We are delighted to be able to share the report from our ungraded Ofsted inspection in December 2023. As an ungraded inspection, Ofsted were visiting to ensure we are still a ‘good’ school as last assessed in 2018.  This inspection could not have resulted in a more positive outcome, as the report states that ‘the evidence gathered suggests that the inspection grade might be outstanding if a graded (section 5) inspection were carried out now.’ Therefore, Ofsted will re-inspect Little Hadham Primary on the graded framework within a shorter timescale where hopefully they can gather the evidence needed for us to be officially graded as outstanding.

The process was very thorough and of course took the views of parents /carers, staff and pupils into consideration alongside observing teaching, social times and all aspects of our day to day practice.  

We feel incredibly fortunate to work with such amazing children and such talented and committed staff and governors.

We also want to thank all our parents and carers and other family members for their ongoing support.

Enjoy the read!

Ms Connolly

Saplings, Ash and Beech class had an amazing afternoon finding out all about paramedics.

Nick came to talk to the children and explain about his job as a paramedic. He brought lots of his equipment and an ambulance response car.

He talked the children through what number to call in an emergency and which emergency services this covered. The children then had a chance to act out calling 999 taking on the parts such as the caller, emergency operator, ambulance dispatcher, and ambulance crew.

The children found out that there are a lot of special things paramedics have to wear!

When Nick was showing all the equipment he uses he used some willing (?) volunteers. He showed the children what everything does so that if they ever see it being used they know there’s nothing to be scared or worried about.

We finished off be going outside to look at his car and listen to the sirens and see the lights.

The children really enjoyed the visit and came away with comments such as:

“I didn’t know there were 3 different siren sounds”
“It was exciting to see the car, I hadn’t seen one before!”
“He had oxygen to help people breathe”
“You have to phone 999 in an emergency”

Thank you so much to Nick for taking the time to come and talk to the children.

For many of us, the cost of living is becoming increasingly challenging. Increases in the cost of food, fuel, rent or mortgages, and bills can be overwhelming and impact on family life day to day.

Attached is a list of organisations that may be able to offer help and support to those who are struggling to meet the demands of the rising costs. Please remember, we are always available to offer guidance if you are experiencing difficulties at this time. We can offer you support – a listening ear, sign posting to a range of services as well as practical advice and help.

Contact the school office to talk to Mrs Sonia Sillet our Office Manager or email the office directly, in confidence, admin@littlehadhamherts.sch.uk and we will get in touch with you.

We are always here to support and help – in a safe, warm and non-judgmental space.

What a fabulous day we had ice skating at Alexandra Palace! The perfect way to end a busy but successful term, and a great introduction to our new topic for next term – ‘Poles Apart? – a study of the Arctic and Antarctica’.

We slipped, skidded and skated. There were smiles a-plenty, bags of determination and team work in abundance. Well done, Year 6!

After all that impressive skating, there was just enough time to enjoy a hot chocolate and a panoramic view of London before heading back to school.

TT Rockstar Battle of the KS2 Classes is ready to start!

It’s time for the battle to commence in Lime, Maple and Willow and there are prizes on offer!

The TT Rockstar Battle of the Classes will start on Monday 4^th of December and will run until Friday 15^th of December

Children are to take part in the battle at home; it’s amazing what ten minutes a day will do to enhance their times tables and their speed!

The prize for the highest percentage of participation from a class is a £50.00 voucher from Amazon for their class. And last but not least, there will be a £10 voucher for the child in each class who gets the highest percentage. Come on children get playing- we do love a competition!

We had a fabulous afternoon at our Christmas Bazaar today, the hall was truly transformed. It was truly wonderful to see such a big crowd and it was a great success, it’s always lovely to catch up with our past pupils and their families. The buskers were truly magical as were all the classes singing, it just added to the Christmas spirit. What a way to start our Christmas celebrations in school! Congratulations to anyone who won a prize!

We would like to say a massive thank you to our wonderful Friends PTA for organising such a brilliant night and to all our parents, children, staff and wider school community for their continued support and generosity with our fundraising efforts. Watch out for the total amount raised in next week’s Friday newsletter.

Today, I had the pleasure of decorating the Christmas tree with our school captains. They’ve obviously have had plenty of practice because they kept checking to see if the colours and baubles were in the right place! Of course, they had to listen to some Christmas tunes too and add a little tinsel to themselves!!

This week has been Anti-Bullying week and to launch this, on Monday we wore odd socks. Our odd socks were a reminder to us that  we are all different and our differences are to be celebrated.

Throughout the week we took part in Anti- Bullying Week  completing lots of different activities and assemblies where we reinforced the messages about how our school approaches bullying. This includes knowing what steps to take if someone is being bullied, ensuring our pupils know what to do if they are being bullied, how to deal with anyone who bullies and that everyone should take bullying seriously because of the long-term impact it can have on friendships, self-esteem as well as emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

ANTI BULLYING ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE TO YOUR CHILD (Quoted directly from Anti-Bullying Week parent resource)

1. Be kind and respectful to others: you have a vital role to play in modelling positive relationships. Your child is always watching you and learning from you. It’s important to talk kindly about other people and support your child to be kind and respectful to others.
2. Understand true friendship: you can teach your child the qualities of a true friendship such as kindness, respect, boundaries, laughter, forgiveness, and trust. This will help your child recognise if others are being unkind or manipulative towards them. Encourage your child to be open to friendship rather than insisting on one best friend. Experience shows you can be vulnerable if they decide not to be your friend anymore!
3. Role play together how to handle difficult situations: it is likely that your child will experience name calling, will get into arguments and may even be involved in physical fights. Role play together the different options you have in these situations, what you could say or do, and who else could help.
4. Establish physical boundaries: help your child to understand that their body belongs to them, and that everyone has their own physical boundaries. This means it is not okay to be rough with other people, or to touch, hug or grab them without their consent.
5. Make sure your child knows who else can help: there may be times, particularly as your child grows older, where they do not always tell you what is on their mind. This could be because they are worried about how you might react, or they do not want to upset or worry you. Help them think about other people in their lives who they can talk to. This could be a friend, a family member, a teacher at school or another adult they know and trust.

Mike Mullen, of The BMX Academy, was welcomed back to Little Hadham Primary today- not only did we want to test our children’s perseverance; we needed to test our new playground’s resilience! And both sure were impressive!

During the workshops, Mike demonstrated his abilities on a BMX bike and discussed pushing yourself a little step outside your comfort zone. He spoke about his attitude to learning and how that had helped him to become a Master World Champion. He told the children that if they apply this attitude to all areas of learning they will be unstoppable- what a fabulous message for the children to hear.

The children had a fabulous time and even those children less confident on bikes attempted some of the tricks and achieved far more than they initially thought possible.

Some soundbites from today were…

‘The fact that I have never really done tricks and then attempting all of them and succeeding really surprised me.’ Timothy

‘I learnt that if you think you can’t do it, but push yourself to do it you will achieve your goals.’ Daniil

‘Last year I didn’t do the ramps but this year I did the big ramp and tricks. I enjoyed doing the big ramps. I challenged myself by doing bigger tricks.’ Abigail

‘I definitely overcame my fear. I didn’t think I could do half of the things like putting my feet on the bar or stand up and no hands.’ Esmae

‘I’ve never done BMXing before, so it was a challenge. It will change my biking forever.’ Ralph

‘My session was amazing and I learnt how to do ride my bike with no hands and I pushed myself to do something I can’t do.’ Lyla

‘I didn’t know that I could put my leg on the handle bar and I enjoyed myself. Charlie.’

Thank you Mike for empowering our children once again- they loved every minute of it.

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Part 2…

In this cold and blustery weather we have has this week, the clocks have turned back and daylight is getting shorter, but that doesn’t stop our very busy children from learning!

Our school improvement person from county was in visiting on Tuesday and observed lots of maths lessons throughout the school. She had the pleasure of talking to a group of children who were proudly sharing their maths books. I was so proud of all the children who were fully engaged with their learning and were really focussed on doing their very best.

In line with national Anti-Bullying week 13th – 17th November, we will be joining in with ‘Odd Socks Day’ on Monday the 13th.  Children should come to school wearing their odd socks on this day!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms Connolly