Parish News November 2014

The School Council plays an important role in our school : six children of different ages who meet weekly to discuss issues of importance to the pupils. The School Council recently visited the Houses of Parliament to see how democracy works on a national level. We were then delighted to welcome local MP Mike Penning to the school to tell us about his life as an MP and to answer questions.  The children’s questions were equally as challenging as those from the floor of the House. For example:

-          How do you raise money to keep the Houses of Parliament running?

-          As an MP, how do you feel about troops being sent to War?

We hope that these types of experience will encourage our children to be ‘confident, respectful and successful citizens of the future’.

 

Recently five of our children attended an ‘Able Maths Day’ at George Street School, using Art to inspire the budding mathematicians. Tasks included working out how many assistants Damien Hirst would need to make Spot paintings of various sizes and making Anthony Gormley figurines from plasticine and estimating how many would be needed to fill the school hall (252,000!!!). Certainly a different approach to mathematics with plenty of practical activities. Children will also be attending an ‘Able Writers Day’. These events are an excellent way of enriching the curriculum and giving children the opportunity to work with pupils from other local schools.

 

On National Poetry Day children throughout the school wrote their own poems. There are some beautiful examples of their poems on our website. Year 5&6 wrote poems inspired by the First World War and I would like to share a poem written by Oscar in Year 6:

 

The trenches are dirty

The trenches are wet

The trenches are our homes

Covering our silhouette.

 

Violets are blue

Poppies are red –

Representing the blood

that we shed;

 

We wear our poppies

with love and respect

We will never forget

We must never forget.

 

Leaving our families

Holding hands with our future;

Bravely marching, we the British warriors

We will never forget

We must never forget.

 

The oceans of poppies,

Blood and sweat

We must never forget

 

Please don't forget.

 

 

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors

Parish News October 2014

Great Gaddesden CoE (VA) School

The new school year has arrived! We welcome twenty new children to the school, primarily in Nursery and Reception, and hope that they will all be very happy in our village school. We also welcome Mrs Jessop as our Senior Teacher in the Year 3&4 classroom. There is a real buzz of excitement in the classroom and on the playground.

War Horse

The year started with a bang for children in Years 5&6 as they headed into London by train to see the acclaimed play ‘War Horse’. The trip supports the literacy work in the classroom, but is also consistent with our ambition to provide the children with inspiring experiences beyond the curriculum.

‘War Horse is an amazing show directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris; it stars Jack Loxton as Albert. It is based on the book written by Michael Morpurgo.

It is about Joey, the horse, and his magnificent journey through World War 1. You meet many different characters along the way: funny ones, weak ones, evil ones, serious ones, strong ones and all sorts of ones!’ By Henry (Year 6)

‘The storyline was about a horse; he was born and trained to be a racehorse, but after a farmer bought him, he became a farm horse, and learnt to plough the field. He was sold to the war for £100 and everyone on the farm was upset. Joey, the horse, got to experience both sides of the war.’ By Callum (Year 6)

‘Albert and Joey are the main characters. The horses moved slowly and carefully and all of the actors had good facial expressions and acted really well.‘ By Dylan (Year 5)

‘Joey and Albert build a friendship that can’t be broken by anything. They are special because they have a bigger bond than anyone else in the story.’ By Oscar (Year 6)

 ‘War Horse at the New London Theatre was brilliant! It’s full of humour, sadness and show stopping moments.’ By Kayleigh  (Year 6)

As a school, we were also delighted to receive the following message from a member of the public:

 

'I am sitting on a train with a dozen or so of your pupils and three of your staff en route to London.

This is just to say what an absolute pleasure it is to see such bright, cheerful and interested boys and girls, in full flow, yet with manners and due deference to their surroundings and others.

They are all a great credit to your school, and I hope they all go on to great things.’

New Curriculum

The staff have been working hard to make sure that the School is ready for the new, more challenging national curriculum. Our small staff numbers and mixed-age classes mean that each teacher is responsible for leading several curriculum areas and for planning the curriculum on a two-year-rolling basis. The plans look very exciting and inspiring: we hope that the children are inspired to love learning.

Clubs

Finally, I would like to mention the range of extra-curricular clubs that are on offer this term: Art, Cooking, Coding, Dance, Science, Gardening, Maths, Football and Knitting. This is quite a remarkable offering for such a small school. Our daily Breakfast Club is also very popular. We are extremely lucky to have such a dedicated staff who want to offer opportunities above and beyond the set curriculum.

 

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors

Maths Day

Five of our able mathematicians attended a special maths inspiration day at George Street School today. It was a great experience to work with children from other schools, exploring maths through art.

 

We looked at Damien Hirst’s Spot paintings to investigate square numbers and factors, and to estimate how long it would take to do a real spot painting. Did you know that Damien Hirst uses assistants to do the actual paintings? Or that every spot is a slightly different colour? Our group created their own Spot design

 

 

 

Then the work of artist Carl Andre was used to inspire us to work with Dominoes to create 3 dimensional shapes.

 

 

 

Finally, the sculptures of Anthony Gormley were used to investigate weight, density and volume. Everyone made a small plasticene figure and then we had to think carefully about how to estimate how many of our tiny figures would be needed to fill the hall at George Street School. Our estimate was that 252,000 figures (or a quarter of a million!) would be needed.

 

 

 

We also learnt about the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco who made a ball of plasticine the same weight as his own body weight and then rolled it through the streets of New York to symbolize the impact that everyday life has on us. Can you guess how big a ball of plasticine is needed the weigh the same as a grown man? Tennis ball sized? Football sized? Spacehopper sized?

 

If you want to know the answer then please ask Callum, Dylan, Max, Ollie or Willow!

 

Andrzej Gaudyn and I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying the children on their Maths day.

 

Alison Wilkinson

 

Elected School Council takes on the Houses of Parliament

Fellow Governor Mrs Wilkinson and myself had the pleasure of joining a school trip with Mrs Lilley and representative children from all classes on a trip to the Houses of Parliament. Around this Mrs Lilley organised a visit to a number of London's Historic Landmarks.

It was truly a great and memorable day! All the children - Hope, Jack, Hattie, Beau, Fenella, Kaia, Harrison, Callum, Nancy, Willow & Dylan were superbly behaved throughout the long day and asked lots of brilliant questions in Parliament!

A big thanks to Mrs Lilley in organising this event.

Andrzej Gaudyn
30th September 2014

As we approach the 160th Anniversary of the School at Great Gaddesden….

Being a Governor with responsibility for Premises , Health & Safety, apart from the occasional major project, I am often bogged down in the not so joyful world of leaking pipework/ taps, dodgy roofing, dry rot, rising damp, rotting windows as well as mind numbing Health & safety and planning legislation. On the plus side it has always been rewarding to see the positive impact that little improvements to the school make to the environment that our children enjoy during their school day.

Managing a school where some buildings date to over 150 years and others were added and constructed in the 1960’s & 1980’s gives us a number of challenges in providing the best environment for the young minds entrusted to us to expand their knowledge to their maximum individual potential.

Our head, the teachers and all the staff have been doing a fantastic job  in focusing on raising the standard of education in the school and the results speak for themselves. (Herts CC, The Diocese of ST Albans and HM Inspector of schools all seem to agree too ! )

The school is becoming ever popular with school numbers increasing, however,  the schools Governing body, recognises that there are some unique features of this school which make it what it is such as smaller class sizes and a high staff to pupil ratio providing good quality targeted education.

One of the tasks ahead will be to look at how to make the most of the whole of the schools layout to make best use of the buildings fit for another 150 years !

Some of you may have noticed a new addition to the school house garden.  Inspired by approaching 160^th Anniversary (in 2 ½ years time) a former pupil of Great Gaddesden School has designed, hand forged and installed a Victorian arch over the entrance into the school house garden. The former pupil chose this as a project as part of her A level in Design & Technology.  I hope you will agree that this is a nice addition to the school’s environment.

 

 

Full Governing Body Meeting - September 15th 2014

On Monday evening, we held the first Full Governing Body Meeting of the academic year.

We meet as a full governing body once every half term, providing support to the school as a ‘Critical Friend’. Our activities are wide-ranging and might include approving school policies, reviewing pupil attainment data and planning capital investment.

The first meeting is focused on making sure that the Governing Body is ready for the year ahead. Agenda items included:

-          electing a Chair (Alison Wilkinson) and Vice-Chair (Catherine Wilkinson)

-          confirming the sub-committees for the coming year (Finance, Personnel & Premises; Curriculum & Standards)

-          approving the Governors’ programme of work for the academic year, including how the Governors can support the School Development Plan

-          approving the Minutes from the meeting held in July 2014, and reviewing matters arising from that meeting

-          approving our Instrument of Government and agreeing training priorities for the Governing Body

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday November 10^th.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Governing Body, please do not hesitate to contact me awilkinson@greatgaddesden.herts.sch.uk

Wishing everyone at Great Gaddesden CoE (VA) School a happy and successful academic year.

 

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors

Parish News September 2014

Great Gaddesden CoE (VA) School

The children and staff of the school are currently enjoying a well-earned summer holiday. The last academic year was incredibly busy with innovations in many areas of school life ranging from installing a new central heating boiler (following a leak in the boiler room) to celebrating Small Schools Week in style with an “off-curriculum week” of amazing activities. All of these issues (and many more!) come into the in-tray of a small school’s Headteacher. The breadth of issues that has to be dealt with is quite amazing. We are incredibly fortunate to have Miss Worsley as our headteacher and she has led the school with skill and compassion throughout the year.

The traditional Leavers’ Service at the end of term was a chance to pay tribute to our Year 6 Leavers – Amanda, Charlie, Shyla, Josh – “The four of you have been superb leaders and have set a terrific example to the rest of the school. Great Gaddesden will always be your school and we look forward to hearing about your future successes - stay in touch!”  They have all been wonderful pupils of our school and I am sure their experiences at Great Gaddesden will mean that they move on to be happy and successful secondary school pupils.

 It was also an opportunity to thank the staff for their hard work throughout the year. Academically, the relentless focus on raising standards has really borne fruit and our SATs results (for pupils in Years 2 and 6) demonstrate genuinely excellent progress in reading, writing and maths. This is testament to the hard work of both staff and pupils. We are very proud of their achievements.

 However, our school is about so much more than academic standards. This year has also seen the school provide the children and the staff with so many opportunities to grow in all areas of their lives. The class blogs and school website are a record of just how varied and rich the school experience at Great Gaddesden has become.

In September we welcome Mrs Jessop to the school as Senior Teacher and Inclusion Leader. We are really excited about the opportunities this appointment offers to drive further improvements in teaching and learning throughout the school.

We also welcome new families to our school in September and trust that the children and their families will be very happy as they start their ‘friendship’ with Great Gaddesden School.

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors