Update on our Food Strategy

We are committed to providing healthy, nutritious food that children want to eat at Gainsborough. This half term we have completed a range of things to support us in our mission to

• Provided food for  a corporate event at ABBA Voyage to raise funds for our cooking clubs and growing projects
• Provided excited and engaging cooking clubs for children trying foods from a range of cultures: including sushi!
• Hosted colleagues from Ireland who are exploring the introduction of school meals to Ireland
• Moved forward with the set of the Gainsborough Food C0-Op
• Provided half termly TastED sessions for children to trial a range of different fruit and vegetables

Over the coming weeks we will asking parents their thoughts on the following food related activities at Gainsborough that we would like to trial next year:

• Exploring with children and families what stopping packed lunches being brought into school would mean to them and whether we could do this
• Exploring the stopping of home bought snacks for pupils at 3.30-4pm while they wait for clubs, so that parents do not have to provide snacks and so that children eat more healthy snacks
• Exploring ‘family eating’ days when parents can come into school to eat with children at lunchtime in the dinner hall
• Exploring with children and families what types of breakfast food we should provide in our various breakfast clubs

Each week we will award one child from Years 1-6 as most improved writer of the week. The award is for those who have shown a significant improvement in handwriting or writing throughout the week.

Year 1    Idris

Year 2   Caden

Year 3   Tyrell

Year 4   Destiny-May

Year 5    Pawal

Year 6    Mikeal

Gainsborough at the Hackney Music Festival

Classes from Reception to Year 5 will take part in the Hackney Music Festival at the Round Chapel again this year. All children will leave school as a class and return to school as a class. There will be hundreds of children arriving and leaving the venue and in the interests of safety families will be asked to allow school adults to manage the route to and from the venue to school, with families collecting children back at school. The performance dates and times are below.

Reception Friday 26th June, 11.30-12.15pm

Years 1 and 2, Tuesday 23rd June, 10.45-11.45am

Years 3, 4 and 5, Wednesday 24th June, 4-5.15pm, collection back at school at 6pm (There are no ice skating or choir clubs on this day)

Gainsborough Summer Fair

Please join us on Friday 3rd July, 3.30-5.30pm,  for the annual school summer fair. We have an exciting raffle, the bouncy castle, under 5’s space, amazing food, water pistols, football competitions, arts and crafts and of course the usual tattoos, face paints and fun! We look forward to seeing you there.

Potential Heatwave Protocol

With temperatures forecast to rise significantly over the coming days, we would like to share the measures we are taking to keep children safe, comfortable and ready to learn during the potential heatwave.

What we ask families to do

Please help your child stay cool by:

• Wearing a plain white T-shirt.
• Wearing shorts, skirts or lightweight summer uniform.
• Wearing sandals with secure heel straps if preferred. Please note that flip-flops are not permitted as they are unsafe for school activities.
• Tying long hair up where possible.
• Avoiding extra layers, hoodies, jumpers and vests.
• Bringing a named water bottle to school each day for their journey.
• Applying sunscreen before school if required.

What the school will do

To support children during the hot weather, we will:

• Provide fans in classrooms where needed.
• Relocate classes to cooler areas of the school if appropriate.
• Ensure water jugs and cups are available in classrooms where required.
• Encourage children to drink water regularly throughout the day.
• Reduce time spent in direct sunlight.
• Adapt PE lessons and other physical activities to reduce exertion.
• Ensure lessons remain calm and take place in well-ventilated spaces.
• Closely monitor children for signs of overheating.
• Contact families if we have concerns that a child is becoming too hot or unwell.

We are also monitoring arrangements for the upcoming Music Festival at the Round Chapel. Should weather conditions make it unsafe or impractical for the event to proceed, we will notify families as soon as possible. Thank you for your support in helping us keep everyone safe and comfortable during the hot weather.

Gainsborough Play Strategy

The children have fed back that they are enjoying the new additions to the playground and enjoy having a larger variety of different things to do at playtime. We are collecting loose parts play items to build further play opportunities for children at Gainsborough. The weekly donation suggestions last half term did not yield much for us to put into the playground. We have put together a half termly request and would like to ask families to all donate ONE item over the half term, just ONE! If everyone donates one unused item from their home we will build a really useful set of play resources. We have labelled 3 large boxes in the office area for families to drop in donations as and when they can. We are collecting buckets and spades and sand play, dressing up clothes (bags, hats, outfits, accessories) and utensils for sand and mud kitchen play.