Juniors enjoy festive fun with raft of Christmas activities
Girls and boys from Nursery to Year Six had a host of opportunities to get into the Christmas spirit with lots of events, activities and visits taking place.
Reverse Advent
Thank you to everyone who donated to the Junior School’s Reverse Advent charity initiative for The Trussell Trust and the Stockport Foodbank.
The donated items amounted to an amazing half a tonne and were mainly essential items, such as milk, orange juice and tinned goods, that are included in every food parcel.
The charities were also really pleased that some Christmas treats were included which will help spread festive cheer to people in Stockport who are struggling financially this Christmas.
Nativities
Pupils from Nursery to Year Two delivered wonderful performances at this year’s nativities.
Reception and Nursery children put on two amazing shows of ‘A Bundle of Joy’, a fun story about a grumpy, grumbly donkey who travels with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
Meanwhile, boys and girls in Years One and Two performed ‘Baubles’, a play about Mr Potts the Caretaker who is trying to decorate the school Christmas tree with baubles.
Read a review of the shows.
Santa Visit
On the penultimate day of term, pupils enjoyed a scrumptious Christmas Lunch in the Dining Hall before heading back to their classrooms where they were paid a visit by Father Christmas!
They asked Santa a number of questions including “What time do you eat your Christmas lunch?”, “How do you get back up the chimney?” and “How do you travel around the world so fast?”.
Carol Service
The Junior School community gathered together at St George’s Church to enjoy an evening of festive cheer at the Carol Service.
The children treated the audience to a seamless performance of readings, singing and orchestral music.
Read more about the Carol Service.
Elf Day
Reception and Nursery pupils had a heap of fun getting involved in a variety of festive activities during Elf Day.
Reception children decorated a cake, created an elf bag, made a stocking and did an ‘elf yourself’.
In Nursery, the girls and boys used the ‘elf-abet’ to work out their elf name, made reindeer cakes in Mrs Claus’s kitchen, had fun learning how to deliver presents (tiptoeing on rooftops, sliding down chimneys and leaving presents under the tree) and designed Christmas decorations.
To round off their busy day the pupils enjoyed a hot chocolate and biscuit.
Nursery Christmas Tree
Every Christmas, Nursery take part in St George’s Church’s Christmas Tree Festival.
This year the pupils submitted a tree entitled ‘Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’. The children made their own reindeer baubles to hang on their tree and topped it with a giant red nose to help Santa find his way on Christmas Eve.
The boys and girls visited St George’s to see all of the trees and were amazed at the beauty of the church. Of the other trees their favourites were the rainbow tree, the Shaun The Sheep tree and the Cinderella tree.
Panto Time
Theatre company Altru Drama delivered two wonderful performances of the ‘Wind in the Willows’ in the Main Hall.
The play allowed children to access Kenneth Grahame’s classic story in a new way with the original text being updated with modern language and brand new songs.
Christmas Wishes
Pupils from Nursery to Year Four welcomed a family member into SGS so that they could write a Christmas Wish together to hang on the Christmas tree.
Gingerbread and mince pies were enjoyed, along with some festive music and excited chatter about the children’s wishes this Christmas.
Wishes included water and shelter being given to people in need, plastic to stop being thrown in the ocean and for “Covid to go away”.
SPA Christmas Fair
At the end of November, the Stopfordian Parents’ Association (SPA) held their Christmas Fair and raised over £9,500!
The school orchestra made sure everyone was in the festive spirit by playing some fabulous music and attendees enjoyed the mulled wine and mince pies that were on offer. The home-made cake, chocolate and toy stalls all proved popular and there were some delighted raffle prize winners!
Thank you to the SPA for organising such a fantastic event for the whole school community and to everyone who helped, donated and came along to enjoy the day.
The Arctic
After the very wintery weather earlier in December, Year Two children had their very own opportunity to explore and find out facts about the Arctic.
They enjoyed using the Atlas program on the iPad to locate where the Arctic is, how cold it can get, what kind of animals live there and what a polar habitat looks like.
The children learnt that the name Arctic comes from a Greek word meaning near the bear. The children were sad to learn that the Arctic region has shrunk due to global warming and realised the importance of looking after our world and protecting the beautiful, amazing animals who need different habitats for survival.
The pupils also pretended to be in the Arctic by trying to keep warm during reading, using their beautiful patchwork quilt made, and completed their learning by creating their own Winter Wonderland postcards.
Winter Trees
Year One children had lots of fun creating winter trees.
They used a variety of materials to collage their beautiful trees as they sang Christmas songs.
