Issue 12 28 April 2017

Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter Issue 12 Friday 28 April 2017 Dear Parents It was lovely to welcome back so many smiling faces to school this week for the start of the Summer Term. I do hope that you had a good break over Easter and managed to enjoy some time with family and friends.

As always, over the holiday there has been plenty going on at school. You may notice that a new carpet has been laid on the main corridor and what a difference this has made to the building!

The grounds staff have been as busy as ever, preparing pitches for cricket and rounders, and setting up the tennis courts ready for, hopefully, some warmer and sunnier weather!

I am pleased to report that we had a very successful Ski Trip during the first week of the holidays and that we came back with no injuries. It was an amazing experience for all involved and hopefully our J1, J2 and J3 pupils have now received a letter about next year’s exciting trip!

There is a great deal to look forward to this term and I hope to welcome you to many of the exciting events that lie ahead. Please remember that we are having class photographs on Tuesday, so please could I ask that, as always, all pupils look smart.

Finally, can I please gently remind parents to ensure that all uniform is named as we have recently found a number of items in school, particularly coats, which are not. Thank you for your support with this.

Have a lovely weekend.

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 Easter holidays! Well done to Hannah Crawley (skiing), Lucie Wilson (horse riding), Oliver Parker (swimming), Theia Chesworth (gymnastics) and Bella Goodman (Irish Dancing).

On Tuesday morning, pupils from the Pre-School through to the Sixth Form, along with all the staff, gathered together at the Senior School for a whole school photograph. Despite the weather being bitterly cold, the children were very patient and their behaviour was impeccable! The photograph will be available to order in due course!

KGJS Ski Trip to Zell am See, Austria Family & Friends are invited to...

Saturday 31 March to Saturday 7 April 2018 for our current J1, J2 and J3 pupils

The Friends of KGS’ ‘Spring Sizzle’ Friday 19 May 3.45pm Kirkham Grammar School Recital Hall BBQ Stalls Refreshments Cakes Competitions Prizes Please could any parents willing to run a fundraising stall at the Spring Sizzle, or could pledge a cake for the cake stall please contact s.hancock@kirkhamgrammar.co.uk There is a cress competition and a decorated lunch bag competition. Each pupil has been given a lunch bag and some cress seeds today to get them started!

A presentation evening by TGM Sports, who are organising the holiday for us, has been arranged for any parents who wish to find out more about this wonderful opportunity, on Tuesday 16 May 2017 at 5pm at the Junior School.

More information has been sent home in a letter this week.

We very much hope that your child will wish to join us on this exciting trip!

After the Easter holidays, we decided to focus on children’s interests and bring their ideas together to plan the learning environment. We have begun a fascinating journey and are discovering how learning takes place and is more meaningful when children lead it through play. Stories are being brought to life and Disney characters are celebrating birthday parties for which invitations and birthday cards have been written. We are waiting to see where Jessica and Emilie take us from here but it has been wonderful to see how engaged the children have been and how much they are learning. Perhaps we will go on to count how many friends are coming to the party and make our own recipe to make a yummy cake. Another super adventure got Erin painting a sleigh, she then made it using 3D construction materials and role-played with small figures while she was using and demonstrating positional language. We must not forget to mention that a parcel was delivered during our French lesson on Monday and we were so excited to see Tilou again.

It had been such a long time since we had last seen him and we were very pleased to greet him in French.

Sam Goodman in J2 recently entered the Radio 2 ‘500 word’ story competition and was delighted to hear that his story has been selected from over 130,000 entries to go through to the next round.

The judges had the unenviable task of choosing just 5000 stories from the huge number of entries.

Sam’s story, ‘Little Red Riding Hood Rap with a Twist in the Tale’, will now go to the Reading Agency for the second round of judging, who will select just 50 stories for the final round!

Well done Sam and good luck!

Last term, the Infant Ensemble learned to play the song, ‘Morning has Broken’ on their chosen instruments. These included the recorder, glockenspiel and percussion. All the musicians have been practising how to read music and play their instrument at the same time - not an easy skill to master!

They were able to display their talents by performing superbly in front of all the infants and teachers during the weekly Infant Hymn Practice.

Well done to you all!

The J2X children have been doing some fantastic 'freeze framing' during their English lesson, which gave the children the opportunity to combine their English with a little Drama! This was linked to their work on The Spiderwick Chronicles.

I1 had a lovely ending to their topic about ‘Change and Growth’.

Mrs Dawson-Gerrard (Henry’s Mummy) brought their beautiful dog, Bertie, a three year old Bedlington whippet, into school.

Henry showed us photos of Bertie when he was a puppy and explained what care he needs to stay happy and healthy. Bertie was very well behaved and allowed us to give him a little stroke!

Thank you very much to Mrs Dawson-Gerrard for bringing Bertie into KGJS and for helping to make our learning such fun!

The I2s have been busy exploring 'STEM' again! This week, they were given the challenge of creating their very own rainbow using water, food colouring and paper towels. The children all worked really hard to find a solution and after a lot of perseverance and patience, they all managed to do it! Everybody was so excited! They were all able to discuss how the rainbow had been formed through the absorption of the water and through the use of the primary colours! Well done, I2!

During the Easter holidays, the J2 children have been very busy working on their ‘Ancient Egypt’ projects and the work they have completed is absolutely fantastic! They all had a different subject to research and chose how they wanted to present the information.

The result is a magnificent array of unique presentations which are now on display in the classroom. Please do come and have a look!

Well done, J2!

On Saturday 1 April, 24 KGJS pupils and 4 teachers travelled to Zell Am See in Austria for the KGJS Ski Trip. We arrived at the Gartenhotel Daxer, our hotel for the week. On the first day of skiing we got into our groups, beginner, intermediate and advanced, and met our group instructors. We went up to the top of the mountain and made our own way down to where we were going to have our lunch. In the evening we had a karaoke night. On the second day we did more skiing and we went shopping for a while and after we had a pizza at the best pizza restaurant in Zell Am See. On the third day we did more skiing but it was harder. On that evening we had dinner and then went swimming at a spa. On the fourth day of skiing we went to the Glacier but it was a bit trickier to ski because it was lumpier snow and it was a bit harder to breathe. We got back and had dinner then walked to town to watch an ice hockey match. On the fifth day we went back to our usual mountain and skied down. In the evening we had a movie night and watched ‘Daddy Day Care’ which was very emotional for some of us. On the final day we went back to the Glacier mountain and we were all very tired and sleepy; at lunch, three girls fell asleep! After lunch, we all skied together and had lots of fun. On the last evening we had a disco and did challenges, dancing and singing. Then everyone except the J4s went to their bedrooms to go to sleep and the J4s had some time to reflect on everything we had done on the ski trip. We all had an amazing time and would love to go skiing again! Thank you to all the instructors at TGM for a fantastic trip.

by Rachel Watson, Hennie Thompson, Alexander Kane & James Stacey

The I2 children have finished telling the story of ‘James and the Giant Peach’. The peaches which I2 took home over the Easter holidays have already started arriving through the mail! Isabelle’s has been to Belfast, Torrin's to Switzerland and Sam’s to Kent! We have also had lots of peach adventures sent to us by email! Thank you to everyone who has taken part. We are all awaiting the next lot of peach mail!

On Saturday 22 April, over forty children, along with Mr Oddie, Mr Butterworth, Mrs Aldeen, Mr Lewis and Miss Cooper took part in a Charity Triathlon in aid of Brian House Children’s Hospice. The event was held at Kirkham Baths for swimming and Preston Sports Arena for running and cycling. When they arrived at Kirkham Baths everyone swam 10 lengths of the pool, with most choosing different styles for each length.

Everyone had so much fun. Next, everyone travelled to Preston Sports Arena to do both the running and the cycling. There was a slight change this year with everyone running one lap of the cycle track before jumping on their bikes for the three miles of cycling.

Everyone tried their best and it was wonderful to see the encouragement and support they gave each other. This showed great sportsmanship and team effort. Thank you to all the parents who came along to support.

Copper Up For Cancer Thank you to all who have supported our ‘Copper up for Cancer’ wheelbarrow 2p and 1p collection!

The pink wheelbarrow has now been taken away for the final count up to see how much we have raised for Brian House.

House

21.4.17

Total

Fylde

25

25

Kirkham

37

37

Preston

57

57

School

39

39

Jack has three discs.

Each disc has a 7 on one side and an 8 on the other side.

He spins together.

all

the

discs

Don’t forget to visit our Facebook and Twitter page for all the latest news and information!!

How many different totals can he get using the three discs?

Monday 1 May - May Bank Holiday - School closed Tuesday 2 May - Tempest Class Photographs Thursday 4 May - Pre-School Parents’ Evening Friday 5 May - Junior House Swimming Gala 9am-12 noon U9 Athletics, Ashbridge School 1pm-4pm Tuesday 9 May - AJIS Sings 8am-5pm U11 Athletics v Westholme (H) 4pm Thursday 11 May - U11 Cricket & Rounders v AKS (A) time tbc Friday 12 May - Bags 2 School Collection Saturday 13 May - U10 & U11 Rounders v St Mary’s Hall (A) 11.30am U11 Cricket v St Mary’s Hall (A) 11.30am Monday 15 May - U11 Cricket v Manchester Grammar School 6-a-side Festival (A) Thursday 18 May - U11 Rounders v Westholme (A) 3.15pm I1 Trip to Martin Mere Friday 19 May - House Singing Competition U11 Rounders Tournament St Pius (A) FKGS ‘Spring Sizzle’ KGS Recital Hall 3.45pm Monday 22 May - J4 Enterprise Week begins Wednesday 24 May - U10 Cricket v St Pius (A) 1.30pm Thursday 25 May - J3 Trip to Waddow Hall J4 Wales Meeting 5pm Friday 26 May - Half Term begins at 3.45pm Monday 5 June - School re-opens Monday 5 June - J4 Wales Trip (returns Fri 9 June)