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A Special ‘Thankyou’ from Mr McAnaney!
Mr McAnaney would like to
say ‘thankyou’ to all parents, children staff, Governors and Local
Authority colleagues for making his first term at Grangetown so
enjoyable. He really appreciated the warm welcome he received when
he arrived in January, and he has been very impressed with how hard
everyone works to make keep the school moving in the right
direction. He can see how supportive you are as parents and carers,
and he really values that. He is certain that, with the continued
support of parents, and with everyone linked to Grangetown
continuing to work as a team and appreciating each other’s efforts,
the school will continue to thrive – in fact, the sky’s the limit at
Grangetown! |
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Eggciting News in
Foundation Stage!
The Foundation Stage children had a very special delivery last week
of eggs and an incubator. We had careful instructions to follow and
the children were excellent at being very gentle with the eggs.
They learnt all about how the eggs develop and how to care for them
to make sure we hatched healthy chicks. The eggs started to crack
on Tuesday and we watched very closely as the chicks began tapping
at the shell. We had a lovely surprise when we came to school on
Wednesday, 3 fluffy yellow chicks. We had to leave them in the
incubator for 24 hours until they were strong enough to be moved to
the brooder box. By Thursday we had 10 chicks, one of which was a
little miracle, as he had to be helped out of his shell because he
was finding it tough work! This has been a fantastic experience for
all of our children and we have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the
children’s excitement and enthusiasm in their learning. By Miss
Booth. |
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Grease Cast Announced!
After 3 weeks of auditions, the casting for Grease was finally
completed last week. The excitement had been building up, and there
was no end of speculation about who would play the roles. To cheers
and applause, Mrs Davies made the all important announcement at last
Monday’s drama club session. So, without further ado, here it is
(drumroll!)…the Cast of Grease 2010: Danny - Callum, Sandy -
Courtney, Rizzo - Kelsey, Frenchie - Sophie,
Marty - Beth, Jan - Emily, Kenickie - Mason,
Roger - Connor, Doody - Andrew, Sonny - Callum, Principal - Olivia, Vince Fontaine - Callum,
Patty Simcox - Jordan, Eugene - Louis. |
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Let’s Dance!
A group of 13 year 6 pupils are working with Amy and Claire, two
performing arts students from Sunderland University. They are
putting together dance routines based around music from the charts.
Last week they worked on a piece to a JLS song: One Shot. After
SATs, they will perform a dance for the whole school! Keep it up
everyone! |
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A New Member to the
Foundation Family!
Everyone in Foundation Stage is delighted with Smudge, our new pet
rabbit. The children at Grangetown put their imagination to the
test to name our rabbit. We held a competition involving the whole
school and finally we found the perfect name for our fluffy friend.
Aaron (Nursery) named Smudge and he received a certificate
and prize for his contribution. Smudge lives on the Foundation
Stage veranda and has proved to be quite a celebrity living in his
5-star pent house hutch. He has attracted interest from our oldest
children in Year 6 to our youngest toddlers in Daisy Chain. The
Grangetown Gazette Newspaper Club have also reported on Smudge,
although he didn’t say much in his interview! Smudge has settled in
really well and loves it when the children let him hop about on the
veranda, sometimes he doesn’t want to get back in his hutch. The
Foundation Stage children are sure to keep everyone updated on
Smudge and all that he gets up to in our school! By Miss Booth. |
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Futebol de Salao coming soon
Our Brazilian Football Course will start on Friday 29 April. Letters
have gone out to years 4, 5 & 6, and we are currently taking
applications for the 20 places. All of the great Brazilian players –
including Pele, Zico and Ronaldinho – played futebol de salao in
their younger days. We are sure that this course will help
Grangetown children develop their skills, and it’ll be a lot of fun
too. |
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Mrs Booth visits year 2
Mrs Booth – mum of Miss Booth (our Reception teacher) very kindly
visited us to tell Year 2 all about her job as a nurse. This made a
valuable contribution to Health Week. Thankyou Mrs Booth from
everyone at Grangetown – you’re a STAR! |
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Chemistry for the Terrified!
On Friday 19th March all of the year six children went on
a school visit to Sunderland University. We saw two scientists – one
from the television programme Braniacs. We were sat right at the
front and had a brilliant view of all the fizz and bangs from the
science experiments. They set lots of chemicals alight and mixed
lots of other chemicals together to make exciting, colourful
explosions! There was one particular experiment when they had
scientific powder and they had a detonator. The explosion was huge –
with loads of smoke like a mushroom cloud. They had pots of liquid
nitrogen and with it they froze a banana and were able to hammer a
nail into a plank of wood – with the banana! We then all had a cold
shower with liquid nitrogen. My favourite bit was when they added
chemicals together and this caused a foam overflow. The foam kept on
flowing and flowing! I enjoyed learning that there can be lots of
fun in science! By Derek, Year 6. |
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Grangetown Drama Club
Here at Grangetown Yr5 and Yr6 are having a drama club with Mrs
Davies on a Monday at 3.20. They will be taking part in a
performance of Grease in front of the school. Mrs Davies is a
professional singer and actor and will teach the children how to act
and sing right. Drama club is a club were the children can express
their talent here at Grangetown. We interviewed two children who go
to drama: Andrew Yr5 Do you like drama? Yes
because I like the teacher. Were you nervous when you were
performing for the auditions? I was very nervous because it was my
first time. Do you want a part In Grease? Yes I want to be Danny. Do
you like Mrs Davies? Yes she’s a good drama teacher. What do you
like best? Acting because I’m learning how to act. Jordan
Yr6 Do you like Drama club? Yes I think it’s
brilliant. Were you nervous when you were performing for the
auditions? Yes I was shaking out of my skin. Do you want a part in
Grease? Yes I would like to be Sandy; I would like to be her because
she’s a really good character in Grease Do you like Mrs Davies? She
is really supportive. What do you like best about Drama Club? Every
single bit of it because I LOVE Drama Club. All the children love
Drama club and it was great at the auditions and Mrs Davies was
impressed with all the children. A very big thanks goes to Mrs
Davies for actually coming to the school and spending her time with
us and a big thanks to all the children who take part in Drama club.
Written by Courtney. |
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Grangetown M-Athletes!
Mathletics Fever has hit Grangetown! Last week, year 6 were taught
how to use the Mathletics website, and now they simply can’t get
enough of it! Mathletics helps develop quickfire mental arithmetic
skills. Amazingly, the program allows school pupils to compete
against children from schools across the globe. We reckon that
Mathletics will help our pupils develop their maths skills to
superhuman levels! |
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Health and Fitness Week
All teachers provided the children with a fun packed and educational
week. Various activities were organised, including:
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A visit from the Water Safety
Team, where the children were informed about ways of keeping safe
around water and how to call for help.
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A visit from the Fire
Brigade, where a fireman talked about fire safety within the
household, ensuring everyone has an escape route planned in case of
an emergency and how to call for help. He also said that if any
parent would like a free fire alarm installing, then they just need
to hand their name and address into their child’s teacher and the
fire brigade will organise a date to come out and install one for
FREE!
·
A visit from the Road Safety
team, where different ways of keeping safe on our roads were
discussed. One of the biggest problems highlighted in our school was
that very few children wear helmets when out on their bikes or
scooters – so please parents/carers support us in our campaign and
encourage your child to wear a helmet and stay safe!
·
Each class had an opportunity
to learn about dental hygiene and had the opportunity to complete
various activities about teeth and healthy eating. The children
also learnt about other children that have benefited from money
raised from past “Sports Relief” funds. We also did our own bit of
fund raising where each child ran a mile – 8 laps around the school
field, with lots of children opting to run more! Thank you to all
those parents that came to support the event!
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Mr Bewick (Mrs Bewick's
husband) came in to talk to Key Stage 2 about basic hygiene and
brought a special machine in, that shows up any germs that are
present on our hands. Miss Booths mum; who is a nurse came in to
talk to KS1. Y5/6 had a taster session of Samba football and enjoyed
a Wii fit afternoon at Southmoor. Phew!!!! By Mrs Miller. |
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Children’s Voice
Last week, all of our children in years 3-6 took part in a special
Pupil Consultation workshop. They worked with Mandy Henderson, local
Extended Schools Cluster Manager, to share their views on aspects of
their school. We will be using this information to improve and
develop our school. We are still analysing the results, but as soon
as that is done we will be sharing the findings with everyone. After
Easter, on Tuesday 27 April, we’ll be holding a Parents Consultation
event. |
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Having Fun in Book Week
Last week we held our annual Book Fayre, and we celebrated Books and
Reading around school. On Friday, everyone dressed-up as a book
character – we had lots of princesses, superheroes, doctors, nurses,
pirates, and a whole host of other colourful characters. |
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Parent Afternoon
All of our staff would like to thank everyone who attended our
parents’ open afternoons. Turn-out across the school was excellent –
almost 100% These opportunities to meet your child’s teacher will
contribute to your child’s learning. We hope you found the
afternoons as enjoyable and informative as we did and we would
warmly welcome any feedback. |
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Keeping Healthy in Foundation Stage
This week in foundation Stage we have been learning about keeping
healthy and looking after ourselves. Elise made fruit smoothies
with the children; we all had a taste and tried to guess which
fruits were in the smoothies. They were delicious and everyone took
a recipe home to make with their grown ups. We have learnt about
how important it is to brush our teeth and wash our hands. There
have been lots of visitors in to see us this week. We really
enjoyed our visit from the Fire Brigade, and some of the children
tried on a real uniform, although they were a bit big for us! Nurse
Julie came to talk to the children about her job and how she looks
after people who are poorly and Mrs Dolan, a cookery teacher, baked
muffins with us. Foundation Stage have had a very exciting and busy
week. By Miss Booth. |
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Derwent Hill
Here We Come!
Our annual residential field trip at Derwent Hill is almost upon us
– the clock is counting down towards Friday 23 April, when 38 pupils
will set off on their big adventure. Everyone is looking forward to
a special weekend of outdoor activities. |
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Author visits Year 6
Earlier this month we had a visitor in our class. His name is Chris
Connaughton. He is an actor, writer and director. He acted out a
version of his own play, Robinson Crusoe. It was two had watched the
play we asked him questions about being an actor. We ‘hot seated’
his character of Robinson Crusoe and asked him lots of interesting
questions. We did lots of writing, including a diary of Robinson’s
first day on the Island and a character description. He also read to
us the first chapter of his book and we had to write a second
chapter. We all had a very good day and did lots of writing. By Sam, Year 6. |
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Tackle It!
This half-term the Y4 and
Y5 children have been taking part in a programme run by SAFC
entitled ‘Tackle It’. The ‘Tackle It’
programme promotes good citizenship messages, positive role
modelling and helps the children in demonstrating a positive
attitude towards others. The course, which ran over six sessions,
used core football skills, work sheets, quizzes and the positive
role modelling of the premiership footballers to promote the good
citizenship message. The children were tackling issues such
as stereotyping, racism, bullying and the effect of anti-social
behaviour on the community. By Mrs Collins. |
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Down on the Farm!
First we all got onto the coach. It didn’t take that long to get
there. We put our packed lunches in the barn. Then we fed the
lambs. They were extremely strong. One of them was so hungry it
climbed out of the pen. After that we looked at the Kune Kune
piglet. Next we went to see and hold the lambs. The one I held was
extremely loud. Then we washed the Kune Kune piglets. They had
rather sharp teeth and are from New Zealand. By Ellie, Yr 2. |
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Cookery Club is Going Strong
Our
Cookery Club, held every Wednesday from 3.20-4.30, gives our pupils
a chance to learn how to prepare healthy and tasty food. Don't those
burgers look delicious! Mmmmm! |
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Fun in the Wii Room!
Year 6 recently went up to the Wii Room at Southmoor. This was part
of Health & Fitness Week. There were loads of games to play on,
including DSs, Wii Fit, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and
Rockband. My favourite was playing the electric guitar on Rockband.
Lots of people went on the Wii Fit and had to run and try to follow
the dog! We had a great time keeping fit. By Beth, Year 6. |
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This
month’s Quote:
 “Education
is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”
W.B. Yeats
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