February 2024

14 Buckden Roundabout February 2024 School & Pre - School W.I. On a very wet and windy January 2nd, members met at the Village Hall to discuss Resolutions put forward by the Federation. Much lively discussion arose over the 4 that had been pro- posed helped along with glasses of wine, cheese and biscuits. There was also a quiz to test our knowledge of London Under- ground stations and a raffle before braving the elements to return home. Our next meeting will be on February 6th in the Village Hall when we will welcome Eve Bacon for her talk on Queen Victo- ria. Meetings begin at 7.30pm and all are very walmly wel- comed so do come along Tea and coffee are always provided and we have a raffle and a competition ( a Victorian Artefact) to enjoy. For further information please contact: Emma Spencer - 07960 018412 Judith Armitage - 01480 811717 Amid the Christmas bustle, we did ensure we finished our win- ter term with some fun non - Christmas activities. Peppermint - scented swirl foam concealed some magnetic letters that the children could discover and match, helping with letter recogni- tion, and textured rollers and playdough helped them develop their hand muscles and mark - making skills. Following some of the children ’ s interests, we also set up a winter - themed small world dinosaur tray with number magnets and natural items, including fir tree branches we had collected while out walking. This sparked some great imaginative play and talk about sea- sons, numbers and the natural world. We welcomed some new starters this term, including the pop- ular Buckingham Bear! He is our travelling Preschool bear who enjoys going home with a different child each week to spend time with them and their family. We started the spring term by, as always, listening to and ob- serving the children to identify their interests, so that we can foster them through our activities. Farms and animals are a firm favourite right now, so we have provided a beautiful wooden farm with an assortment of animals, and tractors for mark - making in sand dough, developing the children ’ s motor control skills and creativity. We also have an interest table with carrots in soil that the chil- dren can dig up, helping the children learn about growth, crops, food, and how they ’ re connected. Our duck pond activi- ty features colour - coded ducks to be retrieved and placed in the matching colour - coded bowl, aiding colour recognition. Meanwhile, we ’ re on hand to help the children sound out the words in our animal name and picture matching activity, and we ’ re extending this activity by asking the children to find the matching animal around Preschool. Of course, our Books of the Week have followed our farm theme, and they ’ ve included the Ladybird book, ‘ The Three Little Pigs ’. Looking forward, we will be welcoming some new committee members soon, helping us plan another great year of fundrais- ing, fun and learning at Preschool. Find our updates on https://www.facebook.com/ www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk/. For our admissions waiting list and more information, visit www.buckdenpreschool.co.uk. To arrange a visit or apply for a place, call 01480 810600 or email buckdenpreschool@yahoo.co.uk. For committee information, please contact buckdenpreschool- committee@gmail.com. Our Chairperson, Helen, or our Treas- urer, Debs, will get back to you . BUCKDEN CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY ACADEMY January 2024 Happy New Year to the residents of Buck- den, Diddington and Southoe from the staff and pupils at Buckden School. We have returned to school after the well - needed Christmas holiday to a much quieter term than the last one! We are all looking forward to new challenges this term and hopefully some warmer weather as we head towards spring. As the new term begins we welcome some new staff members and children here at Buckden Primary and would like to wish them all the very best in settling into and finding their feet at our school. Our fabulous PTA raised over £5000 during the Autumn Term through various events, especially towards the run up to Christmas. They were very busy organising activities such as the Christmas Raffle, Christmas Fair, the Elfridges shop where children could come along and buy Christmas presents for fam- ily members, personalised Christmas gifts from MY Child ’ s Art and finally a popular Krispy Kreme doughnut sale on the last day of term. We look forward to future fund raising events that they have planned for the spring term. Can we please take the opportunity to remind our parents and visitors about safety and parking around the school area. We all need to be aware of the needs of the local residents as well as the traffic and parking regulations around the school. Re- member extra parking spaces are available at the Millennium Centre, off Burberry Road, which is a short walk from the school. We realise this is a contentious issue, and one the school is trying to keep under control, but we need everyone to show consideration for all residents in the village. Thank you for your co - operation.