Issue 14 Wednesday 20 June 2018

Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter

Issue 14 Wednesday 20 June 2018 Dear Parents I apologise that we missed sending the newsletter last week but we were all so busy putting on exciting events for the children that there was no time to write about them! So, now you get a bumper two and a half weeks of review; I hope you enjoy it!

The second half of the Summer Term is moving at speed! As well as all the normal school business, the week has been packed with activities and adventures! I hope that the children are enjoying everything that is going on. I have asked them to be particularly good at listening and following instructions over the next few weeks!

It has been lovely to welcome J4 back after an exciting week away in Scotland. It was an amazing opportunity for them for what was an action-packed week of activities. The school has been a buzz of excitement as they have retold their adventures; it is something they will cherish in the years to come. As you will see from the photos, a great time was had by all! Last week they then immersed themselves into Enterprise Week which again was an exciting and purposeful event, where we saw some true entrepreneurs emerging! As you will see from this newsletter, most of our year groups have had some lovely educational trips out of school over the last fortnight, enhanced by some amazing weather.

Next week sees our annual Prizegiving and I hope that I will see many of you at this event, where we celebrate all of our children’s achievements over the academic year. The final week of term will then showcase our sport at our annual Sports Days and so let us hope that we see some lovely weather for these events.

Have a relaxing weekend and I hope to see some of you at the Summer Ball on Saturday evening.

Annette Roberts Mrs AS Roberts Headmistress

Follow us on: Twitter: @KGJS_ @KirkhamGrammar @KGJShead Facebook: @kirkhamgrammarschool Instagram: @kirkhamgrammar

What a busy time it has been! Preparing for Sports Day was hard work but extremely worthwhile. Everyone took part in the races and it was lovely to see the fantastic support and cheering from all of our parents. The children looked amazing for their summer production which was based on the movie, ‘The Greatest Showman’. They had all made a vision board about their development over the year and where they see themselves in the future and these were displayed as part of the production. The finale, which saw the parents dance with the children, was a fitting end to a wonderful evening. Parents and children then enjoyed a sumptuous barbecue and an amazing time was had by all. The Pre-School children have been talking about looking after the outdoor area. Jim came to show them how to sweep outside and everyone had a go with the brush. The weather has been so nice that a lot of the learning has been happening outside. Everyone has engaged in pretend play and the children have built some amazing castles and spaceships. So many stories were written, following the outdoor play; it was fantastic! The J3 helpers and some J2 spontaneous singers visited Pre-School and encouraged the children to take part in a little performance. A wonderful event that gave all the children the opportunity to work as a team. The trip to Clip ‘n Climb was amazing! Everyone had a go at climbing, even Miss Blacow and Mrs BlancoBayo!

I1 have been looking at Ramadan and Mrs Omer (Fatimah’s mummy) very kindly made Ramadan packs for all the children. Fatimah explained everything that was in the packs, which included: dates, henna and zam zam and a topi kufi.

A huge thankyou to Mrs Omer.

J2 have been mummifying tomatoes and apples. They prepared the fruit, removing the insides (organs) and covering them in a salt and bicarbonate of soda mix, which replicated natron. They will leave them for two weeks to see whether the mummification process has worked, taking a pre and post mummification weight.

Well done, J2!

Members of our Gardening Club have been busy this week proudly tending to their vegetable and salad plants. Their trees and plants are also blooming! They have also built a new pallet planter which they will be filling soon!

Well done to our young gardeners!

AJIS Rounders Competition Well done to our J4 girls who played in the AJIS Rounders Competition at AKS on Tuesday 12 June.

Every single girl in the year was given the opportunity to take part which was fantastic. The A team were crowned the plate winners and the B team, who played A teams, had a much tougher competition but never gave up! Thank you to AKS for hosting and to all the parents who came along to support.

Lancashire U11s Plate Cricket Final v Oldham Hulme School Yesterday, the U11 Lancashire Cricket Plate Final 2018 was held at East Lancashire CC. Kirkham were put into bat by Oldham, having lost the toss. Kirkham started steadily and the first pair, James Shuttleworth and Mason Wilkins, scored 13 runs. The second pair, Ewan Huck and Ben Firth, also performed well and scored 21. The next pair of Oliver Kollard and Harry Case had to face two of Oldham’s better bowlers and scored 4 runs. The final pair, Harvey Barber and Harry Ribchester, played superbly and scored 22 runs to give us a very respectable 60 runs off 12 overs. From the start, our bowlers were very accurate and Oldham struggled to score runs and we eventually restricted them to 37 runs off 12 overs. Congratulations to KGJS U11 boys and thank you to Oldham Hulme and Lancashire Schools Cricket Association for organising the final.

U11 Boys and Girls Athletics v AKS Last night, the U11 boys and girls enjoyed an evening of Athletics v AKS. The match which always acts as good preparation for the AJIS Athletics Championships, which are taking place in Blackburn this Thursday, saw some excellent performances from all athletes. The highlight of the event was undoubtedly Harry Case’s 1.40m in the High Jump, which broke the school record! At the end of the match, Kirkham had recorded two very pleasing wins. Well done to all and thank you to the parents from both schools who came along to support.

We welcomed Chloe from Brian House Children’s Hospice into school. She was presented with a cheque for £2035 for the money raised at our ‘Elf Run’ which took place just before Christmas and, most recently, our Charity Triathlon. Thank you to everyone who supported with these events.

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!

On Monday 4 June, J4, along with Mr Lewis, Mr Oddie, Mrs Farquharson, Mrs Tickle and Mr Brookes, set off for an action-packed week at Manor Adventure in Lockerbie. The group stopped off at Penrith Leisure Centre to break up the journey and enjoyed an hour of badminton, table tennis and football. After lunch, they continued on their way and arrived at Lockerbie at 3pm, where they were given a tour of the hotel.

Each day, after a hearty breakfast, which included Scottish pancakes, the children enjoyed a selection of activities including; zip wire, low ropes, mountain biking, rifles, paddle boarding, raft building, kayaking, canoeing, obstacle course, abseiling, climbing, archery, fencing, crate stack and initiative challenges! There were occasions when nerves took hold but everyone was determined to try every activity. On Wednesday evening, the children enjoyed an outdoor disco! Everybody had a fantastic time at the disco but the children were really tired afterwards, so were all asleep in no time! The weather throughout the week was truly fantastic and the children (and teachers!) had lots of fun and the most incredible time! This was a wonderful trip that has hopefully created lots of memories for the children that will last a lifetime!

Last week, J4 held their annual Enterprise Week. The whole year group was divided into eight teams in order to manage all aspects of their business; developing a fun game for the younger Junior pupils. They were responsible for all aspects of developing, building and marketing their games, as well as having a profitable sales strategy. The groups were judged on the quality of their business presentations, the net profits gained from sales and their ability to work constructively as a team. It proved to be a tremendous week, in which all of the pupils learnt a lot about running a business and they provided a very entertaining morning for the rest of the Junior School pupils. Well done to ‘Meme Team’ on their impressive success in being crowned Enterprise Champions 2018!

Our pupils were given the opportunity to meet their new class teacher this afternoon ahead of the new academic year in September! It was lovely to welcome our new I1 pupils and parents, too. Thank you to George Godbold in J3 who entertained the parents, playing the piano beautifully, while they enjoyed a cup of tea and a chat! Our new I1 children were delighted to receive one of our KGJS teddy bears at the end of their taster session! A lovely afternoon was had by all!

It is always lovely to hear about the children’s achievements outside of school. The children have certainly been very busy over the last couple of weeks!

Well done to Lucie Wilson and Polly Hargreaves (Horse Riding), Joel Ashton, Alice Bunday (Football), Daisy Bellamy, Henry Chapman, Poppy Benson (Swimming), Jake Barber (Sports Race), Isabel Tuck (Duathlon) and Jessica Thompson (Swimming & YMCA), Amelie Singleton (Running) and Emilie Greenwood (Gymnastics).

I2 Trip to the Butterfly House at Williamson Park On Monday 4 June, on a gorgeous sunny day, the I2s travelled to Williamson Park in Lancaster. Their recent topic in Science had included learning about minibeasts, so all the children were looking forward to seeing a variety of butterflies in the indoor area. Their first stop, however, was meeting Siobhan who guided the children into an education room. There they met a box of cockroaches, a giant African snail and a bearded dragon. Most children had a touch or even a hold, but everyone had a good look at the animals’ characteristics and asked some super questions! They then headed over to the Butterfly House where they could see lots of caterpillars, chrysalises and beautifully coloured butterflies.

The I2s had to check that none of them had sneaked onto their uniform before they left the building! After enjoying a picnic lunch on the lawns of Williamson Park, the children were itching to have a play on the amazing play area. The I2s found a giant swing where they sat with their friends and recited the ‘Duck Song!’ Before heading back to school, the children were given the opportunity to buy a souvenir in the gift shop. Everyone had a wonderful day and all made some very special memories!

J2 Trip to Liverpool World Museum On the same day, J2 visited the Liverpool World Museum to explore the Ancient Egypt exhibition and take part in a ‘Discover Egypt’ workshop. The museum was a fantastic old building and the children were very impressed by what they saw! However, they couldn’t believe the amount of steps that they had to climb to visit all areas of the Museum across five floors. It certainly kept them fit and they deserved their lunch! In the Ancient Egypt exhibition, the children enjoyed spotting the Egyptian artefacts which were on their discovery worksheets. There were lots of amazingly decorated sarcophagi. Some were made of wood and others were made of stone. The children were allowed to touch the stone sarcophagus, it was huge and felt very cold! Their favourite part of the exhibition was the mummies. The children saw real mummies which had been excavated from Egyptian tombs and brought to the UK. The most amazing thing about them was how well their teeth had kept after all these years! They must have had good dentists! During the children’s ‘Discover Egypt’ workshop, they became archaeologists and were allowed to touch lots of different artefacts, but they could only do this by wearing white protective gloves. The children learnt that one of the materials that the Egyptians used for making sculptures was lapin.

Another fascinating part was learning about how different body organs were put into a canopic jar with a particular animal’s head on top. For example, the lungs were put into a jar with a baboon’s head on and the children enjoyed watching Alice having to pretend to be a baboon! It was very funny! They also found out that the Egyptians mummified animals and saw a real mummified cat. The children learnt about the different forms of Egyptian writing and discovered that hieroglyphics can be written backwards, forwards, up and down. You had to be quite a genius to work out some of their writing! After learning about the Egyptians, the children were allowed to visit other areas of the museum and enjoyed spotting the different fish in the Aquarium. No trip is complete without a visit to the gift shop and J2 certainly kept the museum shop in business on that day! Everyone had a super day and came back to school as Ancient Egyptian experts, ready to mummify a tomato in their History lesson!

J1 Trip to Tatton Park The J1s travelled to Tatton Park on Wednesday 6 June to experience what life was like for a Viking. They took on the role of a tribe of Vikings and were able to experience some of the daily activities which took place in 866AD. The young Vikings learnt how to turn wheat into flour using stones, producing an early form of bread. They practised shield formations such as ‘the turtle’, ‘the shield wall’ and ‘the boar’s head’, to enable them to hold back an enemy line. They also learnt all about how money was created, how trading affected the villages and how to survive using natural resources. The children thoroughly enjoyed their experience and came away with a new appreciation for what times were like in early Britain.

I3 Trip to Brockholes I3 had a wonderful time at Brockholes Nature Reserve on Friday 8 June. They found out all about plants from Paul, our guide, and then became ‘Wild Flower Detectives,’ searching for various species in the beautiful meadow. Next, they played ‘Seed Tig,’ and a game with water and pine cones called, ‘Pollination.’ It was fun to run around on the grassy hillside in the warm sunshine. After their picnic lunch, they explored Viking Woods. The children enjoyed the environmental art session and also made a ‘tree spirit’ with clay. Paul kindly gave them all their own special seed to plant in a pot that the I3s made themselves. Fortunately, they still had time left for the play-park, too. It was a fun-filled day that they won’t forget!

I1 Trip to Old Holly Farm On Wednesday 13 June, I1 had a fantastic trip to Old Holly Farm. The children were split into groups and took part in several activities around the farm. They were able to see where the cows were milked and got to taste the delicious ice-cream. They took part in a crafts activity and painted cows and learnt about their udders. Another activity included visiting the animals in the farm’s courtyard and paddocks and the children were able to feed some of the calves. The children all had an amazing time!

Zell am See, Austria - Sat 30 March to Sat 6 April 2019 There are still places available for our 2019 Ski Trip Zell am See, departing Saturday 30 March and returning Saturday 6 April 2019. This open to all our current J1, J2 and J3 pupils. We need know by Monday 2 July at the latest.

Please see the school office for more information.

Please could all library books be returned to school from Monday, ready for the end of term. Children can keep their Reading Pro for another two weeks if they wish and return them by the end of term.

I very much hope that your child will wish to join us on this exciting trip and should parents have any queries whatsoever, please do not hesitate to contact us.

T hank you to all the librarians for their hard work this year.

Well done to J3 pupil, Christian TaylorTomlinson, who took part in the 3km Colour Splash Fun Run on Sunday 10 June to raise money for Trinity Hospice.

Christian has decided to take part in a charity event each month, with the next one being the 5km Race for Life in July for Cancer Research UK.

On Sunday 10 June, Ellis McNamee-Sloggett in J1 competed in the Biathle International Championships for Great Britain in Machico, Madeira. Ellis did extremely well, winning the silver medal.

The run was very hot and the sea was freezing, but despite this, his swim was fantastic! He had the most wonderful few days training with team GB in Madeira, an experience he won't forget!

Well done, Ellis!

Well done to the following children who were awarded a Merit Certificate at the end of the last half term: I1X

Arthur Hemmings

I1Y

Zachary Oliver, Fatimah Omer

I2X

Evie Battersby, Sebastian Boughen, Esme Whalley

I2Y

Poppy Benson, Raurie Sumner

I3X

Sam Rhodes, Isaac Wan

I3Y

Kyle Addison, Charlie Hawe, Lois So

J1X

Buster Bell-Carr, Leo Paraskeva, Freddie Wiltshire

J1Y

Francesca Durston, Sophia Gough, Joel Rogers

J2X

James Hall, Adam Jackson, Oliver Parker

J2Y

Alice Bunday, Alex Fuller, Oliver Littlechild

J3X

George Godbold, Lucy Jones, James Singleton

J3Y

Jenson Crompton, Christian Taylor-Tomlinson, Harvey Tennant

J4X

Harvey Barber, Lilly Jones, April Wright

J4Y

Eva Berry, Lily Buckley, James Shuttleworth

On Tuesday 19 June, KGJS were delighted to welcome Eddie Regan and his wife, Jean, from the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA). Mr Regan came into assembly to present a NODA North West award for our school production of ‘Aladdin’. He explained that not only had our production won an award in Region 2 (Preston, Fylde & Isle of Man) but we had then gone on to be nominated against seven other youth production regional winners in the North West awards in Manchester. We were presented with a trophy, certificate and the title, the ‘Best Staged Youth Production’. It was lovely to welcome back some of the first year senior pupils who had played principal parts in our production.

Well done to all the pupils, staff and parents who contributed to such a fabulous production.

Now we are on to our next production…‘Mary Poppins’, coming in March 2019.

Can you work out where this photo was taken within the KGJS building?

To view an electronic copy of this newsletter, as well as previous newsletters, please scan the code to the right. There are a variety of QR Readers available for Android and Smart phones and other electronic devices.

The image to the right (from the last newsletter) can be found outside Mrs Roberts’ office.

Well done to all who managed to locate it!!

Thursday 21 June - AJIS Athletics Witton Park Blackburn 9am-5pm Friday 22 June - Junior Sports Day Practice 9.15am-12 noon

U11 Girls v Mums Rounders Match 4pm Saturday 23 June - FKGS Summer Ball Monday 25 June - J4 Transition Day at KGS 9.30am-2.30pm Tuesday 26 June - Junior Reserve Sports Day Practice 9.15am-12 noon J4 Heptathlon (times to be confirmed) Percussion Concert 2.30pm-3.30pm Pre-School Parents Evening 4pm-6pm Wednesday 27 June - AJIS U11 Boys Cricket Final v Bury Grammar School (A) 1.45pm start Friday 29 June - Prizegiving 1.30pm Monday 2 July - Infant Sports Day 1.30pm Tuesday 3 July - Junior Sports Day 9am –11.30am (Field Events only) & 12.50pm-3.30pm Thursday 5 July - Sports Day (Reserve) *please note the change of date I3 Concert for ‘Classrooms in the Clouds’ 7pm Friday 6 July - End of Term 12 noon Pre-School remains open