Grimsdyke School—Newsletter Mrs G Caroli Headteacher June 2013 — Newsletter No 17

Dear Parents, The school is currently a hive of activity with everyone getting ready for the Carnival. The children are getting very excited and I think it will be a successful event. The Carnival will take place outside whatever the weather!! We will be sending out further details re buying the programmes and picking up the children after the procession. However I would like to say that we will expect all children to stay on the field until the judging of the Carnival Sculptures has taken place. There will then be a small gap for you to pick up your children from the Class Teacher before the Official Opening of the Summer Fair.

If you have not volunteered to help it is not too late. Even 30 minutes would be fantastic and will help to make this event a great success. I would like to thank the FoGs Committee and especially Sujan, the new Chair, for all their hard work and the personal time they have spent on organising the Summer Fair.

Although the money raised is important to the school, the community spirit which this type of event encourages is also very important. Therefore I hope you will all be able to attend on Friday 21st. I am sure you will enjoy yourselves, even if it rains!!!

Yours sincerely, Gwenda Caroli P.S. Apologies I am unable to attend the KS2 Sports Day as I have an important meeting at the Civic Centre.

SCOOTERS Although we are delighted to see children riding scooters to school, children must dismount at the school gates and walk scooters in to school. Children must not ride scooters around in the playground for health and safety reasons. We are aware of at least one parent who has been hit on the leg by a child riding a scooter.

Music Evening Do you have any photos taken at the Music Showcase Evening held on 21st May. If so we would welcome an electronic copy. Please email to office@grimsdyke.harrow.sch.uk Your help will be very much appreciated.

Sainsbury’s vouchers

Thank you for all the vouchers we’ve had to date. If you still have any at home, please bring them in to the School Office before Friday 28th June 2013.

Dates for your Diary

Event Date Time

KS2 Sports Day—followed by a picnic lunch on the field.

19th June 10:00 am

Carnival/Fair 21st June 2:50 pm

KS2 Reserve Sports Day 21st June 10:00 am

Year 3 Concert 3rd July 6:00 pm

KS1 Sports Day—followed by a picnic lunch on the field.

3rd July 10:00 am

KS1 Reserve Sports Day 5th July 10:00 am

Year 4 Concert 9th July 6:30 pm

Reports Home 10th July

Coffee Morning 11th July 9:00 am

Year 5 Concert 17th July 6:30 pm

School Closed for Professional Development Day

19th July All day

Year 6 Concert 22nd July 6:30 pm

End of Summer Term 24th July Yr 6 1:15 pm Rest of school 1:30 pm

KS2 Sports Day—19th June

Please bring in a tshirt in your house group colour to be worn at sports day. Parents are invited to join their children for a picnic lunch on the field after the event.

UNIFORM REMINDER School uniform comprises a red embroidered sweatshirt or sweatshirt cardigan—available to order through the school office. From September, girls wishing to wear cardigans must wear an embroidered sweatshirt cardigans available to order. A sweatshirt order form has been sent by email. All orders must be received by Tuesday of next week. Late orders will be processed but orders are unlikely to be received before the summer break. Other reminders Long hair must be kept tied back at all times The only jewellery permitted in school is of a religious significance and/or stud earrings, although no earrings should be worn for P.E.

Gateway—APP for Smartphones Thank you to those parents who have already downloaded the ’APP’ and are now registered with Gateway. For those of you who have not yet done so, here are the details:- New, free, smartphone app for parents 

As you know, we use email and text messages to keep you informed. We have to pay for text messages, and this can add up quickly. 

The new School Gateway smartphone app for parents is free for you to download and will immediately cut the cost of us sending you text messages.

If you have a smartphone, please search for and install the app from the Apple App Store or from the Google Play store (search for School Gateway).  It should be the first one in the list ‐ the icon is a blue square with a white  ck and the name of the company providing the APP is ISUZ Limited.

Step 1: Install the app and open it for the first  me 

Step 2: Enter your email address and mobile telephone number – a PIN code will be sent to your phone as a text message 

Step 3: Enter this PIN code

That’s it! You’ll now receive messages from us through the app, rather than as a standard text message. Your phone will buzz/ring just like when a text message arrives – and you’ll be helping us save money on text credits. (NB At some point in the registra on, you will have to click “New User”)

Please don’t worry if your mobile phone doesn’t let you download apps, we’ll con nue to send you text messages instead.

INVITATION TO ALL PARENTS—11th July Come and find out from the Student Steering Group about our “Rights Respecting Journey” at a Parents Coffee Morning on Thursday July 11th at 9am. Taking place in the School Hall you will hear from the students about the impact of Rights Respecting at Grimsdyke School and get an opportunity to ask questions about all of the different projects that have happened this year. Looking forward to seeing you there. Student Steering Group.

Last weekend Year 4 had a great weekend away at the Kingswood Centre in Ashford, Kent. Here are some photographs. More will be put on Fronter soon.

Although you might think some of these activities look scary, everything is perfectly safe—the instructors are well trained and give the children a briefing session before starting the activity. You can see from the photos that safety equipment is used where the activity calls for it and although children are encouraged to try everything, they are never forced to do anything they don’t want to do. Even Mrs Caroli took part!