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

Great Gaddesden Parish Newsletter

Below is the School's article in the Parish Newsletter for the July/August edition.

Great Gaddesden CoE (VA) School

For Children Aged 3-11

 Year 5&6 Trip to Paris

The long-awaited and planned for trip to Paris took place on Friday 20th June. The 4.30am start did not deter pupils or staff and they had a wonderful time. The children conducted a treasure hunt beginning outside Le Louvre - following clues to answer questions about some of the nearby attractions. There were 19 questions to answer as well as additional challenges such as recreating the pose from a statue or spelling out a word using their bodies as letters. The treasure hunt finished within site of L'Arc de Triomphe. Children then visited the Eiffel Tower - here they went as far as the second floor and took in the fabulous view of the city. They also used their French speaking skills to buy a number of souvenirs during the day. Behaviour was, a always, impeccable.

 

Small Schools Week

There is huge excitement in the school for the last week of June as normal lessons make way for a week of enrichment and extra curricular activities to celebrate Small Schools Week.

Each class teacher has developed an exciting week of activities:

Nursery & Reception will be having a Circus Skills Workshop, going on a woodland adventure, learning about Art through nature, preparing food for a picnic and hosting a teddy bears picnic for other small schools in the area.

Children in Years 1 &2 will be going to Tring Museum, having a fun food day, doing an Art Academy workshop and building woodland dens.

Our older pupils in Key Stage 2 will be going Kayaking on the Grand Union Canal, rock climbing at the XC, orienteering in our beautiful countryside, den building on the Gaddesden Estate, playing inter-house rounders, and doing a science workshop. On Friday all of the children in Key Stage 2 will be going to the Orchard Barn on the Gaddesden Estate for a ‘Dragons Den’ style workshop entitled “How to save the World”. We are very grateful to Nick and Viola Halsey for allowing us to use the wonderful facilities of the Gaddesden Estate.

On Wednesday the whole school will be going to Whipsnade Zoo for the day. One of the unique things about small schools is the wonderful sense of community that exists between pupils across the school. We felt that one way of celebrating this was for the whole school to share an outing together.

 Academic Review of the Year

One of the reasons that the school is able to enjoy Small Schools Week to the full is that the children and staff have worked incredibly hard this academic year on the core skills of reading, writing and maths. Our whole school focus has been to improve Writing and a recent LEA review of the school’s progress against its Ofsted targets said that the progress in writing this year has been “SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE”.

We are very proud of the huge improvements that are being made in academic teaching and learning across the school.

 Year 6 Leavers

This time of year is very poignant as we say goodbye to pupils who have been a very important part of our school community. This year we say farewell to Amanda, Charlie, Josh and Shyla. We are incredibly proud of them all and wish them happiness and success in their secondary schools. They have all been wonderful ambassadors for the School.

In a small school, being a Year 6 pupil brings many responsibilities, and the oldest children almost become part of the school leadership team! We are therefore particularly sad to see our oldest pupils leave. However, our current Year 5s will return in September ready to grow into the role of the most senior pupils in the school.

Wishing all members of our wonderful school community a relaxing summer holiday. We look forward to welcoming you back in September.

Alison Wilkinson

Chair of Governors 

Wild visitors to inter-house rounders

Preparations for inter-house rounders were hampered by an unusual event this weekend. A badger had dug up a bees nest in the corner of the rounders field! A quick call was made to local St Margarets beekeeper, Carolyn Wise. Her advice was that it would definitely be a bumblebee nest rather than a honey bee nest. Therefore there would only be around 40 bees in the nest rather than the 50,000 that can live in a honeybee hive! Bumblebees are protected and are generally peaceful insects. In fact the few bumblebees around the nest site were very calm and beautiful. Did you know that there are several hundred types of bees in the UK?

The nest was cordoned off and inter-house rounders went ahead as planned. I hope the bumblebees enjoyed the live sport entertainment!

 

 

Post by Alison Wilkinson

On Monday evening we held a meeting of the Full Governing Body. Monitoring the financial health of the school is one of our key responsibilities and on Monday we approved the Budget for the financial year April 2014 – April 2015 (the financial year is different to the academic year). We looked in detail at the first year, but also looked at draft plans for the next five years. I am pleased to report that the school is in a healthy financial position and we are very excited about the opportunities this provides for the school and the children over the coming year.

The Governors also reviewed some school policies and received reports from the Finance and Curriculum committees.

Our final meeting of the academic year will take place on 7th July.

 

Post by Alison Wilkinson