To the Parents

Head of Girls’ Games

I am delighted to inform you that Mrs Emily Lydall will be joining our team from September as Head of Girls’ Games. Working alongside Mr Chappell as our new Director of Sport, she will be responsible for delivering and developing our sports provision for girls. She will also be teaching PE across Juniors and Infants.

A Bachelor of Sports graduate from Leeds Metropolitan University, Mrs Lydall joins us from Dulwich College, Beijing, where she is currently Early Years and Junior School PE Coordinator. She is a qualified coach in a diverse range of sporting pursuits including netball, athletics, badminton, rugby, trampoline and open water diving!

We look forward to her visiting the School towards the end of the summer term and to welcome her and her family to Portsmouth.

Book Week

It has been another brilliant book week here in the Junior School as we have celebrated the excitement and wonder of reading. Famous authors and illustrators have been in to work with and inspire the children with some very entertaining and interactive workshops.

Today, of course, is Book Character Day and it was wonderful to see the children, and staff, in costume this morning; Friday morning briefing with the teachers was certainly more fun than usual!

Peter Hopkinson (Headmaster)

Sailors and Pirates

String Event Saturday 4th March

The annual Junior School String Event, now in its third year, is great fun and is extremely popular! Each year has a different theme and the children are encouraged to dress appropriately, with a prize for the best costume.

Intensive rehearsal is followed by an informal concert and tea, with a professional band providing music for dancing. The theme for 2017 was ‘Sailor and Pirates’ and we were joined by pupils from Fernhurst, Wimborne, Craneswater and Mayville Schools for our celebration of string playing.

Guest violinist Lizzie Mason said: “I enjoyed playing in the orchestra, made new friends and won the fancy dress for the second year running! Can I come again, please?”

Rory’s Story of the Week

At half term, me and Joshua were lucky to go skiing for the first time in France. We both joined ski school to learn. I was in club Piou-Piou and my teacher was Sebastian. Joshua was in the snowflake class. We both did very well and earnt our badges for learning to ski. Mummy was not so lucky and hurt herself so she didn’t do much skiing.

We went up the mountain with daddy in the afternoons and skied in the ski park. I can ski down green slopes and Joshua can ski down blue slopes with daddy. My teacher taught me to make my skis into a pizza wedge so I could turn, Joshua didn’t like to turn much and went down very fast. Daddy was worried.

I liked the food and we had lots of pizza and pancakes with Nutella. I really hope we can go back next year I want to get better. Alexandra J (RM) & Joshua J (2G)

Clubs – 16th

MarchThere will be no iPad Club, Drawing Club or Games Club on the 16th March due to Parents’ Evening.

The Newsletter of The Portsmouth Grammar Junior School Issue No.213 10th March 2017

The Lion

Nursery News

The Nursery has been waiting with anticipation for the arrival of our eggs and they arrived this week! First we needed to warm up the incubator to get it ready for the eggs. Once warm enough, the eggs were put in. We now have to wait to see if any hatch into chicks. We shall keep you posted!

Patterned Pants

We have been reading 'Aliens love Underpants' during book week in Reception. The children have had lots of fun designing their own alien and writing facts about them. We have also been busy making different patterned pants for the aliens!

Zoe and Beans

This week we have enjoyed working with the author and illustrator, Chloe Inkpen.

We helped to bring her stories to life by joining in with words and actions. We also created some new characters and had fun experimenting with different expressions

She taught us how to draw the characters Zoe and Beans and we have used our imagination to create an alternative front cover for her pirate adventure.

Creative With Chloe

Year 2 had so much fun with the talented author and illustrator Chloe Inkpen. They enjoyed designing their own character, starting with the eyes and thinking of ideas for a story!

Altogether Now

Year 6 has been looking at the Christmas Truce as part of their World War 1 topic. Last week they wrote newspaper articles and here is an extract from Monty R’s article.

On Christmas Eve, there was an extraordinary sequence of events between the soldiers from England and Germany. It all happened over the course of two days in the Rhein, France.

This strange outbreak of peace started on Christmas Eve and finished when German guns were shot at 13:21 on Christmas Day. It all began with German soldiers singing “Silent Night.” They were then countered by the English singing back with “O Come All Ye Faithful.” This carried on till 23:08.

On Christmas morning, even stranger events occurred. A British solider climbed over the parapet and then planted a Christmas tree in No Man’s Land. Several more soldiers from both sides followed and soon a game of football was underway.

“It was like the world cup final!” said a man jumping up and down with joy.

Soon after the match there was card playing, gift exchanging, burial services and haircuts……..

Pop Up Book Shop

As part of our Book Week celebrations the children visited the Hayling Island Pop Up Book Shop, where they could exchange the World Book Day voucher for a book.

It looks like they had great fun especially meeting the big purple and pink alien!

Fixtures

Sat 11 Mar 0900: IAPS National Netball Finals 1300: U11A Farleigh Sevens Rugby Tournament (a)

Tue 14 Mar 1000: U11A Girls’ In2Hockey Regional Tournament (a)

Wed 15 Mar 1400: U11A, B & C Netball v St Gabriel’s & Prince’s Mead (a) 1430: U11A & B & U10A & B Rugby v Sherborne House (h) 1430: U11C Rugby v Meoncross (h)

Thu 16 Mar 1330: U8 Lions PGS Rugby Festival (h) 1330: U8A & B PGS Girls’ Hockey Sevens Festival (h) 1430: U8 Lions Rugby v Oakwood (a) 1430: U9A, B & C Girls’ Hockey Sevens v Sherborne House (h Temeraire) 1515: U9A, B, C & D Rugby v Twyford (a)

Junior School Sports

Information

All sporting updates and cancellation information will be via the Junior School Sport twitter feed @PGJSSport.

Under 9s Hockey

The U9A team entered their first tournament of the Year in style, with a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth High School. They played attacking hockey and made a really positive start to the afternoon. They faced Farleigh next and despite their best efforts, a strong opposition took a firm lead and the score was 0-3. Our hard working defence had been given a workout!

Next came Edgeborough B, with whom an extremely well fought match ended 0-0. There had been a few goal line chances, but nothing had quite gone their way. However, a winning streak then followed. 1-0 against Sherborne House and then 2-0 against Boundary Oak made them runners up in their group. There had been outstanding and positive play across the whole team. Superb determination in winning the ball back, at times, followed by great awareness and movement when moving into attack.

The semi-final was next! They were now to play Edgeborough A team and it was a match played with great spirit. The girls fought hard, but Edgeborough scored 2 goals before they could win one back. 2-1 was the final score. Nonetheless the girls were elated to have done so well.

The other Semi-final between Farleigh A and Farleigh B had been a win for the A team, so an Edgeborough vs Farleigh match was set for the final. A superb spectacle of Hockey was to be seen, with outstanding skills for this age group and Farleigh as the worthy winners after a very close final.

An incredible afternoon of hockey indeed.

Important Club

Information

Next week will be the last for spring term clubs. We hope that your child(ren) have enjoyed their activities over the last few weeks.

On Monday 13th, your child will receive a letter outlining the co-curricular opportunities running during the summer term. We are so pleased to welcome back Jenny de Jongh who will be running LAMDA for one term only to all Year groups from 1 to 6. If you wish your child to take part in this club, it will be for the summer term only. We will be offering the year’s LAMDA course at the start of next academic year, when you will be invited to apply for all three terms, which will include the usual examination piece. If you have any queries, please email p.giles@pgs.org.uk

Please return the completed slip – not the entire letter – to the Main Office, if your child is in Reception or Years 1 to

4, or to the UJS Playground

Supervisors if your child is in

Years 5 and 6, by the morning registration of Thursday 16th March, but at your earliest convenience as clubs are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Ensure that you have included a contact number for the Thursday 16th as this is when the places are allocated and you may be contacted if clashes occur. It is important that all clubs you wish to apply for are on the one slip – including Tennis, LAMDA and existing clubs which your child may wish to continue – such as Cheerleading, due to a competition.

Please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Giles if you are unsure about anything.

Saturday Sport

There will be games sessions for Juniors (Y3-Y6) from 0900. Saturday morning games are voluntary.

There will be:

Years 3-6 hockey training at Temeraire Astro Years 5 & 6 indoor cricket (hard ball), Sports Hall

The Lion Sport