Being considerate!

On Monday's assembly, I introduced the weekly theme as 'being considerate'. We talked about what that word meant and the children came up with great ideas like being kind, putting others before yourself and being thoughtful. I explained that kind and thoughtful were synonyms for considerate. I was so impressed that Amy in 4H was able to tell me that a synonym was a word that had the same meaning as another word. An excellent example of the great learning happening at Guildford Grove.

Throughout the week, I spotted many moments of our pupils being considerate. It really amazes me how kind and thoughtful our students are. Here are some examples!

Deon was considerate when he stopped and helped Keon on the playground.

Soyo was being kind by turning the skipping rope for her friends.

Samantha was helping a friend with the zip on her coat.

The video below shows a small clip of a group of children enjoying our 'story swap' during Book Week. They were being really considerate by allowing others to enjoy the story too. They loved hearing 'We're going on a bear hunt' read by Mrs Johnstone.

This week, we have two very important occasions to show how we are considerate to others. You may have noticed a fantastic outdoor display appearing on the playground. Inspired by the Tower of London tribute to World War 1, the children have made their own poppies and these have been added to our school fence. I am sure you will agree with me that it looks spectacular. Many thanks to Mrs Curtis and many of our TAs for creating the display. On Tuesday, Mr Thomas will be leading a special Remembrance assembly which will also focus on World War 1.

The rainbow appeared just at the right moment.

'Children in need' is also this week. On Superhero day in September, we raised over £200 for 'Shooting Star Chase Hospices' which is one of the charities that benefit from the money raised by 'Children in need'. So on Friday, we had a very special visitor to Breakfast Club. Pudsey dropped in to say hello to our pupils. I managed to get a photo before he left and thanked him for coming to visit us. Many thanks to Trish for organising this visit.

Other highlights for next week are the Year 1/2 trip to Windsor Castle and Year 5 residential trip to Sayers Croft. I will be popping in to see them on Thursday night so I can't wait. 

Our children always show immaculate behaviour on school trips and once again a member of the public commented on this when our Year 3/4 children visited the Tate Modern last week. We are always so proud of them!

Rona Mackie

Head of School

Respect

I hope everyone has had a lovely half term. It is amazing how quickly the week flies by but I can't wait to see all our pupils looking smart and ready for their learning tomorrow. The next half term is always very exciting with the lead up to our Christmas performances. 

Before the break, I introduced a weekly theme to our Monday's assembly. As well as celebrating excellent attendance, we now also focus on a key area that makes our school so great. Last week, the whole school focus was 'respect'. Our one rule for the whole school community is that 'everyone will be polite, respectful and considerate to others at all times'. 

We discussed what respect meant and how that looked in the classroom, around the school and on the playground. Here are some photos showing how respect looks around our school.

TJ and Mayas showing great respect for each other!

I really enjoyed reading this book to 5J. They were so respectful when listening to the story and loved Eco-wolf!

I spotted this on the playground. Jamie caught Turki's ball and respectfully gave it back to him.

Here are Jessica and Raven working together to achieve a task. They had so much respect for each other!

Here is KS2 showing amazing respect during our Book Week assembly.

Suyog is chair of our school council. I met with him last week and I really respected his ideas.

Here are Freya and Rosie being really respectful to Josey, one of our Lunchtime Supervisors.

Kieran, Bradley, Jamie and Ben (not pictured) showed great respect when working with their teaching assistant, Mrs Whitman. They decided to celebrate by showing jazz hands!

Miss Logan was so pleased with Harley. He was showing good respect to others.

This week we will be looking at 'being considerate'.

Rona Mackie

Head of School

Our wonderful classrooms!

At Guildford Grove, we understand the importance of a well organised classroom that celebrates our pupils' learning. Last week, I took some time to look at some of our new displays that have popped up since the start of term. I have added some of the photos I took below. For those of you old enough to remember, it reminds me of the gallery on Tony Hart's art programme 'Take Hart'! Cue the music!

A dragon created by the children of 1T linked to their literacy work on the story of 'George and the dragon'.

2J using a photo frame to celebrate success. Great team work!

Our Superheroes from 3G.

4C 'All about us!' display.

6K's display on their topic of India.

A wonderfully descriptive poem about India by Ines.

6J's display on their future goals linked to their class assembly.

Sarah-Louise's lovely piece of writing. She has been inspired by Mrs Schollar to become a teacher!

A super science display from 4H.

Using a display to focus on class rules in 1S.

Rona Mackie

Head of School

Celebrating success!

At the start of the week, the pupils enjoyed an assembly focusing on a couple of sporting successes. They enjoyed watching clips of the European golfers retaining the Ryder Cup. There were lots of cheers and gasps at some of the amazing shots played. Mrs Johnstone spoke about how the players had worked as a team and how they all had to overcome challenges to go on to succeed. The pupils also heard about Mrs Johnstone facing her own challenge of running a half marathon at the weekend and she spoke about what helped her to get through the long race to reach her goal. With this in mind, I spent the week spotting moments of success amongst our own pupils inside and outside of the classroom.

Throughout the week, many of our pupils have come to show me how proud they are of a piece of work. Their books are always a joy to see and I hope parents/carers will enjoy having a chance to look at them during next week's parents' consultations. 

Sarah and Ellie showing me their excellent work on subtraction!

Congratulations are also in order for some of our Year 5 and 6 children. Our School Council met for the first time this week and some important roles were decided. Suyog is now the Chair of our School Council and is supported by his Vice Chairs, Mya and Dillan. The School Council do a fantastic job of representing the voice of our pupils and are regularly given opportunities to be involved in key decision making for our school. A photo of the full School Council will be added next week. Congratulations also to our Year 6 lunchtime helpers. These are children that have been chosen to play an important role at lunchtimes. They help the younger children and organise games. It is a very important job to have and I was really impressed with how skilful they all were when I watched them in action on Thursday. We have so many future leaders amongst our pupils.

Our Year 6 lunchtime helpers - Summer, Morgan, Amy, Evita, Ben, Daniel and Billy.

Finally, on Friday I was called to come and hear one of our Year 6 pupils playing the school piano. I was amazed with how confident he was to play in front of his whole class. All the pupils were so supportive of him and it was lovely to see. Our pupils really support one another and enjoy celebrating other people's successes not just their own. It was a great way to finish the week.

Stephen playing the piano.

Rona Mackie

Head of School

School dinners and Superhero Day

This week has been another busy week! On Tuesday, I spent time in the dining hall with our younger pupils. It was lovely to see them enjoying their school dinner. Since September, all children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 are now able to get a free hot meal every day and it has been great to see so many of our pupils taking up this offer. You can see from the photos below that many of them didn't even stop to smile at the camera as they were so busy enjoying the food. Our lunchtime supervisors and catering staff have done an excellent job at organising the changes we have had to make due to the increased number of children having school dinners.

Our Reception children being supported by the Foundation Stage staff and the Lunchtime Supervisors.

Great table manners from our Year 1 pupils!

Yummy dessert!

Our Year 2 pupils enjoying the pasta.

Today was an exciting day as the school suddenly became full of Superheroes. We saw hundreds of Spidermans, Batmans (and girls) and Supermans. It was a fantastic day where we raised money for two very worthy charities. The children's MUFTI money went towards the Shooting Star Chase Charity. This charity has two hospices, one of which is in Guildford, that support children with life-limiting conditions. The staff also had a coffee and cake morning and raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Below are the finalists from each phase who were selected as having the most original Superhero costumes. As you can see, we had some really creative entries. We had 'Bling Girl', 'Army Man', 'Guildford Grove Boy' and 'Super Spanish Girl'.

Our Foundation Stage finalists

Our 1/2 finalists

Our 3/4 finalists

Our 5/6 finalists

What a fantastic way to end the week!

Rona Mackie

Head of School

Pupil Engagement

This week, our teachers have been focusing on pupil engagement. We all had an opportunity to watch a few videos of some of our teachers in action and discussed the strategies they had used to ensure their pupils were engaged in their learning. It was amazing to see our Reception children enjoying their first ever phonics session. They were making silly soup with words that started with the 's' sound. Great fun!

I have also enjoyed seeing our new 3rd teacher groups in action. These small group sessions, which have been set up in our new learning zones in the ICT suite, are taught by our experienced part time teachers. They run in the morning and focus on maths and literacy. The children get taught exactly the same lesson as their peers in their class but in a smaller setting. This picture shows a Year 6 writing session with Mrs Inglis. They were thoroughly enjoying their learning.

I have also seen examples of excellent learning in the pupils' books. One of the benefits of being the Head of School is that children regularly come down to my office to show me their wonderful work. Here is a picture of Max and Maryam from 5H who came to show me the excellent work they had completed on addition in maths. Well done to both of them.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and let's hope the sun continues to shine.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Head of School

What a great start!

I have been really impressed with the excellent start our pupils have made to the new school year. They are already engaged in their learning and looking so smart in their school uniform. This week, I have spoken to the children about the one rule we have for our school community and that everyone will be polite, respectful and considerate to others at all times. We have seen evidence of this rule in action all week. This has been particularly clear in the way our pupils welcome new children into their class. They always ensure that they are happy and know where everything is around our school.

Today, I spent some time in the dining hall and on the playground. It was lovely to talk to some Year 3 and 4 children while we ate our lunch. They had really enjoyed their group reading that morning. Out on the playground, I played some circle games with a group of Year 4, 5 and 6 children. We had a fantastic time in the sun as other children played hockey, ran after bubbles, skipped and played giant Connect 4.

Over the next few weeks, I will be adding photos on my blog to show you more excellent examples of the great work that is going on in our school.

Next time, I will be sharing with you a great example of a group of pupils fully engaged in their learning.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Head of School