October news

Hello,

Thank you to all the FROGS who helped organise and who attended the Garden Party on Friday, we hope everyone had a great time!

Please read this newsletter for some photos of the party, information on our Cookbook project, and on our next event, the Jumble sale.

THE GRASMERE COOKBOOK

The Grasmere Cookbook, 2024 edition, is hoping to bring together the recipes that mean the most to our community. Please find out more and send us your recipes using this link or, if you don’t have a gmail account, by emailing frogs.grasmere@gmail.com.

Thank you to those families who’ve already sent their recipes: we’ve a Palestinian dip, Austrian strudel, Swiss cheese tartlets and a delicious pancake recipe. Recipes just have to be family favourites, and the quicker you send us yours the more time we’ll have to take some nice photos to go with it. We’re also looking for some nice illustrations from your children, such as cute little ingredients and illustrated dishes – you can see the full book here for inspiration.

Here are three recipes from the first edition to whet your appetite:

We need your help to get the recipes in as soon as possible as we have a tight deadline to meet if we’d like to produce and sell the cookbook in time for Christmas – it will make such a great present! Ideally we’d love to collect at least 30 recipes from Grasmere families and staff members.

JUMBLE SALE

The Jumble Sale has been a hit at Grasmere for over 20 years! Help us reuse and recycle by donating your unwanted items and shopping for second-hand items. From brand new cookbooks to designer coats, there are always some real gems, and most items are 50p. It’s also a lot of fun for the children, who run around with their friends and play with the new toys bought with their pocket money.

We still need some help on manning the stalls, and preparing some soup and cakes to sell. Please sign up here if you can help!

Any leftovers will be donated to charity.

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DONATE TO FROGS

Donations to FROGS are always welcome. Please take a look at our latest projects to see how your money might be used. You can also set up a monthly direct debit donation on Kindlink.

MAKE A PAYPAL DONATION

MAKE A KINDLINK DONATION

Find out more on how to help here, including more info about the matched funding and workplace giving schemes, which are available for employees of some large companies.

Upcoming events and fundraisers

Hello!

In this newsletter you’ll find information on our October events, including the Garden Party and the Jumble Sale, as well as on our main fundraisers this year: the Grasmere Cookbook and teatowel.

But first, huge congratulations to the Summer fair team again – they raised way more than initially thought, due to late transfer of Square card takings. The fair raised over £3,000 for the school, congratulations Megan and Sally and co!

Don’t forget the first cake sale of the year, the Year 6 cake sale today at 3.30. Cash, cards and FROGS stamp cards accepted, most cakes £1.

Here is a copy of the FROGS AGM minutes, and below what we were up to last year:

We’ll update you as soon as possible on all our current projects, but in the meantime, please take a look at our main fundraisers for this year…

GRASMERE COOKBOOK AND TEATOWEL

As voted at our AGM our two main fundraising projects this year will hopefully be a community cookbook and portrait tea towels. Please help if you can!

Have a look at the 2020 edition of the school’s cookbook here to have an idea of what we’re planning. We’ll need help collating the recipes, quotes and portraits, contacting local restaurants to ask for their recipes, and taking high-resolution images of the dishes, so if you want to help with any of this, please look out for a link on your Whatsapp Group to join Team Cookbook. The team will then be sending out some information on how to submit your recipes.

We’re also looking for helpers to coordinate the Tea Towel project, which will be a teatowel printed with self-portraits of all the children at Grasmere this year. The goal is to get each child to draw a self-portrait (or thumbprint for nursery!) with a black pen on a bit of square paper. If you have time to help with this, please lookout for the WhatsApp Group invite to join Team Teatowel.

The aim is to have these done in time to sell before Christmas, so expect more info about these very soon. As ever these projects cannot happen without your help, so please volunteer if you can!

The Garden Party

Please join us on Friday 4 October after school for FROGS’ Garden Party! There will be drinks and snacks as well as free pizza, squash and kids activities. It’s a great opportunity to meet other Grasmere parents and carers. If you can help with this event (we need volunteers for the firepit and setting-up/tidying up), please sign up here.

Members of the FROGS committee will also be there to answer your questions about our charity, and listen to your suggestions.

The Jumble Sale

Please note that the Jumble Sale now has a new date: it will now be held on Saturday 12 October. We need enough jumble to fill the blue container, and lots and lots of volunteers.

Please sign up here if you can help.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

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DONATE TO FROGS

Donations to FROGS are always welcome. Please take a look at latest projects to see how your money might be used. You can also set up a monthly direct debit donation on Kindlink.

MAKE A PAYPAL DONATION

MAKE A KINDLINK DONATION

Find out more on how to help here, including more info about the matched funding and workplace giving schemes, which are available for employees of some large companies.

September news

Hello,

Here’s our first newsletter of the year! Welcome to new parents and welcome back to all the other FROGS. We hope your kids liked our new banner on the first days of school:

Our first event of the year was the Kapla workshop (delayed from last year) which involved each year building giant Kapla constructions in the school hall. We hope your children enjoyed it! A big thanks to Jennifer from Kapla Clubs UK who ran the workshops with such great skill.

And of course the tidying up was lots of fun too!

Please save the dates! We’ve lots of exciting events planned for this year:

As usual we’re starting the year with our AGM, this Friday at 9am in the school hall. As you might know we are a registered charity and as a parent, carer or staff member at Grasmere you are automatically a member of FROGS. We’re looking for more committee members, new volunteers, and new organisers (and perhaps a Santa too) for our Winter Fair.

Please find here our annual report; our latest financials; and the agenda for the meeting. Everyone is welcome and the more volunteers the better, so please join us if you can.

We’re looking forward to meeting all the new parents and children at our Garden Party on Friday 4 October. On that day we will need you to bring your jumble to school in the morning, and also lots of volunteers to sort it. We’ll be sharing the Volunteer sign up sheet for the Jumble sale very soon. In the meantime, please start sorting your clothes, toys, books, and homeware!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Have a great summer!

Hello,

Thanks everyone for your contributions to the various leaving gifts, we raised £435 for Neela’s leaving gift (flowers, chocolates and a donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital) and £470 for Debbie’s gift (flowers, Oneforall gift vouchers and a Yield voucher).

Thank you also to everyone who contributed to the staff’s end-of-year gift, we raised £2,410 which will be split between all staff members (that’s almost £100 each).

We hope your children enjoyed our last event of the year, Mr Bubbles’ workshops, and a big thank you to all the parents volunteers who helped on the day!

Big thanks also to the Year 6 parents leaving this year, who have helped so much over their years at Grasmere, you will be missed!

And of course thank you to all of this year’s volunteers, organisers and class reps, for your support, hard work and enthusiasm in making Grasmere such a lovely community and school.

The FROGS calendar is already full of fun events for the autumn term, and we look forward to continuing our projects in the garden and elsewhere next year!

Thank you and have a great summer,

FROGS

What a Summer fair!

Hello,

Many thanks to our wonderful organisers and all our many, many volunteers who helped make the Grasmere Summer Fair such as special event. We have raised £1,415 for the school (we made £1,920 before expenses). An excellent result and so much fun for the children. It is really magical what we can achieve when everyone helps out! What a great way to end the year for our little community.

We had so many excellent stalls, beautiful decorations and delicious food including freshly made salad, burgers and veggie dishes. Special thanks to the volunteers who made the Human Fruit Machine come to life, what a team!

And well done to Kareem in Year 6 who holds the Floor Is Lava record: under 17 seconds to rescue the Pink Panther from its lava inferno.

Huge, huge thanks to The Clarence Tavern on Stoke Newington Church Street for sponsoring our free donkey rides by Kelly’s Donkeys.

And of course, well done to our lucky raffle winners! Thank you so much to everyone who donated such excellent prizes for the raffle, including the following local businesses: Jolene, Push Cycles, Shine on the Green, Creative Mash, Sparks Arts Islington, Spence Bakery, Stokey’s Delicatessen, Gaia Eros Florals, Nook, Yield, Early Bird, Stokey Toy Shop, Whole Foods, Stoke Newington Bookshop and Romeo & Giulietta.

Please support them if you can, they are what make our neighbourhood so special.

LEAVING GIFTS

Last call to donate for Neela’s leaving gift and the staff’s end-of-year gift, please contribute if you can – this will be split equally and gifted to all remaining staff from teachers and TAs to kitchen and office staff.

There’s one last FROGS event this school year – the Mr Bubbles workshop on Tuesday (unfortunately for the kids only!). We hope your children enjoy it.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

July news

Hello,

Our last event this year is the school’s Summer Fair on Saturday 13 July, please read below for more information, as well as some pictures of Billy’s leaving do and links to the various gift collections we’re organising. Please find the minutes of the latest FROG meeting here.

Also, well done to Year 6 who have raised £127 with their ice lolly sale to help pay for their leaver’s hoodies, party and year book.

BILLY’S LEAVING PARTY

Thank you to everyone who helped organise and attended Billy’s leaving party last Tuesday. It was great to see old friends and have Billy leave in style after 19 years at the school.

THANK YOU BILLY!

A million thank yous on behalf of FROGS for all his help: not only did Billy carry countless tables up from the cellar for us, but he was also instrumental in helping transform the school, from building the decking in front of the container to creating the medical room and creative room, and installing shelves in the new library. What a star!

We raised just over £1,000 for Billy’s leaving gift – thank you so much for your generosity, he is chuffed!

OTHER STAFF GIFTS

Thank you also to everyone who donated towards Carmen’s gift, we raised over £800. The school has been given a card with your messages & gift and will give it to Carmen as soon as possible.

We’re also saying goodbye to Debbie and Neela, please donate for their leaving gifts if you can!

And finally we’re also raising money for the staff’s end-of-year gift, please contribute if you can – this will be split equally and gifted to all remaining staff from teachers and TAs to kitchen and office staff. Thank you!

SUMMER FAIR

Coming up is our final event of the year, the Summer Fair on Saturday 13 July! This year we are very lucky to have The Clarence Tavern sponsor some free donkey rides and cuddles by Kelly’s Donkeys.

As ever we need lots of volunteers, please sign up here if you can. The more stalls the more fun. We’ll also need your donations – cakes, sandwiches, cookies, ice lollies, drinks etc – for the kitchen. Please let Megan, Sally or your class reps know if you can donate anything for the kitchen, or any small prizes.

NEXT YEAR

Please note that the FROGS AGM, which we hold annually since we are a registered charity, will be on Friday 20 September at 9am at the school. Everyone is welcome! As a parent, carer, staff member at Grasmere you are automatically a member of FROGS.

We are still looking for volunteers for next year, whether it’s helping on the committee or organising events. If you are not sure what it involves, please get in touch with one of the committee members (Jay, Magnus, Léa & Caroline) and we’ll answer your questions as best as we can!

Our small community is a big part of what makes Grasmere so special and having regular events is a key way to help the community spirit thrive. But as a single-form entry school, there’s not that many of us parents and carers, so we really need to have all hands on deck if we want to continue having such an amazing program of events throughout the year.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

All the fun of the fairs

Hello,

In our latest newsletter you’ll find updates about the Enterprise Fair, information on the various leaving gifts we’re organising, and how to help at our next and final event of the year, the Summer Fair on Saturday 13 July.

Enterprise Fair

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in FROGS’ second Enterprise Fair. Thankfully there was not a drop of rain and we had some very creative stalls on board selling everything from handmade T-shirts and freshly squeezed orange juice to homemade bath bombs and mystery boxes.

Well done to all the children (and their parents and carers!!!) for all the hard work, we hope you raised lots of money and have lots of great ideas for next year.

And of course a HUGE THANK YOU to the generous children who decided to donate the money they raised to FROGS – with their donations and the ticket sales we made just under £200!

SUMMER FAIR

Coming up is our final event of the year, the Summer Fair on Saturday 13 July! This year we are very lucky to have The Clarence Tavern sponsor some free donkey rides and cuddles by Kelly’s Donkeys.

As ever we need lots of volunteers, please sign up here if you can! The more stalls the more fun, but we’re a very small school and every little help counts.

LEAVING GIFTS

Unfortunately we’ve had to organise quite a few leaving gifts lately:

• Billy’s leaving gift – last call to donate for Billy’s gift. He’s been working as the school’s caretaker for 19 years.

• Carmen’s leaving gift – Carmen has been a dinner lady at the school for 24 years.

• Debbie’s leaving gift – our current assistant headteacher and SENCO lead, Debbie has been at Grasmere for 26 years.

• Neela’s leaving gift – our headteacher is also leaving, after 3 years at the helm.

As usual we’re also getting a whole school end-of-year collection ready for the rest of the staff, which will be divided equally between every member of staff, from the kitchen to the classrooms.

Hall MURAL

FROGS is working with artist Toby Marsh to help us design a new mural for the kitchen wall in the hall. You can the various ideas in full colour and detail in this presentation, and you and your kids can vote for your favourite option or leave your feedback using this form.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Frogs News

Hello,

Thank you so much to everyone who attended our meeting last week, you will find the minutes here. We will have one last meeting this school year on Wednesday 3 July in the evening, so you have some time to think about perhaps joining our committee, becoming a class rep next year, or volunteering to organise one of our future events!

Talking of which, coming up this Friday is our Enterprise fair. The kids and their grown-up assistants will be manning the stalls, and they have big plans!

On offer: popcorn, candy floss, muffins, cupcakes, freshly squeezed orange juice and lemonade, fruit kebabs and pancakes. But it’s not just food: there are also homemade gifts including bracelets, bath bombs and dreamcatchers, as well as second-hand clothes, books and toys.

Please bring some cash – lots of change! We will also be selling FROGS tote bags and T-shirts.

Chess Tournament

A huge thank you too to everyone who attended our first ever chess event – we hope you enjoyed it! We raised £504 with this event which will go towards buying a couple of picnic tables with chessboards tabletops for the KS2 playground.

It wouldn’t have happened without Ruth, our international chess champion, and the team of volunteers. Big thanks to them and to the parent who generously donated the bespoke tote bags, as well as to Chess in School for donating lots of great gifts.

HALL MURAL

We’re very lucky to have a FROGS working with artist Toby Marsh to help us design a new mural for the kitchen wall in the hall. Here are the three initial sketches; you can see the various ideas in full colour and detail in this presentation.

You and your kids can vote for your favourite one or leave your feedback using this form. We could also use the other mural ideas throughout the school, but let us know what you think!

LEAVING GIFTS

You can donate here for Billy’s leaving gift. He’s been at the school for 19 years and we’re planning a little something for him on 2 July.

You can also donate here for Neela’s leaving gift. Thank you!

As usual we’re also getting a whole school end-of-year collection ready, which will be divided equally between every member of staff, from the kitchen to the classrooms.

SUMMER FAIR

Thank you so much to everyone who has offer to help with the summer fair on Saturday 13 July, we will be sending more info as well as a volunteer sign up very soon.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

June News

Hello,

We hope you all had a great half term! Well done to Reception & Nursery and Year 1 who respectively raised £184 and £207 with their cake sales just before the break, and a big thank you to all bakers, sellers and buyers.

Our next meeting will be this Friday 7 June at 9am at school. You will find the agenda here, please join us if you can. We are looking for committee members and volunteer organisers for next year’s events, so please come along if you have any questions or suggestions. Alternatively you can email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com with your queries and ideas.

We will be discussing the ideas for a new mural in the hall; the garden project; the purchase of basketball hoops and chess picnic tables for the playground. Many thanks to all the FROGS who have been working on these various projects!

LEAVING GIFTS & PARTY

Thank you to everyone who helped us give Patsy an amazing leaving gift of over £1,200. She says:

“Wow I am speechless! Thank so much I am overwhelmed with all that support. Please thank everyone for me.”

Sadly Grasmere’s caretaker Billy is also leaving us this year and he is hoping for a little party on Tuesday 2 July – and perhaps Patsy will be able to join too. Please get in touch if you can help organise something after school on 2 July.

Of course we’re also collecting for his leaving gift, you can donate here.

And we are also collecting for Neela’s leaving gift, you can donate here.

GRASMERE CHESS TOURNAMENT

We’re very lucky to count among our talented FROGS the International Chess Champion Ruth Sheldon, who was a World Girls’ Chess Champion and played for the England Women's Olympic Team. She says:

“I started playing chess at primary school and fell in love with the game. I soon started travelling to play children from all around the world, including in India, Brazil, and Poland. More recently, I taught chess in local primary schools and am very excited to be part of Grasmere's first ever tournament!”

You can still buy your tournament ticket here. This is a friendly competition and everyone is welcome to join, children, parents, friends and neighbours… You don’t need to be a champion, just to enjoy the game! Thank you to Chess In School who are providing some great prizes. Of course non-chess players are welcome too, and there will also be lots of free, fun activities for the kids.

As ever we are very grateful for any cake donations for this event, so if you can bake something for this Friday, please let us know!

ENTERPRISE FAIR

Also coming up very soon is our Enterprise Fair – we have a few stalls left, please book here. Your kids can raise money for themselves or their favourite charities. Please invite friends, neighbours and family to see what the budding entrepreneurs have come up with.

Please also save the date for our Summer fair on Saturday 13 July!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Upcoming FROGS events

Hello,

Our next meeting will be on Friday 7 June at 9am at school. You will find the agenda here, please join us if you can! We are looking for committee members and volunteer organisers for next year’s events, so please come along if you have any questions or suggestions. Alternatively you can email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com with your queries and ideas.

A reminder that you can still donate money for Patsy’s leaving gift here.

And another reminder that the school governors, who play a key role in the long-term strategic direction of the school and the selection of a new headteacher, are looking for a new parent governor to join them. Please see this letter for more information.

Please read on for information on FROGS’ upcoming events, including the Chess Tournament, Enterprise Fair and Summer Fair.

Chess Tournament

We’re looking for chess players to compete in our tournament, please buy your ticket here as places are limited. This is a friendly competition and everyone is welcome to join, children, parents, friends and neighbours… You don’t need to be a champion, just to enjoy the game! Thank you to Chess In School who are providing some great prizes.

Of course non-chess players are welcome too, and there will also be lots of free, fun activities for the kids. Please help us make it a success!

SUMMER FAIR

Here’s a message from Sally and Megan, who have volunteered to organise the Summer Fair. Please put Saturday July 13th in your diaries for the Grasmere Summer Fair, everyone welcome!

Planning is now in full swing for our annual Grasmere Summer Fair! We’ve got loads of fun things in the works and are determined to drum up as much commitment and engagement as possible, so that it really is an event to remember. For the Kids, for the Teachers, but for us Parents too – we deserve it! 

For now, we need each Year Group to choose from the following list of stalls and let us know, via your reps, by Wednesday May 22nd what your class has chosen. We’ll go ahead and allocate them if that’s easiest, but please let us know if there’s one you’d particularly like, or if you have a suggestion for something different. We will make your lives as easy as possible by providing you with a full kit list and instructions. Prizes will be collected, sorted and allocated to each stall nearer the time. 

Once we know who’s doing what, the usual volunteer form will follow. 

It would be AMAZING if some Year Groups could volunteer for more than one stall!!

AVAILABLE STALLS:

- Hair, Nails and Tattoos (2x people per shift)
- Floor is Lava (1x person per shift)
- Hook a Duck (1x person per shift)
- Bouncy Castle (1x person per shift)
- Guess the Teacher’s Baby photos (1x person per shift)
- Craft Stall: Paint a plant pot or up-cycle a t-shirt with fabric pens etc (2x people per shift)
- Drinks and baked goods bar (4x people per shift)
- Bottle flip challenge (1x person per shift)
- Lucky Socks (washing line with odd socks pegged to it. Choose a sock blindfolded and look inside to find a treat/prize) (1x person per shift)
- Pin the Tail on the Donkey (1x person per shift)
- Pimms stall (2x people per shift)
- Gem stall (1x person per shift)
- Pokemon Lucky Dip (1x person per shift)

ALLOCATED STALLS (TAKEN)

- Splat the Rat (reception)
- Veggie food stall (Megan and Bobby Year 5)
- Burgers and salads stall (Year 3)
- Coconut Shy (Sally Year 3)
- Human Fruit Machine (Year 3)
- Ice cream float stand (Bart)
- Sticker making stall (Sammy Year 5)
- Donkey Rides (YES, DONKEY RIDES!!) - external

Please consider helping out with this event. It’s incredibly rewarding, brings Grasmere together, welcomes new families and all it really requires is a donation of your time. We’re also very excited to let you know that we’ve secured two little Donkeys to provide free rides and/or Donkey petting for the kids courtesy of The Clarence Tavern and a wonderful donkey sanctuary called Kelly’s Donkeys!

We look forward to hearing back from everyone and putting together a mega team effort! 

Best Wishes,

Sally and Megan 

We’d also like to remind you of our other event this term, the Enterprise Fair, for which you can book a stall here. Your kids can raise money for themselves or their favourite charities. They can sell handmade things (including food, drink and art); preloved toys, books and clothes; collectables; father's day gifts; services such as car washing... Anything they want!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

May Newsletter

Hello,

We hope you had a nice Easter break and are ready for this term’s FROGS events. Please see below on how to book your Chess tournament ticket or your Enterprise fair stall!

We’re sorry that we have had to cancel our meeting on Friday; we will share a new date very soon.

In the meantime we are looking for organisers for next year’s events (including Jumble sales, Winter fair, etc), as well as new committee members. Being a committee member would mostly involve voting on FROGS spends and checking communications such as newsletters. It could also involve planning, admin, looking for grants – or anything that makes the most of your skills.

If you are interested, please let us know if you have time of a quick chat on Friday morning or any other time, by emailing frogs.grasmere@gmail.com or letting Jay, Caroline or Léa know. Thank you!

Our next cake sale is the Reception/Nursery sale on Friday 10 May.

Patsy’s leaving gift

We are collecting donations for Patsy’s leaving gift. Please donate here if you can. Deadline: 24th May. She’s been nominated for a Hackney School Star award – thank you so much to everyone who took the time to vote for her. The event is being held on Monday 13 May at Hackney Town Hall.

GOVERNORS MEETINGS

The governors, who play a key role in the long-term strategic direction of the school and the selection of a new headteacher, are organising a series of meetings to explain their work. There is currently a vacancy for a parent governor.

If you’d like to learn more about this, please join them on Monday 13 May at 9am in the school hall, or Tuesday 14 May 3pm in the school hall and at 6.45pm online.

SUMMER TERM

We’ve got a great programme for this Summer Term, including giant construction workshops, a visit from Mr Bubbles, and even donkey rides at the Summer Fair. Please make sure to save the dates!

Our next big event is the Chess Tournament, now on Friday 7 June:

Everyone from our community, adults or children, friends and neighbours, is welcome to join the tournament and try to beat our champion Ruth Sheldon, who can play 12 teams at the same time.

You can buy your £5 ticket here (all proceeds will go to buying outdoor chess tables for the school). There will be also be free children’s activities, great prizes from Chess in Schools, cakes and drinks etc. So please join us on Friday 7 June after school!

Please also save the date for the Enterprise Fair on Friday 14 June after school. Your kids have just over a month to make or sort things to sell, to raise money for themselves or their favourite charities. They can sell handmade things (including food, drink and art); preloved toys, books and clothes; collectables; father's day gifts; services such as car washing... Anything they want! Book a £3 stall at our Enterprise fair now.

HALL CURTAINS

We’ve spent over £4,000 on new curtains for the hall. This helps with acoustics during assembly and allows the hall to be used for two different activities at the same time. We’ve also installed some smaller curtains to hide the storage area. We’re also planning a mural for the kitchen wall, as well as a new AV system or interactive screen for the hall.

We really hope to see you all at our next events! Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Happy Easter Holidays

Hello,

We hope you are all well and ready for the Easter holidays. Please find the meeting minutes here, and see below for more information on our latest events, and plans for the Summer Term.

STAR OF THE WEEK

This week we had to say goodbye to Patsy, who has been at Grasmere for 30 years! She is the heart of the school and will be missed by everyone. We will be organising a gift pot and video messages soon. Please save the date: the school is organising a special assembly on Monday 29 April at 2.30.

Thank you to our volunteers who organised a last minute celebration and everyone who turned up – what a great community we have.

We’re also saying goodbye to our very own FROG Nicola – thank you for everything you’ve done for the school in the last few years, on behalf of all the parents and children.

Easter Egg Hunt

Thank you to everyone who donated eggs, including the lovely people at Waitrose Holloway who donated over 500 little chocolate eggs! We distributed over 2,000 eggs and the kids had lots of fun. And if they managed to find Gilbert the Rabbit, their teachers got a big Easter egg too. Plus there were eggs for the staff room, and for pupil premium children to take home.

This couldn’t have happened without our volunteer bunnies who spent the entire morning hiding eggs in the garden, so thank you so much Easter Hunt team!

Jumble Sale

Thank you to all our volunteers and shoppers, we raised over £1,400 with the spring jumble sale. It’s a big event to organise and we had over 50 volunteers – not bad for such a small school! The next Jumble sale will be in October and we are looking for a volunteer organiser.

RECENT SPENDS

In the past few weeks we’ve supported the school by funding some Science Week workshops run by Happy Squares. And thank you to the parents who also came in to support World Book Week!

We’ve also spent time and money on revamping the garden beds, with planting and new arches:

NEXT TERM

Please save the dates! We’ve lots of great events coming up this Summer Term:

As ever volunteers will be needed. We’re also looking for another volunteer to help organise the Enterprise Fair. Kids will be able to run their own stall at this fair, so perhaps they would like to start making/planting things now so they are ready to sell in June!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

March news

Hello,

Ever wondered what we do with all the money we raise? Well, in the last few weeks we have spent:
- over £3,500 on ordering new curtains for the hall
- around £400 on buying two new mud kitchens
- around £350 on yoga workshops before half-term
- £400 on author Jeanne Willis’ visit for World Book Day
- £600 on science week workshops next week
- and around £900 for a whole school treat in April which will involve each year group building a giant city out of Kapla.

This year we’re also planning to spend thousands on a new AV system for the school hall (item requested by the school as part of their technology fundraiser); some fun climbing elements for the garden; and to create a welcoming Reading room on the first floor.

The various cake sales held on Fridays throughout the year are also helping raise money for class treats, and a whole school trip to the seaside at the end of the year. Well done to Year 2 who raised £200 with their cake sale on Friday!

All of this wouldn’t be possible without your help, so thank you to everyone who volunteers at our events. Talking of which, the next one is the Jumble sale on 16 March, and we need all hands on deck to raise money (we’re hoping to beat the £1,700 we raised in October). Please see below for more info on how you can help or volunteer.

If you would like to find out more about how we work, and how to get involved, you can join us at our next meeting on Wednesday 13 March at 8pm online. We’re all volunteers with full time jobs and we do as much or as little as we can – everyone is welcome. Here is the meeting agenda and meeting details will be shared on the class Whatsapp groups next week.

HACKNEY SCHOOL STARS

In other news, Hackney School Stars is a chance for members of the community to nominate any member of schools or early years staff for a special award.

Patsy is celebrating 30 years working at Grasmere this year so please take some time to nominate her for a Lifetime Achievement award! Other longstanding staff members include Billy (19 years), Julie (18 years) Debbie (17 years) and Carmen (15 years) as well as Sharon of course! You can just put the school’s phone number and general email when you nominate them.

PUB QUIZ

Thank you to everyone who took part and helped organise the pub quiz at The Shakespeare: we raised just over £850 with this event: £165 tickets + £120 food sale + £300 donation from The Shakespeare + £300 matched giving donation (please get in touch if you work for a big company who is part of this scheme, you could help us double our fundraising by helping out at an event!). Congratulations to the winning team – two years in a row… Can they ever be beaten?

Big thanks to our wonderful quiz masters (rounds included Cheese or Motorway Stations, celebrity names in emoji and pictures of local hotspots, all great fun!) and of course to the Shakespeare team – please support your local pub! (Fun fact: it’s the oldest pub building in Stokey.)

JUMBLE SALE

We will need lots of help on the Friday 15 to sort out the jumble, even if you can only help for an hour that would make a big difference. Please sign up here if you can - we also need help with the books and toys stalls! Dads/male carers are welcome to help: so far there’s only one (?!) dad out of 41 volunteers and we need at least ten more helpers.

And of course, please donate your jumble – nothing broken or dirty please. Books, toys, bric-à-brac, homeware, small furniture, clothes (adult and children), shoes and accessories. We need enough to fill the entire floor of the blue container! Any leftovers will be donated to the British Heart Foundation and the Hackney Baby Bank.

EASTER EGG HUNT

Also coming up is one of the children’s favourite events, FROGS’ Easter Egg Hunt, which has been held in the school garden for over 20 years! Please sign up here if you can volunteer to be one of our Easter Bunnies (ie hide the eggs in the garden for each year group). We’ll also need your chocolate egg donations so keep an eye out for any bargains (check that there are no nuts please).

You can leave your donations with Patsy and Burcu from Monday 18 March, thank you!

GARDEN PROJECT

We kickstarted our Garden project by getting two new mud kitchens, and some colourful trugs. Thank you so much for your donations of pots and pans, they have already been put to good use.

If you have any old metal camping cups or mugs that you would like donate please leave them in the garden on the kitchen shelves, thank you!

Thank you to all the children who have voted for their favourite climbing elements. We have two clear first choice winners, the Monkey Bars (21 votes) and the zig zag balance logs (14 votes):

Also top of the wish list are the Hercules Hoops, Traveller Ropes, and Scramble net:

And finally the Stepping logs with posts, and Hop up logs:

We will do our best to incorporate as many of these elements as we can into the garden to make it a fun play area for the kids, and we will be going back to the companies we have selected to get more precise quotes for this project.

We will soon need some volunteers to do a spot of gardening and lots of painting.

We’re also looking for a jet wash to clean the garden classroom’s canvas roof, so if you can help with this please let us know.

NEXT TERM

Please take a look at the meeting agenda to see what is coming up next term. We are looking for a volunteer to organise the Enterprise Fair in June, please get in touch if you can help!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

February News

Hello,

Please see below for our latest news and upcoming events. Get your tickets now for the Grasmere Pub Quiz which takes place just after half-term! And make sure to scroll down to find out more about our plans for the garden – kids can vote here to help us choose some climbing elements.

Also, we’re looking for ideas for something fun for this year’s Leap Day (symbol: the frog), which will be the school’s first relax day (when kids can bring their slippers to school).

Cinema Night

Thank you to everyone who attended our Cinema night; we hope your kids enjoyed it! We raised just under £300 by selling snacks and drinks at our screening of Luca.

School Parent’s Dinner

Well done to the school for organising a lovely fundraiser. The dinner was amazing and so was the music!

Garden pROJECT

We’ve come up with a plan for the garden and we need your help! Our scheme involves a loop of activities starting from the sensory maze, going all around the garden with some new climbing elements, a refurbished mud kitchen, and building area full of exciting material. We are also working with forest school club to add some natural habitats and a woodland area.

We need your children to tell us which climbing element they would like us to install in the garden. Please get them to vote for their favourite trim trail elements using this google form (we will also share it with the school so that as many kids can vote!)

In the meantime, we’re starting with the mud kitchen. We’ve ordered two wooden kitchens (around £450) and some trugs (around £50) to add to this corner of the garden. They are arriving during half-term. And we’re asking you to donate any old kitchen utensils, pots, pans, cake tins etc. Please leave in the cardboard box by the FROGS shelves, thank you!

Then we will be installing some metal arches to create tunnels and planting the sensory maze; the Forest club will be helping us adding more plants and natural habitats to some corners of the garden.

FLIPCHARTS

It’s always lovely to see how our fundraising helps the school directly. One of our latest spends was over £1,000 to buy flipcharts for each class. Here are a couple in action:

OUR NEXT EVENTS

Quiz Night – Tuesday 27 February

The annual Grasmere quiz night is back! Leave the kids at home and join us at The Shakespeare for a fun night. Come hungry: we will be selling chilli (including vegan option) and sides. There are only 90 seats available so get your ticket now from the FROGS shop.

You can also get a team together (6 people max) or just wait and we will sort it on the night. See you there!

Also coming up: the Jumble Sale and Easter Egg Hunt!

Our spring jumble sale is very popular and we need lots of donations and help to make it happen. Please start sorting your jumble now! We would love toys, books, clothes, bric-à-brac (nothing broken or dirty please!). We’d need them on the Friday 15 March but can’t take them before that sorry, we don’t have any space to keep the bags.

We will need cake and treats donations on the day, and we need parent power to make sure we have all the stall on and ready for our loyal customers.

Please sign up here if you can help put posters up, sort or sell. Thank you!

Easter Egg Hunt – Wednesday 27 March

We will need lots of chocolate for our annual egg hunt in the garden, so keep an eye out for any chocolate bargains (no nuts please!). If you would like to be one of our Easter bunnies (who hide all the eggs for each class in the garden) then please sign up here.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 13 March at 8pm on Zoom.

Thank you and have a lovely half-term,

FROGS

FROGS' first 2024 newsletter!

Hello,

We hope you are well and wish you all the best for 2024. Please find attached the minutes of our last meeting and the latest financials. Please read on to learn about our plans, our events this term, and how you can help. Please get in touch via your class reps or frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you would like to offer help, ideas or suggestions, and use the volunteer sign up sheets below to make our fun events happen this Spring term.

As you know the school is organising a technology fundraiser and you can donate money here. The school has just raised £100 with their Fairy Tale Day and the photos with Princesses Anna and Elsa, thank you for supporting them! Please see below how FROGS will be contributing to this fundraiser.

And also, congratulations to Year 3 who raised £205 for their end-of-year trip to the beach!

Our latest plans

Hall transformation
Around £5,000
To be completed by the end of this school year
- We are buying floor-to-ceiling curtains for the hall. These will hide the storage area & divide the hall, and help make lunchtimes and afterschool/breakfast clubs more efficient. This was requested by the school and we are spending over £3,500 on this.
- We are installing a mural by Toby Marsh on the kitchen wall in the hall. We have sent him some inspiration in the form of drawings by the school kids, and are waiting to see what he comes up with! Watch this space.
- FROGS will buy a new AV system (including screen, projector etc) for the school hall, which is a big item on the technology fundraiser wish list and will benefit the entire school. This is our contribution to the school’s fundraiser and will be paid for using our existing funds. We are looking into costs at the moment and will share our budget for this soon.

Woodland Play Area Project
Around £10,000 in total
Phase 1 to be completed by the end of this school year
We are also planning to revamp the garden and install a play area and a nice mud kitchen as well as lots more plants. We have already raised over £2,000 for this on our fundraiser page (you can donate here). We have collected lots of different quotes and are meeting this Friday at 2.30 to discuss how to plan this and what the priorities are and how to best zone the space. We are hoping to use our existing funds and the ones we raised on Kindlink to pay for this.

Reading room project
Around £2,000
To be completed by the end of this school year
We are transforming the quiet space on first floor just above library with a new wallpaper and cushions and a storage system for the school’s large Read Write Inc collection of teaching resources.

We will keep you updated on any development on these projects, we think they are going to make a massive difference to the school as these are spaces used by all the children all the time.

Our Spring term events

Cinema Night – this Friday 26 January!

Please join us this Friday at the Grasmere Cinema for a screening of Luca. Please bring cushions, blankets, onesies – anything to get cosy. It’s free!

There will be lots of snacks for sale & you can use your leftover stamp cards. Kids who are not really into movies will of course be running around in the playground, and that is fine too!

We now have enough volunteers to make this event happen, thank you for you help!

Quiz Night – Tuesday 27 February

The annual Grasmere quiz night is back! Leave the kids at home and join us at The Shakespeare for a fun night. Come hungry: we will be selling chilli (including vegan option) and sides. There are only 90 seats available so get your ticket now from the FROGS shop.

You can also get a team together (6 people max) or just wait and we will sort it on the night. See you there!

Jumble Sale – Saturday 16 March

Our spring jumble sale is very popular and we need lots of donations and help to make it happen. Please start sorting your jumble now! We would love toys, books, clothes, bric-à-brac (nothing broken or dirty please!). We’d need them on the Friday 15 March but can’t take them before that sorry, we don’t have any space to keep the bags.

We will need cake and treats donations on the day, and we need parent power to make sure we have all the stall on and ready for our loyal customers.

Please sign up here if you can help put posters up, sort or sell. Thank you!

Easter Egg Hunt
Wednesday 27 March

We will need lots of chocolate for our annual egg hunt in the garden, so keep an eye out for any chocolate bargains (no nuts please!). If you would like to be one of our Easter bunnies (who hide all the eggs for each class in the garden) then please sign up here.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

Happy Holidays!

Hello,

We hope you all had a great time at the Winter Fair, which raised over £1,700 for the school. Huge thanks to all the helpers, bakers and volunteers who helped make this wonderful event happen.

We had over 50 parents and carers helping, which is amazing for a school of only 200 pupils or so. And of course a big thank you to Santa and his elves who took time from their busy schedule to stop at Grasmere, and to Waitrose Holloway for supplying us with lots and lots of free treats!

All our big events such as the fairs and the jumble sales take a lot of work, but they are an essential part of our fundraising and help create the sense of community that Grasmere is well-known for.

If you would like to help with organising these events for the next school year, please get in touch through your Class reps or by email frogs.grasmere@gmail.com. We always need new parents to take over as older ones leave the school.

HOW WE’VE HELPED THE SCHOOL RECENTLY

In the past few weeks we have spent over £1,000 for new flip charts for each classroom, as requested by the school; over £400 on play bark to for the garden (thank you to our volunteers who helped spread it around, there’s still work to do if anyone else is around!); and over £100 for little chocolates, candy canes, paper hats and stickers for the school’s Christmas lunch.

HOW YOU CAN HELP NEXT YEAR

There are lots of ways you can help FROGS in 2024:

• We will need volunteers for the Cinema Night on Friday 26 January, the Jumble Sale on Saturday 16 March and the Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday 27 March. Please look out for our volunteer sign up sheets which we will share in January.

• We are looking for help to paint the toilet block and repair the murals in the Spring.

• We will also need work to plant herbs, trees and shrubs etc in the garden in the Spring.

• We are thinking of organising a GalaBid silent auction so if you would like to help organise this or have some big prizes to give away for this let us know!

• We need a volunteer organiser for the Enterprise Fair in June.

• We are planning to redecorate and transform the 1st floor reading room, if you can help by painting a wall or know a professional who could install wallpaper on one feature wall please get in touch. We have armchairs and a light but we will be buying new furniture including a new table and chairs, as well as magazine files to hold the school’s Read Write Inc teaching resources. Here’s how it looks now:

If you can help with this project please let us know!

The SEASON FOR GIVING

At the moment we are collecting money for the Grasmere staff’s Christmas present. The total will be divided equally between everyone who works at the school – teachers, teaching assistants, office staff, kitchen team, caretaker etc... Please donate here (or simply leave a message).

We are also supporting the Winter Toy Appeal and the Hackney Food Bank. (You can also leave food and toiletry donations on the FROGS shelf in the covered walkway – no jumble items please).

SAVE THE DATES

We’ve lots of great events planned for the Spring Term, please save the dates:

Thank you and have a lovely break,

FROGS

December News

Hello,

Thank you to everyone who has ordered Grasmere tops, Christmas trees and Christmas cards through our last fundraisers. The tops and cards should all arrive at the beginning of December, before the winter fair, and the trees will be delivered on 8 December in the morning.

Thank you also to everyone who attended last week’s online Frogs meeting – you can read the minutes of the meeting here.

Please read on to learn more about our latest fundraisers and projects, and how you can help at our last event this term, the Winter Fair.

SPRING BULBS

To help green up the school and make sure that it looks its best come spring time, we have bought soil and bulbs (as well as wheelbarrow!) for the children to each plant bulbs in the various containers around the school. Each year group should have done this by now, here is Year 5 in action:

We are also in the process of ordering play bark and will be asking for volunteer to spread it around the garden to make it less muddy and more fun for the kids.

CAKES SALES

Well done to Year 4 who raised just over £200 with their cake sale, and to all our parent volunteers who helped raise £234 for the Red Cross’ Israel & Occupied Palestine appeal – thank you all!

Winter Fair

Our last event this term will be the Winter Fair, after school on Friday 8 December. As ever we need lots of volunteers to make this a really fun event for the kids, please sign up here if you can. If we do not have enough volunteers we’ll have to cancel some stalls and that would be a real shame!

There’s also lots of other ways to help. You could donate:
- mulled wine and homemade cakes for the kitchen stall
- second-hand soft toys, wintery books and games for the tombola stall
- homemade gifts such as knitted gifts, jam, cards etc to see in the shop
- second-hand Christmas jumpers & decorations to sell in the shop
- duplicate/unwanted Pokémon cards for the lucky dip stall
- temporary tattoos and nail varnish for the nail bar
- unopened, unwanted gifts for the Guess how many baubles prizes

(Please note we cannot accept any other second-hand items/jumble as we do not have space to store it and it creates a lot more work for our already stretched volunteers, thank you)

We will also have a Santa’s Grotto where children will be able to meet Santa and his wonderful elves and receive a little gift – you can buy your ticket here, or on the day. We will be selling stamp cards & tickets on the 8th in the morning if you want to skip the queue, and reception will hand out stamp cards and tickets to those who need them as usual.

Thank you in advance – the fair is a big fundraiser and the children all really love it!

HandyMen & BUIlDERS WANTED!

We are currently working on getting more quotes for our Woodland play area for the garden. We will be meeting soon to discuss the various options and costs. We are hoping to have a more detailed plan after Christmas, organise some fundraisers for this in the spring, and have it installed as soon as we reach our target. We think we could have something great for around £20,000, including some nice climbing and balancing elements.

We could potentially save money by revamping the mud kitchen area ourselves. If you are a keen carpenter/builder etc and think you could help fit some sturdy play ovens, fridges, sinks, countertops and tables, or build a planter for the mud/soil, then please get in touch. This work could be done at the weekends, or whenever convenient for the volunteers.

We will also need painters later on: in the spring we will also be repairing our existing murals and painting the toilet block in KS2 to match the climbing wall mural.

Also, we are hoping to apply for a grant to decorate the metal fence just in front of the reception door – if you know a local blacksmith who could help please get in touch!

SEASON of giving

We are collecting money to give all Grasmere staff a little something this Christmas. The money will be split equally between them, and is from all of us parents and carers. Please add your donation here – (even if you can’t donate, you’re welcome to just add a message).

And finally, like every winter we are supporting the Winter Toy Appeal, who distribute toys to all children who need them in the borough and beyond (including some children at Grasmere) and who are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. If you can, you could also help by replenishing our food bank shelves in the covered walkway, donating money or time to the Hackney Food Bank, and baby or children clothes and small toys to the Hackney Baby Bank.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

PS: We’ve also come across this campaign, Turn On the Subtitles – did you know turning on the subtitles when your children are watching TV can really help with literacy?

November news

Hello,

Here are the latest FROGS news, including some images of our lovely Bonfire Disco, plans for our Winter Fair, and some dates for your diary:

Wednesday 15 November 8pm Online FROGS Meeting
Please find the agenda here and get in touch if you have any queries or can help with any of the projects: frogs.grasmere@gmail.com

Friday 17 November 3.30 Year 4 Cake Sale

Sunday 19 November Deadline to order trees and cards (artwork will be with you shortly)

Friday 8 December 3.30 Winter Fair

You can order your Christmas tree and Santa’s grotto tickets from our online shop.

We will be selling stamp cards on the morning of the fair (and as usual free ones will be available from reception for those who need them).

Bonfire Night Disco

Thank you so much for supporting our Bonfire Night Disco starring Dancemasters DJ. He lived up to his name and got everyone on the dance floor. With this event we raised more than £500 for our charity, and more importantly children and parents had lots of fun! Thank you to all our amazing volunteers (including Grasmere staff, and a former parent who came back especially to run the Photo Booth) who were so generous with their time and resources.

Winter Fair

Our Winter Fair is fast approaching and we’d like to make sure it’s the most fun for the children. Here are the stalls for this year (other suggestions very welcome but these include the most popular stalls from past years).

Reception Nursery: Splat the Grinch + Guess how many baubles
Year 1: Winter Craft stall
Year 2: Gingerbread decorating
Year 3: Bonfire & Marshmallows + Santa’s Grotto
Year 4: Winter nails & tattoos
Year 5: Hot drinks, cakes + Veggie food + Pokemon lucky dip
Year 6: Teddy, toys and book tombola
TBC: Get the elves off the shelf (Coconut Shy)

There’s lots to do and this is one of our big fundraisers so please sign up here to volunteer if you can. You can volunteer with your children (apart from in the kitchen) and it’s very easy! If you can’t help on the day, we will also need cakes and sausage rolls etc to sell in the kitchen, as well as any unwanted gift/party favours etc that we can reuse as prizes, or for the tombola and lucky dip. You can leave these with reception. We also sell handmade items in our shop so if you are an expert crafter or jam-maker then we will welcome your donations!

Please note: each year is responsible for setting up their stalls so that everything is ready for the start of the fair at 3.30. We will be letting you know what items are already in the cellar via the Class reps to make sure that everything is ready to go. The team setting up the fair is in charge of tables, gazebos, lighting and decorations, they only have 2h to do all this and will not have time to do jobs such as counting the baubles, labelling the tombola items, setting up the crafts on the table etc.

We are still looking for a volunteer to take over the organisation of this event for next year – which involves mainly being there to set up and tidy up on the Friday, plan the layout and stalls, and order grotto gifts. Let us know if you can help and we can show you the ropes this year!

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

October News

Hello,

In this newsletter we would like to tell you more about our big project this year, which is to install a woodland play area in the school’s garden. We also give you the latest FROGS news, including how much money we’ve raised recently, and how you can help at our next events.

GARDEN WOODLAND PLAY AREA

Why is this our next big project?
After feedback from the school, we’ve decided to focus our efforts on completing the garden where we recently installed an outdoor classroom. The garden is one of Grasmere’s most unique features, and the school is keen to have it look its best, and to allow the best play opportunity for the children. Outdoor play and access to nature are key to our children’s learning and wellbeing and we want to ensure that the space meets their needs and is full of greenery, but also tools to allow to play – and learn – differently.

Transforming it with a fun, interactive play area would also mean adding some wow factor for prospective parents (the school needs to stay full to stay open), and open up rental opportunities, as the school hopes to rent out the space to complement its budget.

How much?
Our first option for now is the locally based company Made From Scratch, who created the wonderful play structure in the KS1 playground. They have given us a minimum budget of £30,000 for a made-to-measure playground with input from the children through a series of workshops (£2,000) – most playgrounds they build are around £80-100,000.

To give you an idea of average costs, an medium size playground in the UK would normally cost between £50,000 and £70,000; a larger play and activity area for Key Stage 2 (including Climbing Platforms and Trim Trail items) generally costs between £70,000 and £160,000.

One of our volunteers is currently looking into several other companies, including Sovereign Play and Touch Wood, to make sure that we get the best quality and price for this project.

Which type of play equipment are we hoping to install?
In terms of priorities our wish list (agreed with the school) includes: a magnificent mud kitchen area as this is a favourite of all year groups; platforms around tree trunks and climbing elements (the old ones had to be removed as not safe anymore); a loose part play shed or Imagination Station containing bits and bobs to foster imaginative play such as den building; and also a outdoor resource shed for staff to help them take their class to the garden as often as possible.

The idea is not to take too much space with a giant structure, but to leave kids room to make up their own games, build things and use their imagination. We would also need to remove some of the kitchen garden beds (which don’t get enough light) to leave more space for kids to run around, and introduce herbs and bulbs and softer planting around the edges.

How can you help make this project a reality?
You can donate directly to our Woodland Play Area project here. £30,000 may sound like a big number, but if every Grasmere child helped fundraise £150 then we would hit our target and more. Obviously we don’t expect every family to donate such a sum, which is why we will be organising fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the project.

We will add the proceeds from our garden party (see below) to this fund, and we will be voting at our next meeting to add some of our savings to the woodland play area pot. We are also looking for grants for this project, so please let us know if you can help with this.

Our other ideas in terms of fundraising are to organise a silent online auction using the GalaBid app, and to organise a rainbow raffle in the Spring term. As ever we run on parent power, so if you can help organise any of these please get in touch!

If you would like to be part of the team of volunteers who is working on this project, and more generally on greening up the school and adding trees, plants, shade etc in a sustainable and easily maintained way, please get in touch and we will add you to our dedicated FROGS Garden Whatsapp group.

GARDEN PARTY

Thank you so much to the handful of parents who attended our Garden Party, and to our volunteer organisers who helped make this a lovely evening! We raised nearly £300 for our garden play area project, and we hope to organise another garden party in the Spring.

Cake SaleS

Well done to Year 6 who raised £198 towards their upcoming trip to the Globe Theatre!

The next cake sale is the Year 5 cake sale this Friday 13 October. They will be raising money for a IMAX session during their trip to the Science Museum in October.

JUMBLE SALE

Thank you to everyone who donated, helped and bought stuff at the Jumble Sale: we raised £1,756.30 (and €1)! An excellent result, with further money coming from the sale of leftover books and clothes. Here’s the breakdown for each stall:

Toys & games: £350.61
Books: £180.71
Designer corner: £178.60
Adult clothes: £230.40
Children and baby clothes: £170.68
Bric-à-brac: £341.20
Soup, cakes and toasties: £304.10

If anyone who helped at a stall can match-fund through their company, please let us know.

Our next Jumble Sale will be in March 2024.

BONFIRE NIGHT DISCO

Our next event is the Bonfire night disco on Friday 3 November. We are hiring a DJ for this so please support us by buying a ticket (£2) from our online shop. Tickets will also be on sale on the day. This year we will have a schooltime session for the early years, and then at 3.30 everyone (including the early years if they would like to boogie some more!) is welcome on to the dance floor.

We will be selling sweets, snacks, candy floss and drinks in the kitchen. There will also be a bonfire and marshmallows in the garden until 6pm for those kids who would rather play outdoors.

If you can help for this event, whether it is decorating the hall in the afternoon, or running the kitchen stall, please sign up here, thank you!

WINTER FAIR

We are also planning our Winter Fair on Friday 8 December and need a volunteer organiser or two to help manage the event. It’s very easy to run as each year group has its own stall, but we need someone to oversee it and help with the setting up from 1pm and tidying up at the end. It would be great to get a couple of parents from KS1 involved! All the posters, sign up sheet etc will be done by the FROGS committee, and the class reps are in charge of the stalls, so it’s really just about being there on the day. Please get in touch on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you can help with this.

The volunteer sign up sheet is ready here, so you can already put your name down for a slot at the fair, which is our second big fundraiser of the year! Year groups are welcome to suggest other stall ideas of course.

We’ve also had an early delivery from Santa’s elves, so if you can help by wrapping grotto presents after half-term please let us know. We need at least 5 volunteers and lots of wrapping paper!

Please look out for our next newsletter which will introduce our Tesco Stronger Start campaign and the launch of our seasonal shop with lots of Grasmere T-shirts and sweaters! Also coming up are our Christmas Card project, and Christmas trees order.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS

FROGS' Autumn Events

Hello,

Here are the minutes of our last meeting and the latest financials. We have agreed to spend just over £1,000 on buying new flipcharts for each of the school’s eight classrooms; we will be voting on further spends, including buying some induction hobs and pans for cooking classes, later in the year.

Our main project this year will be to raise money for a £30,000+ woodland play area in the garden to complement the garden classroom, more details to follow soon. If you would like to learn more about it please join us at the Garden Party this Friday!

YEAR 6 CAKE SALE, Friday 29 September, 3.30

Year 6 is organising the first cake sale of the year this Friday. They will be raising money for a trip to The Globe theatre, after which their class is named (plus, they are studying Macbeth this year)!

You will be able to buy cakes using cash, bank card or stamp cards if you have any left. Everyone can take part: for children who need them, there will be free stamp cards available from the office.

GARDEN PARTY, Friday 29 September, 6-8pm

Please join us this Friday at the FROGS Garden Party! Drinks, soft drinks and nibbles will be served, and it’s a great opportunity to meet other Grasmere parents. We will be fundraising to cover the costs of the party, and for our big project of the year, a new Woodland Play Area for the garden. There will be some information on the project on display; our target is to raise over £30,000 for this amazing project this year. We will also be selling T-shirts, tote bags and stamp cards which you can use at FROGS events throughout the year.

Jumble Sale

Our next big fundraiser is the Jumble Sale on Saturday 7 October. Please help if you can by running a stall for an hour on the day; there are still a few slots to fill and just 1 hour of your time would make a massive difference. Dads, don’t be shy – you too can help! Please use our sign up sheet.

If you are worried about childcare, one of our volunteers can look after the kids while you sort on the Friday afternoon; and children are welcome to ‘help’ with their adults on all the stalls (except the kitchen one for safety reasons).

Friday volunteers get first pick of the best bargains; Saturday volunteers get free hot drinks, treats and soup and bread if they want it.

This is a lovely community event that helps a lot of families and makes great money for the school (we’re hoping to raise over £1,500). Kids love it as they can find a 50p book or toy, and run around with their friends while adults help or find some lovely clothes for next to nothing.

Please also ask your friends and neighbours if they have any jumble to donate! Thank you.

FROGS’ SHARING Shelf

In the covered walkway you will find our main noticeboard with all the FROGS info and dates. Next to it is the Sharing Shelf. At the top is a space for adults, staff and carers to exchange books. In the middle are shelves for kids to swap books. (If the shelf is full, please keep your books for the Jumble sale!). There’s also more information taped to the side of the shelf.

The two bottom shelves are our Food Bank shelves, and they need replenishing! Please donate what you can (pasta, rice, tins, toiletries); there is a full list of suggested items on the shelves. And of course, please take anything that you might need for there (if you wait a few minutes in the KS1 playground at drop off there won’t be anyone in the walkway).

Also please save the dates: our Year 5 Cake sale will be on Friday 13 October, to raise money for an IMAX session at the Science museum; and our school disco will be on Friday 3 November.

Thank you and take care,

FROGS