Mrs Holcroft's Blog
Friday 4th April 2014
A very busy and enjoyable end to the Spring Term! Bingo was a great success last night, thanks to everyone who supported us, we will let you know how much we raised after the Easter break!
Today, the children have had great fun with their Easter activities; please see the class blogs for more information and photographs. This morning our Reception parents came in to help the children in a phonic egg hunt, it was great to see how many sounds the children have learnt since September!
Once again we have had a great response to the egg competition, every egg on display impressed! (photographs to follow)
Our final assembly was a long one!! We listened to the Easter story, had a visit from the Easter Bunny and said good bye and good luck to Mrs Wilson, who gained a promotion and is moving on to pastures new. We will miss her but will stay in touch.
Have a great Easter break, enjoy, relax and stay safe!
Thursday 3rd April 2014
A big well done and congratulations to our Year 6 Quiz team, who enjoyed competing at Haydock High last night!
Wednesday 2nd April 2014
There are lots of exciting things happening in school! Yesterday our musical children in KS2 performed in front of their parents and the rest of the school (pictures below). Mrs Gabbitas and Mr Smith were really proud of the children's singing and playing. Today Year 3 went to Haydock High for a 'Health Day' on their return I had lots of good reports about their behaviour and manners! Well done children!
Tuesday 1st April 2014
BABY NEWS! We welcome to the world baby Oscar Ramsdale born at 1:07am, weighing 8lb 5oz. Both mum and baby are doing really well!!
Monday 31st March 2014
During assembly this morning we talked about being brave and who we can talk to when we are scared. Oliver recieved a bravery award for how he dealt with his accident on Friday. We all decided that Oliver was our real hero because he managed to stay calm and walked away from being trapped smiling!
Friday 28th March 2014
I had a lovely surprise this morning from Daniel and Libby in Year 1! Firstly they came to show me their fantastic work, they had both worked hard on producing non-fiction books and I must say their writing was amazing!! Then after they had proudly showed their work they gave me a lovely hand crafted pot plant for Mother’s Day, this made me cry! How kind, thank you so much Year 1! On that note, I would like to wish all our Mums, Grans and Nans a happy Mother's Day for Sunday. Try and have a rest and let your children pamper you on this special day!
Thursday 27th March 2014
The children and Mrs Steele have started to prepare the garden beds for lots of planting, we already have lots of strawberry shoots beginning to appear!
Wednesday 26th March 2014
I can't believe we only have seven days left of the spring term, the summer term is only around the corner!
Tuesday 25th March 2014
We are pleased to announce that we raised a total of £210.40 for Sports Relief. Thank you to everyone who supported us with this worthwhile charity. Still on the sporting theme, today I enjoyed watching Y4 do some fantastic gymnastic routines in PE and then evaluate their own and each other’s performances, saying what they thought they did well and how they could further improve, well done Y4!
Monday 24th March 2014
During today's assembly we talked about 'being responsible'. The children thought of lots of different ways that they could demonstrate 'being responsible' through their behaviour! We compared this to 'Anti-social behaviour' and how negative behaviour makes people feel. We all decided that we were glad that in our school children show more responsible, positive behaviours rather than negative ones! Lots of children were keen to talk about this further during lunch time and enjoyed showing me how kind and helpful they were! Well done children!!
Friday 21st March 2014
Children have had great fun learning about the Sport Relief Charity. Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries. At the heart of the campaign is the "Sport Relief Mile", which involves members of the public doing their bit for charity. Comic Relief teamed up with the newly established Sport Relief initiative in 2002 and alternates with Sport Relief, airing every second year in March. All classes have taken part in different sporting activities at some time across the day. I enjoyed watching Y5 perfect their bowling technique during a cricket session, where they were putting into practice all the skills that they had learned from our Lancashire County Cricket Coach, Mr Chambers. Miss Hitchen and Miss Sheffield’s bowling had come on a treat!
Thank you for all your support today the children enjoyed coming to school in their own sport's clothing. I will let you know on Monday how much money we raised . Have a good weekend .
Thursday 20th March 2014
We managed to get out today at lunchtime, just before it started to rain! It was lovely to see the older children taking care of the younger childen. They were enjoying a little rest sitting on our new log seating area, under the big tree, in the centre of our playground.
Easter Raffle!
Ticket on sale at break times.
20p each £1 per strip.
Wednesday 19th March 2014
School is a busy place today, here is a snapshot of what was happening when I walked around!
Year 5 were having fun playing cricket with Mr Chambers!
Mrs Steele was busy putting up a lovely new display, in the hall!
Reception were celebrating 'Science Week' in style!
Tuesday 18th March 2014 ** HAPPY FIRST BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY!**
** How exciting, I've just realised that I have now been blogging for a whole year! It is lovely to be able to look back at a year in the life of Grange Valley!!**
I have had a great day thanks to our lovely reception class! Firstly, Lucas and Jake marched proudly to my office to show me how clever they were, the boys had worked really hard on their CVC words, together! Well done you two!!
Then at lunch time I took a large and very willing group of reception children to the garden, to see what we could find! We found a lovely patch of chives and decided to wash them and taste them... Zevin thought it was yuck, Georgia decided she liked chives and Alexia needed a drink after!!
Monday 17th March 2014
I can't believe it is week four of a six week term! All children have been working extremely hard and having lots of fun. School is the best place to be in the spring term!
Friday 14th March 2014
On a walk around school, this morning, I stumbled across a group of Reception children making an alien hide out! The children were thinking of ways to capture aliens. What great fun you can have with pieces of material, boxes and a great imagination!! Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday.
Thursday 13th March 2014
It is 7:15pm and we are getting to the end of a very successful parents evening, a BIG thank you to all our parents for your continued support! We appreciate it! The book sale has also gone extremely well, our Year 5 business team have exceeded their £500 target, well done children!
Wednesday 12th March 2014
We have all enjoyed the sunshine today! The children have been playing together nicely and some have enjoyed starting to think about and prepare for Gardening Club, which will begin again very soon! Year 5 and 6 children enjoyed having their parents in for our last reading workshop, thank you to all the parents, from every year group, who joined in! Don't forget it's Parents Evening tomorrow, we are looking forward to seeing you all and telling you how much progress your children are making!
Tuesday 11th March 2014
Well done to our KS1 football team! Our talented group of boys and girls from Year 1 and 2 came second in the St Helens Festival organised by Everton. The children won 4 out of their 5 games! We are very proud!
Monday 10th March 2014
Captain Gramaticus has been into school to help the children learn all about how to use punctuation and better their writing, in a fun way! The children loved watching Captain Gramaticus and couldn't wait to start writing and show off what they had learnt.
Thank you, to all the Year 1 and 2 parents who came in to school, this afternoon, to read with their child and other children!
Friday 7th March 2014
Today has been an amazing, busy day! Thank you to all the parents who supported the children with their book themed dressing up costume, we had some fantastic book characters! All children will receive the £1 book token of World Book day which could be put towards a book from our book fayre, next week. Five character where chosen to receive a £5 token to spend at the book fayre. Mrs Bailey and Mrs Gribben chose five of the best costumes (not an easy choice!) The winners were: Zac (YR), Kieran (Y1), Ruby (Y3), Nina (Y4) and Victoria (Y5)
Please take a look on the class blogs for more World Book Day photographs!
A big thank you to Gabriel M (Y2) for making Mrs Threlkeld and myself an axe to go with our wood cutters costumes!
We have also been busy planting the trees that will provide us with an outdoor classroom space! All the children enjoyed helping and watching the space grow. It is a project that we will be developing all year round and hopefully we will raise some money to add an activity trail and seating area for all children!
Today's Toptablers!! Well done to Holly B (Y2), Layla G (Y3), Tyler U (Y4), Eleanor O (Y5) and Elle H (Y5)
Thursday 6th March 2014
Walking through the hall Y5 (especially Dylan!) forced me to join in with PE!! they even made me jump through hoops even though I didn't have a PE kit!
Wednesday 5th March 2014
We are very excited about our Book themed dressing up day on Friday, we have lots planned! The children have been asked to dress up as a character from a traditional tale. A letter will be coming home today to ask all parents to also send the children in with wellington boots! As a surprise we have organised the forest managers of St Helens to come and help the children develop the wooded area. The children will be planting trees and building bug hotels. We thought that this activity fitted in beautifully with World Book Day as we will talk to the children about how books are made and enjoy time in the forest dressed up as our characters! If we are lucky the St Helens Star may take photographs of us and run a story in their newspaper!
I can see the headlines now... At Grange Valley Goldilocks and the Three Bears Plant trees!!
Yesterday Year 1 and Year 5 had lots of fun, together, with Pancakes! Here are some of the photographs of the activities that the Year 5 children planned for the younger children.
Tuesday 4th march 2014
Lots of early morning music and dancing in school with our first Key Stage 1 dance club!
Monday 3rd March 2014
Today in assembly we talked about 'Pancake day', Shrove Tuesday, which is tomorrow! The children were very excited about making and tasting pancakes. Before making the pancakes we talked about how, many Christians make pancakes to use up the rich food in their house before starting a period of Lent. We read the Bible story 'Jesus in the desert'. The story follows Jesus after he was baptised and went away to the desert to be alone and pray for 40 days. During that time the devil tried to tempt Jesus. We talked about what tempts us and how we could resist temptation over the next 40 days, during the Lent period. The children guessed correctly, again, that I am going to try and give up chocolate and wine from now until Easter!!
Friday 28th February 2014
The children in Y2 had great fun this afternoon during 'Reward Time' using the Cyber Coach Dance Mats to help them to learn to dance. The boys really enjoyed the Alien Mash Dance!
Well done to Joshua (Y1), Ewan (Y3) Daniel (Y3) and Tyler (Y4) who chose a friend each to have lunch with Mrs Threlkeld today on 'Top Table'
Thursday 27th February 2014
Thank you to all the parents who didn't drive down Heyes Avenue, this morning, it was lovely and calm at the school gates. Our thoughts were with our neighbour (farmer Rob) and his family at this sad time. I'm sure you would agree it would be nice to continue the calm atmosphere, with no cars causing safety issues or access issues near the school gates.
Wednesday 26th February 2014
This morning, I've had great fun, with a group of VERY enthusiastic reception children, building towers that were taller than me! (Not difficult, I know, as I am only little myself!) The children found it funny that I couldn't reach the top and Miss Prescott had to step in, they also found it funny when the tower toppled over!!
Tuesday 25th February 2014
Yet another lovely spring day, the children have enjoyed playing outside in the crisp, fresh air. Some children have noticed the buds and spring flowers appearing in the planters on the playground! I think it's time to put on our gardening gloves!
Monday 24th February 2014
Welcome back! It was lovely to see all the children this morning, they all seemed to be 'full of the joys of spring' and happy to be back at school! In assembly, this morning, we talked about our feelings and the two ways in which we feel hurt. The first way is when we fall over and cut or graze ourselves, we decided that this hurt didn't last long! The second way was when people hurt our feelings, we talked about how being hurt inside lasted a lot longer! We also read the following poem and talked about how kind we all are at Grange Valley!
Grazes heal, scars outside disappear,
Soreness and bruises fade away.
In hours, days or even weeks.
New skin grows so that
No one knows where the hurt has been.
Hurt feelings, scars inside unseen,
The hurt remains and even grows.
For hours, days, weeks and maybe years.
It hides inside us, locked in a secret place
To which only we have the key.
................................................................................................................ HALF TERM ..................................................................................................................
Friday 14th February 2014
There is a lot of love and kind words being spread around school today! This was my door at 10am this morning, 'I'm feeling very loved!'
Today, we are also saying goodbye and good luck to Mrs Ramsdale who is starting her maternity leave, Mrs Ramsdale's baby is due in March and we are all very excited! Mrs Ramsdale plans to be back at school in September until then Miss Preston will cover her role in year 2.
We are also saying goodbye to two of our teaching students who have successfully completed their final teaching practices in Year 1 and Year 2. Well done Miss Ellie Bate and Miss Jennifer Collins, good luck in your future careers, hopefully our paths will cross again!
Finally, a BIG thank you to all our families for the support you have given us, this term. I hope you all have a lovely half term break, we will see you back on Monday 24th February, ready for more exciting learning!
Today's Toptablers!! Well done to Ruby G (YR), Thomas H (Y5), Callum S (Y2), Harris A (YR) and Libby P (Y4)
Thursday 13th February 2014
Thank goodness the storms have calmed down, we lost several trees and some of the nursery roof the the record winds, yesterday. Lets hope the weather stays calm until we finish for half term!
A big thank you to Miss Bate and the Year 5 French club for their fantastic French assembly, this afternoon! I will post some photographs for you all to see tomorrow.
Wednesday 12th February 2014
Please be careful, this evening, during the strong winds and heavy rain that has been forecast for our area!
Tuesday 11th February 2014
We are all excited for the DISCO tonight! I wonder who will do the most dancing?
Monday 10th February 2014
As it is Valentine's this week during assembly we have been talking about LOVE, the diffenrent kinds of love and all the different ways of showing love. We talked about our language and that there is only one real word for “love”. We use it in different ways and hope that people know what we mean. You can say, “I love chips”, “I love my Mum” and, “I love Harry Styles,” and mean very different things in each case. In Ancient Greek there are four words, which make things easier.
1. Eros is what you may usually think of when someone mentions love: candlelit dinners, chocolate, roses, diamond rings, and songs by Gary Barlow.
2. Philia often translated as "brotherly love" or "friendship". Phila is also the love of things, such as 'I love ice cream' or 'I love cake'!
3. Agape is selfless love – doing things for other people no matter who they are and without any reward: giving to charity, organising a fund-raising event, getting sponsored to run a marathon, being a first-aid volunteer, or even leaving nice anonymous notes for someone who’s having a hard time. Just being kind to everyone you meet is agape.
4. Storge is the love of family.
The children are going to be busy this week leaving kind words and messages of love around school!
It has been an exciting afternoon in Year 2 as one of the chicks has hatched! He hatched at lunch time amongst lots of excitement and has now gone to spend the night with his mum, to help him get stronger!
Friday 7th February 2014
We are very proud of our Y5 Challenge team who came second yesterday in the Primary Challenge Competition held at English Martyrs. I received the following email from the organisers this morning!
'I just wanted to send you a quick email to thank you for taking part in our Primary Challenge yesterday. I hope the children involved enjoyed the event. They really were a credit to your school in how they conducted themselves throughout the challenge.
Your team were fantastic - Lucy P was given a special mention for scoring full marks in the mental maths round. It really was close competition with very few points between yourselves and the winners.
Each child will now receive a certificate, I would like to drop them off next week if you have any time for me? After half term is fine if you’re busy before. Just let me know when is good for you.'
Well done Team!
Today's Toptablers!! Well done to Ben (Y5), Ryan (Y2), Rhys (Y2), Daniel (Y1) and Elicia (Y1)
Thursday 6th February 2014
I never use my blog to have a little moan or rant but could I please remind parents that you must not drive or park down Heyes Avenue or on school grounds when bringing children to school in the morning, collecting them at the end of the school day or at lunch time for Nursery children. Since returning for the start of the Spring Term we have had several complaints from parents regarding this issue. There are a few cars/drivers who ignore this advice and are putting our children at risk. I have asked the Police to continue with their spot checks. The Police have asked me to encourage parents to take down the registration number and report any particular cars driving unsafely near school to them on 0151 777 6155.
Could I also ask the parents who bring children into breakfast club, early each morning, to use the parking bays at the top end of the car park, especially when turning around as we have also had complaints about cars using the paths and driving over the yellow lines to turn around.
The Local Authority have told us that our school gates must be closed to safeguard children. The safety and wellbeing of all the children at Grange Valley is of paramount importance to me and we need to work together to ensure it happens!
Wedneday 5th February 2014
I'm having a little trouble getting out to see you all before and after school at the moment partly because of my broken toe and our horrid weather! please don't forget we have an open door policy, so if you need to speak to me or your child's class teacher please don't hesitate to pop in and see us!
Tuesday 4th February 2014
This week in school is assessment week and all the children are busy working really hard, every morning, trying their very best with their special work! I visited Y3 this afternoon to see them really enjoying a design technology lesson making clay pots. The children have designed their pots linked to their theme of Rainforests. I can't wait to see the finished articles!
Monday 3rd February 2014
During assembly today, the children have been thinking about kindness. We watched a video called the Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang - "One Day" The children watched intently as the camera on the video tracked an act of kindness as it passed from one individual to the next and manages to boomerang back to the person who set it into motion. It is a very powerful video to watch, you can watch it at home by clicking on the link, above the picture, that will redirect you to the clip on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU
During assembly I also introduced 'Top Table',each day the Mid-Day Supervisors will be giving children raffle tickets for fantastic behaviour and kindness! Each Thursday 5 children will be chosen to join Mrs Threlkeld and I on Top Table on the following day (Friday). The children who are chosen at random will be able to ask a friend to also join them on the best table in the dining hall. We have special plates, decorations and a lovely table cloth. Children who usually have a packed lunch can, on this special occasion, with permission from home, choose to have a free school dinner, if they want. All the children are keen to be chosen and I can't wait to eat my lunch with them on Friday!
Friday 31st January 2014
This afternoon our Reception parents will be joining us for a very special and unique Chinese New Year celebration.
Unlike western calendars, the Chinese calendar has animal names that are repeated every 12 years, 2014 is the year of the Horse!
Gung Hay Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year."
Thursday 30th January 2014
We would like to thank parents for their support last night, bringing the children back to school, a lovely experience was had by all! Dont't forget those bedtime stories !
Wednesday 29th January 2014
We are all excited to welcome back the children (and their teddies) tonight, for a bedtime story and a hot chocolate! As part of National Story Telling Week we are celebrating the importance of reading stories before bedtime www.bedtime.com is a lovely site full of stories by unknown authors for you to read with your child. We will post some photographs on the class blogs later in the week.
Tuesday 28th January 2014
Our new sport's coach, Glen, seems to be a big hit with the children, they were all having great fun playing 'Bench Ball' as I walked through the hall, this afternoon!
Monday 27th January 2014
The theme for this week's assembly was 'Achievement!' we had five children share their achievements from clubs and groups they attend outside school. Our children attend a variety of clubs from dancing; kick boxing, football, swimming and many others. The children were fantastic at thinking of their own achievements and goals. I have attached the PowerPoint we used in assembly so that you can talk about all the different achievements and what they mean to you and your loved ones. All children behaved fantastically during assembly and make me very proud!
Friday 24th January 2014
During Celebration Assembly this afternoon the children were excited to tell me about all the things they have been learning in class. Reception have made dancing dragons, Year 1 have been engrossed in activities linked to The Three Little Pigs, Year 2 have enjoyed learning all about Hanukkah, Year 3 have written magic poems, Year 4 have been reading the Iron man, Year 5 have been challenging themselves and writing persuasive letters while Year 6 have been writing instructions and up-leveling their work. I think you would agree that the children have worked hard and lots of learning has taken place this week!
Have a great weekend, see you all on Monday!
Thursday 23rd January 2014
The theme of the day, for me, has been 'meeting, after meeting, after meeting' and I have really missed being around the children! It is lovely, however, to be told about all the lovely things that have happened in classes throughout the day.
Wednesday 22nd January 2014
This week Y2 have been celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Today they invited Mrs Threlkeld and I along to their Hanukkah party to join in the fun and to tell her all about what they have learned about the festival. Mrs Threlkeld enjoyed joining in dancing and singing to Jewish songs and playing games, she really enjoyed playing the Dreidel, but she didn't win! Her favourite part of the afternoon was tasting the Jewish Latkes that the children made earlier in the day, the children have promised to write the recipe down for her so that she can make them at home. A big thank you to Miss Bate and Year 2 for organising a great afternoon!
Tuesday 21st January 2014
We have a class full of clever reception children! The children have been learning how to write an information piece of text. In groups the children wrote about trains, Chinese dragons and other things that interested them. Joe and Riaz couldn't wait to tell me the things that an information text must have such as... a title, labels, pictures and sentences. Their information text was all about 'The Bullet Train - the fastest train in the world!' WOW, well done children!
Monday 20th January 2014
During our whole school assembly this morning, Mrs Threlkeld talked about setting and achieving a challenge. Over the next few weeks the children will be thinking about and setting themselves challenges. Challenge is the second important word within our school ethos statement and all children were aware of how important it was!
Whilst the children were in assembly the staff had training on internet safety. How to keep the children safe and how to keep themselves safe! The online world has changed the way we all communicate and while it has many advantages there are a number of traps and risks we all should be aware of! If parents would like more information please visit the E SAFETY tab via our website, you will find lots of information about internet safety and the use of Social Networking sites such as Facebook.
Friday 17th January 2014
All children and staff have worked incredibly hard this week and deserve a lovely weekend; I hope that whatever you do this weekend you enjoy it! See you all on Monday
Thursday 16th January 2014
Today we said goodbye to Tom, our sport's coach from Saints, who leaves us to go and work in New Zealand, for a year. The children have grown very fond of Tom, who has worked at Grange Valley for five years in total. Tom is hopefully coming back after his exciting adventure, but in the meantime he has promised to keep in touch. We are going to follow his travels while he is out there and hopefully he can help us form new links and learn about New Zealand. Goodbye and Good Luck, Tom! X
Wednesday 15th January 2014
Today Year 5 went to Haydock High School to take part in a series of science lessons, the children enjoyed their visit and behaved beautifully! Well done Year 5!
Tuesday 14th January 2014
A very interesting find!!
Whilst sorting out the back office cupboard Mrs Bailey and I found this old family Bible. It is a beautiful, huge, old book that must have been given to school at some point in history. We would love to find our more about it, so if anyone knows anything about how it came to Grange Valley please get in touch! The Bible is now sitting tall on my book shelf for all to see!
Monday 13th January 2014
I have seen lots of excellent work from children today, what a great way to start the week! This morning I even rang a parent just to let them know how pleased we are with the efforts that their child is putting into their school work. My mission is to do this more often, as I think you would agree it is much nicer giving and receiving good news!
During assembly this morning we talked about our ethos statement 'Inspire to Guide, Challenge and Achieve' over the next few weeks we are going to talk about and work on each of the words in this important statement. The children will be writing on leaves that will go on our Grange Valley tree and hopefully lead all the way around school, reminding us all about the essential core values of our school. This week we are thinking about the word GUIDE, try and talk about it at home, ask your child/children who guides them and how. (children came up with some great ideas during assembly!)
Friday 10th January 2014
During assembly today we reminded ourselves about the behaviour expectations in school, some of the younger children enjoyed giving us a demonstration of what we do when we hear the whistle and showed us how to line up at the end of play time! The children were excited when we discussed introducing team points over the next few weeks. The children are excited to be awarded these during the coming weeks and we will inform the winning team during our Celebration Assembly on a Friday.
Have a lovely weekend.
Thursday 9th January 2014
I can't believe the week is nearly over, time flies when you’re having fun! All children will bring home a paper copy of the newsletter tomorrow with a tear off slip for you to return and inform us of any changes to your email address. Future newsletters will continue to be emailed and posted on the website. If you have any problems receiving or accessing the newsletter please let us know and we can arrange a paper copy to come home weekly.
Wednesday 8th January 2014
A bit of bizarre request (but bear with me)! - We are looking for a full size drum kit, which needs a new home! So that Mr Andrew Robinson, our new Teaching Assistant in KS2 can teach some of our children how to play the drums. Mr Robinson is an accomplished player who is very keen to pass on his NOISEY skills! If you know of anyone who no longer wants their drum kit and would like it to pass it on to a new home please get in touch!! Thank you
Tuesday 7th January 2014
My Happy New Year wish for you all,
Is for your best year yet,
A year where life is peaceful,
And what you want you get,
A year in which you cherish
The past year's memories,
& live your life each new day,
Full of bright expediencies,
I wish for you a holiday,
With happiness galore,
& when it's done I wish you,
Happy New Year and many, many more.
Welcome Back! It was lovely to see the children this morning, they were all so excited to tell me about what they had done during the Christmas holidays. We have all managed to get back into the routine of school, the children were keen to think about their targets and goals for 2014.
NB * We are currently in the middle of moving all the Christmas photographs and information to the events section of our website!
