Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope's Christmas message concentrated on the 'light' that God shines into the world. Quoting St. John, he said ‘When the light of God shines in us, there can be no shadows.' Benedict addressed the crowd from the balcony of St Peter’s basilica, and the whole of St Peter’s Square was illuminated with bright sunshine!

Addressing the crowd of around 150,000 people, the Pope gave Christmas blessings in 63 languages which started in Italian and ended in Latin. Unusually, he also included a blessing in Mandarin and Guarani, an effort to reach out to people in China and the South American country of Paraguay.

Pope Benedict prayed for peace around the world and called for an end to terrorism. He appealed for 'just and lasting solutions' to be found to end suffering.

To see a video of Pope Benedict's Christmas address in Rome, click here

Peter Pan delights us all

Today's visit to the Pantomime was wonderful!

Two coaches took excited children, teachers, parents and grandparents off to Nottingham to see Peter Pan. Some of the children (and some of the grownups) had never seen a Pantomime before so it was especially exciting for them.

The inevitable 'are we nearly there yet' queries started a full 12 minutes after we left school! And by the time we reached the theatre all the children were eager to tuck into their packed lunches.

The theatre was jam-packed with school children and the atmosphere was sizzling with anticipation. Boys and girls everywhere were yelling their cheers for the 'goodies' and their 'boos' for the baddies! It was a high energy production that included dancing, singing, slapstick comedy, acrobatics and tons of audience participation. Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael and Peter all took off and flew around the theatre whilst Captain Hook was both menacing and hilarious.

Tired children returned home after a fabulous day out, eager to tell their families all about their trip to the Pantomime.

If you were there today, let us have your comments. What did your children say about today's trip? Would you like this to become an annual treat for the children?

A huge thank you to all those grownups who organised the trip and helped out today - and yes you were all spotted cheering, clapping and booing with gusto!!

Roll up, sign up, stay in touch!

It's a busy time of year and it's easy to neglect this corner of cyberspace. Sometimes it's easy to forget to come and visit the FEM Blog to see what's been happening - but it would be such a shame for you to miss out on all the things we're doing.

So to make things a little easier for everyone, you can now receive all the latest updates to the Friends of English Martyrs Blog straight into your inbox. Look down the right hand column and you'll see a 'subscribe via email' area, just pop your email address in the box and click on 'subscribe'. And that's all you have to do - updates to the Blog will automatically be sent to your email inbox for you to read at your leisure.

So don't delay, sign up and keep in touch with all the news from the Friends of English Martyrs Blog!

Christmas Nativity

A quick reminder for everyone....

The English Martyrs Christmas Nativity will be held tomorrow night (Wednesday 19th December) at 6.30pm at St.Joseph's Catholic Church in Oakham.

Those of you who have children starring in the production need to arrive by 6pm.

It will be a wonderful evening and the children are all very excited about it - hope to see you all there!

Christmas Disco a Huge Success!

Last Friday evening's Friends of English Martyrs Christmas Disco was a huge success and we were especially pleased to see such a large turnout from current and ex-pupils, friends and parents.

Our wonderful DJ, Steve, kept the dance floor packed with eager children all showing off their talents for singing and dancing. Who knows ... perhaps English Martyrs will produce another budding Hannah Montana or Corbin Bleu!

A huge queue formed outside Santa's Grotto and all the children were delighted to meet our visitor from the North Pole (see photo). Santa had lots of super presents to give to everyone that came to see him. He told us later that he was delighted to meet such lovely children who were all so well behaved and had such nice manners - he's looking forward to returning to Oakham on Christmas Eve!

A staggering £229.00 was raised throughout the evening, making it a wonderful success.

A massive thank you to everyone who volunteered their services and to those of you who donated prizes for the Raffle. We were overwhelmed by your support - you made a tremendous contribution and made a lot of children very happy!

FEM Christmas Disco

The children are all getting very excited and

are really looking forward to a fun evening.

We need your help to make it a huge success!

Please donate a prize for the Raffle or get in touch if you'd like to help on the night

So come and join us

Friends of English Martyrs Christmas Disco

Friday 7th December

6.30pm - 8.00pm

Raffle, hotdogs, mince pies, sweet stall, glowsticks, Santa's Grotto and surprise presents!

Christmas Shopping Specials

During the run-up to Christmas, we'll be featuring some very special offers from a number of the hand-picked stores that we feature here on our Blog - remember your shopping raises money for our school at no extra cost to you.

You'll have to sign up to our 'Exclusive Shopping with FEM' E-Newsletter to get all the latest special offers.

Don't forget to tell all your friends and relatives about our Blog!

Enter your details below:

We Need Your Support

‘Friends of English Martyrs’ host a variety of fundraising events for our school throughout the year.

We are a group of parents and parish members some of whom are on the committee and others who offer their help when they can.

Without more support we cannot continue to help our school.

There are 2 ways you can help us next week:

1. We need helpers for our Christmas Disco which is on Friday 7th December 6.30 – 8.00pm

2. We need donations for the FEM Christmas Disco Raffle – donations can be left in the marked box in reception (i.e. bottles, gifts, chocolate, toys etc.)

Which one you can you help with?

Please speak to Joanna Sayers or any of the FEM committee members if you can help - alternatively use the contact form on this page to get in touch.

What's Up Doc?

The Friends of English Martyrs love a good chat - 'More rabbit than Tesco's' to rephrase an old Chas and Dave song! But this time, it's literally true!

Frances Scoular, Bridget's Mum, is looking for a new home for a beautiful young rabbit that was found in Tesco's car park in Oakham. It is currently being cared for by Oakham Veterinary Hospital, where Frances works, but it really needs a more permanent home .... Can you help?

The bunny is a female, short haired rabbit and still quite young, probably only about a year old. She is very pretty with black and white markings and a black patch over one eye. She is used to people and being handled and is very friendly.

If you are interested in adopting this lovely little bunny, please contact Oakham Veterinary Hospital on 01572 - 722646 or have a word with Frances at school. Please help!

Calling all Elves...

Friends of English Martyrs are delighted to announce that a certain elderly gentleman from the North Pole has accepted our invitation to attend the Christmas Disco on the 7th December.

Father Christmas is sparing some of his very valuable time to come and see the children but unfortunately will not be able to bring any of his Elves with him. Obviously the Elves are all hard at work and annual leave has been cancelled until December 27th.

Father Christmas doesn't want to disappoint the children and is well aware of Union Rules and would love to know if there are any 'freelance' Elves that would like to accompany him on his visit - perhaps there's an Elf or two who'd like to come out of retirement?

So, if you can help, please, please get in touch. We can help with uniform, transport and rates of pay include the usual Elf currency of mince pies and giggles!

Blog Fundraising Update!

From time to time we will keep you up to date on the progress of how much money this Blog has raised for our school.

The Friends of English Martyrs Blog has only been running a short time and yet we have already raised a wonderful £27.08! This is the amount we have earned in commission from your online shopping - it really does work! If you shop by clicking on any of our hand-picked online store adverts we raise cash for our school and what's more it doesn't cost you any extra.

Whilst this is great news, we can do even better.

Tell all your family and friends to log on to the Friends of English Martyrs Blog and do their Christmas online shopping through us! Why not send an email to everyone in your address book to let them know about our Blog and what we're all doing for our school.

Marks & Spencer, Letterbox, Early Learning Centre, Amazon and Boden have been the most popular stores so far.

Please visit our Blog regularly as it is constantly being updated with news and new online shops for you. Don't forget to let us know what you think of it and whether you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see here.

Can you help?

Mrs. Maxwell needs your help!

To enhance outdoor experiences for the reception children, she would like to have more equipment for them to play with. Can you help? Is there anything from the list below that you could supply?

If you can help or know of someone who can help, please get in touch by using the contact form at the end of the blog or by speaking to Mrs. Maxwell at school. Your help, as always, is much appreciated.

• Tyres
• Logs
• Planks of wood
• Drainpipes or guttering
• Rope
• Milk Crates
• Bricks

Help Kids Read

'One in five children leaves primary school

in the UK unable to read properly.'

That's a shocking statistic!

If you are interested to learn more about encouraging your child to read have a look at Channel 4's excellent site Lost for Words. Synthetic Phonics are the latest buzzwords in Literacy these days and there's an excellent guide to read and download. There's also an opportunity to watch a video of the excellent documentary 'Dispatches: Why our children can't read'. Lost for Words is packed full of interesting information, celebrity snippets, videos, a forum and favourite books - have a look when you have a moment, it really is worth it.

If you'd like to purchase a book for your child's class or the school library, please click on the link below. By purchasing through Amazon, you help us raise money for our school at no extra cost to you.

Friends of English Martyrs Meeting

The Friends of English Martyrs meeting at Joanna Sayers' home last Tuesday evening was a great success. It was a great chance to relax over a glass of wine and talk about our wonderful school.

A number of topics were discussed including:

• FEM will be purchasing a new electric fan double oven so that the children can benefit from better and more frequent cookery lessons.
• School Christmas Disco will be held on Friday 7th December - there will be the usual DJ, games, face painting and lucky dip. Father Christmas has advised us that he will be making a guest appearance but we are looking out for volunteer Elves to assist him.
• We now have a 'Wish List' from school staff which will be displayed shortly on this Blog.
• Update on the progress of outdoor facilities.
• All members of the committee felt that the school Library could do with a refit and it was agreed that this is added to the FEM action plan.
• Various fundraising opportunities were discussed including a Spring Ball, Quiz Nights and a Bingo Evening.
• Our Blog was discussed, especially how it is making money for the school (more on this later) but more people need to visit it and use it. An announcement in the Parish newsletter and Magazine about the Blog will be made.

If you'd like to receive a copy of the minutes of the meeting, contact us by using the contact form at the end of the Blog.

Bitesize Primary

If your children are keen to play computer games but you'd rather they did something a bit more educational then help is at hand from the good old BBC.

Click here for a great selection of KS1 and KS2 Bitesize Games. They're designed to help strengthen your children's skills in Numeracy, Literacy and Science. There's 'Alien Punctuation', 'Camel Times Tables', 'River Rhyming' for KS1 children. And for KS2 children there's an online science project to make plants grow, mental maths games and Dictionary puzzles.

If you know of other websites that you'd like to share with us here on the Friends of English Martyrs Blog then please leave a comment after this post.

Poll Results

If you've visited the Friends of English Martyrs Blog before, you'll have noticed a Poll on the right hand side of the site asking for your views. We asked you what would you like to see FEM raise money for.

Well, it's results time and this is what you told us:

• 28% of you voted for more Sports Equipment
• 42% of you were in favour of funding more School Trips
• 42% of you wanted more Playground Equipment
• but a majority of 57% of you wanted our fundraising efforts to support the purchase of more Classroom Equipment.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this, our very first Blog Poll. We shall now canvas the School staff to find out what each class needs most.

Some suggestions already received are:

Painting overalls

Arts & Crafts supplies

Fiction and Non-fiction books

If you have any suggestions about what your child's class needs, please get in touch. You can use the contact form at the bottom of this page or use the comment button at the end of this posting.

It's Panto Time...Oh yes it is!

For those of you who didn't know, Friends of English Martyrs will be funding the transport costs so that the whole school will be able to have a magical time at the Pantomime in Nottingham on December 20th.

This year's production of Peter Pan at Nottingham's Theatre Royal stars Debra Stephenson (best known as Frankie Baldwin in Coronation Street) as Peter Pan

John Challis, the inimitable Boycie from Only Fools and Horses and The Green Green Grass, plays the menacing Hook.

A full supporting cast, including tumbling pirates, THE ACROLOONS, add to the spectacular blend of fairytale magic, hilarious comedy, show-stopping songs and swashbuckling action.

It will be a wonderful treat for the children and I suspect that the accompanying teachers and helpers will have a jolly good time too!

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.