Yesterday our children walked to Old Basing to St Mary's Church for our annual Harvest Festival. The children enjoyed the service led by Father Alec very much and gained a lot from it.

Thank you to you all for your food donations. Basingstoke Food Bank will be coming to collect the food shortly and it will go to families in need across the borough.

Our children and school community were in for a treat on Wednesday as we held our first ever Diversity Party. Our courtyard was home to many stalls each representing a different country. Our community got to taste lovely foods, learn some new words/phrases in a different language, share bilingual books and games from all over the world.

A huge thank you to all of our parents who ran a stall. It was a great success and shows that we pull together for events like this. It was so lovely for our children to learn something new about different cultures, countries and traditions.

Check out the pictures below:

Year  5 and 6 had an excellent World War Two themed day today. They started the day by filling out an identity card, which they had to keep on them at all times (just in case anyone thought they were a secret spy!)

Following this, they took part in a variety of activities such as: sewing, medal making, gardening and army drills. For lots of children, the highlight of the day was spending time in the Anderson Shelter!

Take a look at our photos...

On Thursday 28th September Great Binfields will be holding our annual Harvest Festival. The service for the children will be held at St Mary’s Church in Old Basing. As a whole school we will be walking to the church, so please ensure that your child has suitable clothing and footwear.

Harvest is an opportunity for us to think about where our food comes from and about how hard the farmers have to work to ensure that we have enough to eat. As part of this we will also be thinking about people all over the world who do not have enough food and if there are any ways that we can help them. This year we will be continuing to support the excellent work of the Basingstoke Food Bank. The Bank provides a three day emergency food package for families and they rely on food donations to help keep going. We would be very grateful for any donations of food and please see the list below to know what the bank is currently requiring. Please bring any food donations to your child’s class on Thursday 28^th September.

We hope that the children will enjoy the harvest festival and are looking forward to it as much as the staff are.

Miss Khan　

Information from the Food Bank

They would welcome any of the items below.

• Cold cereals
• Sweet and savoury spreads

• Savoury crackers

• Rice pudding

• Cooking sauces

• Tinned desserts

• Tinned fruit

• Tinned potatoes

• Tinned vegetables (no peas please)

• Tinned tomatoes

• Instant mash

• Evaporated milk

• UHT long life milk

• UHT long life fruit juice

• Squash

• Toothbrushes

• Shower gel

• Shampoo

• Deodorants unisex

They have got plenty of :

• Baked beans

• Pasta

• Soup

• Tea

• Kidney Beans and other tins of Pulses

• Nappies

• Tin Fish

• Sugar

Thank you to those of you who came to our recent Expectation Meetings - lots of information to take on board for the forthcoming year! We do appreciate your support and commitment to your child's learning. The Powerpoints we referred to are now on our school website on the following link http://www.greatbinfields.co.uk/workshop-information-useful-guides/

We would also like to signpost you to our useful guides. They are: Reading at Home, Writing at Home, Handwriting Guidance, Maths Timestables Support, Helping Your Child with Maths and A Parent's Guide to Growth mindset. They can found on our website on the following page as PDFs for you to download. http://www.greatbinfields.co.uk/workshop-information-useful-guides/

If you haven't popped your Expectations Evening Questionnaire back, please can you pop it in your children's bookbag tonight for them to hand in tomorrow. Your thoughts and opinions do matter to us.

It was lovely wandering around school today seeing our children busy with their learning and playing. It is amazing how quickly they bond with their new class teachers and new class mates. It was also lovely to see so many proud children with their learning on my travels too! This afternoon we listened to 4 of our Year 5/6 pupils give speeches during assembly as they are going for the Chair and Vice Chair of GBP School Council. I wonder who will get voted in tomorrow?