Our 'Saint' in the News!

The media have been quick to pick up on Andy 'The Saint' Sayers' story. The Rutland Times was the first to highlight the extraordinary lengths that George & William's Dad is going to in order to raise funds for our school.

Next came a piece in The Rutland Mercury which was swiftly followed by an article in The Rutland Messenger.

If you'd like to be kept up to date on the 'Saint's' progress with FREE email bulletins straight to your inbox, please click the following link: Subscribe to Andy 'The Saint' Sayers by Email

Don't forget, if you'd like to be a part of raising money for our school, please sponsor Andy 'The Saint' Sayers - just click here to use our secure online donation facility provided by JustGiving.com

'Cry God for Harry, England and St.George'

Today, 23rd April, England remembers it's Patron Saint and celebrates St. George's Day.

St. George was originally a Roman soldier who was tortured and killed, on 23rd April, after refusing to carry out the persecution of Christians as dictated by the Roman army. He is a symbol for bravery, the poor and defenceless and is also the Patron Saint of soldiers.

Most people, however, believe him to have been a knight of King Arthur's round table and a slayer of dragons! This legend was popularised by William Caxton's The Gold Legend in 1483.

King Richard I prayed to St.George for protection and carried a banner with the red cross of St.George during the Holy Crusades. St. George became the Patron Saint of England during King Edward III's reign (1327-1377) and was adopted as the patron of his new order of knights called the Knights of the Garter, which remains one of the highest orders of knighthood to this day. The procession of the Most Noble Order of the Garter remains an annual event held at Windsor Castle and is led by the Queen.

Did you know that St. George is also a revered Saint in Canada, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Catalonia as well as being prominent in many cities such as Moscow?

Did you also know that Shakespeare was born on St. George's Day and 52 years later died on St. George's Day in 1616! Shakespeare wrote the famous 'Battle of Agincourt' speech which includes the inspiring battle call used by Henry V to rally his troops: "Follow your spirit; and upon this charge, Cry God for Harry, England and St.George!" (Henry V, Act Three, Scene 1)

Local Karate Club Shows Support

The Sensei Bassett Black Belt Academy is proud to support English Martyrs Catholic Primary School by sponsoring Andy 'The Saint' Sayers.

The Sensei Bassett Black Belt Academy is well known to many of the pupils at our school. The Oakham based Karate club is hugely popular amongst both boys and girls and is dedicated to providing Karate for children between the ages of 6 and 16 years old.

As part of the United Kingdom Martial Arts Federation, Josh Bassett's successful Acadamy runs classes at the Vale of Catmose College, Cold Overton Road, Oakham, four times a week. Each session combines an exciting range of fitness and karate training that helps to improve self-discipline, concentration, fitness and self-esteem. Many of our children regularly win trophies and awards at Karate competitions and tournaments.

If your children would like to join this very popular Karate academy, please visit their website

or please call 07769 65 33 58 for more details.

More Retail Therapy

We try to keep you up to date with all the goings on here at Friends of English Martyrs Blog. Well, it's a bit like waiting for a bus ... when one new family friendly online store joins us here on the blog, suddenly there's a whole queue of them waiting to join in!

You'll have to have a look around the blog over the coming week to spot what's new to see what we mean!

Whilst you're visiting don't forget to take a look at the online fundraising widget to see how Andrew Sayers is doing in his fundraising efforts. To learn more about what Andrew is doing for English Martyrs Catholic Primary School have a look at his blog http://andysayers.blogspot.com/

Family Friendly Shopping

As promised, we always try to bring you great online shops to make life a little easier...and continue in our efforts to raise money for our school.

Today, we are pleased to announce The Great Little Trading Company is to join the list of family friendly stores on the Friends of English Martyrs Blog.

GLTC has been awarded 'best children's catalogue for 2008' by ECMOD, the mail order version of the Oscars!

They have plenty of ideas for busy parents - with departments for clothing, toys and games, home school and car essentials, the great outdoors, storage and bedroom furniture. There's an easy to use product finder and a 'wish list' facility for helping family and friends decide what to buy for birthdays and special occasions.

Click here to Have a look at their website and see what you think ...

Fight For Our School!

....STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS.....STOP PRESS.....

Andrew Sayers, George and William's Dad, is doing something quite remarkable for English Martyrs.... He's entered a Charity Boxing Match!!!!

No, this isn't a late April Fool's joke!

Andrew has entered a charity boxing match which will take place on May 29th in London. He is one of 16 contenders who has gone to considerable lengths to put himself through a punishing fitness schedule to ensure he will be match fit by the 29th. He fits his training schedule around his work commitments and, even when he is frequently abroad, he continues to get up early to use a variety of gyms and runs miles and miles of unknown territory (and on occasion, gets lost!). When in the UK, he leaves the house before the sparrows are up to travel to a London boxing gym and then does a full days work.

What can you do?
Andrew needs your sponsorship. He’s willing to put himself in a boxing ring and fight 3 rounds of pure adrenalin and all that he’s (hopefully) learned during his training – You get to do the easy bit! Please sponsor him as much as you can to show your support.

How do I sponsor Andrew ‘The Saint’ Sayers?

You can visit Andrew's blog http://andysayers.blogspot.com/ and click on the widget at the top of the page.

Or click here – http://justgiving.com/andysayers

DON'T FORGET: if you’re a UK taxpayer you can add Gift Aid to your donation (don’t worry just follow the simple instructions)...that’s an additional 28pence for every £1.00 donated (e.g. on a donation of £50.00 an additional £14.10 Gift Aid will be added to your donation and sent to Friends of English Martyrs).

So, now there's even more reason to tell everyone about this blog and sign up to our FREE email alerts!

Read All About It - in a variety of languages!

English Martyrs Catholic Primary School has always welcomed children of all nationalities. Our school is proud to offer a warm and inviting atmosphere and have many successes of teaching children whose first language is not always English.

Although English is widely accepted in many countries it is not the most popular language in the world. In recent years, the Chinese language (Mandarin) is often reported as the most widely spoken language. However, in the internet community, the other popular language platforms are often Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, Malay, Italian, French, Japanese, and Korean.

In order to continue to embrace the multi-cultural ethos that we have at our school, we can now say that our blog is truly international too!

If you look at the top of this page, you will see that you can now translate all our news and information into a variety of languages. We hope to add more languages including Polish and Lithuanian soon. Remember to bookmark the original English version before trying the translations out, so that you can return to the English version if you want to. In the meantime, let us know what you think.