FROGS update

Hello,

Please find the minutes of our last meeting here – as well as the big library wall mural, we’re working on a survey on enrichment clubs for next year, and a grand plan for our various school refurbishment projects.

In the meantime, you can help FROGS in three different ways:

1. DONATE SOME CHOCOLATE EGGS:

Egghunt.jpg

2. LET US KNOW IF YOU’RE HAPPY TO HAVE A PLUS ROOMS SIGN IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE

Please let us know as soon as possible (tell your class reps or email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com)

PlusRoomFlyer.jpg

3. TAKE PART IN OUR PHOTO COMPETITION!

Thank you to those who have sent some images already. A local photographer, Nicola Hippisley, is going to talk to the children about photography and what makes a good picture, hopefully that will inspire the kids to take some beautiful shots for the competition.

Photocompetition.jpg

Thank you and take care!

FROGS

March 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

Big new this month – and we’re not just talking about the school’s reopening – FROGS are launching the first ever Grasmere Photo Competition! Also in this newsletter: two new murals for the shool, and the date and time of the next FROGS meeting.


PHOTO COMPETITION

There are four fantastic prizes to win including a portrait of the person of your choice by a leading theatre-world photographer, a nature-inspired framed print by a top fashion photographer, a voucher to print your images and a guidebook for budding photographers:

Photocompetition.jpg

We’re hoping as many Grasmere kids as possible will take part, it’s a lovely way to look at everyday things differently, even after months of lockdown. You’ll find our dedicated Photography Competition Page here. You can buy as many tickets as you want from our online shop.


WALL TO WALL MURALS

In other exciting news, we’re starting work on two new murals for the school. The first is a large-scale mural for the big library wall next to the Albion Road gates. We’re very lucky that renowned artist Remi Rough has agreed to help FROGS with this project, and we’re kickstarting the process with a Zoom workshop to gather the children’s thoughts on the project. (Please see Nick’s message on Seesaw for Zoom details). We’ve prepared a template that the children can use to showcase their ideas for the big mural, and show during the workshop.

The second mural is by Ivana Zorn, who is about to start painting it (weather allowing) on one of the KS1 playground’s wall. The colourful design will complement the artist’s work for the quiet space playground (see Past Projects):

KS1 Mural.png

You’ll find more about the inspiration and ideas behind this mural in this document.

NEXT FROGS MEETING

Save the date: the next FROGS meeting will be on Wednesday 10 March at 8pm. Zoom details and agenda to follow shortly.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

January 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

A belated Happy New Year from all of us at FROGS!

COMMITTEE UPDATE

We held a meeting last week as our chair, Ed, has stepped down. We now have a new chair, Léa, and vice-chair, Erla. We decided to focus our efforts on finishing the various projects started in the playgrounds and outdoor spaces (including the library wall mural); a future meeting will look at these in more detail, as well as the possibility of new enrichment clubs for next year (Chess, Music and Skateboarding).

You will find the minutes of the meeting here, and the latest financial update here.

FROGS SHOP & MATCHED FUNDRAISING

Thank you for purchasing cookbooks, tea towels and Christmas trees through our new shop (there are about 5 cookbooks left, as well as some lovely teatowels and jewellery). We made a profit of just over £1,600, which was doubled thanks to a FROGS member being part of a matched fundraising scheme.

If you work for a large organisation, you might be able to benefit from a similar matched fundraising scheme, which is easy to set up – just contact your HR department and you could help boost our fundraising efforts. See our Get Involved page for more information on other ways to help.

FUTURE EVENTS

We hope you will take part in the Great Grasmere Bake Off, organised by the school (see Nick’s assembly; this week is Biscuit week). In addition to this, FROGS is planning the following events for spring:

March: Photography competition
April: Treasure hunt
May: Running challenge

Please get in touch (frogs.grasmere@gmail.com) if you can help with these events in any way.

DINNER IS SERVED

We also want to highlight a great initiative by Grasmere chef James, who works with the charity Chefs in School. With the help of local restaurants and bakeries including The Flying Frenchman, Tranga Market and the Spence Bakery, they prepare fantastic hampers for the local families who need them. Please find out more about this great project at Dinner is Served London.

Our next meeting will be held after half-term.

Take care,

FROGS

December 2020 Newsletter

Hello,

Here is FROGS’ last update of 2020!

Christmas trees

Thank you to those who have ordered Christmas trees, we raised £500 for the school.

Screen Shot 2020-12-12 at 14.14.08.png

Santa’s visit and gift boxes

Thanks to your amazing generosity, we were able to welcome a very special guest at Grasmere. Santa and his elfs handed out 217 gift boxes specially prepared for the Grasmere school children by FROGS very own elfs. Learn more about this project here.

Cookbook2.jpg

Cookbook

There are only a few copies of the cookbook left to order, please get yours now! Thank you to those who have already bought a copy or a PDF.

We’re sorry to announce there has been a delay at the printers, and the cookbooks will be delivered on Tuesday 15 evening or Wednesday 16 morning at the lastest by our team of volunteers. The tea towels are ready to be sent out with the cookbooks on Tuesday.

Also available in our shop are tea towels, prints and some fun jewellery pieces.

Join our private group!

Join our private group!

New virtual Jumble sale

We’re launching a new virtual Jumble Sale so that parents can donate, recycle and find some bargains. To take part, join the FROGS Facebook group and head to the Buy & Sell section (although Facebook calls Buy & Sell, but our intention is of course for people to donate or receive things for free too, and make small donations to FROGS if they can.

It does require a bit more effort – mainly taking some pictures of your donations and organising pick up – than our normal jumble sale, but since we all live quite close to the school it will be easy to drop off or collect items.

YieldOffer.jpg

Yield Offer

The lovely folks at Yield on Newington Green are supporting FROGS by giving away 5% per of the value of each sale if you mention the name of the school when you buy their products (they also do gift hampers!). This is offer available until 3 January.

Next FROGS meeting

The next meeting will be on 13 January.

Happy holidays,

FROGS

Introducing our brand new shop... and the Grasmere Cookbook!

Big news this week: our cookbook is at the printers, ready to be ordered… on our new online shop!

THE GRASMERE COOKBOOK 2020

Our new cookbook comprises over 50 recipes from our community, including 6 from local restaurants and bakeries The Flying Frenchman, Luminary Bakery, Belle Epoque, Perilla, The Clarence Tavern and Tranga. The print version is a full colour 116-page A5 paperback with photographs accompanying most of the recipes. For every book you buy, around £5 will go our charity. Also available are a PDF version, and matching tea towels!

PRE-ORDER NOW FOR DELIVERY 12/13 DECEMBER

Cookbookimage.jpg

It is available to buy on…

FROGS’ BRAND NEW ONLINE SHOP

Please head to friendsofgrasmere.com/shop to see what we have in store. You’ll be able to pay via Paypal (you can pay with your credit card using Paypal even if you don’t have a paypall account).

You can order your Christmas tree (before Friday 27 November please); copies of the cookbook in both print or Pdf versions; and some cute little matching tea towels:

Screen Shot 2020-11-23 at 21.09.54.png

Also available are some prints and a tea towel featuring the stunning new playground mural by Ivana Zorn:

Screen Shot 2020-11-23 at 21.10.04.png

And finally, our Grasmere School activity pack – handy if you are stuck at home and have run out of ideas to entertain your kids!

Could you make something to sell in our shop to raise funds for the school?

We’re thinking Christmas wreaths, artworks, homemade gifts or cards, etc. There are a lot of great ideas to inspire you in this document from another school. If you have an idea and would like to contribute, let us know by emailing frogs.grasmere@gmail.com as soon as possible. Thank you!

FROGS CHRISTMAS UPDATE

Thanks to your generous donations, our FROGS elves are busy preparing a Christmas present for each Grasmere pupil. We will update you on their work very soon, but in the meantime, we’re sure you will be pleased to know that the gifts will be presented to the children on Friday 11 December by no other than Santa and the Grinch…

The donations will also allow us to give lovely presents to the entire staff.

We’re also busy planning a new mural, and some events for next year...
Please see the minutes of the last FROGS meeting here.

The next FROGS meeting will be on 13 January.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

November 2020 Newsletter

Hello, 

Thank you so much to all who have donated on our Halloween Dress Up day, we raised £390 thanks to your generosity. Thank you also to those who took part in the Balloon Race (see below for results), which raised £160, and to those who have ordered some holiday cards, as we have raised over £200 with the scheme. 

We will make sure to spend this wisely on our many projects to improve the school facilities and organise fun events for the kids. 

Here's a little update on the latest FROGS projects. 

THE NEW QUIET ZONE PLAYGROUND

IMG-0985.JPG

We've transformed an unused area behind the hall, which was previously occupied by FROGS storage, into a lovely and bright Quiet playground for SENDS kids.

Designed and decorated by Grasmere parent Julie, the space features a mural by artist Ivana Zorn (a print of which will be soon available on our new online shop – watch this space!) and some colourful matching benches, made of 100% recycled plastic. Grasmere's very own caretaker Billy helped handbuild a fence to secure the area, which will be much appreciated by the Grasmere kids who really needed a quiet area during break times. The whole project cost us £1,150 – see our Projects page for more details and pictures.

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 10.29.00.png

Congratulations to Kate, Tom and Leander, who have won the Grasmere Halloween Balloon Race. Their virtual balloons travelled the furthest from Romania, flying over Turkey toward Georgia. Each winner has received a £10 book voucher.

SHOP AT YIELD

The lovely folks at Yield on Newington Green are supporting FROGS by giving away 5% per of the value of each sale if you mention the name of the school when you buy their products (they also do gift hampers!).

YieldOffer.jpg

ORDER YOUR CHRISTMAS Tree now

Christmas tree.jpg

Last year we raised over £500 thanks to those of you who ordered their Christmas tree through our Trees for Christmas scheme. You will find all the info you need here – please fill in the form before 27 November and hand it back to your class teacher.

PARENTS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Please put your thinking caps on and let us know event each class is planning on organising to raise funds for the school next year as soon as possible (ideally before our next meeting on 20 November).

Calltoaction.jpg

THE GRASMERE COOKBOOK

The Grasmere cookbook is nearly complete, thank you so much to all who have contributed. Comprising 50 recipes, including 5 from local restaurants and bakeries, it will soon be available to buy online (both as a print or a digital version) on our online shop, due to go live in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled!

Cookbookimage.jpg

A GIFT FROM FROGS

Covidbook.jpg

We’ve offered a copy this book to each Grasmere class. It's illustrated by Axel Scheffler of The Gruffalo, and we hope that it will help teachers and pupils discuss the pandemic together in a reassuring way.

FROGS’ NEXT MEETING

The next Zoom meeting will be on Friday 20 November at 9.15, please join in (details to be sent on class Whatsapp groups) or email us at frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you can’t attend but have any suggestions, questions, or queries that could be discussed at the meeting. 

Among other things we are planning to discuss the Albion Road pedestrian crossing, which many children and parents are finding unsafe, especially with the increased traffic on the road. If you have any experience of an incident on Albion Road, please email us or the school directly to let us know what happened, as it will help convince the council to improve things. 

We’re also planning a little Christmas gift bag to be distributed to each Grasmere pupil, so if you can help in any way with the contents by donating or sourcing affordable and eco-friendly things, please let us know.

Thank you all for your support,

FROGS

 

October 2020 Newsletter

WHAT’S COOKING? 

We hope you are all well and ready for half-term! Despite the difficult circumstances, the Friends of Grasmere have quite a few things planned for this year. Next up: Dress up day and the Halloween Virtual Balloon Race

Dressupday.jpg
BalloonHalloween.png

Also in the works: the Holiday card scheme, the Grasmere Cookbook and a discount scheme with local shop Yield. Plus, you’ll be able to order your Christmas tree soon and raise money for the school at the same time.

PARENTS VOLUNTEER NEEDED

Calltoaction.jpg

Over the last few years, we have raised thousands of pounds to transform the school into a more colourful, fun and welcoming place for our children. And this year more than ever, we need your help to keep up the good work!

Last year our various events had raised over £7,000 before lockdown, but this year with no jumble sales or fairs and we’ll have to to raise money differently.

Which is why we kindly ask each year group to organise one fundraising event for the school year. What will your year come up with? Other ideas so far include a Virtual Pub quiz; sporty challenges (such as relay race, steps challenge, yoga…); a virtual auction; and the summer fair.

Please let us know as soon as possible how you would like to help!

THIS YEAR’S MAIN PROJECTS

This year we are planning to focus our efforts on two main areas of the school with much-needed transformations:

 1. The KS2 Playground and garden

Now more than ever we need some flexible and sheltered outdoor space.

In the KS2 playground, we are planning to paint and furnish the new container pavilion; add some artificial grass and a deck/stage area with an awning; install a new basketball net; and finish painting some of the murals – including the main library wall mural by artist Rémi Rough (see our Current projects).

In the garden, we are hoping to build a large wooden gazebo that could serve as an outdoor classroom (we have applied to Tesco Bags of Help scheme for funding on this and are waiting to hear back from them), and are planning to install an outdoor music wall in the spring.

2. The Hall

We are also hoping to help transform the hall with new speakers, as well as a sound absorption system to help soften the aggressive acoustics in the hall, in order to improve the sound for future performances, assembly and events. We would also like to look into new play equipment for the space.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

To donate directly for these projects, write “Outdoor Space” or “Hall” in the Message section when you make a donation on Kindlink. We are also keen to hear from you if you can donate your time or your expertise; simply email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com.

You will find more ways to get involved here, and the minutes of the last FROGS meeting here.

Thank you for your help & take care,

FROGS

 

Wanted: tasty recipes!

Hello!

This month we are looking for your help to create our very own Grasmere School Cookcook! Please contribute, all recipes very welcome:

Cookbook.jpg

Also, just a reminder that the next FROGS meeting is next week, on Wednesday 7 October at 8pm (Zoom meeting details to come).

UPDATE: The next meeting has been moved to Tuesday 13 October at 7pm (Zoom details to follow). Please join if you can, especially if you have Covid-friendly fundraising ideas or can help us produce the cookbook!

Thank you and take care!

FROGS

September 2020 Newsletter

Hello,

At last week’s FROGS AGM, we discussed among other things the positive impact of the new art room and laptops, the remaining work needed for the KS2 playground, and – virtual – fundraising ideas for the difficult year ahead. We welcomed new committee members and class reps, and also bid goodbye to our longstanding treasurer, Tom. You will find the full minutes of last week's AGM here.

Fundraising ideas

We are planning virtual balloon races, sport and yoga themed fundraisers, and hopefully a real-life auction and garden party at the end of the year. Also in the works are a community cookbook and artists’ prints and cards to be sold on the upcoming FROGS shop. Please get in touch if you can help with artworks, designs, photography or illustration for FROGS shop items. Further ideas, thoughts and suggestions very welcome!

Your class reps

Your class reps this year are :

Reception Caroline & Momina; Y2 Gill & Jenn; Y2 Léa & Lindsey; Y3 Anna Clara & Julia; Y4 Antoinette & Andrew; Y5 Sally & Megan; Y6 Ruth & Josephine

Please can in touch with them for any queries, suggestions, fundraising ideas, or contact us on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com.

We are also missing 2 class reps to represent the Nursery class, please let us know if you would like to help.

Next meeting

The next FROGS meeting will be Wednesday 7 October in the evening. We will then try and alternate morning and evening meetings to give people the best chance of being able to come along.

You will find provisional dates for future events and meetings here.

Welcome back

Hello !

The Friends of Grasmere School have a shiny new website:
friendsofgrasmere.com.

Please have a look to find out what we’re about, what we have achieved so far, and how you can help!

If you want to get involved, please come along to the FROGS AGM, which will be held on Wednesday 16 September in the evening via Zoom. Please email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com for the meeting details. Anyone interested in being a class rep or joining the committee is particularly welcome.

To follow our latest projects, scroll down and sign up to the FROGS newsletter.

For obvious reasons all FROGS events are on hold for the moment until it is safe for us to get together again. If you have any other ideas for fundraising or indeed any suggestions or comments generally, do get in touch via frogs.grasmere@gmail.com) or your class reps.

Take care!

FROGS

May Newsletter

Hello

Minutes of recent FROGS meetings
Here are the minutes of the March and May FROGS meetings.

For obvious reasons all FROGS events are on hold for the moment until it is safe for us to get together again. If you have any other ideas for fundraising or indeed any suggestions or comments generally, do get in touch via grasmere.frogs@gmail.com or your class reps. 

Your School Lottery
Click here for details of the latest Your School Lottery promotion. The lottery generates funds for FROGS and there is a Grasmere cash prize to be won every week along with a chance to win a much bigger national cash prize.

Take care!
FROGS

A big thank you

Parents and carers raised over £1,000 as a gift to the Grasmere staff in recognition of their work during the Covid-19 pandemic, keeping the school open for the children of key workers and helping the other parents and children with home learning. We hope they treat themselves to a nice party when all this is over!