Parents as Partners

Our first Parent Council meeting of the school year will be held on Monday 3rd September at 7.30pm in The Bell Tree. All parents are welcome and we are keen to have all year groups and classes represented. Our meetings are informal and we deal with important issues in a positive and supportive way. We vary the day of the week that meetings are held to allow as many parents as possible to attend over the year. The group is slightly different at each meeting and new members are always made to feel welcome so if you can make it on the 3rd we would love to see you!

For parents who can’t manage to evening meetings I also hold a monthly meeting during the day called ‘Grange Gabbers’. The first meeting will be held on Friday 7th September 9.15-10.15am in the out of school club room. Again this group changes each month dependent upon everyone’s availability and it is a great way for me to gather feedback from parents which helps us to improve. The nursery equivalent is called ‘Nursery Natters’ and is led by Mrs Landsburgh (Principal Teacher). The first meetings will be held in the nursery on Monday 3rd September at 11.00am and 2.30pm.

Mrs Landsburgh has been working hard on the school blog to include as much information about our school as possible. The information included was suggested by parents for parents and we hope you will enjoy browsing. It continues to be a work in progress and we are always keen to get feedback which could help us to further improve. Mrs Landsburgh has recently added a calendar of events which you might find helpful. As part of our school improvements this year the Parent Council aim to develop a calendar of events for families so keep an eye on the calendar for more information. Huge thanks to Mrs L for all the time and energy she has put into the blog!

Finally our first family event ‘The Grange Big Lunch’ will be held on Saturday 8th September 11.00am-1.00pm. Bring along your deck chairs and picnics or treat yourselves at Fallone’s Pizza Van and the ice-cream van! Our P6 children will be leading playground games and we have some local clubs coming along to give taster activities. We will also have a pom pom station and an art project for ‘upcycling’ plastic water bottles to help decorate our school entrance. It will be a fun way for parents and families to get involved with the life of our school and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. It is only by working together that we can truly make Grange great and give the children the best possible learning experience so go on…get involved!

GREAT TO BE BACK!

It has been wonderful coming back to a new school year and seeing the children so happy and eager to learn. Last term we had a whole school focus upon Great Grange Behaviour and we saw amazing improvements particularly in corridor and playground behaviour. The school leadership team were outside in the playground over breaks every day as well as supervising the dining hall and corridors. The children made us all extremely proud by rising to the high standards of behaviour we aim for at Grange and several visitors commented upon our polite and well-behaved children.

Over the last two weeks we have been building upon our success by focusing upon Great Grange Relationships. Our three goals are for our everyone to be Safe, Respectful and Ready to learn. The leadership team continue to be outside at breaks and highly visible around the school to support this. We are also trying out a ‘Meet and Greet’ every morning. This involves me welcoming the children at the gate (alternate days at each gate) and Mrs Tweed, Mrs Oldham and Mrs Landsburgh welcoming in the class lines to allow the class teachers to welcome the children at the classroom doors. Our hope is that by personally connecting with every child as they enter the school they feel safe, respected and ready for the day. That’s when the best learning can happen!

We have been giving out golden raffle tickets all week for children who are behaving well in the dining hall. The raffle tickets have all gone into a golden tombola and eight winning tickets will be drawn each Friday. The eight winners will have their lunch at the Golden Table the following Friday and they can also invite a guest to join them. The excitement is almost too much…and that’s just me!

Have a great weekend everyone and watch out for my next blog coming soon…