News!

I thought you would like to see a couple of things that came to my attention this week that we should all be extremely proud of.

The first is about one of our pupils making the front cover of a magazine this week. Elyas (in 4H and the Lighthouse) is pictured on the front of the Riding for the Disabled Association's annual publication. Our Lighthouse children really benefit from their regular riding sessions and have learnt a lot about looking after and caring for animals as well as learning to ride. Elyas looks like such a natural!

The second thing relates to a book that has recently been published. Many of you might remember Mr Peter Burrows, who was a teacher at our school when we opened in 2001 and taught in Years 5 and 6 for many years. He has written a book for teachers about the teaching of grammar and I thought you would like to see his dedication in the book. 

Mr Burrows thanks the children and staff at Guildford Grove as well as Mrs Corlett!

Guildford Grove is truly on the map!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Head of School

Maths Day

On Tuesday, Guildford Grove held its very first 'Maths Day'. The children really enjoyed the day and loved taking part in a range of activities promoting maths across the school. 

I was delighted to see how many children had taken part in the matchbox challenge. I couldn't believe the amount of things children managed to fit into such a tiny box. Our pupils are truly creative when it comes to these types of challenges and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the lists of items included in each box. 

Another highlight of 'Maths Day' was the 'Estimate the items in a jar' competition. The pupils loved walking around the school to locate the jars and enter the competition. One of the jars sat outside my office and I enjoyed hearing the conversations from the groups of children keen to have their chance to enter the competition. My favourite discussion involved a couple of our youngest students debating if they could just open the lid and count the items. I swiftly popped my head out of my office to explain how that was not the point of the game!

Finally, the children also enjoyed counting the money they brought in to complete the coin art creation in our hall. Thanks to the large amount of copper coins, they spent a good deal of the day counting in 1s and 2s and converting from pence to pounds. Great for their maths skills.

Many thanks to Mrs Peacock for organising such a fantastic day. Next week, we are looking forward to our annual 'Wonderful World' week. This year, our theme is 'Food' and we will be visited by chefs from a selection of restaurants in Guildford who will be teaching us about food from around the world. Tomorrow, I will be starting the week with our Monday morning assembly where we will be celebrating diversity.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Head of School

End of term!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas break! It was lovely to see all the children back on Monday looking so smart and eager to learn. It was a real pleasure to walk around the school and see them all so focused on their work. I imagine some of them felt very tired by the end of the day.

The end of term seems such a blur now but I wanted to celebrate a few of the amazing events that occurred in the final few weeks.

Christmas Jumper Day

What a great day! The children looked great in their Christmas jumpers and you can see more pictures on our website. I did, however, want to show a few on here. Firstly, the most popular jumper proved to be a jazzy reindeer one. As you can see it popped up everywhere! It was great fun and we raised £200 for the Save the Children charity as a result.

The most original jumper award must go to Zanko. His jumper was created by turning an ordinary jumper inside out and painting the image on. Amazing!

Our Christmas productions

Well done to all our children for taking part in the best Christmas performances we have ever had. It started with KS2's carol concert at the cathedral.  The children sang beautifully and the narrators spoke so clearly and confidently. We finished the term with our KS1 and Foundation Stage nativity performances. Again, I was so impressed with the excellent singing, narrating as well as the great acting and dancing too. Pictures of these performances can also be seen on the website.

Christmas Fayre

I was so impressed with the hard work and dedication of the members of Friends of Guildford Grove to ensure that our annual Christmas Fayre ran smoothly. It was fantastic to see so many families attending and supporting this event. The money raised makes such a difference to our school and ensures that we can continue to help reduce the cost of school trips. We made approximately £1600 from this event. A great result!

Parents using their massage vouchers to receive a massage from their child. Miss Holdaway talked them through the 'Massage in Schools' programme.

Look how busy our cake stall was!

Mr Bibby busy on the barbecue.

Our lovely arts and crafts room.

Our wonderful hampers ready for the raffle.

Father Christmas and his reindeer were a huge hit!

Year 5/6 Cake Sale

Our pupils in years 5 and 6 spent the last week organising their own cake sale. Just like 'The Apprentice' the children were tasked to work as a group to organise their cake stall to try and make the most profit. The winning group with the largest profit would be hired by Dame Sugar! Congratulations to team 'Snow Bakes' who were hired after making a profit of £31.20. The whole cake sale raised £362.92.

I cannot wait to see what happens in the Spring Term. Highlights will include Red Nose Day, KS1 Spring Concert and Guildford Grove's Got Talent!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Head of School

The lovely Lighthouse!

One of the best parts of my job is when I go down to the Lighthouse and see all the fantastic things that are happening down there. The Lighthouse is our specialist centre for profoundly deaf children. They currently have 15 pupils there from 3 up to 11 years old. Within the centre, there are teaching rooms, a speech and language room, a cookery room and an amazing sensory room. The children in the centre spend part of their day in the Lighthouse and the rest of it in their classes. Last week, I popped down there and saw some great learning taking place.

Jay signing the Christmas story.

Romeo and Adriana signing their songs from the Foundation Stage's Nativity performance.

Francesco sharing his weekend news.

Luke looks very happy to have his mum in school. Here she is with Luke and the team that support him.

Jamie and Mayas invited two friends from 1S to join them in their cooking session.

Here is Alfie learning about different feelings.

Well done the Lighthouse. Keep up the great work!

Rona Mackie

Head of School