Our Latest News
Winnie the Witch comes alive in Garsington
We were thrilled to welcome Korky Paul, illustrator of Winnie the Witch, to our school to help us launch Oxfordshire Art Week. With the help from Year 3, Korky created a grumpy Winnie the Witch flying on an unusual broomstick. This time it was a sunflower. Korky shared his books with the children and then led the big reveal of the children’s artwork linked to the Creation Story.
In our artistic interpretation of the beginning of the Old Testament, each class worked on a different day of the creation and every pupil created an individual tile to form part of their class mural. Their artwork can currently be seen in St Mary's Church for public viewing. We hope you get as much pleasure out of looking at our artwork as our pupils got from creating it.
14th May 2021
Year 5 have fun in the rain at Hill End
Year 5 visited the Hill End Outdoor Education Centre in Farmoor. The theme of the day was the Viking invasion and occupation of England in the 9th Century, exploring the conflict and war between the vicious Vikings and the Anglo Saxons. The children learned about Saxon farming, settlements and also about being a Viking warrior, their religion and how the Vikings attacked villages taking gold and silver.
Even though it was a rainy day, the children had a great time. Thank you to the staff and parent helpers who accompanied the children, we do hope you dried out quickly.
13th May 2021
Garsington's Got Talent
Click here to watch all the amazing entries to this year's competition. Well done to all our entrants and congratulations to our winners:
1st place: Milly with her very 'spot on' impersonations
2nd place: Yvie with her wonderful singing
Joint 3rd place: Chaniya with her very supple gymnastics and Hugo with his yummy baking
Thank you to Juli Frances Taylor for sharing her talent show poem with us: Georgia Gallant's Talent.
29th January 2021
Police Visit
Today Year 5 and 6 were visited by two police officers who spoke to them about safety and responsibility in the community. We had blue lights and the siren going off in our car park. It was very loud but the children enjoyed having a closer look at the police vehicle.
16th October 2020
PSHE and SRE Policy Consultation
We have updated our PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) and SRE (Sex and Relationships Education) policy and this is now out for consultation with our parents and stakeholders. The consultation ends on 30th November 2020. To review the proposed policy click here. If you have any feedback please email our headteacher Zara d'Archambaud at zdarchambaud@garsingtonprimary.org.
1st April 2020
Young Art Oxford Competition
11 of our children have been selected by the panel of judges and will display their art work in the Ashmolean Museum in May. The organisers receive over a thousand entries every year therefore we are very excited to be a part of this wonderful celebration of children’s art in Oxfordshire.
Thank you to all the children in our school who entered. You showed enthusiasm towards the task and I was overwhelmed by your creativity when I looked through your entries before delivering them to the organiser of the competition said Lucy Flannery, our Art Subject Leader.
13th March 2020
Our School continues to be rated GOOD
We are delighted that Ofsted have judged our school as Good in a recent inspection as was reported in The Oxford Mail. You can read our Ofsted report here.
7th March 2020
Children's Mental Health Week
This week has been Children’s Mental Health week when we have been ‘finding our brave’ and understanding how we may be feeling on the inside and how we can all work towards positive mental health. We now have wellbeing ambassadors for classes and these children will help to promote the 5 ways to wellbeing and mental health for all our children.
Mindfulness in Schools Project (MISP) Group Sit
As part of their mindfulness practice, Year 6 took part in the MiSP mindfulness group sit for schools around the world at 12pm on Wednesday.
Inside Out Day
On Thursday everyone wore something inside out to stop and think about how others are feeling on the inside.
Visible Ink
Sarah Powell, a local author came in talk to the children about Visible Ink, her second book. It is about a boy who is being bullied and discovers a magic pen that writes the truth; the words that the boy finds hard to articulate. It's about finding your inner voice and being true to yourself.
Day 3 at Yenworthy
Today they all headed to Putsborough to go surfing. It's a strange time of year: the sea temperature is actually warmer than that of the air. Conditions were ideal for having fun, but not the easiest for learning to stand on a surfboard. Nevertheless, Mason, Vaughn and Jazmine in particular proved to be experts. Wipeouts were to be expected.
9th October 2019
Day 2 at Yenworthy
They had a very busy day today, in weather ranging from glorious sunshine to torrential downpours. First activity of the day was outdoor business, in which children completed a number of team tasks, with varying degrees of mental and physical challenge, in order to earn Yenworthy pounds, which could then be invested in the next activity. Everyone had the chance to go on the zip wire and some people discovered they could overcome their fears and even have a great time. Other activities included spaghetti tangle, tyre triangle and blow the whistle. After lunch they walked down the very steep Glenthorne Valley for a stream scramble: walking upstream and climbing up waterfalls. Here it was evident that the teamwork skills they had been working on needed to be applied if they were going to succeed. They finished with an evening of orienteering before winding down with hot chocolate before bedtime. Somehow I don't think anyone will have trouble sleeping tonight!
8th October 2019
Year 6 start having fun in Yenworthy
After settling into their rooms and getting their kit, they split into groups for the low ropes course. There had been some changes made over the summer, so they were some of the first people to try out the new obstacles. Good teamwork was essential. After their evening meal, they headed back out onto Exmoor as the sun was setting. They lay in the heather next to standing stones from 3000 years ago, listening to the wind rustling through the heather - magical!
7th October 2019
Awarded Primary Science Quality Mark
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded the prestigious Primary School Quality Mark to celebrate our commitment to excellence in science teaching and learning. The Primary School Quality Mark programme ensures effective leadership of science, enables schools to work together to share good practice and is supported by professional development led by local experts. It encourages teacher autonomy and innovation while at the same time offering a clear framework for development in science subject leadership, teaching and learning.
Many congratulations to you all on the achievement of the Primary Science Quality Mark. You have clearly raised the profile of science this year and as you continue to embed and develop good practice, it will continue to go from strength to strength. Well done! Reviewer's feedback
12th September 2019
Health and Safety Week
We all really enjoyed our Health and Safety week this week with a packed timetable of visitors and events including Be Space , water safety, dog safety, bikeability, Race of Life, karate, mental health and healthy eating.
19th July 2019
Arts Week
We all really enjoyed our Arts week last week. Mrs Launchbury launched the week with a story with the message ‘everyone is an artist.’ The artwork that the children produced during the week certainly proved this. Mrs Bruce also organised a range of musical events this week including Travelling by Tuba. Thank you to the PTA for funding this amazing experience.
2nd July 2019
School Games Silver Mark Award
We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the School Games Silver Mark Award for the 2018/19 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.
1st July 2019
Great Science Share
We were delighted with the children's enthusiasm to share their science at our Great Science Share today as well as their interest in the science explained by other children and our visitors. The quality of their explanations and the questions that were asked of others showed excellent science thinking. There was a real buzz in the hall. A particular thanks go to James Sandy (Emily's dad) and Simon Evans (Bethany's dad) who gave up time from their own work to explain their science to children, provide some excellent hands-on activities and answer lots of questions.
18th June 2019
Strictly Junior Dancing
Congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 4 children who took part in the Strictly Junior Dance Competition on Saturday. They came an amazing 3rd place!! Well done to the children, Miss Wells and Mrs Theobalds for putting on a fantastic display and working so hard practicing. Thank you to Mrs Baillie for her help with the costumes and to all the parents and carers for your support. Here’s to the next round!!
20th May 2019
Staff Appreciation Day 7th May
We extended Teacher Appreciation Day for all staff in the school. Staff were treated to a yummy breakfast provided by the Governors and were awarded certificates with comments from pupils on how awesome we all our. Thank you for the yummy breakfast and all our lovely comments. We feel very much appreciated!!
10th May 2019
Aspirations Week Year 5/6
This week pupils in years 5 and 6 have been inspired to think about their future careers, hobbies and aspirations. They have also been encouraged to think about how they can be valuable and responsible members of society and motivate themselves to think about their learning behaviours and how to apply them across the whole curriculum.
During the week:
Pupils completed a questionnaire about their aspirations
Speakers have come and talked to the children about their jobs and skills and attitudes that they need to have
Wheatley Park pupils came and talked about the importance of growth mindsets at primary school and how it has helped them at secondary school
Thank you to all our parents and Wheatley Park pupils and staff who gave up their time to inspire our future generation.
25th January 2019