It has been just wonderful to welcome everybody back this year and we have certainly relished getting back into the swing of things at school! We hope you enjoy looking through the photos of our highlights. Read on below if you want to find out a little more about any of the photos.
Assemblies
The children have relished the opportunity to gather in the hall for Keystage assemblies. Mrs Driver started the year with the first Values Assembly – RESPECT. Singing assemblies have made a comeback and the children are enjoying some classic William Ransom songs but also learning some new Values Songs. Achievers’ Assemblies are allowing us to celebrate together weekly and the children can find out whether they have managed to earn a leaf to adorn the Values Tree. We have had some very special assemblies already this half term.
Harvest Festival
For Harvest Festival, children brought in one item of fresh produce each and brought them to assembly. Mrs Driver then explained the origins of Harvest Festival and children bought raffle tickets to win a hamper. There was great excitement that afternoon as a team of strong Year 5 children raced around school handing out 38 hampers to the lucky winners! The money raised £479.40 which will go to the hardship fund with Hitchin Partnership. This will be used to support families from across Hitchin who are struggling to buy enough food and clothes.
Wild World Heroes
There was a special assembly to celebrate all the children who had managed to gain certificates for the summer World Wide Heroes Reading Challenge. Mrs Hall was amazed at how many children managed to not only read all those books but also remember to bring in their certificates!
The Festival of Languages
September 26th gave us the opportunity to celebrate the European Day of Languages with our annual Festival of Languages. We weren’t able to invite parents in to help us this year but every class had fun learning about a new country, its language(s) and its culture. There was, of course, dancing and food in some classrooms too!
Reception Parents Welcome Evening
One of our new traditions is to have an evening where we invite parents of Reception children in to school to meet each other and some teachers. As so many parents work, we think it’s really important for you to have the chance to get to know one another. It also gave new parents the opportunity to talk with members of the School Parents’ Association and learn about ways they could help in the future.
Mini Summer Fete
A beautiful sunny day in September and lots of hard work by the SPA meant that we raised over £3000 for the school with a mini summer fete outdoors. Activities included a book stall, a soft toy tombola, a bottle tombola, beat the goalie game, go karting, cake stall, tea bar and much much more. It was such a fabulous day for the children, in particular, who had missed our annual summer fete in June.
Responsibilities
Rotas are back up and running in school giving our Year 4, 5 and 6 children responsibilities. We have rotas for helping Reception children at lunch, helping to wipe trays and clear the dining room, Year 5 Play leaders to play with Year 1 children and many more. Year 6 children are so excited that they can go to Reception playground and get to know the younger children.
Clubs
Extra-curricular clubs have been able to start again now that we can mix bubbles. These include Eco Club, Orbit, Quiz Club, Netball, Football and Lacrosse. We have even had our first sports fixtures with two fabulous football games.
Black History Month
The launch of Black History Month is always a very popular assembly and this one certainly did not disappoint! Mrs Driver’s assembly has inspired all of the children and teachers and lots of projects have started already throughout the school. Mrs Waite has provided Keystage 2 teachers with some fabulous interactive resources from Hitchin Library for our History lessons, which look at Black residents of North Herts over time – a fascinating insight into our local history. Mrs Hall has been shopping again and bought lots of empowering books with black characters for us all to enjoy and Mrs Driver is choosing inspirational black people to talk about in Monday assemblies. The first assembly was all about the famous footballer and activist Marcus Rashford.
Mini Marathon
Our mini marathon in October was hugely successful and raised almost £1,800! This money will go towards the purchase of a new outdoor activity trail for the school field. Every single child took part and managed to run laps of the daily mile. Many ran lots more laps than even they had anticipated. There were lots of photos of happy runners on Twitter that day!
School Trips
There have been trips to the Roald Dahl Museum for Year 4 and the Krishna Temple for Year 5.
We hope you and your children have enjoyed all of the experiences on offer this half term!
