Harvest Festival
Following a welcome by Rev Simon Stevenette, our Harvest Festival began with the Harvest Samba where we thanked God for all the food we eat.
Tiger class sang 'Let's Harvest' which they accompanied with sign language.
Polar Bear class shared their memories of Autumn:
Jimi remembered collecting conkers, jumping in the soggy leaves, his mum's pumpkin pie which he enjoyed eating and the red and yellow leaves blowing in his face.
Toby remembers the time when his dad put the heating on and his brothers and sister sat beside it to feel it getting warmer and cosy.
Harvest time reminds Theo of picking fruits and vegetables that grow in the ground. It is a time to remember to help people who do not have enough money for food.
Lathika likes Autumn because she can go blackberry picking with her cousins. She likes the Autumn colours of purple, gold, orange, red and brown on the leaves which fall from the trees.
Rakshave remembers that Harvest time is a festival where she thinks of blackberry and apple pies in the oven with the delicious scent in the kitchen, watching the conkers fall from the trees in the Town Gardens and jumping through the crunchy or soggy leaves.
For Max, Autumn is seeing the apples on the large red and yellow tree, which smell absolutely wonderful and must be picked. Skipping along the orange and red leafy path searching for huge spiky conkers which he places in his bag.
Puffin class shared their salt dough leaves whilst reading a poem.
Zebra class sang 'Simple Gifts' and Blue Whale entertained with their version of a 'Dingle Dangle Sacrecrow.'
Panda class shared their paintings which accompanied the poem 'Autumn Moon'...
'The Flame-red moon, the harvest moon, Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing, A vast balloon.'
Swindon is our home and we all have a vested interest in preserving our community and helping each other. At King William Street School one of our core values is to treat people as we expect to be treated ourselves. This year we will be donating all money raised as part of this Harvest Festival to Fillerz—a café located opposite Swindon library. We chose to support Fillerz—and their partners, Threshold Charity—during this Harvest because of their new and effective homeless-support scheme and how it benefits our community.
Fillerz homeless-support scheme is simple: patrons of Fillerz are given the opportunity to buy additional food/drink items (therefore, donations) when paying for their orders. These donations are reserved for homeless people to claim—free of charge—when they visit Fillerz. To ensure donations are available to only the needy and that the scheme isn’t abused, homeless men and women are found and given a token every morning by Threshold Charity staff. These tokens can then be exchanged for donations when the claimer visits Fillerz.
When asked about the scheme, Dave—Fillerz General Manager—commented that “… the beginning of every month is when most donations are received. However, the opposite can be said of the end of every month—we receive next to none”. Fillerz is the only café in Swindon that runs this scheme and it’s approach is very forward-thinking.
We need your help… yes you! Please donate to this cause today. Your donations will actually make a difference: A coffee, tuna sandwich, you name it… it all helps and may save someone’s life. Also, and if your in the area… be sure to drop into Fillerz and buy someone something to eat and/or drink—you’d really make their day.
