Keep up to date with the latest News here.

• Head Teacher's Blog!

  Thu 15 Feb 2018 Mrs Michelle Bates

  Week Ending 15^th February 2018

   

  This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

   

  Abigail – EYFS – for amazing writing using phonics skills and tricky words. She was also able to use full stops accurately.

  Verity – Year 3 – for using conjunctions to create subordinating clauses. She was also able to edit and improve her work.

   

  Attendance figures this week are as follows:

   

  Classes 8, 10 and 12 all received 100% attendance – GREAT!

   

  Week Ending 15^th February 2018

   

  Wow…A really really super week! Super busy, but super special! The children have come to the end of their topics for this half term and what a celebratory week it has been…with lots of parental engagement and involvement.

   

  Year 1 invited their parents into school this week, to take part in a space spectacular quiz. There were questions, challenges and I even had to judge a rocket making competition. The parents were all very engaged and extremely competitive. The team that won the overall competition all cheered and I thought they were going to shoot off to space with excitement themselves.

   

  Linked to space, year 5 also shared their studies with the parents today. The hall was full of PowerPoint slides sharing their knowledge of space; I read fact files about the different planets; read non-fictions texts about space written by the children; was in awe of the chalk artwork and really enjoyed observing their paper mache planets, which hung through the hall. Another great parental event experience.

   

  This week, Year 4 did a parental event with a difference. They decided to walk to Colliers walk for their science studies and took as many parents and grandparents with them as they could. Almost 30 parents walked with Mr Leyshon, Mr Fisher and the whole year, and they experienced first-hand how exciting the curriculum can be outdoors. It was cold, wet, chilly…but the children loved it and I heard many positive things about their experiences.

   

  To top the week off, I also went to Kimberley Leisure Centre today to support our swimming gala team. All the competitors did really well and tried their very very best. The team supported their peers and other schools and represented themselves and the school well. They displayed great sportsmanship and were happy with their 5th place finish. Well done to all, who took part. 

   

  A truly amazing half term at Team GB! A reminder that it is INSET day tomorrow. Have a great half term and enjoy the rest, everyone!

   

  Warm regards,

  Mrs Bates

  Head Teacher

• Head Teacher's Blog!

  Thu 08 Feb 2018 Mrs Michelle Bates

  Thursday 8^th February 2018

   

  This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

   

  Harry – EYFS – for fantastic formation of the letter ‘d’ and showing great attitude towards his learning in phonics and finger gym.

  Josh – Year 2 – for fantastic effort when writing his fable. His handwriting was so beautiful and much improved.

  Amelia – Year 2 – for a fantastic piece of fable writing, which included inverted commas, commas in a list and apostrophes.

  Charlie – Year 2 – for writing an excellent piece of writing about a kangaroo. Lots of adjectives used and good us of full stops and capital letters.

   

  Attendance figures this week are as follows:

   

  WILF will be visiting class 5 for 100% attendance.

  Jessica will be visiting class 8 for 99.2% attendance.

  Third place for attendance goes to Class 10 for 98.8%

   

  The ‘Top Table’ VIP lunch awards goes to:

   

  Denny – Class 1

  Robyn – Class 2

  Riley – Class 3

  Oliver – Class 5

  Ava – Class 6

  Lily – Class 8

  Lucy – Class 13

  Emily – Class 14

   

  Week Ending 9^th February 2018

   

  Once again, a very busy but productive week at Greasley Beauvale. I am so proud of how hard all the children and staff are working and the place is a hive of positivity and progress. Gold book certificates are currently the perfect evidence that children are becoming more resilient and positive about their learning. They are challenging themselves further and understanding the ‘Power of Yet’ – We may not be able to do something ‘YET’, but we will if we try and try again! Eventually, we can all make progress if we try and persevere.

   

  On Monday morning, we had an important whole school assembly all about water safety. Trisha Caine came in from the Nottinghamshire County Council and spoke with us about what to do if we are out and spot someone in trouble in water. We now know that we can follow the SAFE rule: Shout for help; Assess how we can safely help; throw something that Floats for the person to hold onto (if there isn't a flotation ring then something like a football or large empty water bottle with the lid on) and call the Emergency services using 999 or 112. We know we must NEVER get into the water ourselves because then there will be another person in danger. Thank you to Lauren from Class 9 and William from Class 1, who helped our visitor to demonstrate how to rescue someone safely.

   

  On Monday evening, we had another super staff meeting on the new school vision for 2018. All staff and governors joined us, where we talked at length about the ideas from yourselves and the children. We talked, debated and thrashed out how to incorporate the chosen words into a vision statement, which can then be understood by everyone involved with the school and the local community. We designed what the vision statement could look like and how we will make it accessible and believable for all. Another exciting step towards the vision being complete and ready to share with you very soon. Watch this space!

   

  A reminder of the chosen words for the vision from children, parents, staff and governors:

  Effective communication, social skills, independence, creative, resilience, respect, self-confidence, challenging yourself, risk-taking, aspirational, empathy, curious and forward-thinking.

   

  If anyone has a skill, or contact, in graphic design work then please come and talk to me and there may well be a project coming your way!

   

  Well, there is a first time for everything at Team GB and this week was the first for our film night events. Pupil Parliament originally suggested this idea for an afternoon event. However, this was negotiated with myself and the two nights (instead of the regular disco) were decided upon as a compromise. Pupil Parliament worked very hard to plan the idea, suggesting that we had an EYFS and KS1 night and then an additional night for KS2. They organised votes for the films and attend the fun themselves. EYFS and KS1 watched Boss Baby and KS2 thoroughly enjoyed watching the Emoji movie. The Greasley HUB team did an amazing job too; I have never seen so many hotdogs and bags of Haribos being served on trays (just like the good old days)…and they wore their PJs too (even some had a Christmas theme!). The film nights were very well-attended and the event was a huge success. Thank you for allowing the children to attend. Without your support, the children would miss such opportunities and our school fund would be minimal. The Greasley Hub are currently supporting me in raising funds to develop our outdoor playground provision. The two film nights managed to raise approximately £1,000 towards such an extensive and expensive project. I am very grateful to everyone for helping out, but primarily, the children loved it! Thank you!

   

  On Wednesday, we supported ‘Safer Internet Day’…and, once again, very valuable messages were shared. The theme this year was, "Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you", which is a call to action for every stakeholder to play their part in creating a better internet for everyone, in particular the youngest users out there. More than that, it is an invitation for everyone to join in and engage with others in a respectful way in order to ensure a better digital experience. https://www.saferinternetday.org/web/sid/home is a useful webpage to give you the advice, support and resources to help you share those important messages at home. The internet can be a very fun, informative and an amazing place to explore the world around us. However, it can also be an extremely dangerous, damaging and scary place to explore. The stories I sometimes hear are very worrying and start so innocently. How scary that it is actually getting to a point where internet use in the home can sometimes be more dangerous than allowing our children out to play on the park or ride a bike around on the streets. Please protect your children at home on the internet. Check their phones, limit their access, limit social media access and be vigilant.

   

  On that note, keep safe, have a fabulous weekend and enjoy the rest, everyone!

   

  Warm regards,

  Mrs Bates

  Head Teacher

• Head Teacher's Blog!

  Fri 02 Feb 2018 Mrs Michelle Bates

  Week Ending 2nd February 2018

   

  This week, the following children have received a Head Teacher’s Award:

   

  WOW…so many this week!

   

  Evie – EYFS – for spelling some of her key words accurately and being able to put them into a sentence independently to match a picture

  Zara – Year 3 – for fabulous use of inverted commas in her dialogue homework and accurately using the 8x table

  Miley – Year 3 – for beautifully creative artwork designing Stone Age necklaces

  Callum – Year 1 – for using his number bonds knowledge to write subtraction numbers sentences

  Noah – Year 1 – for using his number bonds knowledge to write subtraction numbers sentences

  Beatrice – Year 1 – for writing an amazing sentence independently about Neil Armstrong using full stops and capital letters accurately

  Freddie – Year 2 – for following instructions FIRST time ALL day, listening well and answering some great questions!

  Oliver – Year 5 – For writing a fantastic scientific description of why we have night and day

  Morgan – Year 5 – For developing a much neater and consistent style of handwriting after breaking his arm. So much effort to get back to a neat and joined style

  Alexander – EYFS – For trying REALLY hard in literacy and using his phonetic knowledge to write the word ‘Sam’

  Archie – EYFS – For some brilliant writing: using the tricky word ‘I’ and being able to segment ‘Sam’ independently

  Eva – EYFS – For writing a sentence independently for the first time and using finger spaces and a full stop

  Robyn – EYFS – WOW…for writing a whole story independently, using excellent letter formation and superb spelling

   

  Attendance figures this week are as follows:

   

  WILF will be visiting class 5 for 100% attendance.

  Jessica will be visiting class 9 for 99.7% attendance.

  3^rd place for attendance goes to Class 4 for 99.3%

   

  Diary of the week:

   

  Once again, another enjoyable and busy week in school.

   

  My week started on Monday morning with an assembly about achievements; what achievements are really about for us as individuals? I am a huge believer that talents and achievements sometimes go beyond the classroom…and rightly so. Over the last few weeks, I have seen a number of children with medals, trophies and certificates and it is important to me, and the school, that these talents are recognised and celebrated. Please encourage your children to share their achievements with us. Feel free to email me photos of your child achieving something outside of school or tell them to see me with their trophies, medals and certificates…or even an anecdote of something they should be proud to tell us. It always makes my day when I hear how children are challenging themselves…even out of school! As part of the assembly, I also talked about the fact that achievements are not just about being awarded with a medal, trophy or certificate. I asked the children what else an achievement could be and they suggested:

   

  1. Achieving a goal;
  2. Planning to do a task and then being able to complete it;
  3. Being able to better scores without actually achieving top marks;
  4. Small steps to meet a target;
  5. Feeling much happier about something, which has previously made you feel unhappy, worried or sad

   

  On Monday evening, our staff meeting concentrated on meeting the ‘expected standard’ and ‘greater depth’ in writing throughout the Primary years. We looked at the materials sent to us by the Department for Education and the standards that they deem to demonstrate the expected and greater depth standard. As a school, we are constantly aiming higher and are working on ways in which to challenge some of our children even more, whilst still making their writing experiences fun, real and enjoyable.

   

  Tuesday was a very long day; spent in many a meeting and ticking off items on the ‘things to do list’. But, what a joy it was when Mrs Barrowcliffe presented me with a surprise at 7pm when I left school; a scrumptious dinner in a foil container saying, ‘For your tea, Mrs Bates J’. I was delighted to see that Tuesday night’s afterschool cooking club had cooked me my very own, rather large, toad in the hole. Following a disastrous Tesco delivery at 8pm, it was true fate and absolutely delicious! Just look below at the photos! It totally made my day and my little note from the children was delightful! My husband really was rather jealous. I really am looking forward to apple crumble next week. Thank you, children, and thanks also to Mrs Barrowcliffe for arranging and organising such a great club. Currently, year 6 children are beavering away in their SAT boosters on a Tuesday evening, but we promise to make such a club available to them later in the year.

   

  This week, the children have been thinking about the 13 words we have chosen for the new school vision and have been helping the staff to write their own school vision statements. On Monday, these will be very useful as we are meeting with governors and all staff to put together what the new vision may look and sound like. Exciting!

   

  Gold book was brilliant this week, and I loved presenting the news about our first ever ‘Top Table’ for lunch on a Friday. The children have been awarded for their manners in the dinner hall this week, helping others when needed, making more of an effort when eating their lunch and generally being helpful to the dinner staff. I think the photo below reflects their delight at such a reward.

   

  The NEW ‘Top Table’ VIP lunch awards goes to:

   

  Ethan – class 5

  Amelia – class 5

  Freddie – class 6

  Keegan – class 3

  Stephanie – class 2

  Paige – class 13

  William – class 7

  KJ – Class 9

   

  A great week in school and a well-earned restful weekend for everyone. Have fun!

   

  Warm regards,

  Mrs Michelle Bates

  (Head Teacher)