Welcome to the first News Roundup of the 2023-2024 academic year! We have had a fantastic start to the term, and Grange Park has such a vibrant and positive atmosphere. We are looking forward to another exciting year of learning and growth.

We warmly welcome our new nursery and reception children to the Grange Park family.  We are thrilled to have you join us.

The children have had a wonderful start to the year and their attitudes have been fantastic.  They have been proud to demonstrate our values of respect, responsibility, and resilience. Learning is in full swing, and it has been great to see the children in year 4 and 2 enjoying their science workshops. This term we have a number of exciting trips and workshops planned including workshops for parents.  Please do have a look at the diary below for dates.

Thank you to families for attending our Meet the Teacher event. Slides from the presentation are available on the website. You will receive a letter next week inviting you to Learning Conversations on Thursday 19 October.   This is an opportunity to discuss with your child's class teacher how your child has settled into school and how they have engaged with learning so far. Please book your slot!

As you know, the GPPSA plays a vital role in not only helping to raise much needed funds for the school but also bringing our community together socially with events such as the Christmas and Summer fayre, discos, and quiz nights for the parents.  Please contact the GPPSA or complete this form, if you would like to be a member of the committee or if you are able to volunteer at any events. There will be a GPPSA AGM (Annual General Meeting) on Monday 2 October at 7:00pm in the round hall. I hope to see many of you then.

I'm looking forward to seeing our nursery, reception, and year 1 families (siblings are also welcome!) at the picnic tomorrow on the school grounds between 11am-2pm. This will be a great opportunity to meet other families and also find out more about the GPPSA. 

I am looking forward to working with you all to make this year another successful one for all of our pupils. 

With my very best wishes to you and your families.

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher 

Please click to view term dates for 2023 - 2024 

It is usually appropriate for parents and carers to send their children to school with mild respiratory illnesses. This would include general cold symptoms: a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat. However, children should not be sent to school if they have a temperature of 38°C or above. Further information can be found here:  NHS ‘Is my child too ill for school?’ guidance

In addition to respiratory illnesses, we are aware that more children may be absent from school due to symptoms of anxiety than before the pandemic. Worry and mild or moderate anxiety, whilst sometimes difficult emotions, can be a normal part of growing up for many children and young people. Being in school can often help alleviate the underlying issues. A prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending in the future, rather than reduce it. DfE has published useful guidance on mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance and those who are experiencing persistent symptoms can be encouraged to access additional support.

As well as ensuring that children know and are showing The Big 3, our 3 rules and The 3Rs - Respect, Responsibility and Resilience, our school values. We spent the week teaching the children keystone routines. Clear three step routines help to establish a calm and orderly environment. Our routines are consistent, certain and clear and let children know what is expected of them and how they are going to achieve it. Our whole school routines are:

For most children verbal praise and recognition are enough to encourage positive behaviour but for some they will need extra support and may need the Grange Park Pathway to get them back on track. When an undesirable or unacceptable behaviour has occurred, staff will take responsibility and control of the situation and manage the behaviour by following the Grange Park Pathway visuals are also used by staff for each ‘step’.

During any stage of the Grange Park Pathway, children are offered Calm Space. This is a short time where your child can choose to take (5/10 minutes), either within the classroom or elsewhere, as appropriate. The purpose is for the child to calm down, breathe, look at the situation from a different perspective and compose themselves.

Step 1: First Reminder - A verbal reminder of The Big 3 or 3Rs is delivered, identifying the one that has been broken (privately where possible).

Step 2: Second Reminder - A clear verbal caution delivered privately, wherever possible, making the child aware of their behaviour and clearly outlining the consequences if they continue. A positive choice is offered and staff refer to previous examples of good behaviour. 

Step 3: Consequence -  An appropriate and proportionate consequence is given. If the child’s behaviour improves after Reminder 2 ‘consequence’ or outcome is discussed and given as a result of them taking responsibility.

Step 4: Repair - A short restorative conversion to discuss what happened, who was affected and what needs to happen next. This might be a quick chat at breaktime or a more formal meeting.

Autumn on the allotments is tidy-up time and the children and parent volunteers have been working hard digging out the old plants to compost them. We picked our beautiful pumpkins and they are now in storage.  The dry summer meant we had a lot less produce than last year but we still managed to take some veggies to the Bounds Green Food Bank. Our giant sunflowers are still looking amazing and the children are currently picking and packing seeds for our allotments stall. If you would like to help out on the allotments, it’s a drop-in from 9-10am on Friday mornings. You don’t have to let us know in advance, just turn up. We are very grateful for any help! 

3. Avoid rewards- If we reward self-control, children will start to think it’s only worth being controlled if they can get a reward. We want them to recognise why it matters and make their own decisions. 

4. Wait - When you or your child really want something, talk about whether it might be a good idea to wait. Whether it’s sneaking a treat, checking social media or hitting a sibling, encourage your child to wait ten minutes and see if it’s still something he/she feels they must do.

5. Play self-control games - Games like “freeze”, “sleeping lions”, drumming/rhythm games or “red light, green light” require a child to follow instructions or patterns, listen, be controlled, and make changes. 

6. Be an example - If you’re lacking in self-control your child will learn from you and act accordingly. When they see you eat too much, spend too much time in front of screens, or do whatever else it may be, they’ll think it’s fine for them to do it too. This is especially important when we respond to our children’s big emotions. If we respond with disapproval or dismissal to our children, we show less control than when we turn towards them with compassion and kindness. 

See below books which explore, ‘self control.’

Please support your child at home to learn the relevant tables for their year group.

Parents of children in year 4: the children will be sitting a multiplication check towards the end of the year. If you would like some more information about this check please click this link or for another method of practising times tables (mathsframe).

In the next news round up, we will be sharing top performers across the school and show you the results of the battles that have just started. Below is a parent guide, explaining the different modes the children can play using the app.

Parent Guide

We recommend a “little and often” approach; 3 minutes practice a day, 4 or 5 times a week is a good target.

Welcome back, everyone, to a brand new year at Extend! We hope you had a wonderful break and are now ready to dive into another exciting year of learning, growing, and having a blast together. Whether you're a returning member or joining us for the first time, we're so glad to have you here. This year, we've got an array of fantastic activities planned. This club is a place where you can be yourself, try new things, and make lasting memories with friends both old and new. So let's make this year even more amazing than the last! Get ready for an incredible journey ahead!

Enrichment clubs letter - Here is the link to find all of the clubs we are offering this term.

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/HTDT006 

Some of our little Acorns have been very busy beginning to settle into the nursery environment. They have enjoyed exploring the exciting areas both inside and outside of the nursery, learning our class rules and getting to know new friends.

Year 1 have had a great start at school and have settled in brilliantly. Here are a few things they have done over the first week back at school.  They enjoyed reading books in their new book areas.

The Year 2 children have been learning about the importance of birds during their first week of school. They went bird watching in the school grounds, where they had the chance to count, draw and identify the birds they saw. They also used pastels to create some fantastic pieces of work of their class birds, the robin, woodpecker and kingfisher.

In year three, we have been looking at different trees and researched facts about them. We recorded key facts and wrote poems about our class tree. Using water colour, we painted the seasons to show the changes that occur. 

The children and staff had a great time at the Year 4 and 5 sleepover! Here are some of the photos!

I wanted to take a moment to share with you how fantastically the first few weeks in Year 5 have been. The children have settled in beautifully and have already shown great enthusiasm for learning.

We’ve been busy getting to know each other, exploring our new classroom, and diving into our first lessons. The children have been working hard, asking thoughtful questions, and showing kindness and respect towards one another.

I’m excited to share that we’ve also started working on an exciting art project based on planets! The children have been using chalk pastels on black paper to create their own planets. They are focusing on form and shade to make their planets look three-dimensional. This project is a great way for them to learn about art basics like shading a sphere while also exploring the wonders of space.

In Year 6 we researched our class artist and recreated their compositions. We focused on using accurate proportion and tones.