Last week, two important parent meetings were expertly led by Miss Ketley and Miss Kyriacou in the Pre Prep as we forge ahead with the roll-out of our new phonics scheme. Positive experiences of early reading are essential for children, and the partnership that parents and teachers have in supporting and encouraging a love of stories, poetry and written information in non-fiction books, is key in developing children as readers.
As children develop as readers, their ability to write evolves and it follows that those children who read the most, become the better writers. As an English teacher it is always a pleasure to read the work that emerges from children’s imaginations. The recent ‘Spooky Writing Competition’ run by Miss Senior has given young authors at Edge Grove an opportunity to show off their writing and I am delighted to share the results of the competition; those children listed below are our finalists, and have earned a Highly Commended certificate. Their work features in this digital book. Those in bold are year group winners and have each been awarded a spooky book prize! Huge congratulations to them.
Year 3Jasmine M
Year 4 Abigail HAariya TRoshini Ar
Year 5 Alexis CEssie DMarcus GBenji LYear 6 Emily M & Alex GAnabelle BDevan GAlfie LOphelia PJesse W
Year 7 Kamil IRohan SYear 8 Niccolò CShona MArthur T
Every pupil who entered will be receiving a participation certificate for their efforts.
Last week we also had the opportunity to hear original work from our oldest pupils in Year 8 when they performed extracts of war poems that they had written for the Remembrance Service. These can be heard here accompanied by original music composed by Karl Leutfeld, Director of Music: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YTTEM0HBSLC3V89OQKwA0JNfF2BgwGxg?usp=share_link
At the Christmas Fair on Saturday 26th November, a whole range of new books (fiction, non-fiction and activity books) will be available for parents to purchase at half price or less. I had the pleasure of pricing up a great many at the weekend and have photographed a small selection of them. I have chosen them all to support reading for pleasure, curriculum topics, known interests amongst the pupils, the development of fine motor skills for younger children, and academic curiosity for all. I am hoping all children will visit and find something to excite them! All proceeds will support the development of reading and the English curriculum at school.
Finally, I am delighted to hand over Reading Matters to Sophie G and Daniel G, school journalists in Year 6, to share news about the latest developments in the main library:Edge Grove's New Library Management SystemThe new school library management system called Accessit is almost in place, which means that pupils will be able to access the main library via an online device. Mrs Volioti, our Edge Grove Librarian, has been working very hard to reorganise the library and make it more pupil-friendly. Almost all of the books in the main library have been catalogued in the new system so pupils in Years 5 to 8 can access them to reserve on-line and collect them later in the day or later in the week. Mrs Volioti has appointed some pupils from each year group as Library Assistants to help in the library scanning and sorting the books. These children received their new badges in assembly last week.
Books are now classified by genre, including action and adventure, crime and fantasy, and have also been given lexile stickers so that when pupils type their lexile score into the app, they will be able to find books around their lexile. Using the powerful search engine, pupils can also find books by author, title and genre. Staff will also be able to put resources into the library catalogue such as articles and websites which will be helpful for homework assignments.
Books can be borrowed for up to two weeks and speedier readers will be able to borrow a second book, but Mrs Volioti has to see that books are returned by their deadlines first. The system is in place for pupils from Years 5-8 who have chromebooks. Now the only thing to do is wait excitedly for the new app to come online - we can’t wait!
Please enjoy these articles written by some of our Edge Grove journalists.
By Thomas W and Daniel G
On Thursday 10th November there was a bonfire night at Edge Grove school. The ceremony of the guy started at 5:05pm even though he was actually a doll in Edge Grove uniform the bonfire was lit at about 5:10pm at first the bonfire just didn’t light but then after the spectacular fireworks the bonfire then turned into a blazing inferno of flames. The embers were going with the wind towards the school luckily they were out when they hit the ground, it was lucky when they stopped the fireworks because only about a minute later the wind with the embers blew in the fireworks area where they were lighting them it was a very eventful bonfire night.
By Sophie G, Year 6
Recently, many pupils - and teachers - have been having conversations about this exciting performance. Why? You may ask. In May next year it will all become clear! Last half term, all children were asked if they would like to audition to be in the cast of ‘Matilda The Musical’, the well-known singing, dancing and acting show based on the story of a marvellous classic by Roald Dahl. The story tells of a very intelligent little girl, with ignorant, unkind parents, who goes to a new school and discovers some unexpected powers!
When we asked one of the directors, Miss Saville, what she feels about the choice of the performance for our school. She said, ‘I think this is one of the best musicals ever written’. The script for the show was written by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, who is a genius at writing lyrics for songs.
We also asked her which she thought was the best song in the script; the best ones in her opinion have to be: When I Grow Up and Revolting Children which are incredible songs performed in the middle and end of the show, starring a large group of the children.
We also spoke to the other director Miss Neale to find out some more background to the cast and rehearsals. When she asked who would like to take part in the show at Edge Grove, about 90 children came for the first audition but as she was only allowed 40 people on stage she had to make difficult choices. The auditionees learned songs and routines all together for a few weeks before Ms Neale cast the main characters. Now parts have been cast, the directors are staging all the scenes in order.
So much commitment and hard work has gone into the production so far and over the next six months so much time and effort will be put into the show. We are all looking forward to seeing it ourselves. Will Edge Grove’s Matilda the Musical be sensational? I think so!
