Special Events and Visits

Thanks to Ribbleton Library for being perfect hosts to Rowan Class this week.  We enjoyed some Christmas stories and were able to look around the library.  Some of us will be back with our own library cards!

Rowan Class had an amazing day out at The Atkinson Museum in Southport to enhance our knowledge on Ancient Egypt.  We even saw a mummy!

Dance Festival at Fulwood Academy

Some children from Y5 have been working hard for many weeks on their choreography and dance performance ready for this festival.

The children danced brilliantly and were a credit to themselves and as ambassadors for our school. A big thanks to Miss Bayley for helping the children and creating the choreography. Well done everyone involved.

20 October: Rugby Competition

Year 6 took part in the Rugby World Cup yesterday. We were Papua New Guinea. Having never played the game before, the children did an amazing job and got to the final! Whilst we played the final some of the Wales Rugby World Cup squad came down to watch! We then got signatures and photos with some of the players.

Straight after this event the children played in the football league. Again, some of the children playing for the first time. We were fantastic and gave it everything.

It was a long day in the rain. They children showed great sportsmanship and encouraged each other throughout. We are so proud of them!

NPSCC: Speak Out, Stay Safe.

I am pleased to tell you that this term we will be participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme. This consists of an online assembly and supporting classroom based activities. Speak out. Stay safe. is a safeguarding programme available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a child friendly way. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or Childline.

In the online assembly, the Speak out. Stay safe. messages are delivered in a fun and interactive way with the help of their mascot Buddy as well as special guest appearances from Ant and Dec.

We have studied the content of the materials and are extremely confident that they are appropriate for primary-school-aged children. By the end of the programme, we’re convinced children will feel empowered – knowing how they can speak out and stay safe.

If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme you can find information on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout or I would be happy to discuss any questions that you may have.

Additional resources

Adapted assembly for home use

The NSPCC has also developed an adapted version of their assembly for parents/carers to use at home with their children. This can be found here: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/safety. With the help of celebrities, the film focuses on how a child can get support if they have any worries or concerns.

To complement the assembly, there are some resources that can be used to enable further discussion whilst doing activities with your children. These are hosted on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/activities.

Online safety hub

You may also like to visit the NSPCC Online Safety Hub where you will find advice and information on a range of different online safety topics including gaming, social media, sharing nudes, parental controls and more.

You will also find online safety information for families of children with additional needs and disabilities. We have worked with Ambitious about Autism and parents and carers who have children with additional needs and disabilities to create activities to help talk about online safety which you can find at www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-families-children-with-send.

Childline Under 12’s Website

Childline also have a website with age appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools. Your child can visit it at www.childline.org.uk/kids.

If you’d like to know more about the NSPCC’s work, or take a look at the wide range of information and advice which is available for parents and carers, please visit their website www.nspcc.org.uk/parents.

Talking PANTS with your children

Talk PANTS is a simple conversation to help keep your child safe from sexual abuse. From P through to S, each letter of PANTS provides a simple but valuable rule that can help keep your child safe. You can find out more and download the free resources at www.nspcc.org.uk/pants.

Penguin and Ladybird have partnered with the NSPCC to create a brand new Pantosaurus book aimed at children ages 4 - 8. You can find copies of the new book on sale, either in Matalan’s selected stores and online, selected SPAR stores or at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/. All profits from the sale of this book will support the NSPCC.

Support the NSPCC

You may be interested in the NSPCC’s new selection of BUDDY goodies available from the NSPCC shop at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/collections/buddy which make perfect gifts for children - and all profits go to help keep children safe.

Rowan class investigated the Stone Age, with the help of the team at Lancashire Heritage.

Remembrance Day: Wednesday 11th November 2021

Today the children took part in a series of events, designed to commemorate Remembrance Day.

All week they have been donating money to the Royal British Legion and wearing poppies and other items (they love the snap bands!).

On the morning of 11th November, all the children joined in a virtual assembly specially designed for Ks1 & KS2 pupils.

They then created their own artwork, using recently-learned skills to create watercolours, wire-modelled and acrylic poppies, wreaths and canvases.

We also used the opportunity to lay a wreath at the foot of our Remembrance statue.  We commissioned this statue for the centenary anniversary of WW! but covid delayed the completion and we only recently had this installed.  Our plans are to continue to develop this area which we have worked on with Preston Dig In - a veterans' charity.

Next year, you will hopefully be able to see a wild-flower garden here to enhance the seating area where children can sit at breaks and lunches when they want some 'quiet time'.

Look at some of the artwork being created below.  To see more work from your child's class, click on their Showbie account.

Year 2 Trip to Windmill Farm

On Wednesday Chestnut Class visited Windmill Farm as part of our topic 'On the Farm'. We learnt about all the different animals as we travelled around the farm on the miniature railway. We got to bottle some baby lambs that were only weeks old and feed lots of other hungry animals too! We also went on the amazing play areas and had lots of fun! Have a look at the pictures from our day......

Safety Town

Year 6 visited the 'Safety Town' event, hosted by Longridge High School to learn about staying safe online, making healthy food choices and being aware and responsible when we are out and about!

Meet our new member of the Grange family.

Last Thursday morning, James came to create our newest member of Grange School. He cleverly made an ugly tree stump into a stunning owl. He used a chainsaw. What a talented man! Don't forget to give our owl a wave whenever you pass. Maybe our owl needs a name?

National Fitness Day

Last Wednesday, we celebrated National Fitness Day by joining thousands of schools across the country in ten minutes of exercise. 

During assembly, the whole school enjoyed a 'wake up and shake up' session of dance that really got everybody moving! 

Throughout the day in our classrooms, we learned all about the benefits of leading a healthy and active lifestyle.

Elm Class Bobbin Treat

On Friday Elm Class had a Teddy Bear's Picnic!

This was because they had earnt enough bobbins to choose a treat.

They had a busy couple of days before the picnic getting everything organised.

The children wrote invitations to their toys to invite them to the picnic.

They then made biscuits and cakes following a set of instructions.  Then on the morning of the party they had to decorate their picnic boxes, make sandwiches, make pizzas and cut up fruit.

Luckily the weather stayed dry so we were able to sit outside on our picnic rugs with our cuddly toys and enjoy our picnic!

Pee, Poo and Paper!!

At the end of the Spring term we had a visit from a Mad Scientist!

He talked to us about Pee, Poo and Paper!!

We all loved his show on what we should and shouldn't put down our toilets.  With exciting and disgusting demonstrations and even a pledge that we all had to recite we all learnt alot about why it is important to look ofter our drainage system and to think carefully before we flush!

We even got to take home a free toilet roll!!

This event was in assocition with United Utilities.

The Day the Aliens Landed!

One cold Autumn morning we arrived at school to find a strange sight on the field.  Some kind of transport device had crash landed! An emergency assembly was called!  Ms Taylor showed us some footage from the police and a video of the vehicle crash landing. It was a spaceship from outer space!!

Each class was given a top secret mission to complete in the morning, which included reporting for the local paper and radio, to describing the aliens and what we would say if we met them.

By the afternoon the Prime Minister had been in touch with further information.  We were all given new tasks to complete to help to communicate and control the creatures.  These invloved us using our Sciencific knowledge of reflection, electrical circuits, air resistance, classifying animals and also melting and cooling.

We had a fantastic day and really enjoyed applying our Science skills.

Oak class visit to Manchester Museum

Oak class enjoyed a brilliant and informative day at 'Manchester Museum', learning more about life in Ancient Greece.  They were able to handle artefacts and played a game to investigate the role of trade during Ancient Greek times.  They also followed on from our learning in school by developing their own myths linked to depictions on Greek artefacts:

Maple Class trip to Farmer Parrs

This half term Maple Class have been learning all about 'The Animal Kingdom'. As an exciting way to end our topic we went to Farmer Parrs in Fleetwood. We all had an excellent day, adults and children alike!! We fed the animals, groomed ponies and went on a tractor ride amongst other things! Take a look at our pictures below to see what fun we had!

Maple Class at St Cecilia's High School

Maple Class were lucky enough to be invited to St Cecilia's High School to do some work linked to our science topic about our bodies. The children worked in the science lab to complete an experiment to investigate the taste of different fruits. The children predicted which one they thought would be the sweetest before trying all the samples and recording their findings.

After this, the children moved to the Design and Technology depeartment where they learnt about the importance of eating foods of a variety of colours. They learnt they needed a rainbow coloured diet. Here the children made a pasta salad and included a range of colourful ingredients so that it was a healthy meal. 

I bet all the mums and dads enjoyed having a night off from having to cook the tea!!

Year 5 at Cobble Hey

Year 5 enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day for their final visit to Cobble Hey Farm.  They were able to extend their understanding of life cycles by discussing how plants and animals had changed throughout the year and have brought some detailed observational drawings back to school.

Forest School Session

To round off our topic of 'The Great Outdoors', Maple Class took part in a Forest School session. They learnt how to make shelters, took part in team games, and even toasted marshmallows around a campfire with a stick they had whittled themselves!

Year 5 at Cobble Hey

Year 5 have been back for their second visit of the year to Cobble Hey Farm, where they found out more about the farming year.

Oak class - Titanic day

Oak class celebrated the end of their 'Titanic' topic with a special dress-up day, where they experienced what aspects of life would have been like on-board the famous ship!