On Friday 14th May Spratton Hall held a 5000 Metre Charity Event to raise money for Help for Heroes and The Colonel's Fund.
The aim of the event was for teams of relay runners to try and break the current UK 5000 metre record of 13:00.41 seconds. The present record was set by David Moorcroft in Oslo in 1982 and we were honoured that David attended the event in person.
Teams were made up of pupils, parents, staff, Maidwell Hall and the Northampton Saints Team who came to support us in our record attempt. Some ran for fun, while others made a serious attempt at breaking the record.
Congratulations to the Northampton Saints Team who broke the record, completing the 5000 metres in 11.24 seconds! Well done also to all the other teams who took part and helped make this event such a wonderful success. Special thanks to David Moorcroft who came to support us in our challenge and to Northern Rock for their sponsorship. We look forward to announcing the final amount raised in due course.
This year the Pre-Pre children chose to raise funds for the NSPCC. Kathryn Brown c
ame in to talk to the children and explained a little bit about their work and how much help it gives to children who perhaps do not have very happy lives.
We decided to take part in the ‘NSPCC Spellathon’. This involved the children having a list of words to learn over half term. These were differentiated for each Year Group with some challenging words such as ‘comfortable’ and ‘overenthusiastically’ included if the children wanted to work even harder! Many of them did.
The children were asked to collect sponsors who would sponsor them for each word they spelt correctly. Needless to say, they were very successful, not only in spelling the words correctly, but in obtaining a huge sponsorship.
The children were tested after half term and the sponsor forms and monies collected in. Kathryn came back to count the money and leave badges to be awarded to all the children. Later in the term she returned to thank the children for all their hard work and tell them what an amazing amount they had raised - £2,920! What a fantastic effort.
Luke Blair from Reception, Robin Stewart from Year One and Lauren Duke from Year Two were just a few of the children who achieved a perfect score in their ‘Spellathon’.
A very special thank you and congratulations to the parents and children for their superb efforts.
Sue, from the RNIB, came to talk to Year 7 and 8 about the work of RNIB and the needs of the partially sighted.
We learnt that 24,000 children are registered as blind in this country. We also learnt about the many ways in which the RNIB support the blind and partially sighted. Whether it's through the use of braille, large print or guide dogs.
Sue really helped us understand what life would be like being blind but also how things are adapted for the blind and how the blind can do anything we can do. This was a really interesting talk and will, hopefully, inspire younger years to follow on with Evan and Azeez's work.
After hearing about the terrible earthquake in Haiti, pupils in Year 7 and 8 were anxious to do their part as young active citizens. We held an assembly earlier on this term to raise awareness of the devastation of Haiti and we talked, not only about the immediate needs of the Haiti community after this terrible disaster, but also the continued need to support them in the coming months and years to help them rebuild their lives and their homes and to give them hope in the future.
This year, a number of our pupils in Year 8 have been focussing on the work of World Vision and Save the Children. We were fortunate to have a visit from Gareth from Save the Children earlier this term and for a number of years we have had close contact with the work of World Vision. We decided that we wanted to raise further awareness of their work out in Haiti.
Pupils in 8W put together a display to help inform us of the developments in the area whilst a group of Year 7 pupils decided to hold a raffle in aid of this cause. This proved to be a huge success and the pupils raised £360. In Junior Council, our pupils placed empty plastic water bottles in the Year 3,4 and 5 classrooms to raise awareness of the need for clean water to survive and so that they could fill the bottles with coins. This raised a further £60. These proceeds will be divided between the above charities for the people of Haiti. In addition, we intend to carry out a tower building competition in the near future and hope as many pupils will compete in this challenge
On Friday 22nd January, Duncan Leng, Isabel Fairlie and Nathan Groves in Year 8 held a cake sale in aid of Rainbows Hospice and Great Ormond Street Hospital. The cakes proved to be very popular and we managed to raise a total of £219.97 for these worthy causes.
On Saturday 28th November, Phoebe Dunkley and Vicky Sunter swam 1.5 miles to raise money for Breast Cancer Campaign. They raised a total of £800 from family and friends which also included £400 donated from 'Dunkleys' food company who promised to double any amount raised. A big thank you to everyone who sponsored the swim.
Ole Pugh and Matthew Hampton in Year 8 are continuing to raise money for Francis House Hospice by selling Christmas cards in the main hall.
On Sunday 4th October Nathan Groves & Isabel Fairlie took part in the Northampton Run 09 to raise money for Rainbows Children's Hospice. Rainbows provides care for children with life limiting and life threatening conditions. Tracy Watts, the Change Manager at Barclaycard, ran with them which means that Barclaycard will double the amount raised.
Well done to Ole Pugh and Matthew Hampton in Year 8 for raising money by holding a car boot sale for the Francis House Childrens' Hospice. Congratulations also to Azeez Al-Humaidhi and Evan Morris (Year 8) who held a table-top sale at the Scarecrow Festival in Harpole for the RNIB. Two successful events, both for worthy causes.
Year 8 boys held a Golf Day in aid of Rainbow’s Hospice on Wednesday 18th March which was a fantastic success. 48 pupils and parents arrived to Tee-off on the 9 hole golf course at Brampton Heath Golf Club at 4.50 pm. There were novices and experienced players out to enjoy the event on a beautiful spring evening. The competition was played, players achievements celebrated and a curry and barbeque enjoyed by all participants and spectators. Congratulations to the Year 8 boys’ team that organised the event and thanks to Brampton Health Golf Club who allowed us to use their facility to fundraise for this very worthy charity.
On Saturday 6th March, a group of girls in Year 8 took part in a sponsored swim to raise money for WaterAid. They all completed a mile and, so far, have raised over £300! They will also be doing a 11.5 mile walk around Rutland Water on 26th April.
Sophie Meager in Year 8 held a disco for Years 7 & 8 on Friday 6th March to support B-eat, a charity helping those with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The party was a great success and many people came to support the event which managed to raise £269.80. Thank you to everyone for your support. Charity Cake Sale
On Thursday 22nd January we held a Cake Sale in aid of STEPS and Bransby Home of Rest. STEPS is a charity
which supports those with lower limb disabilities and Bransby Home of Rest supports animals who have been abused and re-houses them.
Story & Poem Competition in aid of Barnado's
In March, we held a Story and Poem Competition in aid of Barnardo’s. The subject matter was about a child in poverty in the workhouse or a refuge, a similar situation to Oliver Twist. The winner was Anna Hall-Taylor (5G) with her story ‘Lucky Unlucky Alice’, 2nd place went to Grace Turberville-Smith (3M) for her poem ‘The Poor Girl’ and 3rd was Thalia Felton with her poem ‘Homeless for me’.
Lucky Unlucky Alice by Anna Hall-Taylor
Alice had been in a workhouse for as long as she could remember. She had been told stories of how her mother and father had once gone to Africa as missionaries to spread the word of Jesus to the people there, and had never come back. Of course, she was only a baby then, so she couldn’t remember anything. This workhouse was for girls and boys. The boys would usually help carry and lift things while the girls did things like sewing and cooking for the people who owned the place. Their food would be a piece of stale bread for breakfast, gruel for lunch, and for tea mainly more stale bread. If they were lucky they would get a gone off, hairy banana, but you knew when to make the most of things when you lived there. Their beds were the floor, with a rug on top of them to keep them warm…whether it did the job or not was the question.
The girls and boys slept in different rooms, both of them about the size of a classroom. They had to fit around one hundred girls into their room, and around one hundred boys in their room. It was very cramped and they only got about one metre by one metre squared each! Alice hated it there. She wanted to do something different than cook and sew. So, one day, she decided to make her escape. She waited till everyone was asleep, and ran down to the kitchens. She stole herself some bread and jam, cakes and biscuits, of which they had made that day, and put them in her rucksack. She filled several beakers up with water, and put them in her rucksack as well. Then, trying to be as quiet as she could, she tiptoed into the caretaker’s office, and gently took the keys of the hook it was on. She was so glad the caretaker had accidentally left his door open! The caretaker himself, however, was snoozing in his luxury bedroom in the basement. Then, quick as a flash, she tiptoed to the main door, turned the lock, and she was free.
Alice had been walking quite some time now, and she could see the first streams of light peaking out from behind the hills she was passing. It was very quiet, and apart from the birds singing their little songs, it was complete silence. She was not sure where she was going, but she knew one thing, she was going as far as she could away from the workhouse. She soon came to a sign, which said ‘Oxford’. Alice had heard of this place before, once, when she had overheard a new girl talking about her ‘old home’ there. It sounded wonderful when the girl was talking about it, but now all she could see were houses and factories and all kinds of queues. She was standing on a hill, high above the place, so she was quite far away. ‘Let’s have a look in there’ she thought, and she kept on walking.
Alice could see more closely into the city now. It looked far more beautiful when you were there, with all the beautiful colleges and schools. She could also see some workhouses, and she made a note in her mind to stay away from them. She liked this place, and when she had sat herself in a corner, with a biscuit and a beaker of water, she thought how wonderful it was to be free, and fell asleep.
She woke up to find herself surrounded by a group of girls, all around her age, staring at her. She stared at them back. They were wearing very fine clothes, of which looked far too big or small for them.
“ Hey, look! What have we got here?” said one of the girls, whose clothes looked like they had shrunken in the wash.
“ I think she might do us handy, QuickFingers!” said another one.
“ Yeah, I think we might be in luck,” said QuickFingers.
And with that they pulled her up and looked her all over. They made her tell them all about herself, her story and everything, and they also made her share the food with them. After that, they told her about themselves, and it turned out they were robbers. Then she realised why they had such strangely fitted clothes, they had stolen them! They told her all about their leader, Zaroff Marla, and how she had made a deal with them that if they stole things for her, she would let them stay in her hide-out. Then they asked her question she had dreaded, “ Can you help us?”
She had no choice, they were so fearsome looking and big, she just had to say that feeble word “OK”. They led her to a pub, and then they beckoned her to come through a door in the back, up some stairs, and then through another door. Inside, there was a dark room with a table and a few chairs in the middle of the room, a fine looking bed at the side of the room, and lots of sleeping bags at the back of the room. All the shutters were closed, so the only light source was a feeble little lamp in the corner. A lady was lying on the bed, and it wasn’t until QuickFingers went to wake her up, she stirred. QuickFingers muttered something to her, and then she suddenly looked around at Alice. “ Ah, child, welcome!” the lady said, who Alice thought must be Zaroff Marla, in an deep and oily kind of voice.
When she stood up, Alice could see her a lot more clearly. She was a tall and skinny, with a thin face with a pointy chin. She reminded Alice a lot of a witch, apart from the fact she was very pretty. She was wearing a leopard-skin coat, with a matching leopard-skin scarf and shoes.
“You have volunteered to help me, have you?” Zaroff Marla said, in the same deep and oily voice. She smiled a greasy smile and then said, “ I thank you child, I thank you.”
Afterwards, they led Alice to the table in the middle of the room, and started laying out food. They had a big feast to celebrate. Alice would have enjoyed the food a lot more if she hadn’t had the same ache of guilt in her stomach as she ate it, knowing that the food she was eating had been stolen.
After they were as stuffed as a Christmas turkey, they all went to bed. They showed Alice her own ‘special’ sleeping bag and soon QuickFingers and her co-workers were asleep in their sleeping bags as well. Alice thought and thought, and then she thought that she might have rather been in the workhouse than this horrible place.
***
Alice was running, running as fast as she could. She was running away from something she had put herself into, something so terrible Alice thought she was dreaming. She had just stolen a golden watch.
QuickFingers and her gang were off somewhere doing something else, so she decided to return it, as the ache of guilt in her stomach was so high she could barely contain it. The only problem was, how was she going to get back on his wrist without him seeing? The way she had stolen it had just been her luck, when it accidentally fell off his wrist. Alice thought about this and decided to put it somewhere close by him, so he would be able to find it, or, she thought, another possibility could be her pretending she found the watch, but then it would make it more obvious she had stolen it. Alice thought, and then she decided she would have to face him and give it back. Of course, if he should ask where she found it, she would say that she was behind him when he was walking and picked it up for him. Then it suddenly struck her how very rich this man was. A golden watch! That must have cost a lot of money. She sighed and glumly picked the watch out of her pocket and started walking towards the shop she had seen the man enter when she had stolen it.
She walked into the shop with the watch, and walked around all the shelves until she found the man, looking at a lovely necklace.
“Ex – excuse me sir,” she said in a small voice, “Is this – is this your watch?”
“ Oh yes! I dare say I think it is!” the man exclaimed in disbelief. The man sounded very friendly and jolly, and Alice felt ashamed she had stolen it off such a friendly man. He then asked Alice all the usual questions like, where did you find it? And, could someone have trodden on it? She answered in the most casual way she could, trying not to sound too guilty.
Finally, he said, “Thank you, now, child, where is your mother?”
Alice felt her stomach doing cartwheels, as she said, “I don’t have a mother.”
“Oh! How terrible! But where is your guardian?”
“I – I – I don’t really have a guardian either,” she finished.
“We must have something done about this at once!” he cried, and marched straight out of the shop, leaving Alice assuming she should walk after him.
***
He led her all the way over to a police station, where the police asked her all kinds of personal questions. Of course, she could not answer all of them correctly. She could not tell them she had escaped from the workhouse, or they would send her straight back there and Alice did certainly not want that. So she made up a story, about how her mother and father had died only two weeks ago, and that no one was with her so she could not get out for the door was locked. So in the end she had to smash through a window to get out. She said that the horses on the carriage they were on went out of control and into another carriage and they both went upside down and everyone in them was so badly hurt they died. Alice thought that was a little bit too much drama but the police seemed to believe it.
Afterwards, to her relief, they said that they would take the adoption route, as they had tried looking for her mother’s and father’s will but of course, could not find it (no one ever had). Although, it was not the police who had thought of it. Alice had to lie to them as well, saying that her mother had once had a conversation with her, about the will, and that if her mother was to ever die she would like her to get adopted.
***
You could not say that the police were not suspicious. You could neither say that Alice didn’t feel bad about lying, but soon it was all signed and everything was perfect. She was adopted! And guess who by? The old man! Alice didn’t know how it really happened, it was all so quick. The old man asked the police if he could have a word with them and then suddenly the policeman beamed at Alice and asked her to sign out the adoption forms for him. And believe it or not the man was doing the same thing. Alice felt glad she was away from QuickFingers and her gang, but also a bit bad. They had told her all about themselves….but then, they were robbers, and old Zaroff Marla was not a very nice woman indeed. They didn’t need her.
It turned out Alice was right, the old man was very rich, but very kind. He had a grand house and a grand garden and everything in the house looked very grand as well. Her bedroom was lovely, with little curtains with lambs munching grass on them. It turned out the man’s name was Mr Potts, but he let Alice call him Harry, which was his first name. Alice went on wonderful walks around Oxford with him, and sometimes they went to the park and fed the ducks. She even saw QuickFingers and her gang once, but luckily they didn’t see her. Alice tried not to go too close to them, or it might be quite scary for her. Everything was going perfectly, until the day that the police came round to their house.
***
They led Harry and Alice to the kitchen, and sat Alice down in a chair. She looked at the floor, knowing what was going to come next.
“Alice, we have been looking for information about you,” he said, in a harsh tone. “And we found out you used to go to a workhouse, about a few months ago.” Alice didn’t do anything but look down, too afraid to look up.
“Which means,” he continued, “you have been lying to the police and Mr Potts.”
“We asked your workhouse, whether they knew where you were, and they said they did not know, and they thought you had escaped. They also told me that your parents did not die in a dramatic carriage crash, but disappeared on a trip to Africa when you were a baby! What do you have to say about this?!”
Alice was close to tears, and as she looked up her eyes were all blurry so she couldn’t see very much. Alice decided to tell the truth. After all, she thought she had learnt her lesson now.
“I – I – I didn’t want to live there any more,” she spluttered, “I – I didn’t like it there.”
“Why on earth did you lie to me then?” said Harry in a hoarse whisper.
“I – I didn’t want to go back….I wanted to stay here. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” After that Alice blurted out the whole story, about how she had stolen his watch for QuickFingers and her gang because she was so frightened, and how she had returned it because she felt so guilty. She told them about how she wanted to be adopted and that her life had become complete perfection. Alice was crying now, holding her head in her hands. After a while the policeman spoke.
“Thank you, Alice. Now, I hope this isn’t one of your silly tales again. Now, why don’t we ask Mr Potts about how he feels looking after you now,” he said.
“I – I am shocked of you Alice,” Harry said in a shocked voice, “But now you have told the truth, I think I might be able to help you.”
“What were your parent’s names, child?” he said, in his normal voice now.
“Sylvia and Paul,” Alice said.
“Why, this must be a miracle,” Harry said and held his head in his hands.
“Child, I think your parents may still be alive.” Alice jumped for joy.
“Do you…do you really think so?” she asked shaking with excitement.
“Yes, yes I do,” he said, sounding serious, but calm at the same time.
***
After that, he told me about their story, and how when they had gone to Africa as missionaries but had been captured. Luckily Alice had taken after them, so they were very crafty at escaping. They had trekked across the whole of Africa and to the workhouse in England in search of their beloved daughter, and when they had turned up a few months ago, she had not been there. They had been on a huge search, but the police had not seemed to be very crafty, and not realised it was her when they had seen her in front of their very eyes. They were now living in a little cottage, hoping for signs of their dearest daughter, in a little village called Church Stowe. It also turned out that Harry was her godfather. He had wanted to go and see them but they had been quite busy. So he had been right when he said he had seen my face somewhere before! Alice was overwhelmed and she suddenly felt proud that her parents had been so brave, and so strong.
Alice was so excited. She was going to meet see her parents! It had all been arranged. She had on her finest clothes and she had her hair done in two lovely little plaits. When it was time to go she and Harry got into the carriage and it road off. It took a few hours and it was very boring, but Alice enjoyed looking out at all the lovely sights. At last they got there. Alice was shaking with excitement. What would they look like? Would they be nice?
As soon as her mother opened the door, Alice knew from the moment she saw her she would be lovely. She had very long, dark hair, with dark blue eyes and a beautiful, gleaming smile. Her father, on the other hand, had short hair, and a big, wide grin. Alice rushed up to hug them, and from that moment on they have been living very happily, in the same cottage. Her mother and Father love her dearly, and Alice loves them just as much.
As for me, I am Alice’s great, great, great, great granddaughter and I have wrote this story for Banardos. A charity for children in great need.
The Poor Girl—by Grace Turberville-Smith (2nd Prize)
Once lived a girl,
Who was very poor,
She looked out the window,
And wished for something more.
She dreamed of cakes,
And all things nice,
Of sweets and lollies,
And chocolate mice.
She dreamed of sunshine,
And warm days near the sea,
Playing with her kite,
While seagulls roamed free.
Homeless for Me—by Thalia Felton
As I sit,
And watch the day,
People walk past,
Stop, stare and say:
Ugly,
Dirty,
Out of my sight,
Don’t worry I say,
I wouldn’t Bite.
Pain of loss,
Tears of cry,
People wonder,
But never ask why.
They don’t care,
They don’t know,
How it feels to be left alone.
Time goes on,
This will never end,
Hopelessness is my only friend.
Time flies by when you’re having fun,
But to me it dies without some.
No home,
No smile,
No warmth,
For a while.
