Kirkham Grammar School Junior, Infant and Pre-School Issue 12 Friday 29 April 2016 Dear Parents Summer has arrived – or at least British Summer! That is certainly how it felt last Thursday, when we welcomed everyone back after what I hope was an enjoyable Easter break for all of our families. There is much to look forward to this term, so please do keep an eye on this fortnightly newsletter, as well as the school calendar on the website. If you are able to join us for any of these events, you will be given a very warm welcome. We have enjoyed another action packed week in school, with so much impressive learning taking place in all year groups. The progress our pupils have made since September is superb. We are sharing many learning experiences on Twitter and Facebook, and I would urge you to follow us so that you can keep up to date with what is going on in school. There have been a large number of visitors in school over the last two weeks, and all of them have commented on how impressive our school is! In particular, a number of them noted how high our expectations are and how remarkable the children’s attitude towards their learning is. Your children are a real credit to you all and we are extremely proud of what they are achieving in school. Please can I insist that parents are considerate at all times when driving on the Junior School site. Unfortunately we have received two parental complaints this week. There are double yellow lines outside the front of the school and down the side for good reason – please do not park there to either pick up or drop off your child, as this only causes a back-up of traffic, which leads to frustration. Please can I remind you that the safety of all our children is of paramount importance. Thank you in advance for your support. Finally, may I please remind you that school is closed on Monday for the Bank Holiday and so I wish you all a very enjoyable, long weekend. Mrs AS Roberts Follow me on Twitter: Annette Roberts @KGJShead
On Monday 18 April, Sarah Hagan, a trustee at CITC, came in to KGJS to present us with a certificate of thanks for raising, to date, a wonderful £3600 for our school charity, Classrooms in the Clouds. This is a fantastic achievement, and the amount raised is the equivalent to two teachers’ annual salaries in Nepal! Thank you to everyone for their continued support, in raising money for this very worthwhile cause.
Saturday 23 April—U11 Cricket v St Mary’s Hall Kirkham U11s travelled to St Mary’s Hall on Saturday to play a game of Cricket for the first time this season. Kirkham won the toss and elected to bat first. KGJS managed to get 242 runs. SMH battled very convincingly at the start but Kirkham fought back to win the game 242-233. Thank you to all the parents who came along to support.
Saturday 23 April—U9 & U11 Rounders v St Mary’s Hall Congratulations to all the girls who took part in the rounders matches at St Mary's Hall for the first time this season. U9 won 10 - 6 U11A lost 14½ - 7½ U11B won 16 - 5 ½ Thank you to all the parents who came along to support. Monday 25 April—U11 AJIS Rugby Final v Manchester Grammar School On Monday, the U11 boys travelled to St Ambrose College, Altrincham for the final of the AJIS Rugby Cup. Both sides had met in previous tournaments and honours had been shared with one win each. Unfortunately this match had to be played outside of the Rugby season due to other commitments from both schools, which undoubtedly hindered both sides’ preparation. However, the final turned out to be a tremendous display from both teams, with excellent passing and running and also outstanding defence. Manchester were first to score, and eventually built up a 10-0 lead before KGJS scored their first try which was created on the back of excellent pressure by Charlie Read, which allowed Archie Dowds to score. With seconds to go in the first half, MGS scored again to make the score 15-5 at the half time whistle. The team talk was based on the need for us to score next, but unfortunately Manchester maintained their pressure and eventually won the game 30-10, with Archie Dowds scoring the final try for Kirkham. Both sides played excellent Rugby with true sportsmanship shown at all times. Thank you to all the parents who came to support, as they have done all season, it is very much appreciated.
Tuesday 3 May Class Photographs By Tempest Photography Please could all children come to school looking smart with polished shoes and long hair neatly tied back.
Wednesday 4 May 4pm-6pm (NO LATE ROOM) Thursday 5 May 6pm-8pm We look forward to seeing you!
On Thursday 21 April, twenty children from Kirkham Grammar Junior School took part in a workshop delivered by Martyn Davidson from the Bloodhound Project, Louise Brimelow from The Cake Decorating Company and Dorret Conway, BBC Great British Bake Off contestant. At the heart of all this, the Bloodhound Project is an educational project. The team go into schools to deliver Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) to pupils from KS1 to KS4, based on the reality of designing, building and operating a 1000mph world land speed car.
Dorret Conway met Martin at a network event, and suggested to him that they created a replica of the car, made out of cake. Dorret subsequently commissioned Louise Brimelow from The Cake Decorating Company.co.uk to make the cake and the company kindly sponsored all the materials and decorations for the cake. The team at the Preston shop made and decorated the cake and all the ingredients were kindly donated by Mr Edwin Booth from Booths. The children were able to make their own small replica of the land speed car using sugar paste. Thank you to Martin, Dorret and Louise for giving the children this opportunity, they all thoroughly enjoyed this unique and amazing experience.
Before the Easter holidays, we had two very special visitors into Pre-School. Mr Debar, Zayd’s daddy, came to tell us how Zayd and his family pray at home. We all got to have a go and even learned some words in Arabic. The following day, Reverend Bunday came to talk to us about Palm Sunday and we were all given a palm cross to take home. At the beginning of last week, we spent a few days getting ready to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. We made birthday cards, wrote letters to the Queen, decorated Pre-School with bunting and made a royal cake, which was pink with pearls of course! On Thursday 21 April, we all dressed up for a special celebration and got to blow out the candles. We did invite Queen Elizabeth but unfortunately she decided to have a quiet family day and could not come to Kirkham Grammar School! However, we did speak to her the following day and she told us she had had a wonderful day! As we get ready to start holding writing tools, we have been doing some fun activities to get our little fingers moving. Dough Disco and threading Cheerios onto spaghetti have been some of the most enjoyable activities we have done! We have also been busy finding aliens in stories. We are reading the book ‘Here Come the Aliens’ at the moment; the children’s imaginations ran wild when they were asked to create their own aliens which was fascinating to see!
Kirkham Grammar Junior School Facebook news will now be 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 to the right.
Please could we kindly ask parents/carers not to park on the yellow lines within the school car park and keep these clear at all times in case of an emergency. Thank you
J1 are holding a sweet and chocolate tombola on Friday 6 May to raise money for Classrooms in the Clouds. Tickets will be sold at break and lunchtimes and cost 50p a ticket or three tickets for £1.
On Saturday 23 April, a number of J3 and J4 children took part in the St George’s Day parade in Lytham. The sun shone and the event was a truly wonderful occasion, with the J3 children delighting the crowds of people with their compilation of ukulele songs! In the evening the KGJS Choir, Vocal Ensemble and Staff/Parent Choir entertained guests whilst they enjoyed a champagne reception at the St George’s Day ‘Black Tie Ball’. The children, staff and parents all sang beautifully! Thank you to all the children, parents and families...your support with this was much appreciated, on what turned out to be a very busy day!!
Well done to the following children who were awarded with a Merit Certificate at the end of last Half Term:
I1X
Hamish Gilchrist, Juno Thompson
I1Y
Charlie Hawe, John Watson
I2X
Anna Vavoso, William Thompson
I2Y
Daisy Bellamy, Ellis McNamee, Jack Gillett
I3
Oliver Littlechild, Lola Huyton, Regan Lowe, Isabel Tuck
J1X
Amelie Singleton, Poppy Dodds, William de Klerk
J1Y
Harriet Brooks, James Singleton, Oliver Shackleton
J2X
April Wright, Charlie Wiltshire, Harry Case
J2Y
Morgan Thomas, Teddy Bowker
J3X
Glenn Packer, Jacob Adjetey-Hilton, Pippa McGregor
J3Y
Angus Martin, Edward Thompson
J4W
Darcy Clough, Matthew Oddie, Natasha Hartley-Smith, Thomas Shuttleworth
J4X
Charlie Cope, Hattie Madden, Jack Lee
J4Y
Peter Hughes, James Spencer
Congratulations to you all!
On Thursday 21 April, Kirkham Grammar Junior School marked Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th Birthday with a very special ‘Infant Royal Day’. We were proud to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Her Majesty’s qualities of kindness, compassion, service, sacrifice and strength are inspiring to the KGJS community. We certainly celebrated in style with our activities throughout the day, which included a Royal Banquet, a serenade by some of our older children and we also had a closer look at our family trees and the Royal Family tree. Other activities included self portraits, royal timelines and baking! Mrs Rosemary Cartwright, Chair of Governors at Kirkham Grammar School, came into KGJS to speak to the I3 children about the time she met The Queen, after she was put forward to receive ‘Maundy Money’, which is given to people over the age of 70 years, who make a valuable contribution to charity. The children and staff all had a wonderful day! Thank you to all the parents for their support with this event!
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House
22.4.16
29.4.16
Total
Birley
308
152
460
Drapers
328
148
476
Colborne
269
164
433
Clifton
331
128
459
MAY Monday 2 May—Bank Holiday—School closed Tuesday 3 May—Class Photographs, Tempest Photography Wednesday 4 May—Parents’ Evening, 4pm-6pm (NO LATE ROOM) Thursday 5 May—Parents’ Evening, 6pm-8pm Saturday 7 May—Charity Triathlon, 8am-11.15am Wednesday 11 May—J3 Trip to Waddow Hall Thursday 12 May—U11 Rounders v Lancaster Girls Grammar School (A), 3pm Saturday 14 May—FKGS Spring Fair, 12 noon-2.30pm Monday 16 May—J4 Enterprise Week begins Tuesday 17 May—U11 Athletics v Westholme (H), 4pm Wednesday 18 May—I3 Trip to Salmesbury Hall Wednesday 18 May—U11 AJIS Rounders at AKS, 10am Thursday 19 May—I1 Trip to Martin Mere Friday 20 May—U11 Rounders v St Pius (A), tbc Saturday 21 May—U10 Athletics v Blackburn AC (A), 10.30am Tuesday 24 May—U11 Athletics v St Pius (H), 4pm Wednesday 25 May—U10 Cricket v St Pius (A), 2pm Friday 27 May—Half Term begins at 3.45pm JUNE Monday 6 June—School re-opens J4 Trip departs to Abernant Outdoor Pursuit Centre, Wales, 9am Friday 10 June—J4 Trip returns (approx. 6pm) Sunday 12 June—LAMDA examinations Tuesday 14 June—New Reception Intake Parents’ Afternoon, 2pm-3.15pm U11 Athletics v AKS (H), 4pm Wednesday 15 June—J2 Trip to Museum of Science and Industry Thursday 16 June—U10 & U11 AJIS Athletics, Stanley Park, 10am Friday 17 June—Last Choir Singing Final, St George’s Hall, Blackburn, 6.30pm (Rehearsals to take place in the afternoon) Pre-School Production, 10am Saturday 18 June—Pre-School Sports Day, 10am Thursday 23 June—U11 Rounders v St Pius (A), 3pm Saturday 25 June—FKGS Summer Ball, 7pm Sunday 26 June—Pop-Up Concert (provisional) Tuesday 28 June—Junior Sports Day Practice, 9am-12 noon Wednesday 29 June—I2 & I3 Trip to Tatton Park Thursday 30 June—Pre-School Transition Meeting for Parents, 4pm-6pm JULY Friday 1 July—Prizegiving, 1.30pm, MPH Tuesday 5 July—Junior Sports Day, 12.50pm-3.30pm Thursday 7 July—Infant Sports Day, 1.30pm-3.30pm Friday 8 July—End of Term, 12 noon (no Late Room but Pre-School remains open) New Term begins Tuesday 6 September