Dear Parents

As we reach the end of the autumn term, it's a pleasure to share the many achievements and moments of joy that have defined our school community.  The festive spirit was alive and well at our Xmas Fayre, and the success of the event is thanks to the incredible efforts to the GPPSA and parent volunteers. Your dedication is truly appreciated, and your hard work made the occasion a resounding success.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) nativity was nothing short of magical, capturing the essence of the season. Equally enchanting was the Y2 Carol performance. The talent and enthusiasm of our young performers brought joy to all who attended.

Celebrating academic success, our Key Stage 2 data has been nothing short of amazing ranking very high in performance measures, achieving significantly above the national in the expected and higher standard.  The exceptional performance across various subjects reflects the dedication and hard work of our children and teachers alike.  Please see below for more details about our achievements.  

I am pleased to announce that Alice Bradbury has been elected as the new Parent Governor.  Our heartfelt thanks to all who put their names forward, submitted candidate statements, and participated in the voting process.  Your engagement in this important aspect of our school governance is truly valued. We are confident that Alice's dedication and commitment will contribute to the continued success and growth of our school community.

Exciting news on the infrastructure front! The replacement of pipe work and radiators in Year 3, 4, Puffin and Woodpecker Classrooms as well as the Dining and Main hall and Reading Hub has commenced.   Additionally, we're delighted to share that we'll soon begin a project to replace the boiler serving KS1 and EYFS classrooms, fully funded by the School Capital Funding from the Connect Education Trust.

A big shout-out to everyone enjoying a cup of Scoffi Coffee! Your support directly benefits the school and we're grateful for the ongoing partnership.

As we approach the holidays, I extend heartfelt thanks to our dedicated staff for their hard work and commitment this term. A special thank you to parents for your unwavering support. The children have been truly remarkable, and you should all be immensely proud.  Wishing each and every one of you a restful and joyous holiday season. Take this time to recharge and enjoy the festivities. We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 8 January.   

Thank you for a wonderful term, and here's to a fantastic year ahead!

With my very best wishes to you and your families. 

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher 

Please click to view term dates for 2023 - 2024 

Please click here to view term dates for 2024 - 2025

We are thrilled to announce and celebrate the exceptional Key Stage 2 (KS2) results achieved by Grange Park Primary School! The hard work, dedication, and collaborative efforts of our children, teachers, and supportive community have truly paid off.

As revealed in the latest data from the Department for Education, Grange Park Primary School has achieved remarkable success, ranking very high in performance measures. You can explore the details on the official government website: Link to Results.

We are delighted to share our exceptional Key Stage 2 (KS2) results, where an impressive 83% of our pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined. This achievement is particularly noteworthy given the size of our cohort, boasting 120 children.  This is well above the national average which is 60%.  

Our progress scores are equally remarkable, consistently ranking either above average or well above average. Moreover, an outstanding 28% of our pupils reached a higher standard in reading, writing, and maths combined, positioning us among the top three schools in Enfield according to league tables for this elevated achievement.

Furthermore, our exceptional performance extends across various key stages, consistently surpassing the national average in most cases. A notable achievement is the outstanding 94% pass rate in the Year 1 phonics screening test.   For a more in-depth exploration of our statutory data, we invite you to delve into the details by clicking here. 

All these results are a testament to the dedication of our children, the excellence of our teaching staff, and the supportive community that surrounds us. We are proud of this significant accomplishment and remain committed to fostering a learning environment that enables all our children to thrive and excel.  Congratulations to everyone at Grange Park Primary School on this remarkable achievement!

Working together to improve school attendance

The aim of this section of the Newsroundup is to promote the importance of attendance across the school community. It is really important that we continue to work together to do all we can to prioritise the children’s attendance at school so that they can enjoy their learning and socialising with their peers.  We have had 3 visits from our Educational Attendance Welfare Officer this year. The profile of attendance is a key priority for schools and as such we are also instructed to continue to implement strict measures for absences. Our attendance target is 97% again this year. 

The School Day 

A reminder that the school day starts at 8.45am and the registers are taken just before 8:55am. The school doors are open at 8.45am to allow the children to get in with plenty of time to be settled and to engage in some early morning tasks. Once the registers have closed then your child is marked absent and this will affect their overall attendance. The school day finishes at 3.25pm. Please note if your child is late then this will count as an absence. If your child requires to be absent from school, please report their absence by 09:00 on a daily basis. The table below demonstrates how much school children miss if they are absent and it is surprising how this adds up. We are fully aware that the circumstances around illnesses that children have contracted are mainly unavoidable for the majority of absences. The aim of this initiative is the positive promotion of attendance for all.

Good attendance is important because… 

Statistics show that pupils with good attendance have higher attainment in school and studies show that children with attendance above 96% make better progress socially and academically. With the focus and development on the curriculum that has taken place at school then children who are absent will find gaps in their sequential knowledge. 

Working Together 

We will be working with you to keep you updated on your child’s attendance by sending out notices and emails at key points to inform you of your child’s attendance should it go below 90% and to invite you in to find ways to work together to support your child’s attendance.

Thank you for your continued support.

Celebrating our family’s attendance:

Exploring the Exciting World of Martial Arts.

In our first assembly of the year, where we celebrated talents, interests, and achievements, we delved deep into the captivating world of martial arts. We uncovered the rich tapestry of martial art - an ancient tradition imparting lessons in self-discipline, respect for others, and self-defence techniques. These skills, passed down through generations, became a shared exploration for all of us.

It was eye-opening to learn that numerous students at Grange Park are actively involved in martial arts, boasting different belts and ranks as a testament to their dedication and hard work. During the assembly, we were privileged to have Isabella and Ela share their experiences in kickboxing and karate. The assembly not only showcased the physical ability of martial arts but also emphasised the importance of values like respect, perseverance, and self-control.

The school choir has been really busy this term! They sang brilliantly in the Winter Showcase at Highlands school and also at a Choir festival in Southgate where they also listened to other choirs performing. On Thursday 14th December some of the choir sang carols to the residents of Elizabeth Lodge care home and really put a smile on their faces. Well done to everyone who took part this term.

The children and staff have been busy decorating the school and it looks fantastic. Well done to all those involved for helping to make our school look so festive!

At Grange Park Primary we believe in developing an extended curriculum outside of the classroom and are committed to offering a vast array of clubs. Clubs are offered for all year groups from Reception to Year 6 and each day there is something for everyone. Clubs are a great way for children to interact with peers from a different class, promote friendships and help to develop social skills. We have many different clubs the children can join during the spring term, all of which have been available to book from the 11th of December. These include: 

May we also introduce our new external club photography. Click here to see a promotional video of what it offers. Some of the clubs are extremely popular and may be oversubscribed. We do try to accommodate as many children as possible therefore your child may be placed on a waiting list if and when the club becomes full.

This joint NHS/Enfield council campaign has been developed to respond to the ongoing high rates of illness amongst children seen at urgent and emergency care centres in north central London over the last few weeks. These information resources will help signpost parents in Enfield to a range of expert, clinically approved advice and guidance on common illness and injuries affecting children, helping parents make an informed choice on how and when to get the right help for their child.

Please also see attached posters that are available in English and the six community languages (Albanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian, Somali, Turkish), along with the full range of information that’s available to read, listen to online in all world languages by scanning the QR codes on the posters.

The Autumn term has gone by in a flash and our recent fundraising activities have included the Halloween activities, non uniform day, Friendship Discos and Christmas Fayre.  The pumpkin carving competition was won by Isabella in Kandinsky and the 3 discos were a huge success with the children! 

We have raised over £5,500 so far (excluding the Christmas Fayre) and this will be put towards the school farm, playground equipment and the internal/external PA system.

We would like to thank you all for your donations and support with the Christmas Fayre last weekend.   There was a very festive feel with our amazing Grotto, snow globe, tombolas, cakes, raffle, guess the bear's birthday and the year 6 stalls, alongside our commercial stalls (Usborne Books, Toyrific and Enfield Chiropractic Clinic).  We would also like thank John and his team at Scoffi for the fabulous food and hot drinks.

The Christmas raffle proved to be very popular with Arjun in Dragonfly winning the star prize of an iPad which was kindly donated by Photocopiers Direct.  

We would like to thank all of the parents, carers, children, family members, teachers and local businesses who sponsored the fayre and donated prizes including Havilands Estate Agents, Crossover Solutions, MP Automotive Service Centre, JDC Scaffolding, Toyrific, Usborne Books, Enfield Chiropractic Clinic, Mathnasium, Lucky Voice, The Cake Pixie, First Goal Football, Streets Ahead Dance Company, Fixation Academy of Performing Arts, Papa Ji, Speedy Fit Tyre & Battery Service, Sculpted by Andri, Stacey Barber Hypnotherapy, The Rose & Crown, Smiths Schoolwear, The Gryphon, Ecole Nicole, The Dance Studio, The Aslanoff School of Dance, Alexandra Park Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Teddy Tastic!  All prizes have been distributed or are in the office for collection. A full list of winners is available from the office.

The Guess the Weight of the Elf Cake was won by Ben in Daffodil and the Guess the Bear's Birthday bear winners are:

Tartan Moose - Eliza in Oak

Glisten Reindeer - Gabrielle in Daffodil

Brown Bear - Deren in Acorn

Penguin - Fay in Leopard

Brown Reindeer - Eren in Jaguar

If you missed the fayre but would still like to make a donation towards our fundraising efforts please do so here - https://platform.nationalfundingscheme.org/grange-park-primary-school-association

Thank you again for your continued support!

Please do not hesitate to contact us via email on gppsa@hotmail.co.uk if you have any questions, want more information about vacancies on the GPPSA or how you can help us.  

Thanks in advance for your support.

GPPSA

Please also bear in mind the initiatives that are available year round:

• Amazon Smile - we would like to encourage parents to use Amazon smile when making online purchase through Amazon (where Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to the GPPSA) search = Grange Park Primary School Association 

• School lotto:  www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/grange-park-primary-school-association 

• Donate page - http://easydonate.org/HTDT007

The Nursery children have been busy getting in the festive spirit. The children have made their own stained glass windows and beautiful salt dough decorations.

The children were very excited to visit the post box this half term. Before our adventure we discussed road safety and the importance of making sure we are safe while near the roads. We talked about “stop, look and listen” to keep us all safe. The children walked across a pelican crossing, a pedestrian crossing and a zebra crossing. When we arrived at the post box, the children posted the Christmas cards that they had made. Once back at school the children used their rapidly growing phonics knowledge to write about their experience. 

Year 1 have been learning about Christianity in Religious Education and went to visit Christ Community Church to take part in a Christmas experience. We travelled back in time and went through a maze of rooms where actors explained the Christmas story. 

‘I loved going into all the different rooms to learn parts of the story’ - Samah - Grasshopper                        

‘I loved travelling back in time to learn the story of Christmas’ - Leah- Butterfly 

The festive spirit filled the air in Year 2 as the children prepared for their carol concert performance. Last week, the entire Year 2 cohort were busy practising their Christmas carols, learning their speaking parts and perfecting their singing voices and actions. The children were so excited to perform for their parents and the rest of the school. They certainly put on a heartwarming performance. Well done Year 2!

For our RE unit, we had the opportunity to visit a Hindu Temple Dharma Mandir.  During our trip, we were shown images and figures of Gods that Hindus worship. We learned some  key vocabulary and actions. We discovered that Hindus believe in one God which can take many forms. We had the chance to experiment with chanting and using special musical instruments. It was fascinating to learn some of the key things that are important to Hindus such as Karma and the Dharma teachings (duties) that they need to follow. 

Year 4 Food tasting and evaluating for Design and Technology

As part of the ‘European Sandwich’ project, year 4 have been tasting and evaluating a variety of breads and fillings from across Europe. These included feta cheese, olives, salami, pitta bread, baguettes and crusty rolls. The children tasted each item and rated them 0 (did not like the flavour) - 3 (liked the flavour a lot). They discussed which flavours were the dominant and subtle and how certain ingredients would compliment each other in their final piece.

Our next step is to make our European sandwich! 

As part of our history topic this term we visited Bletchley Park (the once top-secret home of World War Two Codebreakers). We also had a workshop where we learnt about the secret listeners in WW2 and their role at Trent Park.