Over the next few days, Santa is visiting various local streets on his sleigh. He will be coming to Cottonmill on 13 December and raising money for Mandeville School PTA on that night, so please show your support for the school that night.

 

What's more, there is a new interactive website, set up by our very own Christoph Lutz, which allows you to see exactly where he is, when! This is a really fun way to develop children's map skills and enhance their knowledge of the local area - key skills in geography that we work hard on in school. Enjoy!

 

http://www.stalbansroundtable.org.uk/

The Mayor of St Albans, Eileen Harris, who is also a Governor at Mandeville, hosted a Civic Service at St Albans Cathedral on Sunday 21st October, at which Mandeville's choir performed.

 

There was a procession with the Mayor in full robes, followed by her Mace Bearer and various other digitaries.

 

Our choir were a credit to the school. Well done to them all and thank-you to Mrs Cooper and Mrs Smith for all their enthusiam and wonderful support.

 

For photos of the event, see the Children's section on this website. 

A reminder that the closing date for applications for Secondary School places for 2013, is 31st October 2012. If you need help with your application, please call the Customer Service Centre on 0300 123 4043

Children across the school have been busy creating masterpieces for the Mayor's Christmas Card Competition. Their beautiful entries have now been sent to the Mayor, who will shortly announce the winner. Good luck everybody!

Our new giant-sized outdoor instruments are now in full use and bringing much enjoyment during playtimes.  The instruments are another of the wonderful improvements to our outdoor spaces, which, along with the imaginative new landscaping, have helped to create a really first rate outdoor environment for our children.

Several months ago, a strange cargo of giant creatures arrived at Mandeville School on the back of a lorry. These plain white animals were destined to become a whole lot more colourful during our Opening Celebration Week. Each class worked very carefully to transform the animals into the amazing creatures that can now be found around the school and grounds.

 

The animals came to our school thanks to the fund-raising efforts of our marvellous PTA, to whom we are very grateful.  Our 'Zoo' brightens up our environment no end and and we know the children are very proud of them.

During our opening week, we were lucky enough to be joined by a resident artist, Dan, who carved us a beautiful Paddington Bear.

Well, following a nervous moment when we thought our balloons may have lost too much helium to launch, our worries proved unfounded and we had a spectacular release of red, white and blue balloons as part of our Opening Celebration on 1st June. Over the next few days some of our balloons travelled some quite astonishing distances, to Kent, France and Germany and we have had some lovely letters back from the people who have found them.

 

Wonderful singing has been echoing from the hall all week as KS2 continue practising in earnest for the much-anticipated, end of year performance.

 

There will be 2 performances of this year's production, Scheherazade, which tells the story of a brave and imaginative young girl, a sultan and an evil magician. It's sure to be a great show, so reserve the dates now! There will be an afternoon performance on Tuesday 17th July and an evening performance on Wednesday 18th July. Entry will be by ticket only. Tickets are free and are available from the office.

n Friday 1st June 2012, after years of planning, designing and building work, the new, greatly improved school was officially opened. It was a proud day for everyone.  Not only were we celebrating our new school, but the fact that the school was (just over) 60 years old AND it was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. 

 

In the week leading up to the Opening Celebration, we had a resident artist in school to create a wooden sculpture of Paddington Bear, who also turned 60 this year!  The children were able to watch, amazed, as Paddington, his suitcases and, of course, his marmalade sandwiches, evolved before their eyes.  Paddington was not the only new arrival in school during the week.  The celebrations also saw the arrival of 'The Mandeville Zoo'! ...During the week, each class painted a brilliant collection of large fibre glass animals, which can now be seen around the school.

 

The afternoon celebrations on Opening Celebration Day started with a treasure hunt and a street party for the children, before the visiting guests arrived.  Then, once our various important guests were assembled, there were some wonderful musical performances and speeches, before Paddington was unveiled and a spectacular release of red, white and blue balloons took place.  Next, the 'Mandeville Museum' was opened in the hall. Here, fascinating displays telling the history of the school, of St Albans and of the decades since the Queen's Coronation, which the children had been working very hard on all week, were enjoyed by visitors. Four enomous cakes were cut and shared by all.

 

It was a wonderful day and fantastic to see so many faces from Mandeville past and present enjoying the celebration.