Happy New Year

Friends of English Martyrs would like to wish everyone a very happy new year!

We hope you all had a splendid Christmas and look forward to bringing you lots of news and fun activities to get involved in during 2008.

If you have a snippet of news or something you'd like to see featured on the blog, please get in touch. We'd also like to feature any blogs or websites run by parents or friends of English Martyrs - perhaps you'd like to nominate a site that you think others would be interested in ... Here's to a busy year of blogging!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.