George's Secret Key to the Universe

This book is going to be a hugely popular this Christmas.

Written by the eminent scientist Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy Hawking, this is a children's book with a difference. It's a hugely entertaining adventure about a boy called George and his new neighbours Eric, Annie and a supercomputer called Cosmos. Great storytelling is combined with real facts and stunning pictures of space, the universe and ...well everything starry!

A super introduction for young and old alike to the worlds beyond ours!

If you'd like to buy a copy, click on the picture below - remember all your shopping here on the Friends of English Martyrs Blog helps to raise money for our school.

Biggest Cake Sale Ever!!

It was wonderful to see so many people attend the cake sale held at school on Friday. A huge "thank you" to everyone who brought in cakes for the stall - it really is hugely appreciated and we really do understand how busy everyone's lives are. The range of baked goodies shows what a lot of talented chefs we have.

So, the bit you've all been waiting for......how much money did the Cake Sale raise for our school? Well, there are a few pennies still left to add to the pot but...drum roll please.... we raised over

£85.00!

This is a staggering amount for a tiny school like ours to raise in the space of just half an hour after school and it is the most that we have ever raised through a cake sale.

Well done everyone and thank you!

Shopping Update

Fantastic news ....

Shopping here on the Friends of English Martyrs blog really does make money for our school. In the short time that the blog has been 'live' - you've already raise £11.13

Please keep coming back to our blog, you really do make a difference.

Thank you.

The Cake Sale is tomorrow!!

As the Cake Sale is tomorrow, a wonderful recipe from the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson, will definately hit the spot.

Nigella's Fabulous Fairy Cakes

You Will Need:
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
125g self-raising flour
half teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk
12 bun muffin tin lined with 12 muffin papers

What To Do:
(Preheat oven to 200 degrees C/Gas mark 6)

1. Put all the ingredients, except for the milk, in a food processor and blitz till smooth.
2. Pulse processor while adding milk, to make a soft dropping consistency.
3. Spoon in equal measures of mixture into the muffin cases.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until fairy cakes are golden on top.
5. Remove and cool before icing and decorating.

A variety of ready-made icing and decorations can be bought from your local supermarket or Fords in Oakham do an excellent range of cake decorations. (Nigella didn't write that bit, we did!) Nigella suggests that you cut off any mounded tops to your fairy cakes once they're cool. It will be much easier to ice and decorate on a flat surface than one that's pointy.

Enjoy.... and save some for us!!

Easy Peasy Recipe

Briege Slattery emailed us here at the Friends of English Martyrs Blog suggesting a delicious recipe that she wanted to share for busy people with hectic lives.

Thank you Briege - a wonderful recipe!

Easy Peasy Pork Stroganoff (Serves 4)

What you need:

1 pork fillet, chopped into bit sized pieces
1 tub of half fat creme fraiche
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard
1 chopped onion
1 large glass of dry white wine (and one for the chef!)

What you do:

1 Heat knob of butter with one tablespoon of olive oil;
2 When butter/oil is hot fry the pork, browning on both sides;
3 Turn the heat to medium and add the onion and cook for a couple of minutes until soft;
4 Add the wine and cook for a minute or so to burn off the alcohol;
5 Mix the mustards with the craime fraiche and add this, mix well, add some seasoning (salt & pepper to the novice) and you're done.

Serve with rice & veg.
Note: You can also add sliced button mushrooms with the onion if you like.

If you have a recipe you would like to share with us, please get in touch use the form below.

Shop with FEM and raise cash for our school

In our constant efforts to keep up to date with technology, Friends of English Martyrs are proud to announce our very own Online Store!

In association with the retail giant Amazon, we've made raising cash for our school even easier!! At the bottom of this blog you'll see a virtual shop window. We've selected some books to whet your appetite but you can use the search facility and/or categories to find exactly what you're looking for.

You don't pay any more than you would do buying from Amazon but this way the school earns a commission for every sale made .... Easy Peasy!

So tell your friends, family and neighbours to log on to our blog and help us help our school.

Alternatively, click here http://astore.amazon.co.uk/englishmartyrs-21 to shop.

We'll keep you posted with news about how much money we've raised through the Store.

Any questions? Please get in touch if you have any queries or feedback about our Online Store.

Have Your Say - Vote in our Poll

Here at FEM HQ we're really keen to hear to your views on our fundraising activities.

Over the years, Friends of English Martyrs has raised thousands of pounds to help our school and none of this could have been achieved without all of you. We value not only your views but your experience and we would love to know what you would like us to do on your behalf.

In the right hand column you'll see we've started a poll asking you for your views - please take a moment to make your selection. We'll run more polls in the future.

A word about Advertisements

You may have noticed that there are a few ads dotted around our blog.
They're there for a jolly good reason.

Firstly, we've carefully chosen each ad to fit either a topic we're discussing on the blog or something we think you, our friends, would be interested in.

Secondly, by choosing to view an ad you help raise funds for our school. Every time you decide to purchase an item from one of our specially featured Advertisers or view a Google ad, we earn a few pence. Couldn't be simpler.

So, now you can do a little bit of early Christmas shopping and have a warm glowing feeling that not only are you being terribly organised but you're doing something wonderful to help our school.

You don't have to click on any of the ads but do let us know if you like our choice of Advertisers. Perhaps you'd like to suggest one you'd like to see featured on our blog - feel free to use the form at the bottom of the page to get in touch or click the 'comments' button just after this post.

Get Baking ...

FEM would like to announce the return of the famous English Martyrs Cake Sale!

On Friday 19th October (the day school breaks for the Autumn 2 week holiday), FEM will be holding a Cake Sale in the school hall from 3.30pm.

So, please get baking and bring in all your scrumptious goodies for us to sell - all the proceeds go to the school. We appreciate that not everyone has the time to 'bake-from-scratch' so a little something from the supermarket is fine too. The children love taking part in this event so do make sure they have a little pocket money to spend.

If you have some time to spare and would like to help out at the Cake Sale please get in touch - you can use the form at the bottom of the page.

We'll keep you posted and let you know how much money we raise.

Your new FEM Committe

Having thanked the outgoing FEM committee members for all their hard work, it's now time to introduce you to your new committee:

Joanna Sayers (Chairman)

Helen Jones (Vice Chairman)

Sharon Seel (Treasurer)

Sylvie Nguyen & Paula Menzies (Secretary)

As you can see Helen Jones is a glutton for punishment and has joined the committee for a second term. Welcome back Helen! Paula Menzies, previously FEM secretary, has kindly agreed to help new Secretary, Sylvie, learn the ropes until December.

If you would like to email your thoughts and ideas to the committee please click here

It's new, it's here!

Welcome!

This is the all new Friends of English Martyrs blog and we hope you'll stay and have a look around and allow us to tell you a little bit about what the Friends of English Martyrs (FEM) are currently doing.

We also hope that you'll let us know what you think of this blog (you can leave comments after each of the posts and take part in the blog surveys) and get involved with what we're doing. Whether you're a parent, guardian or member of the parish please support us.

Right let's get on, we have a lot to do!

In this, the first posting on the new blog we must say a huge "thank you" to the previous committee members of FEM who have just completed their two year appointment:

Supreedee Boulton-Smith (Chair)

Cara Topping (Vice-Chair)

Helen Jones (Treasurer)

Paula Menzies (Secretary)

Their wonderful fundraising activities have included:
An amazing Golf Fundraising Day at the equally amazing Stapleford Park Country House Hotel End of term Discos
Cake sales
Summer Fete
Christmas Party - even Father Christmas and his elves attended!

All this hard work, and great fun, has achieved:
The purchase of white boards for each classroom
A variety of school trips for each year group
Visit to Nottingham theatre to see
Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat,
A new two storey playhouse for KS1 playground

Without their tireless efforts, great organisational skills and endless enthusiasm it would be difficult for such a small school as English Martyrs to provide the children with treats and extra equipment that they all deserve.