Summer 2024

a term of farewells and the promise of exciting new beginnings

From headteacher, Lisa Rutter-Brown

This term we have been thinking about 'Caring for Our Environment' and each week we have shared a different focus through our five routines from learning about climate change, biodiversity, conservation to making ethical choices. Our children are so knowledgeable and have a real drive to make the planet a better place for future generations as they have developed a real appreciation of their planet and all its inhabitants. The children have also been really busy participating in lots of different experiences over the course of the term so read on to find out what each of the phases have been up to plus much more.

Can I also take the opportunity to thank all of our families for your continued support of the school. One of the lines in our school poem says 'Let us remember that many hands build a house, so many hands, hearts and minds build a school' and this is so true. When schools and parents listen to each other and work together, they have a really positive impact on the attainment and the well being of our children. This is why it is so important that schools and families work in partnership from a child's first days at school right through to when they leave. As we say goodbye to our year 6 children, we wish them well as they continue on their journey through education and onto employment and hope to maybe feature some of them in future years, sharing the many successes we know they will have.

Curriculum @ Kingsmead

Early Years Foundation Stage

by Phase Leader Mrs Karen Cotton

The children in Ladybirds class have had a really busy term.

Cycling

Ten children went to Hartford High School to take part in the balance festival. There were lots of fun activities and games to play all designed to help the children be more confident cyclists. We also held our annual Tour De Kingsmead as part of our Health and Wellbeing week. Children brought their bikes and scooters from home, and lots of grown ups, and a couple of classes of children, came to cheer the children on as they scooted and cycled around the school field, keeping fit and having fun.

STEM afternoon

The grown ups were invited again to come and take part in a STEM challenge with the Ladybirds. They were set the challenge of building something that would protect an egg as it whizzed down a zip line. All of the groups had the same pack of useful, and not so useful, materials to use, and the children (and grown ups) had lots of ideas and creativity about how to use them to build an egg carrier. We all counted down from 10 to test the creations, and all of the eggs survived! Great thinking, planning and teamwork.

Trip to Imagine That

We went on a fantastic trip to Imagine That, where we spent the day fascinated by the hands on science workshops. WE made giant bubbles, amazing shadows and tornadoes. We dug for dinosaur bones and played in their small world town.

Sports Day

The children took part in their first Kingsmead Sports day, cheering on their team and trying their very best.

Summer Show

'Hat's Off' to the Ladybirds on their wonderful performance in their summer show. They had obviously practised really hard to pull off such a great show, with singing, dancing, speaking and percussing.

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As we come to the end of Ladybirds, we are so proud of the independent, curious and imaginative learners that they have become. It has been a pleasure to get to know them and be a part of their very first year of school, getting to know their characters, their family and helping them have the best and most memorable first steps on their school journey. Thank you to all of the families who have supported us by reading at home, practicing phonics, joining in our open events and of course all of the readers hidden deep inside the mystery reader cupboard.

Have a lovely summer break, Karen Cotton and the Ladybirds Team

KS1

by Phase Leader Emma Miller

We’ve had a busy term in Key Stage One finding out all about plants and our environment. In literacy we have looked at two books. The first was ‘Tidy’ by Emily Gravett. In this book Pete the badger learns to care for the natural environment and accept that it might not be as tidy as he’d have liked. We started this book by litter picking in our school grounds and through this term, the children have continued to enjoy keeping our school environment litter free. Our second book was ‘Grandpa’s secret Giant by David Litchfield. This is a lovely story about accepting difference, building communities and making friends. The children have written their own super stories about ‘Kingsmead’s Secret Giant.’

In science we have been learning about plants. We have learnt the names of common wild flowers and trees and used our school grounds to identify these. We’ve had great success growing our own broad beans, observing them carefully as they grow and recording their progress in our bean diaries.

In geography we’ve been learning about different types of weather and keeping daily records of the weather. Over the year we have watched the seasonal changes. We’ve been looking at the trees outside our classroom, observing how they change through autumn, winter, spring and summer.

We’ve also had a wonderful time exploring the new forest school area.

Petty Pool

The Year 2 children had an amazing trip to Petty Pool Outdoor Education Centre in Sandiway. Over our time there we completed problem solving and team building activities, went on a stream walk, conquered the climbing wall, zip wire and the crate stack challenge, played games in the woods, observed nature and generally had a lot of fun!

LKS2

by Phase Leader Paula Hammond

Elodie reports, “Since we are learning about the rainforest, we learnt that there are four layers of rainforest. They are emergent, canopy, undergrowth and forest floor. Some people destroy the land to make it a farm.”

Our theme for this term has been Rainforest and the children have really enjoyed learning about South America, the Amazon Rainforest and Brazil.

In Geography, the children have been using maps to find different countries in South America. They have been able to identify human and physical features of the landscape. In History lessons they have been finding out about the earliest money from ancient civilisations such as Ancient Sumer, Indus Valley and the Shang Dynasty.

Isobel reports, “In Geography, we learnt about the rainforest and the food that grows there. I liked to learn about the rainforest because it teaches us how we can help the environment. I also know that people live in the rainforest and they have houses made from scratch. Some people burn the rainforest for farmland and they do it on purpose. They destroy animals’ habitats!”

Josh reports, “I liked learning about the different parts of the rainforest. Geography is fun because we can learn about Brazil in South America and all the different continents.”

Harry reports, “In Geography, we have been learning about the rainforest. We have learnt about the layers of the rainforest, how much sun each layer gets, and all about the animals in each. Hope you all have fun in Geography next year!”

Our Science lessons this term have included learning about flowering plants and what is needed for them to grow. The children have also done investigations about States of Matter which involves understanding solids, liquids and gases. Experiments involving evaporation helped children learn how the sun heats up water at the surface of seas, rivers, lakes and turns it into water vapour. They have found that some changes are reversible whilst others are not; for example chocolate can melt to a liquid but can also be reverted back to a solid.

Remy reports, “In Science, we have been learning about reproduction and germination in plants. In science, you learn about the plant’s life cycle and the water cycle in a rainforest.”

Georgia and Rennie report, “In Art this summer, we learnt about Georgia O’Keeffe and her style. We blended colours and learnt about the artist’s stages of life. We attempted to draw a full page of her artwork. It turned out amazing.”

In Art lessons this term the children have studied the artist Georgia O’Keefe. They created gorgeous images in their sketchbooks to inspire them to make their own flowers out of recycled plastic bottles. Beautiful exotic flowers created a lovely display in our classrooms! You will also see in the photographs artwork produced through Symphonic Art, which is listening to music and creating free lines and shapes. Pattern is then added before using paints to lift the designs.

English

In LKS2, children have been learning all about Amazing Rivers in English. From the raging waters of the Colorado River in America to the Amazon River of Brazil, children learned about the different major rivers of the world. They considered how rivers are used for agriculture, industry and leisure. Most importantly, they now realise how important rivers are and the many ways they are under threat. Children compiled their knowledge to create informational posters or leaflets to inform others how to protect our rivers.

In the second half of the term, we enjoyed studying the wordless picture book, Journey. First, we wrote a letter to the author and illustrator, Aaron Becker. We have expanded our vocabulary using words like citadel, pennants, domes and spires. Children created their own narrative of the adventure story using Tilly Mint Tales by Berlie Doherty as a model for the language choices. Children used vivid character and setting descriptions and used similes, metaphors and repetition in their writing. Some children redrafted their stories into mini booklets and were enthralled to share these with Year 1 children.

Arianna reports, “In English, we learnt about Amazing Rivers, the book. It was all about rivers and the problems they are facing. We wrote lots of pieces on this topic and created a poster, too. At the end of the term, we wrote a huge final piece about what is wrong with rivers and how we can save them. The next topic we did was a book called Journey. Journey is a wordless book, which made me enjoy it even more. We had to use our imagination to make a wonderful retelling of our own as our last piece of writing. We get to read it to children in Butterflies class. English is amazing! You get to use your own ideas to make it magical. English makes me happy. Writing is my happy place because I can do it my way.”

Felix reports, “Journey is about a girl who is very lonely. She has no friends and when she asks people in her family to play, they always say no. I liked it because there are no words but the pictures are very detailed.”

In our Design Technology unit this term, LKS2 children have learned how to incorporate a circuit into their design, how to use electrical systems such as switches and bulbs, and how to use ICT to control their products. Crumble kits have enabled children to combine their recent Science learning about electricity, their recent ICT learning on drag-and-drop code, and their knowledge of design from past DT units. We had great fun experimenting with sparkles, using loops, conditional programming to solve challenges! Finally, children created their own design and used Crumbles to light them up!

Louis reports, “In Design Technology, we learnt about crumbles and sparkles. A crumble is like a small motherboard while a sparkle is a small light. We built a piece of computing using crocodile clips, a crumble, one or two sparkles, a switch, and a micro-USB. We plugged the micro-USB into a computer, typed some code and it should do what we coded. We also used if, then, else, and end if to programme.”

Esme D reports, “In DT, we are using a crumble starter pack to make LED lights. Our homework for DT is to design something to put the sparkle in so our project can light up. DT this term wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard at the same time. Connecting all the wires together was hard, but once you have got the hang of it, it was very easy. If you like programming, then get the crumble starter kit. You can programme your sparkle to light up.”

Zane reports, “In DT, you can programme a Crumble to make an RGP light up.”

UKS2

by Phase Leader Debbie McHugh

It has been a fun and exciting term in UKS2 with lots going on. Our theme for the term has been ‘Exploration’. We have linked our Science and English work to this throughout the term based on Space.

In English, we spent the first half term looking at the novel, ‘Sky Chasers’. This is written by an author we were already familiar with- Emma Carroll. The children absolutely loved reading the book and finding about the invention of the hot air balloon. The writing that the children produced linked to this was fantastic. During the second half term, we have used the book ‘Manfish’ to find out about Jacques Cousteau, the oceanographer. The children produced wonderful biographies on him and have presented them beautifully to produce their own book which includes a comic strip, timeline, kit list and biographical paragraphs.

Lottie reports, “This term, have been learning about an oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, who was interested in the vast ocean. The book we have been reading is called Manfish. Manfish is a biography talking about Jacques Cousteau’s life. I have loved learning about him.”

As part of our work on Space, we spent the day visiting Jodrell Bank to enhance our learning on this topic. This was a wonderful, interactive day that immersed the children’s learning on space further. They had the opportunity to explore several exhibits including finding out about the heritage and history of Jodrell Bank, looking at the Clock Work Orrery which is a clockwork mechanism representing the sun and planets in our solar system and visiting the planetarium. The children were also able to look closely at the giant Lovell Telescope, they were in awe of its size!

Crosby and Isaac Report…

In May 2024, all of year 5 and 6 went to a place in Cheshire called Jodrell Bank. Jodrell Bank is a place where you can learn loads of facts about outer space in lots of extremely exciting ways. We learnt about Bernard Lovell ,who founded Jodrell bank in the 1900’s. The Lovell telescope, which is the third largest telescope in the world, was named after the great scientist himself. The telescope uses sound like a map, to locate satellite dishes and planets. As well as the telescope, we watched the staff do a movie kind of thing about outer space. Another activity that we did was a thing where you could experience the museum all about space and what happened in the history of space.

“This is definitely the best school trip we have ever been to” Crosby.

“I loved this trip because I love space” Isaac.

First Aid

In Year 5 & 6 we were also lucky to have received some First Aid training from the Daisy Foundation. This was funded by the KFA. This was a fantastic experience for the children and they learnt some much needed life skills that they will be able to take forward in the future.

Bikeability

Some Year 6 children have taken part in Bikeability where they have been learning skills to help them been safe out and about on the roads. These are vital skills for the children to learn, particularly as they have more freedom to be able to get out and about a little more on their bikes.

This term brings the Kingsmead journey of our Year 6 children to an end. This is always a sad time but also a lovely opportunity to reflect on the wonderful years that the children have spent with us and how far they have come. To celebrate the end of their time here, we spent a fabulous evening at Marbury Park where we were all able to enjoy a BBQ, some games and a dip in (a not so warm!) swimming pool. The children all had a brilliant evening. The children have also been busy for weeks working on their Leavers Assembly. The scripts have been written by them in their groups and have they have choreographed their dances and actions themselves. This is always a tear-jerker of an assembly but such a special time as well. We want to take the opportunity to wish our Year 6 children the best of luck at high school, we know that they will all continue to flourish.

Everyone in the phase would like to take the opportunity to thank our families for their support throughout the year and would like to wish you all a wonderful Summer holidays. Let’s hope the sun finally makes an arrival!

Communication, Language and Literacy

by CLL Curriculum Lead - Melissa Buzzard

Kizzy reports, “This term, for our Friday Fable, we’ve been listening to books being read to us by Mrs Buzzard and the Reading Ambassadors. The books we have been listening to are in the Yoto Carnegie awards. We all got to chose a book that we liked best and vote for it after we had heard all the books.”

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration

To continue to promote reading for pleasure along with pupil voice, our school participated in the Yoto Carnegie shadowing scheme. We started using these picture books which were on the shortlist to win the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration during Bookworms Book Club. However, we soon realised that these books were just too good not to share with the whole school! This term, each week a new book from the shortlist was shared during Friday Fable. Children considered how each story’s pictures used colour and images to ‘tell the story’. Once all eight had been shared, Reading Ambassadors and Bookworms conducted a pupil vote at lunch time. The votes have been counted, and the Kingsmead winner was The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry. The use of colour and repeating patterns are magical in this book about self discovery and acceptance.

Huge thanks to Big Green Bookshop for donating five of the books for our school to share and enjoy! We certainly have!

Ali Mustafa reports, “Yoto Carnegie isa competition for books to see which book has the absolute best illustrations. First, there is a longlist. Then it becomes a shortlist as some books are ruled out. Now we have a few books left. People vote for which book they want to be the winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration. Once the exhausting vote is over, the book with the most votes is officially the champion. My favourite was The Midnight Panther because of the use of complementary colours.”

Simple Ways to Support your Child’s Literacy Skills over the Summer

Every teacher knows about the summer slump, the phenomenon in which students lose academic skills and knowledge over the summer break. Researchers have looked at more than 3.5 million students and on average, students experienced a loss of 1-2 months in their reading skills and 1-3 months in their mathematical skills.

How can you support your child to reduce the effect of ‘summer slump’ so they are ready for the next academic year? Here are some quick, fun and easy to implement strategies:

Join the Summer Reading Challenge. https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ By encouraging your child to continue to read regularly throughout the summer, you will boost their vocabulary, reading speed, fluency and comprehension skills.
Turn the subtitles on your television. This is probably one of the easiest ways to improve reading fluency.
Share audiobooks on car journeys. The discussions you have in the car about the characters, predicting what might come next can give your child a boost in comprehension skills. https://www.audible.co.uk/search?keywords=free+children+books&node=19376662031
Use the ipad for reading. If your child has a library card, you can access ebooks and eAudiobooks using Borrowbox. https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/libraries/ebooks-and-eaudiobooks

Keep up the practice. If your child is currently in Years 3, 4, 5 or 6, they have a Spelling Shed login. https://www.edshed.com/en-gb/login This can be used throughout the summer months. Children can revisit spelling patterns they struggled with this year or get a head start on practising some lists from next year. Ed Shed has added some fun grammar games which will support your child’s writing skills.
Write for pleasure! Perhaps consider making a daily journal of the different activities you do throughout the break. Children of all ages can participate in this task with support from their grown-ups at home. Add photos and sketches to truly make it a keepsake. Journaling is a great way to promote gratitude and improve mental health. Use scrap paper to make your own book, or here’s one you can print at home: https://www.hnfs.com/content/dam/hnfs/Company/pdf/Kids_Journal.pdf
Going on a holiday? Encourage your child to write postcards to friends and family back home.
Write a letter. Find a penpal. Write a letter to out-of-town friends or family. Send a fan letter to your favourite author. It is highly rewarding to receive return post and it is a great way to keep up the practice of writing.

Create a story. Older children can do this independently. For younger children, this could be a family project. This can be done aloud to develop oracy skills, or written down. Children can share their stories with their classmates when they return to school in September. Even better, they can submit it in September to the BBC 500 Words Story Competition. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/500-words
Embrace your inner poet! Former Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coehlo has created poetry prompt resources to support children creating poetry. With 79 different prompt options, your child is sure to find several to inspire. Performing poetry is a fabulous way to encourage oracy skills, too! https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/childrens-laureate/poetry-prompts/poetry-prompts-library/#!?q=&sortOption=MostRecent&pageNo=1
Play word games! Many of us love our daily Wordle. Try this version specifically designed for children: https://spelliegame.com/ . With easy, medium and hard, there is a challenge for all. Word searches are great to encourage children to examine spelling patterns closely and recognise familiar words. Crossword puzzles can improve your ability to focus on a desired task and improve both your working memory and executive function.

Music

by Music Lead - Mrs Harper

What a wonderfully musical year we’ve had! There are too many highlights to mention, but they include:

Musical showcase concerts- we’ve had one at the end of each term where our wonderful musicians have had the opportunity to showcase their amazing talents!
The numerous successful Christmas performances.
Northwich Sings- Year 5 had a fabulous time and did our school proud with their fantastic singing.
Band’s performance at the Cheshire Show- they really dazzled the audience with an amazing performance and then made us all very proud again with their impeccable behaviour around the show ground.
Each and every individual success- from ABRSM music exams to representing our school in Vale Royal music Centre performances- we’re very proud of our musicians.

The Cheshire Show

The Kingsmead School Band attended the Cheshire Show in June, opening the day in the music bowl. We were all blown away with their performance. They played a great repertoire of songs and got the audience moving along and joining in. We would like to thank Mrs Harper for her hard work with the band this year and the children too, who have obviously been completing their practise at home and putting in the effort to pull off such a polished performance.

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On Tuesday 16th July, the members of our school band were treated to a presentation from one of our past pupils, Marcel Cress (brother of Malina in year 6). Marcel wowed us all with an incredible performance on bassoon and gave a talk on his incredible musical journey, which started here at Kingsmead Primary and has lead him to playing with the National Youth Orchestra, Halle Youth Orchestra and a very promising career ahead as a top musician. He answered numerous questions from our pupils and certainly inspired them to keep playing their instruments and to keep striving to achieve their musical goals.

Malina has written an article about her and Marcel’s musical journeys which all began at Kingsmead Primary School, a reminder of why we value music so much here at Kingsmead….

I started playing the violin in Reception, piano in Year 1, and trombone in Year 4. Currently most of my music study happens at Junior RNCM, a Saturday music school at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. My first piano teacher was Mrs Harper who taught me through Zoom during the pandemic. I learn trombone with Mr Harper, and will continue when I go to high school.

My main instrument is the violin. I have had a few different violin teachers who have all taught me different things. I play in various orchestras: school band with Mrs Harper, school string group with Mrs Singleton, Cheshire Youth Orchestra with Mr Harper and Mrs Singleton, and Vale Royal Senior strings with Mrs Singleton and Mrs Smalley. That sees me through the week, but on Saturday I also play in an orchestra and a string quarter at Junior RNCM!

My brother Marcel was in year 6 when I started in Reception, so we shared one year at Kingsmead. Back in year 3 he was taking piano lessons with Mrs Harper when he was given the chance to take up the clarinet, so she ended up teaching him two instruments. He joined the Vale Royal wind band on clarinet, and is still a member today. In year 6, the school was lucky to have a few children learn an endangered instrument through the Edsential music service. Marcel picked the bassoon, which he then started playing in the Cheshire Youth Orchestra.

In high school he became a member of the Halle Youth Orchestra, the National Children's Orchestra, and later the National Youth Orchestra, where he is now the principal bassoon. The NYO takes up nearly all of his school holidays with long rehearsal days and concert tours, but is an amazing chance to play in a large orchestra. In August, he will have his third turn playing at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, which will be on television. You may also spot him and his bassoon on the telly in September in this year's BBC Young Musician competition!

Although he gave up the piano in high school, after doing grade 8 on clarinet, he changed back to piano as his second instrument at the Junior RNCM, this time doing jazz lessons. This gave him the chance to play keyboard in jazz bands at Sir John Deane's College.

At Junior RNCM, the two of us have been playing in different groups, but from September, we'll finally get to play in a big orchestra together. And would you believe it, when I did my grade 5 trombone exam recently, the examiner was Marcel's very first bassoon teacher who used to come to Kingsmead!

We have both been very lucky to find ourselves at Kingsmead in a supportive musical environment with many teachers who are still around, plus of course Ms Stewart and Mrs Whitham who have now left, and we hope to see many more children finding their musical voices here.

Showcase Concert

We finished off the year with a brilliant musical showcase, demonstrating our musicians' talents. We were treated to a string ensemble, trios, duets and many soloists. The children and peripatetic teachers have worked incredibly hard over the year to be able to perform to such a high standard. Well done to all.

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Beautiful Work

The children have again worked really hard this term, trying their very best to complete work to a high standard. We have been delighted to invite family and friends into school for our open afternoons and special celebration assemblies, where the children get the opportunity to share their achievements.

Community @ Kingsmead

Our membership of NEP gives opportunities for school leaders, teachers and children to work and learn together.

Thank you to the partnership for putting on a number of events for children and staff this year.

Northwich Sings

Year 5 joined in the NEP music festival where schools across the town spent four evenings singing Wind in the Willows. The Year 5 children had put a lot of time and effort into learning the songs in school in the lead up to the event. On the day, the children spent the afternoon working alongside other schools including Rudheath Primary School, Lower Poever, Antrobus, Great Budwworth and Victoria Road. The evening performance was then attended by a large audience of families and the children really did put on an amazing show. It was wonderful to see them singing their hearts out and the huge smiles on their faces as they did so.

Northwich Pupil Parliament

John and William have worked throughout the year with other pupil parliament leaders to set the vision and values for the NPP. These were decided to be - Be Kind, Have Respect and Be Safe. This then accumulated with them creating a logo design, outlining these key themes. All of the logos have been collected and schools will vote on their favourite one in the coming weeks. The top design will then become the new logo for the NPP. Fingers crossed.

Summer Art Show

Children in Year 2 and 4 contributed to the 'A Sense of Place' exhibition in Baron's Quay. They created two pieces of work inspired by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. They learnt how Hundertwasser worked with architects, designing buildings more in harmony with the natural world. The children then reimagined iconic Northwich buildings in the Hundertwasser style. They used oil pastels and ink washes, focusing on the concentric shapes and vibrant colours.

You can see our work with other artists at The Cave gallery and we hope you'll take time to admire not only the beautiful work made by children in our local area but the equally beautiful ideas behind it.

Mini Police Officers

Our Year 5 Mini Police Officers have had another busy term, representing the school brilliantly at a number of events.

In April some of our Mini-Police attended a lunch with the Rotary Club. They were taken to the lunch by PCSO Lee in the police van which they were super excited by. On arrival, they were met by members of the Rotary Club where they had an opportunity to chat and mingle with them. One of the highlights of the morning was the delicious buffet lunch that they were treated to! This was a really special event for the children and they represented Kingsmead brilliantly.

In May the Mini Police carried out another parking patrol outside of the school, monitoring the drop off and pick up times. They were really pleased to report that they needed to give out less 'improvement needed' tickets than they did the last time. Well done everyone.

In June the Mini Police complete the 'Let's Walk' training with PCSO Lee. week.They learnt how to cross the road in the correct way, ensuring safety is paramount. They then observed as people left school to see if they were crossing safely. The Mini-Police will now continue to work on this to ensure that as a school we are being as safe as we can when crossing the road.

Armed Forces Flag Raising Ceremony

Our Mini-Police also had the special opportunity of attending the flag raising ceremony in June in honour of our armed forces at Cheshire Constabulary HQ. Members of the Forces network force-wide were invited to the ceremony. This invite also included veterans, serving and ex reservists, serving and ex cadet instructors, spouses and partners and all representatives of the Armed Forces community in our force area and beyond. Our Mini- Police represented the Mini Police programme and spoke to :

Chief Constable - Mark Roberts

Assistant Chief Constable - Una Kelly

Deputy Chief Constable - Bill Dutton

The High Sheriff of Cheshire - Clare Hayward , MBE.

DL. DBA(Honorary)MBA. Bsc Hons

Police Crime Commissioner for Cheshire - Dan Price

It was an honour for them to attend and they had a wonderful time, representing us brilliantly.

Forest Schools

We have been very fortunate this term to have some incredible volunteers come into school and help us develop some of our Forest School areas.

Barclays

A team of volunteers from Barclays came over two days to help renovate our pond area and Badger's Hill. They cleared out lots of weeds and overgrown plants to create spaces for seating, a fire pit area and built a mud kitchen. They also removed several broken pallets and installed new benches (kindly paid for by the KFA) and posts to create a canopy area. These areas are now looking fabulous and the new Forest School groups are really going to enjoy using them. The materials for this project was funded by a £1000 grant from Barclays.

Cheshire West and Chester Health Ranger

Alongside the project above, our Forest Schools' Leader Robyn Moseley, kindly put us in touch with a team of volunteers lead by Chris, a health ranger for Cheshire West and Chester. They worked over two full days to dismantle and rebuild the pond dipping platform. This is a great resource to have but due to degradation of the wood, the platform had not been useable for some time. It is now looking fantastic and ready to be used, once the water level rises.

KFA @ Kingsmead

by Laura Brown - Chair of KFA

This year the KFA has gone from strength to strength, increasing our numbers from 4 to around a dozen active members! At the start of the year we held a competition for the children to design us a new logo and we had some brilliant entries. During the year we held film nights, discos, fairs and a sponsored bounce alongside running the Christmas artwork project, end of term non-uniform days, tuck shops, Frozen Fridays and the EYFS & Year 6 teatowels. Our main aim this year was to fundraise for a dedicated library space within school which will hopefully be completed over the summer break and will be fully-funded by the KFA.

As we had such a successful year we have also funded benches for badger hill, new hi-vis jackets for school trips with the school details on, first aid training for year 5 & 6, maths sets for the year 6 leavers, STEM equipment for coding lessons, playground seating and scooter storage (to be installed over the summer) plus other bits and pieces along the way.

So a very big thank you to the volunteers of the KFA who have helped to make this possible and for the support from the school and parents/carers with our events, it is very much appreciated. Our total amount raised this academic year is over £11,000! We are holding our AGM on Thursday 26th September at 7:30pm in school and everybody is welcome to join us.

sporting news

Thank you to Chris Story at VRSSP who supports schools locally, organising the many events that take place over the year.

PE and Sport leader, Debbie McHugh takes us through just some of the term's physical activity

We have recently found out that we have, once again, been awarded the Gold School Games Mark for this year. This award is given based on the work the school has done throughout the year. Part of the criteria is based on the curriculum that we teach and the other part of it is based on the competitive element of sport and the competitions that we take part in. This year, over half of our children have attended a sporting event outside of school. This is a fantastic achievement and something that we are extremely proud of. Thank you to all our children who have taken part at events so brilliantly and showing our core sporting values. Thank you also to our families for their support with helping us to get children to and from events.

This has been our busiest term sports wise with so many fantastic events taking place. In June, National School Sports week took place which meant an abundance of sporting opportunities for children throughout the school. Children represented us at Dodgeball, Basketball, Jumpers for Goals Football, Orienteering, Tennis, a Balance Festival, Cricket and Tri-Golf. It was wonderful to see so many children of all ages take part in the events.

SPORTS DAY

Our Sports Day is always a highlight of the year. We were extremely lucky with the weather, although it was possibly a little too warm! Our children all took part in a range of events in 3 zones, these included track races and a range of throwing and jumping activities. It was such a wonderful day and so lovely to see the enthusiasm from the children taking part. KS2 competed in the morning and all of the children earned points for their team, these were then combined with the points that the children from EYFS and KS1 earned in the afternoon to give us our overall winners. France were our winners this year.

Amy reports, “On sports day we played lots of different sports and we had ice pops after we did the running races and hurdles. I was in team Greece and our colour was blue.. My favourite events were the running events and the football event. Parents came to watch their children compete in different sporting events and cheer them on.”

Sophie S reports, “On sports day, I was on the Poland team. We did very well in the key stage two games but when key stage one did it we went to fourth place out of the entire school! As it was extremely hot, it was difficult for many people to consistently do their best. After we did the running, the egg and spoon race and the hurdles we got delicious ice pops to cool us down. In the end France won! When the day was over we went home feeling proud of our performance.”

Lucas reports, “The weather was ideal: It was hot, warm and sunny. I was in the Netherlands. First, we did football dribble, we did well. Next we did javelin through I won in Year 5 then we did running races I came 4th. Then we got ice pops, they were delicious. My favourite was the javelin though, I even helped a Year 3 improve their throw!”

Cricket

We had 3 cricket events that we took part in this term. A mixed Yr 5/6 event and a mixed Yr 3/4 event as well as a Yr 5/6 Girls event. The children all participated brilliantly and we were extremely lucky with the weather- there was even some sunshine! Well done to our Girls team who went on to qualify for the County finals in Warrington by finishing second in the event. A huge well done also to our Yr 5/6 team who were awarded the ‘Spirit of the Games’ award for showing such wonderful sporting values.

The Golden Mile

In May, we attended the annual Golden Mile event at Leftwich High School. This was a wonderful event that was attended by over 70 children (by far the most from any school) from Year 1-6. The children ran a different distance depending on the year group that they are in. It was a warm day which added difficulty to the conditions but they all did amazingly, showing great stamina for the route. It is always a very exciting event with spectators cheering on from the sidelines. Well done to all of those who took part, you did us proud!

Rugby

A group of girls were honoured to have been invited to take part in Winnington Park Rugby Clubs 10 year celebrations. 10 years ago, they formed their girls division and Kingsmead were one of the first schools to link up with them. To honour this, a celebration day was held with rugby coaches leading training sessions and then some fun matches against other schools. There were some prizes awarded on the day too for participation.

Eco Council

Northwich in Bloom visit Kingsmead school - report by Edward

On the 3rd July 2024 t 9am five judges for Northwich in bloom competition arrived at our school. Myself-Edward, Lucas, Xander, Maria-Lily and Olivia greeted them and showed them around our school grounds. They were particularly impressed with our Moon Bear (healing without harm) garden, butterfly garden and our new colourful Coronation Meadow. Xander also pointed out the green roof on top of our cycling shed which he said “had sedums growing on it!” We also showed them the new pond area, Badger Hill and the Heritage orchard. I loved talking to the judges and we kept them busy with information about our school grounds. The judges were very impressed with our school grounds. We will find out in September the outcome of this visit.

Application for our 9th Green Flag

Mrs Gajar has completed an application for our 9th Green Flag. We continue to work hard to ensure we consider the environment in all of our decisions in school and are hopeful that we will achieve our 9th flag soon.

and other special events

Year 6 head off in style

What better way than to say farewell to year 6 than a visit to Marbury Country Park and the wonderful open air swimming pool there. The children had a wonderful time, with lots of high pitched screaming as they entered the pool, squirting each other and the teachers with water pistols and jumping off the diving boards.

We wish all of the children well as they move onto high school. We know this can be an exciting and anxious time but we know they will all go on to thrive.

Year 6 as you move to high school, I wanted to give you a few top tips.

Remember just be 'useful and kind, unlimited' and you can't go wrong. Get to know as many new people as you can. Your friendship groups will change and evolve, don't limit your friends and be open to mixing with a wide range of different people.

Make the best first impression making sure this impression people get of you is the one you want them to have.

Try new things; there are loads of new experiences at high school and you'll never know what you are capable of until you try. Plus you'll inevitably get to meet even more new people and widen your social circle of friends.

Tr to get into routines, to be organised and to work hard. You don't have to be perfect but if you try your best at all times you won't go far wrong.

Look after yourself. Don't underestimate how tiring starting high school can be. Make sure you eat properly and get a good night's sleep. That way, you will be best equipped to take advantage of all of the opportunities available.

Ask for help. Talk to your friends, parents, teachers if you are worried or struggling with anything.

Be open-minded. You never know where life is going to take you, so don't rule anything out and keep your options open.

And most important of all, have FUN. Believe it or not, before you know it your time at school will be a distant memory.

Out of school

Our children participate and compete widely.

Finlay Baker in Ladybirds, decided to take up one of the opportunities shared on our weekly newsletters, to compete in a children's Duathlon in Nantwich. He was the youngest in his group but this didn't stop him giving it his all. We certainly have an athlete in the making and couldn't be prouder of his achievement. Well done Finlay.

Report by Amelia Hadfield

'Awards are quite hard to get so you need to put a lot of effort in. For example, in gymnastics, you have about six weeks to train and then you can go to a competition. You can only go to competitions if you’re in the squad so you need to put effort in to get that.

I’ve won multiple medals and trophies from football and gymnastics. I’ve won them because I have been doing gymnastics and football for years. I would advise you to practise at home, not just at your club. Practise about thirty minutes a day. That’s what I do. I enjoy clubs both inside and outside of school.'

Staffing News

With some farewells and welcome aboards the school has seen quite a few changes this year. Mrs Roberts is now on maternity leave, after welcoming her new daughter Niamh and we will welcome Mrs Hubbard in September to join Mrs McHugh in the Hedgehogs class. Miss Tweedie is also expecting a baby early in the Spring Term and we will keep you informed of her replacement.

We say goodbye to Mrs Casson who is leaving us at the end of this year, due to taking retirement. Mrs Casson has been a valued member of staff since joining us in 2018, providing excellent support across the school, making an outstanding contribution to Kingsmead. She will be greatly missed by us all but we wish her well in her retirement.

In September we will be joined by Mrs Plant, a teaching assistant with many years experience. She will be working in our LKS2 phase using her wealth of experience to support some of our children with special educational needs.

Home and School in partnership

Thank you to the overwhelming majority of families: children, parents and extended family who are such excellent and valued contributors to each child's education. We know we can't give any child the education we would wish for them without your partnership.

Working together to support all of our children is paramount, teamwork is the dream work, as they say! Working together is much more productive that working in isolation or against each other. At the end of the day, we all want the same things; for your children to thrive and flourish at school and achieve their very best. Please ensure you read our home school agreement and share this with your child in preparation for the next academic year.