were split in to two groups: the ‘woolly rhino tribe’ and the ‘cave bears tribe’. Each group experienced three different workshops: a palaeontology workshop where they had to build a skeleton on real stone age animals, a survival workshop where they needed to hunt and create a shelter, and a cave experience.  The children asked lots of questions during the activities and were able to share the knowledge they had learnt in their history lessons.  In English this week, Class 3 finished writing their instructions on how to wash a woolly mammoth, they worked hard to include prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions in their writing. In science, Class 3 used their knowledge of the skeleton to identify the bones that provide protection and the organs that they protect.

Class Four

Class 4 have recently begun a unit of learning all about sound in science. The children were fascinated to learn how sound travels from a source and gets funnelled into our ears.  They learnt that the three small bones in our ear are the smallest in our body along with details of how the ear turns vibrations into a sound we can hear.

Class Five

In writing, we have been exploring the poem ‘Raven’ from The Lost Words. The children have been experimenting with metaphor, alliteration, simile, and other poetic devices to create vivid, powerful imagery in their own writing. They have been so absorbed and enthusiastic that they nearly forgot to go for lunch — a true sign of how much they are enjoying this unit!

In maths, our focus has been on common multiples and factors, with lots of opportunities to develop problem-solving skills. The children have been using their “what we know” sentences to explain their reasoning clearly and confidently, showing great progress in their mathematical thinking.

In geography, we have been learning about lines of latitude and longitude, building the foundations for our upcoming work on biomes, which the children are very excited to explore next.

Class Six

Class 6 this week have been writing their newspaper reports about evacuation in World War 2. This writing involved understanding and using grammar concepts such as past progressive tense. The children have used their research, learning from history and past writing units to compose an informative newspaper report set in the 1940. In Maths, the children have been working hard on their fraction’s knowledge, some tricky tasks such as adding and subtracting mixed numbers are challenging them. Understanding the basics of factors and multiples is essential to further their understanding, any extra practise would be great. In other news, the children have started the next unit of science, centred around light. This involves how light travels, how it affects shadows and inner workings of our eyes. Finally, on Thursday we had a visit from the National Holocaust Centre. This enhanced our learning of WW2 and allowed the children to see the difference aspects of life through a child’s point of view.

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week this week

Class Reception – Nirvana and Jagger

Class One – Malee and Frederick

Class Two – Lilly S and Archie

Class Three – Riva

Class Four – George S

Class Five – Heidi and Christina

Class Six – Adam

Tidy Classroom Award: Class 1

Out of School Achievements:

Malee-Rose (1) Stage 2 Swimming Certificate

Emily G (5) Worksop Dolphins Club Champs 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 50 back, 100 back, 50 breast, 50 fly and 100 IM – some super swimming and personal best times

Georgina (5) Worksop Dolphins Club Champs 200m backstroke County Swim Time (1^st time racing it)

Florence (2) Worksop Dolphins Club Champs first ever swimming race and got 2 first places in her heats!

Harriet R (6) Worksop Dolphins Club Champs set new PB’s.

Well done everyone.

Church Services

10am StA@10 St Anne’s Together including Baptism & Sunday School, led by Revd Dave

6:00pm StA@6

Don’t forget Wednesdays at 3.20pm St Anne’s Connect – a service for all the family in the school hall. Sandwiches, crisps and a sweet treat for everyone, with juice and hot drinks. We then join for a 30-minute service of worship and fun together.

2025-2026 Attendance

Class	Attendance
R	95.93%
1	88.12%
2	96.43%
3	97.7%
4	99.27%
5	97.49%
6	97.73%
ALL: 96.13%

Well done Class 3,4,5 and 6 for achieving above the 97% target!

Prayers from Sophie and Georgiano in Class 6

Dear God,

Give us the strength and courage to be the best version of ourselves. Help us to make our own decisions.

Amen

Dear God,

Please help us to guide us to make wise decisions and the strength to follow your will.

Amen

As we move through this busy half-term, thank you for your continued support in all that we do. Working together makes such a difference to your children’s learning and wellbeing.

Mrs Middleton & the St Anne’s Team

Diary Dates

ADVANCE DATES TO AVOID BOOKING ANYTHING

Inset Days	Key Statutory Weeks (Assessment)
Friday 13 February Monday 27 July	Year 6 SATS Week – Monday 11 May to Thursday 14 May 2026 Year 1 Phonics Screening – Monday 8 June 2026 (2 weeks) Year 4 Multiplication Check – Monday 1 June 2026 (2 weeks)
Please ensure your children are in school during these times as their data will count even when absent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Ahead
	22	Workshop Christmas Light Switch On
	27	Class 6 Assembly at 2:45 pm Flu Immunisations for Class 2
	28	Year 1 Emergency Services Museum
December	4	Y3 Jingle Jog Christmas Fayre – 2pm – School Hall
	9	Reception Nativity 9.30am / KS1 Nativity 1.30pm
	10	KS1 Nativity 9.30am / Reception Nativity 1.30pm
	12	Christmas Craft Afternoon at 2:30 pm
	16	Portland Schools Carol Service
	17	Christmas Dinner Day/ Party Day
	19	End of term Service 2:00 pm in the church