| Brookmans Park Newsletter |
Brookmans Park
School Text edited by Michael Rogers and Jeremy Silverstone. Village Day Goes Wild! This year’s Village Day, with it’s Wild West Theme and uncharacteristic dry weather proved to be a record breaking event! The PTA created a real Western atmosphere with a mock Cowboys and Indians shoot-out and a hugely popular Rodeo Bull. These and many other new attractions helped to pull in the crowds and raise a rip-roarin’ £4,500 for PTA funds. Highlights of the day included competitions for adults and children on the Rodeo Bull, with childrens’ winner Eve Olive carrying off the prize of adopting an animal at Whipsnade Zoo for a year. A Note from the Head The School was recently successful in bidding for a grant worth £120,000 from the Government’s ‘New Deal for Schools’ initiative. We were particularly pleased on two counts - we were the only GM school in Herfordshire to receive funds from this source, and the money is much needed to maintain the condition of the school buildings. The money will be used for the re-roofing of most of the Junior School during the summer holidays, and a further application is being made for funds to complete the Infant buildings. Also before School resumes in September, the Junior toilets will be completely renovated with new flooring, tiling, WCs and cubicles.This is all part of our policy to complete as much work as possible before the uncertainty of the change to Foundation status befalls us next September. We have also been awarded £6,100 from the National Grid for Learning
fund to be spent on computers and connecting the School to the internet. I am pleased to
tell you that all our classes next year will comprise less than 30 children, pre-empting
the Government’s target. Go Bananas with books Go Bananas is the 1998 Hertfordshire Library Service Summer Reaading Challenge. It is open to all children regardless of age and reading ability, and is free of charge. To join the Challenge, children should have a library card in their own name. The aim of the Challenge is to promote the enjoyment of reading and maintain reading skills over the summer holiday and in many cases improve it through practice. On joining the Challenge, each child will be given a log book to keep a record of books they have read. Children will receive a small prize on reading 3, 6, and 9 books and if they complete the Challenge by reading 10 books they will be presented with a certificate on returning to school in September. There will also be a prize draw at each library branch and on completion of the Challenge, each child will automatically be entered into the County prize draw. The first prize is a seven-night family holiday with three runners-up prizes of family short break holidays. For details of how to join the library and the Reading Challenge, please telephone Oakmere Library - 54406, Cranbourne Library - 653788, Brookmans Park Library - 652538. Waste not... Year 6 are about to benefit from the School’s first purchase as a result of the Aluminium Can Recycling Scheme. A play parachute has just been presented to them as a reward for crushing all the cans this year. It has become the tradition for Year 6 to have this responsibility since the scheme began at our school two years ago, when a group of Year 6 children became interested, following a science topic on waste materials. All children are encouraged to bring their aluminium drink cans to the collection box in the front entrance hall. Although the revenue raised is quite small, it is hoped that the children will be encouraged to recycle other waste at local sites.District sports On 8th July Brookmans Park took part in the District Sports at the Gosling Stadium against all the other local schools. We did very well, reaching the finals of 11 out of the 16 events, and were especially successful in the relays, in which we achieved two wins and two second places. Our teams were made up of : Y4: Lauren, Ellie, Amy, Sophie, Charlie,
Sam, Liam and Matthew. Well done to all who took part. Year 5 Go Outward Bound On July 3rd-6th, Y5 visited Marchant’s Hill in Surrey. We took part in ten activities: abseiling, rock-climbing, quad bikes, fencing, archery, rifle shooting, I.E., orienteering, challenge course, and low ropes, which were all very enjoyable. There were also three night activities - a disco, grunts and mini-Olympics. All Y5 pupils would like to thank the staff who organised the trip, as well as the friendly PGL staff who made it a trip to remember. Louise Judson, Fiona Boothby Gold stars...
Parents - please tell us about any other notable successes by our children. Rounders success We recently had our first Rounders match, against Little Heath. There were two, 10 minutes batting innings, and after the first we had nil and they had 4 1/2. We then had a tactics talk with Miss Moore and caught and stumped them all out. When we went in to bat we scored 2 runs but one by James was a no-ball. The final score was 7 1/2 to 2 1/2. Our team was: Ben, Alex N. (captain), Alex P., Andrew, Patrick, James, Cathy, Vicky, Franchesca and Lauren. Fund Raising Claire Allen and Amanda Rogers (Y6) raised money for the
Nursery by selling stones they designed and painted to parents and other children. They
raised over £30, which will go towards PE equipment. Well done to both for their
excellent efforts. Model School Competion Tesco's Schools Competition was open to all school children in the Potters Bar area. Pupils were invited to draw a picture or make a model of their local store. Amy and Emily Knight set to work on their model, which took six weeks to complete. Despite enormous competition, Amy and Emily won second place, and received an individual prize and 500 vouchers for our School. Well done Amy and Emily - keep a look out for next year’s competition! Dates for Your Diary Weds 2nd September - Back to School Mon 14th September - PTA Meeting (new blood always welcome!) 26th - 30th October - Half Term Sat 19th June 1999 - Village Day ‘99 |