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8th December 2017

Saturday 9th December 2017 12 noon-2:30pm PTA Christmas Fair

REMINDER: ALL CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES HAVE NOW FINISHED FOR THE TERM

Wednesday 13th December 2017 12 noon-5:30pm Prep Theatre Trip - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Thursday 14th December 2017 From 12 noon Christmas Lunch

Friday 15th December 2017 9:30am Tree Tops, Pre Reception and Reception Production

10:45am Year 1 and Year 2 Production

2:30pm Prep Carol Service, St James’ Church, Birstwith

Saturday 16th December 2017 Year 6 Ski Trip Departs to Les Deux Alpes

Christmas Production Poster Holiday Club Flyer Fizzy Fox Flyer

Next Week’s Menus

ADVENT The doors on the advent calendars are being opened, Christmas songs are playing on radio stations and almost all shops are being decked out with tinsel, garlands and baubles. Postmen are heaving heavy sacks of mail as they post cards through our doors onto doormats. All this brings good cheer to us all for the festive season. Preparation is well and truly underway at BGS! I received Christmas cards this week from many of the children in school, but two cards struck a particular chord. These were from Charles and Mollie in Reception who both sent me a card to say thank you for everything I had done for them. This formed part of a topic they had been covering entitled ‘people who help me.’ I felt particularly humbled and privileged to have received these cards. The Nursery began the festive season on Wednesday with a fun swim for Pre Reception in the morning and later the Magic Tree staged its Christmas Party. The morning finished with a ‘party’ lunch. The Pre Prep on that same morning went on a trip to Harrogate Theatre. The Pre Prep children enjoyed watching Beauty and the Beast (‘oh yes they did!”). Next week the Prep children will visit the West Yorkshire Playhouse to watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Our own Drama students have been practising hard for their LAMDA exams today. I am sure our younger LAMDA candidates will have sought inspiration from the professional actors.

All the children are waiting in eager anticipation for a very special visitor who is due to arrive tomorrow at 12noon at our Christmas Fair. He has informed me that he has received many emails, texts and letters from the children at BGS, with their Christmas lists. I have been checking with class teachers to ensure the children have been behaving themselves. The latest feedback is very positive. He tells me he is very excited about meeting all the children. He has also had a secret word with the Inspectors and has heard about all of the wonderful things the children do. He is now aware of how polite, well-mannered and considerate they all are. I am sure that the elves and fairies will allow him to keep his deadline. Please don’t be late or you will miss the angelic voices of our Senior Choir as they traditionally open the Christmas Fair with songs around the Christmas tree. This will be followed by the arrival of Santa. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in helping with the Christmas Fair over the last few days. Year 3 and Year 5 have once again worked closely with Horticap to make some beautiful wreaths. These have all been bought by parents, however, we will be selling our own, unique ‘Magical Wreaths’ commissioned from Horticap on the Eco Club Stall tomorrow. Every one of these special wreaths have been made from BGS foliage. I look forward to welcoming everyone to the Christmas Fair tomorrow and next Friday to the Tree Tops – Reception Nativity - ‘A King is Born’, at 9.30am, followed by Year 1 and Year 2 production of ‘Follow the Star’, at 10.45am (both in the School Gym) and the Prep Carol Service at 2.30pm in St James’ Church Birstwith followed by refreshments back at school in the main Reception Hall. All are welcome!

Next Saturday Year 6 depart on their annual ski trip which this year goes to Les Deux Alpes. Have a fun filled weekend! Jane Merriman

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PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MAGIC TREE NURSERY WILL CLOSE FOR CHRISTMAS AT 6:00PM ON FRIDAY 22ND DECEMBER 2017, AND WILL REOPEN AT 8:00AM ON

3RD JANUARY 2018

MAGIC TREE NURSERY As you may have noticed Magic Tree have welcomed the Christmas spirit, the children helping to decorate the room and participate in many Christmas themed activities. They have made Father Christmas handprints, danced to Christmas music with tinsel, filled and emptied containers with baubles and even dressed up as elves and angels.

On Wednesday we had our Christmas party which was lots of fun, the children decorated biscuits, made hats, had their faces painted and displaying their physical skills on the soft play. We were very lucky to get a visit from Father Christmas whom presented each child with a present, which they were eager to unwrap! Another strong theme this week has been exploring light from playing with glow sticks and torches indoors and out. The children had a soft play party dancing to music with the glow sticks, whilst using the torches and various items to explore changing the colour of the light, and learning how to turn it off and on again. Steph Flanigan-Banks

TREE TOPS What a busy week in Tree Tops! We have enjoyed a visit to the library and have read some new stories.

We had a super time at our Christmas party. We decorated biscuits, made Christmas hats, had a yummy picnic and had a visit from a very special man in a red suit! All the children enjoyed meeting him and getting their presents.

We have been busy practising the Nativity, singing our songs and getting our costumes ready. Please can any parents who haven't already done so, bring in their child's sheep costume. Thank you. Have a great weekend.

Jo Henderson

This week was another busy week as Christmas draws nearer. Tree Tops, Pre Reception and Reception children are rehearsing the Christmas Production and cannot wait to show you their acting skills next Friday. Please remember to send in their costumes.

The Magic Tree Nursery and Pre Reception Christmas parties on Wednesday were a huge success. Thank you to all those parents and family members who attended. I am sure you will agree that the children had great fun and enjoyed the visit from Father Christmas.

Please can I remind all parents we close Magic Tree Nursery at 6 pm on Friday 22nd December and reopen Wednesday 3rd January 2018.

Julie Dent

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PRE RECEPTION Pre Reception children had a lovely Christmas party on Wednesday. They thoroughly enjoyed a group fun session for swimming and a visit from Father Christmas. They all listened for his ho, ho, ho and asked him lots of questions about where he had parked his sleigh!

That Christmas feeling continued as they had their party lunch in the main hall next to the big christmas tree. It made me think how wondeful it is to be part of the magic of Christmas. They have been practicing very hard for the next big Christmas event and after our first rehearsals this week I think everyone will see how much they enjoy singing the songs they have learnt for their nativity production. We hope to see as many of you as possible on Friday 15th December. All children will need to be in by 8.45am and coffee is served in the Main Hall before the production starts at 9.30am. No phonics until new term as our focus is on Christmas. Letter sound beginning in spring term: Kk Mrs Regan RECEPTION It has been another busy week in Reception. We have come to the end of our topic 'People who help us' and have enjoyed learning about members of staff at school and the important jobs they do to ensure of school is a happy and safe place to learn at. As you will have seen on Tapestry, the children chose a member of staff to write a thank you card to and had fun delivering these to them. They wrote cards for teachers, teaching assistants, cooks and cleaners who were all very grateful. In phonics this week, we have learnt five new tricky words: we, me, be, he and she. Reception first practised identifying these sounds. They enjoyed listening to the tricky word Mrs Gray said and scrubbing this out on the playground. They then worked hard to read and write these words in sentences. In Maths, we have been focusing on using language linked to time. The children have learnt and used words such as time, clock, watch, seconds, minutes and hours. They have also had a go at using stop watches to record how long it takes for their peers to complete obstacle courses they had created! We have also been getting in the Christmas spirit by rehearsing for our Nativity and having a lovely trip to the theatre to see 'Beauty and the Beast'. The children loved the show and had fun singing and dancing along to the music! They also behaved beautifully and listened to all the instructions given by the adults to ensure they kept safe during the trip. Over the next couple of weeks, our focus will be 'Christmas'. We will be deepening our understanding of the meaning of Christmas and having fun making lots of Christmas crafts. We will also be working hard in 'Santa's grotto' in our classroom decorating the tree, wrapping and labelling presents and helping Santa get ready for Christmas. If you have any small cardboard boxes we could use, I would be very grateful. The children are going to use them to wrap up presents for Santa! Thank you for your support. Have a lovely weekend! Mrs Gray

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Here are the wonderful cards I received from Reception earlier in the week! Mrs Merriman

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YEAR 1 The word of the week this week is 'Empathy' and Year 1 have been working on their personal, social and emotional skills and we have had no end of fun activities to help us develop them. We have been talking about what makes us happy and what makes us sad and discussing what we can do to make other's feel better. On Tuesday all the children worked together to create one giant friendship cake that they shared in Forest School. They played lots of team work games, built two dens and enjoyed creating a friendship cafe in the outside classroom (their own idea).

On Wednesday we went to see the pantomime 'Beauty and the Beast' and what a treat that was. The children laughed and shouted all the way through. They thoroughly enjoy it.

In Maths we have been thinking about giving directions to one another by guiding our partner around a maze. We have been weighing out ingredients for our cake and used fractions to share it out. Our speaking and listening skills are developing well this week as we have been following instructions carefully to draw, make and act out a variety of tasks. In Topic we have made Nutcrackers out of the kitchen tubes you kindly provided. Along with all of this the children have been working really hard on rehearsing for our Nativity. Take a look at the photographs to see some of the wonderful things the children have been doing. Mrs Shillam

YEAR 2 Year 2 have really enjoyed their rehearsals for the Christmas Nativity. Please do continue to go through the lines with your children.

In English we have planned our own information book about fire by reflecting on a term's worth of Topic learning. We then put these into our own Fire information books about topics including The Great Fire of London, Guy Fawkes and Fireworks. The children worked hard to have a contents page, page numbers and some started using an index. We have used words with ce, ci and cy in them that trick us because they sound like an s.

Our Maths learning has used our consolidation of our number bonds to 10 to try and help us to add and subtract using multiples of 10. We thought about how we can move around the 100 square really easily when using addition and subtraction of 10, 20, 30 and beyond. We then took our learning further by adding and subtracting 11, 21 and even 31 using our 100 square to help us. The children were really pleased with themselves after working so hard on this all week.

In Topic we watched Mog's Christmas Calamity to show us about fire safety. The children then produced some interested and informative fire safety posters. They made some rather fabulous fire headdresses using fire colours and ended the week by further exploring materials. They designed Father Christmas a new outfit to help keep him warm on his journey. They had to label the materials and explain why they made their choices.

Miss Johnston

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SENIOR CHOIR Please could I remind parents that the Senior Choir (Year 4 to Year 6) will be singing a few short carols and Christmas songs to kick off the PTA Christmas Fair on Saturday 9th December.

The children in Senior Choir should meet at 11.50am at the Main Hall Staircase ready to start singing at 12noon. We will be finished after around 10/15 minutes, at which time you are free to collect your children and continue to enjoy the festivities together. Many thanks Mrs Shea

YEAR 6 – WORK PACKS The Year 6 children will all be bringing a pack of work home with them this week. They will not receive any additional homework on top of the pack so please can you assist your children in completing the work set. The pack will contain a variety of activities for English, Maths, Science and Reasoning as well as a covering letter with more detail on the expectations. We appreciate your support in helping your child to complete the tasks that have been set. The children should have received feedback from their autumn exams so making use of this and any techniques learnt in class will enable your child to make the most out of this pack. Thank you for your support and enjoy your Christmas. Miss Johnston

YEAR 4 NEWS – HISTORY Well it is near the end of term and Year 4 have clearly learnt a lot about The Tudors. This was very evident in the individual presentations each of the children completed to the rest of the class this week. Just as good, if not better, than the ones completed just before finishing for October half term. The standard of presentation, additional models and arts and crafts, have been fantastic, with all the children's confidence clearly growing. Year 4 have clearly relished the challenge - keep up the great work! Mr Yeoman

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YEAR 4 NEWS - ENGLISH Following our recent visit to Temple Newsam in Leeds, to learn more about The Tudors we have also used the opportunity to develop our writing skills in our English lessons. This we completed by writing recounts about the trip, using fantastic time words and chronological order. In addition to this, all the children in Year 4 wrote a letter of thanks to the learning officers who helped us study The Tudors at Temple Newsam. Great writing for a purpose Year 4! Well done! Mr Yeoman

TENNIS TYKES

Becky from Tennis Tykes wishes you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you to all who have signed up for the spring term 2018. If you would like further information or your child would like to give Tennis Tykes a go, please contact Becky on 07833 906135 to reserve your place.

Tennis resumes on Tuesday 16th January 2018.

Many thanks.

The Fairtrade Committee are looking forward to having our Fairtrade stall again in the Library at the Christmas Fair. Items for sale are provided by the Fairtrade shop in Harrogate and a selection of Christmas gifts and decorations will be on sale.

Miss Carter

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On Thursday 3S and 5F welcomed back Horticap for our annual Wreath Making day. Everyone was in full Christmas spirit as we walked around the grounds collecting winter green foliage ready to add to our handmade wreaths. We then spent our time watching a demonstration of the wreath making and then were allowed to start on our own, adding our own creative Christmas flair. Myself, Mrs Dight, Year 3 and Year 5 would like to take this opportunity to thank Horticap for their time and all the parents who attended the event and bought one of the wreaths, helping a truly wonderful cause. Miss Parker

CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY Just a reminder that on Thursday 21st December we will be having our Christmas Jumper Morning to raise money for Save the Children. We held this event last year which turned out to be a great success.

Miss Parker

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'USE YOUR CAMERA AND VIDEO COURTEOUSLY' CODE A guide to BGS parents who wish to use photography and/or record a school event, this includes the use of mobile phones and other portable devices. Generally photographs and videos for school and family use are a source of innocent pleasure and pride which can enhance self-esteem for children and young people and their families. By following some simple guidelines we can proceed safely and with regard to the law:

Remember that parents and carers attend school events at the invitation of the head and governors;

The head and governors have the responsibility to decide if photography and videoing of school performances is permitted;

The head and governors have the responsibility to decide the conditions that will apply in order that children are kept safe and that the performance is not disrupted and children and staff not distracted;

Parents and carers can use photographs and videos taken at a school event for their own personal use only. Such photos and videos cannot be sold and must not be put on the web/internet or uploaded to Social Media sites due to existing Data Protection legislation, which in such circumstance is likely to be contravened;

Recording or/photographing other than for private use would require the consent of all the other parents whose children may be included in the images;

Parents and carers must follow guidance from staff as to when photography and videoing is permitted and where to stand in order to minimise disruption to the activity;

Parents and carers must not photograph or video children changing for performances or events;

If you are accompanied or represented by people that school staff do not recognise they may need to check out who they are if they are using a camera or video recorder;

We have prepared Signature Sheets for parents who intend to take photographs or record the production. These will available on arrival at the production and also during refreshments, we would appreciate your cooperation in completing these. All that is left to say is that we look forward to seeing you and hope you all enjoy the productions.

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Please remember to come and collect your mugs, they are now all in the office!

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Christmas Fair tomorrow, please remember your pennies….and a bag for your goodies!

A huge thank you for all the donations, we are looking forward to raising lots of money for The Rainbow Fund.

Please also make sure you have Wednesday 13th December in your diaries – the shopping evening at Fizzy Fox in Ripley. Please see the Letter Merge for further information!

‘Collaboration’

‘Is perfume a work of art?’

The Word of the Week for next week is Collaboration.

We will be working together, as a team, to try and achieve the very best we can

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY CLUB We are running the holiday club from Wednesday 3rd until Monday 8th January 2018. We are open from 8am and close at 6pm. For more information or to book your child/children in please see the attached flyer in the Letter Merge and email hgreen@belmontgrosvenor.co.uk. We look forward to seeing you soon!

SICKNESS IN SCHOOL Unfortunately, there seems to be lots of bugs doing the rounds, including a sickness bug. Please can we remind parents that In the event of your child suffering from sickness and/or diarrhoea children are not permitted to return to school until at least 48 hours after the symptoms have ceased. Thank you for your cooperation.

STUDENT COUNCIL Student Council will be holding their Stationery Shop for Year 2 to Year 6 on Tuesday 12th December 2017 at 10:15am in Ogden Library. Price lists are displayed in classrooms. Thank you SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS We’re pleased to announce that the individual and family photos taken by Stephen Garnett last month are now ready to view. Please take a look at his website - www.stephengarnettphotography.com If you open the SHOP section of his site, you will see the BGS photos. The password to view the images is BGS2017, and the photos are organised by year groups. All the prices are listed, and range from individual prints to packages, canvases, mounted and metal prints. Once you place an order, the images will be delivered through the post direct to your home. We hope you like the photos as much as we do. Please do let me have your feedback. If you have any problems with the site, or need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Caroline Cook cacook@belmontgrosvenor.co.uk

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Rugby BGS V Westville On Friday 1st December, Westville came to play an U11 rugby match against Belmont. We won the kick off and chose to start. We got the ball and after some great running from Harvey, we managed to score. After that, with some great tackles being put in, we got the ball and Eddie made a run and scored. Westville then stepped up their game up and scored a try. We fought back though when Harvey made another run and scored. Westville then scored a second making it 3-2 to Belmont at half time. We scored an amazing try in the second half by Leo dummying them and also Ted and Cameron scored but Westville managed 3 in the second half making the end result 6-5 to Belmont. Special mentions go to the whole team for great tackling. By Ben Kittle

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL CLUBS AND

ACTIVITIES HAVE NOW FINISHED FOR THE TERM

THANK YOU