Wear Wellies Day
Thanks to everyone who supported the day by wearing wellies, crocs or other interesting footwear! We raised money for Winston's Wish (amount to follow when confirmed) and some of us spent the afternoon meeting new friends from across the Gosforth Schools' Trust.
Thank you to Mrs Walker for organising the day and helping us to support Winston's Wish.
School Extra Curricular Club Charges
For many years, we have provided lots of different exciting clubs for our children before and after school. Although the providers of these clubs are businesses who usually make a profit, we have never charged a rental fee. This is because we see the benefits for our children and we want to make the sessions as affordable as possible for everyone. However, in September, if your child attends an extra curricular club before or after school, you might see an increase in the cost per session. This is because we are now in a financial position where we need to create an income to support our budget. The current funding agreement for schools means that schools like ours have comparatively small 'add-ons' to the main school block of funding and as a result our income does not now match our costs. Most of our partner schools in our trust already charge rental fees for extra curricular clubs and we are now taking the same action.
We are acutely aware that times are hard for everyone, please be assured that we will keep the rental charges to a minimum. We do not expect providers to increase their costs by more than £1.00 per session, although this may vary depending on other costs, including the increase in the prices of materials and other costs which providers have. Thank you for your understanding and support.
GST Sensational Sandcastles
We are looking at ways to share the joy of summer! If you are at the beach, or anywhere where you can build things, you might like to post a picture on Twitter/X of a sandcastle (or any kind of castle) with #GSTcastles. We might even get some beach weather this weekend!
PTFA
Our PTFA committee members are holding their last event today, the Summer Fair. I would like to thank them sincerely for their commitment and hard work over several years, including the challenge of the Covid years! We are always so appreciative of the parents, carers and friends of our school who step up to the challenge of organising events and raising money. The role of the PTFA has become even more important given the current funding, one might say under-funding, of schools.
We are in the process of purchasing new musical instruments, computing resources and outdoor learning resources with money raised this year. We would not otherwise be able to provide these resources.
If you are interested in getting involved next year, please let me know and we can meet in September and keep the PTFA rolling!
In the meantime, a huge thanks to Jess, Alexis, Carolyn and everyone who has helped with all of the great events and fundraisers, including Funky hair Day (see picture!)
Transition to New Classes
This is a really exciting time of year as the children start to prepare for their next big step to their new classes. We will be telling the children next week which class they will be moving on to and who their teacher will be. However, in the meantime, we want to let you know that all classes are moving up together, there will be no changes to the composition of classes. You can share this information with your children as a reassurance for those who might be feeling slightly anxious about being split up and put in different classes to their friends.
For parents of children in current Reception (Honeybees and Ladybirds) and in current Y2 (Fern and Bramble), please come to the transition evenings (reminder of dates below) so that you can start to prepare for the changes ahead. The children in Reception and in Year 2 are moving into a new part of the building with new expectations and a new curriculum. We think that you will find these meetings very useful and that they will help you to prepare your children for the new year. The meetings are for parents and carers only, the children will have their own transition arrangements in school. These have already started for Reception children moving into Y1.
Reception Parents and Carers Tuesday 9th July at 5pm
Year 2 Parents and Carers Wednesday 10th July at 5pm
Staffing News
Mrs Mingoia informed us earlier in the year that she would be retiring at the end of this academic year. She has worked at the school as a Higher Level Teaching Assistant since 2006 and in her role she has taught every single child who has been part of the school family in that period. Mrs Mingoia never sits still, she is so hardworking and is prepared to turn her hand to any task. We are really going to miss her and we wish her the very best for her next adventure!
Over the past few weeks we have been busy recruiting a new HLTA and we are delighted to be able to inform you that we have appointed Lewis Richardson to this role. Some of you will know Lewis from the days when he was working with us as a coach with Newcastle United Foundation. Lewis was very popular with the children and was the best coach we could have wished for. He has continued working for the Foundation in a different role and during that time has qualified as a HLTA. We can't wait to welcome him to the staff, although I think he never really stopped being part of the school family!
Sports Week
Thanks to everyone who has supported our sports events this week (and Y4 on Monday). We have been really busy and active and the children have had great fun.
We have also had teams out of school for Orienteering, Quadkids and Football in the past few weeks. We are always proud of their achievements and how well they represent our school.
Of course we don't need Sports Week to be busy and active... Every class has two lessons of PE each week and these are some of our favourite lessons in school.
Musical Extravaganza Evening at the Glasshouse
Our Musical Theatre Club attended the Glasshouse on Wednesday to take part in an evening of performing musical numbers on stage. They joined other schools to perform to a sold out audience after a full day of rehearsing and lots of preparation in school. They were phenomenal and we were so proud of them all. Some had solo parts and everyone sang beautifully and with the enthusiasm you would expect. Mr Burnett and I were in the audience and we did have tears in our eyes at several points across the evening. It was simply wonderful!
Thanks to Miss Bommel for running the club in school and leading on the day, to Mrs Lancaster and Mrs Jennings who helped on the day and evening, Miss Campbell who helped on the evening and to all of the parents and carers who came to support the event. We'd also like to thank the organisers for inviting us and enabling this opportunity for our children. But most importantly.... We must thank our children who were just awesome!
Dates List
The dates list is attached to your email. Please keep up to date and make sure that you don't miss anything.
May and June Learning Gallery
Please see below some of the things we have been getting up to... We have been very busy indeed!