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.

Frogs on the Blog!

When you get a moment, have a look in the Reception Class for the latest additions to our school. Mrs Maxwell and her class now have a fully functioning 'Frog Creche'! Grateful thanks to Mrs McGill who has donated some tadpoles to the aquarium and Mrs Neill for the frogspawn.

For those of you worried by the recent story in the news about moving frogspawn, we can assure you that we have been in touch with Froglife who issued the press release. This is what they said:

"We released that news article to warn people of the dangers of moving spawn between ponds as this can spread diseases and invasive pond plants but did not intend to stop the rearing tadpoles for educational purposes, for example in a classroom environment. In our view this is an excellent educational tool (not to mention fun to watch!) and as the tadpoles are held in a tank, as long as they are returned to the pond they were found in there is very little risk of spreading anything."

If you'd like to sign up for Froglife's 'Frog-bites', click the link below. Frog-bites are free email bulletins from Froglife, aimed at providing up to the minute information on upcoming events, updates on Froglife’s campaigns, along with further details on the part you can play in helping conserve the UK’s amphibians and reptiles. To sign up visit: www.froglife.org/sign_up.htm

FREE Busy Bug!

Just a reminder...

If you'd like to nominate a member of our school for the Teaching Awards 2008, log on to http://www.teachingawards.com/ and click "Nominate Now!"

In return for your nomination, you'll be sent a FREE Busy Bug!

Nominations are free and can include anyone involved in helping our children at school.

Read On ...

Stephanie Cornwall thought that the following story would be wonderful for our blog. We have to agree with her. It makes you stop and think.

Read on....

"Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one.

My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query.The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realise true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story: Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.' Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognising that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realise the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them."

If you would like to comment on this post, please click on 'comments' below.

Spring has Sprung!

We have lots of exciting things that are happening this Spring. So it's really important that you come back and visit us often or sign up to our FREE email bulletin service for all the latest news and information. Just enter your email address in the 'Free Email Bulletin' box, click submit and follow the simple instructions - we'll do all the hardwork back at FEM HQ whilst you receive all the latest news from the Blog straight to your inbox for FREE.

First up - A new shopping experience to help raise money for our school. We've been very successful raising money by offering online shopping - look out for the latest fundraising update - and we hope you'll enjoy using our latest 'widget'. Have a look around 'Shop Window' and let us know what you think of it (click on 'comments' below this post)

Jump to it... Mrs Maxwell needs your help!

Mrs. Maxwell has asked for some help. If you have any frogspawn in your garden or you know where you can get some, please would you contact either us here at the blog or Mrs. Maxwell at school.

Facts about frogs:

• Frogs travel to ponds in the Spring to breed (around Feb/March depending on the weather)
• Each clump of frogspawn can hold about 2,000 eggs
• Frogspawn can be killed by frost, other animals, drying out or disease
• Frogs have excellent eyesight
• A quarter of a frogs diet is made up of slugs and snails
• Frogs are attracted to water by the smell of algae which is a great food for tadpoles
• Frogs can breathe through their skin when they hibernate at the bottom of a pond
• Frogs eyes stick up so they can see out of the water but remain hidden