Christmas has definitely arrived in Little Heath as we put up all of our Christmas decorations in school. We had hoped to do it yesterday but there had been a mix up with our tree order so that the trees did not arrive until today but it is now officially Christmas in school. The Christmas atmosphere was added to by all the children not being in uniform in exchange for bringing in contributions for the Christmas Hamper. I hope you all do buy raffle tickets for a hamper because having won one in the past it does give your Christmas a boost.

We had a visit in school this week from Karen Trew who is a deputy Lieutenant for Hertfordshire. The role involves her supporting the royal family with their projects and she was in our school because she is supporting the Queen’s Green Canopy scheme. This was set up to help celebrate her Platinum Jubilee by planting a million trees across the country. This target has been surpassed but King Charles has kept it going until March 2023 because he wants to see how many trees can be planted in this time. A picture of the ceremony is below.

We were donated two trees and decided to plant our trees near the entrance to the school so they can be seen by everyone who comes to the school. You may have noticed something if you have been into school but do not worry if you have not because they are very small at the moment. However, I am sure that they will soon grow and will be an attractive addition to our school grounds.

You will have seen that as well as our usual Christmas Hamper raffle we have a World Cup Raffle for an official ball and a set of commemorative coins. I am not sure of the price of the coins but apparently the ball is worth £130 because of the special technology that has been used to build it. I am sure that like me not many of you would be mad enough to spend £130 on a football but if you could get one by spending a few pounds on a raffle it is worthwhile. It also means that with the money we raise we will be able to buy some regular priced balls for the children to play with during their breaks. We do go through a lot and it is hard to keep up with demand so if we can get a few extra many of the children will be very happy.

Next week we have the first of our Christmas events with our school Christmas Dinner. We are making this our Christmas Jumper Day as well to help add to the atmosphere of the occasion. We make this into a bit of an event by allowing the children to watch a film afterwards. Please do not forget to make your contribution towards ‘Save the Children’ which is the charity that Christmas Jumper Day supports.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I expect you are all very busy with Christmas activities now and we also have England to watch on Sunday night to see if they can win and get through to the quarter finals of the World Cup. Let us hope they do so we can have a joyous start to our week.