Bingo, Butter & Buns

No, Bingo Butter & Buns are not the nicknames of 3 chums from school who went on to become ace fighter pilots during the war and then formed a small town veterinary practice, it is simply a cheap alliteration to help remind us that the end of term approaches. I say approaches, but really it looms larger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex in that bit in Jurassic Park, there are only 6 sleeps to go and there's a lot to cover off in these last few days.

So, rather like a Victorian schoolmaster, it's time to recite our 3 B's

Bingo - Bingo for the whole family, tonight in the school hall. Doors open at 5:30 and eyes down is at 6:00pm. There will be light refreshments available for those who can tear their eyes away from the magic numbers and relinquish their grasp on their lucky blotters. Please join us for a fun evening.

Butter & Buns - Next Thursday 24th March is the last day of term and there will be the traditional Easter Cafe at school from 3pm. Join us for a hot cross bun (the butter is optional) and a drink to help celebrate the end of term and wish Mrs Thorne a wonderful retirement.

We look forward to seeing you at these events and will  be back next term. Being the Summer term we will be hosting the Summer fair, including the netball and football tournaments, BBQ and fun games for all. Watch the blog and facebook for updates and, as ever, if you can spare us some of your time to help on the day it would help make the day that little bit better for all.

Reuse - Recycle

I opened the curtains here at POWSA Towers this morning to beautiful sunshine, birds singing in the trees, a verdant lawn and a riot of daffodils signalling that Spring is well and truly sprung. Buoyed by natures natural beauty i went forth amongst the family, only to find that they had all seemingly sprung too. 

I mean where did these extra inches come from? How very rude of them to grow in the middle of a term, it's just not cricket. 

Being an e-minded adult I immediately logged onto several shopping sites (having logged on through Easy Fundraising obvs!) to find that I was going to have to postpone the repairs on the roof of the staff quarters again as I refreshed the children's wardrobes in the larger sizes, and also equally importantly, in the summer style which is well and truly this seasons "New Black".

Before committing to this extravagance I ran the figures past my financial expert (aged 8, knows everything and keeps trying to convince me to go offshore, Ireland's the place apparently) who reminded me that there's a nearly new uniform sale coming up at school, so I could replenish their wardrobes and still have enough money left over to ensure the staff had a dry and secure space to sleep.

Well I let the bells ring out with joy, looked at his beaming face and declared that I should let the world know of this forthcoming joyous, value for money, ECO Week tie in, reuse & recycle event.

Which is a rather long winded way of saying we're hosting a good quality used uniform sale immediately after school next Friday 11th March. All items are reasonably priced and in good condition so please come along and pick up a bargain or two.

If you have any good quality clean uniform that is no longer required please donate this to any member of the POWSA committee and we'll ensure this is made available.

If you have any old uniform that is no longer required and too tired to be reused we can still make use of this and send it through the material recycling scheme. Please put this in the dumper located in the staff car park along with any old material, clothes (not shoes) or curtains.

 

POWSA EGM

POWSA EGM - Tuesday 26th Jan 7:45pm in the staffroom at school.

Can you imagine the excitement here at POWSA Towers at the prospect of another meeting to elect officers to vacant positions on the POWSA committee. For those of you who haven't lived through the circus that is POWSA election season think of the fervor that gripped the nation at the sight of Jeremy Corbyn's Hush Puppies intensified to the power of Boris Johnson's hair style with a liberal pinch of Sarah Palin sense* thrown in for good measure.

Alternatively it might be a group of volunteer parents trying to decide the best ways to help the school raise much needed funds to help all of our children and any help that you can give will be gratefully received. Don't worry, we won't elect you president at your first meeting, we will offer you a cup of tea and say "Hi"though and there have been scones in the past but I can't promise these again.

So please come along and help us to help our school, that's this Tuesday the 26th in the staffroom at 7:45pm.

*That is the first time in recorded history that the words "Liberal", "Sarah Palin", and "sense" have ever appeared in the same sentence

Only 7 sleeps to go

Here at POWSA Towers we feel thoroughly smug in our readiness for the forthcoming celebrations, a prime Turkey has been selected and secured (the fact it’s the same size as a Brachiosaurus and has the same odds of survival are issues we’ll have to deal with), the tree is resplendent and bedecked with illuminations and the bunting is well and truly.....bunted.

Despite this overwhelming feeling of smugness it is hard to ignore the fact that this is now the last day of term and the last chance for us all to celebrate at the school with Mr Farrington as Head Teacher. (For anyone who didn’t know Mr Farrington was retiring I hope this hasn’t come as too much of a shock, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you the sad news but there you go, try reading a newsletter once in a while).

We don’t wish to dwell too much on the past and have made every effort to ensure that our gratitude to him has been a matter of record and fact (how many other people have had a surprise festival named after them, it’s not like you’ve ever heard of Jesus Fest) but we do hope that as many of you as possible can come to the Carol Concert this afternoon to help celebrate the end of another great term at school.

As it’s Christmas it only feels right to remind us of the wise words penned by Chuck D about this wonderful time;

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” 
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

And to Mr Farrington we wish you a long and wonderful retirement, you will always be welcome here at POWSA Towers, just make sure you wipe your feet on the way in.

So come and join the whole school as we sing our little socks off, it’s today at 2:45pm in the school hall and Christmas jumpers are not compulsory but do come highly recommended.

Christmas Cheer

Here at Powsa Towers the halls are bedecked with boughs of holly, there are small groups of ruddy faced urchins singing carols for a copper penny and there's many a leaping lord giving it a tra-la-la which just makes me feel so festive I want to shout Ho! Ho! Holy mackerel it's the Christmas Fair on Friday and I haven't

• booked a spot to go and see Santa (sign up sheets are outside of the office in the main school)
• booked a spot for the kids to go and see Santa
• Made any bids on the silent auction lots
• Cleared space by throwing out all the old knick knacks and heirlooms for the amazing range of crafted goods that will be on sale
• Set a budget to win THAT prize on the Chinese Raffle
• Practiced my skills for the "fun" games, not that I'm competitive or anything

As if that's not enough there will be refreshments available at the Christmas Cafe, the Tombolas will be out with prizes suitable for all you cheeky boys and girls. Did I mention Santa will be there?

As if that's not enough to get you in the festive mood I heard that song for the first time this year, you know the really cheery Christmas on, how does it go? "You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lazy......"

It could hve been worse, it could have been Noddy Holder shouting IT'S CHRISTMAS

See you Friday, straight after school til 5:30 in the main hall, bring a donation for the Tombola in by the start of lessons on Friday if you have anything to spare.

And finally, if you managed to avoid the temptation to complete all of your online shopping for the festive period last Friday, don't forgot to log on via easy fundraising, it's free, it's easy and benefits everyone at the school.

Situations Vacant

There's definitely a frosty atmosphere here at POWSA Towers following the revelation that, due to my advancing years and ever expanding middle age spread, I will no longer be considered for the role of Elf at this years Christmas Fair.

Apparently my new found "maturity and cuddliness" make me a more suitable candidate for the role of Santa's understudy than his assistant. Which leaves us with a slight problem, who can help the main man at the fair?

The ideal candidate would be someone who is young, funny, caring, considerate, confident, gregarious and likes to dress up in loud clothes, pointy shoes and fun hats. If you have pointy ears that would be considered a bonus but those of us mere mortals with rounded appendages may still apply.

If you know anyone who would be willing to help out, full training will be provided (Open Door, smile, say hello, introduce Santa, smile some more, open door, say goodbye and then repeat).

If any of the Prince of Wales children have an older sibling who you would just love to see dressed as an elf then feel free to ask them if they would be willing to help.

Please don't send us your CV, just stop one of us POWSA people and have a chat, we could really use your help.

Right, that's enough from me for now, I have to practice for my role as understudy............ pass the mince pies Rudolph, no don't worry you can have the carrot,

T.F.I. Flapjack

Here at POWSA Towers we see that the winter festivities are closing fast as the nights are getting darker and the family calendar resembles a Jackson Pollock with random lines seeming to fill every space. Rehearsals here, parties there, clubs and activities everywhere and, yes, my handwriting is that bad.

We have the delights of Autumn Fest to look forward to (that's next Saturday in case you have missed it), a cake sale on Friday for Children in Need and then the build up to Christmas starts in earnest. This is on top of a full half term for the school, I don't know if anyone else had grumpy monkeys on Friday but we all knew they had been back to school.

Which brings me back to the title of this blog, the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that on Friday there was a small sale of carrot cake and flapjacks outside of years 1 & 2. This was the first run of Thank Friday It's Flapjack where we will be selling small snippets of cake to help fundraising. The plan is this will occur every Friday (if the school have a cake sale on the same week we will donate our profits to the schools cause) from now on until the weather becomes glorious enough for the sale of ice creams and lollies again.

The cakes are all supplied to POWSA by a local day care centre and are prepared and made freshly every Friday by the staff and the people who attend and use the services there. As we are a school that actively seeks to improve the educational offering of our own pupils within the SEND framework it is great that we can also offer adults with similar challenges an outlet for their culinary skills.

As a result of the provenance of our cakes we cannot guarantee that they will be suitable for anyone who suffers from allergies, the kitchen they are prepared in is used for a variety of culinary assignments throughout the week. If you need any advice please ask us and we will always give you any information that we have.

Right , it's time now to go and find something red, white and blue for the monkeys to wear next week, practice their spellings, encourage them to undertake their home learning and find a cupcake recipe for Friday. After that I will definitely need to sit down with a warm cuppa and a slice of cake to help me recover. TFI Flapjack indeed!