AUTUMN TERM - NEWSLETTER NO. 4

Dear Parents Friday 13 November 2015

We would like to welcome everyone back to school and hope you had an enjoyable two week break. This will be a very busy but exciting half term.

BAD WEATHER ARRANGEMENTS – In the event of bad weather, may we remind you to please check the website for any updates should the weather change for the worse. Children may come to school wearing their jogger bottoms with their normal school uniform. Any gloves, hats or scarves worn need to be school uniform, available from Butterflies, or plain navy blue. Please, please name all of these items. Wellies can also be worn in bad weather, but please ensure that your child has their school shoes with them to change into. Parents should receive a text message in the unlikely event of school closures. If you do not get our texts, please let the office know as soon as possible.

Dahlicious Day School was full of Fantastic Mr Foxes, Matildas, Witches, Oompa Loompas and many more characters on Dahlicious Day! We enjoyed dressing up as our favourite Roald Dahl character and learnt more about his books through activities in literacy and art. The day has encouraged us to read more of Roald Dahl’s exciting stories. On Dahlicious Day the menu was inspired by Roald Dahl’s characters. We liked George’s Marvellous chicken noodle soup, and Mr Fox’s pork ravioli. We also thought about children less fortunate than ourselves by bringing in a donation for Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. We have raised a magnificent amount of £355. Well done for joining in enthusiastically and raising money for such a worthy cause.

Barnardo’s Mrs Warrant returned the Barnardo’s Boxes and said a big thank you for working together once again and raising over £1060.00 for Barnardo’s. We are delighted with the girls and they should feel really proud of themselves for being able to make such a positive contribution to help change other children’s lives. This money will ensure that Barnardo’s is able to provide valuable support services to vulnerable children here in Yorkshire during these tough economic times.

Poppy Appeal The Royal British Legion has expressed their thanks and gratitude for supporting the Poppy Appeal. This will help them continue their vital welfare and benevolent work. Thank you for your continued support.

AUTUMN HOLIDAY CLUB – Everyone had such fun! The much appreciated Pringle tubes were used to create a family of lanterns using plenty of paint, even more glue, lots and lots of pieces of paper and LED lights to make them light up for Halloween. Throughout the week the children carried out many different activities, including designing and making their own scary face pizza, concluding with party day where we played many games and dressed up.

YEAR 3 – we really enjoyed all the activities on our 'Dahlicious Day' and have been having fun making their own Muggle-Wump Monkeys and writing about awful Mr and Mrs Twit. We would really like it if parents could read and enjoy our work on display on the staircase in St. John's House.

YEAR 4 – have been studying life in Tudor times. During our art lessons we have completed 3 different art activities related to this topic. 4CG have constructed Tudor houses. This included designing a timber cruck frame, adding mullion windows and a ‘slate’ roof. 4SS have created portraits of Henry VIII, in the style of Hans Holbein, a 16

th century royal

painter. 4EB have enjoyed making portraits of themselves as Tudor ladies. Their observational drawings coupled with collage details making them ready to attend any event at Henry VIII’s court.

YEAR 5 – Working hard in the laundry at Cannon Hall

In 5TP we have enjoyed going to the Senior School for Design Technology lessons with

Mrs Mayer. We have designed and created our own wooden, moving toys YEAR 6 – To develop their thinking skills the girls completed a mandala about the instruments in the Orchestra. They will now create their own mandala linked to their Guided Reading book, The Wreck of the Zanzibar by Michael Morpurgo.

SPORT

IAPS North Regional Mini Hockey Tournament at Repton School on Friday 16 October 2015 – As always, the standard of hockey was very high at this tournament. The girls played some lovely, fast-flowing hockey and made particular improvements to the defensive side of their game, and worked very well as a whole squad to support each other. Miss Gruber and the girls were pleased with the overall performances, and came away with some very positive thoughts from the day and for future matches. The team played 5 group matches, beating St Mary’s Hall 2-0, narrowly losing to Yarm and The Elms, and then drew 0-0 with Blue Coat and Foremarke Hall finishing 4th in the group and qualified for the play-offs. After winning two of the three matches with very exciting and tense timed penalty shoot-outs, the girls

eventually finished 11th out of 24 teams from the North/Midlands. Congratulations to all the girls who represented school so well, especially Player of the Tournament - Leah Davis and Hollie Bott and Laura Roberts for Outstanding Play.

Under 11 Hockey Results v Bradford Grammar School on 3 November 2015 – The A Team played some exciting hockey against a less experienced Bradford team. The girls were disciplined and worked well to use the space out wide, passing the ball hard and early. They played some beautiful hockey with lovely link play from defence to attack. The U11A team won 11-0, with Excellent Play Awards going to: Ellie Meredith; Jessica Morrison and Laura Roberts

The B Team also played well, despite being quite nervous to begin with. It was clear that the opposition was not quite as experienced as some of our players, and we managed to score 7 goals in the first half. The second half saw a more aggressive Bradford team, but our girls won through to score 4 more goals. The final score 11-0 is very promising start to the season, with Excellent Play Awards for: Molly James and Luba Makoni.

Netball The Under 10 netball teams had an excellent afternoon of netball at Bradford Grammar School. The A team won by 16 goals to 3 and the B team won by 6 goals to nil. Both teams played some flowing netball, moving the ball down the court efficiently. The A team showed some solid defence with the Goal Keeper, Holly Bestwick, intercepting lots of passes meant for the opposition Goal Shooter. The B team worked hard in the centre court area with Wing Attack, Abbie Grafton, supplying some accurate passes in to the Goal Attack and Goal Shooter. Players of the match: Evie Pickles and Emily Northern

Outstanding play from: Abbie Grafton and Holly Bestwick

Dance Girls in Year 3 and 4 have been performing their dance routines for their class teacher. 3JB and 3VH performed a circus themed dance using the music ‘Come Follow The Band’ from the musical Barnum. 4CG performed pairs or trio routines based on various words which they then translated into movements or shapes. They used a piece of music called ‘Old Ned’ and all performances were characterised by vibrant clothes to complement the dances.

Swimming 16 girls in Year 5 and 6 competed in the Wakefield Schools’ Swimming Gala at Normanton swimming pool. We competed in individual events over 25 metres in backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle and in the 4 by 25 metre medley and freestyle relays. Jessica Morrison and Ellie Meredith led the teams in a very professional manner and also swam brilliantly. In a very competitive gala, other competing schools included Ackworth and Silcoates, and we now await the results to find out our final position. MUSIC – Music Festival Dates to save: We are delighted that we now have dates for some of our music festivals for next term. Please could you pop them in your diaries: Mrs Sunderland Music Festival (U11 Choir and Mulberry Singers) Friday 26 February Harrogate Music Festival (Year 2 Choir, U9 Choir, U11 Choir and Mulberry Singers) Saturday 12 March Pontefract Music Festival (U9 Choir) Friday 22 April

Tickets for the Under 11 Choir Concerts: We hope that Under 11 Choir parents all received a letter last week detailing how they can obtain tickets for the two concerts in December where the Choir is performing as a guest – Skelmanthorpe Male Voice Choir on Saturday 5 December and the Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir of Saturday 19 December. Please can we reiterate the need to get tickets as soon as possible, if you have not done so already. Tickets for the concert on 19 December are selling extremely fast.

FRENCH – A few tips to support your daughter in French: - When out and about, say the numbers on car registration plates as separate digits - trois, deux, huit or as separate digits and then add them up - trois plus deux plus huit font treize - Count the cars. What colour are they? - When your daughter is studying a topic eg La Maison, put sticky notes around the house - la cuisine, le salon etc. - Ask your daughter what the date is each day - If you are visiting France, build up a scrapbook including bills from cafés, menus, postcards, packaging, leaflets. - Find a simple recipe from the internet. Try making a Bûche de Noël (Yule log ) at Christmas.

Whatever you do to support your daughter, you will be developing their ability, confidence and enjoyment in communicating in French. Bonne chance!

Joyeux Anniversaire to the following girls. Lucy Dimbylow 17 octobre Antonia Rogers 3 novembre

Scarlet Oakes 18 octobre Neha Vemula 3 novembre

Lucy Smith 18 octobre Shara Vijay Kumar 3 novembre

Rihaam Zaki 18 octobre Anna Schofield 4 novembre

Olivia Millican 19 octobre Nell Poppleton 7 novembre

Flora Whitfield 19 octobre Henrietta Gibson 9 novembre

Emily Ramshaw 24 octobre Alice McKinlay-Smith 9 novembre

Riya Rambani 27 octobre Yvie Prior-Smith 10 novembre

Charlotte Richardson 29 octobre Charlotte D’Arcy 13 novembre

Ananya Ganjam 3 novembre

In Year 5 French, we have been asking for and giving directions to places in a French town. Hopefully, we will be able to ask for la boulangerie et le café etc when we holiday in France.

Zara Akhtar 4SS visited Paris during the half term holidays. She collected maps, receipts, entrance

tickets etc and brought them in it show the class. Bravo! Best wishes

Mrs R Edwards Head of Junior School

DATES TO NOTE - A list of dates for your diary can be found on our website www.wgsf.org.uk. I would, however, like to draw your attention to the following forthcoming events during this half term.

Monday 16 November – Year 5 visiting Wakefield Cathedral Wednesday 25 November – School Shop Monday 30 November – Year 3 visiting Wakefield Cathedral Thursday 3 December – Year 3 visiting Wakefield Cathedral Saturday 5 December – U11 Choir singing with Skelmanthorpe Male Voice Choir – Cathedral Monday 7 December – Years 5 and 6 concert for Wakefield Hospice – Cathedral Friday 11 December – Grade Cards home Tuesday 15 December – Years 3 and 4 Christmas Service – afternoon Thursday 17 December – End of Term – 12 NOON Saturday 19 December – U11 Choir singing with YPC - Cathedral

Charity Fashion Show – Number 10 Horbury

Friday 27 November at 7.00 pm

A Worthy Cause ……

Jess Worth is a vibrant 17 year old who is currently studying her A-levels at Wakefield Girls’ High School, with a view to

progressing into a career in fashion journalism.

She has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer called Ganglio Neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma can form when we are embryos and then continues to develop, which is why it’s rarely found in

children over five.

Jess has had many months of chemotherapy and will soon be having surgical treatment later this month. Jess and her

family are keen to raise funds to support the research into this rare disease.

You can help us raise funds for research into Neuroblastoma by supporting and attending our charity fashion show

which will be held at Number 10 in Horbury

on Friday 27 November at 7.00 pm.

For more information about tickets please call Number 10 on: 01924 272586.

Thank you for your support.