Torch Relay

What a fantastic afternoon that was!
A wonderful atmosphere and a great event, the children really embraced the excitement of the olympic torch coming to the school this afternoon (even if it was only an inflatable one!)
The torch had travelled to every school in Gravesham, with each one representing a different country, we were the final stop and our children made sure the mascots and the torch were given a warm welcome.
They all looked wonderful in the colours of Germany and as always were excellent ambassadors for the school.

A huge thank you to Mrs Gape for organising it and for all the staff for making it run so smoothly!
The press were there so look out for some great photos in next week's Kent Messenger. In the meantime there's a few shots below.

Netball Rally

This Saturday our girls headed over to Riverview School to take part in the Gravesham Netball Rally, we entered as defending champions. We had a tough group with both Riverview and Singlewell schools as competitors (who have always proved the toughest teams to beat).

We played extremely well but a nervous first match saw us lose to Riverview, we then gained our composure and thrashed the next two teams. In our final group match we played Singlewell, at that point we were on level points putting us joint second behind Riverview. The match ended a draw but sadly we ended up third on goal difference so didn't make it to the Semi Final.

Gurleen goes for goal, and scores (again!)

All the girls played brilliantly and worked so well as a team with some stunning individual performances, well done to all, they should be extremely proud.
A huge thanks to all the parents who came along to support, and a particular thank you to Mrs Smith for coaching the girls so well and organising our participation.

New Website coming soon!

Our website is currently offline while we prepare to launch our brand new site.
Hopefully won't be too long, we'll have a big launch in school as soon as it's ready!

Watch this space!

Maths Week.

Maths week is over for another year, and what a great week it was. As always children had lots of great opportunities to learn about and explore Maths is so many interesting and exciting ways. A huge thank you to Mrs Green for all her hard work organising it and ensuring its success. A selection of photos from the week are below.

Latest Newsletter

Maths Week Wristbands

Maths Week

Apple Conference

This morning I took 5 of our 'iLeaders' to Ashford with me to present on stage at a conference for over 200 education leaders.

I'm delighted (but nor surprised) to say that they were absolute stars and spoke with confidence and clarity to their audience and showed them all the wonderful things we are doing with iPads to enhance their learning and personalise their education.

Well done guys!

World Book Day

What a great day it was, all the children looked fabulous and made an incredible amount of effort with their costumes.
Winners were: Archie, Hope, Mali, Mia, Kiah and Leah

Well done everyone

Kent Children's University Passports

We've already received lots of really good applications for KCU Passports and have issued many.

A reminder that when your child receives their passport there is a space for a photograph- it is entirely up to you whether to use a real photo or just allow your child to do a self portrait in the space.

Please also remember to really take care of the passports, they are the only record of number of stamps gained- if they are lost, so are the stamps.

If you haven't yet put in an application and are interested in the scheme please do so. Remember they are really aimed at Key Stage 2 children, although we may issue to older KS1 children. It is simply that the activities in the venues are designed for ages 7-14 children and much younger children may really struggle with them. 

PTA Bingo

World Book Day

It's that time of year again!!!!

Next Thursday (1st) is World Book Day, time to dress up as a fictional book character of your choice. I know many of you have been planning it for a while and we certainly can't wait to see your wonderful imaginations come to life!!!

There will be other activities going on during the day, including a Book Swap. All children are invited to bring in 1 book they no longer want, they can then bring a different book home.

Kent Children's University

We are delighted to announce that we are now affiliated with Kent Children's University.

KCU operates across the county and is an excellent way for KS2 children to develop their learning and thirst for knowledge beyond the normal school day. Any child who registers is given a KCU passport, the children can then 'collect' stamps in their passports by completing tasks at a huge number of 'learning destinations' across the county.
Many notable tourist attractions such as Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Chatham Dockyard, Dover Castle, Gravesend Library are registered as 'Learning Destinations'. Equally children can gain stamps through attending our own Study Support activities and clubs.

There are awards for specific numbers of stamps gained with the ultimate accolade being presented at a 'Graduation Ceremony' at a local University.

More information and a list of learning destinations can be found here.

We are having an information session this Wednesday straight after school for any KS2 parents who wish to attend. I hope to see many of you there.

I have approached KCU and stated that we may well have some KS1 children who would wish to be involved, which they are looking into piloting.....watch this space!

New Parent & Staff Governors

I'm delighted to report that we now have 2 new Parent Governors- Amarjit Kalsi & Alex Bolingbroke. We had run the nomination process for one post when Jeorge Tehara's term of office ended. Jeorge decided not to stand again and our very many thanks go to Jeorge for all his hard work and commitment to the school over the years. Amarjit & Alex were nominated and we were able to free-up another Parent Governor position when Julian Parkes moved from a Parent Governor post to that of a Community Governor. So- with a little bit of "juggling" we have been able to appoint both Amarjit and Alex. We are delighted to have them both as part of the team.

Mrs Feather was also nominated and reappointed as a Staff Governor so she can now continue to make her significant contribution to the Governing Body.

I hope make regular postings here on the blog and we plan to have an updated Governors' page on the website very soon.

Ann Walker, Chair of Governors.

Find out more!

Why not carry out some additional research with your children....

Find out more about Chris Cook and his career at:

www.chriscookgb.com

An inspirational visit

Today has been wonderful, Olympic, Commonwealth and World Championship swimmer Chris Cook has been with us all day.
He has inspired all of us with his interesting stories and anecdotes about his life, his dreams and the hurdles he had to overcome to achieve his dream.

I'm sure the children will be buzzing tonight, many got autographs too!!!

Special Visitors

I hope you all enjoyed the snow at the weekend, it was great to see so many children out having fun sledging, but I'm glad we've managed to avoid any disruption at school.

We're very excited here as we have Commonwealth 50m and 100m Breaststroke gold medalist and record holder, and former Olympic swimmer Chris Cook spending the day with us tomorrow. He will be delivering inspirational speeches to all children throughout the day and doing workshops with Y6 and Y5 children. It should be an experience to remember.

This follows on from our commitment to provide exciting, inspirational visitors for the children which we launched with Jeremy Strong's visit last year. Further to this we have booked world famous children's author and illustrator Petr Horacek to visit in June. You can find our more about him here:

http://www.petrhoracek.co.uk/

School Open

School should be open as normal on Monday 6th.

Polls!

Not sure if I mentioned it, but the 'quick polls' on the right of the page are completely confidential, please take a moment to add your vote.

It really helps us to get a good picture of overall opinion if we get a large number of responses.

Thanks

Breakfast Funding

Before Christmas I applied to Kellogg's for funding for our Breakfast Club, which I'd almost forgotten about!

Today we received a cheque for £400 and £50 worth of vouchers, this is a real boost for the club which remains really popular and provides a fantastic service.

We will be using the voucher for cereals and the additional funding for new activities including a First News children's newspaper subscription.

Breakfast club run's from 7.55am each morning, if you would like your child to attend please contact the office.

Leigh