Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been a very cold week here at Great Gaddesden and the children were very excited to see the first flakes of snow this year.  It is really important the children come into school every day with a coat and we would recommend hats and gloves when it is very cold. Please ensure these are named as it is very easy for gloves in particular to get mixed up!

On Tuesday, we welcomed two of our governors Mrs Sarah Pugh (Chair of Governors) and Mr Ken Burgess (Vice Chair) who spent the morning in school. Effective governance is a key role in strategic development and as well as working closely with myself and meeting regularly, the governors come in to visit and explore different parts of school life. For this visit, they explored the Maths curriculum and also spoke to pupils about their experiences of school. They were impressed with the quality of work, how assessment is used and the pupils confidence in talking about their learning. After Christmas, we are planning to hold a Maths worshop for parents to attend which will be led by our Upper School Senior Teacher/Maths Lead, Mrs Lilley. More details including dates and times will be shared before the end of term.

In other news, FOGGS have kindly been in contact with the local Garden Centre who are going to generously donate a Christmas tree for us again this year. Next week, every child will decorate a wooden star decoration ready for the start of Advent the following week. On Monday 1st December, we will have our annual tree dressing assembly and it was very much a highlight last year seeing every child put a decoration on the tree. It is moments like this that make our small school so special and create a strong sense of belonging. 

Today was Miss Holling's last day before her maternity leave starts next week. We wish her and the family the best of luck and every blessing. I am pleased to share that following a successful round of recruitment,  Ms Baltera will be joining us soon to cover Mrs Hollings' role.  Ms Baltera has experience as a member of support staff within a Church school and is very excited to be joining the team.

Have a good weekend.

With best wishes,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

Whole school attendance this week: 94.5%

Overall attendance so far this year: 95%

Every day counts! All classes begin learning activities as soon as the children arrive at 8:40am. 

All absences must be reported to the school either by leaving an absence message (Option 1) or emailing Mrs Redman (Pastoral Support/Attendance Lead) via absence@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

Please note: in line with the statutory guidance from the Department for Education which is reflected in our attendance policy, we are unable to authorise term time holiday.

Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance 

Thank you for your support and understanding.

In Early Years, the children have been thoroughly engaged in our topic 'People Who Help Us' and this week we were lucky enough to have a vet to come and visit us! 

She explained what she did and how she treated the animals and showed us some of the instruments she used. This enabled the children to really get into role in our Vets Practise role play and use some fantastic vocabulary.

The children used their recently learnt DT skills of ‘tab joins’ to create the bars on their pet carriers to take their pets to the vet. They also drew and wrote about their pets or imaginary ones and made sure different pets had the correct amounts of food and medicine. In our Drawing Club sessions the children came up with the oddest pet they could imagine - there were long stripey necks with beaks and furry bodies with wings!

Donations Needed!

It’s that time of year again! We’re preparing for our annual Christmas Raffle and would love your support.

📅 Donation Day:

Please bring any donations to school on *Friday 28th November* at *drop-off or pick-up.*

🎁 We’re looking for:

• Biscuits

• ⁠Cakes

• ⁠Chocolates

• ⁠Sweets

• ⁠Festive savoury snacks

• ⁠Bottles of alcohol

• ⁠Nice bottles of non-alcoholic drinks

• ⁠Any tasty treats you love to enjoy over the festive season!

💝 Prize Donations:

If you’re a business owner - or know someone who is - we’d be so grateful for prize donations such as:

• Gift vouchers

• ⁠Day out vouchers

• ⁠Spa treats

• ⁠Hampers or other special goodies

🎁 Baskets/boxes/Xmas gift bag donations also very welcome

All donations will go towards creating wonderful raffle prizes to help raise funds for our children

Thank you for your generosity and continued support!

From the FOGGS Team

Awards we are working towards

House Points

Playground Supervision

As a polite reminder, when the children are dismissed to a parent/carer at the end of the day, the children are under the supervision and responsibility of parents/carers from this point.

If you choose to allow your child to use the climbing apparatus or bark area, please ensure this is safely supervised by a parent/carer.

The gates are closed by 3:25pm each day.

Thank you for your support with this.

Photos 

Following on from last weeks's newsletter regarding sharing photos on Whatsapp Groups, we would like to provide some further clarity on this decision:

• WhatsApp is an online platform and when images are posted online, particularly in a group forum, can be easily shared, forwarded or reshared without knowledge or control. 

• Every parent has the right to not have their child's photo shared. We have children in our school where parents have not consented to their photos being shared.

• Photos taken by the school are on school devices and are checked before being posted online that only children where we have consent for their photo to be shared is posted.

• We provide alot of notice for parents in regards to school events with the hope that one parent/carer or relative may be able to attend. However, we recognise this is not always possible and our advice would be for parents to nominate someone to take a photo to be sent directly to you.  In addition, the school's social media pages and newsletter provide photos and insight into events also for all parents reference.

Any questions or concerns, please reach out to Mr Beach directly.  

Rotary Shoebox Appeal

It is that time of year, when the Rotary Shoebox Appeal is launched.

This appeal collects presents to bring a bit of happiness to seriously deprived children in orphanages in Romania and Moldova.

• Late November: Rotary drop off empty shoe boxes at schools.

• End of Term: Rotary collects shoeboxes from schools, which are then sent onto Romania and Moldova.

**Shoe boxes have arrived. These can be collected from the school office**

Thank you for your support.