Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope this newsletter finds you well and those of you who celebrated St Patrick's day had a wonderful time. As usual, we have been very busy over the last couple of weeks, in particular with Science week and World Book Day. The children enjoyed some wonderful activities linked to both of these and celebrated every classes achievement in the Friday praise assembly.

Parent consultations

Thank you to all those parents who joined us for parent consultations this week. It was wonderful to meet so many of you and a great chance to see and hear of all the wonderful achievements of your children. In order for a child to progress to their absolute best, the partnership between the school and family is so important and we feel very blessed to have built so many strong relationships with each of you.

Healthy snacks & water bottles

Please can you ensure the children are only provided with water as their drink for school and a healthy snack for breaktime. A simple piece of fruit is perfect!

Upcoming fundraisers

As a school, we are always looking for ways to raise money in order to provide the children with the best resources and learning environment possible. We understand that the cost of living can often make it hard on families and will always try and keep that in mind when organising events. We met with the FABS team this week and have come up with some exciting fundraisers for the children to take part in over the summer term and would be so grateful for your engagement. Prior to this, we have our Easter hunt fundraiser in the last week of this term. Please see the attached flyer for more information. If you are a business owner or have connections with any businesses that would like to sponsor any future events, please contact the school office ASAP.

World Book Day

The children and staff all had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 6th March. There were many fantastic costumes on display, lots of shared reading with children of different ages and a range of activities based on the book The Invisible by Tom Percival.

Please follow the link below to see how the day was celebrated across the school.

World Book Day 2025

Best Wishes

Mrs Lavelle-Murphy & Mrs Alger

SEND News

Have you heard about the 'Herts Card'?

The Herts card (previously known as the HAND card) is designed to support and benefit families of children with SEND across Hertfordshire and provides discounts and exclusive support. Families of children and young people on Free School Meals are also now entitled to a Herts Card.

You do not need to reapply if you already have a HAND account - you can access the new card by logging into your existing account.

Find out more about the Herts Card and where you can use it.

Find out more about the Herts Card for those eligible for free school meals

SCIENCE WEEK

Science week was a great success with so much fun and activities taking place throughout the week! The theme for Science week was ‘Change and Adapt,’ with links being made to climate change, how materials can be changed and animal adaptations.

The week began with every class taking part in class experiments from making Coke volcanoes, rainbows from skittles, melting ice investigations, egg drops and making Lava lamps!

On Tuesday, Hertfordshire Zoo came into the school to run workshops with the classes. The children were able to handle 3D printed laser skulls of different animals, investigate X-rays of animal bones and watch videos of animals in their habitats and how they camouflage/ adapt to their environments.

Tuesday was also Scientist day, where each class learnt about a scientist or scientists that have made a difference to the world. On Thursday, the experiments continued and on Friday we finished Science week with an assembly to round up and share all our activities and work with the school.

Thank you to all the staff for their hard work and to all those who donated resources for the experiments. A special thank you to Mrs Richardson who came into Year 2 to talk about her work as a scientist.

Roll of Honour - 14.03.25

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Roll of Honour - 21.03.25

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Nursery and Reception

Year 1 and Year 2

Years 3, 4, 5 and 6

NETBALL NEWS

St Albans District Netball Tournament

Our Year 6 team had a great morning in the sunshine at the St Albans District netball "upper league" tournament on Saturday 8th March. This was a half day tournament for the schools that placed in either Premier League, Division One or Division Two.

It was a tough tournament, but the team played their hearts out, and didn't lose a single match. They have a lot to be proud of and worked really hard to secure their results. Well done to Esme, Alex, Hugo, Calvin, Delilah and Beatrice in Year 6, and also to Lucia, Evie and Margarida in Year 5 who have stepped up to play with the Year 6's, a fantastic performance from you all!

This year, we also sent a Year 5 team to the Year 6 lower league tournament, schools that placed in Divisions Three, Four and Five. This was a strategic plan to challenge them and give them a glimpse of the standard that they may be playing to next year. These tournaments are tough and competitive, but the team kept their heads high and played incredibly well, and with a little more training, they'll do well in their future Year 6 league. Well done to Seren, Tiago, Freddie, Evie, Margarida, Holly, Florence, Sienna and Lucia. A special thanks to the parents and families who came to cheer them all on!

St Bernadette vs St John Fisher

Wow! What a match! Last Wednesday, St Bernadette played St John Fisher, a very evenly matched team to ours. They had the height, but we had the speed. It was very tense with goals being threatened from both sides on a minute by minute basis. We drew 4-4 with them in the tournament but for this game, we were victorious with a very close 8-7 win.

Esme captained the match and also won Player of the Match as voted by the opposing team. Well done to Esme, Alex, Delilah, Beatrice, Hugo, Calvin and also to Lucia and Evie in Year 5. A great performance all round.

Year 5 St Albans Development Tournament

The St Bernadette netball team played in the St Albans schools Year 5 Development Tournament on Tuesday with their first ever matches as a team. They were off to a flying start with a 4-0 win with 3 goals from Elijah and 1 from Sienna. Sadly we couldn't keep the momentum going and we lost 2-0 and 1-0 in our subsequent matches - it just wasn't our day. Despite that, the team played a high standard of netball and received many compliments from other coaches. Players of the Match were: Elijah, Francesca and Ryan.

Well done to the whole team, Sienna, Seren, Holly, Florence, Olivia, Carolina, Natalia, Elijah, Leo, Ryan, and an extra well done to Francesca in Year 4 who stepped up to play with the Year 5's with an 'on-fire' performance!

FOOTBALL NEWS

Our school football team finished the season with a 7-1 victory against How Wood. They went 1-0 down very early on but regrouped and stuck together to give their best performance of the season.

The goals were scored by Luke, Lucien, Leighton, Aaron and a hat-trick from Arthur. An excellent defensive display from Jakub, Jenson, Frankie and Calvin as well a brilliant performance in goal from Hugo kept the score as convincing as it was.

This was the 6th victory in a row that the team have recorded, and they should be incredibly proud of themselves. They have now been confirmed as winners of their league and could be facing the prospect of an inter-league competition against the champions of the other leagues.

A huge well done to everyone that has represented the school in the football team and fingers crossed that there are more successes coming your way.

ST ALBAN CITY FC COMMUNITY DAY - SATURDAY 22ND MARCH

On Saturday, St Alban City FC are holding a community day at their home ground and would love to see as many members of the local community there as possible. If this is something you are interested in, then please follow the instructions below on how to secure some discounted tickets.

In order to get tickets at discounted prices if you haven’t already done so:

Sign yourself and your children up for Young Saints membership checking their youth team in the Youth team box and school in the School box if they haven’t already signed up at: https://fanzone.stalbanscityfc.com/product/young-saints-membership-2024-2025/

Young Saints Club Membership is a free scheme whereby one adult and one under 12 get reduced entry to all league matches. Parents simply enter details of the child, school and club and proceed to checkout, create an account and then complete your ‘purchase’.

Please do this before you purchase any tickets.

A Young Saints membership will then be automatically allocated to your account. This allows you to purchase tickets online for the rest of their league matches during the 2024/2025 season at the special price of £13.75 (one adult and one child) per match.

Whilst still signed into the account please then purchase tickets for the game using the link below:

https://fanzone.stalbanscityfc.com/product/nls-24-25-st-albans-city-men-v-hornchurch/