Congratulations to our wonderful TGPS swimming team today. We won the Grantham and District small schools gala and the relay competitions and we are very proud of every single member of the team. Thank you parents and grandparents for your support today. The children do really appreciate your presence at the gala. It is a long morning for the children and supporters but such a pleasure to watch our children swim so well.
Also, I would like to congratulate our U10 netball team who won the ISA Midland Competition last Thursday. An excellent win and a fantastic sporting week for all involved.
Many thanks for your support.
Enjoy the weekend.
Mrs K.A Korcz
Calendar & Events
Spring Term 2020
Term Starts:
Tuesday 7/1/20
Half Term:
17/2/20 - 21/2/20
End of Term: Friday 3/4/20
Summer Term 2020
Term Starts:
Monday 20/4/20
May Day:
8/5/20
Half Term:
25/5/20 - 29/5/20
End of Term: Wednesday 15/7/20
SCHOOL YEAR
2020-2021
Autumn Term 2020
Term Starts:
Wednesday 2/9/20
Half Term:
19/10/20 - 30/10/20
End of Term: Friday 11/12/20
Spring Term 2021
Term Starts:
Tuesday 5/1/21
Half Term:
15/2/21 - 19/2/21
End of Term: Thursday 1/4/21
Summer Term 2021
Term Starts:
Monday 19/4/21
May Day:
3/5/21
Half Term:
31/5/21 - 4/6/21
End of Term: Wednesday 16/7/21
ISSUE: 396 23rd January 2020
IMPORTANT PARENT INFORMATION
Cool Cats Uniform Supplier: TGPS website - Please access the Uniform & Equipment heading on the home page there is a direct link to the Cool Cats website.
WEEKLY EVENTS
Friday 24th January 1. Qualifying round County Sportshall Athletics (a)
Wednesday 29th January 1. U11 A & B Football v Highfields (a) 2. U11 & U10 Netball v Lincoln Minster (h)
On Tuesday the children from Pre-school and Nursery visited the tenants at Brick Kiln Place in Grantham. The children enjoyed several activities with the tenants selecting colouring, toys and books to share with them.
Brick Kiln kindly provided lovely pots of fruit salad for each child and after a little hesitancy to begin with, the children were soon tucking into their snack! It was obvious to see the children had relaxed into their environment.
As well as talking to the tenants one or two of the children were very interested in watching a lady crochet a beautiful and colourful blanket. The lady told us that she was making it for a charity helping poor children in Africa. Elsey liked the purple sparkly colour best!
We had a great time and hope to visit in March.
Mrs Whinney
Reception Class having fun with clay!
The children continue their learning about the creatures that live under the sea in our vast oceans. This week they really enjoyed making their own fish. They used clay and moulded it into either a 2D or 3D fish of their choice to link with their maths shape work. They are now watching the changes that take place as the clay dries so they can paint their fish next week! Well done Reception!
During our Art sessions, Class One have been learning about the life and times of Vincent Van Gogh. They have been thinking about the colours, subject matter and materials that the artist used to create his stunning pictures. The children were disappointed that during his lifetime, Vincent never really found success and reportedly only sold one of his creations; sometimes trading a picture for food with a local restaurant owner. In honour of two of his most celebrated masterpieces, the children have been using oil pastels to create their own interpretations of 'The Sunflowers' and 'Starry Night'. I think that you will agree, we have some excellent artists in Year One. The display board is quite a gallery.
Preparations for the Class Two Assembly have begun! The Assembly will be open to Class 2 parents and (if all goes to plan) it will be on the 10th February in the morning. We have begun constructing the set and props: as you can see from the pictures paper-mache is no small feat with a class of children and it certainly took a lot of effort! If you had not guessed we are attempting to make coconuts and pineapples. Columbus had never seen these items before arriving in the West Indies!
This week in our afternoon STEAM session, we considered how astronauts have to exercise to stay fit while at the space station. Some of these activities mean that they need to be strapped to a machine or do it whilst being upside down!
We learned that agility means: "The ability to rapidly change direction without losing speed." The children tested their agility by completing a course on the playground; running around a set of cones, rest for 20 seconds and then repeat twice more. They had predicted that either the 2nd of 3rd attempt would be their fastest as they were learning what to do on the first go. Although some thought they would be more tired on their last run. The children worked together in teams of differing age groups, cheering them on, timing their runs and recording the results. In fact, most people were quicker on their 2nd run, tiring on their 3rd; but a minority group got quicker on each go.
This week a group of children from class 4 enjoyed a rewarding music session with Mrs Bower our music teacher. While the rest of the class were busy at the swimming gala, the other pupils were given the opportunity to compose a piece using a variety of instruments.
Their ability to apply accurate tempo and pulse was really impressive. The latter part of the lesson involved creating lyrics based on their current topic ‘Paddington Bear’ to a familiar piece of music.
This week classes 2 and 5 received some excellent and exciting news ..... stories that they had written before Christmas, had been selected for publication! The children had to write a story in 100 words or under, which is harder than you may think!
It is with great pleasure to say that all the children’s work has been chosen for publication. This is a great achievement and as J.K Rowling says, “Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.” The book is set for publication in March.
Wednesday afternoon saw the U11 football team travel to Witham Hall to take part in their annual tournament celebration of football. The tournament gives an opportunity to those players who do not usually get a chance to play every week. The Grantham team where in Pool A alongside: Witham, Wellow House, Bedford and Leicester Grammar School.
The team did not get off to the best of starts losing a tightly fought contest against Wellow. Fortunes changed in their second game with a comprehensive 2-0 win against Leicester Grammar School with Ellie scoring a brace on her debut match! The third game saw the team play against host Witham losing 3-0. The last group game saw the team play Bedford and despite being on top throughout the game the team only managed a 0-0 draw.
This meant the team finished third in the group and would play for 5th and 6th place overall. This game took place against King's Ely. On a new pitch the team took a while to find their stride before eventually taking control of the game managing to win 1-0 with a well crafted goal again involving debutant Isobel, getting the decisive final touch to score the winning goal!
Overall a great afternoon with the team managing a respectable 5th out of 10 teams and some encouraging signs for the season as it continues!
Team: Harry K, William, Yuvan, Milo, Harry D, Isobel, Ellie.
Mr Park and Mr Tranter
Hi 5 Midlands Tournament at Dodderhill School
The U10’s played in the ISA Midlands High 5 mixed tournament at Dodderhill School, Droitwich Spa, on Thursday 16th January.
After a long journey, the team had a very quick turn around to lose their base layers as the weather was so bad that we had to resort to the sports hall.
There were 9 schools playing in total and only one sports hall, so there was no time for us to warm up the legs or wake up.
The scores were as follows:
Grantham v St. Peter’s: 0-2
Grantham v Priory: 0-2
Grantham v Pitsford: 4-0
Semi final:
Grantham v Ruckleigh: 3-2
Final:
Grantham v St. Peter’s: 2-1
As can be seen from the scores, the team found their form after the first two games and managed to secure a 4-0 win, with some fantastic attacking play! The games were only 8 minutes one way.
This combined with a no show from Dixie School, put us through to the semi finals on goals scored and conceded.
The squad managed to secure a win in the semis and went on to win the tournament.
Well done everyone. There were some much taller opponents, but with tight marking and attacking play we managed to keep possession of the ball.
Jack, Harry and Freddie deserve a special mention as they played outstandingly well and got to grips with the rules very quickly.
Mrs Klimes and Mrs Clegg.
Stamford Junior School Swim Gala
The first challenge to our swim team came along this week when our swimmers travelled to Stamford for our traditional gala. With a slightly depleted team we set off with many swimmers facing challenges in strokes that might not necessarily be their first choice. The A team managed a very impressive haul of 11 first place victories from 18 races which included some great personal best times. One of our youngest swimmers, Mya was particularly impressive scoring a victory in her own U9 Freestyle race, third in the U10 Freestyle race and two Relay victories. The B team didn’t register any first place positions but secured a much needed second spot in the U9 Freestyle Relay. From a total of 81 points the A team managed to secure 59 of these points. Well done to everyone who swam and hopefully dispelled the myth that swimming isn’t fun!!
Mr Park
Grantham + District Small Schools Swimming Gala
Our victorious swim team look delighted with their recent success at the small schools gala. What a fabulous result from the team who finished first in 18 races, second in 7 and third in 3 - there was a total of 28 races swum!! There were some fabulous results both individually and in the relay races. Congratulations especially to Bella who was only drafted in 1 hour before starting and she finished first in a stroke that would not have been her first choice. Both the relay and the overall trophies have returned home, the overall trophy having visited our school 28 times in the last 33 years of running.
Mr Park
U9 Football - St Hugh's Festival
This was the Year 4's first taste of competition as a football team and was always going to be a learning experience. Initially we were nervous about tackling opposition players whos looked confident on the ball, which lead to defeats in our first two games.
Once we decided that the opposition wasn't too scary, we showed that we were capable of some quality football ourselves. In the 3rd game, inspired by our goalkeeper Seth making some fabulous saves, the rest of the team began working together to pass the ball forwards. A Finley throw in forwards to Freddie on the left saw Freddie dribble half a pitch before Thomas unleashed a rocket into the top left hand corner. This was quickly followed by a second, Finley passing to Thomas in space down the right, who then provided the driven cross for Freddie to score this time.
The final two games saw more determined tackling, better holding of positions and we created chances that went just past the post.
Grantham 0 - 4 St Georges
Highfields 3 - 0 Grantham
St Hugh's B 0 - 2 Grantham
Grantham 0 - 2 St Hugh's A
Grantham 0 - 3 St Martins
Hopefully we will take these positives forwards and build on them in the coming weeks.
Mrs Clegg
U9 Hi 5 Netball Tournament at St Hugh's
The under 9 girls travelled to St. Hugh’s School in Woodhall Spa on Wednesday 22nd January to partake in a netball festival.
There was a total of eight schools present and the girls played in four matches, which gave them some fantastic practice at changing positions and adapting to the new Bee netball rules.
The girls were so excited to be there that they forgot about the importance of marking their opponents when not in possession of the ball, which resulted in the competition scoring 3 goals to our 0 in the first game against St. Martin’s Prep.
The second game flowed more smoothly, but we were forgetting to get free to receive the ball and crowding the same space. The score was 2-0 to St. Hugh's 2 team.
The third match was against St. Hugh's 4. The girls were beginning to get the hang of marking with gentle reminders from the side lines. However, there was too many loopy overhead passes, resulting in the turning over of the ball to the opposition. A draw of 0-0
The final match against Highfields resulted in a 0-0 score.
The girls hopefully will have learned a lot from playing in this tournament. The two year three girls got stuck in and were a real asset to the year fours.
To improve our game play, the girls need to focus and listen to the instructions given to everyone, not just individually. Hi 5 Netball has a lot of rules and everyone rotates their position on the court, so that no one gets stuck playing in one particular role.
Out and About in Town...
As part of their Climate Inquiry, Year 4 created and conducted a survey to find out opinions on climate change. In the town centre, we asked people whether they thought climate change was happening, the causes and what, if anything, we needed to do about it. We are going to collate and analyse our results in our Mathematics lessons ready to share with everyone next week.
Whilst in town, we also visited Bo’s mum who works in the zero waste eco-refill shop. She explained about all the different products and how they can help to reduce our impact on the planet. Kai was very keen on the organic dried mango!
Whilst the research was brilliant, Miss Rowe and Mr Towe were also very proud of how the Year 4 pupils conducted themselves. Their politeness and good manners were a credit to themselves and the school.
...and Back at School
Back in school, Year 4 have asked every member of our community what their views are on climate change.
Mr Towe
St. John’s International School UNITED KINGDOM
The Ski Trip 2020
It is time for Eiris to visit Formigal again. The ski trip is a highly enriching experience, where everybody enjoys a week of skiing and living together. By looking at the photos they share we can tell everybody is making the most of it and enjoying themselves to the limit. They will soon be back telling us all about their new adventures in the snow!
Antía Juane
Admissions Director
Colegio Internacional Eirís LA CORUÑA - ESPAÑA
School Bus Collection Points & Times
Bookings for this week:
Please contact the school office to book a place for your child.
8.10am Normanton on Cliffe
8.20am Ancaster
8.25am Wilsford
On Fridays the bus will run 15 minutes earlier to ensure pupils arrive in time for the *Music Machine" School Band rehearsal.
Access to the School Building after 4.30pm
As you are all aware there is now a gate which has a key code access to the Creche in the evening. If you do not have the code, please call 01476 593293 and your call will be answered by Creche.
