Celebrating Success at the end of the Autumn Term

Celebrating Success Autumn 1

School House Garden - June 2016

An update from the Gardening Club is below.  It really is looking fabulous out there!  As we come to the end of this academic year, we are starting to think about how we can make better use of the school garden across the curriculum in the next academic year - watch this space!

We have been dodging the rain this June in Gardening club but have still managed to have some fun. The wheelbarrow has been painted and is now bursting with colour and flowers, our Sunflowers despite the lack of sun are slowing climbing upwards and are now just peeking above the height of the garden wall for all to see. The pond is also full of life and fascinates the children who have spotted frogs, newts and dragonfly larvae. The Raspberry canes and strawberries are developing their fruit beautifully but we think it will be a race between the hungry birds and the gardening club as to who eats the tasty fruit first. Today years 1,2,3,4 joined us in making their own Bug Hotels, created from old pots, cardboard, bamboo canes, moss and others plants. We discussed the idea of Hibernation for insects especially ladybirds who help us by eating other insects that damage our plants. The Children gave brilliant answers about how the Bug Hotels provided protection from the cold and other creatures who wanted to eat them. My favourite idea from one pupil was that their bug hotel had a slide for the bugs to use and a pole for butterflies to attach to, what a wonderful thought!

Sincere thanks to all the parents who give up their time so generously to ensure the children get outside digging, planting, exploring and learning - your time is so appreciated.

And some pictures from last time ...

Gardening Club

Our Gardening Club continues to thrive thanks to the generous efforts of a team of committed parents.  To read more, please visit our school website:


http://www.greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk/

Drama Workshops

This year, we are hosting half-termly drama workshops to support improvements in Writing as well as to raise the profile of 'The Arts' across the school.

The workshops have been delivered by Sophia of the Hurst Childrens' Theatre Group and have been thoroughly enjoyed by all!  The increase in confidence that we have seen has been excellent and we have seen some super improvisation skills.

In the photos below, children in Years 5 & 6 were taking on the role of annoying members of the public at a bus-stop.  It is fair to say that they really got into character!

World Book Day 2016!

Thursday 3rd March was World Book Day and children at Great Gaddesden CofE School enjoyed a host of reading based activities including:

• Dressing up as their favourite book characters.
• 'Buddy Reading'.
• A book swap.

It was great to see so many children inspired by recent texts they had read (particularly the great number of children in Years 3 & 4 who have been inspired by David Walliams' Gangsta Granny).

Sharing our Learning

This week, we had our first class assembly of the term with children in Nursery and Reception sharing a wonderful performance of the much-loved story:  We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  The performance was an excellent display of acting skills, confidence and memory (the entire story was re-told!)

Children in Nursery and Reception have been inspired by their recent trip to the theatre to see a production of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and I have every confidence that the performance we saw on Wednesday morning would give the production they saw at the Radlett Centre a run for its money!

Mental Maths Progress

This academic year, children have been working hard to improve their rapid recall of mental maths facts.  Each week, children in Years 2 - 6 complete as much of a times table grid as they possibly can within a 4 minute time period.  Awards are handed out for the following mile-stones:

2x, 5x and 10x tables

50% of the grid

75% of the grid and

100% of the grid

Aaron, in Year 2, has been working incredibly hard to beat his score each week and today achieved an excellent result of 72%!  All children achieving 75% or more are eligible to compete against the staff in a half-termly mental maths challenge!  Not far to go Aaron ...

Great Gaddesden's Got Talent!

Earlier this term, a suggestion was made (via the School Council's suggestion boxes) that we should host a 'Great Gaddesden's Got Talent' competition.  The School Council decided this was a great idea and over the last week auditions have been taking place at lunch-times, with Year 6 pupils as judges.  Auditions included a wide range of acts, including singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and comedy.  Huge congratulations to our seven finalists (Luke, Fallon, Maddie, Olivia, Fenella, Eleanor and Bradley) who performed in front of the whole school this morning and thoroughly impressed us with their talents.  The judges had a very difficult decision to make as the quality of the acts was incredibly high.  After some careful deliberation, they decided that Bradley was victorious with his excellent rendition of a Justin Bieber classic!

Limericks

Children in Years 3 & 4 have been learning about how to write limericks, using the rhyming pattern:
AA, BB, A.

There once was a girl called Grace,
Who took part in a sack race.
She then climbed a wall
But began to fall
And ended up breaking her face!

By Immy

There once was a boy called Fin,
Who was incredibly thin.
He found a huge rock
And put it in his sock
Then he got stuck in a bin!

By Finley

Immy and Finley have captured the humour in their limericks perfectly!  Well done to both of you.

Play-Leaders

This term, we are looking to improve our lunch-time provision for all children.  With this in mind, Miss Williams and I are training our Year 5 & 6 children to become play-leaders for the rest of the school.  Our play-leaders will work in teams of three and take one lunch-time a week to provide an activity/game for younger children.  Training to date has included:

• What makes a good play-leader?  What skills/attributes are required to ensure that you provide a good session?
• What might be good games/activities to play?  (Taking into consideration the variety in ages.)
• A practical session with children in Reception.

Still to come:

• What can go wrong when you are play-leading?
• Practical sessions with children in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4.

I look forward to sharing their successes with you!

Play-leader training for children in Years 5 & 6 with children from Reception: