To the Parents

Conference

Last week I attended the IAPS Heads’ Conference in Edinburgh, which attracted around 400 Heads of Independent prep and junior schools from the UK and around the world. We enjoyed a variety of keynote speakers and seminars and as ever it was good to chat to fellow Heads and learn about developments and initiatives in other schools.

The theme of the conference was ‘leading inspirational and aspirational schools’, with a focus on how learning must respond to current and future changes in society and the job market.

One startling fact that resonated strongly with me was that when our current Reception cohort enters the job market in the year 2033, 65% of the jobs they will do have not yet been created. Massive advances in technology will continue to change the landscape of the workplace making some traditional occupations redundant but creating many more new and exciting opportunities in their place.

Academic knowledge and qualifications will still be vitally important but there will also be much greater demand from employers for their employees to have highly developed ‘soft skills’. Research has suggested that the top 10 skills out of 120 that were seen as important include: oral comprehension and expression, active listening skills, problem sensitivity and critical thinking skills. Empathy, cooperation and collaboration were also high on the list.

This resonated particularly as these are just some of the skills and values that are now intrinsically embedded within our Connected Curriculum and explicitly referenced in our new Pastoral Curriculum.

The job market is of course a long way off for our Reception pupils but as a school we are committed to ensuring our pupils, from the moment they

enter the classroom, are learning and developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that they will need to be successful both today and in the future.

In next week’s Lion we will share further detail of our new Pastoral Curriculum and how this will enhance our pupils’ personal development.

GL Assessments

Every September, our pupils take nationally standardised assessments in maths and English. Primarily, these assessments provide information for the teachers to help plan learning for the coming year. They also show, year on year, how much value is being added to the pupil’s learning and how each child and cohort is progressing. This information then feeds into out Teacher Assessments which are shared with you via the termly reports and Parents’ Evenings.

The data shows that our children continue to achieve at a level much higher than the national expectation and that this gap grows year on year. 87% of our Year Six pupils achieved scores in maths in the high average, above average and very high categories; 73% in above and very high categories. In English, 74% were in the top three categories; 52% in the top two. The national expectation for the top three categories is 40% and 23% for three top two. Our data therefore, is tremendously reassuring, and highlights the accelerated learning that takes place in the Junior School.

Our aim for the future is to maintain and improve these results whilst ensuring the children develop fully the softer skills referred to earlier.

Open Morning

Thank you for supporting our Open Morning in such large numbers; it was a great event and, as ever, our children were superb ambassadors for their school.

Peter Hopkinson Headmaster

Rory’s Story of the Week

Open Morning

On 31 September, I went to the Portsmouth Grammar Schools’ open day with my mom, dad, grandmother and sister. I saw many people coming in to the school and there was a music show by senior students. We first went to the dining hall together to have some food.

Then I went to the art activity at 11:30 and Mrs Summerskill showed all the fruit pictures I drew. Then I was told to draw on a picture with part of it removed and you had to do the same as the removed part. When I finished, we went to see my classroom and my dad found a golden grammar school balloon. I also found one for my lovely sister. At last, I had pizza at the hall and chocolate cream. It was very delicious and I had some orange juice as well. Then we walked back to the car and went to the seafront.

All the teachers and senior students were very helpful in the open day morning and I would like to thank all of you. This visit was very interesting.

By Y Wang (3J)

The Newsletter of The Portsmouth Grammar Junior School Issue No.232 6th October 2017

The Lion when The Lion roars, the world listens

Nursery News

This week saw the children go to the beach for beach school for the first time this term. Despite the weather being a little bit windy the children had great fun looking for stones, shells and sticks which they arranged into a triangle shape. They also managed to fit in a bit of sandcastle building.

Handa’s Surprise

As part of our Handa's Surprise story the children enjoyed tasting all the different fruits in the story. Next they chose the fruits they wanted to put in their Tropicalicious smoothie. Everyone tried the smoothie and many of the children had seconds too! Avery said "it's so yummy I want to eat it all up!”

Animal Shapes

Year Two have been busy drawing African animals, by following step-by-step instructions. We have been thinking carefully about shapes in drawings and proportion. Lily and Jojo in 2G said “It was fun drawing and painting the animals because they looked real”.

WWI Podcasts

This week Year Six have been looking at their topic book, War Game, and have been thinking about what it would have been like to have gone to war or been a family member of friend of someone who went to war. We started by planning out what we would say and used figurative language as well as emotions we would have felt at the time. When everyone else had finished planning we worked in groups of three and read our work out loud so other people in our group could give us feedback on what they liked and what they thought we should improve on. Then we went straight on to recording our podcasts in groups of four and once we added pictures to them we uploaded them to Google drive and we were done. I enjoyed making the podcasts and I am sure everyone else did too.

By Mia C 6G

Castle Models

I brought a bag of boxes to school. We had to stick them together to make a castle. It was hard to stick the boxes together so I used extra sticky glue and masking tape. My favourite part was making cuts in the bottoms of the tubes so I could attach them. I painted my castle grey. By Olivia 1J

Keeping Safe

Please remember that there is only one entrance into the School for pupils, via the Main Arch on

High Street. Even if they are accompanied by an adult, under no circumstances must pupils enter the site via the gates on Penny Street or those on Museum Road. These are vehicular entrances/exits and therefore unsafe for our pupils.

PGS Family Fireworks

Extravaganza

The fantastic annual PGS firework display will be taking place on Sunday 5th November at Hilsea Playing

Fields. Gates open at 1630 and tickets will be available to purchase on the day and in the Junior School Office.

JSA Comedy Night

Our Comedy Night is fast approaching (Friday 13th October) and tickets are on sale from the Junior School Office. The event includes a curry supper as well as a whole evening of hilarious entertainment from a variety of professional comedians.

Messages

Fixtures

Sat 7 Oct 1000: U9A & B & U8 Lions Football v Stroud (a)

Wed 11 Oct 1300: U11A ISFA Regional Football Tournament (h) 1300: U11B Hockey Tournament at Farleigh 1345: U11A Hockey Tournament at West Hill Park 1400: U10A & B Netball v Twyford (h) 1430: U10A, B, C & D Football v Twyford (h) 1430: U11C Hockey v Twyford (a)

Thu 12 Oct 1515: U9A, B & C & U8A, B & C Netball v Twyford (a) 1515: U9A, B, C & D & U8 Lions Football v Twyford (a)

Junior School Sports

Information

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

U10B Match Report

On Wednesday the U10B team played away at Westbourne House. We played 20 minutes each way.

Westbourne House kicked off, and PGS got off to an attacking start with an early goal from Will G. This was quickly

followed by another goal from Will! Good teamwork from Ben R and Ted W helped them to set up and score two more goals. Westbourne House then scored off a penalty and followed this with another goal despite good attempts at saves from Will A. The half time score saw PGS 4 – 2 ahead. In the second half, Alex B-H did some good saves, helped by Gustav V and Fergus C in defence. Each side scored a few more goals, and with one minute to go, Christian A-M did a great kick up the pitch, setting up the final goal brilliantly. PGS won the match 7 – 4. By Will G

Girls’ Football Report

On Tuesday 2nd of October, the Under 11 Girls’ Football Team made their way to Foregrounds Primary School for the first round of the Hampshire Cup. With some new faces joining the squad, the bus ride was filled with excitement and nerves, but as soon as we arrived everyone was keen to get on the pitch. The opposition were quick on the attack scoring early, despite the fantastic efforts of Masha H in goal. Isabella C and Lilly-Mae P bounced back well in defence, not letting the early goals get them down showing fantastic determination and perseverance. Despite conceding a few more goals before the half time whistle, the girls came in for the team talk, upbeat and keen to make amends. Captain Mia C

kept morale high, inspiring the team with a great motivational speech as the girls took to the field for the second half. From the kick off PGS were quick on the attack, the midfield unit worked cohesively throughout the second half, closing down players and putting in the tough tackles. Annie B, Annabel B, Milly W and Chandhu cooperated well to thwart opposition attacks. Daisy L-J was tenacious when tackling and Ria F ensured nothing made it past her, clearing the ball away from danger and into attack. All the hard work paid off when Mia C skilfully got through the opposition defence, slotting the ball calmly into the bottom corner. Although not the desired result, the smiles at the end of the game showed this is just the start for the Girls’ Football this year and we are very excited to see where it will lead!

Girls’ Hockey Report

On Wednesday

3rd of October,

the Year 6 girls made their way to Andover to

face Farleigh School for their first fixture of the year. All 28 girls were playing for the duration, playing on smaller pitches which allowed a greater number of touches for the girls. Over the course of the afternoon the girls demonstrated fantastic cooperation and communication skills, working well to navigate the smaller space and score many goals. Amelie R and Jess R-K worked fantastically in goal, coming off their line well to thwart opposition attacks. Ria F worked well in defence, utilising the block tackle to fantastic effect. The girls have worked hard in their lessons to build upon their basic skills of passing and dribbling, and put them into practice well on the pitch. Having to make decisions as to where and how hard to pass the ball ensured it was an afternoon of development and progress for all teams involved.

Saturday Sport

There will be games sessions for Juniors (Y3-Y6) from 0900. Saturday morning games are voluntary. There will be: 0900: Netball Years 3-6 at Hilsea 0900: Football Years 3-6 at Hilsea Please arrive promptly for a 0900 start.

The L ion Spo r t