Issue 6 Wednesday 20 December 2017

Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter Issue 6 Wednesday 20 December 2017 Dear Parents So, here we are at the end of an extremely busy term for all of our pupils. Our Christmas celebrations have been superb and thoroughly enjoyed by all. The children, as always, have risen to the occasion in every respect; this is a reflection of their calibre and I commend them for their fortitude and enthusiasm to keep on until the very end. Looking back through the term, there has been an abundance of achievement, progress and highlights for every individual! Advances have been realised in so many areas: the classroom, the sports pitches, the stage, in musical performances and also in terms of relationships, self-responsibility, confidence, the appreciation of others and charitable initiatives; in essence, the embodiment of our School Values. Our pupils have been inspired and supported to make so many gains by a dedicated band of teachers and support staff, who I would like to thank for their tireless work this term.

We return on Tuesday 9 January 2018. Can we please remind parents to ensure that any requests for planned absence are made in advance to the Headmistress. This will help support our monitoring systems.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with your families and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Annette Roberts Mrs AS Roberts Headmistress

Follow me on Twitter: Annette Roberts @KGJShead

It is that busy time of year again and the magic of Christmas is in the air! The icy weather inspired all the Pre-School children, and the small polar bears that normally live in the cupboard, to come to life.

The children wrote a story about a polar bear and, as they used their imaginations to think of ways to travel in the snow, they made their own ice-skates and pretended to skate to the North Pole. Their thinking went beyond that and during the many discussions about living in the North Pole, the children once again led their own learning, making skis and sledges for the polar bears. The I1 children came to listen to the Christmas story and had toast with us. It was fun for Pre-School and I1 to spend time together and hear all about baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. From everyone at Pre-School, we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

On Thursday 14 December, the Pre-School children welcomed their grandparents into school for a Christmas Craft Morning with pottery expert, Jane Fox, from Fired 4U. It was a wonderful opportunity for grandparents to share some special time with their grandchild, while also getting an insight into what happens at school. The children were fully engaged during the activity and were able to express themselves by experimenting with colours, techniques and their own designs. While their artwork dried, everyone enjoyed festive snacks and a cup of tea!

Marshmallow lollipops and Christmas biscuits, made by the children, were available to purchase during the morning in aid of our school charity, Classrooms in the Clouds.

Our KGS family ethos truly shone through!

The I2 children have now completed their work on Wassily Kandinsky’s concentric circles. This was linked with their Maths topic ‘2D Shape’. Everyone worked hard over a number of weeks. The finished pieces are proudly on display in the I2 corridor. It seems we have some budding little artists in the making! Well done, I2!

‘Oh no we didn’t….Oh yes we did!’ On Friday morning, all the Infants and Juniors went to see ‘Dick Whittington and his Cat’ at the Lowther Pavilion.

It was a fantastic morning and a lovely Christmas treat for everyone.

All the children joined in with the spirit of the pantomime and they all enjoyed a delicious ice-cream during the interval.

The children were well-behaved and a credit to the school.

Well done to all of the children who attended ‘Little Aces’ Tennis Club after school this term. All of the children were presented with a special certificate during assembly on Monday.

On Tuesday 5 December, Mrs Anyon’s Baking Club enjoyed a ‘decorating party’! They made Mini Chocolate Truffles, Christmas Tree Brownies, Christmas Logs and Christmas Pudding Biscuits. Lots of fun was had by all!

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

The image to the right (from the last newsletter) can be found in the porch at the front of school. Well done to all who managed to locate it!!

This year’s Infant and Pre-School Production, ‘Christmas with the Aliens’, was brilliantly performed by all the Pre-School and Infant children with beautiful singing, professional acting and super dancing from all.

The children looked absolutely amazing in their costumes and thoroughly enjoyed retelling the traditional Christmas tale in this very unique way!

The performance was truly spectacular and enjoyed by all! Well done to everyone who took part.

All of the photographs are available to view on our KGS Flickr page via Facebook and Twitter.

Christmas is an incredibly busy time for our Vocal Ensemble and this year has been no exception as they were once again invited to entertain Booths’ customers in Lytham and Poulton. For the second consecutive year, children were also invited to the Forget-me-Not Café in Lytham to take part in an event organised for people living with dementia, their family and carers. Two days later, the children visited The Moorings in Lytham St Anne’s to entertain residents, family and staff.

The children beautifully sang an array of festive carols and enjoyed chatting to guests afterwards. As always, the children were excellent ambassadors of KGJS. Thank you to all of the children who took part.

In our last newsletter, we reported on the fantastic array of decorated baubles we had received for our ‘Friends of KGS’ Christmas Fair Decorated Bauble Competition.

Poppy Benson in I2Y also won a prize in the competition but unfortunately missed the photo opportunity! Here she is with her wonderfully decorated bauble!

Well done, Poppy!!

Once again the Junior School presented a truly sensational Carol Concert on Thursday evening. An enthusiastic audience enjoyed the traditional carols and readings by Oliver Kollard, Grace Livesey, James Shuttleworth, Ben Firth, Alexa Anderson, Evie Mellon and April Wright. It was wonderful to welcome our School Chaplain, Reverend Bunday, who shared his thoughts for Christmas with us and Mrs Roberts, along with some of our J4 children, reminded us of the importance of the Christmas message! The performances by the Orchestra, Handbell Ensemble, Vocal Ensemble, Junior Choir and Staff/Parent Choir wowed the audience, and the soloists sang beautifully.

J1’s adaptation of the Christmas Story, using Shadow Theatre, was simply breathtaking! Afterwards, our guests enjoyed Christmas cake, mince pies and mulled wine; a wonderful way to finish off a very enjoyable evening and an excellent start to the festive season!

On Wednesday 6 December, a group of children travelled to Bolton School for a Swimming match.

During the few days prior to this, the U9, U10 and U11 Swimming teams had been severely depleted due to illness. To everyone’s credit, pupils stepped in at the last minute (literally!!) and everyone swam to the best of their ability and recorded the following results: U11s Kirkham 35 - Bolton 53 U10s Kirkham 43 - Bolton 47 U9s Kirkham 41 - Bolton 49 Thank you to Bolton for hosting the gala!

On Friday 8 December, KGJS U9 Boys Hockey team travelled to Ashbridge School. Every boy in the year played and the final score was 2-1 to Kirkham. Thank you to Ashbridge for hosting a very even game of Hockey! Thank you to all the parents who came along to support and well done to all who played!

It was a great finish to the year when the J3 and J4 children played a couple of fun matches in Christmas hats, as part of the After School Hockey and Netball Clubs! It was good to see so many PRESENT and all with Christmas hats! Many teams were SLEIGHED but there was no SLEDGING allowed. It was a frosty night but we were all WRAPPED UP. Happy Christmas from the Hockey and Netball teams!

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 11 December, KGJS U10s took on Lytham RR AC in their annual Indoor Athletics fixture at Lytham YMCA. All athletes performed in five events each.

Events included: Team Speed Bounce, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Javelin, Vertical Jump, Sprint Races over four distances, Sprint Relays and Obstacle Relays.

At the end of the event the scores were as follows: U10 Girls: Kirkham 72 - Lytham 78 U10 Boys: Kirkham 73 - Lytham 64 A very enjoyable evening! Thank you to Lytham RR AC for being excellent hosts and well done to all of the children who took part.

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 Charlie and Zachary Oliver (Running), Morgan Thomas (Kung Fu), Katie Townsend (Swimming), Sebastian Boughen (Beavers), Jacob Mulgrew (Football), Faris Amr (Swimming) and Kyle Addison (Arctic Circle Diploma).

To consolidate this term’s I2 mathematical concepts, the children had some homework with a difference! Each child had a packet of smarties and were encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We loved the children’s examples where they showed their understanding through pictures and photos. We hope that all the I2s enjoyed ‘subtracting’ the smarties at the end! Please use this as an example of how to incorporate Mathematics in everyday fun tasks to support mathematical understanding.

Well done, I2!

It has been another successful term for the children taking singing lessons at Kirkham Grammar Junior School. As well as learning how to sing, all the students have the opportunity to sit exams in both Music Theatre and Classical Singing when they are ready. This term we have had some excellent results.

Congratulations to the following students on their exam successes; LCM Music Theatre James Shuttleworth

Grade 3

Distinction

ABRSM Classical Singing Trishala Akundi Mia Carmichael Morgan Cuthbert Alice Wright Zachary Barker Rebecca Allan

Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 2

Merit Merit Merit Distinction Distinction Merit

Next term will see most of the children I teach from J1 to J4 singing in the Lytham St Anne’s Festival of Performing Arts. I am looking forward to the children building on last year’s successes!

Nicola Howard – Singing Teacher

Each Thursday lunchtime, pupils from KGJS visit Pear Tree School in Kirkham for a very special music session! On Thursday 7 December, three of our pupils took part in a music sharing with the Pear Tree pupils, parents and carers. It was absolutely amazing and a very special event for all.

Well done to all of the children who took part!

In the last newsletter, we reported on the annual Primary Maths Challenge that took place on Wednesday 15 November over lunchtime. Eighteen pupils took part, whereby they had to answer 20 multiple choice questions and 5 more that they had to calculate themselves.

Congratulations to Harvey Barber and Sarah Chatwin who also took part but were absent from school for the original presentation.

For more information please visit; http:// www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/ online-safeguarding/parents-andcarers.aspx

Yesterday, Headmaster, Mr Berry, and I1 pupil, Rupert Brookes, swapped roles for the morning! Mr Berry joined in with various activities in I1 including attending the whole school morning assembly, making a Christmas Tree using baking ingredients and even took part in the Games lesson! Rupert, known yesterday as Mr Brookes, performed many official duties as Senior School Headmaster, including holding a first years morning assembly, which involved presenting a number of pupils with certificates for their excellent work, carried out duty at break time and dictated some letters to his secretary, Mrs Hunt. The occasion gave both Mr Berry and Rupert an insight into what happens around different areas of the school foundation. Thank you to Mr Berry for kindly donating this unique prize at the Summer Ball Auction, and to Mr and Mrs Brookes for their winning bid, which raised money for the Friends of KGS. A huge thank you to ‘That’s Lancashire’ for filming this unusual event at KGS. Please keep an eye out for their coverage of this to be aired on their Freeview Channel 7 in due course!

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

James Mannion, William Yates

I1Y

Hollie Addison, Henry Chapman, Ella Strettle

I2X

Oliver Donohue, Ava Godbold, Matilda Howard,

I2Y

Alexa Airton, Poppy Benson, Freddie Butler

I3X

Sam Asquith, Isabelle Campbell, Harry Rawlinson

I3Y

Sienna Misell, Lucas Tuck, Lily Whalley

J1X

Theia Chesworth, Raia Trend, Lucie Wilson

J1Y

Jack Gillett, Bella Goodman, Josie Trow

J2X

Meesha Almodaka-Davis, Isabel Tuck, Alice Wright

J2Y

Henry Allison, Tom Bellamy, Zara Gilchrist

J3X

Leoma Gill, Brooke Medhurst, Leon Neal

J3Y

Hattie Brooks, Lola Cooper, Henry Dignan

J4X

Sarah Chatwin, Georgia Nicholls, Charlie Wiltshire

J4Y

Alexa Anderson, Hamza Rauf, Megan Rollinson

Congratulations to you all!

The J4 children have worked hard during their DT lessons to create a working clock. They have collaborated with the Senior School DT department to etch a design onto acrylic using ‘2D Design’, on the computers, before they were laser cut to create a minion or BB8 character. The etched lines were then painted using acrylic paints and a line bender created a stand for the clock. To complete their clock, a mechanism was inserted.

Well done, J4!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year!

Spring Term begins on Tuesday 9 January 2018