The Christmas Carol Service.

I was called into work for the whole day as Ebon had 'man flu'. It was a nice morning to be in as the whole school walked up to Pilton Church for our traditional carol service. Although Pilton is now part of Barnstaple, the Abbey and the original settlement were established 1,000 years ago on a hill overlooking the marshy ground by the river crossing that eventually became Barnstaple. I love the sense of history in this old street.

Here the Church tower can just be seen behind the Alms Houses.

Looking back down Pilton Street with one of the two pubs, The Chichester Arms (aka The Chich), on the right. Pete's local The Reform and the brewery are at the far end of the street.

The church was filled with children and parents. The older children read out the Christmas Story, we all sing and the youngest children, the reception class, act the story and make a tableau at the front.

The Church is quite a grand building with lots of interesting carvings. We bring the children there as part of our study of old buildings and also when they are finding out about places of worship and different ways that people show they belong to a faith. For the other faiths we have to rely on the web or dvds as Barnstaple is not really multi cultural.

After the carol service it was the school Christmas dinner. We all eat with the children and I have to say it is not my favourite experience. The children enjoy it though and get excited with their crackers and party hats and jelly and ice-cream for pudding. It takes over an hour just for the meal , the teachers help with all the clearing up and then the dinner ladies give the children an extras 10 mins play so that we can have a cup of coffee and a break before the afternoon starts. I was happy to hear that Ebon will be back tomorrow for the class parties so I can have a quiet day at home. After school I took the Micra to Kwikfit because I had a slow puncture. It turned out that there was a big screw stuck in the tyre and while that was being repaired I took 3 more bags of 'stuff' to a charity shop and did a little shopping of my own.