Dear Parents/Carers,

On Monday, we started the week with a 'Reading Breakfast' as part of 'Book Week'. It was lovely to see so many parents join us to share some reading with the children. 

We also began the week by introducing our value for this month which is 'Forgiveness'. We reflected on the story of the Prodigal Son and how forgiving is not always easy but how important it is to find it in our hearts to restore and reconcile with each other. 

Yesterday, the children enjoyed coming in pyjamas for our World Book Day theme 'Bedtime Stories'. We also had some wonderful book characters created from potatoes! The children went out in the sunshine with their reading buddy and enjoyed diving into a story together.

Thank you to everyone who attended Parent Cafe this morning at Church. Apologies I was unable to make this one; I have been at a Diocesan Headteacher conference.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday where we will have our first of the Spring parental consultations.

Have a restful weekend.

With best wishes,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

📩Communication sent out this week:

• Science Week Outline

🗓️Things happening next week:

w.c 9th March - Science Week

• Monday- Parent Consultations 3:30-5:30pm

• Wednesday - Year 3&4 Forest School (afternoon) -Please note this is a date change

• Thursday- Y1/2 Trip to Ashridge & Parent Consultations 3:30-5:30pm

• Friday- Y3/4 out at Dacorum Sports Network Event @Westfield School, Berkhamsted

Whole school attendance this week: 97.2%

Overall attendance so far this year: 94.6%

Well done to Early Years  for the highest attendance this week with an incredible 100% again! We are also pleased to share that every class attendance was above 95% over the last week which is excellent. Well done everyone!

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 

We had a brilliant turn out for our Reading Breakfast and there was a lovely buzz around the school. Thank you for everyone who was able to join us.

Here are some photos from World Book Day! The children enjoyed coming in wearing pyjamas, sharing their favourite bedtime story and bringing in potatoes decorated as book characters! As you will see, a huge amount of effort, creativity and enjoyment went into making these wonderful creations. The children also did some shared reading  in the sunshine.

Your child will have brought home a £1 Book Token that can be spent in any participating retailers. To find out which retailers are accepting tokens, please click here

Year 5 and 6 ventured up to the woods in the glorious sunshine this week.  There were lots of signs of the arrival of spring on our journey including daffodils, blossoms and wild garlic.  We had a lovely afternoon building dens and whittling. 

Well done to Scarlett who was selected for this week's Forest School award.

Awards we are working towards

House Points