Contents
- NO OUTSIDERS
- Reception Speed Curriculum
- School Photographs
- Year 3 Adventure Day
- OPAL
- The Week Ahead at Grange
- PTFA
NO OUTSIDERS
This week, we had an assembly with Year 1-4 altogether. We looked at a work of art by Fliss who created this image of a school. We thought about why she hadn’t just used the Union Jack flag as the school was in the UK. One of our children said, “She’s probably used different flags to represent the different children in the school.”
I asked the children how many flags they thought we would need at Grange to represent our children. They guessed…3…9…20. The correct answer was 24! Children at Grange were born in Sudan, Russia, the UK, Italy France, Malaysia, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, China, Bermuda, Malta, Philippines, France, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Greece, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Ireland….
We loved looking at all the flags from these different countries. How wonderful that we have so much diversity at Grange! We are busy creating a mural to represent this diversity.
Reception Speed Curriculum
We were delighted to welcome over 30 families to our Speed Curriculum session this week, where we explored phonics, fine motor skills, early maths and reading. It was wonderful to see so many of you engaging with these key areas of learning, and we hope you found the workshop both useful and enjoyable.
At Grange, we know how important it is to work in partnership with parents and carers; together, we can give children the very best start in their learning journey. Your support at home, combined with what we do in school, makes a real difference to their progress and confidence.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the session. Please feel free to drop me or your child’s class teacher an email with your feedback, as this helps us to keep shaping future workshops to meet your needs.
School Photographs
On Wednesday, Paul visited school to take sibling and individual photographs. These will be shared with you as soon as they are processed, but I wanted to let you know just how much care he took to capture the perfect shot. He brought along a cuddly dog that performed tricks and even used a feather tickling stick - going above and beyond to help children who were a little reluctant to have their picture taken feel comfortable and relaxed. We can’t wait to see the wonderful photos once they arrive!
Year 3 Adventure Day
Year 3 had a fantastic time on their Adventure Day last week! From tackling the inflatable obstacle course to tug of war, archery, orienteering, campfire songs, games and so much more, the day was bursting with fun and laughter. The children showed great teamwork, resilience and enthusiasm as they tried new challenges and enjoyed every activity. To top it all off, the day ended with a well-deserved treat - a delicious ice cream!
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OPAL
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Stay and Play on Monday! It was a wonderful success, with parents and children enjoying lots of fun together.
It was fantastic to see so many parents exploring the different yards and getting a real feel for what our playtimes are like each day - very different to how things were when we were at school, I’m sure!
We hope you were able to see the amazing benefits of OPAL and why it plays such an important role in everyday life at Grange.
Here are some of the lovely comments we received:
“It was nice to get an insight into how the children play. We think Opal is amazing and key to children’s happiness and well-being”.
“Brilliant opportunity to see all the excellent facilities”.
“It was fantastic to see the children outside playing together. There are so many great options for them whatever their interests are”.
If you didn’t get chance to fill in one of our comment sheets but would still like to share your thoughts and experiences of OPAL, we’d love to hear from you! You can do this easily by completing our online survey – your feedback really helps us to keep making playtimes even better for the children.
Here is link to an online form for your feedback. https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TJFjoyStkUuBc311XXe7T_fiL1kbbPZGnP9mJ9H-zBZUMEpRRk5FSU5WWlJIUlIzRTdLRU1COTVEOC4u
The Week Ahead at Grange
Next week, we will be having a whole-school focus on RESPECT. Together, we’ll be exploring what respect looks like in our everyday lives whether that’s in the way we talk to our friends, our parents, or the adults in school.
Throughout the week, staff will be on the lookout for children showing respect in different ways – towards their friends, lunchtime staff, class teachers, TreeTops staff, learning support assistants, club leaders and more. We would also love to hear from you at home: if you notice your child showing respect to others, please let us know so we can celebrate this in class.
We will be reminding children about the small but important ways we can all show respect every day, such as saying please and thank you, listening carefully when someone is speaking, and using a kind and thoughtful tone of voice.
On Monday, we look forward to having a Rocksteady assembly. Musicians will perform rock and pop songs and our children will get to see and hear instruments like drums, guitars and keyboards up close. More on this and the opportunity for some of our children to be part of a Rocksteady band!
Friday is World Mental Health Day. This is an opportunity for us to teach the children about the importance of everyone looking after their own mental health. Our Mental Health Lead, Mrs Tingle, has organised 2 assemblies in school and a workshop for year 3 and 4.
PTFA
Join us after school to make a wreath to kick off the Christmas celebrations and get creative.
Karen Alexander, our PTFA chair and local florist will provide everything you need to make a festive wreath and will guide you through making it. All profits are being donated to the PTFA.
The PTFA are hosting a Spooks & Sparkles Disco on Wednesday 22nd October after school. There will be two sessions. The session for year 3&4 is 3.15pm - 4.15pm and then Reception, year1&2 will be 4.30pm - 5.30pm. Nursery will celebrate separately that week during school time.
Tickets are on sale until 8pm on Friday 17th October. If your child receives Pupil Premium Funding in school, there is a discounted ticket price. An email was sent to you last week with the discount code.
Here is the link to book your tickets and find out more details. https://www.pta-events.co.uk/grangefirstschool/index.cfm
Thank you to everyone who joined in our pre loved uniform stall. It was fabulous to see so many clothes find new homes.
Credits:
© Grange First School