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-

catherine.tallis@hertfordshire.gov.uk

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