Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a busy end to the term with our Easter Service as well as the annual egg rolling and decorating competition. As I am sure you will agree, the children were brilliant at our Easter service and demonstrated a strong understanding of the message behind Easter and its vital importance in the liturgical calendar. 

Also this week, the teachers enjoyed a very engaging training session focussing on using a wide range of intuitive software and hardware to support the delivery of our Computing curriculum. The staff were also shown the endless and transformational opportunities AI provides to support teaching and learning. In line with our E-Safety policy, as a Google school, Gemini is the schools approved AI platform and please be assured only staff have access to this.

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for Open Afternoon yesterday. There is always a lovely buzz around the school when parents come in to share some learning with their child.

During the first week back, you will receive a copy of your child(ren)'s class curriculum overview. There are lots more exciting learning opportunities to come and I cannot quite believe we will be starting the Summer term already!

As a polite reminder, please ensure your child has the correct uniform when we return to school. Trainers are permitted but they must please be plain black (including the soles) and be leather/not fabric. Socks should also be plain grey, white or black. The children are allowed to choose to wear a school fleece, jumper or cardigan. Thank you for your support with this.

Have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday 14th April.  

With best wishes,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

Matthew 28:5-7 - But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” 

🗓️Things happening in the first week back:

• Monday - INSET day (School closed for all pupils)

• Tuesday - Start of Summer 1

• Thursday- Key Stage 2 out in the afternoon (Swimming & Gymnastics)

• Friday- Parent Cafe at the Church

📩Communication sent out this week:

• KS2 Gymnastics & Swimming

All of our letters sent out are also on our website here.

Whole school attendance this week: 97%

Overall attendance so far this year: 94.6%

Well done to Year 1&2 for the highest attendance this week with 98%

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

We politely ask that if you plan to take your child out during school time, a leave of absence form is completed. For appointments, we ask where possible that these are not during the school day. If this is not avoidable, please kindly share the relevant information for this appointment in order for us to be able to authorise this.

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 

Darkness into Light - Ephesians 1v7

"When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price to make us free. Because of Christs death on our behalf, God has forgiven our sins"

On Wednesday afternoon, we had our Easter Service at St John's Church. The service began with Year 6 retelling the Easter Story.

This was followed by Year 1&2 who shared some beautiful Spring poems, Year 3&4 reflected on the Stations of the Cross and Year 5 shared some very thoughtful prayers.

As always, there was some beautiful singing with this years new songs 'Risen for Me' and 'New Life has Begun'. I would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Woodward for accompanying the children and giving her time so generously. Also to Mrs Tisbury who always brings lots of visuals and engagement to acts of worship.

On Thursday, in true Great Gaddesden style, we enjoyed the annual 'Egg Rolling' and decorating competition. Well done to the winners and all of the children (and staff) for taking part and making these events so fun for the children! A big thank you to FOGGS for providing the delicious prizes.

EYFS and Year 1 and 2 had their forest school session together last week.  The children enjoyed using kitchen tools to peel, chop and grate vegetables to feed the guinea pigs as well as spending time in the mud kitchen, building dens and digging.  We all had hot cross buns cooked on the campfire! 

Summer 1 Forest School Dates:

• 15th April Year 1/2 

• 30th April Year 5/6 

• 5th May EYFS

• 19th May Year 3/4

Each session will take place in the afternoon.

Please see below the Summer Menu from our catering provider. 

We will be Week 1 (Tuesday) for the first week back. 

This week we hear from Year 5&6

We began this busy half term celebrating the beginning of Lent with the making of pancakes and it has been lovely to be able to enjoy the recent sunshine as we come to the end of term and it was apt to finish with one of the great Great Gaddesden traditions - Egg Rolling! 

During our RE lessons, we have been considering the importance of the Eucharist for Christians and we are very thankful for the time Mrs Tisbury gave us to explain the symbolism used when you are given the bread and wine. 

In Geography, we have been learning about and debating the pros and cons of different energy sources, including renewables. We will be taking this further by investigating the impact of food miles. 

We have really enjoyed exploring the traditional Grimm Fairy Tales this term (as told by Philip Pullman)The children have been inspired by some of these truly gruesome tales to write their own fairy stories.

In guided reading we are also  looking at Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pullman. So far we have read and analysed three stories. This week the children were focussing on the difference between retrieval and inference and worked in groups to answer some questions about the tale Big Brother and Little Sister.

In computing we have been looking at spreadsheets. We used a dice to play a game in groups and collected the data in a table. We then transferred this data onto a spreadsheet. We used a formula to help us populate the cells and help us with our final calculations.

In science we have been looking at Animals including Humans. We have explored the human timeline and all the seven stages that make up a human lifetime. We looked at the infancy stage and discussed and recorded all the milestones and changes that happen during birth to three years old. The children then designed an educational toy based on what may best support an infant to learn and grow during this stage. They were very colourful!

We also had a wonderful time during science week dissecting lamb hearts. The children asked lots of questions and did a fantastic job!

Awards we are working towards

House Points

Well done to Oak house who won the house point cup this term! They enjoyed their reward of an extra playtime today!