Our ‘Celebration Day’ was truly a day which we will remember for the rest of our lives. We knew that we were going to have a special day to celebrate all of our achievements – including the ‘Outstanding’ OFSTED and Church Inspection reports, sporting success, academic achievement in the excellent SATs results, drama productions, singing at different events, success in Art exhibitions, the Financial Standards accreditation and the Health and Safety Audit. What we didn’t know was that a special surprise had been planned….
We had been given a donation for painting butterflies for the Future Gardens Exhibition at Butterfly World, and this money was used to hire a beautiful 40 seat carousel for the day! The first inkling came the day before, when some enormous trucks drew up in the School car park. As the day progressed, a full sized Victorian carousel, with 40 horses, began to take shape; the massive structure fitting together, like a giant Meccano set.
The following morning dawned.; we arrived at school to be met with a spectacular sight – the carousel horses waiting to transport us to a new adventure! Reception children rode with Year 6 holding them safely in place, and Year 1 paired up with Year 5. Every class had a timed slot – and at breaktime, everyone could queue up for an extra spin. To the sound of traditional Carousel music, we whirled round. At lunchtime, the Nursery children had their turn, joined by parents, childminders, grandparents and neighbours.
Throughout the day, there were special activities on offer- designing horses, observational drawings, building mini carousels, writing a Mary Poppins style adventure and poetry writing, to name just a few.
After school we were joined by the pupils and staff who had been with us last year, our Governors, former PTFA members and friends. Hot dogs and drinks were served, and friends were re-united! The day finished with the cutting of an enormous cake, covered in over 250 icing stars, with all of our names written in food colouring. Mrs Abrahams – our Deputy Head, and Mrs Gardner – our senior teacher, have worked at our school for a long time, and Mrs Pollard thanked them for all of their hard work in making the school so successful for everyone in it. Then she invited them to cut the cake. Then children and staff raced to the carousel for the last ride of the day, as night began to fall.
We had a fantastic time, and really enjoying celebrating together!
