Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.
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Eco Garden Competition Success!
Fri 16 Dec 2022Eco-garden competition winners announced in local press
As you may be aware (from local press releases this week), we are delighted to announce that the school has won a share of £60,000 in Stansted Airport's eco-garden competition, which took place earlier this term. Seven green-thinking local primary schools (in Essex and Hertfordshire) within ten miles of the airport were encouraged to submit designs for gardens or green spaces that improve biodiversity to compete for the cash prizes. A prize fund of £45,000 was initially offered by the airport for the competition but due to the high quality of entries, it was decided to award grants to all shortlisted schools, resulting in a total prize pot of £60,000.
Quote from Daniel Burford, Stansted Airport’s Community Engagement Manager, said: "We had some really
fantastic ideas on our shortlist, and it was really tough to narrow it down, so we decided to award cash prizes to all of the shortlisted schools, increasing the total prize pot from £45,000 to £60,000. We are really pleased with how many entries we had, and the winners should be proud of themselves. We hope that the prize money will make a difference and allow the schools to bring their brilliant ideas to life. These ideas will not only lead to the creation of new wonderful and rich green spaces and provide children with an excellent learning experience, but it will also contribute to their mental and physical well-being and highlight how important it is to respond to today’s climate challenge. Addressing this is one of our key priorities as the airport continues its recovery from the pandemic. We are fully focused on how this can be achieved sustainably and to help accelerate our progress towards becoming a Net Zero Carbon business by 2038, and a Net Zero Carbon industry by 2050.”
Quote from Mr Chris Jarmain, Head Teacher at St Mary’s Primary, said: “We were absolutely delighted to receive this exciting grant to create an Eco-Garden for our school, St Mary's, in Saffron Walden. This award will give our pupils the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of managing and maintaining a garden and its tools safely. It will also help the children to understand where food comes from and how to eat healthily and sustainably. This new area will boost the physical and mental wellbeing of the children as well as their resilience, allowing them to connect with nature in all weathers. Thanks to our Forest School Leader and Sports Leader, Mrs McInnes as well as our Year 6 Eco Committee for putting in all of the hard work on this incredibly important project, which will have so many benefits for our school children for years to come. A truly long-lasting legacy!”
With the large pot of money that we will be receiving, the school will be supported by the Stansted Airport Community Engagement Team to design and construct our very own Eco-Garden in the new year. How exciting! The link to the Saffron Walden Report article can be found here:https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/news/23187881.saffron-walden-school-wins-prize-stansted-airport/
The designs were assessed by a panel which included representatives of the airport’s corporate social responsibility team and the Stansted Airport Community Trust. Various layouts were submitted, including proposals for ponds, outdoor classrooms, sensory gardens, food growing areas, and accessible green spaces. Bishop's Stortford's Hertfordshire and Essex High School, Hockeril Anglo-European College, Richard Whittington Primary School, Thorn Grove Primary School, Windhill 21 Primary School, St Mary's C of E Primary School in Saffron Walden and Great Easton Primary School are the seven schools sharing the £60,000 prize pot.
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Christmas Lunch Day!
Wed 14 Dec 2022On Wednesday this week, St Mary’s held our annual Christmas Lunch Day in the School Hall. I am pleased to say that it went really well and was superbly organised by Riina Driscoll, our Kitchen Manager, and Rose Dye, our head of Midday, alongside their hard-working team. Classroom staff, as well as Finance Officer Claire Burgess, supported the midday and kitchen team to bring a festive lunch to each of our children as they got to pull crackers, don colourful hats and recount terrible jokes (with a bit of help from the adults!) which had been found within their crackers. Thank you also to all involved—the children had a truly lovely time!
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Snowy Days!
Wed 14 Dec 2022Wow! What a wintery week we have had here at St Mary’s!
Let it snow!
Monday began with a flurry of snow as the roads and pavements and the entirety of the school site was coated in the coldest precipitation. As the week has progressed we have experienced sub-zero temperatures on every single day of this week—with some readings dropping as low as –8 and even—11 as I was driving in this morning to work. Chilly to the say the least! The week the school has put into operation our ‘flexi’ morning and after school arrangements—meaning that families were able to drop off their pupils a little later in the morning and pick them up a little earlier (if they wished to do so) so as to make the mornings and afternoons that little bit safer—and to stop so many people being on the pavements and roads at the same time.As ever, thank you for your support during these more challenging occasions!
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Reverse Advent Calendar
Mon 12 Dec 2022Reverse Advent Calendar:
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Reverse Advent Calendar this year and made donations for Uttlesford Foodbank. All of the donations are really appreciated.
On Thursday we took five large boxes and 6 bulging carrier bags up to the Uttlesford Food bank and I know that these will soon be shared amongst lots of families throughout the Christmas period. Another excellent example of the compassion and generosity shown by our St Mary’s community.
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Yoga Day
Tue 06 Dec 2022On Tuesday 6th December, St Mary's school experienced a day of yoga. First we learnt 'stick' where you stand up tall with your feet together and arms by your side. Then we did 'Sun sequence' (which was stick, hands, reach for the sun, elephant, proud horse, dog, snake and back again). We played 'rainstick' where we all laid down and the yoga teacher would tip the rainstick and make a rain sound then he would hand the rainstick over and then we had a go. We had a go at ladybird relaxation at the end when we laid down and our teacher would dangle a ladybird puppet so that it landed on a thumb, a knee, a shoulder and a nose. Two pupils remarked: ‘I liked the rainstick the most because it was relaxing’, Annabelle and Molly, Year 5. Thank you to Mrs McInnes who organised this really worthwhile experience for our lovely pupils. Please have a look at the Class Updates (for 9th December) for lots more of the Yoga photos from your child/ren’s class.