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Posted on: 25/01/2021School provides hot lunches during lockdown
With our usual meal contractors closed during lockdown and the kitchen staff on furlough, Minerva has decided to offer hot lunches to all children attending school. The meals are available to all children in school and are in addition to the Free School Meals vouchers provided to eligible families.
Mrs Phillips and Mrs Elliott, who both hold Food Safety certificates, have been preparing popular meals such as fishfingers and chips, pasta in tomato sauce, and pizza. About 40 children have signed up so far and have been clearing their plates - and enjoying seconds when supplies allow. Some of the older children have also been having fun helping with the cooking.
Food has been generously donated by Taunton YMCA and Asda, and the children were thrilled when Mademoiselle Desserts - previously Ministry of Cake and before that Maynards - sent a car-load of delicious cakes and puddings, with the promise of more to come. A spokesperson for The Redstart Learning Partnership said: "We want to extend our thanks to the Taunton YMCA, Mademoiselle Desserts and Asda Taunton for all their kind support.
"We would also like to make a very special thank you to Mrs Phillips and Mrs Elliott and the staff at Minerva for going above and beyond and for looking after our children by providing them with a hot lunchtime meal. It’s an absolutely fantastic effort by all involved and we applaud you."
To show their gratitude to the companies involved, the children are making thank you cards to send to them next week.
Mrs Phillips said “I wanted to make sure that although our kitchen was closed, these children still had the chance to eat a hot meal each day. In this most difficult of times, I didn’t want to be moaning and not helping. So I used what I could, asked for provision and made sure we loved these kids in the best way we can.”
Posted on: 1/12/2020Prepare for the Window Wanderland
Our Year 4 children had an amazing time in school last month creating lanterns for a local event called 'Window Wanderland', a festival of light and colour.
Minerva was included in the Nocturnal Nightlights Window Wanderland, covering the East Taunton area. The school was delighted to be included in a free lantern making workshop with lead artist Sarah Butterworth, supported by Somerset West and Taunton Council and Somerset Art Works, as part of the Nocturnal Nightlights Window Wanderland (Nov 21st to Dec 6th).
This term the Year 4 children's topic has been carnival. They designed carnival floats, which included light, sound and movement ideas from their work on electricity. The lanterns were an excellent way to talk about the walking entries in local carnivals and give them examples of the uses of light, light sources, power (batteries), light travelling in straight lines and circuits etc.
To make the lanterns the children used willow to create their structure, and designed patterns using leaves, which they cut out on black paper. They then used tissue paper and glue to cover the lantern and placed the leaves on. When they were dry the lanterns were secured to a piece of willow and an LED light placed inside. The children displayed them in the classroom for a short time (as they were rather large!) and then took them home. The children thought they were brilliant and it was a great link to Year 4's science work on light.
The children and their parents have been invited to take their lanterns to the All Saints Church Hall (Roman Road) on Friday 4th December, 5:00 to 7:30pm. The areas around the church will be lit up with lanterns and wildlife sculptures along the Halcon, East Taunton walking trail.
Posted on: 26/02/2021