The Christingle service at St Mary's Church on Monday was every bit as lovely as anticipated.
The children spent the morning making Christingles, and learning about their significance. The orange represents the world, the red ribbon symbolises the love of Christ, the dried fruit represents all of God's creations, and the candle represents Jesus's light in the world.
After lunch, everyone walked down to the church for the service - all the classes in Main School and a small group of pre-schoolers went as well. The service was both peaceful and uplifting, and included a reading, some prayers and singing. The all important lighting of the Christingles was accompanied by the song "This Little Guiding Light of Mine."
The children were all full of awe and delight as candle light flickered in the darkness, and their sensible and respectful behaviour was commented on by Gordon Gray, the church reader who took the service.
Please will you pass on my thanks and congratulations to the boys and girls of Eaton Bray Academy. I thought their behaviour at the Christingle was exemplary:
· The children entered politely, quietly and without fuss
· Those who came to ring the bells waited their turn patiently and rang the bell sensibly and as instructed.
· The focus during the service was good and I was impressed with how quiet they were when quiet was appropriate or requested.
· Their behaviour with the candles was sensible and careful.
· Finally, it was delightful that so many of the children felt it appropriate, at the end of the service, to come up to me and say thank you.
In summary I thought they represented the school in an excellent manner.
Well done children - we are very proud of you all.
Children in Hamsters Class have been getting very festive this week! They have had a lovely time decorating Christmas trees, and doing lots of Christmas crafts - there was glitter and tinsel everywhere! They also enjoyed making mince pies (even making their own pastry), and decorating gingerbread men with lots of colourful icing and sweets. Yum yum!
Year Six children in Deer Class have been continuing their work on the Ancient Roman art, and have made Roman vases from terracotta coloured clay.
Along with the Year Five children, they are very excited about the forthcoming
Mini Christmas Fair which takes place next Wednesday after school, where they will be running a Secret Santa stall... an ideal place for children to do their secret Christmas shopping, and pick up something special for Mum or Dad!.
Squirrels Class had exciting visitors on Tuesday, when the Fire Brigade came to talk to them about fire safety, and to demonstrate the equipment they use to fight fires. The children all had the chance to look around the fire engine, listen to the siren, and best of all, to operate the water hose, spraying water all over the car park. What great fun!
On Wednesday, a team of children from Years Three and Four went to All Saints Academy in Dunstable, to take part in an inter-schools tag rugby tournament. Once again our EBA sportsmen and women did us proud, as they came away in third place. Well done children!
We have been embracing the "British Value" of democracy this week, and have set up a polling booth in the library, where the children can vote (by secret ballot of course) for their "Pupil of the Year". Two children have been nominated from each class in the Main School, and ballot slips created. The votes will be counted up next week, and the winner announced...
Our Christmas Concerts start next week: children in Hedgehogs, Otter, Squirrels and Rabbits will be performing in "Christmas Counts" on Monday and Thursday afternoon, and Hamsters Sing Along is taking place on Wednesday morning. Rehearsals have been going on all week, with all the excitement of costumes and props, lines to learn and songs to sing!
On Wednesday visitors from Age Concern's "Wednesday Club" came in to watch the children's performance. They thoroughly enjoyed the singing and acting, and stayed for a cup of tea and biscuits afterwards, which were served by the older children. Once again there were many comments made about how polite and friendly our children were to our visitors.
A sneak peek from the dress rehearsal...
We just can't wait for next week...!!!
