Issue 4 18 November 2016

Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter Issue 4 Friday 18 November 2016 Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed a relaxing half term break. The last fortnight since returning from the holidays has been very busy with lots of hard work and academic progress being made in the classrooms.

Last Friday, we had a very moving Remembrance Assembly led by Reverend Bunday and, as always, I was very proud of all the children, who behaved impeccably and with such respect.

On the extra-curricular front, our J2 pupils have enjoyed an exciting trip to Castlehead as you will read about in our next newsletter. I personally enjoyed our Junior Bake Off Final this week and would like to say well done to all the children who entered.

May I conclude with a couple of reminders. Firstly, the school will be closed for our annual Speech Day Holiday on Monday 21 November. Please can I also remind you about our Christmas Fair on Friday 2 December. If you have donations for stalls or would like to volunteer to help with the fair please speak to the School Office. Your support, as always, is very much appreciated.

I wish you all an enjoyable weekend.

Mrs AS Roberts Headmistress

Follow me on Twitter: Annette Roberts @KGJShead

On Monday 7 November, KGJS U10 Boys took part in the AJIS Rugby Festival. Kirkham played three games and managed to score tries in all matches but were beaten by Manchester GS, Birkenhead School and Newcastle under Lyme from Staffordshire.

On Tuesday 8 November, the A & B Girls Netball teams travelled to St Pius. The A team lost 9-0 but this scoreline didn't reflect the performance from the girls, who all played with true grit and determination. The B team lost 4-3, after what was a tight game. Well done to all who played!

What is unique about 8549176320?

Solution: It is the digits 0 to 9 in alphabetical order.

Note: it is also evenly divisible by all of the digits 1-9 except 7

Please could all school coats be named inside the hood. Too many coats are going missing because they are not named or the name is difficult for staff to locate. Thank you for your support with this.

Congratulations to Anya in J3 who won three gold medals and one silver medal at a recent gymnastics competition.

The gold medals were achieved in the Individual Level 1 U10 Free, best U10 Free Individual in the North West and best Group Hoop in the North West and the silver was awarded in the Group Hoop Championships. Well done Anya!

It has been wonderful to see the variety of sports that our children have taken part in over the last six days!

Well done to all who have competed and represented the school, during what has been a very busy time for sporting fixtures. Thank you to all the parents for their boundless support.

On Friday 11 November, the Buchan School visited KGJS from the Isle of Man, for a lunchtime of Netball and Football. Unfortunately the Netball scoreline didn't reflect the J2 girls’ performance. It was, however, a very enjoyable afternoon, one the girls will always remember!

The U11 boys made history, playing the first ever Football match at KGJS. They got off to a great start and won the game 6-1. Kirkham worked well together as a team and everyone should be very proud of their performance!

Later that afternoon, the U9 Boys Hockey team played AKS away, demonstrating excellent teamwork against a good opposition. Kirkham managed to score twice in the first half and a superb save by the Kirkham keeper Michael Gillett, as well as excellent defending from Freddie Stott, prevented AKS from getting on the scoreboard. Two more goals from Kirkham in the second half resulted in a 4-0 win. Well done to the whole team!

The following day, the U11 Girls also faced AKS, and despite some good attacking from Kirkham, AKS won the game 1-0.

On Saturday 12 November, the U11 Girls A&B Hockey teams travelled to AKS to play matches against both AKS and Stockport Grammar. Two very exciting games were played but were unfortunately won by the opposing teams. Well done to all who played.

On the same day, KGJS U9, U10 & U11 Rugby boys travelled to Merchant Taylor’s. Over 30 boys represented Kirkham.

The U11s lost 15-10, U10s drew 20-20 and U9s lost 30-5. Well done to all who took part against a strong opposition who have a wide selection of boys to choose from.

On Monday 14 November, KGJS travelled to Broughton Leisure Centre in Salford to take part in the annual Association of Junior Independent Schools Swimming Championships. Over twenty schools took part from throughout the North West and the standard was very high.

Heats took place to determine whose time was good enough to come in the top six and qualify to race in the finals which were held later in the afternoon. It is very pleasing to report that KGJS reached the following eight finals: U10 Boys 4x1 Freestyle Relay, U10 Boys Medley Relay, U11 Boys Medley Relay, U10 Boys Backstroke Oliver Kollard, U11 Boys Backstroke Henry Taylor, U10 Boys Freestyle Jake Pedley, U11 Girls Individual Medley Emily Marsh and U11 Boys Individual Medley Owain Heathcote-Jones. After the finals we were all very pleased to be able to congratulate Owain Heathcote-Jones on bringing home a Silver Medal in the U11 Boys Individual Medley. Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you to Hulme Grammar School for organising such a fantastic gala.

On Thursday 17 November, KGJS travelled to St Mary's Hall for the annual NW Schools Cross Country Championships.

The races were held over the Stonyhurst Golf Course which presented a fantastic challenge for all our runners. All pupils performed really well and were a credit to the school.

This completed our “6 Sports in 6 Days”!

On Monday 7 November, our three judges; Mr Ian Vevers, Reverend Bunday and Miss Natasha Berks had the unenviable task of choosing our Junior Finalists from a huge display of chocolate cakes and scones. The standard of the baking was extremely high and all the children who entered should be very proud of their achievements. Well done to all who entered this year’s competition.

On Tuesday 15 November, the final of this year’s KGJS Bake Off Competition took place at the Senior School Boarding House kitchen. We welcomed BBC Great British Bake Off contestant, Dorret Conway again this year, as our guest judge. Our Lower Junior finalists were Rosie Helliwell, Alice Wright and Alice Bunday and our Upper Junior finalists were Mia Carmichael, Bella Wiggins and April Wright. It was a shame, however, that Alice was poorly on the day of the final and was therefore unable to take part.

The Lower Junior children made scones and the Upper Junior children made chocolate cake. Beth, a reporter from That’s Lancashire, along with Holly on the camera, came along to join us! The children all spoke brilliantly, each taking turns to be interviewed for the show that went on air that night. Dorret was on hand to provide little baking tips, however the children proved they were baking experts and worked independently to create their final showstoppers! At the end of the morning, Dorret, along with Infant Cookery Club expert, Mrs Anyon, had the challenging task of picking one winner for each recipe. Eventually, they decided to crown Rosie Helliwell as the Lower Junior winner for her amazingly light and fluffy scones and April Wright the Upper Junior winner for her mouth-watering chocolate cake! They were both presented with a KGJS Bake Off Winners apron and a Mary Berry ‘Baking Bible’ which Dorret kindly signed for both of them. The runners up also received KGJS Bake Off Finalist Runners-Up aprons and a signed photo from Dorret. The contestants were able to take their tasty delights to Mr Berry for him to sample, who was extremely impressed with their baking skills! Dorret was able to join us for lunch at the Junior School to sample our delicious dinner menu which she said was extremely tasty!! Thank you very much to Dorret Conway and the ‘That’s Lancashire’ team for making this year’s KGJS Bake Off Final such a memorable experience for all involved.

The ‘That’s Lancashire’ TV coverage is now available to view on our KGS Facebook page and the photographs are available to view on our KGS Flickr page at: https:// www.flickr.com/photos/kgsphotos abums/72157660796236348

Last week, our J2 children e n joy ed i n te r vi ew i n g candidates to fly for a secret mission to Mars!

They had to discuss what attributes would be useful and decide on questions to ask.

Well done J2, you all did a fantastic job!

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

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 above.

Please follow us on Twitter for the latest news at KGJS!

House

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Fylde

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128

1788

Please could we kindly ask parents/carers not to park on Kirkham 1733 the yellow lines within the school car park and keep these Preston 1752 clear at all times in case of an emergency.

113

1846

146

1898

Thank you

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School

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J1 had a wonderful trip to Blackpool Zoo on Wednesday 16 November. It was a rather cold day but that didn’t dampen their spirits at all! They saw so many animals! They watched the sea-lions, orangutans, elephants and gorillas being fed, learned about their natural habitats and found out about the new elephant enclosure, which will be the biggest in the country. Katie, the elephant, looked a little sad on her own so it will be good when she has some new friends! The enchanted rainforest talk was very interesting. The lady was really impressed with the children's knowledge and she let them hold Madagascan hissing cockroaches and lesser hedgehogs. The children cleaned their hands thoroughly in time for lunch! In the afternoon, the J1s visited the lemurs. It was such a busy day, but great fun! Many thanks to Mrs Butterworth and Mrs Hughes for joining us.

On Friday 11 November, six children from KGJS joined the Senior School in the Summerlee Hall for a Remembrance Service. The children were also given the opportunity to visit the Old Hall to see where the wreaths had been laid. Later in the morning, KGJS held their own special Remembrance Assembly, in which Reverend Bunday spoke to the children about remembrance and he also led prayers before the whole school fell quiet for one minute’s silence, followed by ‘The Last Post’ played by sixth former, James Nash. Thank you to Reverend Bunday for taking the time to come into school to conduct our Remembrance Assembly.

Since we returned from the half term break, the Pre-School children have been very busy. We have started exploring sounds in the environment and we are finding the time to join Kipper and Floppy on their adventures, as we listen to the sounds things make. This is helping us understand that we use sounds to make words, and we are having fun finding initial sounds in each other’s names. Mrs Blanco-Bayo told us all about her trip to Nepal, and how she went to school in a village called Lele. We found Nepal on a world map and learned about the colours of the Nepalese flag. We really enjoyed dressing up as Nepalese children, looking at newspapers and even tried to do some Nepalese writing. Mrs Blanco-Bayo also showed us how to meditate, while we listened to the Om Mani Padme Hum Buddhist Mantra.

Well done to Raia in I3 and Zea in J2, who competed at the Pendle Ski Club winter race league 2016/17 November event over the half term holidays.

The U10 category included boys and girls up to and including J4 children.

They competed as a team with a third girl, winning five out of their six events, and won the overall gold on the day in the U10 category.

Excellent achievement girls!!

Last week, the J3 children enjoyed some ‘Foamy Fun’ in their Science lesson, learning all about the properties of this material and how useful it is in our world! It was messy… but enjoyed by all!

Just before they finished for half term, the I1 classes enjoyed listening to stories and singing songs linked to autumn and Halloween. After collecting nature on their autumn walk in Ribby Woods, they used these to create autumn wreaths. They also enjoyed investigating the inside of a pumpkin and used the pumpkin seeds and their sunflower seeds for their autumn wreath. Making pumpkin masks ended a wonderful Halloween themed day!!

Just before the half term holidays, the I3 children tested out the cars that they have been making in DT over the last few weeks.

Well done I3!

Saturday 19 November - U9 & U11 Girls Hockey v St Mary's Hall (A) 1pm Monday 21 November - Speech Day Holiday Thursday 24 November - U9, U10 & U11 Boys & Girls Swimming v Westholme (A) 4pm Saturday 26 November - Governors' AGM Thursday 1 December - U11 A & B Girls Hockey v Westholme (A) 3.15pm Christmas Shopping Extravaganza at Stringers of Lytham 7pm-9pm Friday 2 December - FKGS Christmas Fair, Summerlee Hall 4pm-5.30pm AJIS Boys Hockey 11.30am-3.30pm Monday 5 December - Indoor Athletics v Lytham AC (A) TBC* Wednesday 7 December - U9, U10 & U11 Swimming v Bolton (A) 4pm Thursday 8 December - U11 A & B Girls Hockey v Lancaster GGS (A) 4pm Monday 12 December - Infant Production Dress Rehearsal, Summerlee Hall 2pm Tuesday 13 December - Infant Production, Summerlee Hall 2pm Junior Christmas Party Wednesday 14 December - Infant Christmas Party Junior School Carol Concert, Summerlee Hall 7pm Thursday 15 December - Pre-School Christmas Craft Morning, Junior School Hall 9.30am KGJS visit to the pantomime (am) Friday 16 December - Term ends 12 noon. Coaches depart 12.15pm. NO LATE ROOM Pre-School remains open.

Spring Term begins Monday 9 January 2017 *U11 Boys & Girls Indoor Athletics v Lytham AC could possibly be moved to Monday 12 December. Date to be confirmed.