I want to start by saying how fantastic it was to see all of the children in their wonderful costumes yesterday celebrating World Book Day. The day started off with an assembly where we were lucky enough to receive personal World Book Day messages from Andy and Ben from Cbeebies and Abi from Blue Peter! The assembly then continued with a wonderful presentation from the author Stewart Henderson who was equally as impressed with the children’s costumes as we were. Then Stewart spent the rest of the day leading workshops with the children that they were all inspired by. As well as this, we had another fantastic character scavenger hunt that took place during lunchtime to engage the children which was great to see and lots of fun was had by all of those who took part!

The fun continues next week, as it is Science Week and the children will be completing science activities in class throughout the week, further enriching their scientific skills and knowledge. Thursday and Friday will see the children taking part in Science workshops as well so there is plenty for them all to look forward to.

As well as the above, two trips are taking place next week, with Years 1 and 2 off to Hertfordshire Zoo on Tuesday and Year 3 heading off to Celtic Harmony on Wednesday. I have said it before, but these outside learning opportunities are great ways for the children to learn in a practical, hands-on way and they are the things that they will remember well into adulthood! Once again, I’d like to thank the PTA for funding these wonderful learning visits.

That’s all for now. I will see you all again on Monday, but in the meantime, let’s hope that the rain stops and the sun begins to shine outside again as it really does put a spring in the step when that happens -have a good weekend!

Well, where did that week just go? Whilst the half term break already feels like it was ages ago, at the same time, I cannot believe how quickly the week has flown by.

There have been a few things that have happened in school this week worth mentioning, starting with the visit from Saffron Severn on Tuesday and the sponsored fitness event that the children took part in. There was such a buzz in school when she arrived and it was such a wonderful thing to see all of the children from Year 1 up to Year 6 completing their circuits and while there were certainly a few out of breath children at the end, it was all good fun and all for a good cause. Thank you to all of the children for taking part and to all those who managed to raise any money at all. If your child has managed to raise some sponsorship money but hasn’t had the chance to return it then the deadline for this is next Tuesday, 3rd March. As the money then gets collated and sent off, please note that we then need to wait for any of the ‘rewards’ to be sent back to us before we can give them to the children. I can assure all of the children though that as soon as we receive them then they will be sent out and the funds that come back into the school for our participation will be used to buy more brand new sports equipment.

On Wednesday, I then had the pleasure of joining Mrs Robinson and Mrs Lawrence as we took a group of children from the choir to the o2 Arena to perform in the annual Young Voices event. It was an amazing day and we had quite a few hoarse voices yesterday as a result of the children singing loudly among the thousands of other children who were there. The fact that we were allocated a space right at the front again this year was amazing. I want to thank Mrs Robinson and Mrs Lawrence for giving up their time to organise the event and take the children, because without them, we could not attend, but also I want to thank the children who went for taking part and representing our school. 

Yesterday it was brilliant to see all the children from Year 4 (as well as Mr Chanter) in their Egyptian costumes for their engaging and enriching workshop. By all accounts the children learned an awful lot that textbooks (or even the internet) are not able to teach in the same way and I’m sure they will remember those facts even when they are old like me! Thank you to the parents who attended to help it run so smoothly –I hope that you enjoyed it also!

We have also been able to welcome our Nursery and Reception parents into school this week, for their consultations with the class teachers. I hope that for those of you who were in for this, you got a chance to hear about the positive start that your child has had with us so far and all of the wonderful things that they have been up to since the start of the year.

For the rest of the school, today was the day that the children will have brought home their annual school reports. I know that other schools often send their reports out later in the year, but we like to send them out earlier on so that the children can work on the targets set by their current teachers, within the rest of this academic year. I have had the pleasure of reading over every single one of them over the last few weeks and I am very impressed with the excellent, positive comments that have been made about the children and I trust that they will now work hard on their next steps in order to improve further. As a result of these reports going out now, we do not hold an official parents’ meeting for the whole school in this term, but if you wish to discuss anything from your child’s report, you may contact their class teacher to make an appointment to do so.

Next Thursday is of course World Book Day and we look forward to welcoming in the author, Stewart Henderson who will be talking to all of the children in a special assembly before joining classes across the school for their World Book Day related workshops. We also of course look forward to seeing all of the wonderful book related costumes that thee children come dressed in –this is always a highlight of the year!

Have a great weekend.

So here we are at the much-needed half-term break. It has been a very busy term so far, topped off by a very busy week this last week, but as ever it’s been great to see the children enjoying their learning and having fun in the extra events of school.

Following on from the above, I am very pleased to start by sharing the fantastic success of our Disco from last night! The children all seemed to be having the best time dancing along to the tunes and I hope they told you all about it when they came home. Thanks to the hard work of the PTA as well as the incredible support from you, our parents, we raised an amazing £455 for our school. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the disco such a memorable event! It’s your support that makes these events such a success, and we are truly grateful for the sense of community that we have here at Little Heath.

Wishing you all a good half-term break -I hope you all have the chance to enjoy some well-deserved rest and quality time with your families over the break and I look forward to seeing the children all well-rested and ready for the rest of the Spring term when we return.

 

As ever this week in school, the time has flown by and I am sitting here writing this blog before heading home for the weekend after seemingly only having just written my last one!

As I mentioned in my blog last week that it would be, it’s been a fairly quiet week in school this week, but Reception did go off to the snow centre yesterday and by all accounts it was an amazing experience for all of the children. Once again, I’d like to thank the PTA for funding this visit as one of their fully funded trips for this year –I hope that it is making a difference.

We are of course into the last week of the half term next week and there is quite a lot going on. First of all, it is our next Sharing Assembly on Monday. If your child is involved in this, you will have been sent a letter this week inviting you to join us and I look forward to welcoming you in if that is you. It is also Children’s Mental Health week next week so the children will get to explore in their PSHE lessons, strategies to support their mental health now and in the future. Tuesday is Safer Internet Day so the children will be carrying out activities related to this. On Wednesday, we have our Open Afternoon for you or another family member to come in and see and share the work that your children have been doing. Finally, on Thursday, we have the Disco that I know that the children always look forward to, before we break up for the half term break on Friday (at the normal time).

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

This is going to be a very brief blog this week as yet another week has just flown by even though it seemed like there was nothing particularly special going on in school. This is not to say that there has not been a lot of enriching learning going on though –quite the contrary! We did also have a PTA meeting last night which was very good and some exciting events will be announced by them very shortly so watch this space.

The calendar looks pretty standard for next week too without too much to report on though I am pleased to say that our reception class will be having the first of their educational visits next Thursday as they head off to the nearby Snow Centre. I am pleased to say that this is one of the trips being funded by the PTA and will no doubt be very exciting for all of the children (and adults) involved in going.

As I said, it is a brief one this week, but I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

I am so pleased to be writing my blog this week going into the weekend with a noticeable rise in temperature from this time last week. It certainly makes it easier to get out and about at the weekend when we’re not faced with sub-zero temperatures!

We had a couple of notable events which happened this week, the first of which took place yesterday. It was fantastic to see the Year 2 children dressed in their Tudor clothes as they took part in their history workshop throughout the day. The children got to experience several aspects of life as a person in Tudor times and they were all buzzing to be part of this enriching experience. It really helps to bring history to life when experienced first-hand by the children and I’m sure they will keep the memory for many years to come. Thank you so much to the parent volunteers who gave up their time to allow all of the planned activities to go ahead.

The next notable event of the week happened this morning and that was our Year 3 class assembly. The children shared lots of learning that they have done so far this year and they presented it in a very humorous and entertaining way! From the work that the children had completed on the Tear Thief in English to the Stephen Wiltshire-inspired drawings that they had created in their art lessons, it was clear to see how much the children have learned during their time in school so far this year. The breadth of learning and the fun ways that these have been presented highlighted how we try to provide as many opportunities as possible across the school for the children to learn in different ways. I was particularly proud of the way the children dealt with the technical difficulties that we had at the start and went with it –they were all stars! Thank you as ever to all of the parents for joining us and supporting the children throughout.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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.