What a week it has been. I could have been quite a local celebrity if I had accepted all the opportunities that I had been offered to speak on the local radio. I am, of course, referring to the ‘Chickengate’ saga and the belief that the school were being forced to get rid of the chickens because of the health and safety department at the council. Since I sent out my newsletter you will now know that this is not the case. I understand that the people who created the petition site to keep the chickens thought they were acting in the best interests of the school but what I would ask is that in future, if anybody would like to support the school could they please contact me so that firstly, I know what is being said about the school in the media and secondly, they can check that they have all the facts correct. Not only have I had to deal with constant calls from the press I have had to apologise to Welwyn and Hatfield council who were falsely accused of making us get rid of the chickens which they did not do. They were very unhappy at the allegations that were made against them and we are very lucky that they are not taking further action. This has been a very time consuming activity when quite frankly my time could have been better spent doing other things in school - such as focusing on the education of the children. I would also like to say to the two parents who did contact environmental health about how we were keeping the chickens that if they had any concerns that they could have firstly come and spoke to me and then, if they were not happy with how I responded to their concerns that would possibly have been the best time to contact environmental health.


On a happier note we have decided to relocate the chickens to the wildlife area where they will have a fenced area in which to wander freely during the day. The children will be able to go and see them although they will have to be supervised at all times during these visits to ensure that they follow the correct hygiene rules when handling birds. If any parents are not happy for their children to have contact with the chickens I will be sending home a letter with a slip for them to complete so we have this information on record.

Hopefully next week will be a more normal week with the focus being on everyday school activities. Something that is slightly out of the ordinary is that we are having the individual pupil photographs taken on Monday morning so everyone will have to make sure they are extra clean and well presented. We do ask that if possible the KS2 children wear their winter uniform.