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.

 

Well, we have certainly had changeable weather since returning in September, not least last Friday (more of that later), but it is so nice to see the sun shining this afternoon. I was outside during lunchtime break today and it had clearly perked everybody up –children and adults alike. I’d just love to say that it was due to continue over the weekend too but alas, looking at the forecast, that doesn’t look to be the case.

Going back to last Friday, I wanted to reiterate my thanks to everyone involved in making the Funday Friday such a brilliant success despite the conditions which at times seemed like we would be destined not to be able to put it on at all. I still cannot believe how it went from glorious sunshine at 2:30 to torrential rain just 10 minutes before we were due to open at 3pm. Fortunately it didn’t put most of you off though and thank you to all of you attended, helping to raise yet more funds for the school community, of which I will be pleased to send out further news on how it is being spent very soon. Special thanks of course must once again go to Emily and the PTA as well as all of the parent volunteers who helped to run the event –we really could not do it without you!

Speaking of which… last night I met with the PTA to finalise the arrangements for the next big event which is our Fireworks Night. As with last year, the event is taking place on the second Saturday of the half term break and if you are not away and are able to come along, I would urge you to do so. We are using the same company as we have done for the last few years for the fireworks themselves and I believe that there is a special request going in for the same final firework that wowed us all last time around which was a great finish to an amazing show. This event is of course a huge highlight of the year and also a huge undertaking to put on, so we will be needing volunteers to ensure it all runs smoothly so please do look out for the communications coming out from the PTA soon and if you are able to help in any way that you can, this will be hugely appreciated.

Looking ahead to next week, Year 2 are out on a museum visit on Tuesday, but apart from that, there are no particularly notable events happening. I’m sure that does not mean for one minute that there will not be plenty of good learning taking place though and things are never quiet in school.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I cannot believe I am sitting here writing this having completed my first year as the Headteacher at Little Heath. It has been an absolute pleasure leading the school this year and I am very proud of the children here and all they have achieved. I want to thank all of the parents for your support throughout the year and I look forward to this continuing in the future as well. Thank you also for all of the generous gifts that you have given me.

It was very emotional saying goodbye to the Year 6 children this afternoon (as well as a couple of other younger ones who are leaving for different primary schools) but I am pleased to say that it all went without a hitch and they were given the huge applause and fanfare that they all deserved. They all produced a fantastic show earlier on in the week and they held it together well for their leavers’ assembly earlier today. We will all miss them greatly and we wish them all the very best as they move onto the next step of their journeys!

I want to finish by wishing you all a great summer, whether you are off to far off climes or staying local, have a good one and we will see you all again in September.