Hello,
Please read this newsletter for information on our last meeting; how to sign our new petition for the library steps; our latest projects and events; some pictures of the annual Easter Egg Hunt; the upcoming Jumble sale as well as the results of our Big Build Competition and last Friday’s cake sale.
What we’re working on
Last Friday we held a meeting in which we discussed our current projects and events for the school. Please find the minutes of the meeting here. See below for how you can help:
• The school gave us the green light to start an online petition regarding the dangerously steep library stairs. Please sign it and share it (including with former Grasmere families and pupils!). If you’ve been worried about your child using the stairs, please leave a comment. The more the better.
• Following requests from the school to help fund these specific projects, we’ve approved a spend of £3,000 to refurbish the Nursery and Reception classrooms. We’re aiming to create a more unified space, with new furniture and storage. We’ll explain how you can help with this in a next newsletter.
• We’ve also decided to use £8,500 or our existing funds, plus the £500 Tesco grant, to create a garden classroom that will help the school expand its outdoor teaching. Many studies (such as this one) have shown outdoor learning to be of great benefit to children so we hope this shelter with provide a new, exciting teaching space, without taking up too much space in the garden so that children still have space to play (ours will not have any walls, just pillars and a canvas roof, with benches and a blackboard around the firepit.)
• For the same reason, we’ve applied for a grant to improve the school’s outdoor loose part play equipment, which is an amazing way to build children’s confidence and STEM skills. Please see our application here. We’ve also applied for a Metropolitan Garden grant for a new tool shed and some plants for the garden. If you know of any other grants we could apply to, please get in touch!
Food for thought
Given the difficult economic circumstances – the biggest fall in living standards since the 1950s – we would like to do as much as we can to make sure that no family is left behind at Grasmere.
We’ve discussed setting up a hardship fund to help families in case of emergency; to offer birthday cake vouchers to pupil premium children (please get in touch if you know a bakery who could help); to offer discounted spaces in enrichment clubs; to work with Chefs in School to give away hampers for the school holidays, creating some pay it forward schemes…
If you have any ideas on how else we could help, you can let us know anonymously here. We’ll be discussing this in more details at the next meeting.
EASTER EGG HUNT
Thank you so much for your egg-cellent donations, which amounted to over 3,000 eggs! They were delivered by bicycle in the morning. And thank you to our volunteer who sorted and counted all the eggs in preparation for the hunt, and to our handful of volunteers who braved the cold (it actually snowed at one point!) to help hide all the eggs in the garden.
There were some leftover eggs, so we prepared some bags for the children who might not receive any more treats during the holidays (the school is distributing them for us). A big thank you to Paradise fish & chips on Newington Green who kindly donated some paper bags for this.
UPCOMING EVENTS
In the next few months we would like to organise the following events (dates TBC):
• funding 1 children entertainer (circus, bubble) to come for the whole school in celebration of the Jubilee. Any ideas, recommendations? let us know. Probably on Friday 27 May.
• organising a free Grasmere on Wheels/Roller disco event for kids to have fun in the playground on scooters, skateboards, bikes and rollerskates, possibly on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in June.
• Volunteer days for painting/gardening in May, June and July.
• Summer fair (let us know if you have any stall ideas etc) in July.
• Silent auction (possibly linked to the summer fair), offering a variety of prize for all budgets, or gifts for those in need. We’re looking for volunteers to organise this - please get in touch!
GRASMERE’S BIG BUILD COMPETITION
Congratulations to Miles & Albert, Year 5, who win the First Prize for their wonderful project of ‘a communal place for everyone with free food and shelter from rain and wind.’ They win a £20 Lego voucher. Great teamwork and a very worthy idea!
Runners up are Bruno, Reception, who wins Best Family Project for his design for the library steps; and Oscar, Year 2, who wins Best Recycling with his clever cardboard spy-den. They each win a small wooden hammer – hopefully they can use it to build even bigger projects!
Click here for more pictures of the winning projects, and of all the wonderful entries. Well done everyone.
JUMBLE SALE
Our next event is the spring Jumble sale on Saturday 23 April. We’re looking forward to your donations on Friday 22 April.
Please register here to help sort out the donations on Friday, or help on a stall on the Saturday. This allows us to plan ahead and have all the info in one place – it’s a massive help for the organisers so please take a minute and sign up! Thank you.
We’re working on a plan to improve the way the clothes are displayed, please let us know if you have spare hangers and clothes rails. We’re also hoping to get some shopping baskets/crates donated to present the clothes in various categories, if you know any one who could help with this please let us know.
As ever we will also love to have some cakes and soups donations for the Jumble sale.
CAKE SALE
Last but not least, a big thank you to our wonderful Year 2 parents who have raised just over £200 with their Cake Sale last Friday.
We organise these cake sales because the kids love it of course, and secondly because they raise funds for a gift for each class. Every year we give each year £200 (topping up any cake sale that hasn’t reached this amount) to spend as a treat at the end of the school year. In the past teachers have used it for day trips, visits from travelling zoos, and rounds of gelato ice creams in the park. We can’t wait to see what they choose to spend it on this year!
Take care and have a lovely break,
FROGS