We celebrated Pancake Day on our Open Day with an Inter-House pancake race. It remained dry and although bitterly cold, the children enjoyed the Inter-House challenge. Well done Brownlow!
Traditionally pancakes were eaten to use up indulgent foods such as eggs and milk before the fasting season of Lent began. However, although thought of as a Christian tradition, it may have originated from a pagan holiday, when eating warm, round pancakes, symbolised the sun and the arrival of Spring; much desired in the UK at present!
Next week we look forward to World Book Day to celebrate the joy of reading and the difference it makes to all our lives. Author Wes Magee will be visiting our school to read some of his poems to our children. There will be an opportunity to buy a KS1 or KS2 book from him but there is no requirement to buy a book. Books can be purchased during the day, or after school. The cost of the books are £5 each (KS1 and KS2).
We look forward to an enjoyable day together. Children (and staff!) are encouraged to dress up as a character from a favourite book.
Tomorrow will be the Colsterworth Schools Festival day at the Meres Leisure Centre. It is a hectic day for parents, children and teachers. The logistics are always complicated but we will all do our best to make the day an enjoyable opportunity for our children. it is fun to perform, play together and listen to the contributions from other schools. Hopefully, an enjoyable day of music and drama for all.
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: 400 27th February 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 28th February 1. Colsterworth Festival @ Meres Leisure Centre
Monday 2nd March 1. U10 ISA Netball @ Malvern St James (a) 2. Cross Country at Copthill (a)
Tuesday 3rd March 1. Bag 2 School drop off
Wednesday 4th March 1. Parents Evening booking system opens 10am 2. U11 A & B Football v St Hugh's (a)
3. U11 Hi 5 Netball G & D League, Priory Ruskin
Thursday 5th March 1. World Book Day - author Wes Magee visiting school
Friday 6th March 1. Bingo & Pizza Eve. 2nd hand uniform sale.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
3.3.2020 Bag 2 School Drop Off
5.3.2020 World Book Day
10.3.2020 Parents' Evening
12.3.2020 Parents' Evening
3.4.2020 Last Day of Term
Year 2 - Year 6
Please note there is no swimming
on Monday 2nd March 2020.
Bingo Night
Please come and support the "Friends of Grantham Prep's" Bingo Night to be held at 4.30pm on Friday 6th March, featuring Mr Mytton as Bingo Master!
It will be a fun afternoon for parents and children with pizza, drinks and cake plus a tombola. Tickets are available for £3.50 from the office.
Please scour your cupboards for any unwanted gifts for the tombola - nearly new items for adults or children gratefully received. Please put them in the box in reception.
All monies raised will go to Comic Relief.
Uniform Sale
We will also have a table top uniform sale, if you are interested in selling any items please label them with your name and price.
Table Top sale between 3.30 - 4.30 on Friday 6th March (in the small room next to the science class room).
All items to be dropped off on the morning of the Bingo night clearly labelled and those items not sold to be collected at the end of the bingo evening or the following Monday.
The children in Reception and Pre-School enjoyed a really energetic dance session on Monday afternoon with Mrs Lewis. The session was linked to our termly theme about different journeys and exploration. She included some super music linked to the Egyptians, mountain climbing and jungle explorers. There were some lovely moments of the children engaged in each of the fun dances linked to the different places. All the children certainly loved their adventures around the world!
We have been practising our handwriting by using the poem Give and Take by Roger McGough. The best ones may be entered into a national competition. The class discussed the examples and placed them in a rank order, with the best at the top. There were different views and they had to discuss and compromise. I was pleased that everyone's handwriting was of a very good standard; many wrote in fountain pen, having discussed that it makes us slow down and take care when forming each letter, and in fact, many of them were really pleased with where their work was. Keep up the good work!
Class 2 children have lots of fun in Spanish and take an enthusiastic part in lessons. I am so pleased with their attitude, effort and achievement. Recently they have been learning the names of some vegetables in Spanish. They then progressed into asking each other what vegetables they liked and didn’t like. Finally they enjoyed practising and dancing ‘el baile de la ensalada’ (the salad dance).
This week was our Open Day with the eagerly awaited inaugural Inter-House Pancake relay the main event. The crowds rolled in and suddenly what was a speck on the calendar became a bit of a doo!!. The Infants were up first tackling the Playground Daily Mile course beautifully decorated by the “Pancake Pair”. Houses were split into two stations with each participant running half the course and changing over both pancakes and Chefs hats!! The competition was very tight with Brownlow coming home first, Hornsby second and Newton third. It was the Juniors turn next and again the competition was fierce. There was some great flippers in this race most notably Finley and Leo from Newton House and George from Brownlow House. Brownlow again took the first spot with Hornsby and Newton reversing there positions this time. The overall champions this year, setting the standard for future events were Brownlow. Congratulations to all who took part, cheered on the teams and helped to replenish the frying pans with the flipped out pancakes ( well done Mrs Day, you managed to help everyone, not just your own House get back in the race - I think!! )
As we returned to school from the half term holidays, the children have had a very busy time in Class One. So much has been happening - practising songs and poems in preparation for Colsterworth Festival, the Inter-House Pancake Race and Miss Tambling has joined us for the remainder of the Spring Term. Miss Tambling is a first year teaching student and during her placement, she will be working with different groups to complete set classwork. In Science and D.T., the children have been testing their design skills by using fresh fruit to make smoothies; there was widespread agreement that the ingredients in Batch 1 made the best tasting drink! In Art, the children have been using oil pastels to make observational portraits of famous English Queens. In Numeracy, everyone has enjoyed working with fractions and the children have shown great pride in being able to colour in the number of segments representing the numerator and leaving the rest of the denominator blank. When a full sized Ordnance Survey map of the local area was opened up, there was great excitement and intrigue about where we all live. The A1 was a great navigation point to start at. It has been a fabulous week and everyone has worked so hard. Welcome back Year One superstars!
This week in the Reception class we have been lucky enough to have Margaux Lettany helping us in the classroom. Margaux is a family friend of Jessica and Bella Hall, who is staying with the family for a week. Margaux lives in Belgium and speaks French. Whilst in the class she has enjoyed hearing the children read, played rhyming games with them and helped them create some very special pirate treasure maps! The children have also been helping her with her English!! We have all grown very attached to Margaux already and look forward to seeing her again in the near future.
We played five High 5 rotations, allowing all the girls the opportunity to defend, play centre and shoot.
We started off brightly, with Anna and Lily-May giving us a narrow 1-2 lead at the first break. The second rotation really suited the Ayscoughfee team and they quickly scored 5 to our 1, which was a lovely shot by Mya. Ayscoughfee had us pinned in our defending and we struggled to get the ball forwards. Ayscoughfee 6-3 Grantham.
At the break we talked tactics, using the centre from a back line pass, to move the ball forwards. The girls worked really hard and the 3rd rotation was drawn 0-0. Fourth rotation, Ayscoughfee only added 1 to their score and in the final game we won 0-1 with a determined shot by Anna. Final score Ayscoughfee 7 - 4 Grantham.
This was a hard fought match and I was very pleased with the girl's determination to move the ball forwards and to believe in themselves when they get the opportunity to shoot. Well done U9's, you played some really good netball.
U10 Netball v Ayscoughfee Hall
The under 10 girls played High 5 netball against Ayscoughfee Hall School on Wednesday 26th February.
The girls had five rotations in total, which gave them the opportunity to try all of the various positions on the court.
The final score was 13 goals to 4 to Ayscoughfee, so well done to them.
We can improve our game play by practising our shooting accuracy at break times. Also, we need to remember when throwing the ball out of the opposition’s goal end to avoid passing it under their goal, as it makes it too easy for them to intercept it and shoot.
Isobel was the team captain today and she was also voted player of the match by the Ayscoughfee team. So, well done Isobel!
Please can girls with long or fly away hair wear a stretchy head band. It’s difficult to see or catch the ball with hair over the eyes!
For any girls enjoying their netball and wanting to take it further “Fenland Netball” is on our doorstep and has a fantastic reputation in the area.
Mrs Klimes
U9 Football v St Hugh's (Golds)
The Under 9 Gold Football team travelled to St Hugh's for one of their first games of the season giving the opportunity for a few new faces to take their place in the match day squad. On a sunny but chilly afternoon Grantham started brightly attacking with intent and commanding the game in the opposition's half of the pitch. The team played excellent passing football but seemed to lack the finishing instinct in front of goal, which comes from match experience. Despite the teams best efforts the game was evenly balanced (0-0) at half time.
With the team reminded of their objectives and a few tweaks in positioning, the second half again started brightly with the team continuing to push forward to find the opening goal. However, a brief lapse in concentration from the team allowed their opponents to take an unexpected lead with Dante unfortunately just not able to get his hand to a low, curling shot into the bottom left corner of the goal. This seemed to spur on the team and within a minute the score was level after some brilliant play by Ahaan and Taseen who interchanged passes before Taseen applied the vital strike into the top right corner. Within 5 minutes the team had gone ahead with some excellent skills from Carlos, who picked the ball up in midfield before producing a wonderful strike on the edge of the area into the same top right corner. The game could have seen Grantham score again late on but, a lack of calmness and decisiveness prevented this from happening. With some resolute defending from Matthew and the debuting Jessica the team managed to seal the first win of the season for any of the Grantham Prep football teams.
A huge well done especially after going a goal behind showing if you continue to work hard you will be rewarded for your efforts! The game ending 1-2 to Grantham.
U9 Football v St Hugh’s (Blues)
This week saw the U9 team visiting our friends in Spalding, St Hugh’s with a changed team and fresh ideas from the training ground. A goalkeeping swap, some sunny weather in the air and a visiting coach gave the team a new challenge. Seth was a nuisance - in all the right areas! Freddie a pain - as he stopped everyone from getting passed him! Finley a thorn in the side - thankfully not our side! The team were full of fight and despite giving away a soft opener, they harassed their way back into the game with a fine strike from Seth, the new striker. Captain Thomas rallied his team mates and the opposition had a tough time. This was a much improved attitude than in the last few weeks and the team were soon dominating many passages of play. Unfortunately the post got in our way of a second and third goal and our defence gave new goalkeeper Finley no chance of stopping their second and third strike on goal. This was a great team performance and hopefully a revival has begun for the rest of the season.
U11 ISA Netball @ Malvern St James
The U11 girls took part in the Midlands ISA netball competition on Tuesday 25th February at Malvern St. James school.
There were 18 schools in total competing from all over the Midlands. Grantham Prep was in Group 1. The games were fast and furious with each match only lasting 8 minutes one way.
The results were as follows:
GP v Newbridge: win of 3:1
GP v Malvern St. James: 2-4 loss
GP v Ruckleigh: 5-0 win
GP v Mylnhurst: 5-0 win
GP v Dodderhill: 0-0 draw
GP v Twycross: 2-0 win
GP v Bedstone: 2-2 draw
GP v Tettenhall: no show
The points were added up as 5 for a win, 3 for a draw, 1 point for a loss (if score 50% or more of the winning score).
Unfortunately we were just behind Dodderhill on overall points, despite drawing with them, which meant that we didn’t make it through to the semi finals.
The girls played very well under cold and challenging conditions, finishing a respectable third place in their pool.
Well done to all of the girls.
Mrs Klimes and Mrs Clegg.
U11 Netball v Witham
Sunshine and a very cold wind was the backdrop for the netball this week. All the girls played their part in an exciting and educational match with some super performances. We swapped positions throughout the match to give the girls an opportunity to shine in different areas of the court. It turns out we have several sharp shooters. It was good to see the confidence of some players growing as the match went on before a very wintry hailstorm stopped play. Superb effort everyone involved.
It takes a village, or so the wise proverb goes. Here at chelo, we depend on the kindness and generosity of a host of people - IES who give places to our bursary children, our volunteers who run the organisation, the parents of HBIS, and our donors and sponsors.
All of these people ensure that 12 bright children from Hout Bay, who may otherwise not be able to afford it, get a world-class education at HBIS.
We'd like to thank a few kind souls in particular - Tanya Seeber, Hout Bay optometrist, who gives free eye assessments and discounted rates on specs for our kids, tennis coach Chris de Koker, who coaches chelo children for free, Chris Allan who gives free physiotherapy sessions, and Mark Fricke from Jurumani Solutions, who for many years has provided second-hand laptops for our chelo children.
Thank you all for ensuring chelo children have the resources and help they need to flourish!
International School Hout Bay SOUTH AFRICA
Robotics Team
During this 2019 the team participated in different events demonstrating their capacity and dedication, achieving the following merits:
Mention Seymor Papert in WRO 2019, Catolica Santiago de Guayaquil University.
Legos creativity second and third place in Legos creativity category , Salesiana University.
Lego JR Programming Category, first place at colleges level and 6 at universities level, CER, Cuenca 2019.
Robotics competition "Metal challenge" Copol, insect race category first place plus the pass to compete in Mexico.
Second and third place creativity Legos plus the accreditation to compete "Pacific Challenge".
During these month they are preparing for the ¨ "Intelibots" tournament in Mexico, in March 2020.
We are sure they are going to have a great intervention!
Colegio Internacional SEK GUAYAQUIL - ECUADOR
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.
