Sarratt School Newsletter




Dear Parents and Carers,

After 11 long weeks, all children finally returned to school and what a wonderful return it has been! The whole team are blown away with how quickly children have settled back into routines, showing resilience and courage. I knew we were off to a good start when I saw all of the children's (and parents') smiling faces walking through the gates on Monday. We are hitting the ground running in the run up to Easter now, making the most of every moment in the classroom. This has been possible because you all have done a wonderful job in keeping the learning going at home and providing the best preparation at home for the smooth transition into school - we cannot say enough how much we appreciate this.

Thank you also for working with the school and following the new procedures in place regarding drop-off and pick-up. The staggering of the times has been reviewed and changed to allow for more siblings to have the same time slots. If your children do have the same time slot, please do not enter the site earlier than this in order to limit contacts between bubbles. In the morning, we have allocated 10 minutes for each slot. Please use this flexibility to reduce gathering rather than arriving early.

Thank you for you ongoing support.

Warmest regards,

Mrs O'Hare


Gold Book

Reception


Fred is really enjoying writing! He is writing, illustrating and making his own books. We are so impressed with the vocabulary he is using, the way he is developing his own story line and the use of his phonics to spell. Here he is with one of his creations, 'Tales from Down Under'.



Year 1

The Year One gold book entry goes to our extended Year One community of children and parents. As a result of your generosity from our Starry Night art exhibition, we have been able to purchase some wonderful and stimulating new resources for our child initiated learning sessions. The children have been so excited, first to be back in class and then to have all these new resources. It's been a lovely start to our March 8th opening. Thank you all so much.

Have a lovely weekend and see you soon!


Year 2

A huge congratulations to the whole of year two for settling back so well into school life. It has been so lovely to see you all again; playing, laughing and learning together. I am especially proud of how welcoming you have all been to Rupert who has joined the class this week.


Therefore, I would like to make a special mention to Rupert for approaching his new school life with enthusiasm, positivity, confidence and a huge winning smile.



Year 3

Welcome back to school Year 3! We have missed you immensely. It has been a fabulous start to beginning normality again.


I am staggered by Year 3's maturity. They have immediately slipped back into our old routines and despite their obvious excitement to have returned. The class -without exception- join us every morning with a cheerful smile, but a mature calmness.


Despite, for the last few months, only seeing one another framed in a pixelated rectangle, everyone joined together, as if only a day had gone by. They are considerate, inclusive and share many moments of laughter and joy together.


I would like to highlight Lucia this week, she has returned to school, what seems like a foot taller. With her confidence blossoming and with contributions which have stunned. During our guided reading we have been handling the immensely deep and emotive picture book: The Fabulous Fly Books of Morris Lessmore, and Lucia's ability to interpret these somber images and relate them to our circumstances is eye-widening. Year 3 parents, please do ask your children about the story of Morris Lessmore and everyone's contributions, because the depths of our conversations have been remarkable.


Lovely to have you all back again.


Mr. Williams

Year 4


Whilst all of Year 4 have come back into school with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, I would like to put the following children into the Goldbook:

Jasper - for his determination to improve his presentation and handwriting is amazing. He has come back into school with much improved handwriting which he is maintaining during all of our lessons. In addition, he is always remembering to use a ruler and pencil for straight lines. This has resulted in a beautiful presentation of a flow diagram for his Science / English. Keep it up Jasper.

Henry - for his mathematical brain. Henry has always been strong in his maths but his ability to see how something works - beyond simple digits - is amazing. Thank you, Henry, for your thinking, your explanations and desire to challenge us all in the maths work that we do.



Year 5

We would like to enter Sienna and Phoebe into the gold book this week. They were in the gold book last week as part of 'Mrs Pinner's group', which took place throughout home learning. However, since returning to school, we have been so impressed by their perseverance in continuing to seek that extra little bit of support to make sure that they are happy with their learning. As a result, they have demonstrated a wonderful growth mindset and feel confident in using formal written methods of multiplication independently. Keep up the brilliant work girls!

Year 6

Our Year 6 entry this week is Archie. He has asked some profound questions this week linked to cultural and social issues as well as deepening his thinking in English. He is enthusiastic about his learning and has settled back into the swing of things very quickly. Well done, Archie!


Special Mention

A huge Sarratt Well Done to Lottie and Henry, who have been raising funds for an important cause close to their hearts. The caring (and very fit!) pair have been running every morning (along with mum and dad), come rain or shine, to complete a 100km challenge before the end of April. This is all in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. They wanted to help raise funds for the hospital after a close family friend was admitted with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

If you would like to find out more and support their efforts, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/coupland-runners-for-gosh

Breakfast Club

Start the morning in a positive way!

Breakfast and Homework club is back and taking bookings for Summer Term.

To find out more and book a place, contact Miss Presswell at the school office.

Lunches

Don't forget to order your school lunch through School Grid app.schoolgrid.co.uk

The Spring Menu is full of the children's favourites such as pizza (though don't miss out as this is now on a Monday!), all-day breakfast (a big hit last half term), roast chicken dinner, lasagne and oven-baked sausages cooked by the fabulous Zoe and Jane.

This week the children in Reception Class really enjoyed coming up to the hatch to say hello and select some fruit for with their dessert.


Wellbeing

Please see the attached booklet of Spring communications for Parents/ Carers from Dacorum Specialist Provision outlining services, advice and strategies to support parents. There is a particularly useful section on recognising and responding to anxiety in children.

Communication for Parents & Carers - 10.03.2021.pdf

Online Safety

In the past year, our children have spent more time online than ever before. In school we teach online safety from Reception all the way up to Year 6 as part of the Computing and PSHE curriculum.

There are lots of things you can do at home to keep your child safe too.

As a school we encourage parents and carers to provide age-appropriate supervision for the internet use of children and young people in their care. Amongst other things, this should include:

  • talking to your children about not accessing age-inappropriate material on devices

  • knowing who your children are talking to online

  • setting up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices

Internet filters should be used to block malicious websites. These are usually free, but often need to be turned on.

There are lots of resources online to support you with keeping your children safe in the digital world. Here is a list recommended by the DFE:

Additional resources to support parents and carers to keep their children safe online:

  • Thinkuknow provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online

  • Parent info is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations

  • Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support

  • Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world

  • London Grid for Learning has support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online, including tips to keep primary aged children safe online

  • Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games

  • Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation

  • UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services

  • NSPCC has advice on setting up parental controls, tips on how to talk to children about online safety, including the risk of sharing and receiving nude images and how to support children if they have seen something online that has upset them


Important Information

Earlier this week, Herts County Council sent out a letter to parents and carers regarding school opening. In the letter they outlined actions for parents to help ensure that schools can remain open and safe for all children and staff.

What you can do to help

We really need your help, as parents and carers, to support these latest developments and ensure our schools can remain open and safe for all children and staff. There are some simple things you can do to support your school and community:

• Drop children to school or collect them and leave straight away – please do not wait or stand around at the school gates as this puts you, your children, school staff and other families at risk

• If you know that your child’s school entrance will be busy, please wear a face covering when attending – your school may also ask that parents and carers wear a face covering for drop off and pick up, please take their advice

• Don’t arrange playdates, sleepovers or parties – even if your children are now in a school bubble, bubbles only exist in school alongside stringent infection control measures. Outside of school, the latest Government guidance still applies to parents and children

• If you have older children, please explain they cannot hang out with their friends just yet – we know kids will find it hard to understand why they can’t spend time with their friends from their school bubble outside of school. Please explain if we all follow the guidance now, we will hopefully be able to spend time together soon

• Do not send children to school if they, or anyone in your household, has any symptoms of coronavirus

Church News


I do hope you are all well and that the week has gone smoothly ... definitely a few cobwebs have been blown this week...


This weekend will be Mothering Sunday, a time when domestic and factory staff were once let off to come home, both to spend time with their mothers but also to attend church.


It can also be a time of emotions as we remember mothers departed or unable to meet due to the many external situations we are all in.


Whatever you do this weekend do have a blessed time. At church we have a Mothers Day service from 10.30 from Saratt via the churches YouTube channel


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrPu7Gwp4Lv60fD5wLSZ88w


Sending much love and blessings


Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day is back, next week, on Friday 19th March and this year it’s never felt more important to have some fun and get involved. The great news is, we will be able to all celebrate together in school! Come to school substituting 1 item of your school uniform for a red item of clothing (this could be anything from a jumper, a dress, a pair of socks or a hair accessory) to show your support.

We will not be asking for any donations to be brought into school but to be made directly to the charity via the website, phone or text.

https://donation.comicrelief.com/