Farsley Springbank completed a clean-sweep of athletics titles by winning the Pudsey Olympics on Wednesday. Having claimed the indoor crown earlier in the season, the athletes from Years 2-6 were put through their paces on a slightly damper than usual June afternoon at John Charles Centre for Sport. The competition involved a selection of sprint and longer distance races as well as field events including javelin, long and triple jump, target throwing and chest-push. The competition was fierce, as always, but the hard work that the children have put into training on both track and field this year shone through. This was evidenced perfectly by two exceptional relay runs by the key stage two children which demonstrated our children's determination and dedication to a T. The key stage one children demonstrated that the future of Springbank athletics continues to be bright (especially after the staff running the event had to extend their measuring tapes because our children were throwing the Javelin and chest-push too far!) As always, it was a proud day for all concerned and made prouder still by the fact that our children continue to demonstrate excellent sporting values including cheering on children from other schools in different events. It is now the third year in succession that Springbank have won both the indoor and outdoor athletics competitions.

On Wednesday 26th June, we took 30 Year 3 children to The Big Play. The children have been learning ukuleles all year in class and they brought these along with them to perform some pieces of music. There were seven different schools taking part in this concert and they all performed music on the instruments they had been learning through the year. There were guitars, clarinets, recorders, djembe drums and ukuleles. Our children behaved beautifully both on the walk there and back and during the concert itself. They showed wonderful listening skills as they enjoyed the other performances and they did really well when it was their turn to perform. Well done to all the children involved!

Some of the children from Garden Club entered a competition to design and build a container from recycled materials and plant it with a multitude of sensory plants. Our entry was accepted and then taken and displayed at this year's Chatsworth Show.  Some of the children then went to the show and had a great day out in the spectacular setting of Chatsworth House grounds.

 

After a very early start they arrived at the show and checked out their own entry first and then looked at all the other schools.  All the entries were excellent; the children from different schools had come up with fantastic ideas to use items for containers which would otherwise have been thrown away. Our container was made up of a couple of old chairs and a stool, an old garden trug, an old Henry hoover pipe, an old scooter tyre and an old umbrella! The planting was almost all grown from seed by the children at school and we planted up as many smelly, tasty, rustly, touchy/feely and good to look at plants as we could cram in! People visiting the show will be able to vote for their favourite by posting a photo on twitter so if you able to visit the show, please vote for us! Many, many thanks to Mr Hardcastle who helped the children construct the container and also drove it down to Chatsworth for us.

 

The day also included lots of activities including making tree crowns with acclaimed florist Jonathan Moseley, making wooden pendants and a garden dibber using a foot-powered lathe, looking at the beautiful gardens and flower displays and a little bit of retail therapy in the floral marquee!  Ice creams and churros also featured in our itinerary! The children were lucky enough to meet and chat with Gardener's World presenter and renowned garden designer Adam Frost! All in all the children had a wonderful day and were impeccably behaved and it was a pleasure to take them around the show.