2008 School Term Dates

For those of you that have requested information about dates for the school term, please read the following:

TERM 3 - School opened Thursday 3rd January 2008; School closes Friday 15th February (for 1 week)

TERM 4 - School opens Monday 25th February; Good Friday 21st March; Easter Monday 24th March; School closes Friday 4th April (for 2 weeks)

TERM 5 - School opens Monday 21st April; May Bank Holiday Monday 5th May; School closes Friday 23rd May (for 1 week & 1 day due to Teacher Training on Monday 2nd June)

TERM 6 - School opens Tuesday 3rd June; School closes Tuesday 22nd July

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.