This week we continued to discuss current world situations. We read the book Refugees and Migrants, discussing what these words mean and why we might start hearing them more. The children listened to who refugees and migrants are, why they've left their homes, where they live and what we can do to help those in need.
This week in our Smart Council discussion, after our value assembly, we posed this question:
We discussed where we can find News that was accurate and that we can support in school, as well as adults at home, to discuss if News was from a trusted source. We will continue to support children with what News is from a Trusted source and what isn't. We discussed Apps such as TikToc and how something might be from many years ago and portrayed as current events.
School life
This week Reception have been talking about growth (the theme of British Science Week this year). The children have been sharing their baby photos and talking about how they have changed since they were babies. Miss Sleightholm brought baby Aoife in to talk to the children about babies and how to look after them. A great big thank you to Miss Sleightholm, the children loved it!
This week the Reception children have also been planting seed potatoes and next week we are going to plant onion sets.
We have started talking about spring and next week we going to have some frogspawn in the classroom for the children to observe.
This week we have been partitioning 8 and talking about the different ways to make 8. Please ask your child to tell you how they can partition 8.
Year 3 have had a jam-packed week!
They celebrated science week by learning all about sheep and how they grow. They even had some special visitors who were able to tell them, and show them, all about lambs.
They have also been learning about and celebrating different cultures this week. The children learnt how to Irish dance, and tasted freshly baked soda bread, for St Patrick’s day. They also found out about Holi festival - the festival of colour. They combined their week’s learning and planted some colourful wild flowers outside. We hope that we will continue to bloom as they do!
We had a fantastic whole school visit, via zoom, from the author and story teller Richard O'Neill. He told some amazing stories and spoke to the children about the importance of story telling and original ideas for stories. We look forward to working with him in the future to build further links with different authors and have a Patron of Reading, changing each year. This year we are luck enough to be working with Tom Palmer and Richard O'Neill.
Congratulations to the Boys Y5/6 Football team who played exceptionally well in the County Finals, coming 2nd overall! What an achievement. Well done to you all. We are hoping to get some Boys and Girls fixtures underway in the next couple of weeks, so watch this space for more #TeamGalleyHill victories!
What another amazing week in school!
Accelerated reader
We are starting to match children with their first books using Accelerated Reader. The children are doing well to get used to a new style of quizzing linked to the stories and texts that they are reading, over the next few weeks they will continue grow in confidence in the question types and will be reading more and more books. I look forward to seeing the books children are reading and buying more 'new release' books for the library for the children to continue reading for pleasure.
STar/mathematician/writer/ Reader of the week
red nose day
House of Lords
I had the honour of being invited to the House of Lords this week to discus the importance of community.
I was able to share how important being part of community is at Galley Hill, how we want to keep on supporting the children in school and how we have plans to keep to strive forward to work collaboratively with the local community, businesses that are local, and others wider afield, to ensure that the children at Galley Hill get the access to as many opportunities to enrich the curriculum and give them an understanding of the world around them, a sense of pride and confidence and skills to be whatever they want to be.
Baroness Uddin was keen to hear about our journey and what would helps schools further. We will hopefully hear more from her over the academic year. It was great to share the amazing work the staff, children, families and wider community do to make Galley Hill such a special school.
creative writing
Here is this week's stimulus:
Save our Habitat
This week is something a little different : Persuade the humans to leave the animals alone. This could be a persuasive poster, leaflet or even a letter.
Entries Due by Wednesday 23rd March
parent helpers
We're still looking for more parent helpers. It would be fantastic to have you in school helping and supporting the children particularly with reading.
Please complete the Volunteer Application form here and we can complete all relevant safeguarding checks and welcome you into school.
Details can be found here:
vacancies
Click here for more information and an application form https://www.galleyhillprimary.co.uk/our-school/vacancies/
Closing Date 22nd March 2022 1pm
School Dinners
Support on discussions around the Ukraine
If you would like some advice on how to answer any questions that they may have over the coming days and weeks, there is some useful information here:
https://www.childnet.com/blog/supporting-your-child-with-upsetting-content/
monday 21st march
opal
golden welly awards
Pallets - we are looking for pallets. As many as possible. We have some great plans for some dens and shelter and Pallets are the key part.
Thank you for supporting us on our Play Journey.
What's coming up in the school calendar
E-safety and local news
Finally
A big thank you to Miss Doughty and Mr Passman who have been working in Key Stage 1 this term. They continue their teacher training in another school for Summer. We wish them the best of luck as they start their teaching journey.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone whatever you are doing and hopefully Middlesbrough put on a performance on Saturday in the FA Cup!
Mr Anthony McGeeney