November Church Collective Worship

Today Rev Steve told us the story of Saint Nicholas, and made Marcie bishop for the day. Children had been asked to apply for the post the week before. Members of the parish helped Rev Steve make the selection from the paragraphs the children had written about themselves. Mel had been very busy making the bishop's mitre. Bishop Marcie visited classrooms after lunch and like Saint Nicholas gave children sweets (in our case jelly babies!).

On March the 11th we held our third tree planting afternoon. This time we invited parents and children from Walcott to help. We planted another seventy silver birch and rowan as part of our project 'Looking after God's Earth'.

On the 6th March Mel arranged a special Sunday family service for World Book Day. A number of families joined us for the service.

Rev Steve lead our Ash Wednesday Service. For the first time in two years children and staff were able to receive the ashes.

In February we held our second tree planting day. We planted over one hundred and thirty native species trees including oak and willow. This is part of our ongoing project 'Looking after God's Earth'.

Church collective worship. The church collective worship performed a drama telling the story of Jesus' presentation at the temple for the days Bible reading.

Each class has contributed a window display this autumn telling a Bible story. The stories have all formed part of collective worship during the year...

We have created a permanent display telling the story of William McPhail using the document given to us by his sons. The children have written the names of Lancaster crew members from the 106 squadron book of remembrance on silhouettes of aircraft. There is one silhouette for every Lancaster lost from RAF Metheringham during World War II.

The Story Of Flight Engineer William Stevenson McPhail

On Tuesday 5th October 2021, we were visited by two brothers, Keith and Paul McPhail. They came to tell us the story of their father William McPhail who had been a flight engineer on a Lancaster bomber that flew from Metheringham air field in World War Two. They told the story of how their father was sent on a mission to bomb a V2 rocket site close to Calais. They were told they were going on an 'easy'....It turned out to be far from it; and having dropped their bombs were shot down by and enemy aircraft. William bailed out and he landed safely. Five of the other crew were killed in the crash. William hid in the undergrowth, but when morning came he discovered he had landed in the V2 rocket compound. It wasn't long before he was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. He was interrogated and suffered injuries as a result. After a short time in the prisoner of war camp they heard they were going to be marched to another camp. William didn't like the sound of this and along with some other airmen hid in the rafters of the prison hut. Miraculously, despite the guards hunting for them and shooting into the rafter, they escaped. Eventually they met up with advancing Russian tanks and escaped back to England. 

After the war, William met up with one of his fellow crew men and they joiner the company that baked the first Penguin biscuits! William lived in Scotland, but the Village of Martin remained somewhere very special to him. When he died in 1984 he was buried in the churchyard opposite school. This week his sons have returned to bury his wife and their mother next to him. We are extremely grateful to Keith and Paul for sharing their father's remarkable story and their link to our village.  They have left us a huge amount of archive material which will be part of our new display in the school entrance. When the children read out the names of airmen from the book of remembrance during our monthly collective worship in church, we will now know about one of the names in details.......

Harvest Festival 1st October 2021

We were delighted to be able to welcome everyone to church for our harvest festival service. The collective worship council had prepared the service and delivered the Gospel and prayers. Rev Steve told the story of the Widows Might, he had very bravely given one pupil a real £20 note to look after! We were delighted to have Sandra the church organist accompany the children for the first time. As usual the children’s singing was lovely, and thanks must go to Mrs Reed for the hard work she has put into all the practices beforehand. The produce collected will go to the Lincoln Community Larder.

Church window displays

In preparation for the reopening of the church after lock down, each class submitted a window display telling the story of a parable. 

The Bishop of Lincoln's visit to our school April 2021

In April 2021 the Bishop of Lincoln visited the school to plant a tree and bless the woodland we had planted earlier in the week.

We have started to plant a new woodland on the Trustees land. We have planted 130 native species trees as part of our project with the aim of 'looking after God's Earth'. Mr Jenkins the Chair of the Trustees supplied the trees and brought his little blue tractor to help with the planting. Governors prepared the holes and the children planted the plants. The weather was perfect and everyone had a brilliant day!

At Easter we would normally hold our annual holy communion service. Covid has prevented this, but Rev Steve and Mel Cuttell planned a 'stations of the cross' interactive event in the school grounds. Children experienced a very thought provoking afternoon and everyone is looking forward to repeating the event next year.

Holy communion service in Holy Trinity church

Ash Wednesday collective worship in church

Courageous Advocay

we support a number of community based charities but one of our special projects is to keep the remembrance of the 106 squadron alive. Our school borders the site of Metheringham airfield. The airfield was constructed during WWII for RAF bombers to use. The airfield covered a huge area and was important as it was one of only a few airfields that had technology to burn away fog and make landings safer. Over 500 crew were lost from sorties carried out from the airfield flying the famous Lancaster bombers. Holy Trinity church in Martin holds the books of remembrance for the 106 squadron. The 106 squadron society met annually at Martin to commemorate the bravery of those lost. Sadly the last meeting occurred in 2014 and Martin’s contribution to the war effort looked set to slip into history. Mrs Mary King’s school has now taken on the responsibility of commemorating the airmen and keeping their names alive. Reading from the book of remembrance has now become part of our monthly church collective worship. On Remembrance Day children play a role in the memorial on the airfield and again in church.