Have a great summer!

Hello,

It’s already time for our final newsletter of the year. You’ll find the minutes of our last meeting here. In the last few weeks, we’ve been busy gardening, ordering colourful bean bags and planning ahead for next year. In this newsletter you’ll find more details about what we’ve been up to, and a summary of everything we have achieved this year.

Tesco Community Grant

We’ve been selected by the Tesco Community Grant to win up to £1,500 to build an outdoor classroom in the garden. Please vote for us if you can, and tell everyone to put their blue coin in our box. We’re told the Tesco on Green Lane will receive its voting equipment imminently, the one in Highbury & Islington already has it.

Greening up Grasmere

In the last few weeks of term, our amazing volunteer Nicola has continued to work with the children on the garden. She organised a herb tasting/smelling session with Year 1 and reenacted the giant turnip story while harvesting the carrots.

Thanks to Grasmere parent Nat, who generously donated an olive tree, Nicola also worked with Year 5 to plant the tree in the new pot – special thanks to Jack and Bryan who were extremely helpful! – . The lovely tree now sits in the nursery playground:

ENRICHMENT CLUBS

We’ve also finalised our first after-school timetable. We’ve worked with local companies and national charities, as well as the school office, to offer Grasmere schoolchildren as many opportunities as possible to try new things and learn new skills.

Covid allowing, the after-school club progamme will include science and coding; art and cooking; drama, djembe and tap dancing; tennis, football and dodgeball, as well as skateboarding. Also in the mix are debating, chess and creative writing and the Library club, which include fun sessions on themes such as Imaginary Maps or Chinese scrolls. Finally, local charity the Garden Classroom will offer a Forest school session in the garden, including rope knots, cooking on fire and nature art.

You will be able to book your child’s place on School Ping on the first week of term. Once you’ve had confirmation, you will be able to pay for it either through Scopay, or directly with the organiser. If your child is entitled to pupil premium, the cost of the class will be free to attend (you still need to book your place through School Ping; also pupil premium does not cover Fit for Sport.)

SPECIAL TREATS

Every year, FROGS offers £200 to each class to buy themselves a treat. This year,

  • Nursery & Reception went to see the puppet show Nature Ellie at the Little Angel Theatre

  • Year 1 booked the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground for themselves

  • Year 2 had fun session of science experiments with Kids With Brain

  • Year 3 went on a day trip to Kew Gardens

  • Year 4 booked the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground for themselves

  • Year 5 invited Safari Pete, who let his tarantula loose in the garden and went round the school with a small crocodile

  • Year 6 went to the park to have an ice cream

NICK’S LEAVING PRESENT

All of us at FROGS are very sad to see Nick leave. He has been such a great help to FROGS over the years and has always supported all our ideas. We’re going to miss him greatly.

Fittingly, his leaving present project perfectly sums up what FROGS is about. One FROG had a great idea, another FROG helped with the logistics, all the parents helped fund the project through a specific fundraiser, and we had the full support of the school staff, who managed to gather all the material needed on time, and of the schoolchildren, who produced beautiful artworks.

Click here to see the result of this amazing team effort.

2020-2021 ACHIEVEMENTS

We look forward to more fun and games (and hopefully no more school closures!) for the 2020/2021 school year. We’ll be back on Friday 17 September for our AGM (9am, in the staff room or the library).

Wishing you all a lovely summer,

Take care,

FROGS