FURTHER ADVENTURES OF GRADY BEAR

Grady is certainly having a good time in Bromley with Academy Principal, Helen Walls. Helen was lucky enough to be in the audience at a recording of The Graham Norton Show on the BBC and there she had the opportunity to introduce Grady Bear to actress and singer, Jennifer Hudson. The Bear was very cool and didn't appear at all star struck! Whatever next? - Watch this space!

GRADY BEAR ON THE MOVE

Grady Bear was first awarded at the Academy Training Seminar in July 2010. Each term, he is placed in the safe keeping of a Principal who shows themselves worthy and responsible! The Principal then has to document the Bear's visit to their area and return him to the next Seminar with his 'diary'.

Fresh from adventures in South London, where our hero had a close encounter with a cat and ate a lot of pizza, he is now temporarily residing in Bromley with Principal, Helen Walls, who has promised to make sure he has a good time and comes to no harm. Photographic evidence is, of course, required!

The award followed a very successful - if exhausting - training day. More picture stories will follow in due course.

CHARLES DICKENS SUPPORTS BBC CHILDREN IN NEED!

Last year Bromley Principal, Helen Walls, was among the Helen O'Grady team at the BBC Children In Need show to present the big cheque. With her students she raised more than £800 towards the final total. This year she is on track to better that amount but will not be able to attend the show. For very good reason!

As part of The Chelsfield Players Helen is playing Mrs. Cratchitt in a production of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. And not only Helen. Her Chislehurst teacher is playing the Ghost of Christmas Present and 11 children from her drama classes have roles too. So, as well as National Talking Day! and because Helen can not be at the show this year the Chelsfield Players will be doing the following to raise even more money for Children In Need.

• Asking the audience to donate to guess the name of Robinson Crusoe's parrot. The winner will receive said parrot!
• Charging the audience for mince pies and Christmas cake during the interval.
• Sending Tiny Tim and Scrooge out with a bucket for donations at the end of the show.

Helen says: "The information in our programme really echoes the ethos of BBC Children In Need and the work they do today. It's almost like we planned it!" The information says:

Ingnorance and Want

"One major theme in A Christmas Carol was rooted in Dickens'
observations of the plight of the children of London's poor. Thousands of
children were living in unimaginable poverty, filth and disease. In 1839 it was
estimated that nearly half of all funerals in London were for children under the
age of ten. Those who survived grew up without education or resource and virtually no chance to escape the cycle of poverty. Dickens felt this cycle could only be broken through education and became interested in the Ragged Schools in London."

This makes us all think about what a great job Children In Need does and makes us proud to be involved in their fundraising efforts.

We wish wish Helen and her colleagues the best of luck with the play and look forward to hearing about the rewards of all their efforts.

BROMLEY STOP

On the final stop before heading back to Portsmouth, The Village Africa ambulance car stopped in Bromley. Principal, Helen Walls, and her drama students dressed up in African clothes and had lots of colourful bits and pieces when they welcomed the crew including, as always, Oscar the dog. That animal is everywhere! There was even a chance for a tiger to take the wheel! http://www.villageafrica.org.uk/