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

• We are looking forward to welcoming back our pupils on March 8th 2021

  Thu 25 Feb 2021 Ms Rogers

  We are looking forward to welcoming back all of our children on March 8th. Ms Rogers has sent a letter to our children on Wednesday 24th February via email so we kindly ask that parents read this alongside our GBP children. A further logistics letter for parents will follow shortly.

  If families have any concerns or questions about our reopening, please email our admin office and someone will contact you soon after.

  Take care everyone, 

  GBP Team

• Let the Music Play!

  Thu 11 Feb 2021 Mrs Irons

  Practical class music of the kind we usually do in the music room has not been possible this term but instead of it being a problem I have used the opportunity to try something new and creative. For each year group, from Early Years all the way up to Year 6, I have planned music enrichment activities that include 3 musical areas:

  Listening & Responding

  Singing & Playing

  Creating & Performing

  Over the last 6 weeks children have danced, drawn and painted to music across all year groups; listened to Peter & the Wolf in Year 2 and experienced Speed Folk for the first time in Year 6;      explored apps like BBC Make some Noise and Incredibox; created our own sounds with toys &   natural objects and even told stories through music. I have really enjoyed looking at the children’s responses to the activities on seesaw and have heard lovely feedback from teachers and parents about how much everyone has enjoyed music making either at home or in school.

  I was especially pleased to hear from Hampshire Music Service that 80% of children at GBPS are currently having online lessons. Some of our in school learners are even having face to face lessons or online lessons in school. Early on in the term I set our instrumentalists a little performance challenge which I can hopefully turn into a mini concert for us all to see in the near future. If and GBPS child wants to sing or share their instrument playing, whatever their level, then please upload a video to seesaw and mark it FAO Mrs Irons.

  We are still singing in school and at home following the latest guidance and the best bit is that at home, we can sing our hearts out with the sound up and the microphone off! Last week Year 5    entered into a lip synching battle over an adapted version of The Bangles ‘Walk like an Egyptian’ and Year 1 learnt to sing like a robot! Whichever way you turn, music is still very much alive at Great Binfields.

  In times such as the ones we are all experiencing at the moment, I believe that music has an      important role to play to whisk us all off to new and imagined lands, bringing us back happier,         calmer and more productive. In the words of a famous singing ex-nun “Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens” (Maria von Trapp)

  Happy singing & playing everyone!

   

   

• Battle of the Bands KS2

  Mon 08 Feb 2021 GBP Team

  We have exciting Times Table Rock Stars news for you! Key Stage 2, are you ready to rock? Are you ready to roll out those times tables? Let’s do this! 

  We are launching a VERY exciting tournament on Monday 8^th February for our Key Stage 2 children. Year 3 are going to take on Year 4. Year 5 will compete against Year 6. Who will be victorious and come out top of the leader board with their electrifying times table knowledge? 

  All the children will need to do is log into their Times Table Rockstars account as usual and play the games as much as they possibly can. This will score them points for their year group. Every correct answer in any game type is worth 1 point towards their year group’s score – so they need to keep playing throughout the week. In other words, you can play in Garage, Rock Slam, Soundcheck, etc and earn 1 point per correct answer. At the end of the week these points will automatically be totalled up and the winners will be revealed.  

  The competition runs from Monday 8^th February – Friday 12^th February.  

  The point scoring is time limited (8am-7pm) so that the children aren’t tempted to play well into the night! 

  Remember you need to be in it to win it - try to support your year group by going on as much as possible. 

  Good luck Key Stage 2! Let the battle commence!  

  

• Supporting Reading at Home

  Wed 03 Feb 2021 Ms Rogers

  Alongside our 3 weekly live story sharing sessions, we are really excited to further support families and children in ensuring that our children are reading regularly at home. We also want to guarantee that all of our children have access to age-appropriate texts so that they can practice reading independently. 

  It is so important that our learners continue to read and enjoy reading at home during this time. Reading really does open the doorway to so many other possibilities. Don’t forget that even when we are not in school and even during the current lockdown, reading opportunities are everywhere.

  To support our families in making reading part of their everyday routines, I have  included the following guide as a way of scaffolding your thinking about reading at home and to support parents/carers to keep talking about reading and encouraging their children to do the same.

  Follow the TRUST ideas to talk about anything your child enjoys reading.

   

  

• Struggling During Lockdown

  Thu 21 Jan 2021 Ms Rogers
  Check out the infographic if your children are struggling at home during this lockdown

  

• Teams Year Group Story Times

  Tue 12 Jan 2021 Ms Rogers
  Today it was so lovely to see our remote educators joining our children in school for a Teams story and catch up. Seeing your smiling faces, happiness and excitement made all staff here at GBP (and GBP parents) really happy too.  The whole experience lifted our spirits which is so, so important in these tricky times. We look forward to seeing you again in our next story this week and for the circle time type session. 

  

• Have a look at our Christmas video clips - lots to share with you all!

  Thu 17 Dec 2020 Ms Rogers

  Check out what our lovely children have been up to - Christmas has certainly arrived at Great Binfields!

  https://greatbinfields.primarysite.media/ 

   

  We also hope you have enjoyed the Christmas goodies that have been arriving at home. 

   

• Virtual Christmas Service with Christchurch

  Tue 15 Dec 2020 Ms Rogers

  This year, we were unable to walk down to Christchurch for our annual Christmas service - a real shame for us all as this is very much a GBP tradition where we are reminded once again about why Christians celebrate the festival of Christmas. We also love our walk through the woodland too. 

  We are so grateful to Rev Jonathan Clark and Maggie Chiverton for creating a service for us. We enjoyed watching it this morning. Thanks also to Oak Class (Y6) and our Year 5 children for your contributions too. Hugely appreciated by our school community.

  Here is the link if you would like to share our service with your family at home this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QNU96EXuM&feature=youtu.be 

  

• It's starting to feel like it is Christmas at GBP

  Thu 10 Dec 2020 Ms Rogers

  Our children and staff are busy doing all things Christmas at school now and here is a little taster of what we have been up to. Later next week, we will be sharing links to our year group showcase storyboards with you which will include lots of photos and short video clips of all things Christmassy.

  In the meantime enjoy the photos below plus some of our staff reading Christmas stories..... but most importantly our EYFS children retelling the Christmas Nativity story (all set in our school grounds) at the following link: https://greatbinfields.primarysite.media/playlist/christmas-celebrations-2020 ... basically go to the Children's tab section of our website - scroll down to the Video Resource Centre and you will find them in there!

   

  Enjoy!

  

• Gift sharing with our local community

  Fri 04 Dec 2020 Ms Rogers

  Today we received a lovely parcel from our local retirement living estate,  Oakfields in Lychpit. Inside were some Christmas cards and some beautiful knitted Christmas decorations which we shared out amongst every class before popping the rest on our main indoor tree situated in our school library. The children were so grateful as they are beautiful - each one is now sitting proudly for all of the children to see.  A huge thank you from us all. 

  We usually pop down with some of our choir to sing carols but we couldn't do that this year for obvious reasons! I instead tasked our children in Years 1, 2, 4 and 5 with a very special job which is nearly complete. They have been busy creating a special Christmas pack for each resident at Oakfields containing Christmas cracker letters (from Y5), alternative funny 12 days of Christmas poems/songs (from Y4) and Christmas pictures (from Y1and 2) . I am popping to the shops this afternoon to get some chocolate treats for each of the packs too. Once all ready, we will drop the packs down to them, ready for quarantining, before the our elders can open them up and enjoy what's inside.

  Just to keep you in the loop, Year 3 have another special job I have tasked them with which I will relay to you all at a later date. Years 1 and 6 are also busy writing and drawing to one another and will share these safely within school too.

   We are trying our best to bring cheer to as many people as we can this Christmas.