Dear parents

It was lovely seeing so many of you during the learning conversations yesterday, there were lots of very proud parents and children!   Thank you to all the parents who purchased books from Usborne Books yesterday, nearly £1,000 worth of free books will now be donated to the school! 

Our thoughts are with anyone affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.   The teachers in KS2 have spoken to the children this week about the earthquakes and what we and the global community are doing to help in Turkey and Syria.  A big thank you to everyone who has made a donation on our Just Giving Page.  You can still do this by clicking  here.   Already, along a few of the local schools, we have raised nearly £4,500 which is amazing.  

During Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week this week, the children have enjoyed exploring the theme 'Let's Connect' and focuses on the importance of making meaningful connections with others to support our mental wellbeing.  We encouraged the children to connect with others in healthy, rewarding and meaningful ways which included taking part in the Acts of Kindness Scavenger Hunt and a range of 'Let's Connect' playground activities which the children enjoyed taking part in.    

This half term was also filled with a range of exciting school visits and workshops.  All the classes in year 1 went to the London Transport Museum and had an amazing time learning about how transport has changed over time.  The children in year 2 , 4 and 6 also took part in some exciting history workshops in school! And our School Parliament members also visited the Houses of of Parliament in London! 

Do make note of the key dates in the diary as there are a lot more exciting events coming up next half term.  This includes Come Learn with Me, where parents are invited to come to school again and spend some time in their children's classrooms; parent workshops; school trips; concerts and World Book Day!

Have a great half term and see you all on Monday 20 February.

With my very best wishes

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher 

 Please click to view term dates for 2022 - 2023 

Please click to view term dates for 2023 - 2024 

See dates below for our next Come Learn With me event where parents are invited into their child's classroom.  Hope you can make it! 

What the Department for Education tells us....

The GPPSA will be holding a pre-loved Uniform sale in the Round Hall on Friday 3 March from 3.15pm to 3.45pm.  We have some wonderful uniforms in great condition and all items will be priced at £1.  Please bring cash please.

We will be collecting any pre-loved uniform donation WC 20  February.  

We are looking forward to seeing you there and thank you for all your continued support.

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 

Click to go to our GPPSA page 

GPPSA - Looking to Help? 

The GPPSA would like to remind all that without your support none of the fundraising is possible. If you would like to get more involved please let us know at gppsa@hotmail.co.uk or speak to any of the committee directly.

We have a WhatsApp helpers group where information is shared and everyone is welcome to join! Please contact us to find out more.

Please also follow us on Facebook and Instagram @Grangeparkprimaryassociation.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT FROM ALL ON THE GPPSA COMMITTEE!

The children in Acorn Class have been learning about the artist Andy Goldsworthy.  Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, land artist, and photographer known for his outdoor creations from natural materials found on-site known as ‘Transient Art’.  For their home learning our Acorns have created their very own Transient Art pieces.

Reception has had a chilly but wonderful first half term exploring in Forest School. The children were excited to discover that Stick Man lives in Grange Park’s Forest School area.

Stick Man introduced the children to the Forest School rules to ensure they are safe and had lots of fun playing games to explore the area. Some highlights of the children’s time in Forest School this half term have been meeting Stick Man’s family including his dog and celebrating his birthday. The children decorated the forest area with leaf mobiles and made delicious mud cakes.

Year 1 visited the London Transport Museum over the last few weeks. This trip was part of our topic Wheely Great Transport . We started off the day on an underground train from Oakwood to Covent Garden and a short walk to the museum. It was a fantastic trip with so many vehicles to see spanning nearly 300 years of London history. 

The children loved their talk from Daisy, a cleaner who came back in time to lead us round the museum searching for clues and teaching the children lots of useful facts about the Battle Bus, which served as an ambulance during World War 1 and a Routemaster bus. The children were amazed that some of the Grange Park staff used to travel to school on a Routemaster! We would like to thank all the parents who came with us on the day.

This half term, Year 2 had a visitor from Flo on Road. She wasn't the real Florence as she was born in 1820 and died in 1910 (90 years old)! The actress portraying the role of Florence explained how she learnt to be a nurse without going to school.  She would pretend her dolls were ill and how her sister used to feel jealous. She also completed her training in nursing at a hospital in Germany. 

When Florence worked at the hospital in Scutari, she made the nurses take deep breaths even though the smell was horrible and cleaned the ward. She used soap to do this and it became more famous than her. Everyone in Britain bought Windsor soap because of this.

After the Crimean War, Florence got sick and her hair was cut off. She even met with Queen Victoria and said that she was angry at how the soldiers were treated. This was written in a letter and sent to the government, who then ensured changes were made to hospitals. Florence Nightingale was awarded with medals because of her work.  We enjoyed learning about Florence Nightingale through this hands-on workshop!

This week, Year 3 visited Dharma Mandir in Enfield. They learnt lots of new and exciting things about Hinduism and how we can reflect upon the religion's core values. We heard stories of Rama and Sita, learnt more about Diwali and even saw a boyuk nagara (drum) being played!

In Year 4, we have been learning about the ancient Greek civilisation as part of our history topic. We had a themed ancient Greek workshop where we re-enacted a  famous myth about the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. We also played a board game called ‘Petteia’ based on a story about the Trojan war. We pieced together the mathematical Archimedes Puzzle which is around 2200 years old! We learnt that Archimedes was a philosopher, mathematician, scientist and an inventor. One of his most famous inventions was the Archimedes screw which is used today for pumping liquids and solids such as coal and grain! 

Our Art work this term is inspired by our topic ‘Monarchy Mayhem’. We have been practising our skills of using proportion, symmetry and creating different skin tones in preparation for our final portrait of Henry VIII. This is inspired by the artist Hans Holbein.

In Year 6, we have been learning about Indigenous Americans. We have been exploring the Indigenous American art forms in the style of artists such as Bill Reid. As well as this, we have learnt about Haida art including the line forms and the importance of symbolism. 

We were also lucky enough to take part in an interesting Indigenous American workshop where we learnt about many different tribes and the importance of their different beliefs, ceremonies and rituals and re-created these in groups. We really enjoyed learning more about Indigenous Americans through this hand-ons workshop!