As a Parent Governor, I am able to regularly see first-hand how much the pupils love coming to school each day and how excited they get about different events in the school calendar.
This month has been a busy one for the pupils at Great Gaddesden School as ever, with lots of learning happening inside the classroom and also outside in the village and surrounding areas.
Nursery and Reception enjoyed a day at Ledgemore Farm in Great Gaddesden to support their learning on growing and Spring. I’m told it was an exciting day as they got to see some baby lambs being born! They have also been thinking about how people grow – reflecting on how much they have grown since they were babies, and even enjoying a visit from a real life baby!
Years One and Two are focusing on measurements during their maths lessons and have been busy exploring the school to find things to measure. They are also learning about the concept of time, which is quite tricky when you are five, six and seven! This month the children also enjoyed an opportunity to visit the local church as part of their RE lessons and embarked upon a mud-filled Mini Beast Hunt around the local area which was lots of fun.
Years Three and Four have been working hard concentrating on “Bus Stop Division” during their Maths lessons, and writing Haiku poems and retelling fairy tales in Literacy. However, I’m sure they would all tell you that the absolute highlight of their month was an extremely exciting trip to Harry Potter World at Leavesden Studios to build on the work they are doing in class about non-chronological reports. The children haven’t stopped talking about what an amazing time they had on the Studio Tour flying on broom sticks and casting spells!
Years Five and Six have been working on fractions this month. I was fortunate to sit in on one of their maths lessons and was very impressed at the pupils’ ability to convert fractions into percentages and decimal places using rapid recall in their heads - and without using a calculator! In Literacy the pupils have been learning how to write sets of Instructions, which has coincidently involved some cake making in order to learn how to follow recipe instructions. To balance the cake eating, pupils also took part in an Athletics Tournament this month against other schools in Dacorum and won three of their events.
To celebrate World Book Day, the whole school participated in a week-long “Sponsored Read” in conjunction with Usborne Books. Each child had to record how long they had spent either reading, or listening to a story. The Sponsored Read, combined with a book sale during the same week raised £900 in new reading books for the school.
The children love to dress up for charity and so Comic Relief this month was a great opportunity to wear red and make their faces “funny for money”. There were some extremely funny faces on display and the day culminated in a cake sale organised by the School Council, with all funds going to Comic Relief.
Additionally, this month all classes have held their class sharing assembly, which is an opportunity for the children to share their learning with their families and friends.
I can’t let this month pass without mentioning a lovely evening which the full staff and governing body spent together at Alison Wilkinson’s home reflecting on the journey of the school during the past year and planning for the coming year as a whole team. The focus of the evening was “Getting to Outstanding” (in the eyes of Ofsted).
If you asked our pupils, they would tell you that they already think that Great Gaddesden is an outstanding school!!
You can keep up to date with the news and learning of all children at the school through our class blogs which are accessible through the school website.
Clare Rudd
Parent Governor
