Dear Parents/Carers,

The weather has been glorious this week and I enjoyed joining Year 1&2 for some bird watching in the Churchyard linked to their Science topic all about living things. As the weather gets warmer, please ensure your child has a sunhat and water bottle in school every day. The children can bring in suncream but this must be named and the children need to be able to apply this themselves. We also ask you check the contents label to ensure no creams come in containing any nut based ingredients. 

Also this week, our School Effectiveness Advisor Mrs Peck came to visit us and we reviewed the school development plan and our plans for the next chapter of the school's development which I will share more about before the Autumn Term.  Mrs Peck was delighted with the progress we have made as a school over the last two years of the development plan and particularly highlighted the positive behaviour culture, engagement with learning, improvements to the Early Years environment and the work we have completed on the curriculum and improving attendance. I would like to thank the staff for all they do every day to make our school such a wonderful place and for your support as parents. 

We have only had a few responses to the Church event/Fete due to take place on 21st June. Please kindly click here to confirm your attendance. The Church provides so much support, warmth and community to our school and it would be lovely for as many families as possible to support this event.

Later in the week we had our most recent Parent Forum meeting and we discussed a wide range of areas. To catch up on the minutes from the meeting, please click here. The next meeting is scheduled for 1st July 2-3:00pm.

As you will note in the minutes, for Health and Safety reasons, we politely ask that dogs (with the exception of assistance dogs) no longer come onto the playground. As much as we know how loved everyone's pets are, the safety and welfare of the children must always be our first priority. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding with this. In addition, we discussed that Sports afternoon on 2nd July would clash with the prepaid Swimming & Gymnastics therefore this will change to Friday 3rd July. 

Have a lovely long weekend and see you all on Tuesday.

Kind regards,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

🗓️Things happening next week:

• Monday - School closed (Bank Holiday)

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

• Friday- Early Years Forest School (AM) & FOGGS Movie Night

📩Communication sent out this week:

• Staffing update

• Parent Forum Minutes

Whole school attendance this week: 97%

Overall attendance so far this year: 94.8%

Well done to Early Years for the highest attendance this week with  100%

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

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. For safeguarding reasons, we must be notified in advance in writing if you plan to take your child out during term time.

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

This week, we hear from Year 5&6!

In Maths this term, Year  5 & 6 have explored the world of algebra. We have been looking at formulae and creating expressions 

In Geography, we have continued to learn about the conservation of the earth’s precious resources. We explored different food packaging to calculate the food miles created, we also explored different ways to save energy to help use resources efficiently.

During our English lessons, Year 5 & 6 have been reading the gripping tale of Beowulf as retold by Michael Morpurgo. This classic text has inspired some wonderful writing with a focus on superlatives, adverbials and verbs of possibility.

During the rest of the Summer Term, Year 5&6 will be learning about World War II in their History Lessons. This will also extend to Design and Technology as the children will be making their own Anderson style shelters! The children will also enjoy Bletchley Park on 24th June.

At Forest School this week, Y5/6 started with cooking popcorn on the campfire.  The first batch caught on fire but we managed to cook and eat some on our second attempt! The children were also challenged to build a raft using just sticks and string.  We then tested them in a water tray to see if they would float.

As I am sure you are aware, our Year 6 learners will be completing their SATs during w.c 11th May and we would like to wish them all the best of luck!

Next week, we will be on Week 1 of the Summer Menu.

In preperation for the FOGGS movie night on 8th May, below are the options the children voted for yesterday:

• EYFS- Ratatouille 

• Y1/2 - Minions

• Y3/4 & 5/6 - Spongebob

Pick up will be from the playground for all children attending at 4:45pm.

All payments to please be made via the Arbor Parent Portal.

Headteacher Awards

Well done to Ophelia for working really hard with her writing and including grammatical features such as adverbials very effectively. Well done!

Outside celebrations

Well done Ellie for completing a 2.5km inflatable run.

William and Jess completed a 5km inflatable run- well done!

Awards we are working towards

House Points