Grange Primary School: A Summer To Remember

Religious Education at Grange
Thanks to Mrs Cracknell, our RE curriculum is being enriched with trips and visitors so the children have a better understanding of the world’s main religions. On Friday 18 June, Mr Harkirat Singh from the Sikh Education Service visited Years 3 and 4 to talk about the Sikhi way of life. He told us that everyone is a gift and that we are all special. 

On Tuesday 25 May, Year 1 visited Christchurch where Rev Marcus Mak told the children about the Christian festival of Pentecost. 

Year 5 visit Lackford Lakes
Year 5 had a wonderful time at Lackford Lakes Nature Reserve on Thursday 8 July. Thank you to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust for giving the children the opportunity to enjoy their environment, birdwatch and explore habitats.Fortunately, the pupils didn’t need to put their swimming skills to the test.

Forest Learning
Mrs Hughes is our Forest School teacher and is wonderful! We offer a programme of Forest Learning to our youngest children where they get to build resilience and overcome challenges in a different setting. This term, however, our older children have also been given the opportunity to learn in our ‘forest’ and they have loved it. It really goes to show that learning happens far beyond the classroom.

Olympic Sports Days

We are so lucky at Grange to have a relatively small school with huge grounds for playing and learning. That’s why, despite very tight Covid-19 restrictions, we were able to host a sports week this year, one class at a time, with parent spectators!

The children competed in their house colours in a variety of Olympic-themed activities ranging from archery to hockey and basketball to relay on a carousel. The weather wasn’t always kind, but we had a terrific time. It makes such a difference when families get involved in children’s school days.

Yellow House were the overall victors when we combined the results from each day, winning the Team Spirit Award which we celebrated at our Olympic Closing Ceremony on Friday afternoon. We also celebrated the children who demonstrated the best Olympic Spirit and Bayleigh in Year 5 best demonstrated the Olympic values.

There were no parents at the ceremony, but the children were together (outdoors in their class bubbles) for the first time in 18 months. I must admit it was very moving.

Time Capsule
Also at our Olympic Closing Ceremony, we dedicated our Covid-19 Time Capsule. Again, rather emotional, each class had produced some memories (poems, artwork, plays, songs) that they contributed to the capsule which we will bury for 50 years at the front of our school so that future learners at Grange can find out about the extraordinary times through which our children are living.

Year 6 trip to Colchester Zoo
Year 6 enjoyed their trip to Colchester Zoo where they took part in an exciting maths workshop involving the hands-on practice of maths skills in a real-world context. Groups rotated around different activities that included measuring snakeskins and tortoise shells, solving calculations regarding enclosure size and timing animals’ speed over a defined distance. They also enjoyed exploring the zoo and for many of the pupils, it was their first time visiting. A great day was had by all!

Year 6 Leavers
A note about our fabulous Year 6 class who leave us this term for their high schools.They are such a wonderful class. Miss Faulkner has taught them in Year 5 as well as Year 6 and she has moulded them into motivated learners ready for their next stage of learning.

Due to Mr Covid, we were forced to share their performance of The Mystery at Magpie Manor via YouTube rather than having an audience, but the children were fantastic. 

Thankfully, the weather looks fine for our Leavers’ Assembly on Friday which will be held outside for parents to attend. I look forward to giving the children a small memento to remember Grange by and I will be presenting our Leavers’ Awards, a celebration of the academic, sporting, character and artistic excellence in our school.

Have a great summer Felixstowe from all of us at Grange.