Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been a very busy week at Great Gaddesden! 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were visited by Ofsted. As you may be aware, from November 2025, a new framework was released which is very different to the last one. Please click here to find out about the new framework and the report card style report that will follow. I was very proud of the children and staff and the opportunity to share the work we do at Great Gaddesden as well as our journey of improvement. We look forward to sharing the outcome with you when we receive the final report.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff, governors, children, parents for all of their ongoing hard work, commitment and support.

In other news, Year 5&6 ventured off to the woods on Wednesday afternoon to enjoy their Forest School session for this half term.  It was a lovely sunny afternoon and the children worked together on den building, pinting leaves by hammering, decorating pencil cases with leaves and stick whitterling to make different shapes using a potato peeler. 

Today we had a first Parent Cafe of the year. Thank you for joining us and it was lovely to see so many younger siblings join us as well.

Have a restful weekend. 

With best wishes,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

Whole school attendance this week: 91%

Overall attendance so far this year: 94.4%

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

Well done to Year 5&6 for the highest attendance this week 97%

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.

Our Big Question this week was: If you could thank God for one thing., what would it be?

"If I could thank God for one thing it would be the wonderful life he gave to me" Ellie 

"If I could thank God for one thing it would be the world" Elise

"I  would thank him for all the nature/countryside" Pippa

Awards we are working towards

House Points

This week we hear from EYFS. Our Topic for the term is 'Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales'.  The children have really enjoyed exploring the key text 'The Gingerbread Man'.

In Maths, we read 'Room on the Broom' and helped the witch make a new potion. We threw 5 bean bags into the cauldron. We thought how many landed outside the cauldron and how many landed inside the cauldron. We then thought about how many altogether. We made our differet potions in different ways. 

We had a great time today exploring different bikes and scooters. We were pushing with our powerful legs and gliding gracefully. Sometimes we travelled really quickly and had to slow ourselves down!