All children in our school are involved in enterprise activities throughout the year. Each year group has a specific week to focus on raising as much money from a £10 loan from Mrs Isherwood our Principal. It is part of our creative curriculum. Pupils are involved in making decisions about a product or service to sell, performing market research, marketing, publishing and promoting and then selling our product or service to other classes in school and our parents. Enterprise projects include; making art work to sell to the highest bidder, designing and making chocolate bars to sell, undertaking a sponsored spell and many more. All the profits generated from the pupil’s enterprise goes into their class bank account and the class are then responsible for how the money will be spent. In addition, we have local businesses coming into school to work with us to help us gain a knowledge and understanding of the world of work and enterprise. Each year the winning class members receive a medal and the trophy to hold for a year.

We have renewed our Green Flag in July 2023  with DISTINSTION.

We have also achieved the ‘Fairtrade Achievers Award’ for another 3 years till 2025.

WE ARE CURRENTLY PREPARING FOR OUR RHS TATTON EXHIBITION CONTAINER – MORE NEWS TO COME!

Our entry at the RHS Tatton 2022 show where we designed and built our ‘Garden of Resilience.’

We took aspects of our school environment to the show, we recreated
our pond, allotment, forest area in a 3mtr x 3mtr plot and everyone in
school painted a pebble to add to the garden.  Our art club made bees,
frogs and ants to place around the plot.  The public were so
complimentary about our skills and could not stop taking photos.

We have sent our planted wheelbarrow down to the poly tunnel in Congleton to support Congleton in Bloom 2022.

We are officially…

YOUNG TREE CHAMPIONS – as a school working towards becoming a Beacon School.

By becoming Tree Champions we will:

We were a special award winner!

Hello Marlfields

Thank you for entering the Better Energy School Awards.  We received a huge number of excellent projects from over 23,000 children and the judging process has proved to be very intense, with many great entries unable to receive an Award.  However, I am delighted to inform you that Marlfields Primary School’s entry, ‘Harnessing Natural Power!’ has been named as a Special Award Winner for northern England.  As a Special Award winner, the school will receive a certificate together with £100 for the school funds.  On behalf of YPTE and Total, may I offer my congratulations to everyone involved in the project.  You will receive your certificate, together with more detailed feedback on your project via email in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for taking part and we hope that you will participate again next year!

With best wishes

Peter

—
Peter Littlewood
Director
Young People’s Trust for the Environment
Yeovil Innovation Centre
Barracks Close, Copse Road
Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 8RN
t. 01935 315025
m. 07812 175395
ypte.org.uk
Registered charity number 1153740

Congratulations to our Eco team!

We did it!  We renewed our Green Flag award in November  2018 and our Fairtrade Achiever School in 2019. The Eco Assessor who visited the school quoted:-

‘This is a very impressive school, which is led by a very experienced and well managed team; the children are extremely enthusiastic about all environmental issues, not only locally but Globally as well.  There is a warm feeling when walking around the school that pupils of all ages are concerned with both local and golbal environmental issues.’

We also represented Congleton Schools at the RHS Tatton Flower Show in July 2019.  We had the title ‘A home for Ants’. Look how we design and built this wonderful garden.

We gained an RHS ‘Highly Recommended’ from the Judges – we were well pleased!  Well done to everyone.

RHS TATTON FLOWER SHOW ‘SCHOOL GARDENS’

Our 2018 RHS Tatton Schools Show Garden was ready on time and loved by all the public.  We got s ‘Golden Brick’ and a commended award from the Judges.  It was called ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. After a hetic build up which saw us laying out the garden at school first before we had support from Mr Pass who transported all the componets to the building site for us.  Everything was ready and Mrs Camp, Mrs Silk, Mrs Gartside and Mr Rowe with children from school went on two wet days to create the stunning garden below……….

Pride of place is Willy Wonka and look carefully as you can see the three Umpa Lumpas dressed in Marlfields unifrom.  The sun has shone on the garden, the rain has come and gone but we have had the most fantastic time manning the garden and speaking to the public to see what they think of our efforts.

The RHS Judges are tough, not ones for missing details and we are really happy to have been awarded RHS ‘Commended’ for our first attempt in taking part in this exciting event.  Willy Wonka and his garden has now been returned to school.

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT

Pupils from Year 5 visited Eaton Bank High School recently to share their work on the importance of ‘Fairtrade’ in our world today.  They created a keyring from fairtrade materials and followed the journey of chocolate from it’s production to our supermarkets.  The school uses fairtrade products regularly at school and always considers being green at any opportunity.  The school is working towards its 7th Green Flag this year which shows the committment that the school has had over the last 12 years to highlight the need to care for our planet and the citizens of the world.

YEAR 5 joined the ‘Rocket Science’ project as one of the 100 schools selected.

The RHS Campaign for School Gardening has partnered with the UK Space Agency to embark on an ‘out of this world’ educational project.  The project, Rocket Science, will give around half a million UK children the chance to learn how science in space contributes to our knowledge of life on earth, using the invaluable expertise of the European Space Agency (ESA) and RHS Science team. Two kilograms of rocket seeds are currently at the International Space Station as part of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s six-month Principia mission. After several months on board, the seeds will come back and will land in the Pacific Ocean in the spring of 2016. After they return to the UK, they will be packaged up with identical seeds that have stayed on earth. Marlfields Year 5 class will receive two packets of 100 seeds to grow and compare, and a collection of fun and inspiring curriculum linked teaching resources and posters.  They will then
embark on a voyage of discovery to see what growing plants in space can teach us about life on Earth and whether we can sustain human life in space through the production of our own food. Will be invited to input our results into a national online database so that results can be compared across all the schools in the UK. The project is aimed at inspiring pupils to think scientifically and helping them to see the potential of future careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) and Horticulture.

GREEN TREE AWARD

Marlfields Academy has been awarded the prestigious platinum award by the Woodland Trust for getting involved in green activities including tree planting, visiting a local woodland, reducing carbon emissions and being a woodland ambassador. The Green Tree Schools initiative was launched in 2008 offers the opportunity to bring the great outdoors, wildlife and green issues into the classroom. School win awards for participating in green activities, both in and out of the classroom. At Marlfields we have planted over 25 new trees in our school grounds, visited local woods, created a woodland nature trail and joined in various other Woodland Trust activities.

Karen Letten, Woodland Trust schools communications manager, said to us: “The scheme promotes a range of opportunities, each designed to stimulate a child’s imagination and sustain their interest in woods and trees. The achievements of the school are recognised through an awards scheme in which they receive points for taking part in activities. As they reach milestones within the project they will receive bronze, silver and at gold an attractive wooden plaque which acknowledges this environmental accolade. Only a handful of schools have moved on to achieve platinum, making this a huge accomplishment for the school.  Congratulations Marlfields!”

It was achieved finally as Thomas Hatton in our Year 6 presented a fabulous assembly entitled ‘The Man who planted trees’, which showed the whole community the importance of trees in the environment on earth.  Thank you Thomas for helping us gain this prestigious award – THE FIRST SCHOOL IN CONGLETON to have done so and to be leading the way again the the town with regard to eco work.

PAST ECO NEWS

‘The Black Hole’ was the theme for our garden in the Congleton community ‘Back to Back School Gardens’ show.  School took the theme of ‘Space’ and each school had a planet or space area to create into a garden.  This was supported by the Congleton in Bloom society who each year enter the best town in bloom competition.  Our entry the ‘Black Hole’ was awarded the best in show due to the unusual way in which we created the garden.  Lots of visitors visited and we throughly enjoyed growing and designing our garden. This is the picture of our garden which was shown in the local Congleton Chronicle newspaper celebrating the event.  Well done to our Eco Club for all their hard work.

‘The Kier Green Environmental Award’

We have been recognised for our work on the environment by winning the Community Education Award supported by Kier Green for the Environmental School Group of the Year.

We are so pleased as we love to look after both our school and the wider community.

Eco club members from Marlfields Primary recently gained reaccreditation of the ‘Green Flag’ for the forth time in Autumn term of 2014.  Eco School assessors commented on how getting a forth Green Flag is really something as each time the school has to think harder on how to improve their green status.  One of the topics covered is ‘Energy’ and the school installed eighty one solar panels which generate electricity for the school and to sell back to the grid.  This is our display in school that tells pupils how much is generated during the day.  The assessor was really impressed with the work of the school which they commented was as being ‘visionary’.

Key developments this last year has been the purchase of our new school pet an African Piggmy Hedgehog called Heggerty Snuffles.

PREVIOUS NEWS

We have established our very own Bee Hive in the school grounds. We have done this with the support of our local bee keeper ‘Bob Carr’.  Bob comes in each week to ensure we look after them properly and to help us extract the yummy honey when it is ready.

To improve our environment we have recently added these fantastic mosaic animals to our outside walls to promote all who visit to consider how the environment is there for all to enjoy in harmony.

Marlfields Primary School is a ‘FAIRTADE’ school and this year we joined in with the ‘Rice Challenge’.  We sold 1kg bags of rice with fantastic spices donated from City Spice in Congleton for £3 per bag.  All donations collected have been donated to ensure that a child in Malawi will be able to attend school for a whole year. Our events for Fair-trade week continue to be unusual and unique. We have won the Fairtrade Organisation  DEMIDECKA AWARD.

This was the e-mail we received from Kate and the judges comments:

From: Kate Jones [kate.jones@fairtrade.org.uk]
Sent: 11 June  14:21
To: MARLFIELDS PRIMARY HEAD
Subject: Demidecka Award – Marlfields won!

Hi Sandie

Congratulations to all the pupils and staff at Marlfields Primary School – your entry into the Demidecka Awards won our prize for the best event during Fairtrade Fortnight! As ever, the competition was very high, especially amongst primary schools, and the judges’ decisions were not easy. However, I’m really happy to say that Marlfields’ entry scored highest by a panel of six judges.

We usually try to set up a time to visit the winning school to present the prize – a cheque for £350 towards your school’s Fairtrade campaigning activities. Would any time from 12th July until the end of term work for the school? I would love to be able to visit and could make it, if the presentation could happen in the early afternoon (as I’ll be able to fit it in around my children’s nursery hours).

Congratulations to everyone at Marlfields once again,

Kate

Kate Jones │ Education Campaigns Manager
Direct:  +44 (0)20 7440 8587    Fairtrade Foundation

Judges comments on Marlfields submission – shared by Kate on her visit to school to present the award.

“Fantastic use of a theme to involve a number of schools and the whole community, and the resources produced are very high quality.”   10/10

“TOP CLASS PRESENTATION.”   10/10

“Great to get other schools involved in the school ‘Bake Off’ and to promote Fairtrade within the town.”    9/10

“AN EXCELLENT, INTERESTING AND AMAZING PRESENTATION INVOLVING SO MANY PEOPLE AND CHILDREN.”   10/10

‘Interesting, well thought out – excellent presentation.  Used the Fairtrade theme extremely well.  A pleasure to read.      10/10

Total given   49/50   = 9.8 out of 10 making them a clear winner.

At Marlfields Primary School we pride ourselves on the number of residential and day visits we organise with the support of our ‘Friends for Marlfields’ fundraising for the children in the school. We believe all experiences outside the classroom are valuable ones and the social and emotional skills the children gain by spending time away from the home environment are invaluable. All visits focus on giving children as many different ‘Hands on’ experiences as possible whilst developing life long knowledge and skills relating to the curriculum delivered through current topic work. Our trip reports are reported on in our weekly newsletters which we invite you to read and pictures are posted on our blog. Our charging policy is available to read on the Policies page of our website.

We are a Singing School!

Marlfields has achieved the Gold Award in the Sing Up scheme previously and is now aiming for the PLATINUM AWARD!  If successful they will become the ambassador school for Cheshire East schools.

The schemes awards celebrate and promote schools that value singing as an important part of each day. The Awards support schools on their journey through the Sing Up programme, to make sure everyone gets the most from our resources and training.

Embracing a whole-school philosophy, the Sing Up Awards aim to:

• help schools identify areas where they’d like help to introduce or improve singing
• share good practice and showcase new work
• provide a place for every school to achieve recognition
• help schools to tailor their objectives

The Awards complement other initiatives and programmes, such as Healthy Schools and the School Sports Initiative. Similarly, the Every Child Matters objectives can be achieved through the Awards, by putting singing at the heart of school life. The Space Dome came to the hall to show us the stars, moon and even dinosaurs.

For more information please see our newsletters.