Welcome back to the second half of the school year, I hope you had a lovely half term break. The children have been “Wowed” this week with their new project launches and are so looking forward to learning lots this half term. Details of projects are on each class page of the website https://www.ash-grange.surrey.sch.uk/class-pages/ and you will see galleries of learning there too.   

Children from Year 1 to 6 enjoyed a visit from Fantastic Fred yesterday an interactive experience that teaches children how to be healthy in relation to: 

Food, Rest, Exercise and Devices – here’s the link to find out more https://www.thefantasticfredexperience.com/ 

Next week is Book Week at school and Mrs Haygarth has planned lots of events for the whole school to enjoy, read all about it at the end of the newsletter. 

We were delighted to host the parent/teacher meetings this week and have the opportunity to discuss more fully the mid-year report that was sent out before half term. 

Year 6 parents/carers please look out for the Marvellous Me homework information which explains the changes for Year 6 (summary below) in the run up to SATS, which are 9-12th May.  

In preparation for the Y6 SATs homework will be slightly different from now on. 

There will be no Mathletics or Reading Eggs set, although they can of course log on to play the games and activities on these sites. 

Instead, your child will have a revision book per subject – Reading, Maths Arithmetic, Maths Problem Solving, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. 

A task from a subject will be assigned each day throughout the week.  

It is expected that they complete the task each night as it will be marked and discussed the next day. Tasks should only take around 15 minutes a night. The books must be brought back into the school the next day.   

We would value your support in ensuring your child completes the work independently, however, you may of course support them if they need any help or inform us if they are struggling with any questions. 

Nursery 1 Post 

Due to increased numbers of children coming into Nursery 1 we are recruiting a full time Level 2 qualified staff member, details will be added to the school website www.ash-grange.surrey.sch.uk/vacancies/  Please ask me if you want to know more. 

Parent Council Reps we have an online meeting next Tuesday, an invite will be sent. 

INSET dates 23-24 

Parents/carers have been asking about term dates and INSET days for next academic year so they are now published on the school website www.ash-grange.surrey.sch.uk/term-dates-and-inset-days-1/

Changes to calendar: 

• Year 3 and 4 overnight stay is now 30th June due to the Coronation of King Charles III 

• Year R assembly on 7th July is now on 30th June 

• Year 3’s Assembly on 30th June is now a joint assembly with Y4 for the Overnight Stay Assembly on 7th July 

Red Nose Day - Comic Relief

Friday 17th March is Red Nose Day for Comic Relief. Children can wear red items of clothes to school in return for a £2 donation to Comic Relief through Scopay. This is an optional event.

We do not have any noses available this year, you can purchase them online or in shops.

World Book Day 2023  

Next week we will be celebrating World Book Day with a series of special activities within school. Our focus for the week is ‘Reading for Pleasure’ and celebrating all of the things we love about our favourite stories and books! 

Some of our special events include: 

Reading challenge - Children will be encouraged to ‘Read Around the World’ by achieving stamps for their reading passport each time they read 3 books.  

Tonie Time – The children will be enjoying having books read to them over the week through our Tonie system https://tonies.com/en-gb/ , the children selected books, music and films to enjoy and everyone is very delighted. 

Most unusual reading place competition - We want to see all of the places that the children at Ash Grange read! We would like you to send picture of your children reading in unusual places e.g. in the supermarket, up a tree, whilst riding a horse. Please encourage your child to be as creative as possible and sent your photos to your class teacher or to Mrs Haygarth year3teacher@ash-grange.surrey.sch.uk    

World Book Day dress up - Our School Councillors led a vote with each class and the children have decided that they would like to dress up as their favourite book character. Please encourage your child to bring the book that features their character (they can borrow one from our Rainbow Library at school for the day if they don’t have the book at home!) so that they can share this with their class. 

Theatre Workshop - On Monday 6th March, we have the Umbrella Theatre Group visiting our school. Children will take part in an interactive performance of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.  

Finally, we will be starting a ‘Mystery Reader’ event. This is where parents or carers (including Grandparents!) are invited to come into school to read to their child’s class, not just during Book Week. The children won’t be told who is coming, just that there is a ‘Mystery Reader’ coming on that day. If this is something that you would like to take part in, please contact Mrs Haygarth at year3teacher@ash-grange.surrey.sch.uk