I cannot believe I am sitting here at the end of term having broken up for the Christmas break! It has certainly been a busy one with many illnesses of children and staff along the way, but equally, it has been such a rewarding term and I want to thank you all for all of the support and kind words that I have had from so many of you.

Little Heath really is a lovely place to work and we do all we can to ensure that our children feel happy and secure in their time with us. The Christmas build up is one of the times in the year where we get to do so many fun and exciting things and this last couple of weeks has been no exception to that. The Foundation Stage and KS1 performances and the KS2 Carol Concert were both very well attended and were a joy to watch the children perform and sing in.

Thank you for all of the cards and presents that I have been given –I’m sure that, as ever, I will be coming back at least a stone heavier after this break!

I hope that you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year and we will see you all again on Tuesday 6^th January.

I want to start by saying how awesome everyone looked in their Christmas jumpers today! There were lots of amazing looking jumpers on show and lots of money was no doubt raised for Save the Children; I will let you know how much in total was raised in my blog next week.

Although officially, Christmas Jumper Day was actually yesterday, we chose to do ours today as it coincided with our Christmas lunch and it feels much more festive wearing the right attire whilst tucking into our turkey and sprouts. For those children who had the Christmas meal option, I trust that they enjoyed it –there was certainly not much left at the end so this is always a good sign. Getting everyone sat and fed on time is always a stretch, but I’m pleased to say that everything went like a well-oiled machine today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parent volunteers for giving up their time to help with the running of things at lunchtime. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side this year and so we had to start the film in the hall earlier than planned, but I hope you enjoyed watching the film as well (even though you have no doubt seen in lots of times before)! I also want to thank all of the Year 6 children for their excellent serving skills –I hope you enjoyed taking part in this annual tradition.

Next week, we have the second of our sharing assemblies of the year taking place on Monday morning and you will have been invited already if your child is taking part. We then have lots of festivities taking place, starting with the KS2 carol concert which takes place on Monday evening at Christchurch at 7pm. The EYFS and KS1 performances will then be on Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon will see KS1 having their Christmas party so do make sure that your child has their party outfit in school to get changed into for that. The KS2 party will be on Thursday afternoon and once again, children will need their party clothes in school for this.

Whether you will be in school already watching the show or not, all parents are welcome in school from 3pm onwards on Wednesday for our Open Afternoon, where you can come in and look at all of the learning that your child has done so please do join your child if you are able to.

Come next Friday, we will then be finishing for the 2 week Christmas break at 1:15pm.

Have a lovely weekend.

 

It seems very strange sitting here writing my blog on a Thursday but as the school is closed tomorrow for our occasional day, I need to get it in early this week. I spoke to the children in assembly this morning about what they are up to this weekend with their extra day off and it appears that there are lots of lovely activities going on from visits to Santa at various places to family gatherings and even one or 2 children who are just looking forward to a lie in tomorrow! Whatever you are up to, I hope you all enjoy it.

Looking at the calendar, we have a fairly busy week in school next week, 3 of the main ‘events’ I will mention here.

Firstly, on Monday our Year 6 will be taking part in a ‘Health Fair’ in the hall. This event has become an annual tradition at Little Heath as we invite in trainee nurses from the University of Hertfordshire to work with our pupils on a range of workshops designed to promote healthy eating and living.

At the end of the week, we then have a non-uniform day next Friday for which the children have been asked to bring in something which can be used in the Christmas Hampers. Also happening on Friday is the Year 5 class assembly. Unfortunately, whilst I will be in school on Friday, I won’t be able to attend the assembly so Mrs Robinson will be there in my place to welcome the parents and I’m sure she will tell me all about it afterwards.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and we will see you all again next week.

Has another week really passed by that quickly?! Although I was not around for the first part of the week, I am pleased to say that while the temperatures may have dropped dramatically, it has not dampened the children’s spirits and it has been another week of hard work and enjoyment from the children of the school.

I want to start by saying what a pleasure it was to welcome the families of our Year 4 children into school this morning for what was the first of our class assemblies for this academic year. In my opening paragraph, I have mentioned the hard work that has been going on in school and this was clearly demonstrated by the Year 4 children today. They shared their learning in a wide variety of subjects and presented it using humour, clear, confident speech and it even included a conversation taking place in Spanish that would put fluent speakers to shame! The key thing that came across was how much enjoyment the children have had with their learning and this is something that we strive to achieve here in all that we do. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Year 4 and to Mr Chanter for putting on such a great assembly and thank you to all of the parents who attended –it really means a lot.

Following on from my blog last week, I am very pleased to announce that we managed to raise just over £280 for the BBC Children in Need appeal from our non-uniform day. I’m sure you would all agree that this is a fantastic amount of money going to a very deserving cause so thank you to all of you for your donations.

There are no big events planned in next week for once, but I’m sure that the hard work and good learning will continue across the school.

Have a good weekend.

 

As I sit and write this week’s blog, I am looking out onto a wet, miserable looking playground and unfortunately an empty field which would usually have children from years 5 and 6 out there taking part in their football club. We really do all that we can not to have to cancel clubs but due to the incessant rain that has not ceased all day, we felt it was just too awful out there to continue with it this evening.

I know it was a couple of weeks ago now but for those of you who managed to make it to our awesome Fireworks event this year, I hope that you enjoyed the display as much as I did. Just as last year, that last firework in particular was amazing once again! As ever, I want to say thank you to all of you who came along and supported the event, but in particular I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you involved, who gave up your time to ensure that the whole thing was such a success –without you, this event which raises valuable funds for the school could not go ahead so whether you helped build the fire, paraded in a high vis vest or helped with the clean-up operation on the Sunday morning –thank you!

This week there have been 3 notable events happening in school. First of all, we had a visit to Year 6 on Remembrance Day on Tuesday, from a Veteran who gave a detailed insight to what it was like being alive in World War Two and serving in the RAF during the Cold War. He then joined with the school in leading the 2 minutes' silence to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in armed conflicts over the years. We are eternally very grateful to all those children who donated to the RBL Poppy Appeal and I will inform you all about the amount raised once we find out from RBL after it has been sent off to be counted.

Whilst talking about Remembrance Day, for those who have visited the War Memorial in Potters Bar, you may have noticed that there is a wreath placed there from Little Heath. Four children from Year 6 attended a special Schools’ Remembrance Service last Friday which is the first of what I hope will become an annual tradition for the school. We had a flag bearer, a reader and 2 children laying the poppy wreath and despite the awful weather as you will see in the pictures, they all did us proud. I hope to be able to take more children for future services.

 

It has also been anti-bullying week this week, which as well as having both Mr Chanter and I leading assemblies about the topic, has also involved the children taking part in activities in class to learn all about the issue to help to try and stamp bullying out in school once and for all! On Monday we encouraged all of our school community (teachers included!) to wear odd socks for the day as part of the initiative which was started in 2017 by Andy from CBBC.

Finally, of course, today is Children in Need day. It was great to see the childred wearing their own clothes –with a spotty theme –in return for bringing in a donation of a pound. I have said this before but whilst I am very aware that we regularly ask for donations for various charities, I am always equally impressed at how generous everyone is and it makes me very proud to see how much we are able to raise for such good causes and I thank you in advance for your continued support with this. I will let you all know how much was raised next week.

Have a great weekend and we will see you all again on Monday.

 

 I cannot believe I am sitting here writing this at the end of the half term –I know I often say this, but where did the time go?! Having said that, it did feel like a long slog at times and I’m sure that the children are looking forward to the break just as much as the staff are.

This week of course saw our parent consultations and I trust that you found the opportunity to talk to your child’s teacher informative and worthwhile. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to welcome most of you into the school as I was taking part in the Year 6 consultations along with Mrs Cresswell. This is a tradition that started before I took over as head but one which I thought was good to continue as it helps to prepare the oldest children of the school not only for the challenges of their last year here, but also for their next step as they head off to secondary school.

Whatever you are up to during the half term break, I hope that you get to spend some quality time together. Next Saturday of course will see our annual Fireworks display so if you are coming along and you see the staff or me, do say hello. I did tell the children in assembly today that due to the bright spotlights often shining in our direction it can make it difficult to work out who we are talking to, so please do not be offended if we do not recognise you straight away. It will be good to see many of you there though and for those who are coming, enjoy the show!

Bye for now.

Dear all,

I cannot believe I am sitting here writing this blog on Friday evening already - the week seems to have absolutely flown by!

We did not have a lot of things out of the ordinary taking place early on in the week, but yesterday of course saw the beginning of our Book Fair. As ever, this has been a resounding success so far, and once again, as a result of all of the books sold, there will be lots of new books coming into the school as we are given a generous percentage of the final takings to spend at the end. The Book Fair will continue on Monday and Tuesday next week, providing even more opportunities for our children to find their next favourite book.

This morning, we then had our Harvest Coffee morning which I hope you would all agree was a lovely event with the children all in fine voice as they sung their Harvest songs. I want to thank all of the parents who sent in donations of cakes and biscuits as well as all of you who then bought these to raise money for charity. I also want to give a special thank you to all of the parents who volunteered their time to sell the sweet treats - this event really couldn’t happen without you and you all helped to make it run very smoothly. I am very proud and pleased to say that thanks to everyone’s generosity, we raised just under £550 which is a staggering amount and this will be going to the local foodbank to help those families in dire need.

Moving onto next week, next Monday will also see our first Sharing Assembly of the year and if your child is taking part in this assembly, you will have been notified already. If you have not attended this assembly before then it is an opportunity for your child to share the learning that they are proud of in any area of the curriculum that they choose; the breadth of subjects/topics that the children choose to share is always very varied and I can’t wait for you to see the creativity and hard work they will share!

Next Thursday and Friday, I will be attending the Hertfordshire Headteacher’s Conference and Mr Chanter will be in charge in my absence on those days. If you have any questions or concerns during those two days, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Chanter who will be only too glad to help.

Have a good weekend everyone.