Diwali is a very important festival for many of the families in our school and last week it was joyously celebrated at Ranelagh. The children learnt all about the importance of the Hindu Festival of Lights from a very special visitor, Ms Pramida, from The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), who joined our Friday assembly explaining the meaning and significance of Diwali.

Members of our PTA also attended the assembly, dressed in sarees and cultural clothing, and offered silent reflection by lighting diva lamps and performing puja.

Every year, in the Summer term, Ranelagh loves to get involved in the Newham Carnival. An annual event, the carnival takes place in a different location each year across Newham, with over 50,000 people in attendance. Last year was no different, as Central Park played host over the weekend of July 8^th-9^th.

Hundreds of school children, community groups and residents took to the streets to celebrate this year’s theme, ‘A World of Carnivals,’ rejoicing in Newham’s diversity and drawing inspiration from other globally renowned carnivals.

Ranelagh, a beautiful, Victorian school building steeped in rich history and tradition, is getting an exciting new look! One of the many amazing things happening here in our school is our new build programme, which promises to transform and invigorate our site.

Ranelagh is rapidly growing in popularity as a first-choice school. No doubt part of this has been due to our exciting renovations, one of which is to increase the capacity for more children.

As another year starts anew, Ranelagh chooses its new school leaders. Children in Key Stage Two, eager to be given even more responsibility, wrote letters to our Year 6 leader, Ms Selsby, explaining why they would make remarkable House Captains or Prefects. The children's letters demonstrated their adept ability to persuade and Ms. Selsby had the difficult task of whittling the letters down to a specially selected chosen few. Mrs. Lawrenson announced the new House Captains and Prefects in our special Friday assembly and each child was awarded with their very own, gold-encrusted badge. Mrs. Lawrenson explained the vital role that these children would have in our school over the coming year.

As of 1 September our three MAT founding schools – Curwen, Ranelagh and Kensington – are officially academies. We’re looking forward to welcoming pupils and their families back this week and starting the next stage of our educational journey together.

On Wednesday July 5^th the roof was raised to the sound of joyous song as the whole school joined together to celebrate the end of yet another successful year at Ranelagh.

The concert began with Year 5 belting out a wonderful rendition of ELO's 1977 smash hit 'Mr Blue Sky,' followed by Year 1 singing 'Waving Flag' by K'naan. Year 4, voices trained and ready for their upcoming Festival of Voices performance, sang 'One Love' by Bob Marley and Reception dedicated their song, 'Wonder' by Emile Sande, to Year 6.