Bake Out Day Raises £136

Again the Schools bake out was a hit with children and staff alike. It's another event that involves the children and we raise money for the children too. A good response was received and this time there was a lot of home made cakes and buns with some very excellent efforts many with a creepy Halloween theme. A selection of the cakes and buns sent in can be seen above with PTA volunteers Alison, Simon and Joyce.

We were also reliably informed that many of the pupils look forward to the bake out (miss a bit of lessons to eat two cakes I'd look forward to it as well. Ed.) and it is the only topic talked about in the run up to bake out day. It also has a knock on effect on pupil behaviour as well by improving it! Thanks again must go to all the parents and children who baked and sent in items to sell.

Flashing Sign Campaign Update

Progress has been made with relation to our camapign for the installation of a Slow Down/30 mph sign. I contacted all three ward councillors outlining the case for a sign and how we should lobby to make it a reality. Councillor Derek Hardman responded on behalf of the three ward councillors and said ‘we will support your request’ but did point out it was subject to funds being available in the highways budget.

We will continue to lobby for this and I will also explore other avenues that may provide funding. I will continue to chase up the councillors with regards to this and we may call on the support of the parents in helping put pressure on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to meet our request to make our children safer when going to school.

The dangers of Preston Old Road were brought home to me when I spent some time with Tom our very own ‘Lollipop Man’ recently (picture above with a St. Francis pupil). The cars do hurtle down at some speed towards the junction and if it wasn’t for Tom it would be near impossible to get across as its such a busy road. But even he struggles to get the traffic to stop at times. Tom feels the installation of a flashing sign would in his words ‘make things 100% better’ as he pointed out the flashing amber lights and the red warning triangle on the approach have no effect whatsoever and it's as if nobody sees them. Spending time with Tom was very useful and has further underlined the need to have the installation of a flashing sign especially with the winter drawing in when mornings and late afternoons are darker.

Disco Night Raises £178

St. Francis C. of E. School hall was taken over on a Friday night (2nd October 2009) as the venue for the PTA Disco Night Fund Raiser featuring the highly acclaimed DJ Wooton (see picture on the right below). The night featured two disco's in fact one for the infants followed by a rather lively juniors disco. Both of the disco's were a huge success with the PTA getting lots of feedback from parents about how much the children enjoyed it.

Praise must be given to St. Francis C. of E. School teachers Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Embley-Peers, Mrs. Savage, Mrs Maginn, Mrs. Havard and Miss Rydding as they encouraged the infants to get dancing and really helped them to have fun. This can be seen by the photo above showing Mrs. Thomas at the front of the long conga which ended the night proceedings.

The juniors didn't need any encouragement and danced themselves dizzy or it may have been all the sweets they bought! The sweet stall was very busy with most of the drinks being purchased (thirsty work dancing) in the end very little was left. About 100 children attended the disco and ALL of them left with a smile on their faces. As well as all the fun everybody had £178 was raised towards PTA funds. After such a successful night it is planned to hold further disco's in the future.