'Wonderful world' week

This week is our ‘Wonderful World’ week where we learn about different countries and cultures from around the world. We are really lucky at GG as we have a number of children who come from other countries and in fact we have 27 different languages spoken amongst our pupils.

This week our children have been engaged in a range of activities. There has been a lot of cooking and our school has been filled with wonderful aromas from around the world. There has been a lot of wonderful art being produced too and I saw some wonderful ‘Chinese New Year dragons' in Year 1 today.

 We also have Jim the drummer in who has been running workshops with the children. Rumour has it that he even did a workshop with the teachers and they will be performing that to the school tomorrow!

Parents of Year 6 children are invited to watch their children perform at 3pm on Friday. They’re in for a treat!

Rona Mackie

Headteacher

Year 6 Trip to London

I was lucky enough to attend the Year 6 trip to London at the start of term. I don’t often get to go out on school visits but I was excited to be invited along to this one.

We had a great time at the Science museum in the morning where the children got to go to the wonderlab. The wonderlab is fantastic and the children are encouraged to touch and play with everything. They had explainers everywhere who were adults ready to explain what was happening scientifically on each activity. Our children learned so much and had fun at the same time!

We then visited the Lyceum Theatre to watch ‘The Lion King’. We all loved the show and the children were so amazed by the set, the costumes, the puppetry and the music. Mrs Schollar’s brother was conducting the show and he gave us all a special wave! Some of the public who had bought tickets to the show commented on how wonderfully our children behaved during the performance.

Well done Year 6!

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Start of term at GG

We were delighted to welcome our pupils back today for the new term. They have started 2018 in an incredibly positive way and I was really impressed to see them settle so quickly into their lessons this morning.

It’s a cold week so we are encouraging children to come to school in a warm coat with a hat, scarf and gloves (all named please). It’s great for them to get fresh air at playtime and lunchtime but we want them to be well wrapped up against the cold.

During our INSET days last week, the staff focused on learning about children’s brains and how they retain learning in their memory. As I walked around the Year 5/6 classrooms today, I saw our pupils working on inputting learning into their long term memory as they completed their five minute speedy maths task. This is a great daily task that tests their memory to recall key mathematical concepts and the children love it!

Here are some photos to show how focused they were.

I am very much looking forward to the term ahead to see what more our pupils can achieve.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Competitive sport at GG

At Guildford Grove, we are always keen to provide extra sport opportunities for our pupils. We offer a range of free sports clubs after school and have played competitive matches with other schools in netball, football, rugby and dodgeball.

Recently, a number of our children attended a cross country running event. This is the first time that we have attended and we were incredibly proud of the efforts of our pupils. Well done to all and a special mention to Joseph who finished in the top 20!

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie

Headteacher

Inspirational staff!

We have a very talented and charitable group of staff at Guildford Grove. Every week, I hear about a range of amazing achievements that my colleagues have completed. These can range from marathons to sky diving and beyond! Our staff are very dedicated to raising money for good causes (as we see reflected amongst our pupils, parents and community) and a large number of charities have benefitted from these achievements.

Today, I was amazed to hear that Julie Smaller (our Business Manager) had completed a 41.5 mile walk across the Surrey Hills to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis Trust. She started her walk at 6 am and didn’t finish until just after midnight. Unbelievably, she's back at work this morning and still able to walk! We have all enjoyed hearing about her challenge and how determined she was to keep going and finish the challenge. Well done Julie. Another great role model for us all.

Julie with her medal

Many thanks,


Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Positive behaviour at lunchtimes

Our theme for this week is ‘positive behaviour at playtimes’.

The children have been reminded of our code of conduct and our number one rule that ‘Everyone will be polite, considerate and respectful to others at all times’. We also looked at key rules including ‘keeping our hands and feet to ourselves’, ‘speaking politely to others’ and ‘respecting our school environment’.

Our lunchtime supervisors work hard to ensure there are a range of activities out on the playground and field during lunchtimes including skipping ropes, building blocks, cricket, football, running races, chalk, music to dance to and much more.

Our school council have also worked on a year-long project to try and improve the quiet courtyard area at lunch (something that we identified as an area for development from the learners’ audit). This launches on Wednesday when our pupils will get a chance to enjoy a range of calm activities throughout lunch.

Here are some pictures from one of last week’s lunchtimes.

Many thanks,

Rona Mackie
Headteacher

Year 6 Building Challenge

Last week, a number of our Year 6 pupils attended a Building Challenge with Miss Holdaway.

They had to work as a team to complete a task. Each pupil in the team had their own role, for example, project manager, architect etc. Communication was crucial throughout the challenge.

I was delighted to hear on their return that they had secured 2nd and 3rd place overall. A great outcome! I was told by Miss Holdaway that they were great ambassadors for the school. So a big well done to the team from 6J and the team from 6H. We are immensely proud of you all.

The 3rd place 6J team.

Our 2nd place 6H team.

Rona Mackie
Headteacher