Current News

Christmas Concert

All our children performed their concerts this week and were amazing, we are so proud, as I’m sure all the parents that attended are too. The children shone like the stars that they are.

Athletics Success
Over the last few weeks some of our Year 6 pupils have been involved in a number of athletics tournaments which we won, taking us through the finals. The final took place at Sheffield Springs Academy this Tuesday. We competed against four other schools and won, scoring a massive 105 points. Which means that we now go through to the LINKS athletics final in two weeks’ time. Well done to all our athletes.

Reading In Reception
Reading is so important and a huge part of children’s learning and this week our Reception children invited parents and carers in to join them with their reading activities. The children loved showing their adults how they had progressed so well with their reading and sharing lots of great stories too!

Reception Visit to the Crucible Theatre 

On Tuesday, our reception children visited the Crucible Theatre, they saw an amazing orchestra playing the songs and bringing the story to life of ‘sir scallywag and the battle of Stinky Bottom’. Our children have been learning the story and songs at school and enjoyed taking part with the live musicians and a storyteller. Our children were very well behaved showing that they care about how others see us. We were very proud!  

Fishy Fun
Our Reception children have been busy with activities that help to use their senses this week and a big favourite with the children was to touch, feel, look and smell at real fish. As you can see from comments and pictures below they had great fun.

Alice - ‘The fish is smooth’.
Jack - ‘It feels cold and wet’.
Dylan – ‘It feels soft’.
Matthew – There’s bones inside the fish’.
Isabelle – ‘It is really smelly’.
Lucas – ‘We can cook it and eat it’.

 Macbeth 

As you may have seen from our diary dates and pictures on Twitter, some of our Y5 and Y6 children were involved in performing Shakespeare’s play Macbeth at the Merlin Theatre last week. The children had a chance to meet children from other schools that were also performing. You can tell how much they enjoyed it from their pupil voice comments below.

Sophie - It was amazing! It was a lot of hard work but it is worth it. It is fun performing in front of tons of people, on stage. It is so good acting and being able to go on stage and do Macbeth.

Isobel – Shakespeare has been stressful but worth it. It’s great to be with your friends and enjoy yourself. I wish I could do it again because performing Macbeth is a huge highlight in my life.

T’air – I have learnt to be more proud of myself. I have also made more friends from Y6 from this experience. I am so lucky to be able to do this because not many people get this opportunity.

All the children enjoyed their experience performing on a stage and we would like to thank all the children that took part – you were all amazing! We would also like to give special thanks to our Y6 teacher Ms Smith for tirelessly training the children and putting this excellent performance together.

Virtual Reality    
On Tuesday, Year 3 were lucky enough to receive a visit from a virtual reality company. Everyone got the chance to wear a headset that transported us across the world, just like magic! We saw inside the earth and learned about different types of volcanoes. We also saw what volcanoes look like when they erupt! It was as if we were really there. Also, we all saw some volcanoes on the planet Mars  

Bollywood Dance Fun  

Last week in our infant Sparkle & Shine assembly we had an extra treat. Our Year 2 children performed their Bollywood dance routine that they had learnt as part of the learning all about India.

Cutler's Spice Visit

This week Mrs Smith’s Y2 class wanted to tell us all about their visit to the ‘Cutler’s Spice’ Indian restaurant. Where the staff taught the children all about the different spices and ingredients they use in their traditional dishes and they also got a chance to sample some of the dishes too!

On Tuesday we went to Cutler’s Spice. First we walked up a hill, a big one. It was tiring and we crossed roads. When we got there we sat at a table. I loved the poppadum’s because they tasted like crisps. Then I tried rice with the poppadum’s. After we walked back to school. It was amazing! Can I go again? – Valerie
The food was very nice – Liam
The poppadum’s were very good and the curry was spicy. – Emily

It sounds like the poppadum’s were very popular. We would like to thank the staff at the Cutler’s Spice for inviting us, but also they do not charge for the visit. They ask parents and carers to make a donation towards the Sheffield Children’s Hospital instead and so far we have collected £77.78.

Y2 Mr Taylor Class

We have been looking at ‘The Tiger Child’ story in class, where the tiger turns into a cat. We have been comparing parts of our lives with those in India and so we looked at some pets we have in England and compared them with some pets in India. The children loved the owl, the guinea pigs and the tortoises! Below are their comments about having the animals in class and being able to handle them.

School Council
This week our classes have chosen their school councillors to represent their classes. Children who want to be school councillors need to put themselves forward for the job and explain why they think they will make a good school councillor. It is then up to the children in class to vote for their favourite candidate. Our Reception children absolutely loved learning about the voting system. It was a great learning experience which incorporates our British values, speaking and listening and maths all rolled into one. Our councillors had their first meeting this week with Ms Gaffney and we are looking forward to introducing all our councillors to you and telling you all about the excellent work they will be doing in school.

MacMillan Coffee Morning
Thank you to everyone that joined us for our MacMillan coffee afternoon on Monday it was a huge success. There were lots of yummy treats to buy and enjoy and it is such a lovely way to support this fantastic charity that works tirelessly to support families affected by cancer. We raised a massive £128 for Macmillan Cancer Care. We would also like to thank the parents that contributed by baking and bringing in goodies too. Thank you to you all, we really appreciate your continued support.
Our Reception children were amazing carers too! They spent time on Monday making buns for our special event. What a great way to support and a fun lesson too.

Welcome back to new School Year our children have already been having lots of learning experiences 

WELCOME BACK TO A NEW SCHOOL YEAR   2019 - 2020

Year 4 Science

The Y4 children were very lucky last Monday as they took part in a morning of science run by Dr Dinsdale and a group of his students from Sheffield High School.  The children looked at early creations from Leonardo Da Vinci, who was also the focus of our Take One Interest project.

The children found out new information about gravity and air resistance.  They then used this information to create their own paper helicopters and measure their ability to fly.  The children really enjoyed their special science session and we would like to thank Dr Dinsdale and the Sheffield Girls’ High School for giving them the chance to take part.

Ready Steady Cook

On Monday three of our Year 5 pupils, Serennah, Phoebe and Olivia, attended a ‘Ready Steady Cook’ style cooking competition at Sheffield Park Academy organised by SSELP (The Sheffield South East Learning Partnership).  All children in the Year 5 classes had to create their own recipe for a nutritious meal, using specific ingredients, based on a low budget.  The children then voted for their favourite recipe.  The recipe they created that was chosen was for a cheese and tomato pasta bake with vegetables.  The children then had to cook their recipe in a competition with other local schools to be judged.  As you can see from the pictures below the girls worked hard and had a fun time creating their masterpiece, becoming one of the finalists of the competition.  Well done girls.

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Fashion Show Fundraiser

On Tuesday we held our first fashion show fund raising event. It was a huge success with lots of fashion bargains to be had.  Thank you to everyone who attended, helping to make it a huge success.  A whopping £310 was raised towards school funds, for additional educational resources.  We would also like to thank Mrs Clegg and MS Johnson for doing a great job organising this event.

Take One Interest Exhibition

We would like to thank all our parents and carers that joined us on Monday evening for our Take One Interest Exhibition. We are sure you will agree what fantastic learning was on display.  The children had been inspired to produce this work by looking at the different areas of interest that Leonardo Da Vinci explored during his lifetime and are on display at the moment in their Leonardo da Vinci – ‘A Life in Drawing’ exhibition.  If you didn’t get a chance to see their work you can see some of it below.  We are also planning to display it around school too.

Able Maths Day

We would also like to congratulate four of our pupils Jack, Nicky, Evie and Grace who received their certificates for attending an ‘Able Maths Day’ at St Theresa’s school with other local primary schools.  They worked hard at all the maths challenges and showed excellent maths skills.  Evie also won a special award for answering the most questions correctly, beating children from all the other schools taking part.  Well done to you all.

Kids Talk

Once Again we were visited by Paulette Edwards from Radio Sheffield’s ‘Kids Talk’ programme.  She came in to chat with some of our Year 2 children about popular subjects, including politics, gardening, and babies.  Paulette starts talking to the children about a particular subject and then gets the children to chatter about their thoughts on this subject.  Sometimes it is surprising, interesting and funny to see how children view things differently to grown-ups.  This time Paulette talked to Ruby, Yara, Heath, Kaiden, Lyla & Maisy.  You can hear what our children had to say when the programme goes out live on Radio Sheffield on Monday 13^th May at 10.00 – 11.00 am and Wednesday 15^th May 10.00 – 11.00 am. 

Meet A Creature

Following the excitement and enjoyment that the Y2 children had when they had a visit from meet a creature.  The Reception children decided to meet some unusual creatures to support their topic work learning about different animals, their life cycles and habitats.  Some of the children were a bit nervous, but they still had fun meeting and holding the creatures and learning all about them.  You can see from the pictures how they enjoyed handling lizards, toads, snakes, tortoises, guinea pigs, spiders and many more.

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Football Success

On Tuesday our Year 5 football team took part in a football tournament against other Sheffield schools.  They won in their group league which put them through to the semi-final where they played against Low Edges, beating them 1 – 0.  They then played in the final game against Dobcroft winning again 1 – 0.  This meant they have won the whole tournament making them the winners of the Sheffield School Sports Federation League and will be receiving their trophy.  Well done to all our footballing stars for their determination to win through five games, great team spirit and becoming the overall Sheffield champions.

Wellies Walk 

Last week our Reception and Nursery children donned their wellies and did a sponsored ‘Welly Walk’ around the school playing fields.  In fact some of the children were happy to be in their wellies as then it started to rain.  Well done Foundation Stage.

Whirlow Day

Whirlow Day was a huge success from start to finish.  The day started with a special assembly ran by staff from Whirlow Farm where they talked about all the good work that Whirlow do to support our schools and children.  We had a variety of animals brought into school for the children to learn about and hold – including guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens and ducklings.  As well as meeting the animals the children took part in different farm-based fun activities in classes too.  We had some children making clay models of farm animals, vegetable printing, farm machinery junk modelling, watercolour farm painting, farm fact sessions, bun making and Year 2 children even made their own butter!  At the end of the day we held our massive bun sale in the yard, raising valuable funds that we will be donating to Whirlow Hall Farm, to use to help support they good work they do.  There were so many cakes, we continued to sell them on Wednesday too!  Thank you to everyone who came and joined in with fun and donated cakes and buns for our sale.  And a special thank you to Mrs Plummer for organising this fun and interesting day with help from Mrs Millington and Mr & Mrs Kirby and Mrs Wilkin for bringing in their animals, for our children to see, plus teaching us lots of interesting facts about their care and habitats.  A great day was had by all.

Easter Hat Parade

As we approach our traditional Easter weekend holidays, the children in school have been busy learning about Easter traditions and having fun with Easter crafts.  On Tuesday our Reception parents and carers also came into school and joined the children with their Easter activities.    And we finished the week with our Easter Hat Parade, with some amazing, creative hats.  Our junior children wore their hats for their Sparkle & Shine assembly and our infant children have paraded around the school grounds in their hats.  I think you will agree they all look amazing!

Maths Pop Quiz

Last Saturday both Gleadless and Arbourthorne entered Year 6 teams in the Sheffield Hallam University Maths Pop Quiz event.  The children have to work as a team to tackle a wide variety of maths challenges in set times.  All our children worked together well and produced some outstanding results, finishing well up with the top teams.  What great mathematicians!

Children’s University

The Children’s University have organised a timetable of exciting activities that they will be running during the Easter holidays.  These are all available for children that are members of the Children’s University scheme.  More details about their holiday activities and how their scheme works can be found via the following links – www.childrensuniversity.co.uk and https://tinyurl.com/EasterCUPassportNewsletter.  The children’s university is an excellent scheme where the children who join receive awards for attending extra-curricular activities and are invited to receive their award at a special ceremony.  You can see below Ashley one of our Y5 pupils receiving his award.

English Institute Of Sport

Last week our Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 children all attended the English Institute for a sports festival.  Our children competed against teams from other Sheffield schools in a range of different sporting events, including hurdles, running, hoops, ball skills, tunnelling and the long jump.  Our Year 2 children performed so well, they won their competition and this was the second year running that our Year 2 children have won. Well done to all our sporting stars!

Museum Project

As part of our continuing work with the museum in Sheffield, Graham and his team came into school to complete some work with our Year 4 and Year 5 pupils.  The activities were based on the stories the children had written on their visit to the museum.  As a team, the children created hats, masks and costumes to create the characters from their writing and then used dance and movement to create different settings and bring their stories to life. 

Goal Ball Competition

On Friday after school some of our Year 3 children took part in a ‘Goal Ball’ competition.  This is a new sport that we trialled in school before Christmas and the children loved playing it.  A representative for the sport came in and ran a refresher session first, then the children played a match against a team from Acres Hill Primary School.  Our team were amazing and played really well.  Well done to all our Goal Ball stars.

Museum Project

On Wednesday 13^th March, Year 4 and 5 were lucky enough to visit the Millennium Galleries in town. First of all, we watched a performance about Leonardo Da Vinci’s life, which featured some of our very own children. There were 4 workshops in total, each with a different activity. One was about spotting and creating patterns and shapes, because this helped Da Vinci to create his drawings. Using guides, each groups also created a self-portrait and it was difficult without using mirrors! We then saw the two parts of exhibition, one made up of some of Da Vici’s sketches and the other had a projector which showed visual representations of people, blood, wind and water, as these were the four things that Da Vici was particularly interested in. Finally, we created a story using a mysterious object from a strange box. All in all, it was a busy, but interesting day! 

Red Nose Day

We definitely had lots of red noses and laughter in school on Friday as we joined in the fun and fund raising for Red Nose Day.  Our Reception children made red nose kites from paper bags and ribbon and then experimented by flying them with different lengths of string.  Mrs Booth managed it with a really, really long piece of string.  What a star!  Thank you to all the children who brought in a donation to help raise funds for this worthwhile cause.

Year 2 Get Arty!

Year 2 had a special visitor this week.  Rachael Smith, who is an art conservator for the Royal Collection of Art and has been travelling the country delivering artwork by Leonardo Da Vinci for display as a celebration of his life and work.  She came to talk to the children about how the artist Leonardo Da Vinci used the process of looking at objects and people more deeply, to understand how to express them in his pictures and about how he used this method within his artwork.  As you can see from the pictures below we certainly have a number of excellent artists in school!

World Book Day

What a wonderful day World Book Day was in school.  Children and staff came in a range of different book character costumes.  We had the Cat in the Hat, Alice, Oompa Loompas, the three little pigs, Buzz Lightyear, Gangster Granny and Mrs Didcote looked amazing as Winnie the Pooh.  These were but a few of the book characters that were whizzing around school.  We had lots of book based activities happening around school throughout the day, writing shared stories, creating books, writing poems, making book marks and puppets to tell stories.  Our after-school Reading Café was also very popular with our book swap and book creation activities.  We will also be running our ‘extreme reading’ competition too and you can see from some of the pictures, the children have already been trying out their extreme reading poses.  Thank you to everyone for making this such a fun day and bringing the love of books and reading alive!  

Minibeasts Visit

Year 2 were visited by quite a few unusual characters on Wednesday afternoon.  These included giant African snails, millipedes, stick insects, a tree frog, cockroaches and a Tarantula spider called Charlotte.  The children learnt all about the minibeasts and their habitats and how to care for them.  The children found them so interesting they wanted a closer look and some of them were brave enough to touch and hold them.

Pancake Day

As you will be aware it was Pancake Day on Tuesday and our Nursery and Reception children celebrated in school by making yummy pancakes.   They had a selection of toppings to try, including lemon juice, sugar, jam and golden syrup.  As you can see by the photos they thoroughly enjoyed them.

Maths Rock Challenge

As well as our Year 6 children attending the Maths Challenge Day, the rest of the junior children also tested their mathematical skills in our Maths Rock Challenge.  Each class had previously had their own maths competition in school.  The two winners then went through to the final which took place in the hall.  They were cheered on by their classmates as they tried to solve a variety of maths questions against the clock.  There was lots of team spirit, cheering and support. The overall winner was Rylan from Mr Wilson’s class.  Well done Rylan.

WELL DONE 

Y6 Maths Challenge

On Wednesday four of our Year 6 children attended a maths challenge day at Outwood Academy, where the children competed against other schools to solve a variety of maths challenges.  Showing great team work, determination and superb maths skills, Team Gleadless won the competition and returned to school proudly showing off their winners’ trophy.  Well done everyone!

Food Tasting

As part of their healthy eating learning our Year children enjoyed a food tasting session.  The children took it in turns to create their own pizzas with a variety of toppings.  All the toppings were healthy options with some of the toppings were quite unusual and it was the first time that the children had tried them – but they were pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed trying something new.  Year 2 would like to thank the staff from Pennine foods for supplying the ingredients free and helping us to make our yummy pizzas.

Year 4 Castleton

At the end of last term our Year 4 children went on their residential visit to Castleton Youth Hostel.  They had lovely weather and had a great time learning about the history of the area with lots of hands-on activities. The children visited a cavern, dressed in traditional costumes, built campfires & giant catapults and had mock battles.  The Youth Hostel has its own vast grounds and this gives the children the opportunity to do treasure hunts, fossil casting, candle making, build egg rockets and launch them.  This year one of our staff did end up with egg on their face! It is a fun packed and tiring three days, but the children always return smiling having had lots of fun.

Chinese New Year

You may remember last week we showed you the Reception children celebrating the Chinese New Year by making dragons and tasting Chinese food.  Their celebrations continued with the children making Chinese drums with Chinese number symbols ready for their traditional Chinese Dragon parade.  They paraded around the hall with children playing their drums and whistles.  They looked amazing.

Reception Stay And Play

Our Reception parents were invited into school for an ‘all about maths’ stay and play session. It gave the children a chance to share how they have been learning about maths and the different methods they have been using in class.  These sessions are always great for parents as it gives the children an opportunity to show how amazing they are and parents and carers also pick up useful tips on how to support their children’s learning.  Reception staff would like to thank all the parents and carers that came to their stay and play session and for showing their support throughout this term.

Creswell Crags

Our Year 3 children had a fun day at Creswell Crags last week to support their Stone Age topic work.  The children enjoyed lots of different activities which taught the children what life would be like living in the Stone Ages.  They learnt about how they had to hunt to provide food, clothing, instruments and tools.  They also had a go at making fire with string and cloth and tried to recreate examples of Stone Age art.

DISCO 

On Tuesday evening the PTA held their annual disco for our infant and junior children.  It was nice to end the term with a fun event for the children and to see them enjoying having a boogie with the staff and members of the PTA.  Everyone had a great time and we would like to thank the members of the PTA for organising it.

Crucial Crew

Our Year 6 children have been on their visit to the Crucial Crew event run by South Yorkshire Police.  This event helps to prepare the children for their transition to secondary school.  Through role play and inter-active activities provided by the emergency services and local businesses, the children learn how to become independent and deal with everyday scenarios that may affect them and challenge them as they grow older.  These included interesting and informative experiences such as learning about road safety, using public transport, fire safety and even stepping foot inside a magistrate’s court! 

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year celebrations have been taking place up and down the country as people celebrate the start of the Chinese Year of the Pig.  Our Reception children joined in the celebrations by making their very own Chinese dragons and having a feast of Chinese food.  The children decorated tablecloths with Chinese symbols and sat down to sample spring rolls, prawn crackers, noodles, rice and a variety of different Chines sauces.  The gorgeous smells coming from our Reception bay was certainly making everyone’s mouth water.

Year 2 Whirlow Residential

Last week our Year 2 children had a great time on their residential visit to Whirlow.  This year we stayed in the Barn for the first time, so it was a new experience for both the children and the staff.  Though we had snow, ice and freezing fog, the children braved the weather to still do all their farm jobs.  The children groomed and fed the animals, collected the eggs ready for the shop, went on pony rides and did lots of walking around the farm learning about the different animals and their needs.  Even though they had been really busy they still had energy to do their chores back at the barn – helping prepare tea, tidy up and do the dishes.  As you can see from the pictures below they were very busy!

Y5 Enterprise Day

The Y5 Enterprise Day was a huge success.  The children were extremely busy during the morning preparing masses of fruit cups to sell.  The children also created posters teaching the children about the benefits of healthy eating. Part of their enterprise day included the children calculating their own finances to see how much profit they had made, making this a maths challenge for the children too.  Their fruit cups proved to be so popular that they have managed to raise a massive £90.10 to donate to the NSPCC.  Well done Year 5 for supporting this worthwhile charity and for showing how much you care for others.

Star Gazing

We had a wonderful evening Star Gazing at our across Federation evening organised by our Executive Head Teacher Ms Langley.  We welcomed James an astronomer from Sheffield University to lead the evening who answered all our questions and supported us using some very powerful telescopes, which have been gifted to our school.  Thank-you to everyone who supported - we look forward to future events!  

Monster Day

Last Friday Y1 dressed up as monsters to celebrate all their learning about ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak.  They had a wild monster rumpus in the woods and wrote monster themed poems using verbs. We also practiced reading lots of nonsense monster words ready for the Year 1 phonics screening check in the summer. What a brilliant day they had!

Y4 Basketball Team

Some of our Year 4 children played in a Hotshots basketball tournament on Tuesday.  This was the first time they had played together as a team.  They played two games, winning against Norfolk and drawing against Arbourthorne.  This meant that they had to take part in a ‘sudden death shootout’, which they won.  This means they are now through to the Sports Links

Basketball finals.  What great teamwork.  Well done.

Y6 Boys Football

Our boys played in a tournament at the Sheffield United training ground on Wednesday.  They won all four of their group games and beat Mundella in the quarter finals winning 2-0.  They went on to play St Wilfred’s in the semi-final losing 3-1. 

The team didn’t have much time to catch their breath, they were playing again on Thursday in a tournament at Sheffield Springs Academy against teams from local schools.  They played five games winning four and losing one.  The outcome was that they won the tournament.  What an outstanding achievement over the two days.  Well done.

Able Writer’s Day

On Tuesday this week three of our Y6 children attended a writing workshop with the world renowned children’s author Jon Mayhew.  The children had an interesting time listening the author talking about his books and he also gave them some writing tips to help with their literacy work.  The children then spent an exciting afternoon using these tips to create and writing their own amazing stories. 

We want to wish all  our pupils,parents,governors and staff a merry Christmas and A Happy New Year looking forward  to welcoming you back on Monday 7th January 

Happy Retirement

Sadly Mrs Clayton who has been our school cook since 2013 retired today.  She has been a school cook for 33 years and has worked at Gleadless for the last five years, serving thousands of school meals to our children.  The children said a special farewell to her on Thursday in assembly.  We are sure you will join us in thanking Mrs Clayton for all her service and we wish her well for her retirement, spending time with her family and enjoying holidays.

Music Concert

We had a special treat in school on Tuesday when all our children who are having music lessons in school, performed for parents, carers, family and friends.  They performed a number of tunes they had been learning with Mr Martin our music specialist, including a few Christmas favourites.  Our audience was very impressed with all our talented musicians – especially as some of the children have only been having music lessons since September.  Sophie and Charles two of our Year 6 children gave fabulous solo performances too!  Well done to all our outstanding musicians!

Santa Visits Gleadless

Once again this week has been full of Christmas cheer.  Every year group has had their Christmas party and the younger children have had a very special visitor to check that they should all still be on the nice list.  Yes Santa popped in and had a chat with the children to check he knew what they wanted for Christmas and to make sure they all went to bed early, so that he can call at their homes.

Christmas Parties

You can’t have Christmas without a party, so throughout the week, all our year groups have had their parties, with lots of food, fun and games.  It was nice for the children to have a well-earned break from all the fabulous learning they have been doing this term and lovely to see them having lots of Christmas fun.

Christmas Fair

Last Friday saw the PTA hold their annual Christmas Fair.  There were lots of goodies on sale, plenty of stalls with some great Christmas pressie ideas, raffles, tombolas, a variety of different games to have a go on, bric-a-brac and of course Santa was here finding out what  our children wanted for Christmas and checking they were still on the good list!  This year each year group ran a stall each, so lots of the children helped with the fund raising too. It was such a lovely atmosphere with lots of smiles and fun.  The PTA would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came and supported them and helped to make the Christmas Fair a huge success. 

We are sure you will join us in thanking all the members of the PTA for once again putting on an excellent Christmas Fair and for all their tireless hard work organising fun events and raising valuable funds for the school.

Christmas Events

This week has been a fun packed week, filled with a huge variety of Christmas events.  We have had seven Christmas concerts, a PTA Christmas Craft Evening, Christmas dinner, a Big Bedtime Read and a book sale.  It has been very busy but we have had lots of fun and celebrations.  All the children have been amazing in their performances and the little ones looked so sweet in their costumes.  Thank you to everyone who has joined us this week for our celebrations.  Nursery and Reception staff would like to thank their parents, carers, family members and friends for their generosity for their concert raffle.  They have managed to raise a whopping £200, which they will be using to buy additional learning resources for the children.

Big Bed Time Read 

Christmas Dinner 

Christmas Concerts

Crackpot Creations

On Monday night the PTA held their first ever ‘Crackpot Creations’ sessions, where the children paint a pot of their choice.  Which is then glazed and fired in a kiln and returned to school looking amazing and very professional.  The activity was very popular and the children who came had a great time creating their very own special Christmas crackpot creations, as you can see below.

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Children’s University Awards

It is always nice to celebrate our children’s achievements and over the last few weeks quite a few Gleadless children have been receiving their bronze, silver and gold Children’s University awards.  Some of our children who were being presented with gold awards attended a special ceremony with Leadless staff to receive their awards, wearing special Children’s University caps and gowns.  Don’t they look smart?  Children receiving bronze and silver awards were celebrated in Sparkle & Shine assemblies along with parents, carers, staff and friends.  Well done to all of you.

If you would like to know more about the Sheffield Children’s University scheme and how your child can be a part of it, please check out their website at www.childrensuniversity.co.uk or speak to the office staff.

Shakespeare Club

Our Shakespeare Club wowed the audience at the Montgomery Theatre when they did their performance of Hamlet.  The children were truly amazing! Their performance was incredible, professional and performed with such confidence and maturity. Staff reported that behaviour was excellent backstage and that they were so proud of all the children.  Well done to everyone involved.

Anti-bullying Week

The children have been involved in a number of activities in school to raise awareness of bullying and how we can tackle bullying if it happens in school.  The activities covered a wide variety including team building activities - showing how we can all work together respectfully to achieve our goals.  We had a ‘wear blue day’ to show support for anti-bullying, looked at different bullying scenarios and acted out how we can tackle them and circle time with drinks and treats, to reflect on what had been discussed and learnt over the week.  Each class also had a kindness box where the children could nominate other children or staff that had shown random acts of kindness.  Some of our activities have had an impact and reached out to our local community.   We have had quite a few lovely letters and emails from individuals who wanted to show their support for the work we are doing in school to tackle bullying.

Reading Superstars

We have been really promoting the joy of reading in school and how much reading can help support their literacy learning.  Through books children can lose themselves in a story, find out lots of interesting facts, explore new worlds and feel like they are joining in with lots of different adventures.  Every half term we will be rewarding individual children that have really excelled with their reading and below you can see our reading stars from last term receiving their trophies.

Poppy Appeal

We would like to say thank you to everyone that supported Remembrance Day by buying a poppy in school.  We have been informed that we managed to raise a huge £159.15 for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, which is a wonderful charity that provides financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants.

Ms Davey also attended the Remembrance service and ceremony at Gleadless Church on Sunday to support the children from the knitting club in laying their wreath at the memorial on Ridgeway Road.  Unfortunately it rained, but even the weather could not dampen the smiles and pride of the girls taking part.  We would like to thank all the families that attended for showing their support on this memorable day.

Knitting Club 

Our group of girls that go to knitting club on Thursdays after school have also been busy preparing for Remembrance Sunday.  Along with the ladies at the knitting group they have made a wreath of knitted poppies on behalf of the school.  Alice and Freya will be representing the school and laying the wreath at the war memorial outside Gleadless Church on Sunday morning, after the remembrance service.  If you are passing that way next week pop and have a look – they look amazing!

Reception Learning

Our Reception children have been really busy during their first week back doing some fabulous learning about national events that are happening this week.

Their first topic has been all about Bonfire Night.  They have learnt why we have fireworks and we put a model of Guy Fawkes on top of our bonfires.  You can see below how they have created their own bonfire in their outdoor play area with a great Guy Fawkes.                                                                                      

They ended the week by making a giant poppy for Remembrance Sunday and learnt about why we wear poppies in honour of the fallen soldiers that have fought in all the different wars around the world.  What a huge poppy it is.  Well done Reception children.

London Landmarks

Last term the Year 3 children did some fantastic learning about their topic London.  As part of their topic the children recreated models of a variety of London landmarks.  There was Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, plus many more.  These had been on display in the classrooms, but on the last week of term the children displayed their amazing artwork for parents, carers, family and friends to come and see.   The school hall was a vision of London city centre and our visitors were wowed by the children’s artwork.

Off By Heart

On the 19^th October we held our first ‘Off By Heart’ assembly for all our children from Reception to Year 6.   The children performed beautifully, reciting a variety of poetry, traditional and modern to the huge enjoyment of our audiences.  A special well done to the Reception children, this was the first time they have performed for an audience and they were all super stars!  Thank you to all the parents, carers, family and friends that attended our special performances.  We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

We Care

As you may be aware our core value this month is ‘WE CARE’.  This week we were visited by Mr Copley and Reverend Zaidie Orr from Gleadless United Reformed Church to give a special assembly for our junior children all about caring, including songs and messages all about caring for each other.

Magna Trip

Year 5 we’re lucky enough to enjoy a wonderful day out to the science museum, Magna.  Each class visited all of the pavilions. In the Air pavilion, they used air to make music.  In the Water pavilion, Miss Ratcliffe and some of the other children weighed themselves in water.  In the Earth pavilion, everyone was very excited to wear builders’ hats and sing Bob the builder! Next, the children visited the Fire pavilion, and all warmed up by the fire tornado.  Each class also visited a workshop, where they learnt how to make paint from household items such as oil, water, egg yolk and spices.  It’s safe to say they were all worn out by the end of the day! 

Super Hero Vehicles

On Tuesday the Reception children invited all male relatives into school to help the children build super hero vehicles.  It is always nice to welcome grown-ups to come and join us with our learning and together they made some amazing vehicles.  Thank you to everyone who came and joined in with the fun!

Reception Kebabs

Not only have the Reception children been busy with their super heroes learning.  They have also been exploring and learning about their senses.  As you can see from the pictures they have been busy chopping, mashing, peeling and squeezing lots of different fruit and vegetables and making fruit kebabs. They enjoyed using their senses of smell, touch, taste and sight to describe what they could see, smell and feel.  The classroom smelt so fresh and fruity.

Super Me!

On Monday our Reception classes were full of heroes and favourite characters.  The children came to school dressed up to inspire their special topic learning – Super Me!  The children discussed their costumes in class then used their hero powers to do some super writing about their costumes.  Writing about colours, patterns and textures.  They were definitely all super hero writers!  Well done Reception.

ODD SOCKS 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with our odd sock day last Friday.  October is Downs Syndrome Awareness month and the school wanted to show our support and awareness by the staff and children coming into school wearing odd socks.  Thank you to everyone who joined in with us to show support and celebrate individuals with Down syndrome and make people aware of their abilities and accomplishments.

Year One Learn Outdoors

Our Year 1 children have been enjoying their new outdoor classroom.  Their new home for role play and storytelling is now ready and they have loved using it this week to make up their own stories.  Year 1 would like to give huge thanks to our Caretaker Mr Chambers for building it for them! 

While outdoors they have also spent time looking at the vegetable patch and the seeds they planted last year - which are seeds no longer!  They have enjoyed investigating the carrots and potatoes that they have grown into.  Another big thanks to Homebase at Drakehouse Retail Park for donating the materials for the children to create their vegetable patch. 

Charity Superstars

Cancer is a devastating disease that in one way or another has affected most families, so it is always nice to hear when people are doing caring things for others.  We would like to tell you about two other charity superstars who are part of our Gleadless family that are doing amazing things to help find a cure for this disease and support the people receiving treatment for cancer.

Sophie in Year 5 has signed up to take part in a tri-Athlon event for Cancer Research UK.  Throughout the month of October she will be spending her weekends and evenings doing junior park runs, cycling and swimming until she has reached the distance required.  She has already raised a massive £420 and is continuing to collect.

Mrs Rhodes’ son Daniel is 21 this month and wanted to do something memorable for his birthday, so he has signed up to do a 15,000 foot skydive to raise funds for Sheffield’s Weston Park Hospital Charity.  So far he has raised just under £300 and is still taking donations.

If you would like to help support our charity superstars, sponsorship forms are available in the school office or you can donate online via their ‘just giving’ pages below.

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/julies-try-it-triathlon-fundraising-page-5 - Sophie’s page.

www.justgiving.com/Daniel-Rhodes3 - Daniel’s page.

Reception Buns

Our Reception children were also very busy showing support for our ‘we care’ core value by holding their very own MacMillan Bake Sale.  The children firstly made chocolate crispy buns in class then sold them at the end of the day to parents, family and friends to raise funds for the MacMillan charity too.  Well done, you are all superstars!

MacMillan Coffee Afternoon

We would like to thank all parents, carers, family and friends that joined us for our MacMillan Coffee afternoon.  Thanks to all your generous donations, we raised a massive £335 and still rising.  Not only was it great to be raising funds for this fabulous charity, but it was a nice social occasion for staff, children and families to come together to chat, socialise and of course enjoy some of the lovely treats on offer.  We would also like to give special thanks to Ms Udall our School Business Manager for organising the event.

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Stay And Play

Last week Nursery Stay & play session, for parents to stay and join the children with their numbers learning.  As you can see from the pictures below there were lots of activities to join in with.  There is another session taking place this this week, so if you missed out on the fun, please come and join us this week.

Roald Dahl Day

On Wednesday we held a Roald Dahl Day in school, not only to celebrate the wonderful children’s stories that this author wrote during his lifetime, but also to raise funds for the ‘Roald Dahl Nurses’ charity.  Children could come to school dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character for a £1 donation.  The school was filled with characters from Matilda, the Witches, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, James & the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, plus many more.  The Reception children made BFG ears and practised their listening skills with them and we even had a new Oompa Loompa teacher in year 6, who came to assembly!

Welcome Back

Welcome back, we hope you have all had a lovely summer break.  It was lovely to see the children back in school on Wednesday glowing from their summer activities and looking very smart in their uniform, refreshed and ready to learn. We have welcomed a number of new children to join us in year groups across the school, including our new starters in Reception and Nursery.  We hope their first few days with us has been enjoyable and your child has settled into their new class.  It has not taken long for the children to become immersed in their learning and we are looking forward to a busy and exciting autumn term.  Below you can see the children enjoying their first few days in school.

We are sure you will join us in welcoming our new members of staff to Gleadless too.  We know that they have had a lovely first week settling in, getting to know the children, meeting parents and becoming a part of our brilliant Gleadless team.

Summer Events

As we start the summer holidays we are sure that you will be looking for lots of fun activities to do with your children.  Hollinsend Park will be holding a number of free sporting sessions throughout the summer holidays.  These will take place on Thursday afternoons from 1.30 – 3.30 pm and on Friday afternoons from 1.00 – 3.00 pm.  These sessions are totally free and you do not need to book.  Please just turn up in the park near the fenced multi-games area to join in with the fun.

The Children’s University scheme also have a full programme of activities arranged for their members, including dance sessions, craft ideas and imagination gaming sessions.  The Children’s University is a great scheme where children are rewarded for their involvement in extra-curricular activities.  They collect credits in their Children’s University passport which are added up to help them receive award certificates and badges, which can also lead to being invited to special presentation evenings with the Lord Mayor.  Below is a picture of some of our pupils receiving their special awards.  Children can join the scheme easily.  For more details about their activities and how to join the scheme can be found on their website www.sheffield.gov.uk/cu.

Year 6 Leavers’ Cake

Today is the last day at Gleadless for our Year 6 children and before they move onto pastures new, tonight the children will be attending a special ‘leavers’ party’ organised by the parents.  One of the parents Mrs Chatterton has made an amazing cake for the children.  The cake is surrounded by good luck messages written to the children from all the staff.  The cake looks so fantastic that we thought you would all like to see it.  Below is the finished cake.  We are sure you will agree it is a stunning work of art.  Not only do we have very talented children in school but our parents are amazing too!

Knitting Club

As you may be aware some of our older children attend a knitting club at the local community centre on Thursday evenings, run by a group of lovely ladies from their craft club.  Knitting is a lost art and the ladies teach the children how to knit and throughout their time with the club the children have made a variety of items including Christmas decorations, pin cushions, Easter bunnies, egg cosies, teddies, gloves and hedgehogs.  Quite a few of the children who attend are Year 6 children and are leaving us this year meaning there are a number of spaces for others to join.  A few children have expressed an interest in joining the club but we still have a couple of spaces left, so please let Mrs Rhodes know if you would like more details about the club or would be interested in joining.  Below you can see the children at their end of year farewell picnic.

Nursery Graduation

As well as saying goodbye to our Year 6 pupils it is also time for some of our nursery children to move onto BIG school!  And to celebrate their time in Nursery, say goodbye and wish them luck, we had a Nursery Graduation Ceremony. The children wore a special cap (just like a university graduation) and were presented with their graduation certificates.  Parents and carers were invited to see the children receive their awards.  It was a lovely event with lots of very proud parents shedding a tear!

Y4 And Y5 Museums Project

The children in Y5 and Y4 have once again been busy with the work they have doing for their Museums’ Project.  All year the children have been working with the Millennium Gallery on an art project, based around their own identities. This project was completed on their trip this Tuesday when they visited the Gallery to create a display of their work. We invite you to visit the Millennium Gallery from August 1st to August 3rd to see what fantastic creations they have made!

Y3 Chatsworth Trip

On Monday 9^th July, Year 3 were lucky enough to be able to visit Chatsworth House Gardens. Everyone carefully sketched the house, whilst sitting next to the lake and fountain.  And everyone in the year group had a chance to go round the puzzling, forest-green maze.  Some people even posed for a victory photo.  Unfortunately, Miss Carver’s group got very lost and came last!  After lunch, there was more time to explore the gardens.  The children visited the beautiful ring pond, the tiring 100 steps, towering squirty willow tree and the marvellous rock garden.  They had the opportunity to see lots of different plants and before they knew it, it was time to come home.

Y1 Yorkshire Wildlife Park Trip

When we went to the wildlife park we went to see all the animals.  We saw polar bears, who splashed in the water, meerkats and just one tiger – we think the others were hiding in the shade.  Then we had lunch.  After lunch we saw lots more animals.  We really liked the Ringtail Lemurs. Then we went into a classroom to learn more.  We got to touch a horn that had come off a deer, a beetle and a big snail.  We had a great time.

Y2 Bolsover Castle

On Thursday (the hottest day of the year so far) our Year 2 children went on a trip to Bolsover Castle to support their topic work.  Even though it was very hot the children still had lots of fun exploring the ruins of the castle, had a work in the pleasure garden and climbed lots of stairs to the top of the castle to see the view from all around.  It gave them a chance to see how differently castles were built in comparison with buildings today and the historical decorations inside.  Some of the children also got to try on outfits that people would have worn hundreds of years ago.  A great day was had by all.

Poems Published

We also have a number of superstars in Year 2 that have been recognised for their literacy work.  The children were invited to take part in a competition organised by the Young Writers group to write a riddle. Their entries were submitted and some of their riddles have been published in a book called ‘Little Riddlers – South Yorkshire’.  For more details about the Young Writers Group, their competitions and how to buy any of their books.  Please check out their website www.yongwriters.co.uk or ring them on 01733 890066.  Well done to all our ‘little riddlers!’

100% Attendance

Some of our pupils have been given a special award for having 100% attendance for this school year.  This means they have not had a single day off school since September – which is an amazing achievement.  As a treat these children were invited to a special ceremony at the City Hall ballroom to receive their 100% attendance certificate from the Deputy Lord Mayor.  Following the ceremony the children were then all invited for refreshments and entertainment as a thank you treat for working so hard on their attendance.  Well done we are so proud of you all.

Year 5 Weston Park

On Thursday our Year 5 children visited Weston Park as part of their Ancient Greece topic.  It was a fantastic trip, the children enjoyed the workshops that were extremely fun and interactive.  The children were able to explore the museum discovering Ancient Greek toys, paintings and myths, plus the children had a chance to dress up in traditional Greek costumes. 

Sports Day

What a scorcher Sports Day was this year.  We usually have to worry about it raining but this year our main concern was the heat. After taking advice from the Local Authority Health & Safety Department our event still went ahead but with a different format than usual.  The heat did not stop the children from being determined and working as a team to cheer their colleagues on.  They all gave 100% effort and the games were a huge success with the children plus parents and carers enjoying the event.  At the end all the children were given the chance to cool down with an ice pop.  We would like to say a huge well done to all the children for behaving and performing so well – we are very proud of you.  But would also like to thank all the parents, carers, family and friends for your continued support, it is greatly appreciated.  The whole day had a lovely family, community feel.

Summer Fair

Even though the Summer Fair got off to a bit of a grey and damp start it soon brightened up.   There were lots of stalls with lots of goodies to buy, including books, jewellery, plants and even a few early Christmas present ideas, plus a variety of fun games to have a go at.  There was also a bouncy castle, face painting, nail art, henna designs and of course the BBQ.  Throughout the fair we also had a number of displays of different activities – our own school gymnastics class did an excellent display of their skills.  There was a dance display from Funky Dance Fever, a martial arts display, football skills session and a taster session of Boogie Bounce the new funky fitness class that we have started up at Gleadless on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.  Our displays were finished off with two fabulous musical solos from Sophie and Charles, two of our excellent musical students.

We would like to thank everyone that joined us on Saturday, which was not the best of days weather-wise - for coming along and bringing your money (and your smiles) and supporting us to make our Summer Fair a success. Thank you.  And of course the Summer Fair would not take place without all the hard work and voluntary support of the PTA.  A massive THANK YOU to them too.

Y2 Reading Festival

On Wednesday Miss Bowyer’s Y2 class attended a reading festival in Norfolk Park organised by SSELP (Sheffield South East Learning Partnership).   At the start of the festival the children listened to an author perform some poems and short stories. Afterwards the children went into the park and they made stickmen along wrote some creative stories about the adventures their stickmen had been on.  This was such a lovely outdoor activity for the children, very interactive and the children were engrossed in their projects. Following on from their fun day out the staff from SSELP came into school on Friday morning and the children were allowed to choose a free storybook to take home.  What a great way to keep the children enthralled with their reading!

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Nursery Visit Drayton Manor

Last Thursday our nursery children were out of school on their end of year trip.  The sun shone and it was a perfect day for a day out.  This was the first time nursery had run a trip to Drayton Manor and they were very impressed with the parka and its facilities.  Nursery staff would like to say well done and thank you to all children and parents that attended the trip to Drayton Manor. Great fun was had by all, with children, parents and staff taking part in new experiences!

Great Phonics Treasure Hunt

On Thursday at the end of last term our Year 1 and some of our Year 2 parents were invited into school to join the children with their ‘Great Phonics Treasure Hunt’.  The parents joined the children with activities around the school in their quest to find as many phonics sounds as possible.  The children raced against time as they had been sponsored by family and friends for their challenge.  Thank you to all parents, cares, family members and friends that joined in, sponsored children and made this event a huge success.  All sponsor money raised will be used to develop the Y1 outdoor classroom area.

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Autism Day

On the last day of term we held our Autism Awareness Day.  The day started with a special assembly to raise awareness of Autism and then was followed by other activities in class and a giant bun sale, which helped to raise £228 to buy additional Autism resources.  Activities in classes included learning about our different senses and how for some children with Autism have to see and cope with situations differently.  We would like to praise all the children for how they got involved in the activities.  They were very sensible and supportive of what can be a sensitive subject and ended the day much more Autism aware. 

Knitting Club

Some of our Year 6 children have been attending a knitting club at the Frith Road Community Centre on Thursdays after school, accompanied by Mrs Rhodes or Ms Udall.  The children have been taught the forgotten art of knitting by a group of lovely ladies from our local community and have produced lots of lovely knitted gifts.  You can see below Grace showing off her great, stripey, fingerless gloves she has made.  Other items the girls have made are pin cushions, owls, Easter chicks and rabbits and teddies.  As most of the children that attend are in Year 6 it will mean that when they leave Gleadless in July, there will be some spaces for other children from Year 3 to Year 6 to attend the sessions when we return to school in September.  If you think your child would be interested in attending knitting club next year, please let Mrs Rhodes know in the school office.

Meet A Creature

Reception had a visit from lots of creepy, crawly and very exotic creatures this week when they were visited by ‘Meet a Creature’.  As part of their topic work the children have been learning about different creatures from dinosaurs to minibeasts and this visit gave them the opportunity to see some of the more unusual creatures up close.  Our Reception children were really brave not showing any fear in their eagerness to hold some of the animals.  They were surprised by some of the different textures of the animals’ skins and their favourite animals were the snake and the snail – they were amazed at how much bigger it was than the snails found in the garden. 

Welly Walk

Our Nursery and Reception children have been busy helping to fundraise for some new play equipment by having a ‘welly walk’.  Last Friday the children came into school in their wellingtons, even though it was a boiling hot day and took part in a sponsored welly walk around the school playing field – it was great fun.  The children have been sponsored by family and friends and have so far raised a whopping £442 and we still have more sponsor money to come in.  All Nursery and Reception staff would like to thank all parents and carers for their continued support

Y5 Victorian Classroom

Last Friday there was a definite Victorian feel in school.  Due to the fact that the Victorian classroom experience has moved from Sheffield to Barnsley, we had our very own Victorian classroom in school.  We still had Miss Sharp the Victorian teacher in school, who is very strict with the children even scaring some of them!  The lessons are very different and at break times the children try Victorian games and pastimes.  It is the best way for the children to experience Victorian school times and the children love to get into character in their costumes.

SATs Tests

We would like to say a massive well done to all our Year 6 and Year 2 pupils who have worked really hard on their SATs tests.  We think you are all amazing and as a special treat all the children were treated to a surprise ice cream.

Year 3 Visit Whirlow

Last week as part of their topic work our Year 3 visited Whirlow Hall Farm.  They had a full tour of the farm, learning about all the animals and took part in an educational workshop about ‘How do animals digest food?’  This visit was a pleasant reminder to some of our children who had stayed at Whirlow overnight when they were in Year 2.  It was a perfect day to spend on the farm getting to know the animals.

Bowling In The Park

Miss Eggleshaw’s class have been visiting the Bowling Club in Hollinsend Park over the last few weeks to learn how to play Crown Green Bowls.  The children have been having a great time learning more about the sport and the skills involved.  It has also made them realise that this is a sport for all ages.  Unfortunately the club do not have many young members to be part of their junior team, so in addition to our children getting involved the bowling club will be holding a fun day in the park this Sunday 13^th May from 10.00 am – 4.00 pm.

As well as the children being able to have a go at Crown Green Bowling there will be lots of other fun activities for children to get involved in.  Please go along and join in the fun – everyone is welcome!

Super Hero Day

Last Friday Gleadless Primary School was filled to the brim with super heroes as children came into school in their costumes in support of Radio Hallam’s Super Hero Day.  Children dressed up and made a donation in aid of the ‘Help a Hallam Child’ charity, to raise valuable funds to support sick and vulnerable children who live in our local area.  It is always nice to help children and families less fortunate than ourselves and we managed to raise a massive £176.50 towards this worthwhile cause.  Thank you to everyone who took part, the school definitely felt very safe with all our super heroes to protect us!

Y4 Gets Classical

On Thursday our Y4 children were lucky enough to be invited to the City Hall to watch the Hallé Orchestra perform.  The Orchestra is world renowned and this was an excellent musical experience for the children.  As well as listening to the orchestra the children were taught a song and were given the chance to sing along with the orchestra.  The musicians also spoke to the children about their individual instruments, about the sounds that they produce and how the different sounds are put together to make music.  The children loved the whole event and came back buzzing about their musical day.

Latin Learning

A number of our Year 5 children have been staying behind after school to learn Latin.  Latin is a classical language of ancient Rome and even though it is very rarely taught now, a high proportion of more modern words originate from their Latin equivalent.  The children finished their Latin learning with a Latin Celebration Evening for parents, where the children did a performance of the Three Little Pigs in Latin, followed by a Roman feast.  The evening was a great success and the parents were very impressed with the children’s new language skills.

Y2 Indian Restaurant Visit

Last Wednesday our Year 2 children visited the Cutler’s Spice Indian Restaurant to learn more about Indian foods as part of their topic work.  The children met with the staff that worked at the restaurant and learnt about life in India, the more traditional ingredients and spices used in Indian recipes and about the different techniques used in Indian cooking.  The children also got to sample many Indian dishes and the different flavours of India.  This is not the first time our Year 2 children have been invited to the restaurant by the owners and all the food is provided free by the restaurant – all the staff ask for is that the school make a donation to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital charity.  This is such a kind gesture, so it would be nice if the school could make a generous donation to the hospital on behalf of the restaurant, to say thank you for their kindness.  If any parents or carers have not yet made their donation and would like to contribute, please hand all donations into your child’s class teacher or the school office by Friday 4^th May ready for us to send our cheque to the hospital.

Careers Week

Last week we held a careers week in school.  Throughout the week the children were involved in a number of activities that looked at different careers they might like to do in the future.  Some of our Year 5 children even created their own company.  Careers were made more realistic in class by visiting parents, carers, staff relatives and community workers, who came to talk to the children about the jobs they do and why they enjoy their work.  We would like to thank everyone that gave up their time to come into school and help to bring our careers week to life.

Easter Hat Parade

On the last day of term our infant children took part in a massive Easter hat parade which showed what brilliant art and craft skills they have.  There were some amazing designs and we could see that the children had taken lots of care and spent lots of time making their masterpiece hats.  Well done to all our children for their amazing work and for making our Easter hat parade an array of chicks, bunnies, flowers, eggs and colour! Some of the staff even joined in the fun.  

Year 4 Dance

Our Y4 dance team went to the English Institute of Sport last Friday to take part in a dance festival that was part of sport relief. The girls got to perform a dance piece that was choreographed by one of the girls.  A great day was had by everyone watching other dancers performing from primary and secondary schools through to sixth form age dance groups and being part of such a great event.

Scientist Visit To Year 5

A couple of weeks ago, Year 4 and Year 5 were very lucky to have a real life scientist visit them! Jane, who is a friend of Miss Smith, came in to talk to the children about what inspired her to study science, how her career had developed and what she does working for the Environment Agency. Jane had lots of great photos to show us from her life as a scientist - including from when she was in Year 5!  She also brought in protective clothing for us to try on and her dissection kit from when she was at school and university!

Paralympics Assembly

We had some very special visitors in school this week to do an inspiring assembly for the children.  Two athletes from the Paralympics Basketball Team came to talk to the children about their experiences dealing with their disability, training for the team and representing their country.  They were amazing and motivated the children to understand that by working hard and by being determined you can reach your goals and tackle any barriers life puts in the way.

Museum Project

As you may remember our Year 4 and Year 5 children have been working with staff from the Sheffield Museums on an arts project.  This week the project continued when the museum staff visited school to work with the children on their project.  They used a wide variety of different materials to create some excellent pieces of art work, which they are hoping to show to parents at a later date.

Year 5 Butterfly House Visit

Year 5 have also been out visiting and below is a report from some of our Year 5 pupils about their trip.

Last Wednesday the Y5’s went on a school trip to the butterfly house. They had a tour guide named Joel who showed them all the different species of animals and insects. They saw animals from all different parts of the world. They got to hold and stroke animals such as guinea pigs, owls, and a turtle named Speedee! They also got to hold and stroke insects such as a stick insect, snake (which was some peoples first time holding one) and an alligator! A lot of people said it was cool how they were able to hold and touch the butterflies and birds, however some of the birds pooped on children :)

Written by Ruby and Imogen!

Poole’s Cavern

Year 2 have not been the only year group out on their travels this week.  Our Year 3 children went on a trip to Poole’s Cavern in Buxton to learn all about what it would be like to live in a cave to support their topic work.  The children had an educational guided tour of the cavern which showed them an old burial site.  As well as their tour, the cavern is part of Buxton’s Country Park so the children had chance to explore in the park and learn about Buxton’s local history too.  We would like to thank the children that went on the trip for their good behaviour. The guide at the cavern commented on how well behaved and the polite our children were throughout their visit.  Well done Year 3, what excellent role models for the school.

English Institute Of Sport

Unfortunately due to the snow on Monday we had to cancel our Year 1 sports tournament trip to the English Institute of Sport.  We know that this was disappointing for the children but sadly with the ice it would have been difficult for the children to walk to and from the tram stops.

But by Wednesday the snow had disappeared so our Year 2 children were still able to go.  The children were split into teams and took part in a variety of sporting events against other Sheffield schools.  These included hurdles, running, egg & spoon, tunnelling, plus many more.  All our teams worked well together and showed off their great sporting skills and determination to do their best and one of our teams was the overall winner of the competition.  Well done Gleadless!

Disco Fever

The PTA held their disco on Tuesday night causing disco fever to hit Gleadless Primary School.  The children had a great time dancing along to new and old pop favourites and even some of the staff came to join in the fun.  There were plenty of goodies on offer for the children to enjoy while they were dancing too.  We would like to thank everyone who attended the disco and the PTA members for organising the event, a good time was had by all.  The PTA managed to raise over £300 to put towards school resources and other events.  What an excellent, fun way to raise funds.

Stay And Play Sessions

Over the last couple of weeks our Reception classes have been running some stay and play sessions for parents to stay and help support their learning.  These have included literacy and phonics learning – playing sound bingo, finding and writing letters in the sand and making words on our magnetic letter boards.  Then this week we have been preparing for Easter by doing Easter crafts.  We would like to say a big thank you to all the parents  and carers who have joined us in our stay and play sessions and helping to make them a fun activity for all.

Articulate Competition

Four of our Y5 girls, Summer, Amelia, Ellie and Chloe, went to Acre's Hill school on Monday afternoon to take part in an Articulate competition. Articulate is a board game very similar to charades, which helps build different communication skills.  They took part in six 10 minute games and had to describe as many words as they could to their team mates. They worked excellently together and finished the competition in second place out of 11 schools. Congratulations girls!

Shine Celebrations

I was pleased to attend the celebration event at Sheffield Girls’ High with Mrs Smith to celebrate the success of the Y5 SHINE students at this year’s 10 week Saturday school. The children have engaged in a variety of activities from science to trampolining and have been brilliantly supported by 6th form mentors and Mrs Good from Sheffield Girls’ High.
Determination, team work and aiming high were well developed over the sessions.
Thank you to parents who made a commitment to all those early starts!
Congratulations to Sophie who spoke to the large audience with such confidence. Keep SHINING brightly everyone!

World Book Day Celebrations

Even though, due to the wet weather we had to delay our World Book Day celebrations to the following week, it did not spoil our fun activities.  The theme for our World Book day was Shakespeare and the children were involved in a variety of different activities including story sharing sessions, acting out scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, theater poster designs, royal parades and of course dressing up as different characters.  Lots of staff joined in too and looked very different in their costumes!  

Snowy Days 

What a difference a week makes with the weather. Last Friday we were covered by a blanket of snow and temperatures were freezing.  Even though the snow can cause major disruption, it is always nice when we have enough snow to play in.  Some of our children have sent in their pictures of what they did on our snow day.  So here are a few reminders of you having fun in the snow.

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea

The PTA Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea has become a very popular event with both our children, Mums, Grans and Nans.  This year was no different – there were lots of yummy treats for the grown-ups to enjoy and a chance to relax while the children got crafty making Mother’s Day cards.  We would like to thank the PTA for organizing this event and giving our children the chance to treat their Mums.  Don’t forget they also deserve breakfast in bed on Sunday!

Tree Planting

Thank goodness the weather was better this week as our Year 3 children had been asked by our local councillor Dianne Hurst to help plant some new trees in the Jaunty Park area, close to school.  As well as planting trees, the rangers and volunteers from the Wildlife Trust taught the children about the important role that trees play within our environment - providing oxygen and valuable homes for many animals.  Even though the ground was very wet and sludgy it did make it easier for digging holes and planting trees.  The weather on the actual day was dry, bright and sunny making it a perfect day for being outdoors and having fun in the mud.  The rangers were so impressed with our children’s tree planting skills, that they will be inviting more of our classes to do tree planting in future weeks.  Miss Carver would like to say a big thank you to all her parent helpers for volunteering to help with this trip and happily getting very muddy too!

Castleton

At the very end of last term our Year 4 children went to Castleton for their three day residential trip.  The trip started with a visit to Treak Cliff Cavern to learn all about the mining of lead and the discovery of Blue John, followed by a very interesting walk back to the Youth Hostel in blizzard conditions, but the children loved it, having fun in the snow.  The hot chocolate when we arrived at the hostel was very welcome!  The rest of the two days were spent at the Youth hostel doing lots of fun activities - archery, candle making, mock battles, tunnelling, plus building egg rockets and launching them being just a few of the exciting activities.  The children had great fun and even though it was very cold, were still determined to enjoy every minute.  They came home very tired but with lots to tell about their visit.

Spelling Bee

On Tuesday we held our Spelling Bee competitions for all our classes from Year 1 to Year 6.  The first competition was for Year 1 and Year 2, two pupils from each class were tested on the spelling of a variety of words including beautiful, sure, wrong and nostril.  The winning team was PJ and Luca from Y2 Bowyer.  Well done you are super spellers!

We also had Spelling Bee competitions between Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 and the winning teams were Y3/4 Nicky (Y3CR) and Ethan (Y4E), Y5/6 Sophie (Y5S) and Evie (Y6B), well done what great spelling bees.

Reception Ice Activities

Our Reception children have been continuing with their ice activities, but this time they have been investigating which objects are magnetic and why.  Different objects were frozen in ice and the children used their magnets to see which objects worked.  When the ice had melted the children could see the objects more clearly and talk about their results.  One of the items that had been frozen was a fish, and the children loved being able to see the fish close up and touch it’s silky scales!

Year 4 Author Trip

The whole of Year 4 went to The Montgomery Theatre to meet Sam Gayton, who is the author of our class book, ‘The Snow Merchant’.  It was a wonderful visit and some lucky children were able to get his autograph.  We found out the secret to how Sam writes his books, it all starts with a dream or a what if...?  Sam also wanted us all to make really loud noises so we could pretend to be a giant, some of the noises were really funny!

It was a fantastic trip and the whole of Year 4 really enjoyed it! 

This article has been provided by Riley & Bailey two of our Y4 pupils.

Year 2 Whirlow Residential

Year 2 children visit Whirlow Hall Farm for their overnight residential trip.  This is always a lovely residential and very exciting for the children, as for many it is the first time they have stayed away from home.  The children had a great time learning about all the animals on the farm, doing farm jobs, having pony rides plus tidying up and doing the pots!  Below you can see some pictures from their visit but we also have a few comments from the children about what was their favourite part of the trip.

‘My favourite bit was feeding the goats.’  Oliver.

‘The next day we did farm jobs.  There was pigs, sheep, and goats.  I did not want to go home.’ Charlie.

‘The best part was when the fire alarm went off, but the worst bit was other children snoring.’  Lucy.

Nursery Stay and Play 

Throughout this term Nursery have been running ‘stay & play’ sessions on Fridays where parents, carers, family and friends can stay and join the children with their numbers learning.  These sessions will be continuing until we break up for the February half-term holidays and are a great way for the children and carers to learn together, so if you haven’t had a chance yet to stay and join in the fun please feel free to join us over the next few weeks.

Year 6 Thornbridge Weekend

It is always nice to start the newsletter with lovely news. An excellent example of how proud our students make us was when some of our Year 6 pupils attended a weekend at the Thornbridge Outdoors Centre in Derbyshire for a writers’ weekend.  Ms Langley attended over the weekend and saw first-hand how well the children did.  She has a special message for everyone from the trip.

A message from the Executive Head Teacher

Last weekend we took a group of Gleadless and Arbourthorne Y6 pupils to Thornbridge for a writers’ weekend combined with outdoor activities.  The trip proved to be everything I’d hoped! Our children were simply superb and worked well as a team.  Aiming high and being determined were key features of the weekend.  The children were a credit to you and there were many moments of true bravery and friendship. The high ropes require nerves of steel and encouragement from team members at over 8 metres high!  Everyone made an attempt and some children took the circuit 11 times!  Cycling, low ropes, night walking and the night line also featured and were enjoyed as was music, dancing and make overs! Thank you to colleagues from the federation who willingly volunteered their time and to Craig Malkin LINKS sports partner for giving over his weekend to the children. Wonderful! Memories to last a lifetime.
Ms Vanessa Langley

Year 6 Football

On Tuesday night one of our Year 6 boys’ football teams played in the English schools’ football tournament at Sheffield Springs Academy.  They competed against six other schools winning four games and drawing two.  They are now through to the South Yorkshire finals which will take place on Thursday 11^th January in Doncaster.  This is a tremendous achievement and we are so proud of them.

Our Year 5 and Year 6 girls’ football team also played on Wednesday evening in their tournament and played really well.  Sadly they didn’t get through to the finals but showed real determination and teamwork skills – that’s all we can ask of them and we are proud of all their efforts.

Well done to all our football stars.

Christmas Dinner

We had our Christmas dinner in school.  The children and staff joined in with the celebrations by wearing Christmas jumpers, hats and headbands.  It is always a very popular, special event in school.  There was music playing, crackers being pulled and hundreds of Christmas dinners being served.  Thank you to the kitchen staff for all their hard work in providing over 300 Christmas dinners – they made our Christmas dinner day a success.

Junior Concert

This week it was the turn of our junior children to wow parents, carers, family and friends with their Christmas concert.  The play was titled ‘The Christmas Toyshop’ and throughout the concert the toys in the toyshop were taught about the true meaning of Christmas – love, kindness and friendship.  The play included the children singing some favourite Christmas songs but also included new songs chosen especially to explain the toyshop’s Christmas story.  The children looked great in their festive colours and costumes and they raised the roof with their singing skills.  Well done to Ms Smith for organising the play and Miss Eggleshaw for her musical skills and of course well done to all the children for their superb acting and singing.

Christmas Plays

This week has certainly given a lovely Christmassy feel to the school as our children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have performed their Christmas plays.  There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than seeing the children in their concerts.

Foundation Stage 1 and 2 

Reception and Nursery started off the week with their play ‘The Nursery Rhyme Nativity’.  How sweet and wonderful the children were in their costumes and performing their different songs.  The hall was awash with donkeys, angels, shepherds, kings and of course no nativity would be complete without Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  The children performed a great concert and it certainly made parents, family members and friends come out of the concerts with huge smiles.

The Year 1 and Year 2 play was called C. H. R. I. S. T. M. A. S. Spells Christmas and once again the children sang and performed their parts to perfection.  As our narrators told us their Christmas story the children sang their excellently filling the hall with Christmas cheer.

We would like to thank everyone that came to join us for our Christmas celebrations and especially thank all the children for performing so beautifully

Panto

Last Friday all our children were invited to watch our special Christmas panto ‘The Emperor’s new clothes’.  The play was excellently performed and the children had good fun watching it.  It was a lovely treat for the children and a great way to end the week.

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Christmas Fair

Our PTA orgainised our Christmas Fair 

 Our  hall and the dining room were packed with lots of stalls including fun games to play, a colouring competition for children to join in with, Santa’s Grotto, plus lots of gift ideas and yummy treats to buy.  Once again our Rainbow Raffle was very popular and everyone waited with baited breath to see if they would be one of the lucky winners.  Most of the hampers have now been claimed but we still have the red hamper left, which was raffle ticket pink 191 and the green hamper which is raffle ticket blue 26.  If you are the owner of these tickets please bring your ticket to the school office to claim your prize.

We would like to thank everyone who came and joined us for our Christmas Fair, helping to make it a huge success.  We would also like to say a big THANK YOU to our children too, the visitors that came and had stalls at the fair were very impressed with the fair, but extra impressed with how polite and lovely Gleadless children were.  Of course we already know how great they are but it is always nice when we receive lovely comments from visitors.

Snowy Reception

It is not only the PTA that has been busy getting ready for Christmas, all our children have been busy rehearsing for their concerts and decorating classrooms, but Reception is definitely looking exceptionally festive.  Their outdoor area has been changed into a winter wonderland, where the children can sit in Santa’s log cabin and travel on Santa’s sleigh.  It is lovely to see how excited the children are when they are playing in their Christmassy area.

The children have also been busy at their after-school craft club making lovely Christmassy pictures.                    

Christmas Crafts

You would think that after all the work with the Christmas fair that the PTA would be ready for a rest – but no they were back in school again on Tuesday evening doing their Christmas Craft event.  Children were able to come and join members of the PTA make lots of great Christmas gifts.  The activities on offer were pebble and glass painting, card making, cookie decorating plus many other festive treats to create.  As you can see from the pictures below some of our parents and relatives are going to be receiving some beautiful handmade presents on Christmas morning.

Children’s University

As with our special Sparkle & Shine assembly it is always nice to celebrate our children’s successes.  Once again a number of our pupils were invited to receive their awards from the Children’s University scheme.  Children receive these awards for participating in after-school clubs that are registered with the scheme.  The children are given stamps in their Children’s University passport whenever they attend a club and these stamps are added up to receive bronze, silver and gold awards.  The children are invited to special celebration ceremonies and receive their awards wearing a cap and gown like proper university graduations.  You can see below how smart Charlotte, Sophie, Bailey, Evie and Nicky look collecting their awards.

Cool To Be Clever

Some of our Year 6 children have been invited to join in with activities at the Sheffield University as part of their Cool to be Clever programme.  Last week our Year 6 children attended their first session, doing science experiments and making bath bombs.  They certainly look the part in their science lab outfits and enjoyed their time working together with children from other Sheffield schools.

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Virtual Reality Space Workshop

 Year 5 had a virtual reality space workshop to support their space and solar system work.  It was the first time we have had a virtual reality workshop in school, but both the staff and the children were amazed at how much the experience brought their topic to life.  The children became astronauts in their own rockets and were able to explore the planets one by one.

Shadow Puppet Workshop

Our Year 3 children had a special workshop.  They were visited by a shadow puppet theatre group.  Within the workshop the children were able to create their very own shadow world and puppet character, which they then put together for their own shadow theatre show. The workshop was very interactive and creative for the children and they loved showing off their puppets at the end of the workshop to each other.  This was a great activity and was a great addition to their shadow topic work.

Model Building

The children in Reception had lots of fun model building on Wednesday morning.  This time it was the turn of Dads, Grandads, Uncles, Brothers, etc. to come in and help the children with their model building activities.  The children used a range of different materials to build and design their models and as you can see from our pictures below, everyone had a great time and the children’s models were amazing.  Reception staff would like to thank all relatives that came and joined us, it is always appreciated when you give up your time to come and help.  Some of the children enjoyed it so much they wanted their relatives to stay and play all day!

 Anti Bullying Week  Monday 13th  - 17th November 2017 

This week has been anti- bullying week in school and the children have taken part in lots of fun activities to raise awareness of bullying, how we deal with it and about speaking up about bullying.  The children have iced biscuits – making life sweeter, role play of ‘being in someone else’s shoes’ and how to be a good friend.  We also decorated different items of clothing for our washing line displays – ‘hanging bullying out to dry’.  Some of our children created their own designs of flowers with anti-bullying messages, showing that we are all unique and different.  The children have also written postcards about friendships which will be swapped with children at Arbouthorne to help create friendships across our federation and of course on Wednesday we had dressing differently in their uniform or own clothes for ‘Wacky Wednesday, which lots of the staff joined in with too!

The children have worked extremely hard this week supporting these activities and discussing bullying issues.  We would like to thank parents and carers in supporting the work we do in school to tackle bullying and appreciate that all staff, visitors, parents and carers behave in an appropriate manner too, helping us to promote anti-bullying together.

Drumming Club

 Miss Eggleshaw is starting a new lunchtime drumming club.  This club will take place in the hall from 12.00 – 12.30 and is for any junior children (Year 3 – Year 6).  If you fancy having a go - come and join in the drumming fun!  Everyone welcome!

Diwali Lamps

Last week our Reception children invited female relatives into school to help them make Diwali lamps.  Mums, sisters, nans and aunts came flocking into the classrooms to do clay modelling to shape their lamps and decorate them with glitter.  It is always nice to invite relatives into school to see the exciting work we are doing and join in with our activities.  You can see from the pictures below how we made our lamps.  As a continuation of their topic teachers asked parents to bring in a selection of different Indian foods for the children to taste – so the children finished their week off with an Indian banquet!  Reception staff would like to thank parents and carers for their kind donations of food, there was such a variety of different tastes and foods for the children to sample and the amount of food you donated was tremendous, thank you.

Y3 London Landmarks

At the end of last term Year 3 invited parents, carers, family and friends into school to look at their artwork and models that they had made to support their topic work.  The children had created lots of famous London landmarks and they displayed them in the hall for all to see.  There were models of Big Ben, Wembley, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace and many more.  The school hall looked just like a London model village.  If gave the children an opportunity to talk about how they had chosen which landmark to make, how they had constructed their models and of course proudly show off their excellent work.  Parents and carers were amazed by what talented artists we have in Year 3 and how good the models looked.

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Year 3 Kidzania

Once again our children have visited the Kidzania centre in London.  This time it was the turn of our Year 3 children.  Kidzania is an amazing interactive educational centre.  Children are issued with a passport and are given the opportunity to travel around the centre taking part and trying a variety of real life work experiences and managing their money.  It doesn’t matter how many times we visit Kidzania and even though this trip is a long day for the children, they always come back buzzing about their experiences.  

Wembley Victory

Some of our Year 5 children were lucky enough to win tickets in a prize draw to go to Wembley to see England play Slovenia in their World Cup qualifier match.  It was a close thing but as most of you will know England managed to score in the last few minutes of the match, winning 1 – 0.  What a great experience for the children.  Even though it was a long day the children still had a fabulous time.

Year 2 Super Heroes

Our Year 2 super heroes had a special trip to the cinema to see a popular super hero in action.  They went to watch Captain Underpants in action on the big screen.  Captain Underpants is always popular with the children as he always makes them laugh with his antics while carrying out his super hero duties.  The children had lots of fun and arrived back in school still with big smiles on their faces.  Our Y2 children were also praised by staff for their excellent behavior while on the trip.  Well done Year 2 for making us proud.

Official Opening Day 26th September 2017

What a fabulous day it was on Tuesday when our new school buildings were officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Councillor Anne Murphy.  Many past Gleadless staff visited the school and were amazed with the changes.  They were reminiscing with lots of fond memories from their time at Gleadless and were happy that the families of Gleadless had finally got their fantastic new school.

As well as past staff and people who had been involved with the new build, we also had a number of special visitors who came into school to join in with lots of fun activities.  We had players from the Paralympics Team GB Basketball Team who came into school to talk to the children about their journey through their disability to becoming a member of the team.  They also showed the children a video of them in action showing off their amazing skills.  In addition to this we had a sports leader doing fun Zumba exercises and later in the day we had cycle skills training.  We would like to thank Mr Malkin the sports coordinator from Sheffield Spring’s Academy for helping organise our additional activities.

Once the official opening had taken place and our shiny new plaque had been unveiled, all the children joined together for a whole school balloon release and song singing, with Miss Eggleshaw leading the children on the drums.  The sky was awash with bright purple balloons and the playgrounds were full of children with singing, happy, smiley faces.  It was a lovely sight.

I am sure you will join us in sending our special thanks to Ms Langley and Ms Udall for all their hard work and perseverance in bringing together our new school buildings and for making our Grand Opening a perfect day.  Thank you. 

Community Day

We hold  Community Day events throughout the school year .  This is the day when our children do something special to help and thank people within our community.  The children were involved in a number of projects including – litter picking, a stream clean, baking biscuits, making refreshments and fundraising.  From the pictures below you can see how busy our children were.

Year 1 children designed a poster about how we help different people in the community. Each group focused on a different area: e.g. my class, my school, my family, my area, the world.

Big Bedtime Read

Throughout the year we have great events like our our Big Summer Bedtime Read.  The hall was set up with cosy  mats, throws and cushions for children, parents and carers to snuggle up and share books together.  We also had a book sale where all the books were half price and once again the PTA gave support with refreshments.  It was a lovely relaxing event and as well as children sharing their favourite stories with staff and family members, they also found lots of new books to read in our book sale.  Everyone looked so comfy it was a shame when we had to pack up and go home.  Thank you to everyone who came and made this a special evening.

Summer Fair

We certainly had a gorgeous day for our Summer Fair. The sun shone all day and it was a perfect day to chill out on the field, enjoying the activities and goodies on offer.  These included bouncy castles, fruit kebabs, books, BBQ, buns, bric-a-brac, ice cream and even a tin can alley where children could throw bean bags at cans with pictures of their favourite (or not so favourite) staff on.  One of the many highlights of the fair were the displays carried out by the karate team, gymnastics team, cheerleaders and school choir members.  Sophie in Year 4 and Evie in Year 6 both sung solos as well as singing with the choir – showing us what lovely voices they all have.  We would like to say a big thank you to all our PTA members and also thank everyone that joined us for our Summer Fair, making it such an extra-special day. 

Sports Day

Juniors

In the morning our junior children took part in a huge number of different events from running, throwing, egg and spoon, tug of war, ball skills and we even had a space-hopper race.  Children competed in the races in their house teams and the final scores were very close.   Innovation (blue) won beating venture (red) by just one point.  Of course it would not be sports day without a staff race.  We had a few willing volunteers and the staff race was won by Alex Spiers our sports leader from Arbourthorne.  Well done everyone!

Infants

Unfortunately the weather was a bit more unpredictable in the afternoon for our Year 1 and Year 2 children, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time.  They still gave 100% to all their races including running, sack race, egg & spoon and space hoppers.  Due to the weather conditions affecting some of the races for our little sports stars, we did not score the infant sports event, as we feel they were all winners.  Well done!

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