Week 25 1.4.22
Developing Voices being the best
Developing Voices
This spring term's Senior Leader Assembly theme has been on Voice. As parents and teachers, one could say that our primary responsibility is in supporting our children to find their own voices. As a Headteacher it appears to me that this is always a journey and never a destination - the journey is the destination - we are always learning!
As you know, I love a good metaphor [If you are interested in why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning] and one of my favourites when it comes to learning is that teachers and parents are like driving instructors with the children in our care at the wheel! This can be a terrifying experience for all involved, and it is a combination of trust and judgement as to when we step in to use the hand-brake. (Let's not crash into the wall, right, but it's a good experience to bump the curb.) The reality for all of us is that we are making judgements, in the moment, as to when to jump in and when to stand back. On Wednesday, Dr. Buzzi, spoke to all the teachers about the need to trust our children with digital technology whilst ensuring we take an active role in discovering risks on line. He also reminded us that, for children today, finding your voice in the digital age is an even more challenging experience as their experimenting and research leaves a digital trail. Next term in these assemblies we will focus on the idea of research (trial and error) in learning and in growing up!
In today's Newsweb we hear...
-The voices of Bonnie and Jessica who shared their voices to drive an upcycling competition
Our Book Look Narration - Children's Voices - developments based on your feedback
The key messages from the staff meeting with Dr Buzzi supporting us to listen to children's voices and empower children to develop awareness and responsibility as digital citizens
-Some Road Safety Council Voices sharing the Parent Parking Advisor Launch information and their Little Green 'Ticket' created by the children
-MP Gagan Mohindra presents prizes and letters to those children using their voice in his 500 word writing competition
-This holiday, do encourage your children to take part in the TT Rockstar Class competitions and to engage with reading to and with you. It all helps them develop their voice! We wish you all a restful and happy Easter break.
-This spring term's Senior Leader Assembly theme has been on Voice. As parents and teachers, one could say that our primary responsibility is in supporting our children to find their own voices. As an (I say detailed, my wife says verbose) headteacher (I am working on this!) it appears to me that this is always a journey and never a destination - the journey is the destination - we are always learning!
Screen recording 2022-03-31 14.52.51.webmUpcycling Competition
by Bonnie and Jessica
Bonnie and Jessica had a thought and decided they wanted to do something. They used their voice to share and develop their ideas. They kept talking. This is the result. We are all proud of two children who took a risk to find their voice and make one small change in their community. May they be an inspiration to all of of us!
Book Look Narration Developments
Building on the positive feedback from Book Look and the areas for development identified last week, as a senior staff, we have reflected on how our Book Look clearly shows you, and, more importantly, your children, that their books (voices) are looked at, valued and supported. Moving in to the summer term, whenever a child shows either that they have struggled or that they have excelled, teachers will mark in the book TS (Teacher Support) or TC (Teacher Challenge). This will mean either a child's learning showing clear progress and challenges overcome OR a teacher recognising they have struggled or excelled and extra support or challenge provided.
IMG_9659.HEICSupporting Digital Citizens
My notes do not do the quality of Dr. Buzzi's training or his ideas justice. In a nutshell, whilst as adults we must recognise our own responsibilities for keeping children safe, we must also understand the following:
Many children's identities are now made partly formed with their on-line identify - whether we like it or not.
Children draw value and meaning from this on-line identify. The 'likes' and the 'shares' ARE important because they are important to the children - Dr. Buzzi gave the example of shopping on Amazon to highlight the importance of likes.
As adults, rather than saying 'No' we can more effectively redirect these conversations to support the children to recognise their own vulnerabilities and what to look out for when navigating this virtual space.
Dr. Buzzi's example was around 'Influencers' (People on line who have lots of followers and so, in effect, influence others.) He suggested,
Many children suggest they would like to be an influencer.
So, ask children who their influencers are?
Ask them how their influencers share and create content on line (It isn't all the time, it is well thought out and carefully constructed posts that share a positive image. It is fake 'fake it to make it!'
Ask them to understand and then be more like their influencers - take care with what you post and understand it is a fake glorified image - not actual reality.
Little Green is currently redeveloping our Curriculum to offer a more embedded and connected learning experience for children with many PSHE elements (Health, Growth, Digital Citizenship) clearly embedded AS the curriculum rather than as stand alone isolated unconnected snippets. I am delighted that Dr. Buzzi is keen to be a Digital Research Partner with the school and support us to effectively manage and drive this approach as effectively as possible. Our outstanding actions:
Developing a parental consent form (as already shared) that empowers students and parents to positively promote digital citizenship whilst ensuring the many concerns around the digital world are well managed. We have delayed this to more effectively develop this with Dr. Buzzi.
Identify the potential of a one device per child approach in one year group and develop the best practice for how this might work - watch this space on this one
Develop a Computing group with staff, parents AND children's voices to discuss the schools Computing approaches and develop and refine this even more effectively.
Please do let us know, via email, your thoughts on these initial plans, and also if you would like to be part of a Computing Super Group to help drive these developments in to the future. I know I have at least one parent who has already expressed an interest - I will be in touch!
Parent Parking Advisor Update
We will be trialling our first Parent parking Advisor day with all of the road safety council and two governors on Thursday 21st April 2022. I will be contacting all the parents who were able to sign up to confirm the timing and, on behalf of the school community, thank them for their support. After the launch day, we will review the impact and consider our next steps. I was pleased to hear of some police presence last week with four parents offered some parking advice. With summer weather and more walking likely, let's all keep working together to keep our roads as safe s they can be.
Some sad goodbyes...
We have been very lucky to have the talented, caring and hugely capable Office Team member Mrs. Sally Furr as part of the Little Green Team. Mrs. Furr's pet company has started to take off and she will be taking a more focused role in developing this further. We wish her the very best of luck and thank her for her hard work and contributions throughout her time with us at Little Green.
We welcome Mrs. Langton and Mrs. Perrins who will jointly take on some of Mrs. Furr's administrative responsibilities and who will be familiar to you as TAs in the school. They will continue with their TA roles alongside this new role.
We also bid a fond farewell to Jim our amazing Hertfordshire's Music Service Drumming Teacher. Jim has inspired a number of children with drumming and we look forward to sharing details of how Jim will be replaced once we hear from Hertfordshire's Music Service.
Year 3 Music
This week we have been learning all about Stone Age music. The children have been planning a piece of music to represent a journey through a cave...
IMG_3364.MOVDance Competition
Mr Rivers and Miss Muckell put on an amazing Dance Celebration to showcase the dance talents across the school. See some Year 3 dancers sharing their skills above. This was on the tail of a fabulous Year 4 dance festival where the children performed incredibly. The Year 4 Dancers were so appreciated that an informal dance celebration happened with some of the Rickmansworth students and we hope to share the video of this once we confirm the permissions of the Rickmansworth students who danced alongside our Little Green children. Well done to all!
Gagan Mohindra prizes
It was a pleasure to welcome Gagan Mohindra to school to present letters and prizes to those children who used their voice to write their own 500 word story. The children were able to ask Gagan about his role as an MP and learn a lot about the challenges and responsibilities of leadership. They were able to understand that we can respect each other even though we may not agree or respect each others beliefs. A big thank you to the school and a special well done to Emily Brauka who received a runner up prize. All the children present are featured in images below.
Bake Sale Coming
Some motivated and caring children and parents in Year 4 will be selling some Home made baked goods after Easter with proceeds going to the Cancer Research UK charity. We will send you a reminder on the day. Thank you to the families for supporting this very good cause and I'll share pictures after the event.
Stone Age Diorama's in Y3
This half term we have been working hard to create our very own Stone Age Diorama's. We have learnt about different things linked to the Stone Age to make each section of the the set.
1) Caves - we built caves using shoe boxes and papier mache to represent where people in the Stone Age would have lived.
2) Cave paintings - we learnt all about Cave paintings and how they were draw on the walls of a cave.
3) During our science lessons, we learnt about shadows and light so we made puppets that were linked to the Stone Age. We also made a fire pit to light the caves.
4) Woolly Mammoth's - using milk bottles, we made woolly mammoths which would have been eaten for food and their fur used for clothing.
5) Jewellery - Finally, we made necklaces using clay when learning all about Stone Age clothes
Reading in Year 6
The reading Spines at Little Green offer a wide range of carefully selected high quality texts for children. We have been adding a wider range of texts to them to further interest and support an even more diverse range of reading styles and abilities. We look forward to sharing an updated Spine in the coming months,. This Easter, what will you read?!
Covid Update
Do report your children's positive cases here:
https://forms.gle/6SZyf4bg5ENVegBMA .
As we continue the transition to living with Covid, I am pleased to report that our Covid numbers have remained low since the beginning of term. There has been a slight increase with 12 children and 1 staff member currently isolating.
Some more relaxations are coming: We continue to follow the latest Government guidance and this can be accessed here:
Here is our recently shared Risk Assessment for Living with Covid - we will be updating this to reflect changes for the start of the new term.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1suRfJ2ziNUAPX_OFcKqr0kkZdszoD0-Wz1-nvyFzpKE/edit?usp=sharing
Save the date:
School Fair 26th June 2022.
FOLG Treasurer opportunity - are you interested? Let us know!
We are looking for someone to print the fair programme. Does anyone know anyone or work in printing who maybe able to assist? Email us!
NEXT FOLG MEETING: 26.4.22 Coach and Horses
Summer Fair brochure design competition:
'Dear Parents and Carers
We would love the children to take part in our Summer Fair 2022 Programme Design competition to have a chance to have their own design on the front cover of the programme.
One design will be chosen to be printed on the programme.
Please see the attached instructions and template.
The design must be drawn within the frame given to help with printing.
Closing date is 4th May but perhaps the children would like to take some time over the Easter holidays to design their fantastic cover!
The template can be printed off at home or there will be paper copies at school reception to pick up if you wish.'
FOLG Summer Fair Programme competition template 2022.pdf
Key Dates:
Tuesday 19th April - Summer Term, children back in school
Wednesday 20th April - 5R swimming session
NOTES:
Little Request: We are developing our display of 'motivation' to show faces of people working hard and feeling challenged but getting on with 'Doing it!' Please do try and capture some of the struggles of motivation so we can drive the realities of working hard with the whole school community - #attitude to learning!
CAR PARK REMINDER
Just a polite reminder that parents should not be driving into the car park for any reason. Only Blue Badge holders should be accessing the car park. Thank you.
Continuing on Fridays: 1700-2100 - in the carpark!
