Wonderful Writing!

Today, my day started and ended with excellent writing!  First thing this morning, Mrs Jessop came to see me with Andrew who had taken the time at home to create his own legend.  It was an extremely impressive piece of writing with wonderful vocabulary choices.

Then, this afternoon, Miss Williams sent Hattie to see me with a sensational piece of descriptive writing:

I was meandering, one very sunny morning, in the words when the ground just ... rumbled and up grew a gigantican (gargantuan and gigantic) tree.  There it stood.  Roots flooding the surface around me.  

"What?"

I stood bewildered, almost in a trance.  Then, out of the door, that was embedded inside the tree, emerged a small, old man.  He didn't seem at all surprised to see me but I was drawn to his appearance.

In the soft breeze his long beard resembled a lot of brown, furry caterpillars.  He was wrinkly yet his hair was not greying.  Long, pencil-like, fingers rummaged his pockets and he pulled out a stick, which looked like a wand, and he tapped a plant pot.  'He's lost 'is marbles,' I thought to myself.

"Good morning Laura," the man smiled.  How did he know my name?  I didn't have anything to say apart from that, so I just curved one of my eyebrows.  I'm good at that.


Keep up the super work!

School House Garden

Mrs Upton, Mrs Johnson, Mrs Makepeace and Ms Walravens have been continuing on with weekly gardening club and the children seem to be really enjoying it. Last week we made bird-feeders. The children enjoyed mixing up the lard, seeds, cooked rice and breadcrumbs in bowls then crafting birdfeeders from the mixture, which they could chose to take home or hang in the school garden.

Years 3&4 were first out and made yoghurt pots and pinecone feeders. Years 5&6 used lids and made some interesting shapes with the mixture.

If you'd like to have a go at home you can download detailed instructions here http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx

School Council Update

The School Council have been working hard to improve life at Great Gaddesden.

So far this term, they have attended a charity fundraising event at Hemel Ski Centre (thanks to Rowan for the invitation!); they have created an initiative to encourage children to walk to school and they have met the mayor.  On top of this, they have used their weekly meetings to share suggestions from class suggestion boxes - including:

New play equipment for the bark area
More lunch-time clubs
An opportunity to have quiet time in the library or church
A Winter Ball
A girls football team

To name just a few!  We look forward to updating you with our progress with these suggestions.

Visits and Visitors

This term, children in Years 5 & 6 are learning about Buddhism.  To support this work we have visited the Amaravati Monastery and have been fortunate enough to have a visit from one of the nuns who was able to answer questions such as:

"Why did you decide to become a nun?"
"Are your family buddhists?"
"Which of the five precepts is most important to you?"

Years 5 & 6 are using the knowledge gained from their trip; their visit from the nun and their own research to create non-fiction, digital books.  We look forward to sharing them!

School Council

Congratulations to Krysta, Hattie, Eleanor, Aidan, Aaron and Fallon who make up the school council this year!


We will meet every Monday lunch-time to discuss any suggestions put into suggestion-boxes.  The school-council will then feed-back to their classes and there will be an entry regarding the school council made in each newsletter, so that the whole school is kept informed about the work of the school council.


So far this term, we have discussed:


e-Safety
Our school council representatives have been talking to their classes about what e-Safety is and how to stay safe online.


A wish list for FOGGS
They have shared a wish list with the PTA to provide suggestions for any fund-raising this year.


Anti-bullying
The school council will be hosting an anti-bullying assembly on Monday 12th October.  They will talk to the school about what bullying is; what bullying isn't and what you should do if you ever feel you are being bullied or you ever witness bullying.


Traffic (before and after school)
They are also going to be launching a campaign to encourage children to walk to school (or, at the very least, walk part of the way to school!) to help keep children healthy and to ease the congestion at the beginning and end of the school day. Keep your eyes on our newsletter to find out more!


I am confident that the school council have a productive year ahead of them!

Buddhist Monastery

During the Year 5/6 trip to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, we had opportunities to:

Experience what meal-times look like with monks and nuns
Visit the temple
See a stupa (buddhist monument)
Meditate.

All of this helped us to gain a deeper understanding of the Buddhist faith.  Below are just a sample of the interesting facts we discovered:

Kaia:  Buddhists don't worship a God.  Instead they follow the teachings of the Buddha who lived approximately 2500 years ago.
Ben:  You can meditate in four ways: sitting, standing, walking or lying down.
Grace:  If a monk is in training they wear white robes; once they have become a monk, they wear saffron robes.
Dylan:  There are 227 precepts (rules) that a Buddhist monk must follow.
Chloe:  The monk showing us around had not touched money since 1994!

School House Garden

We were excited to see how well everything had grown in the garden during the summer. There is a lot of jobs to do over the coming half term and Mr Trueman has kindly given us some spring flowers to plant. We also have the bulbs that we found when clearing the flower beds last term to replant into tubs too.  

Yrs 1 & 2 were the first out today and they found the abundance of caterpillars and their eggs on the radish leaves. Thankfully the pumpkin plant has fuzzy leaves protecting them, although unfortunately the slugs have eaten a few of the flowers. We hope of the 11 flowers left, we will get some more pumpkins and our one current baby pumpkin continues to grow and turn orange. 

 

 

 

The Strawberry plant is doing really well and seems to have bedded down well in its stacked troughs,however all of the fruit is still green. Years 3 & 4 we're quick to tell us that the strawberry plants need sun as well as water and suggested we moved the plant to the sunniest spot we could find in the garden, so we did. All the children that came into the garden today helped to pick up the rotting apples from the grass. Various tools and methods were used for collecting them with the children showing great energy and enthusiasm, with over 120 collected in under an hour!

 

Nursery and Reception were quick to find the bright yellow tomato plant flowers and then counted four green baby tomatoes that still have a long way to go.  They pulled up a few carrots and decided to replant them for a little longer as they were no bigger than our little fingers. Two of the sunflower plants have grown so tall that they are taller than Mrs Johnson and Mrs Upton, we're going to measure them next week and look forward to collecting all their seeds.

Welcome Back!

We have returned to school ready for another fantastic year!  We have enjoyed welcoming our new families and children.

Our value for September is 'Sharing' and yesterday I heard about a lovely example of this value being displayed at home by Dexter in Reception.  Dexter had helped to share out pancakes for friends and family and he designed a super assault course in his back garden so that all the children coming round for a family party could share in playing with it.  Super sharing Dexter - keep it up!

Another special mention for someone in Reception:  Luke has recently used the ipad app 'BookCreator' to produce a wonderful 'How to make a model' guide.  He has used photos and voice-overs to explain his work.  Well done Luke!












Finally, a special mention to Reece who was star of the week in Early Years last week.  Reece has returned to school with a real desire to learn and has been really enthusiastic about all of the exciting opportunities available to him in his classroom.

Reflection

This morning, Miss Groves led our collective worship on our new value of 'Reflection'.

Children from Years 1 - 6 were asked to reflect on what has been particularly enjoyable over this academic year.  Examples were varied and extensive as you will see...!

College Lakes trip (Maddie)

Christingle Service (Krysta)

R.A.F. Museum (Jack)

Egg-rolling competition (Aaron)

Discos (Hattie, Simeon & Aidan)

Football (Hannah, Callum & Hattie)

English lessons (Callum, Andrew & Simeon)

Maths lessons (Hannah & Andrew)

Bark area (everyone!)

Viking Day (Hattie, Eleanor, Andrew & Simeon)

Story-writing (Callum, Hattie & Simeon)

Hudnall Park

Being with friends (everone)

PGL (All of Years 5 & 6!)

The Globe Theatre

Egg-decorating competition

P.E. with Mr Murphy

Swimming at Berkhamsted School (Meadow & Grace)

Rounders Club

Cheerleading

Street Dance (Meadow)

Celtic Harmony trip

Getting my cards (Rowan)

Using 'Scratch' software in Computing lessons

Harry Potter World trip

Oxford University trip

Watford Penalty Shoot-out

War Horse trip

Bollywood dancing

Art Club

Football league (Years 5 & 6)

Drama in English lessons

Sapphire Gymnastics (Meadow)

 Years 3 & 4 at Celtic Harmony to support their learning of the Stone Age.

 Years 1 & 2 at College Lakes in Tring to support learning in Science.

 Years 3 - 6 visit the Globe Theatre to participate in a Macbeth workshop.

Years 3 & 4 have a one-night residential trip to Hudnall Park.

We will use the information gained to ensure we continue to provide a varied and dynamic curriculum as we move into the new academic year.

PGL - June 2015

Last week, Years 5 & 6 visited Dorset for their week long residential trip. 

We had a brilliant week, taking part in a great range of activities.  As is always the case, the behaviour of our children was second to none.

Exceptional Writing

Over the last 18 months, the quality of writing produced by our children has gone from strength to strength.  There is an increased confidence and maturity about the writing produced and I have been really impressed with the standard of writing across the school.

Last week, Oscar and Callum in Year 6 emailed me some examples of the narrative writing they have been producing.  Please read extracts of their work below:

A NEWFOUND FRIEND

Ellie stood behind me, trembling and pleading me to leave the deserted horror we were blindly facing. I felt my hand also shuddering with the rising fear, burning my insides but then I turned the corner after moments of life-threatening hesitation. Finally, I too felt we had to go home to mother; she’d be worried sick by now. As I left, the fear trickled out of me as a wave of relief entered and took over my mind…

When we reached the broken down cottage that we called home, Ellie and I were both panting. I followed the cobbled path as it swayed around the elegant beech trees, glistening leaves gliding swiftly to the floor around my very feet.

Seeing the door slamming itself on the wall in the wind was a horrifying surprise. We decided to go and check if mother was ok. Slowly and cautiously, we entered the wreck. Floorboards creaked. The moon sparkled. Worry filled my body. Ellie was now clenching my hand with her tightest grip; although I couldn’t feel my hand, I knew she was there, I could hear her teeth chattering.

 

Callum Oliver

WHEN FROST FREEZES

A man in a black tuxedo slowly walked down his stairs. He was cold-hearted. His face was scarce of emotion. This man, was Thierry Zidane. Thierry starred in many films and had earned billions of euros in the process. However, Thierry Zidane was no ordinary actor as they were about to find out.

A bald headed man was awaiting him at the bottom of the never ending stairs holding out a glass of shandy. A black Land Rover pulled up in the pebble stone drive “He’s ready to do business sir” the bald headed man murmured.

Oscar Frost

Looking forward to reading more from both of you!  

Well done boys.

Remarkable Role Models

This week I received a lovely letter from a prospective parent who commented really positively on a tour she was given by Neive and Callum last week:


'Also an extra thank you to two very positive pupils, Callum and Neive.  Both were very informative about their school, did a great job of showing me round and were quite clearly proud to be a part of their school.  That to me says a lot about the school's environment.  Please do pass on my thanks.'


We could not ask for better ambassadors for our school - well done to both of you!

Sports Premium Funding

This academic year, the school has decided to spend some of our sports premium funding on providing 'WOW P.E. Workshops' for each class for one half-term.

Years 3 and 4 are visiting Sapphire Gymnastics in Hemel Hempstead this term, where they have the opportunity to use a range of gymnastic equipment including:  beams, bars, rings and trampoline.

The facilities available are really terrific and we have been pleased to see how much children in Years 3 & 4 have enjoyed the workshops after just one visit. 

A special mention to Meadow who demonstrated excellent flexibility.

Spring Poetry in Year One

This morning, Ollie and Trystan came to see me with some fantastic Spring-themed poetry.  The improvements in the quality of the writing and their presentation is phenomenal.

Well done boys!

Ancient Greeks

This term, children in Years 5 & 6 have been learning about the Ancient Greeks.  As part of this unit of work, children have created their own Ancient Greek board games to demonstrate their learning of the era.  The results are excellent!

Excellent Mental Maths

This academic year, in my role as Maths leader, I am keeping track of the progress children make with their mental maths, in particular their rapid recall of times tables.  Children in Years 3 - 6 (and those in Year 2, who are ready) complete a weekly times table grid in 4 minutes.  Their score is recorded and we celebrate the following mile-stones:

2x, 5x and 10x tables completed within 4 minutes
50% of the grid completed within 4 minutes
75% of the grid completed within 4 minutes
100% of the grid completed withing 4 minutes

It has been fantastic to see children applying and challenging themselves to beat their last score. 

Max and Willow are now able to complete the grid within 4 minutes, so have a new 'time challenge': they now  have to complete the grid in the fastest time possible.  (Miss Williams and I are joining them for this part of the challenge!)

Well done to both Max and Willow for their continued application with their mental maths.

Marvellous Maths!

This week, Kaia and Eleanor were sent to me for some truly marvellous Maths!  Years 3 and 4 have been developing their understanding of division and both Kaia and Eleanor have made excellent progress this week in their understanding of the 'bus stop method'.  Division can be the trickiest of the four operations, however Kaia and Eleanor have applied themselves well with excellent results.

In addition to this, we have been increasing the expectations of presentation in books and these two have risen to the challenge.  Excellent work!