Year 1 had a wonderful day at the Brampton Museum, taking part in the 'Toys from the past' workshop! We designed and created our own toys, went on a teddy bear hunt, and helped a Victorian boy find his lost toy soldiers! We even went down to the cellar and spent time in the toy room. Well done Year 1 for your enthusiasm and good manners, you really did us proud!

Mrs Ball's 5K Challenge – 5K UPDATE! This is Mrs Ball after running for 25 minutes without stopping for the first time since 1989! It turns out that her rescue pup spent a lot of time running too... although I'm not sure who was more exhausted! Mrs Ball is now on Week 7 of Couch to 5K. She can run continuously for 25 minutes, but is currently only reaching around 3.5K so there's still a little way to go to reach that 5K goal! Cannock Chase update... or should that be Chasewater?! The event has now moved to Chasewater in Brownhills, so Mrs Ball went along at the weekend to suss it out! It's a 5K lake run, and thankfully it's fairly flat! However, part of the route goes through a field of cows... Mrs Ball is petrified of cows, so this could certainly test her resilience! There aren't as many trees as Cannock Chase, but there are lots of wild deer roaming around, which was amazing to see. Mrs Ball was also very sad to see the amount of plastic pollution around the lake. If only it was closer to Hempstalls the school's eco warriors would soon get to work! A HUGE THANK YOU! Mrs Ball has been amazed and incredibly touched by all the generous sponsorships she has received so far. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported her! If you are able to sponsor Mrs Ball, every donation will help raise much-needed funds for Forest School resources. Sponsor Mrs Ball here: GoFundMe – Hempstalls 5K Cannock Chase RUN CLUB THIS FRIDAY! There are still spaces available for the lunchtime running club please book through Arbor. This week the children will be completing a Week 5 run, as Mrs Ball doesn't think she could manage teaching in the afternoon after running continuously for 25 minutes! Run for 5 minutes Walk for 3 minutes Repeat 3 times 5-minute warm-up walk 5-minute cool-down walk It has been amazing hearing children in the corridor saying: "See you Friday, Mrs Ball!" "You can do it!" The support and encouragement from the children has been fantastic and is helping Mrs Ball to persevere when the training gets tough! This challenge is certainly putting the Hempstalls values into action especially resilience! Come on, Mrs Ball... you've got this! 9 days to go!! #HempstallsValues #Respect #Kindness #Resilience #Curiosity #CouchTo5K #MrsBall5K #ForestSchool #HempstallsForestSchool #EcoWarriors #RunClub #Chasewater #fundraising

Hempstalls are Newcastle-under-Lyme in Bloom winners! We are absolutely delighted to announce that Hempstalls won Silver in the Community Projects – Schools category and were awarded Best Eco School at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Bloom 2026! On Saturday, Mrs Ball and Mrs Armstrong took four of our amazing children along to the awards ceremony at the New Vic Theatre, where they proudly represented Hempstalls. We are incredibly proud of everything we have achieved in our Forest School and of all the hard work our Hempstalls champions have put in to make our site a haven for biodiversity and pollinators. From planting wildflowers and trees, creating habitats and dead hedges, to caring for our Forest School and learning about the importance of pollinators our children have been fantastic! A huge well done to everyone at Hempstalls who has helped make this achievement possible. Thank you for helping our Forest School grow and flourish! Judges' comments: Hempstalls Primary School – Silver A wonderful space with many zones for various forest school activities. The pupils can benefit from using this space for self-regulation, education and entertainment. We loved hearing about future plans to include a water feature with solar panels. Hopefully, we get the chance to see this on our next visit. Well done. Hempstalls Primary School – Best Eco School It was great to see just what Hempstalls Primary School have achieved with Forest school education being at the core of their outdoor learning experience. The school has a very hands-on approach with pupils taking part in a whole range of environmental activities such as wildflower, bulb and tree planting, dead hedge construction, bee hotel building and pollinator observation sessions. It's always nice to see such enthusiasm from the children who clearly take great pride in their environment. Keep up the good wor #Hempstalls #NewcastleInBloom2026 #BestEcoSchool #ForestSchool #Biodiversity #Pollinators #ProudSchool #HempstallsChampions

What an amazing day we had at Chesterton Community Sports College! The children enjoyed taking part in Spanish, PE, History and Science lessons, embracing every opportunity with enthusiasm. They were a credit to our school, demonstrating excellent maturity, respect and positive attitudes throughout the day. We are incredibly proud of them!