Volume 1, Issue 1
November 2016
News reported by the children, for the children!
Welcome to our newspaper! Welcome to the first issue of the Gonerby Gazette. Here you will find lots of information on all the goings on in and around our School, Gonerby Hill Foot Church of England Primary School. Every month we will be reporting on what the children and our staff have been doing to make our school a happy and successful place to learn and on how we are living out our school values.
I am delighted that the children have produced our newsletter this month. With the support of Mrs Brown and Mrs Ludlam who are running our lunchtime club, they have been busy working on their reports, collecting quotes and taking photos. I am sure you will agree they have done a great job in producing a good read! The children are hoping to regularly produce or contribute to the monthly newsletter which will make it much more exciting. Mrs Stylianides
We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Speechley, Joshua Durrands’ nan. She has knitted us a fantastic nativity set and made a beautiful stable to go with it. Both children and grown-ups are captivated by it.
Page 2
Gonerby Gazette
National Roast Dinner Day On the 2nd of November, it was National Roast Dinner Day at GHF.
Our Head teacher Mrs Stylianides allowed parents in to eat with their children.
Schools across the country were serving freshly prepared, roast dinner to staff, students and their families as part of Food for Life’s annual Roast Dinner Day.
We have been reporting on this important day and also interviewed both Mrs Effield—the office manager—and Mrs Stylianides, as well as several of the students and collected their comments.
Launched by former school cook and co-founder of Food for Life, Jeanette Orrey, Roast Dinner Day recognises the fantastic work of cooks and catering staff carried out every day to feed and educate our children. Jeanette Orrey said, “Roast Dinner Day is a great opportunity for schools and caterers to showcase the amazing work the y do in schools and nurseries every single day to feed and educate our children.”
Here are some of those comments: Lilly from Year 1 says that she “Likes her roast dinner a lot and wants some more!” Mrs Hills from Carroll class quoted, “The food is lovely and the company is great.” Francesca in Year 5 said that she “Loved her lunch and the dinner ladies.” When we interviewed Mrs Stylianides and Mrs Effield, they explained to us why it
was important to have days like this and how it connects to our values as a Church of England School. It connects to service because we saw parents helping the students with their lunch. Compassion because everybody was enjoying it and making friends. Community, because everyone pulled together to achieve it. We also thought it was a good idea to do this kind of activity more often as everyone enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who came and supported our National Roast Dinner Day. We hope to see you at the next one. By Sian Richards & Carys Davie, Y4
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
Talented Young GHF Writers We are delighted to announce that GHF has been awarded the Food for Life Bronze Award. We have been working towards this for at least 12 months. It shows that our school is doing fantastic work to provide healthy school meals, great lunchtimes and food education that has a positive impact on both pupils and the wider community. Well done to everyone involved!
Last summer, Mrs Daley sent off lots of our pupils’ poems to the Young Writers’ Once Upon a Dream competition. There were more than 25,000 entries and six of our pupils’ poems were chosen for entry in a book showcasing Young Writers’ work. The book will be called Once Upon Dream – World of Dreams and it will be published in February 2017. The children were delighted to receive their Talent for Writing certificates and especially excited to hear that their work is being published! A huge congratulations and well done goes out to: Daniel Kelly, Ellis Maddy, Lola-Mae Hodgkinson, Millie Hollingworth, Lewis Pimlott and Grace Pimlott.
Page 4
Gonerby Gazette
School Dresses up To Raise Money Pudsey Day!
How much money has been raised to date?
Why do we dress up on Children In Need Day?
An outstanding £600 million has been raised to help disabled and young children in the UK.
We dress up to raise money for the charity Children in Need. Money raised helps to change the lives of young children all across the UK. When Was Pudsey Bear introduced? Pudsey bear was used as the Children in Need mascot in 1985 and has been used to this day. Pudsey bear was created by BBC designer Joanna Ball, and took his name from her home town in Yorkshire.
We raised £324 on the day and would like to thank everyone for their support. The TV program The first ever episode of Children in Need was on the 21st of November 1980. It was presented by the famous Terry Wogan and Sue Lawley on the BBC. Alice Harrop quoted:” It is a good idea that we raise money for people who are having a difficult time at home.”
Best Outfit!!!! Pudsey day at Gonerby Hill Foot School was amazing! Everyone was dressed up in their best spotty outfits. One of our students, Amelia Rose, said that, ” Pudsey Bear is a bear for Charity.” She also quoted that, to raise money you could either go to a charity shop and buy a toy or you could have a sponsored chocolate eating challenge.
Reported by Daniel Kelly & Abigail Buckeridge, Y6
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 5
Pupil Helps to Raise Money Within the Community By Maisie Williamson, Year 5
Over the last 5 years, my brother and I have helped to organize a cake stall for the Children in Need charity. We run the stall at the Great Gonerby Post Office with support from family and friends. This year, we had a record number of delicious cakes donated
to the stall by the people from the village, family and friends. We had a lovely morning, and were well supported with lots of generous donations. This year’s total added up to an astonishing £945, taking our overall total to a whopping £4100!!!
Even the teachers got to enjoy a piece of yummy carrot cake made by my grandma. As we were given so many cakes, we were able to deliver some to the church in town, which supports the homeless.
Colour me in
Page 6
Gonerby Gazette
Anti-Bullying Week
This term, GHF Primary School has been focused on AntiBullying Week. During the week we learnt how it affects people and why people do it. Earlier this week, we had an assembly about bullying. Mrs Stylianides told us a story about a girl called Lucy who was full of happy emotions, but when she got to school, all the happy emotions were replaced with sad ones because she was being bullied.
was gay. It went on for 8 horrible years and he ran all those marathons to raise money and awareness for 2 Antibullying charities. He said that it made him feel isolated, unwanted, unloved and not nice and that no one should be made to feel like that. Some members of our staff have gladly given
at younger, smaller people or groups for being jealous or for fun.” stated Mr Folmer. Mrs Tosh also reported that, “Bullying is when someone is persistently being hurt, that can be physically or mentally.” Lexie in KS1 said, “Bullying is a very bad thing and no one should do it.” Daniel in KS2 also quoted, “It is disgraceful and people should stand up to it.”
their opinions on bullying. Mrs Ludlam said, “Bullying is an unacceptable behaviour. It has lasting effects: Mentally and/or physically on one individual/victim. Everyone should feel that they can tell a responsible adult if they are feeling/being bullied.”
The next day, Ben Smith (he ran 401 marathons in 401 days) came to our school to tell us about how and why he was bullied. Ben “Bullying can be unkind actions that are targeted was bullied because he
I hope that our students gained more knowledge into what bullying is and how to spot it. They should all now look out for one another. By Francesca Hall, Year 5
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 7
Anti-Bullying Poems Bullying!! It’s happening all around, throwing kids on the ground. Physical ,emotional ,cyber and verbal. It’s a huge problem not just a little hurtle , kids should not have to have this fear, they shouldn’t have to cry a tear. They should skip peacefully through the playground and not have to put up a fight . Crying tears we need to stand up and get this message spread. Kids shouldn’t feel this low and have marks to show. STOP BULLYING NOW!! Everyone wants happiness. No one wants pain. But you can’t have a rainbow, Without a little rain. Both Poems were written by Marianna Magro, Year 6 A Poem from the Bullies Side I like to watch you cry. Although I wouldn’t want you to die, I also like to see you scream. When I walk down the corridor, all the kids run a mile or more. I make fun of their clothes and I know all the time it’s me they loathe. How many kids have I beaten up? And felt anger building up? Or made fun of them at the school gate? I’m getting sick of this bullying lark. Some people think it’s a proper laugh. Now I think it’s a real waste. I don’t know why I started in the first place.
Reading This week, we held briefings on reading in school for parents in Y1/2 and in Reception. Parents who attended found these very useful and said that they understood how to support their child much better as a result. We will be delivering the briefing again in January at a different time in the day to give parents a second chance to attend. In the meantime, information that was shared at the meetings can be found on our website at www.gonerbyhillfoot.co.uk/reading. In school we have a subscription to Phonics Play, a web based resource, to support our teaching of Phonics in infant classes. There is a selection of free resources/ activities that can be accessed at home via the homepage. To access the full set of resources at home, parents can take out an individual subscription which costs £12 per year. There is a 7 day free trial so parents can try it before they buy. www.phonicsplay.co.uk
Thank you to everyone who came along to our book fair. We had a brilliant turnout and it was great to see so many children excited to buy a book. Overall we raised £342 to spend on books for the library. We especially want to thank the FSA who ran the fair for us everyday and have donated a further £1000 for even more books This money was raised through your support of school events and it is very much appreciated. Well done to Alfie who was the Lincolnshire Library’s Summer Reading Challenge winner. He was one of 272 children that took part in Grantham and he was presented with his prize, an Acer tablet.
Updates from the School Office Parentmail have released a new app for your smartphone. It enables mail to be sent securely and quickly and the message facility will save school lots of money that is spent on text messages. You can download the App for free from either the Apple APP store or the Google Play Store simply search Gonerby Hill Foot School Thank you to all the parents who have already registered on Parentmail, this saves us producing paper copies and means letters don’t get lost on the way home. By registering on Parentmail you have access to any forms that need to be completed and the ability to pay online for school trips. If you need any help with Parentmail the school office are always happy to help.
Key Dates For Your Diaries Dec 2016 Thurs 1st FSA Discos – 5:30pm Infants, 6:45pm KS2 Tues 6th Non Uniform Day for Xmas Fair donation Thurs 8th Church schools choir festival Fri 9th
Christmas Fair th
Tues 13 Performances – 1:15pm Rec, 2:10pm Y1/2 Wed 14th Performances – 9:15am Rec, 10:15am Y1/2 Infant Panto trip in the afternoon th
Thurs 15 Christmas Dinner Day Fri 16th
Christmas Jumper Day th
Mon 19 KS2 Christmas Service, 2pm in St Sebastian’s Tues 20th 9:15am Infant Christmas Service in school 2pm KS2 Christmas Singalong
If your child is ill please telephone the school office as soon as possible in the morning to let us know about their absence. To help prevent the spread of infection, please note that pupils should not return to school within 48 hours of the last episode of diarrhoea or vomiting.
Jan 2017 Wed 4th Pupils back in school Fri 6th
Takeover Day
Thurs 12th Young Voices in Sheffield
