7 May 2021
Dear parents
Welcome to our first summer term edition of the News Roundup. It's been a busy start to the term and it's so very encouraging to see the children tackling their learning with such enthusiasm! Scroll down to read more about their learning!
With my very best wishes to you and your families
Tijen Hassan
Headteacher
Term Dates, Holidays and School Closures
Please click link to view term dates for 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.
Dates for Diary
Keeping Children Safe
Online Safety- Social Media Guides
Safeguarding both adults and children is about preventing the risk of harm from abuse or exploitation or having the ability to reduce it by raising awareness and supporting people in making informed decisions.
Online abuse is a major area of concern and cyber-enabled abuse and bullying is inescapable. The PDSC has produced the following advice. Please click the images below to read more and download.
Parking
Please be reminded that it is illegal to park your car on the white zig zags/school keep clear markings outside the school to drop off or pick up your child. Local residents are still reporting that parents are parking on the white zig zags and across driveways. Please help us to keep each other safe.
Times Tables Rockstars
Well done to Broomfield family again for winning the family competition, with the most correct answers per person.
Congratulations to Kandinsky, Jupiter, Tiger, Cedar, Puffin for winning their respective year group battles, and they will now face off in the final to find the strongest class in TTRS at Grange Park. Good luck!
Spelling Shed
The results are in from the most recent battles!
Well done to Year 6 Picasso class for achieving 115,994,590 points with Year 6 Monet class in second place on 112,489,579 points. Oak class is not far behind in third place with 82,787,277 points!
Well done also to the whole of the Grovelands family for getting the most points in the family battle!
The challenge is now on to see if another class can knock Picasso off the top spot or prevent the Grovelands family from being the top spellers?
New battles have already begun with battles with Year 1 vs Year 2, Year 3 vs Year 4, Year 5 vs Year 6 and our family battle between Broomfield, Oakwood, Trent and Grovelands.
Keep spelling and help your class or family to victory!
Book Reviews
Each edition there will be a book review written by a child in different year groups.
Here are 2 book reviews for The Story Zone. If your child would like to read these books, they can ask their teacher to put them in their class book boxes for next half term.
Review by Nico, Year 1
Living in the sea is boring until Barry arrives. This is because Barry is a fish with fingers! Barry uses his fingers to play with finger puppets and does finger painting. It is very funny. The other fish want fingers, too.
Life under the sea will never be the same again.
Review by Maya, Year 2
The Twits is very funny and really descriptive. This book is about two twits who always play pranks on each other and little children. They don't have windows in their house to look out from.
Does it have a happy ending? Let me know what you think when you have read the book.
Sporting update
There’s so many exciting sports events returning and it’s great that our children are improving their fitness and wellbeing. Here’s an update on everything sport:
Nearly all PE lessons will be on the field where the children have lots of space to develop their skills and teamwork. The children will be focusing on cricket and rounders this half term and we will move to athletics in June.
We are also hopeful that sports day will return this summer. Obviously we will follow the government guidelines but early signs are positive.
We are thrilled to be able to offer an after school sports club for all year groups and we hope to extend the programme next term.
Lastly, we will be entering some Enfield PE competitions this term. Our aim is to try and select as many children as possible to represent Grange Park. Our priority will be Year 6 as this is their last term in primary school.
Curriculum News
Big Pedal 2021
We took part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2021, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge took place from 19 April to 30 April. During these past couple of weeks the children were encouraged to take active journeys to school on as many days as possible during the event. This was a great way to get children active, which is important for physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school runs also helps to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate.
Covid-19 has made active travel to school even more important. The Department for Education have said encouraging active travel to school helps “to enable pupils to be physically active while encouraging physical distancing."
We wanted to celebrate how amazing the children have been, taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal and learning about the fantastic benefits of active travel.
During these two weeks we encouraged active travel to school, by means of walking, cycling, or using scooters. The Year 5 Junior Travel Ambassadors created a slide presentation about Road Safety and Big Pedal week, to promote the importance of the weeks.
At the end of Big Pedal week, each teacher created a class tally of how many times each child used active travel to get to school. The children really enjoyed the challenge of the week and we are so proud to announce that the winners of Big Pedal week 2021 goes to Neptune class in Year 5, who had an outstanding number of ‘active travel’ (number of activities) achieving a cumulative amount of 284 over a two week period. Congratulations Neptune!
Other News
National Gallery Workshop
Children in Puffin class thoroughly enjoyed their virtual National Gallery workshop.
They were able to make links between the artwork in the gallery and their current Learning Quest topic 'Mad for Madagascar'.
In particular, they loved looking at Henri Rousseau's painting ‘Surprised’ which they have been learning all about in class!
The children enjoying the visuals.
The Big Ask Assembly
On the 29 April, we had a whole school assembly about ‘The Big Ask’.
This is a National survey for children and young people aged 4 – 17 and is the largest consultation with children that has ever been conducted in England. It was launched on 19 April by The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza and is a chance for children to have their say about the things that matter to them.
At its heart, ‘The Big Ask’ asks children and young people what they think is important for their future and what is holding young people back. The Children’s Commissioner will use what children and young people tell her to show the Government what they think and what they need to live happier lives putting children at the heart of our country’s recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Click here for more information and a link to the survey.
Our New Pond
We have exciting news! Grange Park Primary has a new pond. Click to watch the video of how this was constructed.
Baby News!
We are pleased to announce that Lloyd Newey has a new addition to the family - a baby boy named Coen. I know you would all join us in congratulating Lloyd and his partner and wishing them well!
Comic Relief Update
You may remember that just before the Easter break, the whole school took part in recognising Red Nose Day and the important work of Comic Relief. We had great fun dressing as superheroes, taking part in quizzes and also sharing our best jokes for our class joke competitions. We also had an assembly and found out more about the individuals and communities who are helped by Comic Relief . We revisited our learning and understanding about acts of kindness, being good to ourselves and others and the importance of knowing that even the smallest acts of kindness can lead to great change.
Thank you to everyone for all of your fantastic support for this great cause. We are pleased to let you know that with the fabulous support of the whole school community, we raised an impressive total of £1,452.85 which will undoubtedly go a long way in helping the charity and all who are supported by it.
Covid - Life After Loss
The Life After Loss scheme will allow Citizens Advice to go beyond its advisory role, providing financial and emotional support to clients like these, helping them cope with the terrible losses bought about by COVID-19.
The Life After Loss service will include:
A dedicated advice caseworker to manage the clients’ needs from start to finish
It will include fast track advice to access benefits, Universal Credit, and debt advice support
Assistance with raising money for funeral costs and other sudden/emergency bills
Emergency crisis emotional support counselling
Up to 8 free sessions of bereavement counselling
A small grant of up to £500 for those families in dire need of financial relief
Twitter
@grangeparkelt
Don't forget to follow us on twitter to keep up to date with all the news and events happening at Grange Park Primary!
GRANGE PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION
News and Updates
We are the official fundraising arm of Grange Park Primary and look to bring parents, families, friends, staff and local communities together socially to support our school.
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 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.
Go to instagram and follow us @Grangeparkprimaryassociation
Easy Ways to Help the GPPSA Raise Funds
At this difficult time face to face, group fundraisers are not allowed so again we have set up a fund page for anyone that would like to donate, any donation of any size will be gratefully received and help fund the items for the children that the school has prioritised for this year.
Signing up to easyfundraising which turns your everyday online shopping into FREE donations. Please click on the image.
Using the Amazon Smile link when buying items by pressing the logo and search for Grange Park Primary School Association. If you are buying anything from AMAZON please use the AMAZON SMILE app on your phone. Just go into your settings and convert your original app to the smile version and pick Grange Park Primary School as your charity.
A percentage of the sale comes directly to the school so it’s a very easy way for us to make ££ at this time. Click on the image to find out more.
Entering our school lottery - tickets are only £1 per week. There is a guaranteed winner each week and a chance to win £25,000! Click on the image to find out more.
Looking to get some new name stickers to personalise all your child’s uniform, shoes, books etc? Simply log onto the website as normal, shop and at the end add in our unique code 65741 before you check out. 24% from each order will be donated to our school. See the flyer on our website page for more information. Click on the image to find out more.
Stamptastic is the fastest way to name all your belongings. A personalised stamp made in the UK, usable on fabric, metal, wood and some plastics. No more sewing or ironing in labels! Please note that 20% commission from each order will be donated to our school. Click on the image to place your order.
One of the easiest ways for us to make money on our two Fayre/Festival days is through stall matching. If you work for any of these corporates or another company, please ask your HR department about Stall Matching and let the committee know.
Offers and discounts
Looking for a fun and crafty activity your kids will love? Try a Free ToucanBox (Click this link), P&P only and our school will receive £5. You can cancel the subscription at any time.
Year Group News
Nursery
Our topic in nursery this term is 'The World Around Us'. Our little Acorns have been busy creating their very own world in a box. We have been learning about different habitats and where different animals live. The children have been so excited to share all of their ideas.
Created his own solar system and enjoyed telling us all about the different planets.
This child created her very own under the sea world with lots of colourful fish.
Creating his own polar world in a box!
The children spent time in the outdoor area investigating and looking for minibeasts. Finding a ladybird, worms and some ants was very exciting.
Reception
In Reception all the children have been very excited to begin their new Learning quest ‘Living and Growing’. To celebrate the start of their topic reception went on a nature walk around the school grounds to see what we could discover.
Enjoying looking at the plants. "I can see buds blooming.’’
Here is a picture where the child labelled what he saw on his nature walk.
Lucas - Daffodil class.
Finding a wriggly worm on her walk.
Our talk for writing book was called Jasper’s Beanstalk. The children have been busy gardening in the mud garden just like Jasper planting beans and exploring their new home corners which have now turned into Florists!
They have been learning all the main parts of a plant and can tell you where on a plant you will find the roots, leaves, stem and flower.
In maths the children have been learning about repeating patterns and have enjoyed creating their own.
This week we have been finding patterns in numbers and have been counting in twos.
The children have enjoyed exploring this in the outside area.
Year 1
The Year 1 children were introduced to their new topic Space by role playing going up into space in a space rocket. Children had to fill in a ticket to come on board the space rocket and counted down for take off.
Since our introduction to the topic we have been placing significant space travel events on a timeline and have made the curriculum connection that without the Wright brothers invention of a plane space travel would have not been possible.
"I enjoyed making my boarding pass, I can’t wait to use it." Dalayla - Dragonfly
"This is the best lesson ever!" Dervish - Grasshopper
"The Wright brothers invented a plane in 1903, so that was before the first flight to space." Freya - Butterfly
"I didn’t know a dog was sent into space." Ethan - Ladybird
Year 2
At the start of this half term, Year 2 have been learning about the poem ‘The Magic Box’. We practised the poem and learnt the text map for it. We added actions for each verse to help us remember the poem off by heart. We then had a go at creating our own versions of the poem!
Year 3
Poem by Olivia, Oak class
In Year 3 we created spine poems based on an Ancient Egyptian theme.
Poem by Alfie, Oak class
We then performed our poems to the rest of the class using expression, intonation and actions.
Year 4
Puma class researching different games.
In Year 4 we have been having fun researching, designing and making our own Roman board game.
In the first lesson, we enjoyed researching a variety of board games. This helped us to understand what makes them appealing to the people that buy them and was also important for when we created our own board games as we needed to know what to include in our products and how to market it to our target audience. We all decided to base our Roman game on the famous ‘Trivial Pursuit.’
Children making their own board games in Puma class.
Next, we spent time in our groups using our laptops to plan what our board game would look like and what questions we wanted. This was great fun as we were able to work collaboratively on the same google slides and work as a team.
After that, we spent a few lessons making our game, ensuring that it was engaging, appealing and fun for our target audience. Everyone in the group had a role to play and we really worked as a team.
Finally, we evaluated our game commenting on what worked well and what we would improve next time round.
Year 5
Mariana, Saturn class
In RE, we are learning about the Sikh religion. We learnt that the 5 Ks (5 worn items) date from the creation of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Kesh (uncut hair) Kara (a steel bracelet) Kangha (a wooden comb) Kachera (cotton shorts) Kirpan (steel sword).
Our task was to create a poster identifying the 5 Ks as well as what each K symbolises.
Ela, Saturn class
The 5 Ks taken together symbolise that the Sikh who wears them has dedicated themselves to a life of devotion and submission to the Guru.
Siena, Saturn class
The 5 Ks are 5 physical symbols worn by Sikhs who have been initiated into the Khalsa.
Year 6
Skye, Kandinsky class
This half term Year 6 started an exciting new English unit based on the animated tale of ’Alma’. We have been using our computing skills to create a website using ‘Googlesites’. The websites were split into three sections: Blog, ‘tweet a thought’ and youtube. In the first lesson we generated our ‘tweets’ expressing Alma’s thoughts and feelings throughout her day.
Ikram, Kandinsky class
In addition, we created youtube style interviews where the children filmed themselves in character answering questions about their day. The children will be finishing the unit by writing a diary style blog and posting it on their website.