Head’s desk

We have had a very positive start to the spring term with plenty to be proud of. On 23rd Jan

we received a pastoral visit from the Diocesan Director David Morten who was fulsome in his

praise of the school and the quality of relationship he witnessed as he toured the school.

WWF Fundraiser

A massive well done to a group of children in Y4 who did a fantastic job raising awareness of

the plight of endangered species on Friday 2nd February through holding a non-uniform day

fundraiser on and running after school stalls. The children raised an impressive £290 for

WWF and learnt so much besides including how to collaborate, fundraise and how to

encourage others to participate. Small prizes were given in the best panda mask competition

and the children ran paper craft based workshops in the afternoon for some of the younger

children. As one group member said ’I’m so surprised there is no one in school uniform

today… everyone is in black and white!’ A fantastic initiative and one which reflects our

school core values of compassion and respect. The children were overwhelmed by your

support so thank you all very much indeed.

February 2018

Sport

Hannah Gallagher (Women’s England Rugby player) has begun her coaching on Wednesday

after school targeting those children who do not currently belong to a sports club out of

school. In doing so we are able to use our Sports premium Grant funding to pay for the

coaching enabling us to offer the sessions for free. If you feel your child meets the criteria

and would be interested in joining the sessions please see the office staff.

We have has several triumphs in the sporting sphere this half term, which for a small school

is a huge achievement. First our swimming team coached by Mrs Lomax were overall victors at

partnership gala which took place at Freman on 11th January 2018. Good strategic planning

ensured Layston utilised their team to its best advantage and to victory.

Hot on the wheels of success, our Speed stacking team, coached by Mr Strahan, once again

triumphed at the local speed stacking festival on 18th Jan 2018. As last year, we will be

representing the NE Herts Sports partnership at the County Championships. There were

many excellent personal performances which contributed to the overall win. These exemplify

the hard work and dedicated practice the team put in beforehand to be ‘match ready’. Well

done to them all!

School Avg. time Position

Layston 5.32 1st

Millfield 6.3 2nd

Studlands Rise 6.94 3rd

Icknield Walk 8.06 4th

Hormead 9.8 5th

Barley/Barkway 11.4 6th

School Nursing Service

Families might be interested to know that the school nursing service provides a triage service

to schools and their families. If you are ever concerned about the health of your child or

have a medical related query you can telephone this number 01920 443793 where I am told

you will be directed to a nurse practitioner. If there is no one in the office an answer phone

facility will be made available and you will be contacted if you leave your number.

The school nursing service asked me to publicise two websites are also available for parents

and or children to access for health related information:

www.healthforkids.co.uk (general health information for children to use with interactive

website)

www.beezeebodies.com ( health/weight management programmes for children and adults).

Also email info@beezeebodies.co.uk or telephone 01707 248648

We will also put this information on our website.

Staffing

Mrs Smith has asked me to tell the whole community in this newsletter of her intention to

retire at the end of this summer term. Mrs Smith has worked at Layston for 21 years and

her contribution to Layston has been immense and influence unique. I am grateful that Mrs

Smith shared her news in such a timely fashion enabling us to begin the recruitment process

swiftly for September 2018. I know many of you will want to express your gratitude to Mrs

Smith for all she has done and wish her well for the future and we will ensure that families

will be given that opportunity.

Mrs Marsden will be leaving us at half term to pursue her swimming teaching closer to home.

We send a huge thank you for her contribution to forest school and allotment club. Mrs

Foster will be taking over the Monday Forest School slot from Mrs Marsden from after half

term.

Wishing you all a happy and productive half term and look forward to seeing you all back at

school on Monday 19th February.

Reception

Our first task this half term was to

write a New Year wish for something we

would like to get better at in school

during the coming year. The children were

very keen to get better at PE or

chopping when cooking but of course those

skills transfer to improved co-ordination

for pencil control how

great is that.

We have had fun in

Forest School and as

you can see we have

put 1 of our wishes

into action by whittling our own wands.

We have been bird watching outside,

using information books to help us

identify what we have seen. Did you

know you have to sit very quietly to be

a ‘Twitcher’?

We have

practised this rather difficult

skill in our class ‘stillness’ Assembly’s.

We are improving every time!

We have helped each

other to retell the

stories of the Ugly

Duckling, Goldilocks

and The 3 Little

Pigs.

Designed and built our own flying

machines, after

reading Percy’s

Bumpy Ride.

Thinking about

where the pilot

would sit, where

the engine

would be and what did it need (rotor

blades or wings) to make it fly?

Lastly we have

designed a new

home for the

animals in Percy’s

park after the

strong winds we

experienced a short

time ago. The

children worked

brilliantly with

partners to design

their own

treehouses, each with their own very

novel additions to keep the animals

happy. A fantastic start to the year I

hope you agree.

Year 1

In science this half term we have looked

at marvellous materials! We have

described and

sorted materials

and discussed their

purpose.

We have also done an ice investigation

where we had to free a lego figure frozen

in the ice! Very

exciting! We

really enjoyed

ourselves.

In maths we have been investigating

numbers to twenty. We have been

making ten and some more to make the

tricky teen numbers!

Year 2

It’s been a busy start to 2018!

In literacy, we have been trying to use

more describing words in our writing and

have tried to apply this when describing

story settings (including an old church

and a vibrant rainforest). Last month,

the children produced writing that was

packed full of excellent descriptive

language.

In maths, the children had fun finding

hidden shapes in the classroom. Also, we

have been doing lots of work involving 2-

digit numbers. The children have

explored making numbers in different

ways.

In science, we have been learning about food groups. The children worked together

really well to create their own ‘food pyramids’ which represent the amount of each

food group you should eat in order to have a healthy, balanced diet. The children were

disappointed that the section containing cake, biscuits and sweets was the smallest!

Recently, the children carried out two investigations to find out which paper towel

(there were five to test) was the most absorbent. Would it be the most expensive

one or the slightly cheaper but thicker brand?

Year 3

The first few weeks of 2018 have gone so quickly but we have managed to achieve so

much.

Our topic is The Romans and much of our work has been based on it. During literacy

lessons we have written diary extracts, taking on the role of a Roman soldier. We

researched what life as a Roman soldier was like before taking on the role. We have

also been reading the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’ and describing settings in the form

of a rap. Rapmaster Whittet even had a go.

During geography we have been looking at atlases, in particular Italy. We created 3D

maps using salt dough to show the flat and mountainous parts.

The Holy Trinity has been the main focus of our R.E. lessons. We have been learning

how God is made up of three equal parts: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through

artwork, we have shown how each part is represented in the Bible.

Year 4

2018 has started off with some fantastic learning for us in Year 4.

Science

In Science we have been learning about States of Matter (that’s solids, liquids and gases to

you and me). We had a look at various materials and sorted them into categories…

We then explored the effect of heat melting ice…

Finally, we learned all about the water cycle. We saw how the whole cycle worked by making a

cloud in a jar and then learned The Water Cycle Rap! (I can only apologise if this song is now

stuck in your head!)

Maths

We have been learning how to consolidate our times tables and division facts. Check out some

of our amazing ways of exploring it!

Topic

Our topic this half term has taken us all the way to sunny Kenya. We have been using Google

Earth to find out where places are in the country and exploring what the land is like.

We have also been learning the Traditional Masaai Jumping Dance and even made Masaai

tribe style necklaces using paper plates and striking geometric designs. I was very impressed

by the quality of these and they look striking on our display!

We have also been researching animals from the ‘Big 5’ to write our own explanation texts.

PE

We have been learning about different balances in Gymnastics. Check out our poses!

That’s all for now, have a fab half term and we look forward to seeing you afterwards for

some more fab learning!

Governors

The Governing Board has been working really hard on recruiting a new Headteacher

for September following Mrs Bloomfield’s retirement this summer and this has now

become our key priority for the year. We will keep parents posted on progress as and

when we have any significant news to report.

Did you know……

The progress of all children at Layston is monitored at least termly with Senior

Leaders in pupil progress meetings. Each child is assigned targets across subjects and

progress is tracked. If it is evident that a pupil is not making expected progress then

interventions are put into place. This effective tracking and monitoring approach

ensures that all children make progress across all school years. The progress of

children across all year groups is a key focus at all Governors meetings, the data is

monitored rigorously both by class teachers and senior leaders who are accountable

to Governors for progress and standards.