Wow, what a week of festivities, and we are only just beginning! There have been piano keys twinkling and sugar plum fairies twirling as lower school and nursery prepare their Christmas shows for parents to enjoy. This time of year is magical and the light hearted spirit of the season is beginning to permeate the classrooms and the warmth and joy of the festive season is evident in the atmosphere around school.

The Christmas Fayre opened with an array of happy faces as Santa modernised himself and arrived in slightly quicker mode of transport. The OWLs did a fantastic job of creating another super event and the funds raised will continue to help enhance the experience of our children. Most recently the OWLs have donated £800 to nursery to revamp their outdoor space, bought the sports’ department some new goals, paid for the much-loved annual trip to the panto and funded some display stands for art. Their donations to school really do make a difference, as does your support of the OWLs events.

In our less festive news, our upper school children have debuted their first swimming event of the year and did incredibly well in a tournament competing against three other schools at St. Hugh’s. The sports’ teams have performed incredibly well this term and a huge thank you to Mrs Steeple, Mr Cox and Mr Stanney who ferry the children across the county and beyond to give them as many opportunities as they can. On a slightly different competitive note, we flexed our numeracy muscles in the UK Maths challenge against hundreds of other schools and bathed in a sea of certificates in our celebration assembly last week. Well done to all of those who participated as there was no incentive of an afternoon out of school!

The practical learning taking place at Burton Hathow has (as always) been outstanding over the past few weeks. We celebrate Christmas magic at this time of year, but this festive magic holds no comparison to the wonder of seeing our children making rapid academic progress through analytical decision making, heightened engagement and collaborative thinking. The perception of ‘academia’ as learning that takes place in a classroom with a textbook and teacher talk is fast becoming a thing of the past as we span decades away from the Victorian era. It’s almost as dated as oranges in stockings – the latter being a more favoured tradition. We are proud to be at the forefront of innovative teaching and flexible curriculum approaches with year 1 and 2 exploring mathematical 3D shapes through building the houses of the Three Little Pigs, year 3 exploring friction and metrics, measuring the distance a car can travel off a number of ramps, year 4 creating circuits using all their knowledge of how electricity conducts and year 5 exploring reversible and irreversible material changes. In the fast-paced world of devices and everything at our fingertips, engagement in learning is a national challenge and we, as educators, need to adapt and cater for the rapidly evolving world in which we live.

There has also been time for reflection as we build an appreciation and tolerance for diversity, embracing a range of beliefs that exist within our local community. The year 3 children had the opportunity to visit the Mosque in Lincoln where Imam Atikur Rehman gave the group a guided tour and led them through the ritual of Wudu and discussed Salah, the Muslim act of prayer.

As we talk of tradition, we had better touch on the annual trip to the panto. Snow White was a hit with our children from year 1 upwards and their behaviour was exemplary as they joined the choruses of, “Oh no he didn’t!” and “He’s behind you…” Thank you to the OWLs who funded the trip and allowed us all to travel together by coach. Mr Stanney is becoming accustomed to being the focus of the Dame’s jokes and antics, and we can only put this down to a certain mischievous twinkle in his eye as he enters the first row of the stalls.

We are looking forward to sharing the festive season with you and thank you again for your support in making the journey magical.