Latest News | Glade Hill Primary School

INSET Day - 24th Noveber 2023

Fri 24 Nov 2023 Mrs Stapleton

We were very pleased to invite Kate Jones as a key note speaker for our shared INSET day with local Aspire Primary Schools.

Kate is an author on the subject of retrieval practice and talked to us about evidence based strategies to support our children knowing more and remembering more.

Teaching Assistant staff then attended 3 workshops focussed on:

-Supporting children with ASC and anxiety

-Challenge in Maths

-Supporting children in English

-Supporting children with complex and additional needs

-Supporting children to develop their communication and language

Then in the afternoon, Teachers met as year group teams across our 5 local schools to moderate writing and share judgements. They discussed next steps to support improving outcomes in writing for our children.

Thanks to all the speakers, facilitators and staff for supporting and engaging in our INSET. We aim that this professional development supports the improvement of outcomes for children who attend our schools.

Children in Need 2023!

Fri 17 Nov 2023 Mrs Stapleton

We had an amazing day at Glade Hill raising money for Children in Need. The children (and staff!) dressed to impress in spots, yellow, non-school uniform or pyjamas and also got to join in with some fun games organised by our awesome Year 3s and 4s.

Take a look at the photos below.

Letter from the Headteacher - Start of Autumn 2

Fri 17 Nov 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

I hope you all had a nice half-term break. It has been so lovely to see your children back in school this week and ready to learn.

This next half-term is always a busy one, so make sure you check the MarvellousMe app, your Arbor app and your emails for updates, reminders and messages regarding all the fun things we are going to be doing in school. If you do not yet have the app, please speak to a member of our Office team who will be able to help you get set up. This app is also used to send ‘badges’ when your child has been praised by a member of staff, so keep a look out.

There are lots of opportunities coming up as well, for you to get involved in school and find out about your child’s learning. There are ‘Stay and Learn’ sessions for our F2 (Reception) and more Excite and Engage drop ins for Buttercups and Bluebells parents and carers. We will also be having our first parents’ evenings of this year next week on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th November, so make sure you return a slip for each of your children with your preferred time slots as soon as possible. We are hoping that our School Cook will be attending part of the Tuesday session, providing samples for parents and children of our amazing school meals!

Finally, after being in contact with his family, we are hoping to create some in-school memorials to our Year 1 child who passed away shortly before the school holiday. Our FRoGS parent group (Friends of Glade Hill School) will be meeting with school staff soon to discuss how we can raise money for this, and once we have decided on a fitting tribute we will be sending out information to parents and carers. I am sure you will join me in sending all our love and support to the child’s family at this sad time. If any child or family has any personal messages they wish send to the family, we will be putting a memorial book in the office for people to add to. You can also send any messages via email which we will print to include in the book.

I look forward to seeing you all very soon, kindest regards,

Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher

Letter from the Headteacher - end of Autumn 1

Thu 26 Oct 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

This half-term we have been focusing on getting all the children quickly settled into their new classes and taking part in the great learning that has been taking place. I hope the parents and carers who were able to join us for the ‘excite and engage’ sessions enjoyed seeing the learning in action. I know I have been so impressed with all the children’s GOLDEN behaviour and their SPARKLY learning so far! A big thank you to the grown-ups who dressed up for the Year 2 Pirate themed event, you looked amazing!

We have also celebrated Harvest this half-term, again collecting an ENORMOUS amount of food for the Bulwell and Bestwood Food Bank. Thank you so much for your generosity and for supplying the requested items.

We also dressed to impress on our ‘Wear it Gold’ day to show our support for the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), raising awareness of this charity for a cause that is very close to our hearts.

There are still lots more opportunities to come after our half-term holiday including a ‘Stay and Learn’ for our F2 (Reception) parents and carers, more Excite and Engage drop ins and a ‘Cuppa, Cake and Chatter’ meeting for parents to learn more about how to support your child’s reading. Keep an eye out for upcoming dates and further details.

Please remember that our three Priority Areas for School Improvement this year are:

Reading – please read at least 3 times a week with your child
Assessment – please help them complete their homework and join us for school events and parents’ evenings
and Attendance – please make sure that your child is in school as much as possible

I thank you in advance for your ongoing support in these areas and look forward to seeing you after the half-term break.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher

Welcome letter from the Headteacher - start of Autumn 1

Wed 06 Sep 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

Welcome everyone to the 2023.2024 academic year at Glade Hill Primary and Nursery School.

I know this is going to be another amazing year at Glade Hill, and I look forward to seeing all our children show their GOLDEN behaviour and SPARKLY learning. I know that all our staff will be striving to ensure that all children become the best learners that they can be.

Our three Priority Areas for School Improvement this year are:

Improving the teaching of Reading to improve outcomes at the end of KS2.
Further develop our Assessment processes, ensuring that we know where children have gaps in their learning and how to move them on.
Continuing to improve Attendance so that all children are in school as much as possible.

One important way that you can support us with these goals, is making sure that your children are in school as much as possible. Research shows that children with over 95% attendance achieve better grades, achieve their best and are happier and more settled in school. We have lots of incentives to celebrate excellent attendance that will continue this year, including class trophies, attendance badges/ medals and prizes for our 5-day challenges.

Another way that you can support us with these goals, is by making sure that you read with your child three times a week. Regular practice is essential for progress in reading, and reading is essential for improving achievement across the curriculum. We have a fantastic reading reward scheme for all children where by reading three times a week they can earn prizes such as teddies, notebooks, pencils and books.

I am also very excited to say hello to our new F2 children (Reception) in Amazing Acorns. We hope you are enjoying your learning and I know that you will quickly settle in and thrive at Glade Hill.

To our Year 6 children, we look forward to you being fantastic role models for our school community, showing us all how to be GOLDEN and to SPARKLE in our learning every day. You have already really impressed me with your mature attitudes and behaviour. Keep up the good work!

Thank you in advance for your support this year, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher

Bestwood Day of Action

Fri 30 Jun 2023 Mrs Stapleton

A team of our Marvellous Year 5s and Outstanding Year 4s took part in the Bestwood Day of Action last week.

They tidied our school planter at the local shops and took part in a litter pick of the surrounding area.

Well done to them all for such great work. You are all golden citizens. A big thank you to Mrs McKenna and other staff who organised and helped on the day.

Year 4s contribute to Kindness Quilt for RSE day 2023

Tue 13 Jun 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Today some of our Year 4s joined a textiles artist Rebekah Johnston and Cllr. Barnard to contribute towards the Nottingham City 'Kindness Quilt' for RSE day 2023 and what a great job they did!

The 'Kindness Quilt' project is part of the RSE day 2023 celebrations and involves schools contributing towards a 'kindness quilt'. This will be a quilt made up on 29 squares, showing an abstract image of a kindness story or what kindness can mean.

This is to support this year's theme for RSE day 2023 which is 'Launch into Kindness'. ChalleNGe is supporting the creation of this collaborative Quilt project, with Textile artist Rebekah Johnston and Nottingham's RSE day lead, Catherine Kirk. They're also gathering children and young people's stories of Kindness as part of Nottingham's Year of Stories, which will be incorporated into the quilt using QR codes! The quilt will tour local libraries and be on display at Newstead Abbey during Autumn 2023.

RSE Day (challengenottingham.co.uk)

At Glade Hill, we won a free session with the artist running the project and 16 children from Year 4 took part today.

Although not all children got the chance to make a textile square today, all the children will be involved in thinking of a kindness story durng RSE week and then creating a collaged version using paper. I look forward to sharing examples with you in July.

Headteacher Letter - start of Summer 2

Tue 13 Jun 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

I hope you all had a lovely half-term break. It has been so lovely to see all of the children back in school and already working so hard with their learning.

Our Super Year 6s continue to work hard on their writing, ready for us completing our teacher assessments later in June. I am so proud of all their progress and hard work, especially straight after their reading and maths tests. I know that they will be very well prepared for secondary schools after all this hard work and commitment to their learning. This year we have decided to hold a Year 6 Leaver’s Party for the first time so the children can celebrate all their hard work and the great time they have had a Glade Hill. I’m sure a great time will be had by all. This will be in addition to the usual Leaver’s Assembly. Get the tissues ready!

We again have lots of exciting curriculum and enrichment activities planned for this half-term, including our Wonderful Year 2s going to Wollaton camp and our Year 6s going to Boggle Hole. As I’ve shared before, these enrichment opportunities are an important part of our curriculum at Glade Hill and we are committed to ensuring these continue even with rising costs for transport. With residentials for children at Glade Hill in Years 2, 4 and 6, there are plenty of opportunities for children to be golden and SPARKLE both in school and in exciting out of school ‘overnight’ experiences.

This half-term our Marvellous Year 5s have experienced another first at Glade Hill. They have been the first year-group in school to start the ‘Great Project’. The Great Project is an education and personal development programme for Upper Key Stage 2, designed to promote healthy relationships and domestic abuse awareness. The aim being to help children stay safe and enter healthy relationships as they get older. All our teaching and support staff also attended a CPD training session this week to support our professional knowledge in this area so we can support our children and families in the best way possible. Further information can be found at http://www.equation.org.uk/the-great-project

As always, if you or anyone you know requires further support or information around this topic, this can be found at: www.junowomensaid.org.uk or www.equation.org.uk/service-for-men/

Following the success of our fantastic clubs programme this year, we are starting our final round of clubs next Wednesday. This half-term we have tried to combine some familiar favourites like cookery and forest schools with some new additions like photography and bead craft. Nearly all of the clubs for this half-term are now full, but if any children did not get a place on their preferred club, please contact the office to be put on the waiting list or priority list for the Autumn term.

Finally, as we begin the final half-term of this academic year, I would like to thank you for all your support and commitment to your children’s learning. We will be sending out a parent questionnaire next week for some feedback on how you view the work we do at Glade Hill and anything you would like to see more of (or less of!) next academic year. Please fill this in as it will be a great help in our planning for next year and I thank you in advance for your constructive feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Kindest regards, Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher

End of Summer 1 - Headteacher letter

Thu 25 May 2023 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

Wow, it’s been another amazing half-term at Glade Hill with lot of great learning and enrichment opportunities.

We had a fabulous time celebrating the King’s Coronation with a party lunch in the hall and lots of crafts.

Our Year 2s and Year 6s completed their SATs during May and they all blew me away with their resilience and attitude. We are all so proud of their progress and hard work, and I know that this will be reflected in their results. A big thank you to all the staff and parents of these children for supporting their preparation for the tests so well.

Our Outstanding Year 4s attended Colwick camp and a wonderful time was had by all. The children tried the high ropes course, orienteering and enjoyed marshmallows around the campfire. Miss Wardle, the class teachers and all the staff who supported this experience fed back how proud they were of all the children for their enthusiasm and ambition during their time on camp. When myself and Mrs Want visited, we saw for ourselves the fun everyone was having.

Our Amazing Acorns ‘F2’ children visited Stonebridge City Farm this week and also experienced a visit from the ‘Wee Donkey’ company. They learned so much about all farm animals and how they are looked after and cared for. This is an important part of our EYFS curriculum and it was lovely to see how much the children benefited from these experiences. The Wee Donkey company sent the following feedback to us about their visit:

We absolutely loved our first school visit today. All the children were really fantastic- their enthusiasm, manners, donkey interest and charm shone through! It was lovely they treated the animals with so much kindness and respect. Nicola from The Wee Donkey Company

These enrichment opportunities are an important part of our curriculum at Glade Hill and we are committed to ensuring these continue even with rising costs for transport. Our FROGs parent group supported our EYFS trip to Stonebridge City Farm through money raised at the Christmas Productions. Thank you again to all our FROGs and everyone who supports our school events.

Finally, as I have shared with you before, one of our three Priority Areas for School Improvement this year is improving Attendance. We have introduced a range of new incentives to improve attendance including a ‘5-day attendance challenge’ and will be following this up with a ’10-day attendance challenge’ at the end of the summer term. Look out for further details after half-term.

A really good way to improve your child’s attendance is by not taking term-time holidays. Please remember that term-time holidays can not be authorised unless you share details of exceptional circumstances with us. As per Nottingham City Council’s and our School policy, we will pursue fines if term-time holidays are taken.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I wish you all a fantastic half-term break.

Kindest regards, Mrs Anna Stapleton - Headteacher

'School of Fish' for the Green Hustle!

Tue 23 May 2023 Mrs Stapleton

This year, Glade Hill is taking part in the Green Hustle in Nottingham City by making 3D sculptures of sea creatures for the 'School of Fish' display out of recycled plastic. The children have made some fabulous and very creative creations. The festival is being held from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th June in the Old Market Square.

https://www.greenhustle.co.uk/

See below for some more information about the Green Hustle festival and how we are involved.

What is Green Hustle?
A festival (celebrating art, life and nature) held in
the Market Square in Nottingham.
It is a free festival that aims to make Nottingham
greener, healthier and more connected.

How are we involved?
This year, the ‘Motion for the Ocean’ campaign
movement inspires part of the festival. They are
asking Nottingham schools to create some art
(based on ocean pollution) that will be collected
from schools and displayed at the festival.
The children can then view their own art if they
attend the festival!