Working Together

Here at Great Marsden St John's, we believe that the best possible outcome for our children can only be gained through partnership working with parents and carers. We aim to involve parents and carers in their child's learning as much as possible, through a number of different initialtives such as exhibions of children's work and opportunities for collaborative working in and out of the classroom. 

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STAY AND PLAY

The Reception class welcome family members to stay and play with their child every Tuesday from 3:00pm to 3:20pm. You don't need to book a space and everyone is welcome to attend. Your child will be incredibly excited to see you and show what they can do. 

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STAY AND READ

Family members are welcome to come and read with their child in  -

Year 1 : every Monday from 3:00am to 3:20pm.

Year 2 : every Wednesday from 3:00pm to 3:20pm. 

You don't need to book a space and everyone is welcome to attend.

Here are what some attendees have said :

"Lovely to have the opportunity to stay and read with I. L read with us too this morning. Nice to feel involved. Both me and I enjoy this time in school." 

"It's great to be a part of my son's school life. Without Stay and Read I'd never see this part of his life. It makes a lovely link between home and school life."

I really enjoyed coming in to see I read as I find it hard to find the time to give him 1:1 so thankyou."

"I like to see him in his classroom environment and see how much progress he has made." 

"A and I enjoy reading together. She likes to ask questions while we are reading about whatever she does not understand or what she finds interesting. It gives us an opportunity to experience the classroom environment at first hand." 

And here is what the children think:

"I like spending time with my Mum doing reading." : F, aged 5.

"My Mum reads and then I read and I really like it." : F, aged 5

 

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COME AND SEE WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT

Throughout the year we aim for each class to invite family members in to see what the children have been working on. 

Year 1

Children in Year 1 became toy experts for the day when they invited their grown-ups into school to their Year 1 Toy Museum. There was a display of toys, games for families to play and activities to see if visitors could identify which toys were from the past and present. They could even make a toy to tak ehome. A big thankyou to all the visitors who came. 

ADULT AND CHILD WORKSHOPS

All our adult and child workshops are held in partnership with Lancashire Adult Learning. It is a great opportunity to learn a new skill in partnership with you child. We hold a number of workshops throughout the year.

So far this year we have held a taster session to find out more about the different courses on offer. This was really attended and you can see some of the participants below.

Following on from the taster session we held a 'Number Carrots' session with children from EYFS. Together they found fun ways to learn about numbers and made resources to take home to enable them to continue their learning at home.

We ran a 3 week  'Let's do Lego' course for children and their grown ups from EYFS and KS1. During the course, the children and adults were challenged to think and develop their problem solving and thinking skills whilst creating different models. The participants were presented with a number of different challenges to complete. 

Do you feel your child is anxious?

 

 

 

We will be holding a workshop for parents who feel they would benefit from further information in order to support their anxious child on Wednesday 24th January 

The 45 minute course will begin at 2:15pm and there will be plenty of time to discuss and ask questions at the end. It will completely finish at 3:30pm.

The course will be run by Mental Health professionals from the Mental Health Support Team There is no charge and no limit on numbers and you do not need to book on the workshop. However, it would be helpful if you could let us know if you plan to attend so we have an idea of approximate numbers. If you would like to attend, please contact the school office on 01282 615055. There will be the opportunity for a longer course on understanding and managing anxiety in your child following this one off workshop.

If you would like to register your interest for any of these courses, please call in at the office for further information. 

 

 

2022 - 2023

FOOD FORTNIGHT

Reception

Children in Hedgehog Class have been learning the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. When the little red hen goes for a walk she finds some corn and we have been learning that corn is used to make bread!

The children in Hegehog class were very excited to make and try their very own bread. We made white bread, brown bread and cheese and tomato rolls! They were delicious!

Year 1

Parents and carers were invited to come to the Y1 cafe to sample the different smoothies we had designed and made. Each of us had tried a number of different fruits and then decided which to put in our smoothies. We made some healthy and delicious drinks which we tried together. Working with our grown-ups, we decided how we could improve them next time. ​​​​​​

Smashing Smoothies

Year 2

In year 2 we made salads.

We looked at different types of salad ingredients and how we could prepare them.

We thought about the quantities of ingredients and how much we would need on our salad.

We chopped, grated and peeled.

We then shared our salads with our adults from home.

We talked about how they looked, what we liked best and if we were to make it again what changes would we make.

Year 3

In year 3, we investigated a selection of scones before trying to create our own. We invited our parents and carers in to taste test our fabulous creations and we think they were a super success! Some of our parents and carers thought they needed a little more sugar, but we think we're sweet enough!

Year 4

Year 4 loved sharing their creations with their grown ups! They worked so hard to design and create their own vegetable soup and the parents said it was delicious!

SOUPer duper!

Year 5

The parents of the foxes class really enjoyed tasting the children’s spring rolls and samosas as well as looking at everything they had achieved over the past two weeks.

Year 6

Parents and carers of children in Y6 were invited in to help us test and improve our initial designs. We found out what it means to be iterative. Then, we tested the prototype of our salad meal. We had to evaluate which elements of the design criteria had been met. We then suggested changes to help improve the product on the final make.

Super Salads

 

PARENT AND CHILD WORKSHOPS

All our adult and child workshops are held in partnership with Lancashire Adult Learning. It is a great opportunity to learn a new skill in partnership with you child. We hold a number of workshops throughout the year.

AT the beginning of May we started a Maths and Arts Course. During the initial session the children and adults learnt about artists such as Barbara Hepworth. They carefully measured and drew a Y and X axis and then joined us the co-ordinates to make patterns which they then coloured. You can see some of the reults below.

To celebrate Eid we held a srta and craft workshop. Below are some of the comments and pictures of the workshop.

 

We have also held the following parent and child workshops:

EYFS and KS1, KS2 - First Steps with Coding 

EYFS and KS1, KS2 - Ozbots. 

Look at the fun we have had:

We held a lego robotics workshop for children in EYFS and KS1 and their parents or carers. The course was fully booked which was great to see. You can see the participants enjoying learning together below. Some comments from the parents / carers:

"Thankyou for an amazing learning opportunity. It has enabled me to spend some time focusing on my child's capabilities and concentration and, as an adult I have learned to code and learn a new skill."

"Brilliant class. I enjoyed every minute and I look forward to more."

"Very enlightened. The bonding and teamwork, as well as the knowledge was well worth the session."

"Very interesting course that we will be using at home. Loved it and would love to do more like this."

"Enjoyed building and making it move. Learnt how lego works with robotics."

"Brilliant class, really enjoyed it and the teacher lovely and helpful. We learnt a lot. We had lots of fun and my child loved the lego and really focused on it and loved the end product."

"Great fun class, loved it. Thanks."

 

CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

Our Christmas Craft workshop was fantastic! It was lovely to see parents and children enjoying festive activities together. Here is some of the feedback from those who attended:

"Fun environment to be able to do crafts with my child." 

"Excellent morning and we have done all of the crafts!"

"Very enjoyable session, fun & creative for both adult & child."

"It was fab! We really enjoyed it! It also did us good to have time together in which we were having fun! Thank you."

Mental Health Week

The theme of Children’s Mental Health Week this year was ‘Communities’. In year 1 we looked at people who help and look after us. We read the book ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson to see who the witch wanted to have on her broom and why. We invited our grown-ups into class and together we drew our own broomsticks and decided who we would share our broomstick and why.

 

 

WORKSHOPS HELD IN 2021/2022

STORYBOOK WORKSHOP FOR EYFS and YEAR 1

We held the first in our series of adult and child workshops last week. Children and family members from EYFS and Year 1 learnt all about the adventures of The Naughty Bus during out Storybook workshop. Adults learnt ways to engage their children with reading and the children used lego to make new adventures for the Naughty Bus to go on. Look at how we got on below. 

 

KS1 LEGO ROBOTICS COURSE

This course was so popular, we had to add another date so that everyone could attend! The children and adults used coding to make their lego creations come to life. Have a look at some of them in action below:

KS1 Lego Robotics

 

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

As part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, parents and carers had the opportunity to come into school and work with their children to create Royalty worthy masterpieces alongside learning more about the Royal Family and Her Majesty. 

 

KS1 and KS2 3 week course : LET'S DO LEGO'

Children from both KS1 and 2 brought their adults to come and learn about how to be creative with lego. There was some fabulous building going on with some great teacm work and problem solving. All involved are looking forward to learning more next week.