Micklem Newsletter

Welcome to your child's learning!

Welcome to our latest newsletter! Over the past fortnight, I have had the absolute pleasure of visiting classrooms across the school. The energy and enthusiasm I witnessed from our children has been truly inspiring. Whether they were tackling tricky maths problems or exploring how to use different structures in English, their dedication to learning is a joy to see.

We are delighted to share these special moments and updates with you. This newsletter is designed to celebrate our pupils' hard work and, most importantly, to act as a bridge between school and home. I encourage you to find a quiet moment to read through these pages with your child. Ask them questions, listen to their stories, and perhaps even let them teach you something new! Sharing in their curiosity is a wonderful way to support their growth. Thank you for your continued partnership in making our school such a vibrant place to learn.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe!

Mr. Swift

No Outsiders

This week, Years 4, 5 and 6 came to assembly to reflect on the Holocaust. 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day, due to this being the date in 1945 that Auschwitz was liberated.

In this assembly, we shared the story of Schmuel Gogol, a prisoner in Auschwitz during World War Two. Schmuel was passionate about playing the harmonica, and this is what ensured he survived Auschwitz, but also caused him so much hurt. Schmuel was forced to play the harmonica in the prison orchestra, which escorted prisoners to the gas chambers.

Our children were appalled by the fact that people were treated so poorly because of where they were from, what religion they were, or how they looked. We discussed the importance of respect and our No Outsiders ethos, and how we must learn from lessons from the past and want to make positive change in our community and wider world.

The children engaged incredibly well with the mature themes and engaged in good quality discussion - I was really proud of how they want to be a positive advocate for No Outsiders in our community.

Learning in Classrooms

Year 4 - Year Four have been writing descriptions about the Fire-Fiend's Grotto from the book The Firework Maker's Daughter. The children have been learning to use fronted adverbials to improve their sentences. In Maths, Year Four have been learning about factor pairs and practising their times tables A LOT! In Science, they have been learning about living things. Ask them what MRS NERG stands for...

Year 3- Year 3 have been very busy over the last couple of weeks! We have been finishing off our descriptive piece of writing about 'Ivan's land' using expanded noun phrases, adjectives and similes! Also, we have been learning about different features of a map and sketching our own.

Sunshine Learning Community - The Sunshine Learning Community has enjoyed exploring how to work together to achieve a goal. We finished learning about money in Maths and have begun to explore multiplication.

Year 2 - In English, Year 2 have been reading the story 'The Koala Who Could'. They have been re-enacting their favourite parts as well as creating a comic strip to display their knowledge.

Nursery - In Nursery, we have been exploring Traditional Tales. We built houses for the 3 Little Pigs using a variety of resources: wooden blocks, sticks, tissue paper and cardboard boxes.

Year 1 - In Year 1 we have been learning about the Squirrels that Squabbled. We have talked about how to get along and how to resolve situations. In English we wrote about what happened and then made up our own version of the story changing the characters and object to fight over. In Geography we have been learning about our country and found out where in the world we are, on a map. We learnt which countries make up the United Kingdom and what the seas around the UK are called. In Art we are learning about colours and used the primary colours to make a Mondrian picture.

Reception - In Reception, we have been learning about birds and taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. The children made food for the birds, practised their cutting skills by preparing apples to feed our feathered friends and designed and made their own bird boxes. They also built a new bird table on top of our Bug Hotel in the garden. In Maths, we have been investigating the numbers 6, 7 and 8. The children also painted a still life picture of some daffodils and enjoyed colour mixing and relaxing while painting.

Year 5 In Year 5, we have been reading the epic tale of 'Beowulf' and have been working really hard during our English lessons to produce some fabulous pieces of writing, refining our use of fronted adverbials and relative clauses. We enjoyed creating kennings poems and have written Beowulf's biography this week. Our use of high-level vocabulary has been phenomenal!

Year 6 - In year 6 we have been enjoying reading holes. The children have worked hard on creating a brochure to persuade people that Camp Green Lake is a great place to go! This week we have also had a visit from the police to talk about ASBOs and online behaviour. Finally, year 6 have completed their second letter to their French penpals and look forward to hearing from them again.

Experiences and Opportunities

Forest School

Last week was a wet, rainy session, but we persevered and had a great time doing a listening walk and kept warm playing team games. The children demonstrated their resilience and said they preferred Forest School in the rain!

This week, following our safety talk, we used an axe to try and chop a christmas tree. This proved to be harder than we thought, but with the help of Mr Frost, we got there in the end. The children then used the branches or the tree to build a fantastic den.

Art

Quietest Art Club ever!! We have started our study of one of the National Gallery paintings, but we haven't even seen it yet! We listened very carefully to the soundtrack sent by the gallery and tried to imagine what the painting might look like. We enjoyed drawing our ideas inspired by all of the different sounds.

Special mention to Reggie, who proudly showed us what he made at home - a Picasso inspired portrait!

Year 1 looked at the art of Mondrian and learnt about primary colours. They were very enthusiastic about creating their own Mondrian art work. Juno decided to try again at home and made a fantastic piece of art.

Children's Mental Health Week

The theme for Children's Mental Health Week 2026 is 'This is My Place'. The aim of this is to help children feel they belong.

We will be completing activities around the theme in class. Key stages 1 and 2 will also have an introductory assembly with Shannon Winters, our new link practitioner in the Mental Health Support Team.

Find out more about Children's Mental Health Week here: https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/families/

Celebrating Success

Class Dojo

This year, we have introduced Class Dojo. A way of celebrating individuals and classes that are following our school rules of:

Be Kind. Show Respect. Aim High.

Children will be able to receive one or two points for these core values from any member of staff. We will keep an eye on which individuals, classes and house groups are being the kindest, most respectful and ambitious over the year.

Blue House

147

Green House

116

Red House

123

Yellow House

129

HIGHEST NUMBER OF MINUTES

PLAYED

1st) Bella -Year 2

2nd) Malachi -Year 2

3rd) J J-Year 2

MOST MINUTES PLAYED

1st) Stefan V- Year 3

2nd) Emma- Year 4

3rd) Fatima- Year 4

Attendance

Nursery

86.4%

Reception

95%

Year 1

95.5%

Year 2

88.2%

Year 3

87.3%

Year 4

92.9%

Year 5

91.8%

Year 6

93.8%

Congratulations to Year 1 for aiming high with their attendance this week. The class will receive bonus Class Dojo points for Aiming High!

Learning of the Week

Every week, we celebrate extraordinary learning that has taken place in classes. It may be that they have pushed passed an obstacle in their learning; worked on their presentation; thought about how to help others amongst other things.

Our Learning of the Week from Friday, 23rd and 30th January goes to:

Reception

Hope - for brilliant gymnastic skills this week in P.E.
Darcy - for trying to improve his handwriting.
Seren - for being a lovely friend to everyone.
Oliver Clegg - for brilliant handwriting and phonics work this week.

Year 1

Juno - for taking her learning about art into her own time and creating her own version of Mondrian using paper and felt.
Reggie - for taking his learning in Art Club into his own time and creating his version of Picasso using felt tips.
Bailey - has been trying hard in Phonics. He has been developing his skills in sounding out and blending to read words.
Eden - for neat handwriting and making up her own story with a clear beginning, middle and end.
Amelia - for showing great effort and working hard in Phonics. She has been practicing sounding out and blending to make words.

Year 2

Jake - for brilliant writing this week in English. He wrote an amazing diary entry and added adventurous vocabulary to improve his writing.
Rosa - for working really hard on her handwriting, this has really impressed us in Year 2! She takes her time and care when forming all of her letters. She has also been trying extremely hard in her maths and given lots of answers in discussion time.
Malachi - has completed all of his work and contributed to class discussions.

Year 3

Emily’s attitude to learning is always fantastic. This week, she was able to come up with some amazing expanded noun phrases in English, when describing a setting.
Maddox has made a big effort to improve his handwriting this week and making sure his letters are formed on the line.
Leia showed great perseverance in Maths this week when dividing a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number, with remainders.
During Art, Ayla was able to design separate pieces of clothing inspired by our artist, Sonia Delaunay.

Year 4

Alex has been working hard on his handwriting. He is trying hard to control the size of all of the letter and is now writing on just one line!
Archie has put in enormous efforts in English and Maths this week. He has been so focused. It has been a joy to see.
Holly has impressed us all this week with her maths knowledge. She linked her times tables to finding missing sides in regular polygons!
Rex has worked incredibly hard in English this week. We have been learning to use subordinate conjunctions to make the writing even better! “Until the beautiful blossoms bloomed, the elegant mythical Water Goddess would not appear out of the still, calm and boat laced lake.”

Year 5

Noah has settled in brilliantly to year 5 and is an attentive and polite member of the class.
Eliza has worked really hard in English and has produced some fabulous kennings poems about our class book, 'Beowulf'. Super work Eliza!
Leo S has worked really hard on his Beowulf biography this week. He has edited, refined and listened to advice to create a fantastic piece of writing. Well done Leo!
Emily C-M always works hard and tries her best in everything that she does. She is a fantastic role-model to others and is kind and helpful. Well done Emily- Keep being you!

Year 6

Luke has had an excellent attitude towards learning and consistently trying his hardest.
Ava has shown great understanding of different grammar topics and smashed her learning on tenses!
All of year 6 for a great improvement in their spellings this week!

Sunshine Learning Community

Sj has been aiming high by confidently sharing his ideas and beginning to start activities independently.
Jayden has made great progress in his reading. Well done Jayden!
James S has been a super star in Maths - putting his hand up, sharing his answers and explaining how he got to the answer.
Emberly is always ready to learn and follows the Sunshine Learning Community rules. Well done Emberly!

French

Sophia (Year 6) - for engaging well and asking thoughtful questions about her pen friend. She even tried to teach Mrs Lopez another foreign language!

Well done to everyone who worked so hard this fortnight, it is fantastic to see so many positive learning experiences!

Pupil Leadership

School Council

Each class has now chosen two school councillors to represent them on the School Council. These pupils will share their classmates’ ideas, help make decisions, and take part in projects to improve our school. We’re proud of everyone who put themselves forward and look forward to seeing the great work our new councillors will do this year!

Reception - Rayn and Jules

Year 1 - Maya and Johnny

Year 2 - Finlay and Alessya

Year 3 - Bella and Scarlett

Year 4 - Harleigh and Poppi

Year 5 - Harry and Char

Year 6 - Liam and Xiamara

Letters

Please find all of our latest letters here: https://www.micklem.herts.sch.uk/letters/

If you have any questions regarding anything coming up, do not hesitate to ask.

Upcoming Dates

W/C 9th February - Children's Mental Health Week

Friday 13th February - PTA non-uniform day: 'wear what you love'

W/C 16th February - Half-term Holiday

Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th February - Parents'/ Carers' Evenings

PTA

We are always looking for new volunteers to join the PTA. Without your help we would not be able to run some of the amazing events that we do for the children.

If you feel that you are able to help in any way then please contact the school office.

pta@micklem.herts.sch.uk

SEND and Family Support

DSPL8 - Support and Services for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Dacorum

DSPL8's Start of 2026 Parents/Carers Newsletter is now available to view by clicking the link, includes lots of information about FREE workshops, courses and events coming up in the spring term. These are some of the things that stood out to us!

Children's Wellbeing Practitioner Workshops

Mental Health Support Team (Including SEND MHST)

Workshop Booking Links:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parent-mental-health-workshop-tickets-1715375888459?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/confidence-self-esteem-and-positive-self-talk-tickets-1715760950189?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/coping-with-exam-stress-tickets-1914184470279?aff=oddtdtcreator

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/coping-with-exam-stress-tickets-1914378330119?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hertfordshire SEND Local Offer

The Hertfordshire SEND Local Area Partnership has developed a new SEND Strategy for 2026–2029, which sets out Hertfordshire's shared ambitions to improve outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This strategy has been shaped by the voices of children, young people, families, and professionals across education, health, and social care.

Have Your Say!

They want to hear from families again. Go along to one of their online sessions to give your views on the strategy and tell them if you agree with the priorities.

The session will take 90 minutes and includes a short presentation on the strategy, followed by focus group discussions. In order for them to facilitate conversations, they have limited spaces to 30.

For more information and to sign up, click here: https://buff.ly/ezJKf1G

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