On Thursday 4th March our netball team set off for Cheadle Hulme in Manchester to compete against 7 other schools in the ISA High Five Tournament.

In the weeks leading up to the competition the girls have produced some stunning performances so we were confident they would do well.

Firwood won every game they played and consequently won the tournament. This is an outstanding achievement and we are very proud of the whole team.

Well done girls.

On Thursday 25th February Year One went to visit Ebenezer Congregational Church in Uppermill. We travelled to the church by coach. During our journey we saw the snow on the hills and felt lucky that we didn't live so high up. We were welcomed by Pastor Wroe who showed us into the church.

We sat in the pews and Pastor Wroe told us a little about the church. We saw a picture of the first minister from 180 years ago before we watched a video of a little boy being christened at the church. Mr. Wroe told us all about the Christening. We looked at the Christening roll, which is a record of all the children who have been christened at the church. The first christening in the book was also from 180 years ago. We also saw the font which we were not expecting to be so small. We had seen pictures of fonts at school that were made of stone and were quite big, but the one at this church was a lot smaller.

Afterwards we talked about how we could have our own christening. We began by singing 'Who Put the Colours in the Rainbow' then Pastor Wroe asked the parents, baby and god parents to go out to the front of the church and stand with him. He then took the baby from KA and blessed her with holy water from the font. The baby was named G.M.H.M. After that Pastor Wroe took the baby to show to the congregation. He gave us a certificate of the christening.

On the video after the christening the family had a party. So we went upstairs to the hall where there were some tables and chairs set up for us to have our lunch. We were all quite hungry and ate our lunches whilst having a little chat to our friends. When we had finished our lunch we had a story and then came back to school.

We had a lovely time and would like to say a big thank you to Pastor Wroe for welcoming us to his church and spending time with us.

by Year 1

On Wednesday 24th February, we had a special visitor in school. Mike Dewer from Greater Manchester Fire Service came to school with two of his rescue dogs. He came to talk to us about how the dogs were used to help rescue people. The dogs were all Labradors. The two dogs he brought to school were called Lucy and Anna. Lucy was yellow and Anna was black. Mike told us he also had another dog called Echo. Unfortunately, Echo was in quarantine for 6months as he had been working in Haiti to help find people who were trapped following the earthquake. Quarantine is a place where animals go when they have been out of the country. This is to check they haven’t brought any diseases back with them.

Firstly, Mike talked to us about the different jobs the dogs did. Lucy was used to sniff out the cause of fires. If a fire has been started deliberately, Lucy can smell what was used to start the fire. When a fire is started deliberately it is called arson and is against the law. Anna was still in training as she was only 2 years old. She was being trained to find people who were trapped in a fire or building. When she found a person she would bark loudly. This would tell the rescuers where the person was. She still had 3 weeks left of her training.

Mike showed us the harness the dog had to wear. This told the dog that it was work time and not play time. He also showed us the little boots that the dogs wore when they went into a building. These would protect the dogs’ paws from being cut on glass or metal.

Later on, we went into the playground to meet the dogs. They were very excited but soon did as they were told. First, we met Anna who was very cute. Mike showed us how she would bark in response to finding a person. He used a toy to make her bark. He said it was very important to reward and praise the dog when it did as it was asked. It takes two years to train a dog to do this.

Next, we met Lucy. Before she had come out of the van, Mike put a drop of White Spirit on the playground to see if Lucy could find it. She was fantastic and it only took her 20 seconds to find the smell. Lucy had a short tail as it had been caught in a building and had been cut off.

We really loved meeting the dogs and were very impressed with what they could do.

By Mrs Batters' Literacy group.

I'll be doing the Great Manchester Run in May for Cancer Research UK. If you can sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated.

Mr. Lengden

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