Year 6 were lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to take part in the Brownlee Triathlon at John Charles Centre for Sport. A group of 30 representatives travelled to the event which involved the three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. After arriving at the centre we were met by a team of triathlon specialists who talked us through the competition before handing out kits and swimming hats. We then all gathered in the incredible swimming facilities to take part in our opening event where we were met by Olympic Gold Medal winner and European and Commonwealth Triathlon Champion Alistair Brownlee - wow! Alistair met the children as they entered the pool and chatted with them before they set off on their swim. After exiting the water the children then had a matter of 60 seconds to put on their shoes before they jumped onto a bike and started their circuits of the 400m track. Following the completion of the riding stage they then did a running lap before crossing the line to be met by Olympic Bronze medal winner and former World Triathlon Champion Jonny Brownlee who was signing medals. It was an incredible event, a fantastic experience and a great taster for just what a triathlon is like and our children had a wonderful time...inspiring future athletes!

We would like to say a massive thank you to all those people who visited the coffee morning/afternoon to support our Year 6 children in their quest to raise money for Macmillian Cancer Charity.   We don’t know the final figure yet as the children are still serving people as this is being written but I am sure they will have raised a great amount! 

 

We also give huge thanks to those who provided buns and cakes and raffle prizes to be used.  We were very proud of the children for their hard work and some regular visitors even commented that it was some of the best service they had ever had at Springbank! Both classes worked their socks off selling tea, coffee and cake to hungry families.  Well done to all.

 

And a final thank you to the rest of the school, who supported Year 6 by coming to school dressed in green and/or white.  I certainly wasn’t worried about falling ill today as we had a huge amount of doctors and nurses on hand to help out if that was the case!  Well done to Reception, Year 3, 4 and 5 for getting into the spirit of the day and bringing their money to buy a bun.  A brilliant team effort for a great cause!

Thank you to all the parents and carers who arrived at school last Thursday to help the children make their scarecrows for Farsley Scarecrow Festival; we really couldn’t have done it without your help.  The children worked really well in their mixed groups and, as always, were very creative in their designs.  This year we had Dumbledore, a pirate, 2 Micky Mouses, Spongebob and his friend Patrick, a minion an octopus, a Wilmot Dixon builder, Mario, Mr Bradshaw and Homer Simpson to name but a few! We hope you enjoy looking at our scarecrows!

What a great night it has been at the Year 6 Leavers' Disco! As you can see from the photos they have had a great time playing games outside in the fantastic weather. Although we will be sad to see them go we know that they will have an excellent time at High School! Good luck to you all!

On Friday our rounders team attended the Leeds Rounders Tournament at Stanningley Rugby Club. Firsty we were put into a group of 5 teams where we played 4 matches and won all 4 to come top of the group. This then meant we qualified for the semi finals where we defeated Bramley St Peters taking us into the finals. The final was against a very strong Park Spring team and although there were some fantastic hits from both sides, the fielding was excellent therefore it turned into a very low scoring game with the final result being Springbank 5, Parkspring 3 1/2. I was extremely proud with the effort that every team member put in, supporting and cheering on each other especially on such a warm day they didn't allow this to change their game. Well done team!

The Year 5/6 production came and went in a blinding spectacle of costumes, dances, musical hits and dodgy props. Two nights of energetic performances from our talented actors, dancers and singers went down well with the audiences and provided laughter, excitement and even the odd few tears. The children have worked extremely hard since the last half-term to learn a multitude of complex dialogues, difficult dance numbers and the right times and places to enter and exit the stage. All that time and dedication eventually paid off with some superb performances and a show which, once again, we were very proud of. We are now eagerly awaiting the BAFTA nominations to see if we have been shortlisted! Congratulations to everyone involved.

We were really pleased to be selected as finalists again this year in the Veg Box Competition at the Great Yorkshire Show.   Over 40 schools entered the competition and 15 were selected as finalists.

 

The children had kept a diary detailing the design (The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party) and growing of the produce during their preparation of the box and the diary had already been sent for judging which took us through to the next stage.  The next part of the competition was for the box to go to the show and for some of the children involved to go and talk to the judges so that they could find out how much they all knew about growing fruit and vegetables.

 

The next step was for 13 of the children involved to go to the Yorkshire Show on Wednesday 15^th July.

 

The judging took place and the children answered all the questions well.  We were really pleased to get 4^th place overall and 1^st prize for the “Best Decorated Box” category.

 

After the presentation the children were free to enjoy everything the show had to offer.  The activities they took part in included fencing, wheelchair basketball, cycling, arts and crafts, bushcraft and boxing to name but a few!  The children also watched pig showing and were lucky enough to meet the presenters of Blue Peter; Barney and Jamie. They also “bumped into” the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who had the children in stitches.   All in all the children had a fantastic day and Mrs Fletcher and Mrs Brown lost count of the number of times they were complemented on their wonderful manners and behaviour. Well done!

Another incredibly successful Springbank athletics season drew to a close with the annual Aire Wharfe School Sports Association tournament at Leeds Metropolitan University on Saturday. A total of fifteen schools from the local area took part in the event which drew a huge crowd of supporters as always. There is no overall winner for this event; instead the children fight it out for individual glory in a series of short and long distance races, relays and field events. As always our athletes came away with more than their fair share of medals and there were some incredible personal performances from the likes of Olivia in the Year 4 sprint, Bethany in the Year 6 sprint, Carla in the Year 6 200m and Findlay in the open-age 600m. However, the bragging rights are always decided by the relays and our children produced some outstanding performances in the 4 x 100m events. There was gold for the Year 4s and Year 5s with some amazing changes and sprinting while the best was then saved for last where both the Year 6 girls team and Year 6 boys team both took gold with two professional and polished runs that even the Jamaican National team would have been proud of (it also proves that the old adage 'Practice makes Perfect' is so very true - we must have practiced this event more than any over the last year and it showed!) Well done to everyone, and thank you to all parents and families for getting your children up and out on a Saturday morning - we hope you enjoyed it!

Congratulations to the Springbank athletics team who were crowned Mini Olympics Champions at the John Charles Centre for Sport last week for the second time in three years. A team made up of Lower KS2 and Upper KS2 children took part in the event alongside Westroyd against other primary schools in the Pudsey area. A series of track and field events saw the teams of boys and girls going head-to-head with the fastest children in the local area, culminating in two mammoth 10 x 40m relays for the Year 4 and Year 6 teams. Some inspirational performances from all the children saw Springbank taking Gold in both the Year 6 and Year 4 team events, a result confirmed by two amazing relay runs in which both teams finished a clear 40m ahead of the other teams (if not more!) A tense wait ensued as the points were combined to name the overall winner of the competition and, following the news that Farsley Farfield were in bronze and Southroyd silver, Springbank and Westroyd took Gold thanks to the heroic efforts of the Year 2s who managed to finish third overall in their section. Another outstanding season then for our athletes who are once again indoor and outdoor athletics champions after claiming the Sportshall trophy earlier in the year.

 

The children turned out in force today dressed as one of their heroes or superheroes.  It was really heart-warming to hear from the children why they had made their specific choice.  There were so many children who had picked a family member, mums, dads, grandparents and could talk about why that person was so special and aspirational to them.  A couple of children had come as a member of staff which was very touching. Another child had chosen to be the doctor who had helped them when they were younger which was particularly lovely.  Thank you to everyone who made a donation; all money raised will go to ‘Cash for Kids’ by Radio Aire who support many families in need and local charities in Leeds; we raised £230.  A special word must go to Woody in Year 4 who donated £35; he had been raising money for a heart charity and decided to donate it to the ‘Cash for Kids’.