4.2.19 Simon Balle All-through School Larch Newsletter Message from the Headteacher Inside this issue: Reception News 2 Year 1 News 2 Year 2 News 3 Year 3 News 3 Attendance 4 Values Awards 4 Notices from Primary Phase 5 Dates for the Dia- 5 PSA News 6 Other Notices 7,8,9, 10, 11 Dear Families With less than two weeks to go to half term, thank you again for all your support with so many aspects of school life. Already we have welcomed so many parents to parents’ evenings, concerts, sporting events and information evenings. Despite the challenges of the weather last week, school ran incredibly smoothly, thanks to everyone’s patience. Two reminders before we do break up: Non uniform day (£2) on Thursday 14 February to support The Shaw Trust (details to follow) and Friday 15th February is a staff training day, so students are not required to attend school. We return to normal routines on Monday 25th February. For the past few weeks we have been spending considerable time recruiting teachers and support staff, the majority of whom will join us in September. I am delighted to be able to inform you that in most cases this has been incredibly successful and we have been able to appoint some high calibre colleagues. We shall shortly be advertising again for other posts including primary teachers, and additional support staff, so do keep an eye on either “Teach in Herts” or our own website. I am delighted to be able to inform you that we have appointed an exceptional colleague to lead our Primary Phase. Rachel Kirk was Head teacher at Alban Wood Primary School (North Watford) and led the school from good to outstanding. Her reputation and ability was noticed and Rachel then went on to support another Hertfordshire school as Executive Head. For the past two years, Rachel has been working with Herts for Learning as one of the area school improvement partners, again supporting and challenging schools to ensure that all children receive the very best education. Living in Hertford, and knowing the school so well, Rachel is totally committed to the vision and ethos of Simon Balle All-through School and I have no doubt at all that she will make an incredible difference both to primary and secondary students. Although not taking up the permanent post until September, Rachel, Mike Moss and myself will be working closely together during the summer term to ensure a planned induction and transition. We will of course say far more about this as the summer term develops and I am sure that Mrs. Kirk will want to meet you and your children at various planned events. Important reminder If you have to drive onto the school site you must turn right and park in a suitably marked parking bay. Please do not turn left or go straight on to park – this area is for visitors only. We would also ask you not to stop on the crossings to pick up your child and if you are parked turn your engine off. Thank you for your co-operation. SPRING TERM
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4.2.19
Simon Balle All-through School
Larch Newsletter
Message from the Headteacher
Inside this issue:
Reception News 2
Year 1 News 2
Year 2 News 3
Year 3 News 3
Attendance 4
Values Awards 4
Notices from
Primary Phase
5
Dates for the Dia- 5
PSA News 6
Other Notices 7,8,9,
10, 11
Dear Families
With less than two weeks to go to half term, thank you again for all your support
with so many aspects of school life. Already we have welcomed so many parents
to parents’ evenings, concerts, sporting events and information evenings.
Despite the challenges of the weather last week, school ran incredibly smoothly,
thanks to everyone’s patience. Two reminders before we do break up: Non
uniform day (£2) on Thursday 14 February to support The Shaw Trust (details to
follow) and Friday 15th February is a staff training day, so students are not
required to attend school. We return to normal routines on Monday 25th
February.
For the past few weeks we have been spending considerable time recruiting
teachers and support staff, the majority of whom will join us in September. I am
delighted to be able to inform you that in most cases this has been incredibly
successful and we have been able to appoint some high calibre colleagues. We
shall shortly be advertising again for other posts including primary teachers, and
additional support staff, so do keep an eye on either “Teach in Herts” or our own
website.
I am delighted to be able to inform you that we have appointed an exceptional
colleague to lead our Primary Phase. Rachel Kirk was Head teacher at Alban
Wood Primary School (North Watford) and led the school from good to
outstanding. Her reputation and ability was noticed and Rachel then went on to
support another Hertfordshire school as Executive Head. For the past two years,
Rachel has been working with Herts for Learning as one of the area school
improvement partners, again supporting and challenging schools to ensure that
all children receive the very best education.
Living in Hertford, and knowing the school so well, Rachel is totally committed to
the vision and ethos of Simon Balle All-through School and I have no doubt at all
that she will make an incredible difference both to primary and secondary
students. Although not taking up the permanent post until September, Rachel,
Mike Moss and myself will be working closely together during the summer term to
ensure a planned induction and transition.
We will of course say far more about this as the summer term develops and I am
sure that Mrs. Kirk will want to meet you and your children at various planned
events.
Important reminder
If you have to drive onto the school site you must turn right and park in a suitably
marked parking bay. Please do not turn left or go straight on to park – this area is
for visitors only. We would also ask you not to stop on the crossings to pick up your
child and if you are parked turn your engine off. Thank you for your co-operation.
SPRING TERM
PAGE 2 SIMON BALLE ALL-THROUGH SCHOOL
Reception News
Year 1 News
Last week Reception had a super time visiting Hertford Fire Station. They learnt
about potential fire hazards, what to do if there is a fire, how to stay safe near
fire and what the role of a fire fighter is. They were also very lucky and got to go
in the fire engine and use the fire hose. Hedgehogs and Squirrels had a super
time and learnt lots. Please ask your child about the trip and about what they
discovered.
This week in Reception we have been continuing our learning about our
current value of Hope. We started the week by reading the book ‘How to
Catch a Star’ by Oliver Jeffers and acting out the story. We then created a
class story map and tried using our imagination to change the story into some-
thing we hope we could catch. We had lots of super ideas for different stories
for example; How to catch a unicorn, How to catch a snowflake and How to
catch a dinosaur!
In maths we have been learning all about money. The children have been
recognising different coins and trying to make different amounts using the
coins. Please continue this learning at home by showing children real coins and
see if they can help you pay for something in a shop.
Year 1 have enjoyed learning all about houses. Last week we thought about
different homes around the world and this week we learnt about how houses
have changed in the UK throughout history. This sparked some really interesting
conversations and the children were all intrigued to know when their houses
were built.
In English we have been exploring the ‘Rainbow Bird’ book - which is a
traditional Australian tale. The children have enjoyed thinking about the
characters and the story structure.
In maths we have been measuring and comparing length and height, using
both non-standard units (cubes, paperclips) and rulers to measure.
PAGE 3 SIMON BALLE ALL-THROUGH SCHOOL
Year 2 News
Year 3 News
We are really enjoying our topic of castles, particularly finding out about the
different types, how they have changed over time and the different jobs that
people might have in the castle. Next week the children will have the
opportunity to start art work linked to this topic.
In English, we have enjoyed our traditional tale from another culture, ‘Mufaro’s
beautiful daughters’ and have written our own stories which were inspired by
this.
In maths we have continued learning about money with a focus on exchange
and this culminated in the children setting up shops. Please continue to find
opportunities to support your child’s learning in this area by allowing them to
pay for items and to check the change!
This week we will begin looking at ‘Cinderboy’ which is a new version of
‘Cinderella’ and will begin looking at division into groups of 2,3,5 and 10.
We have enjoyed learning about the history of cars, trains and planes. In our
topic work we have been making large timelines to show events in
chronological order.
In English we have been writing explanations. We have linked these to our topic
work and written about how a car engine works. We will continue writing
explanations this week, also linked to topic.
In maths we have learnt about money. We converted pounds to pence and
then used column subtraction to work out the change. This week we are
learning about statistics. We have used tallies and have converted these into
bar graphs and pictograms.
In science we have continued to learn about forces and magnets. This week
we conducted an investigation to see which type of magnet is the strongest.
We plotted a graph to show our findings.
BBC Radio 2 are launching a 500 words competition where children under 9
can submit a story. If your child would like to enter this competition please log
on to the BBC 500 Words website at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/