Grace Dieu 'Get Set' for Paralymics

Grace Dieu pupils were delighted to welcome pupils from Woodlands, a Special School in Coleshill, for a day of sport as part of their involvement in the ‘Get Set’ programme leading up to The Olympics.

They played wheelchair sports such as Boccia (a target ball sport similar to petanque and bowls) and Curling, as well as Goalball (played by visually impaired athletes using a ball with bells inside).

The visit gave the Woodlands children a chance to demonstrate their brilliant skills at the games they play. Both schools enjoyed the challenge and the pupils had great fun together.

Charles Foulds, Grace Dieu Headmaster, commented, “This was a very special occasion for us and our children learned so much from the Woodlands pupils in terms of skill, courage and sense of fun. We hope they will return soon.”

Mrs. Diane McCullough, PE Coordinator at Woodlands added, “Our children all have various special needs and we have been made very welcome here at Grace Dieu; it has been a great day, one that we will remember for a long time to come.”

Grace Dieu Singers Help Rainbows

The Chapel Choir from the Grace Dieu Manor School enjoyed taking part in the Rainbows Christmas Carol Concert at Emmanuel Church in Loughborough. Charles Foulds, Headmaster, commented; “It was a fantastic opportunity and privilege for us to be part of a fundraising effort for such a special cause. It was a wonderful evening for everyone.”

Grace Dieu Pupils meet Leicester Tigers at their Home Ground

Grace Dieu Pupils saw the Leicester Tigers have an exciting victory against Northampton Saints at the Welford Road Ground.

Grace Dieu Remembers

Children parents and staff gathered at Grace Dieu Manor School to listen to an address by the School Chaplain, Father Denis and readings by the children on Friday morning at 11 am.

Bugler, Mr Reeves (a past parent of the school) played the traditional ‘Last Post’ as the flag was lowered to honour those who lost their lives fighting for the freedom we enjoy today.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds commented: “It is our tradition to gather the whole school together and collectively pray for and remember the brave men and women who have lost their lives in conflicts around the world.  We feel that it is so important that the children of today are gently reminded of the sacrifices made by generations before them and the pupils always catch the mood of the occasion.”

Grace Dieu Pupils Deliver Harvest Goods to Local Charities

Grace Dieu Manor School Council helped with delivering food parcels to charities after a collection of gifts from their School Harvest Mass.

Sam Riley and Maddison Tildesley helped with donating parcels to The Marlene Reid Centre in Coalville and The Carpenter's Arms in Loughborough who were both delighted with the generous donations from parents and children of the school.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds remarked; "The School Council do a fantastic job and are busy all year working to help those less fortunate than themselves."

Euro MP visits Grace Dieu!

Grace Dieu pupils invited Roger Helmer MEP to join their celebrations of the European Day of Languages last week and extended a very warm welcome to him.

Mr Helmer, the MEP for the East Midlands, relished judging the inter-class European costume competition and showed great diplomacy and tact in his final decisions!

Each class fully immersed themselves in the spirit of the day and clearly enjoyed dressing up in the traditional costume of their chosen country. There were bullfighters, and bagpipes, Dutch girls and Vikings and many more. In the end, Spain was declared the winning entry. An inter-house quiz also sought to find out the depth of European knowledge between the teams and tested sporting, cultural and geographical knowledge, and even offered a blind food sampling challenge. Great fun and laughter ensued and De Lisle House were declared the eventual winners.

Not to be left out, the Pre-Preparatory department also dressed up and enjoyed a fun morning of continental food and language.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented, “Mr Helmer’s willingness to join in, and be part of  our celebrations, with such verve and evident enjoyment truly underlined to our pupils how important our links with Europe are and how relevant our French and German studies are here at Grace Dieu.”

Grace Dieu Boys Win County Cup Final

Grace Dieu 1^st XI have had an outstanding season and have proved to be one of the best all-round teams at Grace Dieu for many years. They won the Leicestershire Under 13 County Cup Final, within 2 hours of returning from a cricket tour of Jersey!

A brilliant team performance saw Grace Dieu comfortably defeat Lancaster School (Leicester) by 45 runs. A highlight of the final was a superb innings of 96 not out from Harry Smart, with fine support from Jack Rowley (43). This latest victory makes Grace Dieu County Champions for the second year running.

Mr Matthews, Director of Sport, commented, “This is an amazing achievement and very well deserved. In total, 9 half-centuries were scored by the members of the 1^st XI in a season that will be long remembered.”

Grace Dieu Parents bowled over by Aggers

BBC cricket star, Jonathan Agnew, was Guest of Honour at the annual Grace Dieu Manor School Prize Day. More than 1000 pupils, parents and guests came together to celebrate awards for academic achievement, music, sport and overall contribution to school life.

Head Girl, Amelia Lallo, who is moving on to Ratcliffe College in September with an All Rounder Scholarship Award, opened the event and Headmaster, Charles Foulds and Father Brian Cuddihy (Chairman of Governors) each addressed the guests before Jonathan Agnew took to the stage to present the awards and trophies to the children.

Jonathan is well known for his easy way of connecting with his audience and in his speech, he talked with warmth and enthusiasm for his love of cricket and the great characters from the cricketing world. He talked about the importance of sport and how it inspires and teaches people the importance of working as a team.

The formal part of prize day was closed by a Vote of Thanks by Head Boy, Jack Rowley (entering Loughborough Grammar School in September).  Mass in the school chapel was celebrated by School Chaplain,  Fr Labartette, assisted by Father Cuddihy, Father Tobin and Fr Giles. The afternoon entertainment was complete after listening to a ‘Summer Serenade’ of music, singing and poetry performed and presented by the pupils of the school.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented, “Our Prize Day each year is always a vital celebration of the pupils; not just a celebration of what they do and achieve, but also of who and what they are. It is also a special opportunity to celebrate our close community of children, parents and staff.”

Grace Dieu Scholars

It has been another wonderful year of high achievement at Grace Dieu Manor School. Five talented Year 8 pupils have been granted special scholarships and awards to their chosen senior schools.

Grace Dieu Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented, “I am delighted that we are once more celebrating the success of Year 8 pupils who are leaving us with senior school awards. They have all worked very hard and richly deserve their outstanding success.

In the last two years alone, we have seen 10 of our Year 8 pupils move on with prestigious awards in their particular field of excellence to schools such Loughborough High and Grammar Schools, Ratcliffe College and Repton, and this is a great tribute to both pupils and staff alike. We are, of course, extremely proud of them all.”

Pictured left to right: Edward-Joseph Cefai, Amelia Lallo, Joshua Riley, Harry Forte and Georgia Langford.

Grace Dieu Boys Play at National Level

Four Grace Dieu pupils have been selected to represent the Midlands U13 squad in the ISFA (Independent Schools Football Association) tournament. Harry Rowley, Joshua Riley Patrick Conway, and Jack Rowley  (Pictured) have been specially selected by the association and look forward with great anticipation  to the tournament ahead.

Mr. Foulds, Headmaster of Grace Dieu Manor School commented, “To have four of our Year 8 pupils selected to play in a National Tournament is a huge honour for them and the school”.

Grace Dieu Boys Make National Finals!

Grace Dieu Manor School’s U13’s 6-a-side football squad made their debut in the Independent Schools Football Association’s  (ISFA) Junior tournament this year.

The boys did fantastically well in the regional competition, finishing a very respectable second against talented competition. 

This qualified the Grace Dieu squad for the National Finals held at Culford School in Suffolk - a fantastic achievement for all concerned!

Left to right are: Charlie Ryans, Harry Rowley, Jack Rowley, Myles Doran, Mr. McCullough, Charlie Scottorn, Joshua Riley, Jimmy Fuller, Patrick Conway

Gifted Visitors at Grace Dieu

Young children from around the county recently enjoyed a mathematicians’ ‘Gifted and Talented’ morning at Grace Dieu Manor School.

Talented mathematicians from Sacred Heart and St Mary’s RC Primary Schools in Loughborough and St Clare’s RC Primary School in Coalville joined Year 5 and 6 children at Grace Dieu for a morning of exciting mathematical quizzes and investigations.

The event, organised by Head of Maths, Mrs Claire Maher, was a real hit with the pupils. Headmaster, Charles Foulds commented, “It is so important to recognise exceptional talent and potential in pupils and allow them to shine. At Grace Dieu, our gifted and talented days are all about making learning fun. It was wonderful to see the children relishing the challenges they were set, making new friends and enjoying themselves.”

Grace Dieu Pupils work Hard and Play Hard

Mathematics Workshop

Grace Dieu pupils enjoyed a day of activities to mark their half term. Years 7 and 8 spent the morning with Barbara Rundle from the Maths Education Centre at Loughborough University and relished a challenging mathematics workshop.

Children were asked to consider the construction of 3 dimensional shape and form and were tasked with the job of calculating how to transform a one dimensional paper pattern in to a 3 dimensional chocolate box.

Charity Walk
The afternoon was blessed with sunshine and the whole school joined together in a sponsored walk around the beautiful grounds. The event was organised by the School Council to raise money for three chosen charities: Depaul UK, Cancer Research and the Sarcoma Trust. It is estimated that the children will raise approximately £650 from the event.

Grace Dieu Strides out for Sports Relief

Grace Dieu Scholarships!

It has been another fantastic year of high achievement at Grace Dieu Manor School. Five talented Year 8 pupils (pictured below) have been granted special awards to their chosen senior schools, for ICT, Sport and Music

Grace Dieu Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented, “I am delighted that we are once more celebrating the success of Year 8 pupils who are leaving us with senior school awards. Marcus, Hannah, Alexander, Lauren and Marina have all worked very hard and richly deserve their outstanding success. In the last three years alone, we have seen 13 of our Year 8 pupils move on with prestigious awards in their particular field of excellence, and this is a great tribute to both pupils and staff alike. We are, of course, extremely proud of them all.”

Pictured left to right: Alexander Jasper (Music Scholarship to Loughborough Grammar School), Lauren Potter (Sports Award to Repton School), Marina Slee (Music Scholarship to Loughborough High School), Hannah Cork-Keeling (ICT Award to Repton School) and Marcus Cork-Keeling (Choral Award to Repton School).

Early Years Literacy Evening at Grace Dieu

An evening to promote Early Years Reading was held at Grace Dieu Manor School in Leicestershire. The evening was led by Nicola Speight, one of a small number of Early Years Professionals operating in the area, and also a Reception teacher at Grace Dieu Manor School.

The evening was all about raising standards and how this could more easily be achieved by working in partnership with parents and carers.  Through an interactive presentation, fun activities and displays of resources Nicola, and her team, demonstrated to parents how they could become actively involved in supporting their children with reading in a variety of ways and in many different settings: reading labels and signs in supermarkets, road signs whilst travelling, as well as in more traditional settings such as libraries and in the home. The emphasis was to make reading fun and exciting for children which will, in turn, give young children a firm foundation to build on when learning to write. 

One parent commented “It was just brilliant! It was informative and gave a great insight into how the teaching staff used various methods to encourage children to use sounds, and how to link these up. It was delivered well and the balance was just right, really enjoyable”.

The evening was funded by Leicestershire County Council as part of the drive to promote Early Years Professional Status within an educational setting. Nicola Speight was particularly pleased with the response to the evening and commented; “It was great to see such a show of parental support at the school and from the feedback we have had, I am sure that we will be planning more sessions in the future!”

Grace Dieu County Cricket Success

Grace Dieu boys recently scooped a trio of awards at the County Football and Cricket Celebration Event hosted by Roger Wilson, Chairman of Leicestershire County Council, at County Hall.

Charlie Scottorn and Charlie Livesey from Grace Dieu Manor School received three winners’ trophies on behalf of the team. They took home the Leicestershire 6 –a-side Under 11 County Champions trophy, the Leicestershire 8 –a-side Under 11 County Champions trophy  and the East Midlands Regional 8 –a-side Under 11 winner’s trophy.

The boys, after beating the Nottinghamshire Champions in the East Midlands final, went on to represent East Midlands in the National finals. After winning the first two games, they narrowly lost in the semi-final, but it was still a great achievement to reach the last 4 teams in a National Competition.

Grace Dieu Headmaster, Charles Foulds was delighted: “This is a tremendous achievement for our boys and the staff; their hard work and determination has paid off and it is fantastic to see them winning three, prestigious county trophies.”

Grace Dieu Celebrates New Development

Former Grace Dieu pupil, Right Reverend John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, kindly visited Grace Dieu Manor School on Monday 28^th September 2009 to bless and formally open the Gentili Centre, the school’s brand new teaching block for its 3 – 7 year olds.

Bishop John recalled fond memories of his own experiences at the school and was evidently delighted to be back at Grace Dieu, and to be so closely involved in such a landmark event in the school’s history. He commented in his address on Grace Dieu being “a place of welcome, beauty, education and happy learning, just as it was 40 years ago”.

The invited guests at the event included representatives from all those who had helped in any way to support this exciting project: school governors, the construction company, the school architects and many other friends of Grace Dieu.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented, “It is a very exciting time to be leading Grace Dieu, and this latest phase of development has been built on the firm foundations of recent inspections where the school’s provision has been found to be outstanding. The children here deserve nothing less than the best in all areas of their school experience.”

The real stars of the show were, of course, the children who listened intently to Bishop John’s address and enjoyed being very much at the heart of this important event at their school. A celebratory street party was a fitting way to end the day for the 3 – 7 year olds!

Grace Dieu Building for the Future

Headmaster, Charles Foulds, was delighted to be handed the keys to the recently completed Pre-Preparatory building by John Maycock of Pure Construction and  Gary Barber of Benchmark Property Ltd. This provides from September a brand new teaching block for 3 – 7 year olds at Grace Dieu Manor School. The short but significant ceremony marks the completion of the first phase of a major building programme and investment by the school.

Charles Foulds explained; “This day marks another milestone in the school’s history. We have, for some time, wanted to make improvements to some of our classrooms and the opening of this new building certainly achieves that!  This purpose-built department for our youngest pupils will ensure that all our teaching needs are met within a stunningly impressive environment for learning and play.

When we began our project, we were very conscious of the fact that Leicestershire had a wealth of talent, knowledge and resources and we were keen to ensure that, wherever possible, we used local suppliers and trades people. We were very keen to spend our money within the local economy, thereby providing a sales boost for businesses in Leicestershire.

Grace Dieu Pupils Bowled Over by Local Heroes

Derbyshire County Cricket Club took all their playing staff to Grace Dieu Manor School for a training day last week. For two pupils at the school, Harry Fortey and Charlie Livesey, it was particularly special as they have just been selected to represent Derbyshire at junior level. They had chance to watch the professionals in training and meet their hero Graham Wagg.

Derbyshire Head of Cricket, John Morris said, “We were looking to give our players a change of environment to train in as we build up to the start of the new season and the facilities at Grace Dieu are excellent. We also like to encourage our young players coming into the sport.”

Charles Foulds added, “We are delighted that a professional Cricket Club contacted us to use our sporting facilities and we wish Derbyshire the very best of luck for the new season.”

Grace Dieu’s Gifted and Talented

On Wednesday 29^th October Grace Dieu held a ‘Gifted and Talented’ mathematician’s morning.

Thirty four enthusiastic boys and girls from years 3 to 8 spent the morning enjoying various mathematical investigations, playing strategy games and thinking about the use of numbers in everyday life.

Years 3 and year 4 calculated the area covered by leaves from different trees and then went on to estimate the age of a tree using the formula of measuring the circumference of the trunk in cm, multiplying by 4 and dividing by 10. There are some very old trees at Grace Dieu, one oak tree allegedly mentioned in The Doomsday Book!

The year 5-8 students considered relationships between numbers and calculations in a 100 square. Children from year 5 were able to explain their findings in words and year 8 also managed to prove them algebraically. All the pupils and staff really enjoyed the morning and are looking forward to the next event!

Grace Dieu celebrates famous Author!

Children and staff from Grace Dieu Manor School have once again been having great fun, participating in the Roald Dahl Day which is celebrated worldwide. 

It was a fantastic opportunity to read once more those favorite Roald Dahl stories and to perhaps enjoy for the first time the works of the famous children’s Storyteller.

The children were invited to dress up as their favourite Roald Dahl character or wear yellow (Roald’s favourite colour!).  They were encouraged to bring in a chocolate treat for a friend and to play a (harmless) silly prank on someone. The activities included writing Revolting Rhymes, performing Ooompah Loompah dances and taking part in the “Great Roald Dahl Quiz”. As a reward for taking part in these fun challenges, all the children received a certificate.

Headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented: “As in previous years the parents and children made a huge effort to bring these great characters to life and it was wonderful to have the school suddenly full of little witches, crocodiles, fantastic foxes and Twits!”

Grace Dieu outstanding in every way…

Ofsted inspectors paid a surprise visit to Grace Dieu Manor School nursery department in June while children were busy rehearsing for their Prize Day celebrations. After a morning in school, the inspectors judged the quality and standards of the nursery education to be ‘outstanding’, and there were ‘no recommendations for improvement because of the outstanding quality and standards’ in evidence.

The inspectors commented specifically upon the quality of  teaching and learning, the partnership between parents and carers, leadership and management all of which were judged to be ‘outstanding’.

The school as a whole offers a wonderful educational experience for children from 3 - 13 years of age and is conveniently located off the A 512 between Loughborough and Ashby.

The nursery department itself is located in the extensive and beautiful Grounds of Grace Dieu Manor School. The children are surrounded by nature, and have easy access to woodland and streams. This stunning environment provides ample opportunity for outdoor learning experiences for the young children. 
The Ofsted inspectors were also very impressed with ‘the high levels of teaching skills’ demonstrated and noted that a balanced programme of activities was planned to cover all areas of learning.
The high quality of pastoral care at Grace Dieu encourages children to be very aware of the effect of their behaviour on others and teaches them to take responsibility for their own actions. The inspectors noticed that the children responded ‘very positively to the high expectations for behaviour’ and that the children were ‘kind and helpful’ to each other. ‘Children in all groups are very sociable and play happily together during activities’, commented the inspectors.
Grace Dieu headmaster, Charles Foulds, commented that ‘although the timing of the Ofsted visit provided an interesting challenge for us as we were already busily engaged in preparations for the arrival of the Prime Minister of Gibraltar – our Guest of Honour at Prize Day - we are absolutely delighted with the findings of Ofsted. We are not altogether surprised, however, for this judgment replicates not only the assessment made by Ofsted last time they were with us, but also mirrors precisely the comments made by the Independent Schools Inspectorate last October, when five inspectors spent a week at Grace Dieu. The staff in the Nursery and Pre-Preparatory Department, led by Mrs Anne Jenks, provide amazing care for the children, and this inspection simply confirms this’.

Grace Dieu Sports Day

The weather held this year and all the children enjoyed a fantastic day of sport.