Latest News | Glade Hill Primary School

Headteacher Letter - Start of Au 1

Thu 05 Sep 2024 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

Welcome everyone to the 2024.2025 academic year at Glade Hill Primary and Nursery School.

I know this is going to be another fabulous year at Glade Hill, and I look forward to seeing all our children continuing to 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 Maths to improve outcomes at the end of KS2.
Further develop our Phonics teaching and assessments.
Developing our EYFS provision so that our youngest children get off to the best start possible at our school.

One important way that you can support us with these goals, is continuing to make 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 and attendance badges/ medals.

Another way that you can support us with these goals, is by making sure that you help your child to complete any homework given. Regular practice of key number facts such as counting, number bonds or times tables is essential for progress in maths. Reading with your child as much as possible, is also essential to help your child make progress in applying their phonics as well as achieving well in English. We have some exciting updates about our Reading Rewards to share with you later this week, based on feedback from our children and parents/ carers at the end of last term.

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. You have already made a great start.

To our Year 6 children, you are already acting as fantastic role models for our school community, showing us all how to be GOLDEN and to SPARKLE in our learning every day. I know that you will continue to impress 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 - Headteache

Silver Artsmark Award for Glade Hill!

Fri 05 Jul 2024 Ms Elgin-Toll

At Glade Hill we have been working hard for the past 2 years to achieve an Artsmark Award! We are extremely proud to have been recently awarded with a Silver Artsmark Certificate, which we will retain for two years! In order to achieve this award we have focused closely on our art subjects – Art, Music, PE and English – and worked hard to enhance our children’s experience of them. This has been through clubs, enrichment opportunities, resourcing, teaching and allowing children to present their successes. A huge celebration for the arts at Glade Hill!

We are Designers!

Fri 21 Jun 2024 Mrs Stapleton

We are designers!

Look at these amazing playground designs from our Super Year 6s. They worked hard to consider safety features alongside fun factor! Well done to all the children for some amazing designs.

Sandy Banks Nature Reserve

Thu 20 Jun 2024 Mrs Lineker

We are so proud to announce that 3 of our pupils won a competition with Nottingham City Council to have their quote about nature painted onto one of he blocks in the new seating area at Sandy Banks Nature Reserve.

The nature reserve has undergone many improvements recently from a new seating area, to different sensory trails you can explore.

We had a great time at the unveiling of the new seating area yesterday, marvelling at our quotes on display, as well as enjoying what the nature reserve has to offer. We followed the green trail and completed a scavenger hunt, we built dens and we made plans for what we'd like to do next time we come!

Take a look at our very worthy winners and our runners up enjoying the green space right on our doorstep!

Headteacher Letter - end of Summer 1 and start of Summer 2

Tue 04 Jun 2024 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.

Last half-term was super busy including for our Super Year 6s who were completing their SATs. I am so proud of all their progress and know that they will be very well prepared for secondary schools after all this hard work and commitment to their learning. This year a parent is organising a Year 6 Leaver’s Party 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 and thank you to the parents who are helping to organise this. This will be in addition to our usual Leaver’s Assemblies that are scheduled for Friday 26th July. Get the tissues ready!

We again have lots of exciting curriculum and enrichment activities planned for this half-term, including our Year 6s venturing to Boggle Hole in Whitby for their residential. Our Outstanding Year 4s are also going to Gulliver’s Kingdom after their residential was cancelled following the closure of the Wollaton and Colwick Outdoor Centres by Nottingham City Council. Our Wonderful Year 2s have already been to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park on an amazing wildlife adventure and all had an amazing time. 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 and the closure of the Outdoor Centres. For the next academic year we will be reviewing the trips, experiences and visits across the different year groups and developing a new updated plan for residentials.

This half-term our Marvellous Year 5s will also experience 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 attended a CPD training session last year 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/

We have also been involved in a fantastic community project during the Summer term which involves the re-development of the Sandy Banks Local Nature Reserve. As part of this our Year 4s and 5s submitted inspirational quotes about nature, with 3 of the quotes being selected as winners. These will be added to blocks in the area. What a great achievement!

Here are the winning quotes from Glade Hill:

“I love nature because it’s always filled with surprises.” Luna

“I love nature because it blooms and changes like we do everyday.” Olivia

“Nature is the core of everything beautiful and wonderful.” Nathanaelle

Just before half-term, our Assistant Headteacher Mrs Lineker also accepted a cheque on behalf of Glade Hill from our local Co-op branch. They had raised money for our school to buy more fabulous books for our classrooms, following on from our Read-a-thon. Thank you so much to all the Co-op staff, we really appreciate your support.

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.

Kind regards, Mrs Stapleton

Talented Year 6 Artists

Fri 24 May 2024

Take a look at this beautiful Monet inspired watercolour created by one of our Super Year 6s. We are so impressed with how well all our Year 6s did in SATs, but also how talented they are across the curriculum.

Headteacher letter - Summer 1 2024

Thu 25 Apr 2024 Mrs Stapleton

Dear Parents and Carers of Glade Hill,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. It has been so lovely to see all of the children back in school and be so keen to get back to their learning. The first 2 weeks have flown by with all the great learning in school!

Our Year 6s have been working really hard and will be taking their SATs later this half-term during May. I am so proud of all their progress and hard work, and I know that this will be reflected in their results. Keep up the good work Team 6 and I know you will reap the rewards!

The Year 2 children will also be undertaking some assessments, but these will be later in the Summer term this year due to changes in Government guidance and results reporting. Although there will still be some tests, these will be used to inform future teaching and learning, and will not be reported in the same way as previously.

We again have lots of exciting curriculum and enrichment activities planned for this term, including our clubs, trips and in-school experiences. For example, the children across lower school recently accessed an ‘Owl Experience’ day as part of their English learning and some of our Year 4 children are accessing ‘Wild Things’ outdoor learning. Unfortunately, we have had the sad news that the Year 2 Wollaton Camp and the Year 4 Colwick Camp have been permanently closed due to the financial situation at Nottingham City Council, meaning that these year groups will be unable to go on residentials this year. We are working hard as a school to arrange alternative experiences, so watch this space.

Our Year 5s attended their first swimming lessons of the year this term, and impressed everyone with their resilience and enthusiasm. The staff at Southglade Leisure Centre were again very complementary about the children’s attitude and behaviour. Well done Year 5.

Finally, as I have shared with you before, our three Priority Areas for School Improvement this year are: improving the teaching of Reading; continuing to improve Attendance; and also developing our Assessment processes. Teachers and support staff have attended in-school training on how to improve the teaching of reading and how to use assessments to move children’s learning on. We have also continued our incentives to improve attendance. Overall, as a school we are making good progress towards our targets. This progress has been shared with our Governing Body and also our School Improvement Advisor who both complimented the progress we are making.

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

Memorial Mosaics arrive at School!

Wed 17 Apr 2024 Mrs Stapleton

Today, the wonderful artist Julie Vernon delivered our two beautiful memorial mosaics to school to commemorate a child from Year 1 who sadly died in November 2023. These were created at school with Julie by our children and staff, and also the child's parents. We will be displaying these in Lower School, in the entrance hall and in Buttercups classroom.

Pupil Council Interview with Governors

Fri 22 Mar 2024 Mrs Lineker

This week our wonderful Pupil Council were interviewed by our Governors to find out what our children thought about our school. We were so proud of how polite, respectful and honest they were! They spoke so highly of all the staff at Glade Hill and how fun teachers made their lessons. Take a look at the poster below to see what they said.

Consultation on SEN Unit

Mon 18 Mar 2024

The formal consultation on the provision of a new SEN unit at Glade Hill Primary School opens today. All stakeholders are invited to make comments regarding this provision by e-mailing the school on admin@gladehill.nottingham.sch.uk and putting SEN unit provision in the subject line.

For the full consultation document please see the Parents Views page or Letters & Newsletters page of our website.