Newsletters

Please keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment and click a headline to read more.

Week Beginning 2nd May 2022
Sat 30 Apr 2022

Week Beginning 2^nd May 2022.

Welcome back to one and all. We hope you have had a wonderful spring break and that your children have also enjoyed their first week back in school. It has certainly been busy and incredibly fun and photos can be seen of our many events on our school website.

St George’s Day: thank you to all the children who wore their Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Scouts and Beavers uniforms on Monday in recognition of St George’s Day. It was great to hear about their activities outside of school and learn about some of the badges they have achieved.

Mental Health Champions: on Wednesday, the children in Year 4 took part in a workshop to learn how to become Mental Health Champions. Through this workshop the children learnt more about how they can look after their own mental health and wellbeing needs and considered ways that they can use their new knowledge and skills to help other children across the school.
Visiting Farm: also on Wednesday, we were delighted to welcome the visiting farm into school. Our Year 1 children thoroughly enjoyed being up close with the animals and learning more about how to care and look after them.

Stephen Lawrence Day, 22^nd April: on Friday, Aprayer and Ellie presented a virtual assembly with Miss Slade about Stephen Lawrence, we could not do this on his actual day because it was during the Spring break. The girls spoke about Stephen, his life and about how his legacy- the many positive aspects of Stephen’s story can inspire us all to live OUR best life. It is important that we all understand the part we play in creating a world where we can all flourish, excel, be safe, healthy and be the best we can be, where we continue to embrace inclusion and challenge racism.

School Governors: we have also been visited this week (and just before the holidays too) by some of our school governors who have been spending time with our subject co-ordinators to learn more about our curriculum. After 2 years of COVID restrictions, it is great to be in a position once more to welcome them back into school.

Free School Meals: just a reminder that if you are in receipt of benefits you may be entitled to free school meals, please use the link to check: Free School Meal Eligibility Checker (lgfl.org.uk) The government have now extended free school meals to families with no recourse to public funds, please check the guidance, Providing free school meals to families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) If you think you may be entitled please let the school office know.

Curriculum Maps: early next week, you will receive a curriculum map, outlining what the children will be learning in each year group this term in school. We are always grateful for parental support and would like to encourage you to continue to read with your children at least 4 times a week, making a note in their yellow book or via the reading app. Thank you.

Bank Holiday: next week, Monday 2^nd May is a Bank Holiday and, as such, school will be closed to the children on this day. We hope you enjoy the extended weekend. We also have an INSET day on Thursday 5^th and will be closed to children. On this day, our school will be used as a polling station so we have tied in an INSET day with this date in order to avoid any unnecessary/additional school closures.

Class Assembly: next week, the children in class 7 will also be recording their class assembly. This will be uploaded onto Google classroom for parents and carers to see.

SATs: throughout the month of May, children in Year 2 will be sitting their SATs tests. These will be administered to the children by a familiar adult and helps to inform a teacher assessment judgement that will be shared with you in your child’s end of year report that goes home in July.

Deaf Awareness Week: next week in school we shall be celebrating Deaf Awareness week and Miss Slade will be raising awareness of hearing impairments and promoting the positive aspects of living with deafness in her whole school virtual assembly on Friday.

Lastly, we would like to say ‘Eid Mubarak’ to all our families who may be celebrating Eid, which is likely to be on this coming Monday/Tuesday. We hope you enjoy some very special family celebrations over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Week beginning 25th April 2022
Sun 10 Apr 2022

Week beginning 25^th April 2022
On Friday, we broke up for our two week Spring break – we all hope you have a happy, relaxing and safe one and for those of you who celebrate, we wish you a happy Easter.

Autism: we finished the term with a very special assembly where we welcomed back an ex-pupil, Thomas who came in to talk to us about life with autism and to raise awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity. It was a fascinating assembly and we are sure that the children have learned much from this. Thank you, Thomas.

Science Week: many thanks to Mrs Piamya who organised and led Science Week which was full of awe and wonder (which can be seen by the photos below!) All children had the opportunity to take part in a range of practical experiments throughout the week and it was great to welcome back the science company ‘EurekaSeekers’, who certainly inspired our children. It was an awesome week.

Mental Health Champions: we would also like to say a huge well done for the children in Year 4 who have been learning, in the last couple of weeks, about how to take good care of their mental health. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, 1 in 6 children now have a probable mental health disorder, which was previously 1 in 9 children (NHS, 2017). Stress, anxiety and feelings of uncertainty amongst children and young people have been higher than ever. It is important to us that our approach to supporting those with mental health difficulties is co-constructed with the children. It is only through high levels of pupil involvement and input that we can understand how they are feeling. We are currently working with our children in Year 4 to consider ways that we can promote peer-led support. In the last 2 weeks they have been learning about ways to keep mentally healthy and today they have taken part in a zoom workshop to learn more about how this can be promoted across our whole school community.
On the 27^th April, they will take part in a workshop in school with an organisation called One Goal to learn about the 5 key skills and 5 qualities needed to become a great Mental Health Champion. They will have an opportunity to practice and roleplay these strategies and develop an action plan about how they can promote positive Mental Health across our school. Following the workshop, we will be introducing a new pupil leadership role and will be looking into appointing some Mental Health Champions. Those who are interested will then be invited to apply. We will send more information about this after the break.

Primary School Offers: during the holidays, on the 19^th April, the local authority will be releasing primary school offers. Please may we remind you that, as a community school, we are not in control of our own admissions, this is all done via the local authority and we have no control or influence over who is or is not offered a place. However, we are also excited to receive the list and look forward to working alongside our new starters and their families to prepare them for starting school in September.

St George’s Day: on the first day back after the break, children who are members of uniformed organisations such as Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Cubs, Scouts etc. are invited to wear their uniforms to school in recognition of St George’s Day.

Monday Runday Club: got off to a great start this week, but we were missing several children who had signed up for this (perhaps due to the rain?). The 2^nd session will take place on the first day back. Please can all members of this club be in school and ready to begin at 8:15.

Clubs: there are some new clubs starting when we return after the break as well as some long-standing older ones. Please click on this link: Clubs and Extra Curricular Activities | The Hayes Primary School to see when the clubs take place. Infant and Junior Choir will be starting again with a concert in the Fairfield Halls in June, if you would like to join either, please pick up a letter from the office. The infant choir is aimed at Year 2 children and the Junior Choir for Years 4, 5 and 6. Additionally, two new clubs: cricket and rounders, please sign up via Parentpay if you would like to join our clubs. There are limited spaces.

It's National Gardening Week from Monday 2nd May to Sunday 8th May. It would be lovely to involve the children in taking care of some sunflowers. This is to show our support for Ukraine (their National flower is a sunflower). If you have any spare larger plastic plant pots that you are not using and would like to donate to the school we would receive them gratefully. Each class will have some sunflowers to take care of and we intend to donate some to local care homes, and plant some outside the school in our nature area.

Uniform: we are also currently accepting donations of uniform that children may have grown out of for our school spares (all ages). These are used if the children have a toileting accident or get wet/muddy in the playground for example. If you have any spare uniform at home that your child/children may have grown out of, please consider donating this to school. Thank you in anticipation of your help.

Egg Rollers: congratulations to all our egg rolling winners who were awarded with a tasty Easter treat courtesy of the PTA. We hope the children had a fun time at this event.

Head Teacher’s Award: congratulations to the children from EYFS-Year 6 who were nominated for the HT’s Award. All true ambassadors and role models of The Hayes – they collected a certificate from Miss Slade and chose a book. Well done! The children’s names and reasons for being nominated will be in the Head Teacher’s Newsletter that will be emailed out to you when we come back from the break.

Have a wonderful break. See you in 2 weeks!
Stay safe, The Hayes Team
Week Beginning 4th April 2022
Sat 02 Apr 2022

Week Beginning 4^th April 2022.
It is hard to believe we are in the final week of the Spring term but we have a fun week ahead with lots of exciting learning opportunities coming up.

Carroty Wood: yesterday, we were delighted to welcome back our Year 5 children from Carroty Wood. They had an amazing time on high ropes, in the swamp, swimming, kayaking, singing songs around the campfire, and taking part in archery and were wonderful ambassadors for the school. We are very proud of them. We now have photos of the residential on our website if you would like to take a look and on Thursday, Tweets were Tweeted if you follow us on Twitter! It goes without saying that we are more than thankful to our five staffing team who were superstars – Mrs Sinclair, Mrs Derodra, Miss Hale, Mrs Bolton and Mrs Kioufi, without whom the trip could have not happened. Thank you!

Home Learning: if your child if isolating, due to Covid, please be aware that home learning will automatically be uploaded to Google Classroom for them. This can be completed at home and submitted electronically. This will help to ensure that the children do not fall behind during their time away from school. If you or your child is unwell with COVID or otherwise, please remember to report their absence to the school office at your earliest convenience.

Science Week: we are excited to let you know that this week is our whole school Science Week. The children will have the opportunity to take part in a range of practical experiments throughout the week and we are thrilled that we have been able to book the science company ‘EurekaSeekers’, back by popular demand! EurekaSeekers provide awe-inspiring school workshops which inspire young people to develop a passion for learning, experimenting and scientific investigation. Every class will have the opportunity to take part in a Science workshop where they will take part in 2 hands on experiments. So that we can make sure every child in the school is able to take part in a science workshop during Science Week, we kindly ask for a donation of £2.50 per child so that this amazing opportunity is possible.
Egg rolling: during the forthcoming week we will also be holding our annual egg rolling competition- a fun way to mark the end of the term for the children. We are excited to re-instate this tradition after 2 years of not being able to hold this event due to COVID. To take part, your child/children will need to bring with them a HARD-BOILED egg to school on the day stated below. One class at a time, the children will take turns to release their egg down a piece of drain pipe that is propped up at angle against a PE vault. There will be first, second and third place prizes awarded to the children whose eggs travel the furthest in each class. These prizes are provided courtesy of the PTA, thank you to them. It is also fun to see and hear all about the tricks that children use to create what they hope will be a winning egg e.g. coating them in 5 layers of mum’s favourite nail varnish! 😊 If your child would like to participate in this event please ensure they bring their egg on the following days:

Monday: Year 4
Tuesday: Year 1
Wednesday: Year 5
Thursday: Reception, Year 2 and Year 3
Friday: Year 6

We encourage all children to dispose of their egg in an outside bin after the event to avoid the classrooms and book bags becoming smelly.

Goodbye: on Friday we say goodbye to Mrs Hamed. Mrs Hamed was appointed as part of our COVID catch up programme on a fixed term contract which has now sadly come to an end. During her time with us, Mrs Hamed has worked with many children in small groups helping them to plug gaps in their knowledge. She has also covered whole classes during periods of staff absence. We are extremely grateful to her for all that she has done for us at The Hayes and wish her the best of luck in her future teaching career. Good Luck Mrs Hamed.

Goodbye again to Mrs Gourlay who had a lovely send off on Friday, during our virtual assembly. During the assembly, some children in Class 3 said: she always has a smile on her face and helps me in English, maths, EVERYTHING; she reads us really cool stories; Mrs Gourlay gives us exciting things to do and I like the way she teaches us. All the very best at your new school in Luton. Keep in touch! Next week, Class 3 will be covered with a combination of Higher-Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) and by Mrs Knapman. After the Easter Holidays we welcome Miss Fidge to our team in Class 3. The children have had the chance to meet Miss Fidge this week as she has been in school to do a handover with Mrs Gourlay. Welcome.

School Holiday: we break up on Friday the 8^th April at normal time for our spring break. For those of you who do celebrate it, we wish you a Happy Easter. For those of you waiting to find out if your child has been allocated a place in Reception for September 2022, please remember to check your emails on Tuesday 19^th when school offers go live- we look forward to meeting the new members of our school family next term. Whatever your plans, have a restful break. Enjoy special time together and stay safe. We look forward to welcoming you all back to school on Monday 25^th April.
In honour of St George’s Day, any children attending uniformed organisations such as Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Scouts, Cubs or Beavers are invited to wear their club uniforms to school on this day. Please stick this in your diaries so you don’t forget!

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
The Hayes Team