Head’s desk
‘Jumping for Joy’
We come to the end of the longest half term of the school year and are delighted to
report that all the children have settled into the rhythms and routines of new classes
and new opportunities. Our parental consultation evenings of the autumn term provide
that first planned feedback to parents following on from the successful taster day of
the previous week.
Touchscreens come to Layston
An exciting new addition to our IT provision is currently being installed in ALL
classrooms; new touch SMART screens will replace our ageing whiteboard and
Friday 23rd October 2015
projection systems and provide an up to date, highly superior educational experience.
We are sure they will be a big talking point for the children for some time to come.
Kitchen Garden Project
Our curriculum focus on cooking this term has been highly popular with the children
and they are rapidly developing knowledge and skills of cooking techniques. A
particular thank you to several parents who are volunteering with the cooking across
all classes.
The Allotment Project
Our allotment project is progressing well with £500 from the Herts Garden Trust
and match funding from the educational charity Groundworks. We have a provisional
design and are working with our project partners and enthusiastic offers of help
from parents to build the allotment this term ready for spring planting…..more details
to follow and how to get involved as outline plans firm up.
Sport
We were once again delighted to receive a Gold Schools
Games Mark from the Sainsbury’s school games initiative
and are thank our sports coaches, school staff and the NE
Herts School partnership for their hard work and high level
of support. Our certificate and pennant are due to arrive in
school late November.
The Y3/4 children attended the Sports Olympiad on 24th September. We were
particularly proud of our Boccia eventers lead by Thomas. Our Y2’s participated in
the multiskills festival early October and we have the tag rugby festival to look
forward to just before half term.
Playground Equipment
There have been some frustrations for us regarding the larger play equipment on the
upper playground which we are working assiduously to overcome. The metal polygon
climbing frame on the top playground has unfortunately come to the end of its useful
life and we are working with FOLS to source and fund a suitable replacement. Our
trim trail needs repair, is under service contract and we have been very disappointed
with the very slow and low level of service we have been receiving. We are and have
been pursuing this as a matter of urgency and are keen to have the equipment back in
use as soon as possible.
The School Development Plan
The School Development Plan (SDP) for 2015-6 is shaping up and thank you for
parental contributions which were discussed at parent chat held for the first time in
the demountable in September. We were particularly grateful for the practical
offers of help with our cooking and allotment projects. We will send out parental
copies of the SDP once the whole plan has been approved by governors.
Eco School
Our children were treated to an excellent assembly presentation by Rosey Simmonds
of Peace Child on the theme of sustainability and this was followed by workshops for
our Y3 and 4 children, who were challenged to make a difference to reducing
greenhouse gases through simple actions such as switching off lights and recycling
rubbish.
xxx STOP PRESS xxx
We are looking for someone to video our Christmas production AND to be able to
produce CD’s afterwards to pass onto parents. If anyone can help directly and /or
knows of someone who can help please let us know ASAP.
Guitar Tuition comes to Layston
We are very pleased that Mr Allcock will begin guitar tuition at Layston after half
term beginning on Tues 3rd November. All parents that have signed up children for
tuition will be notified in due course.
St Peter’s
Finally it was a great pleasure to worship at St Peter’s once again for our harvest
festival. Your generous donations were distributed to our elderly residents and as
always we received a number of thank you cards from them.
Wishing you all a safe and happy half term break from all us all at Layston.
Kind regards
Mrs Bloomfield
Reception
We enjoyed looking at the
paintings of Jackson
Pollock and decided to
paint our own pictures in
the same style. We chose
three colours to paint with
and loved the fact that the
brush must not touch the paper. As you can see we all
had great fun flicking ,
dripping, splattering and
drizzling paint onto the
paper.
Amy said ‘My wellies and shirt are
very painty’ I agreed they were
they were and said ‘Did you enjoy
it?’ The answer was a very
emphatic yes.
‘We have also been spending time settling in to our class
and getting to know each other. The children have taken
advantage of the fantastic weather to take most of
their learning outside.
We have been learning how to help
each other and to encourage each other. Can you make a track
for the train to run on? Can we share the carriages so that
everyone can play? Do we have enough food for everyone?
I have enjoyed helping the children become independent and
adapt to new rules and routines. Mrs Handy, Mrs Burton and
myself look forward to a fantastic year.
Year 1
This term in Science we have been investigating changes across the four
seasons. We have made an autumn colour wheel and spotted signs of
auutmn around our school!
We made a collage using the crunchy autumn leaves we collected in the
wood!
In the forest we have harvested and tasted fruit and vegetables we
have grown over the past year.
Year 2
We have certainly been busy getting to know each other in Year 2 and
of course, working exceptionally hard! I have been very impressed!
In Forest School we have been focusing on map skills, plant recognition
and story telling with Mrs Blanchard and Miss Lomax.
“It’s so much fun! We got to act things out” (Millie & James H)
We have also been very busy in maths searching for patterns,
understanding numbers and understanding properties of shapes.
“I liked doing the 100 square.
I can write to 100 all by myself
and I didn’t even know I could!”
(Chloe)
“We’ve been making monsters and robots
out of 2d and 3d shapes too!” (Finlay)
We have also been concentrating on our topic of ‘The Great Fire of
London’ retelling the story through puppets AND making our very own
Tudor houses! (Thank you to all of the parents who came and helped
in Year 2 – it was amazing to see so many of you.)
We have also entered a poetry competition too! They were fantastic!
“I really liked writing my Autumn sense poem. It was fun describing
things.” (Kyson, Madie & Izzy)
All in all, we have had a fantastic start to our year together. It has
been very exciting.
Well done Year 2!
Year 3
We’ve had a busy start to the year, but everyone seems to have settled into Year 3
really well.
The level of effort that had
clearly gone into the homework
presentations was outstanding.
With topics including dinosaurs,
horses, motorbikes and survival,
we enjoyed watching a diverse
range of presentations.
In science, we investigated different ‘bridge’ designs and
how much weight each one could support. At the end, there
was a challenge to see which group could create the
strongest bridge with just two pieces of A5 card. The
winning team thought up an ingenious design that held
nearly 3kg!
From sandwiches to
salad dressings, the
class have really
enjoyed cooking so
far, particularly at the end of the lessons
when they get to devour what they have made.
Before experiencing a real round house at
Celtic Harmony, we made our own versions
out in the woods. We had to weave in
between stakes in
the ground to make a
wattle wall before
constructing a roof.
We had to work
really carefully as the scaled
down houses were quite fragile,
but everyone did a great job
and we saw some excellent
team working skills along the way.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the trip to Celtic Harmony. It was a busy day which
included making flour and dough, weaving, trading, warrior training and the childrens’
favourite part…… lunch! Last week, we wrote recounts detailing what we got up to
which the children worked really hard on.
Year 4
It has been an incredibly busy term so far in Year 4 but that’s the way we like it.
We have been learning to be persuasive and judging by the homework that came in,
the advertising industry will be thriving in the years to come! We also used our
persuasive skills to write sales pitches for our Cake Bake that helped raise over
£100.
Thinking of the Cake Bake, we all took inspiration from Mary Berry and Paul
Hollywood and created some edible masterpieces. Using our mathematical skills we
measured, poured, weighed and mixed our way to the culinary creations you feasted
upon.
Furthermore, we have been very active and been taking part in all kinds of sports.
We have been in training for the Tag Rugby Festival and trying out lots of exercises
and routines to get us ready.
As Year Fours we have got many new responsibilities, one of which is setting up our
Collective Worship times. We take it in turns to select songs to sing, set up
projectors and layout the hall the best way for each type of Collective Worship. You
may well see some of us being hired on The Apprentice in a few years time!
We have also enjoyed researching fascinating facts about the Anglo-Saxons and
Vikings in preparation for our visit to West Stow. We have learned where they came
from and compared them with other European countries.
We are all looking forward to an exciting year ahead in which we will learn lots from
each other, and learn more about ourselves as well.
FOLS
Welcome back everyone. It's already been a busy few weeks starting with YR4 Cake
bake which made a brilliant profit of £94. The money will go directly to the Year 4
class to spend. This also will be the case for all the other class years when it's their
turn for the cake bake.
We welcome our new members of FOLS & everyone who has offered to help so
far. Thank you to the outgoing committee Steph Strachan (Chair) and Nina Kingsley
(Vice Chair) for all your hard work. We had our AGM meeting a couple of weeks ago
and have now elected new joint Chairs, Lauren Ivison & Wen Man. Louise Hopper is
our Treasurer & Tanya Brears our Secretary.
We are looking forward to a really busy term with tea towel & Christmas cards
production already taken place.
The school disco was a great success and lovely to see our Reception children enjoying
themselves. We raised a fantastic profit of £200. Thanks to everyone who helped
and supported this event.
It was really lovely to see so many parents at our tea/coffee morning on the
Wednesday Taster Morning where we were also selling our new library books. The
children can buy a chosen new book for the library with their child's name on a book
plate to put inside ready for another child to read and enjoy. It brings a book to life
knowing a friend has brought that book your child is reading. If you would like to
purchase one of these books. Please come and tell your class rep or a member of
FOLS.
FOLS Autumn Quiz Night was a great success and we made a stunning £1019.42
profit so a big thank you to all who came, helped and supported.
FOLS up and coming Events
Non uniform day on Friday 23rd October and letters will be going out for our
Christmas Fair which will take place on Saturday 28th November.
Our next FOLS meeting is Wednesday 4th November at 7.30pm new and old members
warmly welcome.
Year 3 cake bake Wednesday 11th November
Christmas Fair Saturday 28th November
Christmas Film Night 3rd December
FOLS refreshment are being served at the Christmas plays on the 9th/10th/11th
December
We thank you all for your continued support with FOLS and raising money for the
children to enjoy new equipment & resources.
If anyone does have any new ideas on events or where they would like to see the
FOLS money spent. Please let us know.
Many thanks,
FOLS
FOLS Committee:
Tanya Brears (Y3 Rep)
Claire Carroll (Y3 Rep)
Emma Edwards (YR Rep)
Louise Hopper (YR Rep)
Lauren Ivison (Y2 Rep)
Nina Kingsley (Y1 Rep)
Wen Man (Y4 Rep)
Leonie Martin (Y2 Rep)
Marie Murphy (Y1 Rep)
Governors
A warm welcome to our new reception parents receiving the newsletter for the first
time! The Governing Body is responsible for working with the school to ensure that it
delivers a good quality education. To achieve this, we work with the Head and Senior
Leadership Team set the school's aims and policies. The Governing Body has had an
active start to the Academic Year through a number of meetings and training
courses. We met with our Hertfordshire Improvement Partner in September to
review the data from 2014/15 and are pleased that progress and achievement remain
above national and Hertfordshire averages.
The Governors are pleased to welcome Wayne Edwards as our newly elected parent
Governor.
The Governing Body would also like to pass it thanks on to Steph Strachan for all her
hard work as the outgoing Chair of FOLS.
If you would like to contact the Governing Body please do so via the Chair-
Diary Dates
Diary dates for next term: (Also do look on the website for refreshed dates and
calendar)
Mon 2nd Nov – INSET day
Tues 3rd Nov- Children back to school
Wed 4th Nov – FOLS monthly meeting – 7.30pm
Tues 10th Nov- Parent Chat – 2.20pm – the demountable classroom- all welcome.
Wed 11th Nov – Y3 cake bake
Mon 16th Nov- Governor committee meeting 6.30- 8.30pm
Thurs 19th – Tues 24th Nov Book Fair in school
Sat 28th – FOLS Christmas Fair
Thurs. 3rd Dec FOLS Film night
Fri 4th Dec- Occasional day
Mon 7th Dec- Dress rehearsal Christmas play
Wed 9th Dec Christmas play – 1st afternoon performance 1.30pm
Thurs 10th Dec Christmas play- 2nd afternoon performance 1.30pm
Fri 11th Dec Christmas play – evening performance 5.30pm
Mon 14th Dec- Red Riding Hood Panto for Children
Tues 15th Dec – Reception Class Christmas Nativity at St Peter’s 9.30am
Wed 16th Dec- Christmas Lunch followed by class fun afternoon/party
Wed 18th Dec- Last day of term