Dear parents

We've come to the end of the school year, and what an incredible year it has been at Grange Park Primary School! Although it has been another strange year with constantly changing requirements the staff have continued to ensure to give the children the high-quality education they deserve as well as the rich enrichment opportunities they will never forget. I know you will join me in thanking all the staff across the school for their hard work and dedication this year.

It's been great seeing the children involved in our usual exciting activities including school trips, sleepovers, watching a strings concert perform in school, pond dipping, an AMAZING Year 6 production and an enjoyable sports day with the parents! The whole school has also been involved in making a Kindness Quilt, see below for more information- we are looking forward to seeing the end result displayed! I know this year the children have made some very special memories they will treasure. A big thank you to all the parents for your continued support and also the GPPSA and parent helpers who have helped with various fundraising events this year.

So now it is time to say goodbye. To those children in Year 6, we wish you lots of luck as you move on to the next phase in your education. To those changing school we hope you continue to enjoy your learning. For those parents who will be leaving our school we want to thank you for the support you have given over the years. And to those members of staff who are moving on – we wish you every success in your new jobs.

Next year we hope there will be a big step towards normality. I hope you all have a fantastic summer, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 2 September.

Best wishes to you and your family

Tijen Hassan

Headteacher

Please click link to view term dates for 2021-2022.

Just reminding you of the following changes that will be in place, in line with the new guidance from September:

• Bubble system: It will no longer be necessary to keep children in bubbles. This means that if your child is attending the Extend Holiday Club they will not be in bubbles. We will go back to having assemblies together in the hall as well as children mixing together at play and lunchtimes.

• Self-isolation for children: From Monday 16 August, children under the age of 18 years old will no longer be required to self-isolate if they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace as a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case, they will only need to self-isolate if they have COVID-19 symptoms or a positive COVID-19 test result.

• Face coverings: Face coverings will no longer be advised for staff and visitors either in classrooms, in communal areas or during drop off and pick up (they are currently not advised for children).

• Start and end of the day: From September we will be reverting back to one drop off and pick up time as logistically this is easier enabling optimal timetabling for the children. As a reminder, the school gates open at 8:30am. Classroom doors open from 8:45am and children should be in class no later than 8:55am for registration. The school day ends at 3:10pm.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, ensuring the health and safety of our children and staff is our top priority. As such, we will be continuing to encourage good hygiene including regular hand-washing, maintaining appropriate cleaning regimes, keeping occupied spaces well ventilated and following public health advice on testing, self-isolation and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Families travelling abroad should bear in mind the impact on their child's education which may result from any requirement to quarantine or isolate upon return. Please see below the following foreign travel advice:

• to understand the risks in a country, including the latest COVID-19 restrictions (including for entry), follow the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Travel Advice.

• to prevent new COVID-19 variants from entering the UK, you should not travel to red list countries.

• to check what they need to do to travel abroad and return to England.

We believe uniform is important because it plays a valuable role in contributing to the ethos of the school and setting an appropriate tone. It also gives children a sense of pride in themselves and the school. It is a powerful tool in ensuring all children are included - not made to feel left out for the tracksuit or trainers they are wearing. Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct school uniform in September. This also includes children wearing the correct PE uniform (grey joggers and sweatshirt with a logo as well as plain black trainers) to school on their PE days. A full list of our uniform can be found here.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye and to wish the children in year six all the best for their futures. It has been a pleasure getting to know and teach them this year, in person and remotely. They really are such a talented group of children, who astound us every day with their achievements. Never before has a cohort had so many disruptions to their schooling, but despite this they have demonstrated admirable resilience to improving their learning and we are so very proud of their attainment and progress in all areas. We wish them every success in their future endeavours and look forward to them returning to Grange Park one day to share their accomplishments with us or just to come and say hello! We will miss them very much and feel privileged to have been part of their journey.

Here are some photos of the Year 6 children enjoying their leavers party day where they had fun on inflatables including a bouncy castle, hungry hippo game, a giant slide and assault course!

Today we will sadly be saying goodbye to a few members of staff who will be leaving us. Jasmine Stewart, Snowdrop class teacher is leaving us to go and teach in Dubai- we are very sad to see her go- but I’m sure we’ll have an amazing time teaching abroad!

We are also saying a sad goodbye to Stella Andreou, play leader, who is retiring after 17 years! Good luck Stella, and enjoy the next journey in your life! Melissa Petinou is also leaving after working at Grange Park 15 years.

We also say goodbye to Leona Frater, Anette Osafo and Sarah Radhay I'm sure you will join me in thanking them for all their hard work and the best of luck in the future.

Best wishes to Suzanna Saunders who is going on maternity leave and to Ipek Najati who is getting married over the summer!

Using a book called ‘The Kindness Quilt’ by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace for inspiration, we asked all children in the school to pledge an act of kindness for each day of the week.

Grange Park’s School Parliament has had an incredibly busy year, if not a little strange, what with the first part of their parliamentary responsibilities taking place at home.

The focus for the year was to help improve lunchtimes and well being. To do this they:

• Set up chat and chill sessions during lockdown.

• Conducted a pupil voice questionnaire, finding out childrens’ views on lunch, playtime and well being.

• Helped Karen and Rebecca lead an assembly for Mental Health awareness week and tasked the whole school to complete a nature hunt.

• Prepared and carried out a meeting with the LEC (Local Education Committee.) Telling them all about the democratic process.

• Asked Ian to set a Y6 assignment on inspirational quotes, ready to be shared with the whole school on a weekly basis.

• Created a meeting with the councillors and tasked them to find out that all classrooms had trust boxes and that children could easily access them.

Recently the MPs conducted a learning walk with Rebecca and Clare, Senior Play Leader, observing children’s behaviour in the lunch hall. They looked at manners, noise levels and the kindness that was shown towards each other. They were very pleased with what they saw and said “children were mostly using their indoor voices and were showing kindness towards each other by holding the door open and saying thank you.”. They then worked with Clare and Rebecca to devise a ‘DINE Code of Conduct’ ready for September. Well done School Parliament! What a tremendous impact you have had on Grange Park this year. Thank you for all of your hard work.

Here are some final thoughts from our MPs.

We are pleased that we managed to offer some enrichment clubs this term for the children, which they thoroughly enjoyed. This term saw our first ever ‘Enrichment Showcase’ where parents were invited to come and see what their children had been learning in their clubs and to celebrate their achievements. It has been a huge success and we thank everyone who gave up their time to attend. You’ll be pleased to know that this will be a permanent fixture to celebrate enrichment at the end of each term and we hope that you will join us in celebrating the achievements of our young people.

We are pleased we have been able to offer a range of enrichment clubs next term!

PE and sport this term has been close to ‘normal’ and we hope that this is a sign of things to come next year. We have had many sporting successes. Our boys football teams remained unbeaten in all their matches and were champions in the Haringey football tournament. Our girls football team were also unbeaten which was excellent as many players came from year 5. The Grange Park Athletics squad performed heroically and were crowned champions of Enfield. However our biggest sporting success this term was giving the opportunity to over 75% of year 6 children to play in school teams.

Another huge step to normality was Sports Day. The children all had a fantastic time and it was so heartwarming to have been able to invite parents to come and watch! We managed to have sports day for every class across the school even though we did have to reschedule some classes a few times! Thank you parents for coming along, the children really did enjoy sharing their sports day with you!

Keep Playing Sport!

Each edition there will be a book review written by a child in different year groups. Here are 3 book reviews for The Story Zone below:

Extend breakfast and afterschool club are still taking bookings for next year. Contact Extend via email extend@grangeparkprimaryelt.org for more information!

As the academic year comes to an end we wanted to update you on the amazing fundraising we have been able to undertake during a very difficult year. Thank you to everyone who has donated. The GPPSA is key to fostering excellent relationships between parents and their children’s school as well as assisting with necessary fundraising, which ultimately benefits the children.

Due to the COVID restrictions being extended in July, we were unable to have the Summer festival. Thankfully, we were able to keep the donation that Havilands made to the GPPSA which amounted to a total of £390. Thank you to all the parents for agreeing to allow Havilands to place advertising boards outside of their homes.

With this and other previous initiatives, we are thrilled to have raised a total of £5,559 this academic year so far!

We’ve also had a number of fundraising events take place in July including, Bags2school, Non Uniform Day, a Summer Raffle, Ice lolly sale and of course there is the ‘Bend the Rules’ day taking place today. These funds have not been added to the total yet. We will update on the numbers in the new academic year.

The committee has created a calendar of events for the next academic year to help fund soundproofing the Dining Hall at the school. This is following some feedback the students and teachers have given, where the sound levels at times can be too high. The calendar will be circulated in September. We are hoping that we can have some “in person” events so that we can continue to build and grow the GPPSA community.

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 in anyway 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.

The GPPSA is also looking for a new Secretary. Please do let us know if you are interested at gppsa@hotmail.co.uk or speak to any of the committee directly. Without a Secretary the GPPSA cannot continue.

Our Nursery children have been on a wonderful journey this year with each other: they have been making friends and learning to learn independently and with one another. As part of the whole school Art Project to make a Kindness Quilt, the children shared happy memories of school and times when they have been kind to others and their friends and been kind to them.

The children created kindness drawings and especially enjoyed the magic of using ‘image transfer paste’; to make their drawing appear on fabric! It was so lovely to hear the children sharing their memories with each other. So much kindness in Acorn class. Well done everyone.

Reception have been continuing their ‘Living and Growing’ learning quest topic and have enjoyed a wonderful trip to Paradise Wildlife Park. The topic has enabled the children to explore a variety of different living things covering plants, animals and even dinosaurs.

At the park, the children were able to see many animals in a variety of different habitats such as; penguins, monkeys and zebras. We discussed and asked questions such as ‘Why do the monkeys have trees in their habitat?’ and ‘Why do the penguins need water?'

They were also lucky enough to see some of the animals being fed including the lions and the meerkats. We then discussed which animals are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and the difference in their diet.

They also noticed that some animals were asleep whilst we were visiting them, which led to questions such as, ‘Why are some animals awake but some are asleep?’ By discussing that some animals are nocturnal the children were then able to suggest other animals which they knew were also nocturnal such as owls and badgers.

The children also really enjoyed the dinosaur experience at the park. We discussed how dinosaurs are now extinct, the children were amazed at how big they were and really enjoyed the challenge of trying to sound out their very long names!

In Year 1 we have been busy creating our final piece in Art. We used different paint techniques to create a space collage in the style of artists Peter Thorpe and Jackson Pollock. We added 3D elements to our collages to represent outer space. Here are some quotes from Year 1 children on their art project. Also some fantastic artwork of rockets in space.

“This is the best lesson ever!” Kharaman, Grasshopper

“This is so fun!” Imaan, Ladybird

“I painted my background like Jackson Pollock!” Nikol, Dragonfly

In year 4, it is all about finishing the year how we started…. With some high quality learning and exciting things happening.

This term, the children have been exploring the British coastline, looking at key features such as stacks and stumps, coves and headlands and how they have been created.

I am sure you will agree that the outcome has been worth the time and effort put in.

Using our prior knowledge of rocks and soils, the children investigated how a range of forces have managed to shape the coastline we know today. Not only that, but we have investigated how the British coastline is under threat with coastal erosion, and came up with a range of strategies to defend the land and prevent longshore drift.

This month Year 6 went to PGL in Bawdsey Manor for their residential trip. Whilst there, the children spent each day taking part in a variety of adventurous activities including zip wiring, abseiling and buggy building. The children were also fortunate enough to learn some essential survival skills like how to pitch a tent in the wilderness and even how to make fire with very little tools to help. Throughout the trip, they learnt some extremely important life lessons that will hold them in good stead for the future and they did it all with big smiles on their faces! The children displayed outstanding behaviour while we were there and the staff were extremely proud of the maturity they showed over the entire week. Well done Year 6, I am sure you will always remember this special time you spent together as will the adults.