As I sit here looking out of my office window at the beautiful autumn crisp afternoon with the sun low in the sky casting shadows across the playground and field, it is unbelievable to think how different it looks to just a couple of days ago when once again we were battered by the torrential rain that hit. Such is the changeable nature of our weather right now, it seems almost impossible to predict what it will be like over the course of the day. Fortunately, however, apart from one ‘wet play’, the children have been able to get out and about still at break and lunchtime which is always a bonus at this time of the year and I hope that this continues next week.

As many of you may have seen last night (or at least got to view through your phone camera lens), the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, made another appearance last night and this morning I received an amazing picture of the school that was taken by one of our Co-Chairs of Governors, Michelle Corneby. The photo is attached below, and I am sure you will all agree how stunning the sky looked behind the trees at the back of the Foundation block.

I mentioned last week how successful the Harvest Festival coffee morning had been and I am very pleased to say that now the money has been totalled up, I can tell you that £554.79 will be headed off to support Cancer Research which is a huge amount of money. Thank you once again to all those involved –from those who baked/brought in the goodies to those of you who bought them and especially to those who gave up their time to ensure that the whole thing was such a success.

Next week is yet another week where I will not be around much. I am out from Tuesday until Thursday on STEPs training and whilst this means yet more days offsite, I can assure you all that I will still be keeping a close eye on the day-to-day running of the school in my absence, even though I am extremely confident that Mr Chanter and Mrs Robinson have everything under control. If you do need to contact anyone on those days though, please do direct your questions/queries their way.

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

 Dear all,

Whilst I wasn’t around a lot this week, I was delighted to hear that in my absence, plenty of good learning took place and the school all ran smoothly under the watchful eyes of Mr Chanter and Mrs Robinson. Having just returned from the Hertfordshire Headteacher’s Conference, I am pleased to say that I have brought back lots of ideas for ways to further develop and improve our offer to all of our pupils and I cannot wait to feed this back to all of my teaching staff over the coming weeks which will then be seen in our classroom practice.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, the one thing that I was the most disappointed about being out today was the fact that I missed the Harvest Coffee morning. This is always such a lovely event for everyone involved and I am told that this morning’s gathering was no exception to that, with the children in fine voice and lots of parents in attendance. 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 thank all of the parents who volunteered their time to sell the sweet treats. I do not know how much has been raised yet, but I do know that a significant amount will be going to a good cause. I do apologise for not advertising the chosen charity sooner, but as I had spoken to the children in assembly on Monday, I had left it up to them to make suggestions and the majority of them involved donating to cancer charities of one form or another, so we are going to donate the money to Cancer Research. We have donated to this charity before but as cancer affects 1 in 2 of us over our lifetimes then I’m sure you will agree this is a very worthwhile cause in order to try to reduce this awful statistic.

Our Book Fair has been a resounding success so far, with many of our children exploring new reads and there will be lots of new books coming into the school soon as a result of all of the books sold. The Book Fair will continue on Monday and Tuesday next week, providing even more opportunities for our children to find their next favourite book.

Monday will also see our first Sharing Assembly of the year. If your child is taking part in this assembly, you will have been notified already and 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 diverse and I can’t wait for you to see the creativity and hard work they will share!

Thank you to everyone for making this week so special.

Well what a strange few days weather-wise it was at the end of the week. I sat looking out of my office window on Thursday afternoon watching the trees swaying all over the place with some of the worst driving rain that I have ever seen hammering down on the concrete and fields! Fortunately, by Friday morning, the 'ponds' that had gathered in the corners of the playground quickly dispersed and the children were able to go out for break time and lunch which I know the teachers were very grateful for as the dreaded ‘wet play’ is not always the most conducive to learning. Apologies to those parents of Nursery and Reception children though who had to duck as they dropped their children off on Friday morning –I’m glad to say that Rudi jumped into action as soon as he could to remove the offending branches!

Earlier this week, Mrs Robinson, Mr Chanter and I welcomed some of the parents from Reception and Year 1 to a phonics meeting after school and it was lovely to see those of you who were able to attend. I was going to say at the beginning of the meeting how strange it was going to be not leading the meeting as I have done for the last couple of years, but Mrs Robinson did a grand job of introducing the scheme and passing on information to best support your child at home learning to read –and more to the point, learning to enjoy reading! If you were not able to attend the meeting but would like further information on how best to support your child with their phonics, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Robinson who will be happy to help.

As was mentioned in the newsletter yesterday, it is our Harvest Coffee morning on Friday morning and we would like to request donations of cakes and biscuits to be sent in on Wednesday and Thursday that can then be sold at the event to raise money for charity. We always like to involve the children in helping to choose the charity to donate to so I will discuss this with them in assembly next week so that we can announce which good cause will benefit. The Harvest morning is a lovely opportunity to hear the children singing the Harvest songs that they have been learning –I’m just gutted that I won’t be able to be there this year due to a Headteachers' conference that I am attending. Mrs Robinson and Mr Chanter will be leading the event this year in my absence and I know that it will go as smoothly as ever.

I won’t repeat everything here that I mentioned in the newsletter, but I did want to end with the request that I wrote in it about the children’s belongings. Please do ensure that all of your children’s belongings are clearly marked with their name and class so that in the event of them getting lost, we can return them as soon as possible. Also, please do be vigilant about any items that your child brings home and return anything that does not belong to them if/when you notice it. I discussed in Thursday’s assembly this week how some items had gone missing despite being clearly labelled and asked the children to look out for any such things and also to bring in any items that are left outside when they come in from break and lunch. I was very pleased to see a few girls then doing exactly that yesterday –I won’t name them on here but they know who they are and so I wanted to say well done to them and to remind everyone to do the same so that I can praise you too and ensure that the problem of missing belongings doesn’t continue.

Due to a course and the Headteachers’ conference that I am attending on different days next week, I am not going to be around on the gate much, so Mr Chanter will be out there on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and once again, if you have not had the chance to speak to him, do pop by and say hello if you can.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you all again on Monday.

So here we are at the end of our third week already! I was very pleased to see the sun shining this afternoon and it certainly seemed to put a spring in everyone’s step as the children left to go home for the weekend. Looking ahead at the forecast, I believe we’re in for more of the same tomorrow, so do get outside as much as you can before the weather turns chillier as we head into autumn.

Today, the children were all looking particularly smart, as of course it was individual photo day. Whilst this does cause some minor disruption to lessons, I was very pleased to hear that everything went smoothly without a hitch and the photographer was very complementary about the behaviour of our children so well done to them for being respectful, ready and safe, which I hope your children have mentioned to you are our values here at school.

It has been a pleasure getting to speak to more and more of you whilst I have been on the gate in the morning (and on the occasions that I have made it out in the afternoon) and I aim to be able to get outside at the end of the day more frequently as I settle into the role. I know that Mr Chanter has also had a chance to meet some of you in the mornings and there will be more opportunities over the coming weeks to stop and say hello if you have not already had the chance to do so. As well as this, if your child is in Reception or Year 1, there will be a further chance to meet myself, Mr Chanter and Mrs Robinson as well, at our phonics parents’ evening so whether we see you there or on the gate it will be nice to meet you and have a chat.

So here we are at the end of the first week of the new school year, and my first week as Headteacher of Little Heath. I wanted to thank all of the parents who I have had the pleasure to talk to this week for your kind words, encouragement and continued support and trust.

Following on from my letter that was sent out yesterday, I would like to welcome everyone back and extend a special welcome to all the new families who have joined our school community. It’s wonderful to have you with us, and I hope you are starting to feel at home here already. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything we can do to support you and your child.

It has been an absolute pleasure to see the school buzzing with energy once again this week after the summer break. The children have settled in remarkably well, and it’s clear that they are excited and ready for the year ahead. Although it may have been a short week, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful start we've had and to thank the children for coming back being respectful, safe and ready to learn.

Before I finish, I would like to welcome our new members of staff to the school. My new Deputy Headteacher, Mr Chanter, has joined me in leading the assemblies for the last couple of days and I know that he has been very impressed with the children and the school so far and he is looking forward to meeting and getting to know as many of you as he can as we go through the term. Alongside Mr Chanter, Mrs Edwards will also be teaching in Year 4 for one day a week and she reported how well the children had settled back in today which is great to hear. Mrs Spencer is our final new member of staff and she will be working in Year 2 so do say hello to her if you see her in the morning.

Here’s to a fantastic year ahead. I look forward to seeing all that our children will achieve in the coming months.

Wishing you all a restful and enjoyable weekend.

Regards,

Mr Gradwell