Welcome to our June edition of the News Roundup.  It was so lovely to see so many parents during Sports Day, the weather was just glorious and the children all had a wonderful day! 

I know the Year 1 parents would agree how impressive the Year 1 Concert was last week! The children throughly enjoyed learning all the songs and sang so beautifully!  Year 6 have been busy rehearsing for their end of year performance "The Jungle Book" and will be ready to perform to the parents soon!

I'm sure you have noticed how great our allotment beds are looking with fresh mint, strawberries and much more! It's been a team effort with children across the school volunteering to give up their time during lunch as an 'Act of Kindness' to tend to the allotments. A special thanks to Elaine Tatch, Cedar Class teacher, who has been leading and volunteering her own time to tend to the allotments as well as a group of parents who help out! 

The whole Grange Park community are looking forward to the Summer Fayre this Sunday 2 July 11am-3pm.  Don't miss the Y1s-Y5s who are going to be participating  in our dance showcase as well as Year 6 who will be performing a few songs from their production. The weather is forecast to be dry and sunny which helps! We all look forward to seeing you then!

With my very best wishes to you and your families.

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher 

 Please click to view term dates for 2022 - 2023 

Please click to view term dates for 2023 - 2024 

June means strawberry picking on the allotments! The children picked a huge bowl to give to Head chef Carolyn.  She made a delicious strawberry cake with them! Yummy!  The children and parent volunteers have been so busy all spring with weeding, watering and planting. It’s great to see everything starting to really take off now. This year, we’ve planted pumpkins, sprouts, broccoli, onions, beans, courgettes and of course, tomatoes. Watch out for our flash tomato plant sale, coming soon! 

Our aim at Grange Park is to 'Create foundations for bright futures' for our young children and to help them to develop them into responsible, respectful and active citizens. We want our children to have high aspirations for themselves, be able to build strong relationships, be happy and confident and above all else be kind. Our Widening Horizons events help to support this. 

Our Widening Horizons focus this year has been volunteering in the local community. By volunteering in the surrounding community, children have been able to learn about the people and places that are closest to where they live,  have been able to show empathy, kindness and compassion and above all have been able to feel good about themselves at the same time.

As part of the Widening Horizons programme, Year 1 and 2 pupils eagerly took on the responsibility of picking up litter in and around our school grounds. Armed with gloves and bin liners, they ventured out with a sense of purpose and determination to collect discarded wrappers, plastic bottles and other debris left behind by others. They began to understand the impact their actions could have on the wider world and with each piece of litter collected, they contributed to a cleaner and healthier environment for everyone. 

Year 3 and 4 went even further into the community and travelled to Enfield Town Park to carry out their volunteering. They spent a couple of hours picking up litter, walking the length of the park to ensure that every last scrap was picked up. They then went on to help weed the flower beds at the entrance of the park. 

Beyond the immediate impact of helping to tidy up the park, these young children gained a valuable lesson in the power of individual actions and the importance of collective responsibility. It was also lovely to have members of the local community stop and thank the children for what they were doing. There was even a shout out to Grange Park on Facebook’s ‘Love Your Doorstep.’ This of course made the children feel valued and gave them a sense of pride, knowing that their efforts had helped in such a big way.

 Here’s what some of the children had to say:

“I would love to do this in my own time. I found it peaceful.” - Christian

“I really enjoyed tackling the weeds so that the flowers can look more beautiful.” - Candance

“It was the best day because we got to help the world.” - Bella

“We picked up three black bags of rubbish, which is a shame because it meant that people from around our school dropped it.” - Luca

Year 5 have begun volunteering at Highlands Village Nursery, spending time with the children: building sandcastles, painting, reading, playing on the climbing frame and having fun! Well done Year 5 on being fantastic role models to the children. 

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!

In the nursery we have been learning about the artist Piet Mondrian and his geometric grid pattern abstract art. The children had great fun creating their own stained glass window versions of Mondrian’s grid pattern abstract art.

In Reception we are continuing to learn about the world around us through our topic ‘Living and Growing.’ We have planted our own beans which we have cared for by watering them regularly, giving them space to grow and placing them near sunlight.

The children have been fascinated by the life cycle of a butterfly. Each class has had their own caterpillar which they have watched grow and form into a chrysalis. They got very excited when the butterflies emerged. 

In science, Year 1 worked in small groups to create ‘feely’ plate collages showing a range of different materials. We first identified words describing the properties of materials, e.g. soft, hard, bendy, stretchy etc. We then found materials that matched these properties and added them to our feely plates. We discovered that most materials had more than one property.  “I found that most materials have more than one property” - Ophelia - Grasshopper 

“My school dress feels soft, bendy and a little stretchy” Manuela - Dragonfly

“The bottom of my shoes are made out of rubber and my shoes are made out of leather and they are soft” Emily- Ladybird

Year 2 recently went on a local area field trip as part of their geography topic. They visited the fields that lead into Trent Park, where they worked together in groups to use their compasses to learn about what they could see in the different cardinal directions.

Now, back in school, the children are using the information they gathered on their field trip to create maps of the route they took. They are also using their compasses to learn more about the different compass directions.  The field trip was a great opportunity for the children to learn about their local area and to develop their geographical skills. They had a lot of fun, and they learned a lot.

What a busy half term we have had so far! As an introduction to Forces, we got hands on with magnets in the Massive Magnets workshop. We learnt about natural and man-made magnets, the strongest magnets and magnetic fields. Then, we took a trip to Enfield Town park, and had great fun helping the local community as part of the school’s Widening Horizons scheme. After we had weeded and picked up litter, the area looked spick and span! Finally, we took a trip to the Barbican to see an orchestra perform several famous pieces of music, including the Star Wars theme by John Williams. We learnt two songs to sing with the orchestra: one about the tuba and one about conductors. 

The children in Year 4 created a board game which reflected the historical topic of ‘The Romans’.  They incorporated an electrical circuit to connect the correct answer to a question. The circuit included a buzzer which would sound when the correct match was made. As part of the evaluation, Year 4 discussed ways that they could adapt the game and trialled using a microbit as a digital dice. The children programmed the micro bit so that when you shook it, a random number between 1-6 would appear, just as it would by rolling a dice. 

As part of our unit on Coasts, year 5 took a trip to Walton on the Naze to study sea defences to prevent coastal erosion. During the trip, we walked along the naze, recording and observing the different types of sea defences. The children spotted sea walls, groynes and rock armour. We discussed the four different types of erosion (abrasion, attrition, hydraulic action and solution) and what engineering is best suited for each. Well done Year 5 on representing our school so brilliantly!