Pupils from the school council took part in the presentation ceremony at The National Space Centre where our school received the Leicestershire County Council Beyond Bullying Award. This is the culmination of work completed over the last year which has included pupils, staff, governors and parents.

Part of this project has been the development of the website content which can be found here.

A packed audience at DeMontfort Hall were lucky to see a wonderful concert of performances organised by Leicestershire School Music Service which involved two of our classes. The show was opened by our year five pupils who performed Taiko Rhythms. This was a chance to share everything they have learnt with Mr Kirkland and Bullfrog Arts over the past year and it was great to see them enjoying the experience.

Later in the evening our year four class made up part of the schools choir who performed a series of songs linked to Roald Dahl. Having worked with the music service over the past term, it was an excellent opportunity to share their talents.

The evening involved a wide range of pieces from different schools and there were many proud parents in attendance. This concert has undoubtedly become one of the highlights of the school year, thank you to all who helped to organise and to Mr Kirkland, Mrs House, Mrs Sparkes and Mrs Hollis for supporting and leading the children.

Thank you to the staff at Pitsford School for organising the Science Olympics which involved pupils from our school. The children enjoyed taking part in a series of experiments and were announced as the winning team. Thank you to Mrs Riley, a school governor, for supporting the children at the event.

A group of year five pupils were fortunate to be invited to take part in a science master class event hosted by The Kibworth School. The children had a fascinating morning enjoying a range of experiments around the theme of energy while working alongside pupils from other local primary schools. Thank you to Mrs Byrne for accompanying the children and to all involved in organising the event.

We were lucky to have glorious sunshine for our annual sports day. All of the children took part with key stage two pupils going first. The children took part in a selection of different races finishing with Hanbury being crowned the winners. In the afternoon, key stage one enjoyed their own sports day with more great support from parents and grandparents. The year six sports ambassadors did a great job to help organise all of the events and Kendall were the winners.

Thank you to Mrs Sparkes for organising a great day of sports at Church Langton.

All of the pupils enjoyed taking part in the maths challenge day organised by Mrs Manley. They had to try and solve various challenges involving a wide range of equipment and the excitement of each group was great to see.

Two teams of pupils from years five and six took part in the competition held at Leicester Grammar School and played some excellent matches. Both teams won their groups and then narrowly lost in the quarter finals. It was a pleasure to see the children enjoying the chance to compete and support each other in many exciting matches.

The children have enjoyed taking part in the activities on the Life Education Bus that has visited school this week. It is a great chance to explore different elements of the Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum, thank you to Mrs Manley for organising.

Pupils from debating club took part in the Global Conference held at County Hall as part of our global learning partnership. The pupils from years three, four, five and six did brilliantly debating against teams from five other schools. A big thank you to Mrs Edwards for organising the whole event.

It was very exciting to welcome the visitors from Leicestershire School Music Service, both past and present, for the presentation of the blue plaque as part of BBC Music Day. The Blue Plaque recognises the huge impact of Eric Pinkett, the founder of the Music Service. Our school was chosen as the location for the plaque as the first concert organised by Leicestershire Schools Music Service was held at our school.  The year five children did a brilliant job performing on the taiko drums and enjoyed the chance to be filmed by East Midlands Today (unfortunately they didn’t make much of the final edit) and to appear on Radio Leicester. The episode of Ben Jackson’s show can be listened to again on BBC iplayer, the children perform about 1 hour 45minutes into the episode.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p054dw2w

Photo gallery of the day

This is the full biography for Eric Pinkett.

Eric Pinkett (OBE) – (1911-1979)

Eric Pinkett founded the Leicestershire School of Music in 1948 with the help of the local education authority.   This was the first school music service in the UK and led the way for the rest of the county.  He was seen as a ‘world pioneer’ in musical education and known as ‘Mr Music’ in Leicestershire.

Eric believed that children from any background should be able to play musical instruments and it should be not be dependent on finances. Prior to his work only wealthy children played musical instruments.  He wanted all children to love music as a result of playing musical instruments. He set a team of peripatetic music teachers to go to all schools in the county and provide instruments free of charge.   He also set up the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra which became well known for its excellence and patrons included Sir Michael Tippett, Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Arnold.  Eric took the orchestra on tours abroad himself to further expand the children’s musical education.

Many of the children have gone onto perform with top orchestras across the world.  Today his legacy continues with the Leicestershire Schools Music Service and the schools symphony orchestra.

In the early pioneering days Eric had only his faith to keep him going. He was once advised to rehearse for five years before giving a concert and he ignored it. He knew that the children’s interest would have evaporated without the stimulus of playing in public.

Eric has been nominated by listeners to BBC Radio Leicester and through network programmes.

One said – ‘his influence on the people he taught an on musical education as a whole has impacted the way music is taught in schools and continues today.  His passion and enthusiasm should be remembered by siting of a blue plaque in his memory in the place in Leicester where is all started’.

He was awarded an OBE in recognition of his work to inspire young musicians.