St Francis Catholic School, Primary pupils listen carefully as local Berkshire author Vicki Gibson reads from her book The Eagle, a fantasy adventure about two children who learn from their fantastic adventures.

Mrs Gibson, who lives in Finchampstead, wrote The Eagle after she retired as Head of Philosophy of Religion and School Chaplain of an Independent school. She visited St Francis to talk about her book where she was welcomed by the children and their teacher, Mrs Lindsey Waller.

Mrs Gibson spent the morning with the children, telling them about her inspiration for The Eagle, enthralling them with extracts from the book and encouraging them to write the opening paragraph for their own suspense story.

Pupils Ashleigh Kirby and Sophia Zeolla told Mrs Gibson that they thoroughly enjoyed the morning and couldn’t wait to read the rest of the book for themselves.

Mrs Waller said "The children were delighted to meet a real author and loved hearing some of her delightful thought-provoking story.”

www.spotlightsmtg.co.uk  

SPOTLIGHTS and YOUTH MUSIC | The Spotlights Musical Theatre Group (SMTG) in Ascot has chosen its charity for 2016/17: "Youth Music" supports music projects for disadvantaged children. It was set up by the parents of Alice Gross. 

Serena Kay, Spotlights Music Director, taught Alice singing for 3 years and she was an exceptionally talented musician, singer and performer. Tragically, Alice was murdered in 2014 - many people will remember this - and her loss impacted so many in truly devastating ways. Out of their grief and loss her family set up "Youth Music" to help other children.

Serena is convinced that had Alice lived she would have had a highly successful music career.

Spotlights will fund raise for Youth Music for a year, maybe two, and have already set aside £200 as a first donation arising out of their Christmas concert at the Berystede on Christms Eve.

The group hope that further donations can be made following the performance of their summer show, My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady will be performed at Papplewick School in Ascot from Thursday July 13 to Saturday July 15. Performances will be at 7.30pm and there will also be a matinee at 230pm on the Saturday.

Tickets cost £16 for adults and £11 for children under 16 and can be bought from any SMTG member or from the group's box office on 0333 666 3366.  A transaction charge of £1.50 will be made for box office bookings. They can also be purchased on line at www.ticketsource.co.uk/spotlightsmusicaltheatregroup

The redevelopment of the Ascot High Street area moved a step forward today with the announcement of plans to press ahead with the creation of a development plan for the architectural firm working on the brief. Once created, this plan will be submitted to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for adoption.

The work will include a High Street Traffic Management Plan and research into the best way to create a sustainable new community centre. This is in line with community feedback on the need to improve traffic flow and also the desire for a community centre. It will be funded by a group of key stakeholders in the project: The Crown Estate, Ascot Racecourse Limited, Bloor Homes (responsible for the Car Park 5a area) and Ascot Central Car Parks Ltd (Car Park 5).

Charles Anson, the Queen’s former press secretary, has joined the Trustees of Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, to help oversee the delivery of the charity’s new strategic plan.

Cumberland Lodge is celebrating 70 years as an educational foundation this year and it has reinvigorated its founding principles to focus on addressing the root causes and effects of social divisions by equipping and inspiring people to engage in constructive dialogue.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it. 

On Monday 5^th September, the new intake of Year 7 students began their new academic term at Charters School in Sunningdale. With students in other years starting term the following day, the Year 11 Prefect Mentors were able to show the 11 year olds around the school site and answer any of their questions.

The school runs a vast array of extra-curricular clubs and during the afternoon the students were able to find out about the exciting variety of activities on offer at the Freshers Fayre.

Alongside the obvious PE and Sports clubs were the less obvious, such as fencing, trampolining, and squash.  In addition there was Latin, Art, Robotics, Science, Music, History, Gardening and also the Railway Club to name but a few.

On Saturday 25^th February a circus-themed sleepover party entertained boys aged 7-11 at Papplewick School, Ascot, courtesy of Splats, the circus skills experts.

The highlights of the evening were juggling, plate spinning and stilt walking, balancing feathers and using diablos. Harry and Johannes from the Splats team gave the boys a wonderful demonstration and helped them to master the tricks of the trade.

Equally diverting were the sideshows, which involved parachute games, circus pong, coconut shy, relay races, a bouncy castle and a popular candyfloss machine.

Toby Dodwell-Bennett won the prize for ‘guess how many sweets in the jar’ and Raphael Shires for the best costume of the evening – a very convincing mime artist. Hot dogs and ice creams were on the menu for tea.

Headmaster Tom Bunbury said: “There was no ‘clowning around’ after lights out and the boys were up early to enjoy a full English breakfast before returning to the care of their parents. They thoroughly enjoyed the evening and went home with some new creative skills.”

Next Open Morning:   Saturday 4th November 2017 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m   Visit:  www.papplewick.org.uk 

 About Papplewick  http://www.papplewick.org.uk .......