Dear Parents/Carers,

There was a lot of excitement in the air in Year 6 when their leavers hoodies arrived this week! The hoodies have all of our leavers names on and also a mission statement as a reminder of their time at Great Gaddesden School.  We look forward to taking Year 6 to Chessington as a Leavers Trip later this half term.

Year 1 have been completing the Phonics Screening Check and Year 4 completed the Multiplication Check. Well done to all of the children for their hard work on these and we look forward to sharing the results with parents in your child's end of year report in July. 

Thank you for all of the kind 'Jazzy Jar' donations for the Church and school event next weekend. For those coming, the Church service starts at 11am (if the children could arrive for 10:45am) and the fete, BBQ and other events start at 12:00pm. Also next week, on Friday evening, we have the Key Stage 2 Intervillage Sports at Aldbury. Thank you to everyone who has been signed up. All children registered have been assigned different events and Mrs Lilley will share this with the children next week. Fingers crossed for sunshine at both events!

In other news,  as many of you will be aware, in September, Year 5&6 will be venturing off to PGL with myself and Mrs Redman (27th-30th September). We will be sharing a list of things for the children to bring before the Summer break and I will be holding a Parent Webinar on Friday 11th September to run through the final arrangements including the itinerary.  A link will be sent out before hand for all parents to attend. Also as a polite reminder, the final instalment is due by end of this month. Please ensure to check your Arbor balance has been cleared,

Have a good weekend. 

Kind regards,

Mr M. Beach

Headteacher

📩Communication sent out this week

• Uniform Consultation Letter

🗓️Things happening next week:

• Monday - Uniform Consultation closes & Y5/6 Forest School PM

• Tuesday- Deadline to order class photos and receive a free delivery to school

• Wednesday - Thank a Teacher Day

• Friday - Intervillage Sports 4-7pm at Aldbury C of E Primary School

• Sunday- Patronal Festival at Church 11am (children to arrive for 10:45am) & Summer Fete/BBQ (12pm onwards)

*If you are able to help run the BBQ, please let the school office know ASAP- thank you!*

Whole school attendance this week: 92%

Overall attendance so far this year: 95%

All absences must be reported to the school either by leaving an absence message (Option 1) or emailing Mrs Redman (Office and Pastoral Manager) 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 

• Dinners, Club/Trip Balances & Tax Free Child Care Payments - Ms Baltera (Finance Assistant) who will be working in the school office on a Wednesday only. 

📧finance@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

• SEND- Mrs Aikman & Mrs Curtis are sharing the role of SENDCo. There is usually a SENCo on site one day per week and this will most often be on a Tuesday.

📧senco@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

• Pastoral Support, Attendance, Club Bookings, Medical Needs & General Enquiries: Mrs Redman (Office & Pastoral Manager) who works in the school office Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

📧For general enquiries: admin@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

📧For absences: absence@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

Church Service & Fete

On 21st June it is the St John the Baptist Patronal Festival. Following the success from last year, we are inviting the community to attend and enjoy this together. The plan is for the children to sing and we plan to have some stalls for the school. Children attending must be supervised by a parent/carer at all times. 

To confirm your attendance, please click here to complete the form.

***If you are able to help run the BBQ, please let the school office know ASAP- thank you!***

This week we hear from Year 1&2.

We have had a brilliant start to the final half term, with lots of wonderful learning! In R.E., we are furthering our learning about Judaism and our big question is “Why is the Torah such a joy to the Jewish community”. We have explored the Torah and the Jewish festival of Simchat Torah which celebrates the Torah. We looked at the first story in the Torah, the creation story, and the children all chose one day of the story to represent.

Within our English lessons, we have been sharing the book ‘Ocean Meets Sky’ by the Fan brothers. The children have loved this fantasy story and particularly enjoyed creating their own fantasy lands as the settings of their stories. These included ‘The Land of Desserts and Ice-Creams’, ‘The Land of Stars and Moons’ and ‘The Land of fun fairs and seas’. The descriptive writing and story writing completed by the children has been wonderful to read.

In Art, we have looked at ‘The Great Wave’ by Japanese artist Hokusai. The children have developed their collaging techniques to complete a collage version of this wonderful painting. This unit was thoroughly enjoyed! 

During our History lessons this half term we are exploring The Great Fire of London; how it started, why it spread and the effect it had on London and the people who lived there at the time. Year 1 and 2 have compared London in 1666 to how London is today and had a go at building some of the landmarks. We finished our History lesson this week with a wonderful rendition of ‘London’s burning’, sung beautifully in groups using a canon effect.

Finally, in Science we are busy identifying, comparing and learning more about different seeds and bulbs. The children enjoyed making seed patterns today and next week we will begin our class planting experiment. What happens during germination? What does the plant need to grow? All questions we will be finding answers to in the following weeks. If you have any spare seeds or seed packets at home, please do send them in!

The first week back, we will be on Week 3 of the Summer Menu.

Awards we are working towards

House Points

Are you looking for local activities and SEND services for a child or young person with SEND?

The SEND community activities directory promotes a wide range of local activities and support groups. Some activities will also include discounts for families registered with a Herts Card (SEND).

We will be adding additional activities on a regular basis.

Find fun, inclusive activities your child will love – all in one place!  Explore the SEND community directory

If there are any activities you know of or wish to see promoted through this directory, please email us on: SENDcommissioning@hertfordshire.gov.uk