Launching our Winter shop

Hello,

Thank you to all Year 5 bakers and sellers who have raised a wonderful £193.92 last Friday! We hope you enjoyed their cakes and treats. The next cake sale will be next year, on 14 January. But in the meantime, we’re busy planning our Winter fair, which will take place on Friday 10 December – please see below for a list of volunteering opportunities.

FROGS’ WINTER SHOP

Our Winter shop is now officially open! You can purchase Christmas trees until 2 December for delivery on 10 December. Also on offer are lots of lovely gifts, including craft kits, tote bags, book bags, pencils cases, made-to- order tops (deadline also 2 December) and fun jewellery pieces. Most items are available in limited quantities and will be ready to be delivered around 10 December.

Next week we will add Christmas wreaths and Santa’s Grotto tickets to the shop offer. We’ll also be selling some navy Grasmere School T-shirts in a selection of kids sizes at the Winter Fair.

WINTER FAIR: HELP NEEDED

Thank you to all who have already volunteered to help us organise this very popular event. At the moment we already have 10 parents helping with tasks such as selling tickets and products, handing out the Christmas trees, planning the Santa’s grotto and grotto gifts, preparing a coconut shy stall, as well as as the music and playlist, and selling delicious vegetarian food.

But we still need plenty of help to man the class stalls, as well as the food stall, from which we’re hoping to sell cakes and drinks including hot chocolate and massala chai. We will also need a lot of help setting up the fair and decorating everything, and then tidying up at the end.

If you intend to help on the day, please could you sign up for your slot using this Volunteer Sign Up sheet (even if you’ve already told your class rep you could help) as soon as possible; it will be a big help for us organisers, as we will then be able to see if we can run all the different stalls or if we will have to plan less activities to make the event possible.

If you can’t be there on the day, you could also help by lending a gazebo, making/lending items to decorate the grotto, or baking cakes etc.

Thank you for your help,

FROGS

November newsletter

Hello,

Please find below some news about our winter fair and winter shop, as well as some great local charities that we support.

Dates for your diary:
Friday 19th November: Y5 Cake sale
Friday 10th December: Winter Fair

You will find the minutes of our last meeting here. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 24 November to organise the Winter Fair (location or zoom tbc).

Thank you to everyone who ordered cards through our APFS Holiday Card Project, we raised over £200 for the school! The cards are expected to arrive at the school around 22 November.

WINTER FAIR

FROGS is organising a Winter Fair after school on 10th December. Due to Covid, the fair will have to take place outdoors, so we might need to come up with different ideas for the stalls this year to beat the cold.

Each class is in charge of one stall, so please get your thinking caps on and let us know by 24 November what your class would like to help organise.

Traditionnally stalls have included things such as decorating gingerbread men; decorating Christmas jumpers; a teddy tombola and a present wrapping stall. We also usually sell hot drinks and cakes, this year a parent is also kindly offering to cook some vegetarian food for us.

Other ideas for stalls: an obstacle course in the garden with tinsels and bells; a snow globe bouncy castle; winter-themed ring toss games; ice fishing game; guess the number of baubbles in the jar...

The fair usually has a Santa’s grotto, this year we are thinking of doing some storytelling sessions with Mrs Santa instead of a traditional grotto. If you have any other ideas, or would like to help organise this (or decorate Mrs Santa’s lounge!) please let us know.

Once we have your stall ideas we will set up a Volunteer sign up sheet so everyone can see what needs doing and how they can help.

Plan B: In the event that new regulations prevent us from organising a fair, we’re hoping to organise a rainbow raffle instead (like this one for example) next year, to bring colour into wintertime. For this, each class could provide small gift and food items to create a colourful hamper.

WINTER SHOP

We are finalising our new products for FROGS’ winter online shop, with T-shirts, tote bags and pencil cases in the works. In the meantime, Christmas trees are available to order from our online shop (delivery is 10th December); we’ll be also leaving some forms in the office for those who prefer paying cash.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: We’re also hoping to sell some wreaths; a florist friend is kindly helping us by sourcing plain pine wreaths and decorations from the flower market, but we need volunteers to put everything together around the 2-3 December. If you can spare a couple of hours then , please let us know by signing up for this via this link.

If you would like to help in any other way, for example by supplying some homemade products to sell, please let us know as soon as possible! Thank you.

HELPING EACH OTHER

FROGS supports the Hackney Food Bank and the Winter Toy Appeal:

• Food bank collection: One of our volunteers is kindly offering to drop your donations to our local foodbank. There is a box in the hallway leading to the KS1 playground in which you can leave your donations, as well as a list of the most needed items. If easier, you can also donate money directly to the food bank. If you need help from the food bank, register for foodbank vouchers here.

• Winter Toy Appeal: If you can, please support this excellent local initiative which gives free new toys to children who really need them. Every year it benefits some children at Grasmere. There’s lots of different ways to help, have a look at their page for more information.

FROGS are also planning to support the school for the national Children’s Mental Health Week, 7-13 February 2022, by organising an event and buying new books on health and mental health for the library. Do you have any ideas on what we could organise to promote our children’s mental health? Do you know someone in that field who could do a special assembly? Any fun activity that would engage them on the subject? Let us know!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Our next meeting

Hello,

We hope you are having a nice half-term! We just wanted to give you some information on the holiday card project deadline, ask you about Christmas tree pick up day, and let you know about our upcoming meeting and remaining places available for the enrichment clubs.

We are also sorry to confirm that our Bonfire/disco event cannot take place due to rising Covid cases, an increase which is particularly worrying in the Clissold and Stoke Newington ward apparently. Please stay safe and look out for the school’s information this week about any new safety measures.

HOLIDAY CARD PROJECT

Orders for the APFS Holiday Card Project need to be placed by Wednesday 3rd November.

You can order now on apfsorders.co.uk, using the unique code on the back of your child’s artwork. Artwork needs to be sent back to school by Thursday 4th November. This can be used for presents and gifts for any occasion such as Thank you cards (you can choose to keep the text blank or add messages when your order).

If you have any questions of would like a code to order items with other artworks (birthday, thank you cards, sibling’s art etc) please email frogsholidaycards@gmail.com.

ENRICHMENT CLUBS

There was lots of applications for our new enrichment clubs! Most clubs are oversubscribed but we still have space for:

Alberto’s djembe club on Fridays for KS2 children (£5 per class)
Alberto of Performing Creations says: “Learning it will be interactive and super fun and not the usual copy-paste. We are going to be creative and learn dancing rhythms from the origins of the Malinke music to today's House music as the Djembe instrument is developed.” Sounds like a lot of fun! Please email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you would like your child to join. (There’s a free space for a pupil premium child).

Debate Mate club on Thursdays for KS2 children (£10 per class)
Debate Mate helps develop your child’s communication skills. Developing debating skills is a very effective method of preparing and motivating young people for higher education and the world of work. The organisation charges the school a fixed fee for this so the club cannot go ahead if we do not get the minimum number of students (12) – and there are only 3 places left! Please email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you would like your child to join. (There’s an extra free space for a pupil premium child).

Library club on Fridays for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children.
This club is about books, storytelling, illustration, paper crafts and creative writing for younger kids. We’ll look at classic picture books for inspiration. There’s 1 paying space and 1 free space for a pupil premium child left, please ease email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you would like your child to join.

CHRISTMAS TREE ORDER

If you are planning to order a Christmas tree through the school this year, please can you let us know which date you would like to pick up your tree by answering this survey ? It seems like it’s always either too early or too late for some, so we’d like to go for what the majority thinks! It takes one second to answer and it will help our volunteer plan this more efficiently. Thank you!

NEXT FROGS MEETING

Our next meeting is this Wednesday 3 November at 8pm on Zoom. We will send the agenda and Zoom login via your class reps. Please join if you have any ideas on Covid-safe fundraisers or anything else!

We’re also looking for ideas on what to sell in our Christmas shop this year. Please get in touch if you have any ideas, or anything homemade that you could donate for this. At the moment we’re thinking craft kits, wreaths and tote bags… (This is an example from another school just to give you some ideas). We could also organise a raffle or a winter trail, any ideas and offers of help welcome!

Thank you,

FROGS

This weekend's Jumble sale

Hello all,

A big thank you to all who have donated jumble and food for our latest Grasmere Jumble sale. Thank you also to those who have put up posters; who have helped sort the jumble (especially the mountain of clothes!), who have helped set up and tidy up afterwards, and of course who have manned the stalls during the sale…

It was well worth the effort: the event brought in a whopping £1,794.76 for our school’s charity!

Here’s a break down of what we raised:

DOOR – £199.63
FRIDAY SALES – £38
DESIGNER CORNER – £334.08
BRIC-A-BRAC – £52.66
BOOKS – £242.08
TOYS – £136.55
SHOES – £38
CLOTHES – £257.35
FOOD – £276.41
PARENT MATCHED FUNDRAISING – £300

We hope those who attended enjoyed the new layout, with half of the stalls outside in the playground. To be able to do this (and to make our next events both less weather-dependent and more Covid-safe) we have invested £622 in buying two large gazebos with sides (as well as sand weights for the gazebos and the doors).

Our food offering was absolutely delicious (thank you to Grasmere parent business @onroot_ for supplying some of their butternut squash) and raised quite a big chunk of money; we’ll try to advertise this more to the local community next time.

Books-wise we sold lots, and we kepts two big Ikea bags of great books for the school library, and gave the teachers two more boxes of books to pick from for their classrooms.

If you have any suggestions on how we could improve the jumble sale please let us know. The area that we felt wasn’t working particularly well was the clothes section – there was just too much of it, and we need a better display system. If you have any idea on how to improve this, or if you have any clothes rails, shoe trees or folding plastic crates that you don’t need, please let us know for next time.

The next jumble sale is in the Spring – and the next FROGS meeting is on 3 November at 8 via Zoom. We’ll be confirming our November and December events very soon.

Thank you,

FROGS

PS: The school has sent out the Enrichment Clubs forms; these will be held from 1 November to 10 December, and from 10 January to 4 February (a total of 10 classes). There has been some cancellations from the teachers for clubs including cooking, skateboarding and tennis, but we will do our best to try and set them up for the Spring term.

The return of the Jumble sale

Hello!

In this newsletter you will find out who your class reps are; how much we have raised thanks to last week’s cake sale; what our volunteers have been up to; and everything you need to know about the upcoming Jumble Sale on 16 October.

Your new Class Reps

A big thank you to all who have volunteered to be class reps this year:

Nursery Ruth Reception Lisa & Bhavisha Y1 Rob & Caroline Y2 Gill & Simone Y3 Tanya & Lindsey Y4 Erla Y5 Yuksel & Rachel Y6 Jeet & Sally

They will be sending you information on our next events and volunteering opportunities through the various Class Whatsapp Groups. Please let them know if you can help with any of our projects, or if you have any queries or concerns.

Cake sales are back!

Thank you to the Y6 team of volunteer bakers and sellers who have helped raised £203.50.

One of the parents who helped at the cake sale is elligible for the Matched Funding scheme through her employer, which means FROGS will be taking in double this amount! An amazing result. For more information on Matched Funding, see our Get Involved page.

The next Cake Sale, organised by the Year 5 parents and carers, will take place on 19 November.

Painting, planting & planning

Thank you to the parents who helped paint the KS1 shed. Unfortunately Billy has not had time to lay the astroturf before going on paternity leave – so if anyone reading this knows someone who could do this for us, please get in touch! It would be great to finish this area before the winter.

A big thank you to Wayward Plants and the RHS at Morden Hall Park: a van-full of free plants, leftover from the Chelsea Flower Show, was delivered to the school last week. Some of these will be going into a new planted area by The Garden Classroom in Newington Green; the rest is for the school garden. We have already planted some ivy, Virginia creepers and a wonderful rowan tree.

We are still helping the school to plan the enrichment club programme and are sorry for the delay. They should start after October half-term, the school will be in touch very soon.

In the meantime we have updated our Calendar with the various events we are hoping to organise this school year. In November, Covid allowing, will be a Bonfire Night/Disco party (we’ll need volunteers for this! DJ etc – please get in touch if you can help); and we hope to organise a Winter fair, mostly outdoors, in December.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 3 November in the evening.

The return of the Jumble Sale

This year’s jumble sale will be held both in the hall (masks compulsory) and in the KS2 playground, in the blue container and under various gazebos (if you have a large gazebo that you can lend us please get in touch!).

HOW TO DONATE

Please bring your jumble (clothes, shoes, books, toys, bric-a-brac) to school on the Friday morning (15 October) from 8.45am (leave by the blue container) or drop off on Saturday from 9am.

PLEASE DON'T DROP OFF BEFORE FRIDAY MORNING AND PLEASE DON’T BRING IN ANY BROKEN ITEMS.

If you have time, please label clothes bag by type (ie Girls Clothes 5-6 years old) as this will save us some time, and try to tie up things that go together (ie sets, shoes, pyjama top+bottoms).

We’re also hoping to sell food and drinks so if you can contribute cakes, soups, biscuits or any other snacks (no nuts please), please bring them in on the Saturday morning from 9am.

HOW TO HELP

Friday 15: We need helpers to help sort the jumble from 1.30pm on Friday in the main hall. We’ll also need help carrying the trestle tables up from the cellar.

Saturday 16: Helpers also needed for the stalls during the jumble sale on Saturday. Let us know if you can do a shift, or just show up on the day. Cups of tea included.

The jumble sale not only raises much needed funds for our school but also provides an essential community service. Everyone is welcome so please spread the word to your friends and neighbours.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Latest news

Hello,

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend our AGM last week. You’ll find the minutes of our meeting here and our latest financial statement here. We now have a new secretary, Caroline, as well as two new committee members, Veronika and Luke.

It was great to see some new faces! If you would like to contribute some ideas or help in any way but were not able to come the meeting, please get in touch. We’re particularly keen to get more dads involved, and are trying to make FROGS as diverse as possible to better reflect the local community.

WANTED: CLASS REPS

We also have new class reps, although we are missing quite few as you can see below:

Reception –
Y1 – Rob & Caroline
Y2 – Gill &
Y3 – Tanya & Lindsey
Y4 –
Y5 –
Y6 – Jeet &

Class rep are essential to help us communicate with parents. As a class rep, all you would have to do is relay information from Frogs to your class group by simply fowarding a message on Whatsapp, and, if possible, helping to organise or find volunteers for 1 cake sale, and 2 class stalls (at the winter and summer fair) per year. They also relay the infomation from parents (concerns, suggestions, ideas etc) to FROGS. Please get in touch if you would like to help.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

We’re also trying to set up some events for this year. Please make a note of these two dates for now, and hopefully we’ll be adding more to the calendar very soon:

Friday 1 October: Year 6 Cake sale
Saturday 16 October: Jumble sale

The cake sales will be held as follow: Y5 in November; Year 4 in January;  Y3 in February;  Y2 in March; Y1 in May and Reception/ nursery in June. Parents can donate any kind of cakes or snacks (cupcake, gozleme, fruit kebabs, savoury treats…) as long as they do not contain nuts or sesame.

HELP NEEDED!

We are looking for volunteers to help us paint inside and around the KS2 container and KS1 shed this Friday. We’ll be there from 9am. In preparation, we’ve even tidied up the paint shed last week:

Can you believe all this was stored under the library stairs?

It might inspire you to start sorting for the jumble sale! Please can we remind you that we will be accepting your donations of books, toys, bric à brac and clothes on Friday 15 October, as long as they are not broken or dirty. When preparing your bags, please discard anything stained etc, try to tie up things that go together (ie shoes, pyjama top+bottoms) and think of our volunteers who are giving up their Friday afternoon to sort through everything and prepare the stalls. Thank you in advance!

Take care,

FROGS

Welcome back!

Hello,

We hope you all had a lovely summer and are as ready as you can be for this new school year.

Our AGM will be held on Friday 17 September at 9am, in the garden (or in the blue container if it rains). We hope to see you there!

In the meantime, here’s a little summary of what we were up to last year, and more information on how you can help us this year:

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Have a great summer!

Hello,

It’s already time for our final newsletter of the year. You’ll find the minutes of our last meeting here. In the last few weeks, we’ve been busy gardening, ordering colourful bean bags and planning ahead for next year. In this newsletter you’ll find more details about what we’ve been up to, and a summary of everything we have achieved this year.

Tesco Community Grant

We’ve been selected by the Tesco Community Grant to win up to £1,500 to build an outdoor classroom in the garden. Please vote for us if you can, and tell everyone to put their blue coin in our box. We’re told the Tesco on Green Lane will receive its voting equipment imminently, the one in Highbury & Islington already has it.

Greening up Grasmere

In the last few weeks of term, our amazing volunteer Nicola has continued to work with the children on the garden. She organised a herb tasting/smelling session with Year 1 and reenacted the giant turnip story while harvesting the carrots.

Thanks to Grasmere parent Nat, who generously donated an olive tree, Nicola also worked with Year 5 to plant the tree in the new pot – special thanks to Jack and Bryan who were extremely helpful! – . The lovely tree now sits in the nursery playground:

ENRICHMENT CLUBS

We’ve also finalised our first after-school timetable. We’ve worked with local companies and national charities, as well as the school office, to offer Grasmere schoolchildren as many opportunities as possible to try new things and learn new skills.

Covid allowing, the after-school club progamme will include science and coding; art and cooking; drama, djembe and tap dancing; tennis, football and dodgeball, as well as skateboarding. Also in the mix are debating, chess and creative writing and the Library club, which include fun sessions on themes such as Imaginary Maps or Chinese scrolls. Finally, local charity the Garden Classroom will offer a Forest school session in the garden, including rope knots, cooking on fire and nature art.

You will be able to book your child’s place on School Ping on the first week of term. Once you’ve had confirmation, you will be able to pay for it either through Scopay, or directly with the organiser. If your child is entitled to pupil premium, the cost of the class will be free to attend (you still need to book your place through School Ping; also pupil premium does not cover Fit for Sport.)

SPECIAL TREATS

Every year, FROGS offers £200 to each class to buy themselves a treat. This year,

• Nursery & Reception went to see the puppet show Nature Ellie at the Little Angel Theatre

• Year 1 booked the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground for themselves

• Year 2 had fun session of science experiments with Kids With Brain

• Year 3 went on a day trip to Kew Gardens

• Year 4 booked the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground for themselves

• Year 5 invited Safari Pete, who let his tarantula loose in the garden and went round the school with a small crocodile

• Year 6 went to the park to have an ice cream

NICK’S LEAVING PRESENT

All of us at FROGS are very sad to see Nick leave. He has been such a great help to FROGS over the years and has always supported all our ideas. We’re going to miss him greatly.

Fittingly, his leaving present project perfectly sums up what FROGS is about. One FROG had a great idea, another FROG helped with the logistics, all the parents helped fund the project through a specific fundraiser, and we had the full support of the school staff, who managed to gather all the material needed on time, and of the schoolchildren, who produced beautiful artworks.

Click here to see the result of this amazing team effort.

2020-2021 ACHIEVEMENTS

• September 2020 – launch of our new website

• October 2020 – Dress up day and the Halloween virtual balloon race

• November 2020 – completion of the new quiet zone playground with a mural by Ivana Zorn

• December 2020 – launch of the new online shop, and the Grasmere Cookbook

• December 2020 – preparing 200+ Christmas boxes for Santa’s visit

• March 2021 – launch of the first ever Grasmere School Photo competition

• March 2021 – organising the annual Easter egg hunt

• March 2021 – launch of the Grasmere Treasure Trail

• April 2021 – completion of the KS1 mural by Ivana Zorn

• May 2021 – presentation of our big plans for the school

• May 2021 – Greening up Grasmere

• July 2021 - completion of the new Grasmere School mural by Rude Studio

We look forward to more fun and games (and hopefully no more school closures!) for the 2020/2021 school year. We’ll be back on Friday 17 September for our AGM (9am, in the staff room or the library).

Wishing you all a lovely summer,

Take care,

FROGS

The new Church Walk mural

Hello,

You might have noticed something big and bold while queueing up in Church Walk – yes, the Rude Studio mural is nearly complete (we’re hoping to finish it this Friday morning).

CHURCH WALK MURAL

We really hope you all like it and we would like to say a big thank you to Rude Studio (please do go a get a coffee – and a print perhaps! – from their lovely shop on Barbauld Rd) and all our volunteers – especially the Reception parents, without whom this mural wouldn’t have happened!

Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

It might just be a coincidence but we’ve a feeling there is less dog poo around since this has been up!

Next step is to work with the school so the children create some anti-dog poo and perhaps cyclist dismount posters to put up on each side of the alley. We are also hoping to perhaps plant some Mexican daisies on the sides of the alleyway.

HELP NEEDED!

FROGS were hoping to finish the decking in front of the blue container in the KS2 playground but the bad weather and various work commitments have delayed us.

The decking needs to be sanded down and oiled before it can be used; can anyone help with this or has access to a sanding machine we could borrow? Or knows someone skilled at this type of work, who would be happy to do this for a small fee in the next few days? Please let us know!

NEXT FROGS MEETING

The next FROGS meeting will be on Friday 16th July from 9-9.45am (it will be our last one this year). This will be held outdoors, in the garden if weather allows, or under the shelter of the blue container if it’s raining. FROGS don’t bite – please join us if you have any questions, suggestions or are thinking of helping organise one of our events next year. We’re keen to get as many people involved in our school charity and we’re always looking for new ideas for fundraising and events.

Please also look out for one last FROGS newsletter at the end of July. It will recap all the good work we’ve done this year and present the new enrichment club offers which FROGS has helped the school set up. The new after-school timetable is nearly ready, we’re just waiting for a couple of details and confirmations and will share it with you at the end of the term.

Thank you,

FROGS

Volunteers needed!

Hello,

We’re sorry to say that following the latest government guidance we will not be able to organise any events this year. But we are still working away, and as ever we need your help to transform our school.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

We will be painting the Church Walk mural on 1-2-3-4 July. We need as many volunteers as possible, if possible please let us know if/when you can help as it will help us plan ahead.

We will be painting Rude Studio’s typographic artwork on either side of the school gates, with some illustrations on the gate themselves:

The first task (on Thursday/Friday) will be to paint the background, so no particular skills needed, just a lot of energy (and clothes you don’t mind splattering with bright yellow paint).

You can see the rest of our big plans for the school here. You might have noticed the artificial grass has been laid out, and the bean bags and cushions have arrived for the KS2 quiet area. We still need to sand down and oil the decking before it is open fully to everyone.

We’ve also done a bit more planting with the children in Nursery, Reception and Year 6.

ENRICHMENT CLUBS

Thank you to all who have taken part in the enrichment club survey. It looks as if we will have enough interest to go ahead with all the various clubs mentioned on the survey. Following your suggestions we have also contacted Creative Mash, who have agreed to organise a Drama club. We will be working with the school to ensure a timetable and booking system is in place for next year.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

New shoots

Hello,

Just a few words to update you on FROGS’ gardening efforts: our amazing volunteers Nicola and Julie have planted courgettes, tomatoes and beans in the garden – it’s looking lovely:

FROGS have also bought some rainbow trugs and some watering cans (plus a matching wheelbarrow!), as well as some soil, seeds and plants, for the KS1 playground. Nicola and Julie have helped with a couple of planting sessions with Year 1 and Year 5; they had a lot of fun and the new planters are now filled with vegetables, herbs and flowers:

We’re always looking for volunteers for the garden. In particular, we will need help over the summer to water the plants, so if you can cover a 1-week shift or more (as a reward you and your family can enjoy the garden for yourselves for a few hours!), please let us know.

A few reminders:

• check your class Whatsapp groups for a message about staff leaving presents.

• check your class Whatsapp groups and join the new Grasmere Offered/Wanted group to find a few bargains or recycle unwanted toys, clothes etc.

• we’re hoping to paint the Church Walk mural on 1-2-3-4 July, and we would love to organise an outdoor sports event on the Saturday 3 July, if Covid allows, so please make a note of these dates in your diary.

• see our big plans for the school here.

• please take part in our enrichment club survey if you haven’t done so already.

Thank you,

FROGS

FROGS' big plans

Hello,

After a year of cancelled events and plans put on hold, all of us at FROGS are feeling a bit more positive now with a lot of projects lined up for the school. As ever, our role as a charity is to support the teaching staff, making up for the council’s severely limited resources by helping in any way we can, from transforming the school indoors and outdoors, to organising fun events for the community and helping set up activities and enrichment clubs for the children.

And it’s fair to say we have our work cut out on all fronts: FROGS has big plans for the school, and we need everyone to join forces to continue to transform Grasmere into a fun and colourful space for the whole community. Today, we would like to share our ideas with you and ask for your suggestions, as well as list all the ways you can support our charity (of which as a staff or parent or carer you are automatically a member).

A SPLASH OF COLOUR

Grasmere is already a fantastic school, but it could be even better! Please take some time to read through our master plan for the school, which outlines all the different jobs and projects still left to do around the school grounds, and how you can help us achieve this.

The first project we’re going to focus our energy on is a new Church Walk mural by our neighbours, the acclaimed Rude Studio, to define the new school entrance. This is a first draft of what it might look like, with the words “Grasmere” and “School” on either side of the gate, and illustrations on the gate itself:

We’ll need 10 skilled volunteers to help paint this, please give us a shout if you can help, or know someone who could. We’re aiming to do this before the end of the school year; we’re still working on the design but look out for the finished visual in the next few weeks.

Also in the pipeline is an outdoor classroom for the garden, Remi Rough’s library wall mural and greening up the KS1 and KS2 playgrounds. Longer-term projects include a new library staircase/terrace and Makerspace to help foster science, engineering and technology learning. Full details for all these projects can be found on the Our Plans page of our website.

FUN AND GAMES

We’re also planning a few events for the end of the school year, Covid-guidelines allowing. These include the return of the traditional cake/ice lolly sale and a sport-themed event, to accompany our Grasmere sport challenge in June; and a garden party in July.

We would also love to extend the offer in terms of enrichment/after-school clubs starting in September. These could be combined with the extended club offered by Fit for Sport. (The school's current offering consists of Fit for Sport, plus a cricket club for Y5&6 and a Girls football club for Y5&6 on Fridays, and a Kids With Brain Science club for Y3&4 on Wednesdays.)

New options could include chess, coding, art, skateboarding, creative writing, a science club for younger years… It all depends on how many children are interested in each activity. We need 10 children per activity minimum and the average price will be between £6 to £10 per class per child. Any family in receipt of free school meals will get a free place on any enrichment club (but not Fit For Sport as it is classed as childcare and not as enrichment); in addition, FROGS can support any other children who need it with half-price concessions.

Please answer this survey to let us know what your child(ren) would be interested in, and we’ll do our best to set new clubs up for the next school year. (You can take it twice if you have more than one child in the same age group).

NEW MEMBERS NEEDED

FROGS is always looking for some new members. The charity is run by parents and carers, and wouldn’t be able to function without volunteers to organise its various events and projects. Everyone can get involved and contribute as much or as little as they feel able to. It’s a cliché but it’s true: even 1 hour of your time could make a difference.

We know that the past year has been difficult for everyone, but volunteering and giving back to the community in these uncertain times has such a positive impact and uplifting feeling that it is worth a try! By helping FROGS you could improve not your children’s experience of primary school, but all those children who will come after them.

Invaluable Y6 parents, who have been running the jumble sales and the Christmas tree sales, are leaving at the end of the year. Please let us know if you would like to help run these events next year. We are also keen for FROGS to better represent our wonderfully diverse community. Please get in touch with your class rep or email us on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com. FROGS don’t bite!

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

If you do not have much time, perhaps you can help us in terms of funding? There are many ways to help, from taking part in the school lottery, or shopping on Amazon Smile – see Get Involved. If you work for a big company, please have a look at the payroll/matched giving option on that page – “Join a WORKPLACE GIVING scheme” – this applies to very few people but it is very impactful and is our main source of regular revenue at the moment.

But perhaps the easiest way is to make a one-off donation for something specific that you would like to support (just leave a note in the comment – “Add Message” – so we know on which project you want us to use your donation), or set up a small monthly donation to our Kindlink account (thank you so much to parents who have already done so). Knowing that we have a small amount coming in each month would really help us to plan our budget and future projects.

You can donate (choosing the amount, and whether your donation is monthly, quarterly or yearly) by following this link.

You could also take part in our latest fundraiser: buy a Local Buyer’s Club card for £11.50 and £10 will go to FROGS. (Code: GRASMERELOCAL).

Thank you to all who have donated clothes, we collected 320kg of clothes, of which 250kg was good quality, raising £100 in the process. The next jumble sale will take place in October . 

FROGS MEETING

You will find the minutes of our last meeting here. The next FROGS meeting will be at the end of June, hopefully in real life rather than on Zoom.

Last but not least, thank you for reading this very long newsletter!

Take care,

FROGS

And the winners are...

Hello,

It’s finally time to reveal the winners of the first Grasmere Photography Competition. Thank you so much for sending through all these wonderful entries, our judge Nicola Hippisley and all of us at FROGS were so impressed by them – what amazing participation from the children!

The winners of the 2021 Photo competition are:

PORTRAIT

Winner – My sister Eden, by Mimi, Year 3
Runner up 1 – Self-portrait with a pearl tikka, by Sienna, Year 3
Runner up 2 – Portrait, by Zeyn, Year 5

GRASMERE VALUES

Winner – Spire hold, by Robert, Year 4
Runner up 1 – Beach chalets, by Johan, Year 1
Runner up 2 – Creativity, by Griffin, Year 2

TOY STORY

Winner – Flower fairy, by Isabella, Reception
Runner up 1 – Mash world, by Maya, Reception             
Runner up 2 – Monkey in tree, by Zeyn, Year 5

NATURE’S BEST 

Winner – Swan swimming, by Alma, Year 5
Runner up 1 – Leaves, by Isaac, Year 4
Runner up 2 – Mackerel aky, by Nat, Year 6

OVERALL WINNER: Swan swimming, by Alma, Year 5

“This picture really has it all. It is one we can all relate to, capturing that magical moment in time glimpsed during a lockdown walk, reflections beautifully spaced and aligned,” says Nicola. “There is also the classical combination of water, trees and stone. The lighting is wonderful, too, and so is the composition – with the dynamism of the swan moving across the frame in the decisive moment.”

You can see all the winning entries on our Photography Competition page. Congratulations to all! We will be sending all the winners and runners-up their certificates and prizes this week.

FROGS MEETING

The next FROGS meeting is this Wednesday 5 May at 8pm. Zoom link, password and agenda to be sent through the Whatsapp class groups.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

April Newsletter

Hello,

We hope you all had a lovely Easter Break. Thank you to all who have taken part in the Grasmere Photo Competition, we’ve received some excellent entries (you can see them all here) and we’re looking forward to announcing the winners very soon!

Congratulations to Quinn, Daniel, Zohar and Lucian, the first ever team to complete the new Grasmere Treasure Trail, and to Oscar, the youngest ever to complete the trail entirely in one go! You can buy and download the Treasure Trail here (all proceeds go to FROGS), it’s great fun for all the family, and you will discover lots of new things about your neighbourhood. Send your answer and your name will be entered into a draw to win some great prizes.

Thank you to all the children who sent their artworks for the Library wall mural project. Over 70 drawings were handed in, and they have now been sent to Remi Rough to do his magic.

In other mural news, the KS1 mural by Ivana is now complete. You can see more images here in our Past Project page. We think it looks wonderful, and we hope you like too!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Our current fundraising project is to ask you to donate some unwanted clothing and accessories. You can do so by bringing a rubbish bag full of clothes (in good condition if possible) this Friday 23 April. We will store them in the blue container until they can be picked up by Kids Just Recycle. We’ll also collect high quality/designer clothes to sell on Thrift, just place them in the bags labelled Thrift. You can also donate toys, furniture and other items on our Facebook group.

The next FROGS meeting is on Wednesday 5 May.

Take care,

FROGS

A few ideas for the holidays!

Hello!

This week FROGS’s Easter egg hunt was a great success, the sun was shining and the kids were over the moon with the lovely eggs you have donated – Nick said there was a real party atmosphere in the garden on Wednesday morning. Please scroll down for more on the egg hunt, including some great pictures taken by our team of volunteers, who set up a different egg hunt for each class (that’s a lot of hiding eggs around!).

We also wanted to let you know about our latest three initiatives, which might give you a few ideas for the Easter holidays. Spring is in the air but venues are still shut and there’s not much to do that you haven’t already done in the past year or so, so why not:

• follow our brand new Treasure trail around the neighbourhood

• take part in the photo competition – we need more pictures, especially from KS2 children!

• do a little spring clean and sort out old clothes and toys

Please scroll down for details on all of these projects.

THE EASTER EGG HUNT

Thank you so much for your donations for Frogs’ annual Easter egg hunt, we’ve counted a whopping 3,180 eggs, a record! Your amazing contributions included 385 large cream eggs, and 1,176 mini eggs – and it meant there was around 14 eggs for each Grasmere child to find.

THE GRASMERE TREASURE TRAIL

This week we’re launching our new Treasure Trail, available to buy from our shop for £5. Keep an eye out at pick-up time, we will be handing out some free copies of the trail!

Put your detective hat on and solve the Grasmere Treasure Trail’s 36 clues to find out where the Grasmere treasure is hidden. Along the way, you’ll discover the history of your neighbourhood and have fun spotting new things on streets you’ve walked many times before.

Designed for both adults and children, the 6km trail takes about 3h to complete. It’s a 8-shaped loop taking in both Clissold Park and Newington Green, with plenty of lovely cafés and ice cream shops along the way. Stop at Clue 21 to break it into 2 shorter walks. All clues are original to this trail and all titbits of local history have been checked by local historian Amir Dotan of Stokenewingtonhistory. Have fun!

FROGS’ PHOTO COMPETITION

Yes, the Photo Competition is still on! FROGS organised for local photographer Nicola Hippisley to talk to the children at assembly a couple of weeks ago, and the feedback is that she really inspired them to take some great pictures. So please encourage them to take some photographs during the holidays, we would love for as many children as possible to take part! Plus, there’s lots of amazing prices to win!

To enter, please send your pictures to frogs.grasmere@gmail.com and if you can, buy a ticket or two from our shop. See the full details alongs with plenty of tips on the competition page.

SPRING CLEAN

Our last initiative is to help you clear up in the absence of our much-missed jumble sales:

Last but not least, Julie and Ivana have started working on the KS1 mural, which is looking gorgeous already, and they are hoping to finish it in time for next term, if the weather allows!

Have a great Easter break!

Take care

FROGS

FROGS update

Hello,

Please find the minutes of our last meeting here – as well as the big library wall mural, we’re working on a survey on enrichment clubs for next year, and a grand plan for our various school refurbishment projects.

In the meantime, you can help FROGS in three different ways:

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1. DONATE SOME CHOCOLATE EGGS:

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2. LET US KNOW IF YOU’RE HAPPY TO HAVE A PLUS ROOMS SIGN IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE

Please let us know as soon as possible (tell your class reps or email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com)

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3. TAKE PART IN OUR PHOTO COMPETITION!

Thank you to those who have sent some images already. A local photographer, Nicola Hippisley, is going to talk to the children about photography and what makes a good picture, hopefully that will inspire the kids to take some beautiful shots for the competition.

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Thank you and take care!

FROGS

Next FROGS meeting

Hello,

Just a reminder that the next FROGS meeting will be a Zoom meeting at 8pm this Wednesday 10 March. Please find the Zoom details and agenda here. Please join us if you can, and if not, email us on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com with any questions or suggestions. Thank you!

FROGS

March 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

Big new this month – and we’re not just talking about the school’s reopening – FROGS are launching the first ever Grasmere Photo Competition! Also in this newsletter: two new murals for the shool, and the date and time of the next FROGS meeting.

PHOTO COMPETITION

There are four fantastic prizes to win including a portrait of the person of your choice by a leading theatre-world photographer, a nature-inspired framed print by a top fashion photographer, a voucher to print your images and a guidebook for budding photographers:

We’re hoping as many Grasmere kids as possible will take part, it’s a lovely way to look at everyday things differently, even after months of lockdown. You’ll find our dedicated Photography Competition Page here. You can buy as many tickets as you want from our online shop.

WALL TO WALL MURALS

In other exciting news, we’re starting work on two new murals for the school. The first is a large-scale mural for the big library wall next to the Albion Road gates. We’re very lucky that renowned artist Remi Rough has agreed to help FROGS with this project, and we’re kickstarting the process with a Zoom workshop to gather the children’s thoughts on the project. (Please see Nick’s message on Seesaw for Zoom details). We’ve prepared a template that the children can use to showcase their ideas for the big mural, and show during the workshop.

The second mural is by Ivana Zorn, who is about to start painting it (weather allowing) on one of the KS1 playground’s wall. The colourful design will complement the artist’s work for the quiet space playground (see Past Projects):

You’ll find more about the inspiration and ideas behind this mural in this document.

NEXT FROGS MEETING

Save the date: the next FROGS meeting will be on Wednesday 10 March at 8pm. Zoom details and agenda to follow shortly.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

January 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

A belated Happy New Year from all of us at FROGS!

COMMITTEE UPDATE

We held a meeting last week as our chair, Ed, has stepped down. We now have a new chair, Léa, and vice-chair, Erla. We decided to focus our efforts on finishing the various projects started in the playgrounds and outdoor spaces (including the library wall mural); a future meeting will look at these in more detail, as well as the possibility of new enrichment clubs for next year (Chess, Music and Skateboarding).

You will find the minutes of the meeting here, and the latest financial update here.

FROGS SHOP & MATCHED FUNDRAISING

Thank you for purchasing cookbooks, tea towels and Christmas trees through our new shop (there are about 5 cookbooks left, as well as some lovely teatowels and jewellery). We made a profit of just over £1,600, which was doubled thanks to a FROGS member being part of a matched fundraising scheme.

If you work for a large organisation, you might be able to benefit from a similar matched fundraising scheme, which is easy to set up – just contact your HR department and you could help boost our fundraising efforts. See our Get Involved page for more information on other ways to help.

FUTURE EVENTS

We hope you will take part in the Great Grasmere Bake Off, organised by the school (see Nick’s assembly; this week is Biscuit week). In addition to this, FROGS is planning the following events for spring:

March: Photography competition
April: Treasure hunt
May: Running challenge

Please get in touch (frogs.grasmere@gmail.com) if you can help with these events in any way.

DINNER IS SERVED

We also want to highlight a great initiative by Grasmere chef James, who works with the charity Chefs in School. With the help of local restaurants and bakeries including The Flying Frenchman, Tranga Market and the Spence Bakery, they prepare fantastic hampers for the local families who need them. Please find out more about this great project at Dinner is Served London.

Our next meeting will be held after half-term.

Take care,

FROGS

December 2020 Newsletter

Hello,

Here is FROGS’ last update of 2020!

Christmas trees

Thank you to those who have ordered Christmas trees, we raised £500 for the school.

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Santa’s visit and gift boxes

Thanks to your amazing generosity, we were able to welcome a very special guest at Grasmere. Santa and his elfs handed out 217 gift boxes specially prepared for the Grasmere school children by FROGS very own elfs. Learn more about this project here.

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Cookbook

There are only a few copies of the cookbook left to order, please get yours now! Thank you to those who have already bought a copy or a PDF.

We’re sorry to announce there has been a delay at the printers, and the cookbooks will be delivered on Tuesday 15 evening or Wednesday 16 morning at the lastest by our team of volunteers. The tea towels are ready to be sent out with the cookbooks on Tuesday.

Also available in our shop are tea towels, prints and some fun jewellery pieces.

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Join our private group!

New virtual Jumble sale

We’re launching a new virtual Jumble Sale so that parents can donate, recycle and find some bargains. To take part, join the FROGS Facebook group and head to the Buy & Sell section (although Facebook calls Buy & Sell, but our intention is of course for people to donate or receive things for free too, and make small donations to FROGS if they can.

It does require a bit more effort – mainly taking some pictures of your donations and organising pick up – than our normal jumble sale, but since we all live quite close to the school it will be easy to drop off or collect items.

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Yield Offer

The lovely folks at Yield on Newington Green are supporting FROGS by giving away 5% per of the value of each sale if you mention the name of the school when you buy their products (they also do gift hampers!). This is offer available until 3 January.

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Next FROGS meeting

The next meeting will be on 13 January.

Happy holidays,

FROGS