On Tuesday afternoon the Year 5 & 6 Tag Rugby team had their first match of the year. North Bradley were the visitors and brought a strong team for what has always been a very close fixture. Both teams were intent on playing attacking rugby and the scores started from the first play of the game.

Both teams traded score for the first half and at half time the score was 5 each. In the second half points continued to flow freely but both teams managed to up the defensive work rate and as North Bradley began to tire Springmead managed to gain control and eventually ran out winners by 12 tries to 8.

All the team played really well and worked hard. Captain Max Ralph and Tom Brown were particularly impressive with their attacking skills.

Year 3 went on a Go Explore session on Monday and they went on a long walk to search for signs of spring. They were able to see buds on trees, leaves starting to grow, spring flowers, blossom on trees, as well as very cute baby piglets! They also had some time to explore the wildlife area and paddle in the stream. 

Our Year 2 children visited the Clifton Suspension Bridge and SS Great Britain in Bristol as part of their work on Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The children had a busy day with a particuarly good guide at SS Great Britain. They were beautifully behaved throughout. 

Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed studying Egyptology at the Bristol City Museum.  They were engaged throughout the visit, and have come back with many exciting stories of mummies, pharaohs and ancient civilizations. 

Year 6 spent a great session at the wildlife area looking at the history of cutting tools, studying the different types of implements available around the world today and investigating various ways of using their knives for different purposes.

Springmead School has a charity week during Lent; this is a time when we get the children to focus on what we can do for others. Our school supports Mercy-in-Action, this is a Bath based Christian charity supporting street children in the Philippines. With support the charity is able to provide food, shelter, schools and clothes for children who would otherwise be living on the streets. Over the years the charity organisers have come into the school to talk to the children to understand what they do and explain how the children’s money will be used.

Children will now begin bringing home sponsor forms or other requests.  They will be supported at school but would clearly benefit from your encouragement too!

Thank you in anticipation of your generosity and your support.

We are delighted that all of the independent senior school entrance exams taken by our Year 6 children were passed again this year! 

Places have been offered at Warminster Independent School and The Royal High School.  We are still awaiting final confirmation of state school places but it looks like most children will be going to their family’s first choice state school.  

Again, we are delighted to see the children progress through the school and leave in Year 6, fully prepared for the next stage of learning, confident in themselves and in their abilities to face the challenges of secondary education. Well done to the children, staff and parents for their dedication and hard work.

A big congratulation goes out to the entire choir for such a fantastic performance at the Salisbury Festival and of course winning the cup! We all had a wonderful morning and both Mrs Miller and I were extremely proud of the way the children both performed and conducted themselves at the event – well done to all!

Very excitingly we have been invited to perform at the Festival Concert. This will be fantastic occasion for us to perform at a prestigious event and gives us the opportunity to see other groups and individuals performing at a very high standard.

The concert is on Sunday 3^rd April at 7pm and will be held in the Blackledge Theatre Godolphin School, Milford Hill, Salisbury, SP1 2RA.  Tickets will be available on the door at £3 each.

17 members of the Cross Country Club took part in the Mendip Cross Country League at Oakhill, all running fantastically well on a cold Tuesday afternoon.

Well done to Martha Atkinson, Luca Morgan, Campbell Goff, Charlie Powell, Lizzie Finch, Mia Ralph and Hollie Gardner who all improved on their places from the previous Mendip Cross Country League!

Springmead are now in 3^rd place overall out of 13 schools and are in 2^nd place in the small schools competition, so a huge well done to all the runners for putting in so much effort in the leagues and in Cross Country club at lunchtime.

The results from the league can be seen on the playground notice board or at: www.MendipJuniorAthletics.org.uk

As the newsletter goes to press, we are celebrating a wonderful day of poetry performances from our children in years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Special congratulations go to Tom Taylor, Amelia Grist and Beau Morgan, first in their class; Lizzie Finch, Jack Beeching, Arabella Goff and Joseph Nickless, second in their class; Martha Atkinson, Ella Warmisham and Imogen Paige, third in their class.

From our many first time performers to those with several years’ experience, the overall standard was consistently, impressively high and every single performer can feel very proud of their own achievement. Thank you to our fantastic parents for you support, and to teachers for hearing poems in class. Well done children – YOU DID IT – you are all stars!

On Monday afternoon the Year 3 & 4 Tag Rugby team and a group of children from Beckington School joined together for some Tag Rugby match practise. The two groups of children split into two mixed teams and were able to play an extended game. The main focus of the session was to get the children running forward with the ball and not to run sideways or backwards.

As the game progressed this was becoming more evident and the children also started to demonstrate some fine support play as several tries were scored. The attacks did not have it all their own way though as some great tags were made which prevented almost certain scores. 

The year 5 & 6 Netball team braved a bitterly cold afternoon for their fixture at All Hallows on Thursday. The team played well and quickly took the lead. However All Hallows came back in the third quarter to take a 5-goal advantage.

With accurate passing from all and fantastic shooting from Hollie Gardner and Thomas Hastings, Springmead came back to finish the match 8 –8. Well done everyone!

The Foundation pupils used the wildlife area as their stage to re-enact the story of the Ginger Bread Man. There were some stunning performances from Harriette Puddy-Jones, Harry Hastings-McMahon, Oliver Knatchbull, Daniel Hopkins and Jonny Cox.  All the children were totally engaged and enthralled with the experience of making drama come alive in such a magical setting.  

Year 6 had another exciting session in the wildlife area putting their Bushcraft skills to the test by building an insulated shelter, creating clean water to heat on their fires and finding evidence of wildlife in the area. 

Year 3 explored the wildlife area and enjoyed the squelchy, slippery mud. They worked in two teams to create two shelters that were big enough for one or more children to fit into. They created them from sticks, twigs and branches and worked extremely well together – great co-operation shown!

Thank you to all involved in the Instrumental Concert on the last day of half-term; Caroline Miller, the peripatetic teachers, staff, parents and of course the children.

Thank you for your solo singing contribution, Jonathan, all the children from youngest to oldest enjoyed the experience, even the shrewd Year 6 boys were deeply impressed! The concert really did showcase the musical work of the children and was a true celebration of what they are achieving, shared with an appreciative audience! 

It is now that time of year where we ask our Year 3 to Year 6 children if they would like to learn to play a musical instrument.  Please see Caroline Miller’s article at the end of the newsletter.