Dear parents

This half term has been filled with exciting learning and achievements across the school. From creative storytelling and scientific investigations to artistic projects and well-being workshops, children have been engaged in a wide range of enriching activities. It’s been wonderful to see their enthusiasm and curiosity shine.

We also had a brilliant World Book Week, filled with inspiring author visits and a book fair where children discovered fantastic new stories. Our Readathon is in full swing, raising money to stock our Reading Hub with books that children are eager to read. Thank you to all the families who have supported this initiative—whether by sponsoring a child via our JustGiving page, donating books, or contributing via our Amazon wishlist, your support is helping to create a love of reading across the school. 

Alongside this, we have seen incredible sporting achievements, with our Y3/4 girls' football team who won the Enfield borough tournament and will now represent Enfield at the London Youth Games and our Y5/6 girls' football team who won the Enfield borough tournament and will be representing Enfield at the regional finals at Tottenham Hotspur FC training ground- we wish them all the best! 

Finally, we still have a Parent Governor vacancy, and it would be fantastic to see more interest.  If you’d like to get involved, please complete the application form by Monday 17 March 2025. We look forward to welcoming a new parent governor to our governing body!

With my very best wishes

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher 

Please click here to view term dates for 2025 - 2026

Please click here to view term dates for 2024 - 2025

We want to support the health and well-being of all children in our school, and we appreciate your help in keeping our school community as healthy as possible. Knowing when to keep your child at home due to illness and when they can attend school can sometimes be tricky, so we hope this guidance makes it easier for you.

When to Keep Your Child at Home: (For a comprehensive guide, please refer to the NHS guidelines: nhs.uk)

• High Temperature (Fever): If your child has a high temperature, they should remain at home until it returns to normal.

• Diarrhoea and Vomiting: Children should stay home for 48 hours after their last episode of diarrhoea or vomiting.

• Chickenpox: Keep your child off school until all spots have crusted over, typically about five days after they first appeared.

Children with mild symptoms can attend school if they feel well enough. 

We will continue to encourage regular handwashing and proper tissue disposal while they are with us. The school environment is cleaned daily, this includes cleaning tables, wiping down handles, vacuuming the floors, and mopping all laminate floor areas. In addition to the daily cleaning, the whole school has a deep clean periodically. 

Thank you for your support in keeping our school community healthy. By working together, we can help ensure that all children feel their best and are ready to learn and enjoy their time at school.

We had a fantastic World Book Week at Grange Park Primary School! Reception and KS1 enjoyed a visit from author Agnieszka Migew, while KS2 met Clare Povey, who led a brilliant Year 6 workshop on creating the ultimate villain.

Throughout the week, children took part in live lessons, bringing books to life in exciting ways. We also had a wonderful Book Fair, where all the children explored a range of fantastic new stories. The celebrations ended with a fun World Book Day dress-up day on Thursday 6 March, where many children and adults came as their favourite book characters.

A huge thank you to our visiting authors and everyone who took part—what a fantastic week of celebrating reading!

In the last few weeks, our Reception and Year 1 children both enjoyed a cosy and charming ‘Reading Pyjamarama’ event at Grange Park. Dressed in their pyjamas and comfy clothes, they listened to stories read by different members of the reading team, bringing fresh voices to beloved tales. The experience was made even more special with a warm cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit. It was a wonderful celebration of storytelling and the joy of reading. Thank you to everyone who made this event a success!

This week, we have absolutely loved welcoming parents and carers into school for our Come Learn with Me sessions! It has been fantastic to see families learning together about how our brains work and how we can manage our feelings. Thank you to everyone who joined us – your enthusiasm and engagement made the sessions so special!

During the sessions, children explored the idea of the Upstairs and Downstairs Brain and learned about Flipping the Lid (using our hand-brain model to understand big emotions). We also introduced the Window of Tolerance to KS2 – the space where we feel calm, focused, and ready to learn. The children thought about what helps them stay inside their window and practised different regulation strategies, such as deep breathing, movement breaks, and grounding techniques.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to revisit the learning, we have shared some of the slides used in our sessions. You can find them here KS1 and KS2

Top Tips for Supporting Emotional Regulation at Home: 

✅ Help your child name their feelings – "I can see you're feeling frustrated right now."

✅ Practise deep breathing together – try balloon breaths or finger tracing breathing.

✅ Use a Feelings Traffic Light linked to the Zones of Regulation to check in daily (Blue = sad/tired Green = calm/happy, Yellow = worried/frustrated, Red = angry/panicked). 

✅ Model regulation – show your child how you use calming strategies when feeling stressed.

Thank you again for being part of these sessions. We hope you found them useful and enjoyable! If you have any feedback or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

At the end of last half term we  celebrated our ‘Always Stars’. ‘Always Star’ children are children who ALWAYS show that they follow the Big 3, they are ALWAYS respectful, resilient and show responsibility and they ALWAYS try their very best, taking on challenges with a growth mindset and never giving  up. Here are the Always Stars’ for the first half of the autumn term.

Wow, what an amazing series of achievements! Congratulations to both the Y3/4 girls' football team who won the Enfield borough tournament and will now represent Enfield at the London Youth Games. And to the Y5/6 girls' football team who won the Enfield borough tournament and  will be representing Enfield and Grange Park at the regional finals at Tottenham Hotspur FC training ground. – it's incredible to see their hard work paying off. 

And let's not forget about the Y3/4 cross country team heading to Lee Valley – it's fantastic to see so many of the teams representing their schools, clubs, and local areas with pride. Best of luck to all the athletes competing! You’ve already made everyone so proud, and we can't wait to see what you'll achieve next!

Did you know you could hire the school for clubs or for a one off event?   We have classrooms of varying sizes and halls within the school that can be used in the evenings after 4.30pm and on a Saturday until 2pm for clubs or children's parties. If you are interested in hiring a space please contact lettings@grangeparkprimary.org with details of your proposed club or event. We will then confirm cost and availability.

If you believe your child may be entitled to Free School Meals based on your circumstances and benefits, please complete and return the form before the deadline. If you are eligible, you will also receive Holiday Activity Vouchers for school holidays. If you would like a paper copy of the form, please contact the school office.

Since 1 April 2018, eligibility for Free School Meals has changed due to the rollout of Universal Credit. Children who were awarded Free School Meals from that date are protected and will continue to receive them until the end of the Universal Credit rollout period on 31 March 2025, even if their parent/carer's circumstances change.

After 31 March 2025, Free School Meal entitlement will depend on a family’s circumstances. If your circumstances remain eligible, your child will continue to receive Free School Meals until the end of their current phase of education (primary or secondary). However, if your circumstances change, eligibility for Free School Meals may also change. Therefore, please complete the form to find out if your child is eligible, even if you’re unsure.

You may have noticed that we have replaced most of the downpipes and guttering in classrooms leading to the playgrounds. This was a much-needed upgrade, and we hope it will help prevent leaks and improve drainage! 

Discos:

School discos are just around the corner, and tickets are limited.  An email with the ticket links and password were sent out on Friday, 7th March, so order those tickets before they run out.  

Our Y1 and Y2 children can look forward to a fun-filled afternoon of music, dancing, and snacks.  Please refer to the ticket purchase page for details on snacks and treats pricing.  

Following the success of last term’s “Silent Discos,” we are happy to organise another colourful night with LED headsets and dancebeats for our Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 children.  Details about what to expect at these discos are listed when purchasing tickets. 

Pre-order Easter cookies:

Easter cookies will soon be ready to pre-order. Keep a lookout for an email from The Pantry on pre-ordering either 1 cookie or a bag of three (3). 

Mad Hair day:

Last day of term will be extra fun because it’s Mad Hair Day! We kindly ask for £1 donation for the opportunity to come to school in your wackiest, craziest hairdo! Remember, no face paints.

Happy School Bag (previously Bags2School) collections:

We hope that with the Easter break and bank holiday, everyone returns back to school fresh and renewed for the Summer term. One great way to feel revitalised is a wardrobe clearing that also helps the school raise money.  Pop all your old reusable clothes, shoes, and accessories in bags for collection between Tuesday, 22nd April to Thursday, 24th April.  The more bags we collect, the more funds we raise.

Our nursery children have been celebrating the gorgeous spring weather by creating their own observational drawings and paintings of daffodils. They carefully studied the colours and shapes they could see. “It's long, and I can see a circle,” Kai observed, while Maya noted, “The petals are soft.” Taking their time to observe and sketch, the children then selected their own materials to bring their artwork to life, choosing from oil pastels, coloured pencils and watercolours.

In Reception the children have been learning about sequences. They have been discussing events and how they happen in a certain order. They know that the order of things is called a sequence. The children looked at lots of different examples of this including days of the week, times of the day and we also talked about the order of activities that we participate in during a school day. To consolidate the children’s understanding of sequence, we decided to make some sandwiches! We used bread, cheese, jam and butter. We talked about the sequence of making a sandwich and which parts came first, next and after that…. The children were able to follow instructions to do this. 

In our art lessons, the focus has been on mastering the art of figure drawing. The children have been learning how to observe and represent the human form, paying close attention to proportions and movement. We’ve worked on sketching techniques, focusing on capturing a pose. The children have shown remarkable progress in their ability to present the human figure.