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Private Music Lessons – Click on links to sign up

Totally RAD are coming to The Glapton Academy!

RAD believe that whatever the skill level or budget, all children deserve access to exceptional music tuition.
Our highly skilled network of professional musicians provide next-level tuition for the next generation of talent, no matter the location, budget or capability.
Provided on-site, within school hours and at a highly-competitive rate; with RAD students can experience expert music tuition that helps them sharpen skills, express creativity, and dream BIG, with no disruption or stress – all from the very best in the business.
For more information, and to sign-up your child to RAD lessons, just use the following link; we’ll do the rest.

SIGN ME UP

Reading Rocketeers

We have another two children who have earned ten Reading Rocketeers tokens this year. I would like to say a huge ‘congratulations!’ to Darren and Archie from Cherry class who had great fun choosing their books from our amazing selection. Remember, that for every twenty times your child reads to an adult, they will receive a reading token which can be saved or spent in our Reading Rocketeers ‘shop’. Get reading!

Reading Rocketeers

I would like to say a huge ‘congratulations!’ to Isabelle from Hazel class who has earned ten Reading Rocketeer tokens this year. She saved her coins up and had great fun choosing her books from our amazing selection. Remember, that for every twenty times your child reads to an adult, they will receive a reading token which can be saved or spent in our Reading Rocketeers ‘shop’. Get reading!

Sports Day

Our sports day was filled with lots of competitive fun and success! The children cheered for their friends as they raced to the finishing line, showing resilience and determination. Whether they were jumping in a sack, balancing a beanbag, passing a baton or power walking with an egg and spoon, they never gave up! There were many medals won and cheers for all. What a fantastic day!

Reading Rocketeers

I would like to say a huge ‘congratulations!’ to Fatima and Shalom from Sycamore class who have both earned ten Reading rocketeer tokens each so far this year. They have saved their coins up and had great fun choosing their books from our amazing selection. Remember, that for every twenty times your child reads to an adult, they will receive a reading token which can be saved or spent in our Reading Rocketeers ‘shop’. Get reading!

Scholastic Book Fair

I would like to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to everyone who attended the book fair we held at Glapton Academy last week. The event was a great success and we raised a huge £422.57 to spend on books for our school library which is absolutely fantastic!

I would also like to thank everyone who entered the competition we ran alongside the book fair. There were some amazing photos of your children reading in extremely unusual places. Our five winners each won a book to the value of £5 which they had great fun choosing.

Free Books!

The children in Year 4 were very excited to receive their free copies of the latest donation from The Marcus Rashford Book Club. This is a collaboration between the football player and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford MBE and Macmillan Children’s Books. The Book Club aims to encourage and nurture a love of reading in children and get free books to the children who need them the most.

The support of publisher Macmillan Children’s Books and funding from KPMG UK has allowed 50,000 copies of The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Ghoul in the School to be donated to schools participating in the Book Club, reaching thousands of children to spark a love of reading and raise literacy skills. As a participating school, Glapton Academy has been lucky enough to receive 60 free copies of this latest book. 6.5 per cent of children in the UK say they do not have their own book at home, which equates to over 500, 000 children in the UK. At the heart of the Book Club is the ambition to get books into the hands of the children who need them most. This supports the aim of our school which is to inspire a love of reading in all of our children.

Marcus Rashford did not read his first book until he was seventeen, and credits reading with changing the direction of his life.

“I only started reading at seventeen, and it completely changed my outlook and mentality. I just wish I was offered the opportunity to really engage with reading more as a child, but books were never a thing we could budget for as a family when we needed to put food on the table.” I know that this is a dilemma facing many parents and carers and we are very fortunate to have received this free donation.

Mrs Kay

The Great Green Read

A group of greater depth writers in Year 4 recently entered a national competition called the Great Green Read run by The National Literacy Trust in association with Rotary, a worldwide organisation committed to offering young people opportunities to unlock their potential, develop their skills and broaden their horizons.

We are very proud to announce that one of the entries was selected as a runner up out of hundreds of entries, winning fantastic prizes, for both themselves and the school.

The children had to write a piece of non-fiction writing that informed, instructed and inspired readers about the environment, climate change and protecting the natural world. Our children chose to write a persuasive letter from the perspective of an endangered creature from the United Kingdom. They had to decide who they would write to for help and how they could persuade them to protect their habitat. The children did research into their animals before compiling their letters to housing developers, woodcutters and farmers.

The children who took part in the competition were Maria, Isaac and Sienna from Alder class and Logan, Nevaeh and Poppy from Rowan class. The letters the children produced are outstanding and we would like to congratulate each and every one; however a huge congratulations goes to Nevaeh whose letter was chosen as runner up. She won a beautiful book for herself and some amazing books for our school. What a fantastic achievement!

The children all read their letters out in a special assembly last week and Charlotte Malik from The National Literacy Trust came in to award the children their certificates and give Nevaeh and the school their prizes.

Please take some time to read their letters. I am sure you will agree they are outstanding!

Helen Kay

English Lead

Children’s Letters

The Big Reading Challenge

Big Thank You!

We were delighted to take part in this year’s Big Reading Challenge on Friday 3rd February 2023 to help raise funds for the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Councillor Kirsty Jones visited Glapton Academy on this day to help Nottingham City Council in their attempt to read as many stories to as many children as possible in one week to raise funds for this project. This amazing scheme delivers a free book every month to local children from birth up to 5 years of age. Ten thousand Nottingham children have now received books through this scheme and over 420,000 books have been delivered so far.

Councillor Kirsty Jones read ‘There’s a Snake in my School’ by David Walliams to all of our children and very kindly donated the book to our school library for everyone to share.

During the day, we held a Readathon where children and teachers read as many stories in one hour as they could. Children brought their own books in to school on this day to read and share with their class and children got sponsored for the event.

We are very happy to announce that we raised a huge £591.70 and would like to thank everyone for their amazing support. We would like to thank the following children in particular, whose donations were extremely generous:

Blake, Bobby, Josh and Kyle, Emily, Oliver, Dylan, Harrison and Logan

Thanks to your generosity, even more families benefit from this fantastic scheme.

Helen Kay (English Lead)

VIP Visitor

During National School Meals Week 2022, we were very excited to host a special lunch for Lillian Greenwood MP for Nottingham South. The focus of the visit was to highlight environmental issues and to encourage children to get involved with making a difference. During the week, we encouraged as many children as possible to have a school meal for the whole week with each day having a different theme. Our School Nutrition Action Group (S.N.A.G) met with and greeted Lillian Greenwood and spent their lunchtime with her discussing issues and letting her know all about their good work.

Free Books!

Glapton Academy is extremely privileged to have received some amazing free books for our library.

Bookmark has donated over £2000 worth of new books, a School Library Association membership and an annual subscription to their children’s magazine. The company was set up in 2018 with one simple vision: to make sure every child can read. Their fantastic donation will help us to continue with our whole school reading culture and to further embed reading for pleasure into the lives of our children.

Our Boys’ Library Group children, who also wrote a letter of thanks for this generous gift, opened the boxes of books, which will be available for all of our children in our school in our amazing new library.

Free Books!

The National Literacy Trust in association the publisher Macmillan Children’s Books and with funding from KPMG UK has kindly donated 70 copies of Marcus Rashford’s book, “Breakfast Club Adventures: The Beast Beyond the Fence” to our school. The children in Year 5 were absolutely delighted to receive their free copies and many of them have been bringing them into school every day since.

Marcus Rashford MBE is an iconic international football player and child food poverty campaigner. It is his first fiction book for children. 

Marcus read his first book at the age of seventeen, and credits this with changing the direction of his life.

“I only started reading at seventeen, and it completely changed my outlook and mentality. I just wish I was offered the opportunity to really engage with reading more as a child, but books were never a thing we could budget for as a family when we needed to put food on the table.”

The National Literacy Trust aims to spark a love of reading and raise literacy skills in every child. It is estimated that over 400,000 children in the UK do not have their own book at home.

I know this is a dilemma that faces many parents and carers and we are very lucky to have received this free donation.

Time Capsule Plaque

Some of you may remember the children creating a time capsule for our school in 2020. This contained stories written by the children, news articles, items relating to the pandemic e.g. facemasks and other memorabilia of the time. The capsule was then buried in the foundations of our new extension. The site now has a plaque and if ever found the capsule will have captured the life of our school, community, country and world through the eyes of our children making them part of history for future generations.

Harvest

We held our Harvest Festival celebrations on 12th October. We were delighted to welcome Reverend Esther who came in to lead a service for the whole school. Huge thanks to all of you who have sent in donations for our Harvest gifts, these will be taken to the Clifton Food Bank and we really appreciate your efforts.
Thank you so much!

Parent/Carer Phonics Session

Mrs Eden-Smith held a very informative and useful session all about early reading and supporting your child with their phonics. Unfortunately we were disappointed to see so few parents there, Mrs Eden-Smith has posted the PowerPoint on our website so please do take a look. We will be holding another session later in the year for those of you that missed out.

Eco Team’s Garden Project

Our Eco team held an assembly for the whole school, they told the children about their plans for designing a new garden outside of the new building and close to the KS2 hall. The eco team have previously won a competition with east midlands airport and we have received a grant of £4,700 for or new garden. Not only that, but the prize also includes the support of a professional garden designer. Look out for more details in the New Year.

Y6 Residential

For the first time, nearly all of our Y6 cohort attended our Y6 residential trip. They spent 2 nights and 3 days at Willersley Castle, getting stuck into a huge variety of activities, showing their teamwork, resilience and perseverance. I am so proud to tell you that the castle staff wrote to me directly to say that our children were the most polite and the best behaved they have ever had attending the castle. Well done Y6, what an achievement, you should be very proud of yourselves.

Life Education Space

The Life Ed Space visited for 3 days just after October half-term. The children experienced workshops looking at decisions, friendships, all about me, my wonderful body, feelings, meet the brain and taking care of myself. This is part of the Coram Life Education SCARF curriculum, a children’s charity providing Health and Wellbeing Education support to schools. Workshops were delivered by skilled educators and were thoroughly enjoyed by the children.

Lillian Greenwood MP Art Competition

A group of children entered Lillian Greenwood MP’s Christmas card competition 2022 and attended a lunchtime art club with Mrs Hurst to create their entries. I am delighted and proud to let you know that Caleb (Y6) has won a voucher to spend in a variety of shops and his artwork was displayed in the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery over the weekend of the 17th and 18th December. Three children also received highly commended certificates for producing a beautiful Christmas card and in special recognition of their wonderful artwork and design. They were Kyle, Thea and Evie. Well done to all the artists.

Christian Aid

The children looked wonderful in their Christmas jumpers, and a big thank you to all those of you who contributed to Christian Aid, supporting children across our country. Thank you also goes to those of you who donated pre-loved Christmas jumpers, which were gratefully received by children in school who didn’t have a jumper this year. Over £200 was raised for this great cause.

December Performances

Wow! Wow! Wow! The KS2 concert was incredible, and the turnout and response of the audience was heart-warming. Well done KS2. Reception class were also amazing, learning all of their songs and words so well and performing brilliantly to all of the grown-ups who visited. KS1 Nativity had the biggest audience of all, the children performed superbly, and all of our visitors went away happy. Lastly, Saplings class brought us all Christmas cheer, warming our hearts in this cold December month with their Christmas songs and performance for their mummies, daddies and grownups who look after them. Well done children, we’re all very proud of you.

Hazel Class Become Published Poets

The whole of Hazel class recently took part in a poetry competition run by Young Writers. They had to write a poem entitled This Is Me and celebrate themselves in verse. Every single one of their poems was chosen to be published in a poetry anthology, which is a huge honour. Each child received a certificate and bookmark and the school will get a free copy of the book. Parents have also been given the opportunity to buy a copy of the anthology.

Here is a selection of their poetry. I am sure you will agree that they are amazing.

I Am
I am an amazing artist,
My paintbrush sways while on my paper.
It wiggles around up and down whilst thick paint goes on my paper.
It’s bumpy, wavy, too shiny, clear, frail, wrinkled on my page.
Brightly coloured joyful paint moves on my paper.
I’m as fast as a cheetah.
I’m as fearless as a tiger.
I’m as quick as flash moving past you.
I’m as steady as a cat sitting beside you.
I’m good at playing tennis while passing the ball to my friend.

By
Zoe-Joe Franci

I Am
I am a successful singer,
I’m going to take your breath away when you hear me.
My smile is so big, it goes from ear to ear.
I love animals,
I’m in love, I’m in heaven,
When I’m around animals, I almost explode.
I am a singer, I am an animal lover,
I am a drawer.
Watch how my pencil glides across my page.
I am Georgiana and this is me.

By
Georgiana Simpson

I Am
I am Ussain Bolt on the console,
My fingers move as fast as a cheetah.
I am a gamer.
I am a super sonic footballer,
I am a super striker, I am a great goalie.
I am faster than the speed of sound when I run.
I am a daring defender, always dodging.

By
Junior Cassidy

I Am
I am a skilled gamer,
My fingers Sonic running away from Dr Eggman.
I am Flash on the Playstation.
I’m a shark dodging defenders,
I’m a game changing goalie,
I’m a footballer.
I’m a creative Lego master,
Making builds as fast as lightning,
My creations are like a surge of ideas.
My eyes are as blue as the ocean,
My hair is as golden as the sunset.
This is me.

By
Harry James

This Is Me
I am a brilliant basketballer making every shot,
My feet are as fast as a sprinting tiger out running every player.
I am an alarm sensing the opposing team.
I am an astronaut floating in space seeing Mars with the stars,
I am as creative as a talented artist sketching a masterpiece.
I am Jake and this is me.

By
Jake Wallis

Author Visit

The children in Key Stage 2 were very lucky to have a visit last week from the award winning, bestselling children’s author Billy Bob Buttons.

He delivered workshops to Years 3 and 4 focusing on character writing which the children absolutely loved. He gave them some fantastic ideas for their writing and I cannot wait to see them putting these into practice in the future. I am sure we have many budding authors in our school. He also delivered an assembly to the whole of Key Stage 2 where the children were able to ask Billy Bob Buttons questions about being an author. Afterwards, he sold signed copies of his books: “I think I Killed Miss” being the outright favourite! It was lovely to see so many parents/carers and their children excitedly queuing to buy one of the signed books.

Free Books

Some of our children would like to say a huge thank you to The National Literacy Trust for the amazing book boxes they have just received. They were so excited when they opened them and cannot wait to start reading them at home. The boxes also contained a cookery book, which the children loved, and some have already been experimenting with the recipes.

On Monday 25th of April, Year 2 had a special visit from Tom from Partake History and were transported back in time to 1666 – the year of The Great Fire of London. During the drama workshop, we had the chance to be actors for the morning and played the parts of Thomas Farriner, King Charles II and the town’s people. We acted out all the events from The Great Fire of London and were very excited to share with Tom everything we had learnt about the fire in our history lessons. We also used our five senses to think about what it would have been like to witness the fire. Later on, we used this experience to help us generate powerful vocabulary, which we are looking forward to using in our descriptive poems later this week. 

Mrs Husbands 

On Tuesday 15th of March, we were treated to some fantastic performances by The University of Nottingham’s Clarinet ensemble and Double Reeds ensemble.  The assembly was organised and led by members of Assembly Action group who selected the ensembles in January before inviting them into school to perform. During the assembly, the ensembles performed a range of music including ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ from Frozen and ‘The Great Escape March’. We also got to see and listen to different wind instruments, and we learnt about the range of pitches each instrument can play. One of the highlights of the assembly was when we all became conductors and helped the clarinets stay in time. 

Thank you to the University of Nottingham’s Blowsoc for providing such an inspirational assembly for us. We definitely created some awesome memories

Mrs Husbands and Assembly Action Group

Time Capsule

The children of Glapton created a 2021 Time Capsule to bury under the foundations of our new building joining the two sides of the school and therefore making history and creating memories for the children to tell their future grandchildren! 

This is what is in there: 

  • A laminated photo of each class – with name of class, teacher, support staff and year group written on the back.   
  • A laminated note to the ‘finder’ from the class detailing  
  • Name of class 
  • Age range  
  • Teacher/ Support Staff 
  • Copy of weekly timetable 
  • Favourite lessons and why  
  • Current interests  
  • Wishes for future generations

KS1 children included some of the children’s favourite things to do in school and at home/ around Clifton and every KS2 class included some current news.   

  • Year 6  talked about the royalty and government 
  • Year 5  talked about COVID-19, positives and negatives e.g. Sir Captain Tom, having more family time, clapping for the NHS as well as closures and restrictions. 
  • Year 4 talked about the EUROS 2020 
  • Year 3 talked about Online learning  

There was also a message from Mrs Hurst, a current map of Clifton, the school prospectus, photos from around the school, face coverings and a newspaper.  

School council buried the capsule this January with help from Mr Hind our site foreman. 

I wonder if it will ever be found. What do you think? 

A plaque will be placed in our new corridor to show where it was placed. 

Time Capsule

Time Capsule

The Build Team

Time Capsule

Time Capsule

Dig the Hole

Time Capsule

Time Capsule

The Time Capsule

Time Capsule

Time Capsule

Burying it in

Yesterday, we were treated to a very special assembly with gymnast, Sam Oldham!

Sam spoke to us about his incredible experiences and the inspirational journey he took which led to him becoming the remarkable Olympic medallist he is today. As well as showing us his Olympic bronze medal, and the Olympic torch he carried at London 2012, we were also treated to a live demonstration which blew us all away! All of the children (and staff!) were left feeling truly inspired and in complete awe of Sam’s tremendous achievements and commitment to gymnastics.

Take a look at some photographs from the session…

The Pod

Exciting News!

We received our new recycling drop boxes on Friday from ‘The Pod’.
Our Eco Team would like your help!

One of our boxes if for ‘broken plastic toys’ – If you are having a clear out over half term then please put aside any broken plastic toys and bring them into school on your return.

Our other box is a ‘Tech Take Back Box’ This is for old tech that you don’t use anymore but still works.
Laptops – Consoles – Phones – Tablets etc.
..Remove device pins/locks.
..Remove accounts on the device.
..Remove data cards and sims.
..Factory reset the device.

All of your items will then be recycled and the school will receive some new books depending on how much we collect.

Conkers Trip

On Tuesday 12th October, Year 2 went on an adventure to Conkers Discovery Centre to develop our science and geography knowledge. We were all very excited!  Whilst at Conkers, we made our own simple food chains and learnt about and identified omnivores, carnivores and herbivores. We then applied this knowledge by making our own mud monsters. We also practised using maps to spot key landmarks; this helped us navigate around the woodland and find clues. We worked well as a team during this activity as it was quite tricky. We also got the opportunity to travel on a train and play in the amazing adventure playground. Here are a few pictures of what we got up to. 

Mrs Husbands and Miss Gibbons

Sports Day

The Glapton Academy hosted an exciting sports day filled with opportunities to win medals and celebrate success. Children cheered for their friends and siblings as they raced to win a gold, silver or bronze medal.
This was a fun and competitive event which motivated everyone to challenge themselves. Children enjoyed taking part and demonstrating their sporting talent. We are proud of the achievements made by the children at The Glapton Academy.

Competition Winner!

We are so pleased to announce that a poem Sienna from Hazel Class wrote for the Young Writers’ Peculiar Pets competition has been chosen for publication in a poetry anthology.

This is the 29th year that Young Writers have run this competition and they received over 10,000 entries so we are extremely proud that her poem has been chosen. Well done Sienna!

My Peculiar Cat

I have a cat

She is a peculiar cat

She dances on shelves

And swings on trees

She has glitter skin

And rainbow knees

Her fur smells like

Bubblegum sweets

She is sassy but classy

And she walks like a queen

She is the most peculiar cat

You have ever seen!

I am sure will agree that it is a fantastic poem.

Helen Kay

English Lead

A Big Thank You!

Some of our children would like to say a huge “Thank you” to The National Literacy Trust for the amazing book boxes they received just before Christmas.

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Please click here to see the latest advice regarding the Coronavirus from the DFE.

Challenge Day – Wednesday 23rd September

Today was the first challenge day of the new school year – Celebrating Languages.

The European Day of Languages is celebrated annually across Europe on the 26th September but as this falls on a Saturday this year, we celebrated a few days early.  It is a day to celebrate all the different languages spoken in Europe.

Everyone started their day by talking about European Day of Languages and discussing with each other why it is celebrated, who celebrates it and the benefits of being able to speak an additional language.

Each class then had a whole morning dedicated to learning French! From Nursery to Y2 and Y3 to Y6, all children had a jam packed morning of learning greetings, asking each other questions in French, counting from 0 -20, identifying colours around the room as well as translating paragraphs written in French to name a few!

Take a look at some of the photos from the morning. More photos can be found on each class page!

In the afternoon everyone learned British Sign Language. The whole school learned how to fingerspell the alphabet, their names and even some of their own pets names!

Did you know?

  • Fingerspelling is a method of spelling words using hand movements. The fingerspelling alphabet is used in sign language to spell out names of people and places for which there is not a sign.
  • BSL uses a two-handed alphabet however some other sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), use a one-handed alphabet.

Take a look at some of the children in action:

See you if you and your child can work out the two words below:

National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day 2020

All about National Poetry Day

Year 6 Poetry

Inspired by the poem “The Magic Box” by Kit Wright, the Year 6 bubbles have written some amazing poetry. Drawing on their experiences of lockdown and the things that they have missed, they used fantastic figurative language to articulate what they might find in a magic box or behind a magic door. I am sure everyone agree, we have future poets in the making!

Black Lives Matter

The increased prevalence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the media will likely have been noticed by many children, whether they spotted the headlines on the news or parents and carers have spoken to them about the injustices experiences by black people on a daily basis. Many children have questions about the images, stories and conversations they hear on the news and around them.

The childcare platform Yoopies UK has created a free guide to help parents and carers talk to children about the Black Lives Matter movement. This free, downloadable guide is easy to use and can help start important but challenging conversations with children of all ages. It includes resources, help and advice as well as links to further online resources and book recommendations for children and adults. The guide also highlights podcasts, films, and more to help parents and carers to continue having these important conversations. Click on the link below to access this free guide:

https://yoopies.co.uk/c/press-releases/blacklivesmatter

Bananas About Books!

Teachers and children have had great fun recreating the book cover of some of their favourite books! Why don’t you have a go at home?

British Values

Our value for this half term is tolerance. As a school we regard this as a fundamental British value; something that we want our pupils to be aware of and demonstrate across school and in their life outside of school. During Monday’s assembly, the school reviewed the meaning of the word. Our pupils linked tolerance with fairness and respect and this was linked to examples of where people have or have not been tolerant. During the assembly it was agreed that tolerance is about treating people fairly regardless of where they live, their religion, the colour of their skin or the beliefs they have. By treating people fairly and with respect regardless of these features, our school and community will become more tolerant of others.

During the assembly we linked tolerance to kindness; the quality of being generous, friendly and considerate. Even if we do not get on with someone in class, we can still be kind. Even if we are not playing with someone at playtime, we can still ask them to join us.

  • Speak to a grandparent or relative and ask if they are okay
  • Tell a joke to someone to cheer them up
  • Leave money/change in a charity box if your adult approves
  • Clean the dishes after a meal
  • Pick up litter in Clifton with your adult’s permission or supervision
  • Say ‘thank you’ to someone who has helped you
  • Leave a nice message on a sticky note for someone
  • Help somebody to be able to do something
  • Donate a book, clothes or food to charity with your adult’s permission
  • Make or bake something for someone with your adult’s permission
  • Put together a goodie bag and give it to your post-delivery person, a police officer, the fire station or another important member of society if your adult approves.

World Book Day 2020

Glapton Academy had an amazing day on World Book Day. Everyone came to school dressed in their pyjamas (including all of the staff). The theme this year was Share a Million Stories and throughout the day, all of the teachers, including Mrs Hurst, went round every class in their key stage to share one of their favourite stories with the children. Titles ranged from The Book with No Pictures to Tales of India and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Lessmore.

In the afternoon, each class opened their doors to their Book Cafes where only books were on the menu. It was absolutely fantastic to see so many parents, carers and family members sharing stories with the children. We will definitely be doing this again very soon!

World Book Day 2020

A Poet Visits Glapton

Key Stage 2 had a fantastic day on Monday 13th January 2020 when the poet Andy Tooze visited The Glapton Academy.
The day started with an assembly where Andy Tooze introduced himself and performed a range of his poetry which the children loved! Inspired by his talent and enthusiasm, the children then created their own outstanding poems covering a diverse range of topics which included Hopes and Fears and Animals. The children were invited to share their masterpieces with the rest of the group and then to the whole of Key Stage 2 in a celebration assembly at the end of the day. Each group also got to perform one of Andy Tooze’s poems during the assembly.
Teachers and children were equally inspired and, hopefully, a future generation of poets has been created!

Elections for Pupil Groups have taken place and the votes have been counted! Before I let you know the results, let me tell you how this process has taken place. It has been slightly different this year due to certain restrictions, however it has still been an exciting process for everyone involved.

Pupil Groups Voting System Flow Chart

Stage 1

Class teachers to play videos or presentations from each group leader to demonstrate what each group stands for and what being a member of each group consists of.

Stage 2

All children in each class to tick which group they would like to be a member of. Children can choose to be a member of every group if they choose.

Stage 3

Children to then vote for their top 4 members for each group from those who have nominated themselves.

Stage 4

Children are to then have a ballot paper and vote for one member for each group.

Stage 5

Hand ballot papers to Pupil Groups Leader to collate results. 12 children will then go forward to the last stage of the process. This will be sent out to all classes.

Stage 6

Children will then vote for 1 nominee for each group. They write their chosen nominee on a whiteboard for each group for their teacher to count the votes.

Stage 7

Pupil Groups Leader to then collate results and announce the members for each group.

Here is a summary of what each group stands for and what will be taking place in each group for this year:

Schools Sports Organising Crew (SSOC)  

  • Work with teachers and fellow pupils to organise intra-school competitions and school sport opportunities.
  • Organise a survey to find out what young people think of sport in our school.
  • Reporting back to pupils at the end of the year on what improvements have been or are going to be made.

Eco Warriors

  • Improve recycling across the school.
  • Work on projects to raise the profile of recycling in school.
  • Support assemblies.
  • Create an environmentally friendly biodiversity area (wild flowers, bug hotels, raised planting beds etc.).

SNAG (School Nutrition Action Group)

  • Work with teachers and fellow pupils to promote healthy eating and nutrition across the school.
  • Deliver assemblies on healthy eating.
  • Organise a survey about dietary preferences and potential healthy changes to school menus.

Boys’ Library Group

  • Helping set up the new library.
  • Making sure that the new library is attractive and interesting.
  • Being excellent role models; keeping the libraries tidy and helping children use them properly.
  • Promoting reading for boys and girls by making sure we have lots of interesting things to read and look at.

Assembly Action Group

  • Work with fellow pupils to find out what interests pupils in school. 
  • Work with teachers and fellow pupils to plan assemblies based around the interests of pupils in school. 
  • Help to deliver assemblies (virtually for now) once every half-term to the whole school. These assemblies could even involve special visitors!  

School Council

  • Learn how to be leaders and work well as a team.
  • Deliver any news from these meetings via our notice board and class representatives.
  • Use strong listening skills to listen to the worries of other children and also any great ideas for the school.
  • Use their helpful and positive role model attitudes when helping around the school and working in regular events.
  • Develop questionnaires to find out how other children feel about school events. 

Curriculum Champions

  • Classroom environments across the school.  –What makes a welcoming, purposeful classroom?
  • Our School Values – What are they? How are they decided? How do we use them?
  • Support teachers and children to ensure our curriculum is exciting and that everyone can access it.

I have been very pleased with the enthusiasm of all the children in the school when taking part in this process and would like to congratulate those children who now represent our school in our Pupil Groups. The groups are as follows: