Junior, Infant and Pre-School Newsletter
Issue 15 Friday 6 July 2018 Dear Parents Another successful year draws to a close. It is amazing how much has been achieved by the children, staff, parents and governors in one year. The achievements extend from the academic, to the sporting and the creative arts and to the numerous fun and exciting trips. We achieve so much because we work together as a team and this is one of the greatest strengths of the school. The staff have worked tirelessly to inspire and engage the children in all aspects of their learning and development and a huge thank you goes out to them all for their hard work and commitment. At the end of this academic year, we say goodbye to two of our members of staff: Mrs Blanco-Bayo and Mr Brooks. I am sure that you will join me in thanking them for all that they have done for our school and wishing them all the very, very best. We welcome new teacher, Mrs Bentley, who will be teaching in I1 and Mr McLaughlin, who will be our new Gap Student. You should have all received a letter with your child’s report on Wednesday which outlines some new changes to our wrap around care. I hope that these changes will help some of our working parents. We, of course, wish our fantastic J4 cohort the very best of luck in their new learning journeys at the senior school and congratulate them for all of their achievements during their time at the junior school. The first day of our new academic year for the children is Wednesday 5 September. We look forward to working with you again next year and we hope that you and your families have a wonderful summer. Thank you for your continued support. Annette Roberts
Mrs AS Roberts Headmistress Follow us on: Twitter: @KGJS_ @KirkhamGrammar @KGJShead Facebook: @kirkhamgrammarschool Instagram: @kirkhamgrammar
On Friday 29 June, our annual Junior School Prizegiving was held in Summerlee Hall. The whole school family gathered together for one of the highlights of the academic year. The afternoon began with a few words from Mr Berry, the KGS Headmaster, followed by ‘A Musical Medley’ from the KGJS Orchestra. After Mrs Wareing’s address, the Vocal Ensemble performed ‘I Have a Voice’ which led beautifully into Mrs Roberts’ speech. Part way through her speech, the infant and junior children spoke about their memories from the year and the infants sang ‘Be the Change’ while Music Scholar, Raphael Ikram, entertained guests with his talented instrumental performance on the guitar. Mr Barrie Stacey, ex-KGS Headmaster, then presented this year’s prizes and trophies before entertaining the audience with his account of his days as a headmaster and school inspector. Head Boy, Oliver Kollard and Head Girl, Alexa Anderson, gave a vote of thanks and the penultimate performance was from the School Choir, performing ‘Friends to the End’ and ‘You Make Me Strong’. The whole school then finished the afternoon by performing ‘A Million Dreams’ from the film, ‘The Greatest Showman’ and the School Hymn, ‘Seek Ye First’. Afterwards, a delicious buffet was served for all the J4 children, their parents and invited guests in the Senior School dining room. This occasion was a fitting conclusion to the J4 children's time at KGJS who will be moving on to new adventures in September! Thank you to everyone who joined us on Friday afternoon.
All of the photographs are now available to view on our Kirkham Grammar School Flickr page.
The J4s have been very busy designing, building and racing their motorised cars. All the children have had the opportunity to use the vacuum former to create a car body and have soldered their electrical circuits. There were some fantastic designs and interesting number plates for their cars and we all had great fun on Wednesday morning racing them to find a supreme champion! Well done J4 and particular congratulations to Teddy Bowker for his winning vehicle!
The I1 pupils enjoyed learning how to play ‘French Boules’ during their French lesson with Mrs Simpson. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this activity!
‘The Hundred Decker Bus’ arrived in Pre-School a few weeks ago. The children made it all happen when they decided to go on a journey. Seats were counted to make sure there were enough, tickets with numbers on and seat-belts were made out of paper and pegs, ready to go on a trip. What an exciting time! Helping the driver turn left and right or drive straight on wasn’t easy but the passengers were so good with directions that they managed to do it on their own. The outdoor area had several vehicles, too. The children made a train that took them up and down a very high mountain and carried things to far away places. It was fun to welcome the visitors from Nepal who went on the Pre-School bus and remembered to put their seat-belts on. Another outstanding year in Pre-School with many stories to treasure. Have a super summer holiday everyone!
As a school, we have been supporting the charity Classrooms in the Clouds for four years. Recently, four teachers from Nepal came to visit us at KGJS and shared with us how valuable our support is to the children of the mountainous regions of Nepal, who have no access to education. During the summer holidays, Mrs Roberts will take on the Coast to Coast Cycle Challenge by cycling from Blackpool to Newcastle. If possible, please help to continue to support this wonderful charity by donating to the Just Giving page set up for this event. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/annette-roberts4 which can be viewed by scanning the QR Code to the right. Thank you in advance for your support!
AJIS Athletics On Thursday 21 June, Kirkham Grammar Junior School set off to Witton Park, Blackburn for the annual Association of Junior Independent Schools Athletics Championships. Over twenty five schools from the North West took part, from Newcastle under Lyme in the South to Rossall in the North, which always makes it very competitive. All the Kirkham athletes had trained hard for their selected events at lunchtimes and Tuesday evenings, also performing very well in two matches versus AKS and Westholme, earlier in the season. The hurdles were the first event on the track and Kirkham got off to a fantastic start with three athletes out of four progressing through to the finals. Here, Ben Firth won the U11 Boys event and Harry Marsh won the U10 Boys with a new AJIS record! Throughout the day, the whole team performed really well and were a credit to the school. The results were as follows: Gold Medals Ben Firth Harry Marsh Ewan Huck William de Klerk
U11 Boys Hurdles U10 Boys Hurdles (*New AJIS Record) U11 Boys Cricket Ball Throw U10 Boys High Jump
Silver Medals Harry Case U11 Boys High Jump Mason Wilkins U11 Boys Long Jump and U11 Boys 150 metres Ewan Huck U11 Boys 80 metres Harry Marsh U10 Boys Long Jump Alex Davies U10 Boys 600 metres William de Klerk, Harry Marsh, Jensen Crompton and Alex Davies U10 Boys 4 x 100m Relay 4th Place Frankie Margerison Evie Mellon
U11 Girls Long Jump U11 Girls High Jump
Many other athletes reached finals in various events. Congratulations to all the athletes and thank you to Rossall School for organising the event. AJIS U11 Pairs Cricket Final v Bury Grammar School On Wednesday 27 June, our U11 Boys won the AJIS U11 Pairs Cricket Final v Bury Grammar School, scoring the winning run with the last ball of the game! This is the first time in 12 years that KGJS have won a major cricket trophy. Well done to all who played! Mums v Girls Rounders Match It was perfect weather for the Mums v Girls annual Rounders match! The mums played against two different girls teams and the girls were victorious in both games! KGS Headmaster, Mr Berry, had one bat and managed to score a rounder!
The Summer Term has seen the House Sport Programme continue to provide competitive sport for every pupil in J1 to J4. The highlight this term is always the swimming gala and athletics championship but pupils have also been involved in Rounders, Tennis and Cricket. Listed below are the results from each sport; SWIMMING 1st Fylde 2nd Kirkham 3rd School 4th Preston
TENNIS 1st Kirkham 2nd Preston 3rd School 4th Fylde
CRICKET 1st Kirkham =2nd Fylde and School 4th Preston
ATHLETICS 1st Fylde 2nd Kirkham 3rd School 4th Preston
ROUNDERS 1st Kirkham 2nd School 3rd Fylde 4th Preston
The overall totals after three terms of action-packed competition, involving eleven different sports, which saw every pupil in J1 to J4 taking part, are as follows; 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Kirkham School Fylde Preston
271 246 242 223
Well done to all of the pupils in each house for making all the events so enjoyable and congratulations to Kirkham House, our overall winners.
Well done to all of the J4 pupils who took part in the annual Heptathlon competition on Tuesday 26 and Thursday 28 June. There were fantastic performances from everyone. Each athlete competed in the long jump, high jump, shot, throw, hurdles, 3 lap race and 60m sprint, with points awarded for each event. The results were as follows; Boys 1st Ewan Huck 626 2nd Ben Firth 603 3rd Mason Wilkins & Harry Case 590 5th Harvey Barber 568 6th Jensen Stott 541 Girls 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 6th 7th
Evie Mellon Frankie Margerison Megan Rollinson Lilly Jones Alexa Anderson Georgia Nicholls
581 535 533 516 512 486
Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to our overall winners, Ewan Huck and Evie Mellon.
This year’s Infant Sports Day was a lovely occasion and the recent hot weather continued throughout the event. Despite the heat, the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, showed real enthusiasm and competed with true sportsmanship. Thank you to Mrs Jill Knowles for presenting the prizes and, as always, thank you to parents, family and friends for their wonderful support.
This year’s Junior Sports Day was also granted brilliant sunshine and, if anything, a little too warm for proceedings! Despite this, the children all thoroughly enjoyed themselves, while the Pre-School and Infant children watched on for a short period, showing their support for the older children in school. The Junior children all competed in true team spirit. Thank you to former KGS pupil and OKA, Connor Wilkinson, for presenting the prizes. Well done to all of the children and congratulations to Fylde House who were the overall winners.
This term has seen all pupils in J3 and J4 participate in our annual Tennis Cup and Plate Tournaments. It has been very encouraging to see levels of play improve and also their ability to score and officiate matches more effectively, which we hope will be valuable in the future. The results were as follows; U11 Boys Champion Runner Up
Harvey Barber Ewan Huck
U11 Girls Champion Runner Up
Mia Carmichael Sarah Chatwin
U10 Boys Champion Runner Up
William de Klerk Tom Bloomfield
U10 Girls Champion Runner Up
Trishala Akundi Poppy Dodds
U11 Boys Plate Champion Runner Up
Teddy Bowker Rory Conlon
U11 Girls Plate Champion Runner Up
Alexa Anderson Lily Hunt
U10 Boys Plate Champion Runner Up
Alex Davies Harry Glanfield
U10 Girls Plate Champion Runner Up
Lillijae Moulding Lucy Jones
Congratulations to all our finalists and everyone who took part in both age groups.
Thank you to Reverend Bunday for joining our Junior School morning assembly today to remind us all that even though we all choose to follow different religions many of the key principles are the same.
It was wonderful to welcome our Nepalese friends into school last week! They performed a fantastic 'Nepalese' dance during the Junior School's morning assembly before visiting classes. The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit. Thank you for visiting school!
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 Oliver Donohue, Hattie Walker, Alexa Airton, Emilie Greenwood, Tilly Howard, Faris Amr, Erin Littlechild and Theia Chesworth.
Our J3s enjoyed a fantastic trip to Fairhaven Lake. They enjoyed a range of practical activities linking to their recent Geography topic, including mud dipping and beach combing. They were also given the challenge of designing and building a sea defence wall using only natural items found on the beach. Everyone had a wonderful day!
On Monday 25 June, the J3 pupils and teachers came to school dressed as Ancient Greeks. They enjoyed a full day of Greek themed activities, including learning how to dance in traditional Greek fashion. The day ended with a delicious Greek feast. All the children fully embraced the day and enjoyed this conclusion to their Greek History topic. Well done, J3!
The J4 pupils, moving over to the Senior School in September, enjoyed their 'Transition Day' which saw them partake in a variety of activities including; Art, Drama and team building!
On Tuesday 26 June, a number of children from Mrs French’s Percussion group took part in a showcase in front of some of the KGJS pupils, parents and family. Well done, you were all amazing!
Well done to the following children who were awarded a Merit Certificate at the end of this half term: I1X
Sofia Beaver, James Mannion
I1Y
Jake Barber, Cara Chesworth
I2X
Harry Bowen, Oliver Donohue, Matilda Howard
I2Y
Isabella Asquith, Dominic Howells, Mia Rowland, Matilda Thompson
I3X
Evie Dunne, Harry Rawlinson, Sibana Sedgwick
I3Y
Alice Nicolson, Spencer Tennant
J1X
Buster Bell-Carr, Sophie Noblett, Raia Trend
J1Y
Hermione Edwards, Olivia Norcross
J2X
George Aldeen, Issy Gut, Gabriella Pearson
J2Y
Emily Greenwood, Layla Mattatia
J3X
Isabella Durston, Harry Glanfield, Lucy Linton
J3Y
Oliver Chesworth, Jack Short, Natalie Smith
J4X
Oliver Ganley, Francesca Margerison, Chloe Mustow
J4Y
Raphael Ikram, Oliver Kollard
Well done to the following children who were awarded Distinctions at the end of this half term: Sam Asquith
Dotty Hackett
Poppy Benson
Grace Livesey
Eva Berry
Joseph Mahoney
Louis Blundell
Harry Marsh
Lily Buckley
Nikita Murthy
Eleanor Bullough
Jensen Stott
Henry Dawson-Gerrard
Juno Thompson
William de Klerk
Charlie Wiltshire
George Godbold
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 below. 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 just outside of Pre-School. Well done to all who managed to locate it!!
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@kirkhamgrammar.co.uk. Thank you!
Tuesday 5 September - new term starts Sunday 23 September - Open Afternoon Junior School (3-11 years) 1 pm - 3 pm Senior School (11-18 years) 1.30 pm - 4.30 pm
Wishing you all a wonderful and restful summer!