December 2020

17 Buckden Roundabout December 2020 School & Pre - School So here we are, at the last Roundabout edition of what has been, for everyone, a difficult and demanding year. We hope that you have all stayed safe and well, and we ’ ve done our best to ensure the children do by establishing strict hygiene measures for both them and the staff. At the same, time, we ’ ve tried our hardest to make sure the children still have as many opportunities for fun and learning as they did before, and tried to provide some familiarity and routine for them at a time when things seem uncertain and different. Recently, our home corner has been converted into a fire sta- tion and the children have enjoyed making fire extinguishers to put out the pretend fires. Of course, while they ’ re doing this, they ’ ve also been learning about fire, safety, danger, what they should do in the event of a fire and why our fire drills are so important. Very relevant in a month where they have also been making ‘ firework rockets ’ and practising pencil control by tracing over firework patterns! They also marked Remembrance Day by decorating poppies for our remem- brance wreaths. We have put one of our wreaths on the railing outside preschool and another is at the war memorial wall. Christmas is rapidly approaching, and we are trying to find ways to ensure it ’ s as enjoyable as possible for the children and parents, despite the restrictions. We have lots of arts and crafts planned, and although we can ’ t invite parents in for a Christmas play or concert as we usually do, we ’ re hoping to broadcast a virtual concert. We have also welcomed a new member of staff, Miss Jasmine. Jasmine is an experienced Level 3 practitioner who will be helping Miss Nicola in supporting children with special educa- tional needs. We hope she will be very happy with us! Finally, it just remains to thank everyone who has supported us this year, especially the parents, the committee, all those who donate to our collection pot in Nisa (which has funded some new jigsaws), and Nisa themselves for generously do- nating the food for our daily snack. We wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Committee enquiries: contact Jo Chillmaid (Chairperson) at buckdenpreschoolchairperson@gmail.com or on 07393650084. To enrol your child or arrange a visit, contact the Manager, Nicola Henge, at the Preschool on 01480 810600 . For more information, visit www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk or see our Facebook updates at https://www.facebook.com/ www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk/. BUCKDEN CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL (Primary Academy Trust) December 2020 Welcome to Buckden School news!!! We are adapting to the changes here at the school, one of which is the new way of having our assemblies and services. The latest occasion we had to adapt to was our Remembrance service. Our service of remembrance was led Rev Jez via Zoom. Unfortunately we were unable to buy our poppies in school this year so we made our special poppies using old drinks bottles. If you pass the school on the front fence our poppies are proudly dis- played for everyone to admire. This is our special tribute for remembrance. To mark National Dyslexia Day we all came to school wearing red. As a Dyslexia Friendly School we supported this day and had a collection to add more books to our Dyslexia friendly library. Thank you to all our parents who made a contribution – we raised over £200.00 towards the purchase of new books. Many of you will have seen our Year 6 children riding their bicycles around the village. They were working towards their Bikeability award, which many of you may remember was previously known as the Cycling Proficiency Award. Well done to everyone who took part – you are now well prepared to ride your bikes on the road safely. We are sorry to bring this topic to your notice once again, but we are still receiving comments about safety around the school with regard to driving and parking. Please be consider- ate when parking around the school and please do not block residents ’ driveways, or park in the disabled or school bus bays. Please also bear in mind that there is a 20 mph zone around the school. This is to ensure the safety of parents and children as they come to and from school. We have been no- tified by residents and parents of several occasions when cars are driving too fast leading to reports of ‘ near - miss ’ incidents. The Buckden Roundabout Editorial Team wish all our contributors, distributors and advertisers a very Merry Christmas and a happy 2021 Scout Post The Scout Post is going ahead this Christmas. For details, see the advert on page 2