KS1 Performance

I had the pleasure of watching our Year 1 and 2 children perform in the ‘Hopeless Camel’ Nativity performance today. I was hugely impressed with the quality of their singing, signing and the narrators confident speaking. They knew all their words!

I know that our parents were very impressed with the acting too. The camels were a real joy to watch as well as the wise men and King Herod! Our Year 1 children also danced beautifully. 

Many thanks to the whole KS1 team who spent a lot of time and effort into making the show such a success.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie 
Headteacher

Christmas Performances

It’s that time of year where Christmas really comes to life at Guildford Grove.

I wanted to say how impressed I was with our KS2 pupils last week with their wonderful singing, signing and narration of the Christmas story. It was fantastic to hear so many traditional Christmas carols but I also enjoyed the modern alternative version of ‘Jingle Bells’ from our after school KS2 choir. Our children sing so beautifully with such passion and it really is a joy to watch every year.

This week, we are all looking forward to our Foundation Stage and our Key Stage 1 Nativity performances. These are always very magical and I know our parents and carers really enjoy seeing their children on stage.

To finish off here is a letter I received from Mrs Dobbs, one of our long standing reading volunteers, following our KS2 Christmas Carol concert last week. As you can see, she was very impressed with our pupils!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Jolly Jam Jars

I had the privilege to judge the winners of the Jolly Jam Jar competition. We had hundreds of entries and it was extremely tough to select winners.

I was so impressed with the time and energy that the children had clearly put into making them. They were all very creative and Christmassy!

Here are some photos of the winning jars.

Well done to everyone who brought in a jolly jam jar and don’t forget to come to our Christmas Fayre tonight where you could win one!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Vote for Guildford Grove!

We are delighted to announce that Guildford Grove has been selected to receive funding from 'Tesco’s Bags of Help' initiative. 

We need you to vote for our project to get a shelter built on the playground to provide shade in the summer as well as to be used as an outdoor classroom.

So go to any Tesco's store in Guildford, Milford or Ashvale and vote for our school. Spread the word and get your family and friends to vote for us too!

We need to win so we can get the £12,000 that we need to build the shelter.

Voting starts today and continues until November 13th.

Our School Council

We are really lucky at Guildford Grove as we have the most amazing school council. Our school council representatives come from our Year 5 and 6 classes and they apply for their roles. Each week they meet to discuss how they can help us continue to make improvements to our school. Both governors of the school and teachers have been hugely impressed with the impact the school council have had over the years.

Today, I met the new joint chairs and the new vice chair. These children had to stand up in front of the school council members and deliver a speech to convince them to vote for them. So huge congratulations to Tommy, Matthew and Kayleigh and I look forward to working closely with them throughout the year!

Our joint chairs of the school council, Tommy and Matthew.

Our vice-chair, Kayleigh.

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Start of the new school year!

Welcome back to the new school year. The children have settled in well to their new classes and are enjoying getting to know their new teachers. They all look so smart in their uniforms too!

I have really enjoyed walking around the school and observing the children already engaging in their learning. This year the whole school will be focusing on developing language across all areas of the curriculum. All our staff will be ensuring that our pupils are  engaging in conversations and discussions and the pupils will be encouraged to extend their vocabulary. It is even happening out on the playground at lunchtime. During one game involving bubbles this week, Trish (one of our lunchtime supervisors) was encouraging the children to come up with a range of words to describe the bubbles. She introduced them to the word ‘cluster’. It just shows that at Guildford Grove, we use every opportunity possible to encourage our children to learn. 

What I love about the new school year is that children have an opportunity to start afresh. I have been so impressed with how many children are keen to improve how often they read at home and how keen they are to try their best in their learning. The photos below show you two great examples of this!

Mrs Robson was delighted with Finley who had shown huge improvements in his speedy maths. He had managed to achieve an amazing 50 out of 50!

Sofia was sent to show me her reading record. She had managed to read at home every day and sometimes even twice a day. Well done Sofia!

I would encourage parents to regularly share books and stories with their children at home. This will really help them expand their vocabulary. Ask your children regularly if they know what some of the words mean and if they don’t know, help them to understand by looking it up in a dictionary. Check the next day if they have remembered the word and what it means!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Headteacher

Royal Visitor

Last week, we were delighted to welcome HRH Sophie, The Countess of Wessex to Guildford Grove. She came to visit our Lighthouse specialist deaf centre as patron of the 'Children with Special Needs Foundation'. This Foundation have been a great supporter of the Lighthouse and has donated a range of ICT equipment as well as helping to update our sensory room.

The Countess spent the morning meeting our Lighthouse children from nursery up to year 6. She toured the centre and watched the children take part in lessons as well as helped out with making pizzas.  She watched our Year 2 signing club and she listened to Lauren and Brooke sing and sign to 'I dreamed a dream' from Les Miserables. There wasn't a dry eye in the room at that point!

At the end of her visit, she got to see the children from the rest of the school as they cheered her off with union jack flags. I know she spent a lot of time asking our pupils lots of questions and they also got to ask her some too. A couple of the Year 6 boys even found out her favourite football team. Sunderland apparently!

It was a great morning and we were so proud of all our pupils and staff both in the Lighthouse and in the school.

Here are some pictures of the visit for you to enjoy!

The Countess talking to some of our Lighthouse parents

Learning some signs from our Year 2 signing club

Tianna presenting the bouquet of flowers

The Countess meeting the rest of the pupils from Guildford Grove

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Poster winners

Congratulations to Abigail (6K), Rahma (3A) and Mayar (2P) for winning our dining hall poster competition organised by our school council. All three girls designed eye catching posters that help to remind all our pupils about how to ensure a positive dining hall experience. Well done girls!

I am looking forward to seeing these posters up in the small hall in the near future.

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Showing commitment!

This week's theme has focused on how children can show commitment to our school or to interests outside of school.

On Monday, a number of our children celebrated 'Thinking Day' and came to school dressed in their Brownies, Rainbows, Beavers and Scouts uniforms. They all stood up in assembly and talked about the commitment they make to their club outside school. They also talked about the different skills they have to learn to gain badges. I was so impressed and really hope they inspire more children to join similar groups.

Layla and Isla in the Rainbows' uniform

Miles in the Beavers' uniform

Dillan, Jamie T and Jamie G in the Scouts' uniform

Brownies were the most popular!

I also had the privilege of speaking to another pupil in Year 2 who came to talk to me about a commitment he has outside of school. Callum in 2P came to show me his golf clubs and explained that he goes to play golf every week. I was so impressed and think he might be the next Tiger Woods!

I also mentioned the commitment many of our children show to our after school sports clubs and we celebrated the recent achievements of our 5/6 netball teams.

Throughout the week, I also witnessed all our pupils showing great commitment to their learning in all subjects including literacy, maths and science.

What a great start to the second half of the spring term!

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Fantastic learners at Guildford Grove

Last week, I had lots of children sent to my office to show me their excellent work and talk to me about how engaged they were in their learning. I also enjoyed several walks around the school where I visited classes and witnessed high levels of engagement and excellent behaviour.

I really enjoyed visiting the Foundation Stage where they have created amazing under the sea displays for the children to enjoy. I spent a lovely half an hour enjoying the KS2 children singing with Mrs Schollar and Mrs Pedder and I also had a very useful meeting with our school council who talked me through the work they have been doing on finding out how our pupils feel about eating in the dining hall. 

Also well done to our Year 5 and 6 netball teams who represented our school so well when they played QE last week. They are such committed players.

KS2 singing

Hollie's amazing Science!

Emerald's fantastic effort in Science.

Another great Science book from Chantelle

Miliena and Kaela created their own computer timer using the scratch programme.

Michael and Aliye had a great week and came to see me several times!

Rona Mackie

Headteacher

The start of a new year!

Happy new year! The children have settled quickly into the new term and are already very engaged in their learning in class. It is always a delight to see them so eager to return back to school and seeing them so happy to catch up with their friends and teachers.

On Wednesday, our Year 6 pupils went up to London to visit the Science museum and see 'Wicked' at the theatre. I was lucky enough to attend this trip and I was so proud of how well our pupils conducted themselves both at the museum and in the theatre. We had several members of the public come up to us and comment on how well behaved our pupils were and what a pleasure it was to see them enjoy the show so much. Well done Year 6!

I know the Year 5 pupils will do the same when they visit London this week to go to the Natural History museum and to go and watch 'The Lion King'.

Look how close we were to the stage!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher