Year 1 have been learning about ‘The Jolly Postman’ and ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ as part of their Power of Reading English lessons this half term. Part of the writing has been writing for a purpose and during one of the lessons several children genuinely said it would be nice to write a Christmas card to people who have been amazing by helping others during lockdown. The children created a list of people they thought should receive a card, the list included: the police and Holtspur Fire brigade for flashing their blue lights every Thursday outside hospitals, the NHS and Wycombe Hospital for being amazing, our local MP Joy Morrissey for looking after Beaconsfield community, Kiln Court for caring for the elderly whilst their families can’t visit them plus staff at Tesco and Sainsbury’s for making sure we have food and groceries during lockdown; the list also included Boris Johnson and The Queen! The children then wrote amazing messages using their understanding of sentences, capital letters for proper nouns and sentences using and/because. After that they made cards (and got covered in glitter!), wrote their lovely messages in their neatest handwriting and finally walked to the post box to post them. One child happened to ask if they would get a reply and we explained that wasn’t why we had written them, but it would be a lovely surprise if we did – we told the children to expect nothing! Little did we know that 2 days later, a lovely lady called Beverley Knight arrived at Holtspur from Beaconsfield Sainsbury’s asking to speak to Samuel in Year 1. She had opened his letter and read ‘Dear Sainsbury’s, Thank you for looking after us during Coronavirus and thank you for giving us food and drinks. We appreciate you helping us. I like Sainsbury’s because we get our food there. Have a lovely Christmas. From Year 1 Holtspur School. She said the words were exactly what staff needed to read to lift their spirits right now and everyone who has read the card has appreciated the card being made and sent to them. We took some photos of Beverley with Samuel and she thanked him once more then gave him 2 tubs of sweets to share with Year 1 as a thank you from Sainsbury’s. Mr Tagg and Mrs Blackmore were blown away by the impact the letters have had on so many people. Sainsbury’s do not realise the impact that 2 tubs of sweets have had on Year 1 (who had to be scraped off the ceiling when Samuel took them back to class!!) Isn’t it amazing what a little hand made card from a child in Year 1 can make to so many people! Well done Year 1.