Projects
Cost of Living Cooking Club
As part of our CCC project Creative, Cultural, Communities project we are delighted to announce the start of the Cost of Living Cooking Club at St. Mark's School. With some fantastic new equipment, keen and willing staff and lots of delicious food, we hope that lots of fun can be had by all. The children can work on new, cost effective cooking skills all whilst providing some delicious meals for their friends and families.
As soon as our budding new Chef's have made their first creations, we will share some more information.
Adisa the Poet
Adisa came to St Mark’s for the afternoon and conducted a 1 hour performance for the children followed by workshops for the KS2 children on poetry writing. It was an inspiration for the children and resulted in them producing some wonderful work. His impact has continued into the next school year.
"He read really good poetry and was inspiring!"
Year 6 Pupil
Adisa was then in the playground at the school’s pick-up time to read and share poetry with parents & carers.
Lindy Hop Dancing
Wings to Fly are delighted to have been able to fund some Lindy Hop Danicng lessons. This was to support the KS2 pupils in their WW2 studies and provide part of the entertainment for their VE Day Party. The grant paid for a number of Lindy Hop dance classes – even the pupils who ‘really didn’t want to dance’ enjoyed the sessions and it was great to see the community at school, joining in with their WW2 project.
"I just wanted to let you know our VE Day Party was a huge success. We had lots of parents/carers turn up for the event. The children made some WW2 carrot cookies and potato and cheese biscuits for the parents to enjoy. They did a great job of performing their WW2 dances, thank you so much to Wings to Fly for funding the lessons, they really helped bring the topic alive."
Class Teacher
When we were successful in getting a grant of £5,000 for our Creative Cultural Communities project we were determined to include activities and events which were meaningful to the community. We consulted the school (parents, teachers, and pupils) about what they would like to see, and the resounding response was ‘more sport’! Thus, the idea of ‘A Taste of Sport’ was developed.
On the afternoon of June 17, eight sports were on offer:
- Volleyball
- Stoolball (Stoolball England: https://www.stoolball.org.uk),
- Rugby: Heathfield & Waldron RFC: https://www.hwrfc.co.uk,
- Cricket: Sussex Cricket: https://sussexcricket.co.uk,
- Tennis: Cross in Hand tennis club: https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/CrossinHandLTC,
- Ultimate Frisbee: First Class Sport: http://www.firstclasssport.com,
- Climbing Wall: https://www.altitudeevents.org/
- Taekwon-do: Affinity TKD: http://www.affinitytkd.co.uk/about/
Just under 100 children took part and rotated through 6 of the 8 sports during the afternoon. After 3.00 pm parents and villagers were invited to come and watch the activities and the Friends of St Mark’s had iced lollies and a BBQ running. As can be seen from the photos – a good time was had by all!
A huge thank you to those who offered their time and expertise to help make the afternoon the resounding success it was.
Book Vouchers
Three times a year Wings To Fly will award a £5 book voucher to a child in each year group that is making brilliant progress with their reading. Well done to the 7 children who received their vouchers this term!
‘Talkspace’ is run by Judith Clark, a trained teacher and social worker who worked previously for the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Talkspace provides interventions for children in a range of areas including behaviour, bereavement, parental separation and ‘just not coping’.
Talkspace
It has also allowed families who do not normally seek the school's support to come forward where a parent or child has felt the need.
There have been a number of children for whom the
Covid-19 pandemic has increased their levels of anxiety, there has also been depression, anger against the situation and feelings of hopelessness. In these instances, Talkspace has been able to give practical guidance of ways in which they may be able to manage and reduce these anxieties both in school and to those at home.