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

What a wonderful time was head this morning during our very popular Golden Morning. This Half-Term’s activities were organised by our school council. They listened to their friends voices and came to me with a wish list of enrichment activities that they’d love to see at Golden Morning. Therefore, we had Fun Science, Cheerleading, African Cooking, Tag Rugby, Autumn Crafts, Bird Feeders, Sewing, Coding, Forest and Weaving. What a fantastic morning was had by all, including the staff and our wonderful helpers! Thank you to all the adults for all your hard work- they loved every minute of it!

These last couple of weeks at Little Hadham, our subject leaders have performed pupil voice to gather our pupils’ opinions about their subject. Our Pupil Voice is carried out to support subject leaders to implement changes or to evaluate current practice. The questions asked are related to the School Improvement Plan or to the Subject Action Plan. Subject Leaders conducting pupil voice have specific questions to complete to ensure consistency across the school.

Our children love having the opportunity to discuss their learning and go into great detail about their lessons and how they learn. This is so helpful and helps us as teachers to evaluate our subjects and to make changes to our practice where necessary.

All pupils have a chance to take part in lots of Pupil Voice throughout their time at Little Hadham, giving a good overview of pupils’ views about the school. Negative opinions are taken seriously and children are met with to investigate their concerns or feelings in more detail.

We were so lucky to have a fabulous Skip2Bfit Skipping Workshop this week. The music and positive vibes echoed across the school hall and playground as each class took their turn with the workshop.

Skipping is a fantastic activity for young people; it develops heart and lung fitness, coordination, balance, concentration – the list goes on! Skip to be fit is completely unique as they use their own specially designed skipping ropes with counters. The ropes are also adjustable so each rope can be personalised to the child, unlike other ropes.

One of the most positive aspects of a skipping programme is the massive improvements that our children can make in a short space of time – from being incapable of completing a couple of turns to competence can generally be achieved by regular practice. Skipping also encourages healthy habits and shows children that keeping fit can be fun.

The children felt very motivated, I am not sure if that was to beat the adults too! It was definitely a close competition and we will say no more about that Adeline!!

Four weeks in at Little Hadham Primary and it is fabulous to see the children embark meaningfully on their new curriculum content. The children seem generally happy and keen to settle into their routines and there has been fantastic engagement from learners, challenging activities for everyone and tailored learning for all.

The school is alive with the sounds of autumn… the children love learning a new song about autumn; I’m sure you all have the song in your head when they come home singing!

In the last couple of weeks, I met with our new captains, our school council members and the Green Team and they are on a mission to help make the school even better. In the next few weeks, they will be creating some surveys to get your opinions and involvement. The Green team have had a meeting with a local company called Immature Gardens and each class will have the joy of growing microgreens!

Our Learning Together Mornings have started back and the classrooms were bustling with parents learning with their child. The children certainly love sharing their learning and challenging you all.

I look forward to meeting with the Friends @2:00 pm on Friday the 6th of October in the school hall, please join us if you can- the school captains will be there to help with teas and coffees!

A warm welcome back from myself to our whole school community. I do hope you had a wonderful summer break, enjoying some lovely family time, wherever you were. I am pleased to say we’ve had such a positive first days, despite the playground fiasco,  welcoming the children into their new year groups. It is an absolute delight to see them smiling, happily bounding back into school. And I can’t believe how much some of them have grown! Everyone has come back refreshed, eager, ready to learn and excited about the new year.

The new children in the Ash and Saplings have settled in so well. This is a big step for them but they are making many new friends and learning the routines! We have also been joined by children in other year groups throughout the school. We are proud of our wonderful school and pleased that parents have chosen to join us and we hope that they will all be very happy at Little Hadham.

You will see from the website in the class page that there are many activities planned for this term. Do look out for your class updates where you will receive information about what the children are learning and any updates.

Kind regards

Ms Connolly