NEWS - November 2024

The School Council have enjoyed organising Children in Need. The children paid £1 to come into school in non-uniform with a teddy and we ran a cake sale after school to raise more money. We are excited to find out how much we have raised to help the children who need it the most.

Alice (School Council Chair)

Our Year 6 children had a fantastic time at Gunpowder Mills....they even took part in an air raid!

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who took a box from the foyer for the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Shoebox Appeal. In total, 170 boxes were taken! Grove Wood never ceases to amaze me in all the years they have supported the appeal - thank you!

Just a reminder that the deadline for handing in the boxes is the 21st NOVEMBER and they need to be returned to the HOLY TRINITY CHURCH in Rayleigh. They can be dropped off between 10:00am-12:30pm Monday-Saturday via their back entrance which is accessible through their car park in Rectory Garth.

Thank you so much once again everyone, your box will make such a difference to a child in another country this Christmas.

Alison

If you shop at Asda and have the app, please sign up (using the information on the picture) to the ASDA Cashpot for Schools. This will not affect your personal Cashpot, but your spending could earn donations for our school!

Please tell your family and friends too!

Rayleigh Angling club again this year extended invites to our Year 5 and 6 children to have coaching in fishing for an afternoon a week.

During September the last of 80 children from year 5, who wanted to take up this opportunity, took to the lake.

The children were supported by members of the club coordinated by Dave Bates, the children are given all the equipment and bait and spend the afternoon chatting and learning. In today's world this is so good for both the children's wellbeing and mental health and is also a joy for the retired fisherman to pass on their skills.

So often the children mention how lovely it is to have the view of lakes and the adults talk of the value of being quiet, patient and enjoying fresh air and not being on a screen.

Junior membership is offered to all pupils for just £10 a year for them to go with family- this is also promoting the future of the Fishing club and the chance for children to be outside at weekends and holidays.

It's been so positive over the past 3 years to foster this link with local groups and see the benefits for both our children and our community.

Year 5 Had a fantastic time at Bradwell!

‘Well done to the Year 6 children who took part in the table tennis competition yesterday (18/09) The boys came 3rd and the girls came 2nd overall.

Our year 6 quad kids team came 8th in the county. Well done for all your hard work!

Staff vs Students Netball Match

The children and staff had a fantastic time yesterday lunchtime (16/07) and after a very fast paced match, the Staff became the winners of the 2024 Staff vs Students Netball Match!

Thanks Dave and crew for looking after us so well again this summer. See you in September!

Congratulations to the Ks2 district champions! They all worked so hard to win this today! It was a pleasure to watch them push themselves! A very well deserved win!

Huge congratulations to the Greenpower team who had a fantastic day at the Historic Goodwood Track!

Overall winners and also took 2nd place! Also won, Drag 2nd place
Chicane 3rd place
Chicane 1st place
Lap of champions 3rd place
Over 12 Lap of Champions Wooden spoon 2nd place.

You were absolutely amazing and a credit to the school!

Congratulations to the Grove Wood Greenpower team, who despite a few car issues, won a huge trophy haul.

Overall winners 1st and 3rd
The Sprint Race 2nd and 3rd
The Drag Race 2nd and 3rd
The Slalom Race 1st and 2nd

Well done team Grove Wood you were absolutely amazing!

Year 3/4 and 5/6 took part in a quad kids event today and both teams came away with the victory. Well done to all those that took part!

Year 4 have had a lovely morning exploring our local environment on our Geography field trip. The purpose of our trip was to get the children to look more closely at the physical and human use of the land around them and think about why things are there - to notice the woods, fields and houses and shops. To realize shops are concentrated around the High Street and certain types of shops are clustered together. They have had to orientate maps and complete a tally chart of shops. Once back in class we will collate this data and upgrade our field maps.

We had a great first day of two with author Ben Lyttleton. It started with a lively fun assembly which involved geography, drama, quizzing, goal celebrations, Mr Green and Mrs Chase doing the samba! The children have learnt so much through football and Ben's enthusiasm for learning and writing. If you haven't already seen his books and want and chance to buy one, he'll be here again today and happy to sign after school.

Ben said "everyone was so nice, including (all) the teachers, but also the kids who were super engaged and enthusiastic while also being well-behaved and respectful." Great to hear!

Thank you to Mrs Taylor for organising such a fantastic visit!

Georgie and Amelie in 5EF completed the race for life muddy 5K on Sunday (14th July) raising over £500 for Cancer Research.

We are really proud of the girls, a huge well done to you for raising an amazing amount of money for a very worthy cause!

Rettendon CC run U11s cricket every Monday throughout the summer. U8s will be 17:30 until 18:30, U11s 18:30 until 19:30. All ages, abilities boys & girls are welcome. These sessions are a great way to introduce your children to cricket and help them gain confidence and make new friends. If you'd like to register, please visit the All Stars Cricket website, message us on Facebook/Instagram or contact Chris Abrehart on 07545425574

ACL free courses for families/parents

ACL Essex is the largest provider of adult education in Essex.

ACL Essex AFL3B80Y23 FL Understanding Anxiety (Child Focus)

FOOD BANK

Every Wednesday we are doing a 'Food Bank Wednesday Collection'. There will be a shopping trolley outside the main entrance for anyone who wishes to contribute. Any items collected will go to the foodbank at the Megacentre. Thank you!

Clothes Bank totaliser - funds raised so far this academic year inc July 23/24...£594

£899 in the academic year 22/23

£1561 in the academic year 21/22.

Thank you!

The Year 6 children gave a lovely Remembrance Assembly.

PE Days will be as follows:-

Reception - will be on Thursday Mornings once the children are settled.

Year 1 - Friday Morning

Year 2 - Tuesday Morning

Year 3 - Thursday Afternoon

Year 4 - Monday Afternoon

Year 5 - Wednesday Afternoon

Year 6 - Tuesday Afternoon

A huge thank you to you all for your donations and purchases -

we raised £421.00!

Year 3 have had a great day hunting for Grove Goblins in the woods for outdoor ed day.

The children had a fantastic time at their disco on Friday!

The children had a fantastic lunch time today, enjoying their picnic on the school field.

Year 4 have had a treat today (11/06) - a Q&A with well-known children's author Ian Whybrow - of Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs fame, Little Wolf, Sniff and many, many more.

As the children found out, he's written well over a hundred books. They loved asking him questions and finding out how he became an author, his inspiration and advice. He couldn't believe how many Charlie and Olivia's we have!

Later in the week EYFS, Y1 and Y2 will have Ian read some of his stories to them

On Tuesday this week 4 of our year 6's took part in an online maths competition against 300 other schools from the South of England. They worked as a team to answer 60 questions, which they had to complete in either 30, 45 or 60 seconds. Some of the questions and tasks were incredibly difficult! Out of the 300 schools, only the top 30 went through to the semi-finals. Our team managed to come 17^th out of the 300, and were even in the top 3 for a long time. They will now compete in the semi-finals in June. Well done team Grove and good luck next month!

On Wednesday Grove celebrated National Numeracy Day by having a morning of engaging and purposeful maths activities. The children learnt about why maths is important, discovered how maths is used in the wider world and looked at what jobs use maths skills. The children also looked at the importance of being positive when learning new things in maths and learnt about what they can do if they are finding maths challenging. There were also KS1 and KS2 maths assemblies - well done to all the year 6's who helped with this! For more information on National Numeracy, please visit their website at https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/

Did you know it’s the Essex Year of Number?

Essex County Council has organised many activities through schools and libraries which children can enjoy. Here is one example of the activities on offer…

Read and Count with Me Under a Tree Book Bags

Read and Count with Me Under a Tree are special bags containing some lovely picture books to share with your little ones in the great outdoors to encourage literary, numeracy and a love of nature from an early age. To borrow a bag from the library to use in your local green space, you can check if your local library has one in stock, or reserve one to be sent to a library of your choice. Further info: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/read-and-count-with-me-under-a-tree

If you are interested in finding out more about all the events that are on offer this year, download the free Essex Year of... app.

Download the Essex Year of app from the App Store

Download the Essex Year of app from Google Play

The Children in Year 2 had a fantastic visit to Boydell's Farm they saw allsorts of farm animals they held lambs and were even allowed to milk some cows!

PE Days

Reception - Thursday AM

Year 1 - Friday AM

Year 2 - Tuesday AM

Year 3 - Thursday PM

Year 4 - Monday PM

Year 5 - Wednesday PM

Year 6 - Tuesday PM

Maths and Star Writers

Stars of the week

8th November

Stars of the week

18th October

Stars of the week

11th October

Stars of the week

4th October

Stars of the week

27th September

The Deanes Community Bike Loan Scheme

This is an initiative in partnership with Active Essex and the Bikeability Trust, whereby The Deanes SSP has been able to create a community cycling hub with a stock of adult and junior bikes for local families to borrow free of charge.

We are ready to take bookings as from today, so contact us directly ASAP!