Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Year 5 and 6 Love of day

  Fri 30 Sep 2016 Mrs Osborne

  The year 5 and 6 children had an exciting 'Love of Chinese Language Day'. They began the day learning about different types of Chinese dragons. They then made their own origami Chinese dragon.

  After this, they tasted some Chinese food which included some delicious fortune cookies!

  In the afternoon, the children enjoyed a visit from Mrs Wilson's friend Yin who taught them some Chinese greetings and how to count to 20 in Chinese! A great day was had by all!

  

• Harvest Festival led by Father Alec

  Thu 29 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers
  Some of you may have seen our whole school walk down to St Mary’s Church on Thursday 29^th September for our annual Harvest Festival. Our 315 children really enjoyed our stroll there, the sun shone for us and the children took in all of the sights as we all made our way into Basing. The service led by Father Alec was super – it was thought provoking and pleasurable. The children listened intently, sang beautifully and they also loved his cartoon drawings which certainly added to our children’s experience. Many thanks, Father Alec for helping our school to say thank you to everyone who works so hard, to provide us with the food we eat and thank you for reminding us about the value of sharing. Our food donations, as in previous years, are going to Basingstoke Food Bank.

• Bronze School Games Award for GBP

  Wed 28 Sep 2016 Miss Grainger
  Congratulations everyone - our school has achieved a Bronze School Games Mark!

  The School Games Mark is a Government led awards scheme launched back in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Schools in England are able to assess themselves across bronze, silver and gold levels.

  The Mark is a retrospective award which validates our success over the academic year.

  We will have an official Mark certificate as evidence of our achievement and it will not be long before we will receive our Silver Award according to Miss Grainger. 

  I would like to thank Miss Grainger and our staff team for contributing towards the award as you have worked tirelessly with our school to improve competitive sports over the past couple of years and we are very grateful to our wonderful children who represent our school so beautifully. You should be so chuffed with yourselves.

   

• Why should children read?

  Tue 27 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers

  So why should children read? In terms of fiction or non-fiction, there are endless stories that broaden their understanding of the world. Although reading doesn’t always make one a better communicator, those who read tend to have a more varied range of words to express how they feel and to get their point across when writing. This increases exponentially with the more books they consume, giving a higher level of vocabulary to use in everyday life.

  Reading also improves focus and concentration. Sitting down with a book takes long periods of focus, which at first is hard to do. Being fully engaged in a book involves closing off the outside world and immersing yourself into the story, which over time will strengthen attention spans. We are limited by what we can imagine, and the worlds described in books, as well as other people’s views and opinions, will help our children expand their understanding of what is possible. By reading a written description of an event or a place, their mind is responsible for creating that image in their head, instead of having the image placed in front of them when watching television or playing video games.

  Books offer an outstanding wealth of learning and having a library of information that was picked up from non-fiction reading will come in handy for your children too.

  Reading helps our children to relax. Studies show that reading silently for just six minutes slows down the heart rate and eases tension in their muscles.

  All the benefits of reading mentioned above are a bonus result of the most important benefit of reading; Its entertainment value. If it were not for the entertainment value, reading would be a chore but it needn’t be. Reading is not only fun, but it has all the added benefits that we have discussed so far. Miss Brookes and the English Team are more than happy to help children choose appropriate books and I am more than willing to buy new ones too so that we can keep those interest levels up.
   
  Kind regards,
  Jules Rogers

• Annual Harvest Festival

  Mon 26 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers

  On Thursday 29 September we are walking to St Mary's Church in Old Basing for our annual Harvest Festival Celebration. Our children will be giving thanks for the food that we receive and thinking about everyone involved in ensuring we have lovely food to eat. We also spend time thinking about those people who do not have enough food both in our own country as well as around the world. 

   

  If you are able to help supervise our children whilst walking to and from the church on that afternoon please contact either your child's class teacher or the office staff as we need some additional adults to walk with the children.

   

  We will be leaving school at 1.00pm so you would need to be in school by 12.50pm.  We aim to be back in school by 3.15pm.

  Thank you

   

   

• Year 3 Listen 2 Me

  Thu 22 Sep 2016 Miss Wright
  This week Year 3 had the first of their Listen 2 Me ukulele lessons. They learned the different parts of the ukulele, how to strum and the names of the strings. They had lots of fun!

  

• Collecting your children

  Wed 21 Sep 2016 Mrs Worgan
  Dear Parents

  We have noticed that quite a few parents are now arriving at school before 3.00pm to collect their children.  As you can appreciate some classes are still involved in lessons, eg PE and other outdoor activities.  It is becoming difficult to ensure they all return to their classrooms safely and, in the case of some of our younger children, they find it upsetting to find their way through groups of parents to return to their class.

  Could we please ask that parents do not enter our school site until 3.10pm, by which time all children should be in their normal classes.  Your cooperation with this would be much appreciated.

   

   

• Our EYFS Children Make a Fab Start

  Mon 19 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers

  It has been great meeting our new EYFS children again and they have all made a terrific start. Playing nicely and trying their hardest when tackling the activities on offer for them. We are proud of you all as you are settling in to school routines well.

  Our older children are being super stars too by ensuring that they are well looked after. It has been lovely seeing our existing children welcoming our new EYFS children.

   

• School Council Elections

  Thu 15 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers

  Our School Council Elections have taken place where each class has 2 new representatives. They will meet with Miss Khan weekly to discuss important school issues. They are all looking forward to their new roles. Well done to all of you.

  In addition to this, we all voted for a new Chair and Vice Chair of the School Council. It was a very close contest and there were only a few votes between them. Our new Chair is Sarah and her Vice Chair is Jasper. Congratulations to you both. We look forward to working with you throughout this academic year.

  I know many of our children who didn't get a seat on the council were disappointed. This is only natural but please do think about trying again next year. There will be other opportunities for you to go for throughout your time at GBP.

  A list of the whole council will follow in our next newsletter.

• A great start to the new year for our children across school.

  Wed 14 Sep 2016 Miss Rogers

  Well we have 330 children in school today - we are definitely growing! I have been so proud of them all as they have settled into our school routines so beautifully. I hope that this continues and that they try their hardest to do as well as they can do.  

  Hope you enjoy the photos below.