Weekly Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to the parents who were able to attend our Mental Health Workshop led by the East Herts Mental Health Support Team. It is really important that we all talk about mental health and support the children at Thorn Grove to successfully navigate an ever changing world.

Last week Year 5 had a mental health and wellbeing workshop led by Retune. Retune is a charity that inspires young people to improve their mental wellbeing through creative outlets such as music and the arts.

This week is National Storytelling week. As part of this we have the return of our Reading Cafe so please come along with your children. This will take place on Friday not Wednesday as planned. It will run from 8:30am in the school hall.   Also to celebrate storytelling, on 14th March Masai Cultural Arts will be filling our school with the sound of African music, dance and traditional storytelling. Years 1-6 will take part in a storytelling workshop which will be a fabulous opportunity for them experience African culture and take part in traditional storytelling.  To support us in providing these extra experiences we are asking years 1-6 for a donation of £3.00 per child or £5.00 per family via school gateway.  

Friday is also NSPCC Number Day and we will be taking part in the Times Table Rock Stars NSPCC Rocks competition.   The competition runs from 07:30 to 19:30  and is all done online via play.ttrockstars.com .  Key Stage 2 children can play in any gamemode on with every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, earning themselves, their class and the school a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average (the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours, subject to a 60-minute limit (see below)). Winning classes in the school and in the competition as a whole will be the ones with the highest average.  To support player well-being, there is a daily time limit of 60 minutes per player. Once the player goes beyond 60 minutes of play on that day, they will still earn coins but will no longer earn points towards the competition.

Safer Internet Day is next week on 6 February 2024. The theme this year is, ‘Inspiring Change: Making a Difference, Managing Influence, and Navigating Change Online.’ 

Before half term we will be sending out information on how well your child is getting on at school. This will be snapshot of where your child is with their learning now. This will help you stay on top of your child's progress and give opportunities to work on any area that they are not as secure in. We will also be sharing dates and times for parent consultations over the coming weeks. These meetings will take place towards the end of the spring term, week beginning Monday 18th March. There will be an option for either a face-to-face or a remote meeting. 

Over the next few months we will be running some workshops for parents. There will be a 'Sleep Awareness and Parent Sleep Tight' Workshop, on Wednesday 13th March at 9am.