Issue 11 31 March 2017

Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter Issue 11 Friday 31 March 2017 Dear Parents What an action packed fortnight it has been since the last newsletter! It has been lovely to welcome so many parents into school to enjoy events such as our Pre-School and I1 Mothers’ Day Afternoon Tea, not to mention our Easter Egg Hunt!

We have also been very busy, and enjoyed much success, on the sporting field as you will read further in the newsletter and I would like to say how delighted I am of these achievements.

Last week saw our magnificent production of ‘Aladdin’ take place. Once again, I was immensely proud of the children and staff involved and I am sure you will agree that all their hard work and dedication paid off. The standard of the performance was incredible and I would challenge any other Junior School in the country to surpass this! It has been wonderful to receive such fantastic feedback from parents, family members and friends.

On Saturday morning, we embark on our bi-annual ski trip to Zell am See, Austria. Our twenty four pupils are very excited, as are the staff; Mrs Rowlands, Miss Fountain and Mr Smith. Pictures and a report will follow in our first newsletter next term.

As we look forward to next term, I am delighted to announce that we have seven new pupils joining us in a variety of year groups. We also welcome Mrs Farquharson who joins us for one term to teach Girls’ Games.

Wishing you all a happy and restful Easter break.

Mrs AS Roberts Headmistress

Follow me on Twitter: Annette Roberts @KGJShead

It is always lovely to hear about the children’s achievements outside of school. The children have certainly been busy over the last couple of weeks! Well done to Gabriella Wise (dancing), Hannah Crawley (cheerdance), Charlie Hawe and Evie Mannion (swimming), Lola Huyton, Heidi Aldeen and Poppy Pickervance (Lytham Festival of Performing Arts Awards).

Please could we ask all children to keep off the Junior School field after school. The grass is still very wet and we are trying to prepare it for a busy Summer Term of sport and other events!

Thank you.

Sport/Event Photographs If parents take photographs at school events/sports fixtures we would love to see them! They may even get used in school newsletters, on the website and in press releases. Please email them to Michelle Tickle at m.tickle@kirkhamgrammarjnr.co.uk Thank you

Please follow us on Twitter for the latest news at KGJS! twitter.com/kgjs_

Kirkham Grammar Junior School Facebook news is now on the Kirkham Grammar School Facebook page….we hope this will make the ‘whole school news’ easier to follow! Please visit and ‘LIKE’ the KGS page for all the latest news, photographs and information. The Facebook page name is ‘Kirkham Grammar School’ and can be easily identified from our KGS logo.

House

24.3.17

31.3.17

Total

Fylde

194

109

1856

Kirkham

164

83

1722

Preston

173

157

2119

School

184

98

1823

What a busy end of term it has been for us at Pre-School!! We sang some of the Aladdin songs and even learned a couple of steps ready to watch the Matinee Performance on Wednesday 22 March. We loved it!

Rupert brought some astronaut ice cream for us to share and we all had a taste. It wasn’t very cold but it was yummy!!

We carried on singing and performing as we got ready to join the I1 children in the Mother’s Day Assembly on Friday 24 March. We sang a special song to our mummies, whilst they enjoyed afternoon tea, and we gave them a rose and a super hug.

We received a letter from the Easter Bunny with some clues that led us to find some chocolate treats and letters to make our name. It was hard work to follow instructions to get to the chocolates! We had great fun spending time with our mummies and daddies as we walked around the playground finding Easter treats. At the end of our Easter Egg Hunt, we met all our I1 friends in the Hall to wish them Happy Easter and had Easter biscuits together.

Well done to Rosa Gill in J2Y, who came up with an excellent idea to raise money for Classrooms in the Clouds. The children were able to enjoy hot chocolate at morning break for a £1 donation. In total a fantastic £175 was raised. Well done, Rosa and thank you to all the children and parents for their support.

North of England Boys Hockey Finals - Tuesday 21 March U11 Boys Results: v St Michaels, Sunderland v Altrincham Prep v Ashville, Harrogate

drew 1-1 drew 0-0 lost 1-0

The above results were not quite good enough to progress to the knockout stages, even though Kirkham only lost one game. In their match to decide who came 7th/8th in the North of England, KGJS played AKS and won 1-0. All players gave everything and with a bit more luck could have progressed to the knockout stages, but on this occasion it was not to be.

This completed a pleasing season which saw the Kirkham Grammar Junior School Hockey team achieve the following:   

AJIS CHAMPIONS LANCASHIRE CHAMPIONS NORTH OF ENGLAND FINALISTS

U9, U10 & U11/U12 Boys Hockey v Preston Hockey Club - Saturday 25 March Over 50 boys enjoyed three games of fantastic Hockey against Preston Hockey Club on Saturday. The teams were made up of U9, U10, U11 and U12 boys. Thank you to Preston Hockey Club for coming over for a super morning of Hockey.

U10 Girls Hockey Tournament - Monday 27 March At the beginning of the week, KGJS hosted an U10s Hockey Tournament over at the Senior School. The KGJS U10 Girls won two and drew one in the group stages which took them through to the semi final against Kings Chester which they won 1-0. They then faced the other group winners, AKS, in the final. A well matched game was played but Kirkham scored in the second half of the match. Some excellent defending and play allowed them to keep the lead until the final whistle. Well done to all who played and thank you to the parents who came along to support.

During the Spring Term, the children have been heavily involved in four House Sports competitions.

These were Indoor Athletics, Netball, Hockey and Rugby.

All competitions have been very competitive and every pupil in J1, J2, J3 and J4 have been involved, with the I3s having their own Indoor Athletics event, too.

After 24 Netball matches, 48 Hockey matches, 24 Rugby matches and 10 Indoor Athletics events the results are as follows: Netball Rugby Hockey Indoor Athletics 1st Fylde 1st Preston 1st Preston 1st School 2nd Kirkham & School 2nd Fylde 2nd School 2nd Preston 4th Preston 3rd Kirkham 3rd Kirkham 3rd Fylde 4th School 4th Fylde 4th Kirkham With just Swimming, Rounders, Tennis, Cricket and Athletics to go, the overall totals are as follows: 1st FYLDE 135 2nd KIRKHAM & PRESTON 124 4th SCHOOL 117 As you can see it is all very close and there are hundreds of points available so, Fylde, watch out!!!!

J1 have been exploring the issues around access to water and how different countries filter water around the world. They then took part in a hands-on project where they built their own water filters, purchasing different sets of resources depending on which country they represented.

This included knowing the countries’ average Literacy level, average rainfall, if they have access to ground water or sea water and then were given credit depending on the wealth of the country to buy the materials. This was a challenging project, however, each group produced a fully functioning filter and gave a beautiful presentation on the water crisis in their own country.

Well done, J1.

On Tuesday 21 March, the I1 children were very excited to be given the opportunity to hold the baby chicks!

Mrs Knowles and Mrs Riley showed them how the chicks should be held and they also discussed how they had developed over the last week, since hatching from their eggs! This was a very special experience for the children, some of whom had never held a baby chick before and they all showed a great deal of compassion towards them and thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Well done, I1!

During the Pre-School and I1 Mothers’ Day Afternoon Tea, the children presented their mummies with a single rose and then sat with them to enjoy a cake and a drink. They then performed a special poem and each of them told their mummy why they love her so much! A wonderful afternoon was had by all!

All of the photographs are available to view on our KGS Flickr page which can be accessed through the school website or via our Facebook/Twitter pages.

The I1 children enjoyed designing patterns to decorate egg shapes which were then stuck onto card and cut into jigsaw piece shapes. Each child was given a mathematical problem which they had to solve with their Mummy or Daddy. Once they had worked out their answer, the children were ‘eggcited’ to hunt for their answer outside in the I1 play area. They loved finding some chocolate treats hiding with their special number! Next, all the number pieces were joined together in sequence to create our own big Easter egg jigsaw puzzle.

Mummies, daddies and children were then treated to Easter biscuits and chocolate crispy cakes which they had all helped to make the previous day. We all had a very ‘Happy Easter Egg Hunt’ afternoon.

‘Fabulous show’, ‘incredibly talented children’, ‘hard to believe the children are only seven to eleven years of age’, ‘superb and professional production’ and ‘absolutely loved every second of it’ were just a few of the wonderful comments from guests after the production of ‘Aladdin’.

The audience were amazed from the moment the curtain lifted to reveal a ‘West End’ stage set, matched by equally stunning costumes, which brought the characters to life, wonderful singing and dancing, as well as a little humour thrown in, too! The show was absolutely phenomenal, enhanced by special effect lighting, smoke machines and pyrotechnics, which added amazing effects to the magnificent backdrop for this fairytale story! Every child performed superbly to make a truly spectacular and breathtaking show. Huge congratulations to all involved in making this a tremendous success...a true team effort! Well done, everybody!

On Tuesday 28 March, best selling author Joe Delaney visited KGS to give a talk to the J4 children and first and second year pupils about his new book, Arena 13. Mr Delaney spoke about how his early wish was to be a footballer but then, upon realising that wasn't going to happen, he began writing his own novels. During the visit, the author read extracts from a couple of his books before allowing the children to ask questions. The morning finished with the children being given the opportunity to purchase one of his books, which he then signed. Thank you to Mr Delaney for a very interesting morning and for coming into school.

Thank you to everyone who supported this year’s Red Nose Day appeal.

A fantastic £483 was raised from the non-uniform day and from sales of the red noses and biscuits!

A special mention to Ben Firth from J3X who organised a Red Nose Easter Egg Game and raised a super £116.

Well done, Ben!

J1 J2 J3 & J4 Boys Just a reminder that cricket clothing for after Easter is as follows: Tracksuit Bottoms White Cricket Shirt (from the school shop) White Socks White Training Shoes SWIMMING AFTER EASTER Friday 21 April: J3, J4 Gala Practice Friday 28 April: J1, J2 Gala Practice Friday 5 May: J1, J2, J3 & J4 Inter House Gala ALL PUPILS MUST HAVE A HOUSE SWIMMING CAP

The I2 children have been working on another amazing STEM activity. Last week everyone made a 2D plan with a design of a building on paper. These were based on using cocktail sticks and Jelly Beans. This week, the plans have become 3D structures!

Absolutely fantastic creations and buildings were made, with some great discussion and perseverance from all of the children. As a special treat, the Jelly Beans were eaten afterwards!

Sophia Gough in I3X came up with a lovely idea to raise money for Cancer Research UK, a charity close to her family's heart.

Sophia's mum and grandma baked 260 cakes last night and these were sold to the children during break time.

Well done, Sophia!

The school is organising a charity Triathlon which will take place on Saturday 22 April at Kirkham Swimming Pool and UCLAN Sports Arena. The event is for our J3 and J4 pupils and the number of entries has been magnificent.

During the first week back we are also running a 'Copper up for Cancer' event. This is where we are asking all pupils to collect 1ps and 2ps, in an attempt to fill a Pink Wheelbarrow! All proceeds will go to Brian House, as are all the funds raised from the Triathlon. It is hoped during your Easter spring clean you will come across all those unwanted 1ps and 2ps hiding around in your house. It would be really appreciated if they could be donated to school for this worthwhile cause. A pink wheelbarrow will be placed in the car park/playground during the first week back.

Everyone who donates will get the opportunity to guess the total amount collected and have the opportunity to win a super prize.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Shape equations!

The sum of the symbols on each row and column are given. Can you find the value of each shape?

Saturday 1 April - Ski Trip departs Saturday 8 April - Ski Trip returns Summer Term begins Wednesday 19 April Friday 21 April - J3 & J4 Swimming Gala practice (am) Saturday 22 April - Charity Triathlon (Kirkham Baths & UCLAN Sports Arena, Preston) 8am-11am Friday 28 April - J1 & J2 Gala practice (am) Friday 5 May - Junior House Swimming Gala 9am-12 noon U9s Athletics Competition, Ashbridge School 1pm-4pm