Friday 26 October 2012

What a week it has been for me. I have had 3 evening events which were school related this week so I am certainly looking forward to half term. Lots of parents have been in school this week as it has been the parent consultations and I am delighted to say that everyone I have seen appears happy with the progress their child is making. It is nice to get pleasant comments fed back to us but I would like to remind all parents that if anybody does have any issues they do not have to wait until parent consultations to speak to us but can contact the school at any time to discuss it with the relevant person.


We had the Rotary club in this morning to make the presentation to the winner of the cover for the Fireworks Display programme. We always enjoy having the rotary club in as they support the school in many ways but their visit was marred this morning as somebody reversed into one of their cars. I understand that accidents happen but I have mentioned many times that I do not want parents driving up to the school to drop their children off in the morning because it is too congested and now an accident has occurred. I suppose we should be grateful that it was just a car that was hit and not a child. I am now going to ask again that if you have to use a car to drop your child off at school can you either park in the church car park or on Hawkshead Road and walk the child the rest of the distance. I know everyone is very busy but surely it is better to be safe than sorry.

When I arrived at work this morning I had a lovely surprise in the form of a book full of children’s writing. I do not know if you will remember but before the summer we invited the children to take part in a writing challenge online and this book contains some of the entries. A few local schools participated and there are some lovely contributions from Little Heath pupils. I am very proud of all their pieces and we will keep the copy of the book in our library.

When we return after half term we will be selling poppies in school. They will be sold every day during that week so if you would like to give your child some money to buy a poppy that would be great as I think that this is a very worthy cause to support.

I hope you all have a great half term. Hopefully I will see lots of you at the Rotary Firework Display on November 3rd but if not I will see you all on Monday 5th November when school re-opens.



Friday 19 October 2012

I am sure some of you noticed that I did not have a blog last week but this was because I was at the Hertfordshire Head Teacher’s Conference. I am sometimes sceptical about attending events like this because you sometimes wonder it is worth the time you spend away from school but I can truly report back that this was an excellent conference with some truly great ideas that we can use back in the classroom. It was also reassuring to find out that a lot of ideas they were recommending are already in place at Little Heath.


I promised you a couple of weeks ago that I would let you know how much money we raised from the ‘Harvest Coffee Morning’ and I delighted to tell you that the amount raised was £359.75. As some of you may know this event coincided with ‘Jeans for Genes’ day, so we have decided to donate the money to one of the charities which is supported by this event. The charity we have chosen is the 1p36 UK and Ireland charity which supports families who have children born missing this gene. Children who are born without this gene will need a lot of support throughout their life but how it affects each child will be unique to them.

Unfortunately our parking problem seems to be recurring again with parents parking up on the zig-zag yellow lines which are meant to have no cars parked on them from 8.00am until 5.00pm. We have not done this to make it awkward for the parents but to ensure the safety of the children. I am amazed that some parents have such a cavalier attitude to the health and safety of the pupils of Little Heath. I am sure these people would not be happy if one of their children was hit by a car. There are no parking restrictions on ‘Hawkshead Road’ and it is only a short distance to walk to the school from there. We have informed the police and if you do receive a fine for parking illegally you cannot say that you have not been warned.

I am delighted to announce that we have a new teaching assistant in school. Her name is Ms Hazel Williams and she has replaced Mrs Lesley Prince who left us in the summer. At the moment she is working in Year 6. As some of you already know we also have a new reception teacher joining our staff. Her name is Miss Tanya Jaeger and she will be joining us after the half term.

I could not believe it when I looked at my diary and saw that it is half term next week. The term so far seems to have flown by so that must be a good sign that I am enjoying my work. It is parent consultations next week so I will probably see a lot of you then. This year we are doing something slightly different in that we are giving the Year 6 slightly longer slots and the pupils have to attend the consultation along with me so I will not be as available at some consultations as I will be at others. Remember though that if you have any concerns you may contact the school to arrange to see me at a mutually convenient time.

Friday 5 October 2012

As I sit to write this I am just recovering from a very hectic morning. I am of course referring to our ‘Harvest Coffee Morning’ which has just finished. I always get very hot at this event because I am moving around a lot. I try to convince myself that all the energy I am burning off will make up for the cakes that I have eaten but I think that I am fooling myself. As usual it was a big success and I would like to thank you all for your generosity for both your donations of cakes and money – without such good support it would not be the success that it is. I would also like to thank the PTA for doing such a good job in running the event. As yet we have not calculated the amount but when we do we will let you know how much was collected and which charity it will be donated to.


An issue that keeps recurring in school is the playtime snack. Key Stage One are provided with a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable by the government to eat and we allow Key Stage Two children to bring in their own fruit to consume during the morning break but I frequently see children eating other snacks. I know that some children are taking these from their lunchboxes and not eating the fruit that you have provided so if you could just remind your children that they only eat fruit or vegetables at morning break and we will do the same here.

Next week I will be out for half the week. This is because I will be attending the ‘Hertfordshire Primary Head Teacher’s Conference’. This is when head teachers get together to attend a series of presentations and seminars which keep us up to date with all the developments and changes in education of which there are quite a lot at the moment. While I am not in school Mrs Zegallo will be in charge and if there are any issues you need to discuss you can make an appointment to see her or make an appointment to see me on my return.