GIFFARDS PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Volume 11 No 2

October 2017 Dear Parents / Carers

The Gruffalo

All Foundation Stage children made a visit to Thorndon Country Park to take part

in the Gruffalo trail.

It was a lovely day and the children had a

fantastic time.

“It was good seeing the Gruffalo,”

Parker Onslow

“I liked seeing all the characters; I learnt all

about Autumn,” Evie Rose Nolan

“We picked things up and made a picture,”

Oliver Trayler

The children had a very busy and enjoyable day and lots of lovely work was produced in

class afterwards.

Welcome to the Stone Age! Recently the Year 3 children went on a visit to

Thorndon Park to experience and explore the

challenges of day to day life in the Stone Age. They

took part in several activities including building a home,

fire lighting, hunting games and communicating without

words. All the children loved the trip!

“It was the best trip I’ve been on,” Sophie Butcher

“I loved making fire and was

pleased I could do it,”

Bobby Dunsdon

“My

favourite part was making the

dens and checking to see if

they were waterproof,”

George Goodman

Griffin Foundation

Trust

A big thank you to the Griffin

Foundation Trust, part of Griffin Estate

Agents of Grays, who presented us with

cheques for £830 for new goal posts and

£1500 to go towards new numeracy

software and laptops

-an amazing £2330 in total!

The Griffin Foundation Trust supports

projects and charities within the

borough, aiming to put something back

into the community that they have

served in for

over ten years.

Christmas Performance Diary Dates

KS2 Performances:

Tuesday 5th December at 1:45pm

Wednesday 6th December at 1:45pm

Thursday 7th December at 1:45pm

KS1 Performances:

Tuesday 12th December at 9:20am

Wednesday 13th December at 9:20am

Thursday 14th December at 9:20am

FS Performances:

Monday 11th December at 2:00pm

Tuesday 12th December at 2:00pm

Office Opening Times The office will now be open between the hours of

8:30am-4pm each day during term time. If you

need to pop in or call please do so within these

hours and we will be happy to help you.

Jeans for Genes

‘Wear jeans, change lives’

Friday 22nd September was Jeans

for Genes day when the children donated £1 to

come into school wearing their jeans.

Thank you to all those that took part and

donated money, a total of £383 was raised for

the charity. This money is used to fund a

range of initiatives that improve the quality of

life of children affected by genetic disorders.

Macmillan Coffee Morning The Fundraising Team held a Coffee

Morning a few weeks ago selling cakes and

drinks to raise money for Macmillan and for

the school. £284 was raised for Macmillan

from the cake sale and £94 for the school

from the raffle.

Thanks to everyone who donated

cakes and also to those who

came and bought them!

Parents’ Evening Dates KS1 & FS Mon 20th Nov 3:30pm-4:30pm

Tues 21st Nov 3:30pm-7:30pm

KS2 Weds 22nd Nov

Y3-5 3:30pm-4:30pm

Y6 2:00pm-5:00pm

Thurs 23rd Nov 3:30pm-7:30pm

Games Wanted We are in need a number of items for the

school for wet play. If you have any complete

games or puzzles, colouring books, maga-

zines or comics then they would be grate-

fully received. Please bring any

donations to the school office.

Thank You

If you have any concerns about your

child then please pop in to our

Inclusion Team Drop in

Every Wednesday 8:30-9:30am

enter via the KS2 office area

Who can I see?

Mrs Holdsworth can

help you with any BEHAVIOURAL

concerns that you may have

Mrs Teager can help you with any worries

concerning ADDITIONAL NEEDS.

Reception 2018

We now have a number of dates for parent

tours for parents looking at Primary Schools

for a place next year.

If you know anyone who has a child due to

start school in September 2018, then please

can you let them know so they can contact the

school to book in for a tour. Parking Please can we politely request that

parents are mindful of other

parents, children and residents

when parking cars at the start and end of the

day. There have been a number of incidents of

parking across driveways and dropping children

off in the middle of the road which is obviously

very unsafe.

Thank you for your support in this matter.

Sports Update Football:

The boys have started their football

league campaign brightly winning

their first two games scoring 11 goals in total

and conceding 0. In the SSP competition they

played well defensively not conceding a goal in

5 games although unfortunately they didn’t

score either, drawing all of their games.

The girls played fantastically in their SSP

competition finishing 6th overall.

Tag Rugby:

Despite most of the Y6 players being in the Isle

of Wight last week the Y5/6 team played

well in their recent competition

receiving a bronze medal - well done!

*Please also remember the club changes after

half term, Tuesday morning table tennis will

now be for Y3/4, Wednesday morning Tri Golf

will now be for Y5/6 and Thursday morning

KS2 basketball will swap to KS2 netball. Cross

Country will also be starting up as well.*

Twitter If you wish to follow us our username is

‘GiffardsPrimary’

Diary Dates

Half Term Break

23rd-27th October

Monday 30th October

Back to School

Flu Immunisations

Tuesday 31st October

Y4 Anglo Saxon Workshop

Thursday 2nd November

Y5 Corringham Library Visit - 5DH

Friday 3rd November

Y5 Corringham Library Visit - 5EB

Thursday 16th November

Y6 Essex Fire & Rescue - Cyber Bullying

Friday 17th November

Children in Need Day

Friday 15th December

Christmas Jumper Day

KS1 to Palmer’s Panto

FS & KS1 Christmas Parties

Monday 18th December

Y3 & Y4 Christmas Parties

Tuesday 19th December

Y5 & Y6 Christmas Parties

Thursday 21st December

Break up for Christmas

Attendance Here is a breakdown of the school’s attendance this year

3KS—98.4%

2CMa—98.2%

3SHa—98.2%

6NJ—97.8%

5EB—97.6%

6SHo—97.2%

1MA—97.0%

2CMc—96.8%

RJV—96.7%

RHW—96.5%

4EC—96.3%

5DH—96.3%

1VR—96.2%

2CC—95.4%

4LR—94.6%

This equates to 96.9% attendance

for the whole school, which is

above the Government target.

Well Done!

Congratulations to 3KS for

being the best attendees so

far this year!

Useful Contact Numbers Please contact outside clubs directly on the following numbers:

Youth Creation 07788 278280 (Jodie) All Years

07974 008293 (Shannon)

Yoga for Kids 07811 152513 (Valeria) All Years

Phoenix Karate 01268 681927 All Years

School Uniform:

Little Sprogs Company 07803 002325 or

www.littlesprogscompany.co.uk

Tescos -

http://www.clothingattesco.com/icat/embschoolwear Make

sure when checking for Giffards you enter the Local Authority

as Thurrock and not Essex.

96.9%

Absent 3.1%

Schedule of Fundraising Events

The fundraising team have been busy organising

some exciting events for the children (and parents!)

Oct/Nov - Christmas Cards

Friday 17th November - Quiz night

Thurs 7th/Fri 8th December - Christmas

discos and meet Father Christmas.

Wed 7th March - Mother’s Day wrap

12th-29th March - Easter Egg Colouring

Competition

Tues 12th June - Father’s Day wrap

Saturday 30th June - Summer fete

The team are also planning some movie nights, a

Valentine’s event, an Easter egg hunt, a race

night with fish and chips and a summer disco

-dates to be confirmed

Year 6 SATs 2018

14th-18th May 2018

Please do help by ensuring your child is

not taken out of school in the run up to

the SATS