Everton Primary School
Everyone. Everyday. Everlasting.
Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.
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Red Nose Day
Wed 29 Mar 2017Thank you to all of you that supported the charity by donating. We raised £169.90. -
Blue Skies Community Initiative - Everton Orchard Project
Wed 22 Mar 2017Blue Skies is a voluntary, not for profit community group which aims to develop positive links between schools and their local communities.
Well, this certainly was the case on Friday 10th March, when the next stage of our Heritage Orchard project took place, moving us a step nearer to its completion.
Children from Everton Primary School planted cordon apple trees, black currant bushes and herbs in the land down the side of school with parents coming to join in with the activities for the last hour of the school day.
This area, several years ago, used to be an orchard. Ex-pupils remember sitting and listening to stories on sunny afternoons under the apple trees but over the years the trees had gone and the area had deteriorated into a tired, neglected area dominated by nine huge evergreens and was a far from attractive area for parents to wait for children after school.
After applying for funding from Tesco Bags for Life, and receiving the second award, we were able to have the huge trees removed, and enlisted the help of Clifford Cain, a fruit expert from Fruitscape to advise us on suitable varieties to plant for the area. He ran a series of courses for interested adults and provided us with huge amounts of organic matter to replenish the depleted soil.
Posts and wires were erected and at last it was time to plant! The children did a fantastic job, whilst learning about the trees and plants and how to plant them. The apples were trained as diagonal cordons and they and the black currant bushes were surrounded by aromatic lavender, thyme and rosemary plants to attract pollinating insects to help the blossoms set into fruit.
Chris Campbell, an artist from Mattersey, has created a flamboyant sculptural seating area for parents and carers to use while waiting for their children. Once the step has been finished we plan to plant climbing plants to scramble up the dramatic sculpture.
Alan Berry's research tells us that Mr Barnes, ex-head teacher of Everton; the youngest headteacher in Nottinghamshire at the time, kept bees in the school grounds. Though we'd love to as well, we recognise that this is not sensible, so we plan to make a replica beehive but use it as an insect hotel.
So, what's planned next for school?
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Finish the seating area
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Put hard standing for the bins - they look unattractive at present.
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Plant sunflowers, which will also attract pollinating insects and birds and will be judged in situ as part of the Gardenholders Annual Show in September.
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Make bird and bat boxes.
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Erect an information board about the project
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Label the varieties of fruit trees and bushes
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Have an 'opening ceremony'
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Pick and eat the fruit...our cook is very excited about being able to cook with our own home grown produce, but we will have to wait a while.
The challenge is to decide what to do to make the bins look more attractive but still accessible. Send your ideas to school, please!
After we'd finished at school our work was by no means done. We moved on to the churchyard, where members of Everton's community worked with Clifford to create an additional orchard in the heart of our village. We dug six holes, 2'x2'x2', (quite a challenge) and planted six fruit trees. These include a Cider Apple, (Amanda), a Quince (Champion), a Pear, (Triomphe de Vienna), a Plum, (Velour) and two Apples, (Marriage Maker and Ten Commandments; appropriately named for church). We also planted black and red currants and plan to add gooseberries, but time ran out on us.
These should look lovely and really complement the lovely wild flowers already in the churchyard. More ideas and help are very welcome.
Thank you to all those who helped us plant both at school and the churchyard. We really appreciate your support. Thank you to Alan Berry, whose work on the history of Everton gave us the initial idea to recreate the orchard. Especial thanks to Clifford Cain and to Chris Campbell for their knowledge, hard work, expertise and creativity, and of course to Tesco Bags for Life for the funding to make this all happen.
Sue Hughes
School Governor
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Planting Day
Fri 10 Mar 2017We have been waiting for the right time to plant fruit trees in
our mini "community orchard" at the side of the school, as part of
our project to celebrate 100 years of Everton Primary School.
Thanks to funding from Tesco Bags of Help we have today planted
apple trees, herbs and blackcurrants in our edible garden.
We express our gratitude to Sue Hughes and Bev Fullwood who
have given their time to make this project a huge success.
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Parent Governor Election
Mon 09 Jan 2017Information regarding an election for a parent governor has been sent to parents today. Further information can be found on the governor section of this website.
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Welcome back!
Fri 06 Jan 2017What a fabulous first day back at school. We all enjoyed the story of Peter Pan at a pantomime performance at the Majestic Theatre, Retford. Great fun! -
Children in Need 2016
Thu 24 Nov 2016Thank you to everyone who supported Children in Need, we raised an amazing £201.57! -
PTA Update
Wed 16 Nov 2016Purple Vouchers
A big thank you to Michaela Kirbyshaw for co-ordinating this project. We have raised a total of £164! We hope you have lots of fun using these vouchers, whilst raising money for our school.
Parent Questionnaires
We had a great response from the parent questionnaires giving us some valuable feedback on what we do. We have discussed the findings at the PTA meeting this week and we are incorporating some of the ideas into this years events. Watch this space….
Children of all respondent's were added in to a draw and Benjamin Buckley was the lucky winner!
Clothes Collection
We raised a total of £160 from the ‘Clothes Collection day’. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this.
Spooky Disco
The spooky disco was enjoyed by everyone and it was lovely to see so many people having fun! A huge thank you to the members of the PTA for running the event. A grand total raised was £152. Well done everyone! The children all looked fabulously scary in their Halloween costumes. A great time was had by all.
Christmas Cards
We hope you like the fabulous designs your children have completed for their Christmas cards! We would appreciate a prompt response as this ensures the speedy return of the cards from Cauliflower Cards. Please can all cards be returned to the school by no later than Tuesday 15th November.
Christmas Fair
We would love for more people to be involved with the organisation and running of the Christmas fair. Our next meeting to discuss this is on Wednesday 23rd November, at 3.20pm in The Blacksmith’s Arms. Please come along and join in the fun!
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Thank you
Tue 04 Oct 2016Thank you to all who supported our Macmillan coffee afternoon yesterday. We raised a grand total of £268.25! It was a huge success and the delicious cakes were enjoyed by all. We are confident that we have a future 'Great British Bake Off' winner in our midst!
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Apple Day - Everton Primary School Community Event
Wed 14 Sep 2016On Thursday 20th October, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm
Enjoy a wide range of activities for free:
Apple identification; cookery; dancing; cider making; bring your own apples to juice in our new community apple press; make a clay green man; craft sessions; beekeeping and honey tasting; mosaics; design a plaque for our tree arch; cider making; refreshments and much more!
Competitions: Bring a decorated apple or favourite apple dish.
Join our apple growing free course:
6.30-8.00 6th and 13th October
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Welcome back
Tue 06 Sep 2016Welcome back, we hope you have all enjoyed a fabulous summer.
