Issue 5 Friday 27 November 2015

Kirkham Grammar School Junior, Infant and Pre-School Issue 5 Friday 27 November 2015 Dear Parents As ever the last couple of weeks have been action packed! The children have been working hard in the classroom and as I have been wandering round school, it has been wonderful to see some outstanding work in all year groups.

As many of you will know we had a wonderful morning with our Bake Off finalists and I am sure you will enjoy finding out more about this further in the newsletter. Ours sports boys and girls have been very busy with various fixtures with some excellent results for us to be proud of.

This week we have launched our Online Safety Week which began with a presentation to the children in Assembly on Tuesday morning. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of parents being aware of keeping children safe online. More information regarding online safety can be found on our website with some useful links.

It only remains for me to say that Christmas has arrived today at KGJS with our Christmas Fair taking place. I would like to extend my thanks to all the Friends of Kirkham Grammar School for their efforts in making this such a special event. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Carol Service and Nativities.

Wishing you a happy weekend.

Mrs AS Roberts Follow me on Twitter: Annette Roberts @KGJShead

This morning, there was a lot of excitement during break time when ‘The Bee’ radio station came into school to record the whole school singing ‘13 Sleeps til’ Santa’.

This will be played live on the 106.5 FM radio station on Saturday 12 December at 8.30am, 12.30pm and 3.50pm. It will also be available to listen to as a podcast on The Bee’s website, www.thebee.co.uk.

The children recorded it three times and it just got better and better each time!

Well done to all!

Dates for your Diary!

Saturday 28 November—U10 & U11 Girls Hockey v St Mary’s Hall (A) 12 noon U10 Boys Rugby v Fylde RC (A) 2.15pm Wednesday 2 December—U9, U10 & U11 Swimming v Bolton (A) 4pm Thursday 3 December— FKGS Ladies Lunch, Singleton Lodge Country House Hotel 12 noon U11 Netball v St Pius (A) 3pm Friday 4 December—U11 Boys & Girls Hockey v Altrincham Boys Prep (H) 4pm Saturday 5 December—U11 Boys & Girls Indoor Athletics v Preston Harriers (H)

Sunday 6 December—Charity Concert, School Choir, Fairhaven Methodist Church 2.30pm Friday 11 December—Infant Production Dress Rehearsal 2pm Saturday 12 December—U8 Boys Rugby v Fylde RC (A) 2.15pm Monday 14 December—Junior Christmas Party 2pm Infant Production, MPH 2pm Tuesday 15 December—Pre-School Christmas Production Dress Rehearsal 10am Infant Christmas Party 2pm

Junior School Carol Concert, MPH 7pm Wednesday 16 December—Pre-School Christmas Production, Junior School Hall 10am Whole School Pantomime Trip, Cinderella, Lowther Pavilion, Lytham, 12.15pm Thursday 17 December—Term ends 12 noon, coaches depart 12.15pm NO LATE ROOM Pre-School remains open

Newsletter The next newsletter will be our Christmas edition and will be issued on Wednesday 16 December

There is a Christingle Service at St Michael’s Church, Kirkham on Sunday 13 December at 6pm.

The money raised goes to The Children’s Society.

Everyone welcome!

House

Sub-total

20.11.15

27.11.15

Total

Birley

1943

317

135

2395

Drapers

2167

250

179

2596

Colborne

1992

284

119

2395

Clifton

2213

329

196

2738

On Thursday 12 November, the J2 children set off for an exciting trip to Castle Head.

Everyone was looking forward to action packed days full of adventure! The children took part in a range of indoor and outdoor activities from orienteering to small animal trekking and team games.

Although the weather wasn't always as good as we had hoped for, there was always a delicious cup of hot chocolate served to warm everyone up.

Whilst we were there, it was Jensen Stott’s birthday, so we celebrated in style with party games and a generous slice of cake provided by Mrs Stott.

After a full day on Thursday, everyone soon drifted off to sleep and woke up fresh on Friday morning for another busy day!

The trip ended with everybody feeling happy but exhausted and ready for a relaxing weekend!

Well done to the J2 children who were excellent ambassadors for KGJS! Mrs Alarcon

On Friday 13 November, the School Council held a Chocolate raffle at morning, lunch and afternoon break to raise money for the Children in Need appeal. Over £200 was raised. The Pre-School sold Indian Sweets from their own little shop. All the sweets on sale were handmade by the Pre-School children and a super £50 was raised. Mrs Shuttleworth also held a special assembly on the day to explain to the whole school why the annual appeal takes place. Thank you to all the parents for supporting this very worthwhile cause.

On Thursday 12 November, Mrs Anyon’s Baking Club marked Children in Need day and made Pudsey Bear biscuits. The biscuits looked absolutely delicious!

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

Kirkham Grammar Junior School now have their own Facebook page!

Please visit and ‘LIKE’ our page for all the latest news, photographs and information.

Our Facebook page name is ‘Kirkham Grammar Junior School’ and can be easily identified from our KGJS logo.

In I2 we have started creative Wednesday mornings.

Yesterday, we focused on following instructions. During our activities we used programmable cars in one lesson and in the other we were TV chefs! We typed instructions into our robotic cars and watched them draw all sorts of shapes on paper. We then made jam sandwiches by following spoken and written instructions. We recorded all of our work on iPads. At the end of the morning we evaluated our work as a team and talked about which parts we had enjoyed doing. We are really looking forward to next week!

The Eco-Committee organised a 'Switch Off Fortnight' and encouraged pupils and staff to switch off their lights to save energy and avoid getting a penalty notice. All the classes tried really hard but the winning classes were I1X, I1Y, I3, J4X and J4Y. Each child from the winning classes will receive an eco-friendly pencil! Mr Smith hasn't changed as many light bulbs over the last two weeks and Miss Stewart and Mrs Taylor have spent some days in the office with the lights switched off, due to eager pupils turning off the lights. Well done to the whole school community for working together to save energy and congratulations to the Eco-Committee for organising the event.

On Tuesday, we welcomed Kate Rackham and Ady Carroll from MGL World to launch our Online Safety week with a whole school assembly.

They talked to the children about the importance of being safe online, shared some interactive resources and looked at all the different devices that could now access the internet. Kate and Ady went on to run workshops addressing issues such as social media safety and the importance of not disclosing personal information online. All the classes have continued to explore online safety throughout the week and will be sharing their learning with each other in a further whole school assembly in the very near future. There are some parental resources on our school website and here are our Smart rules which we would appreciate you discussing further with your child. It is imperative that we work together to keep our children safe online and we thank you for your support.

The winner of the pudding label competition was Josh Stirrup in J4W. Josh’s design used bright, strong colours and had a clear KGJS logo!

A poster was produced using the company’s template as well as showing Josh’s wonderful design and this was presented to Josh along with three puddings; Sticky Toffee and Chocolate as well as a traditional Christmas Pudding!

Well done, Josh!

At Pre-School, we all followed the KGJS Bake off and were so excited when Henry Taylor came to share his winning cake with us at Pre-School.

We continued with our topic about houses and began our investigation about the different buildings people live in all over the world. It was very interesting to discover how other people live and what their houses are made of. Our Literacy lessons have been all about using describing words to talk about the pictures that make up a story. The children led the learning one more time and chose the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We used a lot of the words we had come up with to draw and paint the three different types of houses the story talks about and even made our own house with sticks.

We have also been talking about what being special is and who we feel is special to us. We made some very interesting paintings and told each other why the person, toy or animal we had chosen meant so much to us.

Sports Photographs We would be delighted to receive any photographs taken by parents at any school sports events. They may even be used in the school newsletter!

Please email these photographs to; m.tickle@kirkhamgrammarjnr.co.uk Thank you

Tuesday 17 November was a very exciting day at KGJS. 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, as this year’s guest judge!

Our Upper Junior finalists were Elysia Eccles, Henry Taylor and Duke Jones and our Lower Junior finalists were Hattie Brooks, Anya Kiely and Rosie Helliwell.

The Lower Junior children made rock buns and the Upper Junior children made Victoria sponge cake. Sally Naden from Radio Lancashire presented live throughout the morning and the children all spoke brilliantly, each taking turns to be interviewed live on the radio!

Dorret was on hand to provide little baking tips, however the children proved they were baking experts and worked independently to create their final showcase! Lots of fun was had by all when a photographer from the Blackpool Gazette came and took some ‘funny’ baking shots of the children with Dorret!

At the end of the morning, Dorret had the unenviable task of picking one winner for each recipe. Eventually, she decided to crown Anya Kiely the Lower Junior winner for her amazingly constructed rock buns and Henry Taylor the Upper Junior winner for his light and fluffy Victoria sponge cake! They were both presented with a KGJS Bake Off Winners apron and a ‘Hidden Surprise Cakes’ Cookbook which Dorret kindly signed for both of them. The runners up also received KGJS Bake Off Finalist Runners Up aprons.

Dorret was able to join us for lunch back over at the Junior School to sample our delectable school dinner menu which she said was extremely tasty!!

Thank you very much to Dorret Conway, Sally Naden from Radio Lancashire as well as the photographer from the Blackpool Gazette for making this year’s KGJS Bake Off Final such a memorable experience for all involved.

On Wednesday afternoon J3 went over to the Senior School to see what it may have been like to be a soldier in the Second World War. On arrival, we jumped into an Army Jeep pretending we were on our way to war! We also saw real guns, parachutes and tried on helmets, which were really heavy and felt like having a tortoise shell on your head! Everyone had a go at making “bashas”- shelters made out of tarpaulin, six tent pegs and string and we even put some camouflage face paint on, whilst making them in the woods, to hide us from the enemy!

We regrouped and marched back to the Junior School, just in time for the end of the day!

Thank you to everyone who helped to bring the experience to life for us.

We all learned a lot and had a fabulous time!

By Pippa McGregor

Joel Rogers in I2 will be taking part in a sponsored swim on Saturday 28 November at Poulton Swimming Baths at 5pm.

All children are welcome to come along and take part. They can swim anything from one length to one mile! Children will receive a medal and a water safety pack.

Joel is raising money to provide access to clean life-saving water in Malawi.

To put this into perspective, just £10 will provide three people with a lifetime supply of clean water.

If anyone is interested in coming down or taking part, please contact Clare Rogers on 07528 726585.

U10 & U11 Girls Hockey v Lancaster Girls Grammar School—Thursday 12 November Very wet weather conditions didn't hamper some exciting Hockey games when the U10 and U11 Girls travelled to Lancaster Girls Grammar School. All the J3 and J4 girls took part in the fixtures and performed admirably considering they were playing girls who were all year 7.

They achieved the following results; U11A won 4-0 U11B won 1-0 U11C drew 2-2 U10 drew 1-1 Congratulations to all the girls who played in what were very challenging weather conditions!

U11 Boys and Girls Hockey v Cheadle Hulme—Saturday 14 November Two U11 Girls teams and two U11 Boys teams travelled to Cheadle Hulme to play Hockey.

KGJS achieved the following results; U11 Girls A team won 6-3 U11 Boys A team won 5-2 U11 Girls B team won 3-1 U11 Boys B team won 1-0 We managed to stay dry and a good mornings Hockey was had by all. Cheadle were strong opposition and KGJS had to play good Hockey to win. Congratulations to all who played!

U11 Girls A & B v Westholme—Tuesday 17 November The U11 Girls A and B teams travelled to Westholme on Tuesday 17 November. On a wet and windy afternoon both teams performed well in very difficult conditions. They achieved the following results; A team won 7-0—Player of the game Bo Madden B team won 2-0—Player of the game Anya Baxter U11 Girls Hockey v The Queens School, Chester—Saturday 21 November Congratulations to all the girls who played Hockey on Saturday 21 November against The Queens School from Chester. It was a bitterly cold morning and the pitch conditions were far from perfect. Queens School are a large independent school with lots of girls to choose from, however, all the matches were closely contested!

Particular congratulations to the U10 B team who had a number of U9 girls playing and they put up a spirited performance. The final results were U11A won 4-1, U11B lost 2-0, U10A won 2-0 and U10B lost 2-0.

U11 Boys Hockey v Preston Hockey Club—Saturday 21 November On Saturday 21 November, KGJS U11 Boys Hockey team travelled to Preston Hockey Club for their annual fixture. Conditions were good and everyone was looking forward to a great game of Hockey. From the whistle the boys soon began to string some good passing moves together and produced some excellent scoring opportunities which they confidently took. At half time the score was 3-0 to Kirkham.

Early in the second half, Kirkham scored a further two goals to go 5-0 up before Preston struck back with two of their own. Towards the end of the game, KGJS managed to add two more to make the final score 7-2 to Kirkham.

Generally the boys played well, creating many scoring opportunities and maintaining their shape in defence and midfield which allowed them to keep possession.

Goals were scored by Archie Dowds, Matthew Oddie and Thomas Shuttleworth.

St Mary's Hall Cross Country Championships—Thursday 19th November.

Eight boys and eight girls travelled to St Mary's Hall for the last championship race of the year. Many of the top schools in the North West of England were taking part over a very demanding course which is held over the St Mary's Hall golf course. The recent wet weather made conditions very tough for all runners and everyone deserves praise for their efforts in what turned out to be heroic performances from each member of our teams. Success in the team event requires all members to make a contribution and once again we were not let down. The U11 Girls were hoping to complete a hat trick of titles for the term and the following performances guaranteed yet further success with an excellent first place; 8th Bo Madden 9th Talia Armstead 10th Amy Merrick 14th Hattie Madden 22nd Dani Merrick 29th Alexa Anderson 30th Tillie Martin 57th Olivia Aberra The U11 Boys also performed superbly and just missed out on winning a trophy but still achieved a very pleasing second place. Individual positions were as follows; 5th Archie Dowds 6th Alex Maude 12th Ben Wiggins 31st Adam Gregan 33rd Freddie Tarrant 47th Thomas Shuttleworth 51st Sam Abram 82nd Charlie Read

The Senior School are hosting a Pampered Chef evening at KGS in the Old Hall on Monday 30 November at 7.30pm. This will be the last Pampered Chef that we host as the company will no longer exist in the UK. Tickets are priced at £5.00 and will include a glass of wine, nibbles and a demonstration. All proceeds will go towards future Hockey Tours. We would love you to come along and join us! Tickets can be purchased from the main school reception.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Lindsey Osborne (KGS Head of Girls’ Sport)