Friday 25 January 2013

What a week it has been or rather not a whole week, because of the snow. I know all the children get very excited at the sight of snow but it no longer has that magic for me because it means that I have to make very serious decisions. I would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this difficult time. It is not an easy decision deciding to close the school but I have to think of the safety of everyone and also try to give people enough time to make alternate arrangements so I do apologise if any inconvenience was caused. Let us all pray for sunshine this weekend or at least temperatures warm enough to melt all the snow.


The weather unfortunately has also had an impact on some of our after school clubs but one thing it has not affected is the performance of our choir at the O2 on Tuesday night next week (unless the snow returns and we cannot get there). The choir is going to be joining many other schools to perform in a ‘Young Voices’ concert. They have been rehearsing for weeks and I would like to thank Mrs Richardson and Mr Hill for all their hard work and preparation in readiness for the concert. I am sure it will be a memorable event for all concerned (Including me) and I will let you know how it goes next week.

Let us hope that next week returns to normal and there are no more disruptions. If there have to be any changes I will inform you as soon as possible.

Friday 18 January 2013

I think we can all agree that winter has well and truly arrived this week. I am sorry that the school had to close today but even before I made the decision I had parents arriving at the school to take their children home because of how dangerous some of the side roads were becoming. When we checked the weather forecast last night it showed that the snow was not due to arrive until lunchtime so I hoped that we would be fine but unfortunately the snow started falling just after 9 am meaning there was a thick covering by 11 am. I would like to thank all parents for their prompt response in collecting the children. I know it was not easy for some of you to make arrangements but I am sure you all agree that the safety of the children must come first. Unfortunately I have had another complaint about traffic this week. Apparently somebody drove rather recklessly through the church car park and then pulled out into School Road without looking before pulling up in front of the school to drop their child off for school. We have asked time and time again for parents to exercise caution whilst driving in the school area but it would appear that some people choose to ignore this advice and are putting the safety of others in jeopardy. I have informed the police who tell me that they are going to be doing a spot check around the school in the near future. I hope the weather sorts itself out over the weekend so that school can return to normal on Monday. If I need to close the school hopefully I will be able to inform you the day before but, as happened today, we cannot always predict the weather so I cannot guarantee that I can let people know the day before. If I do have to close the school I will inform you by text message. Information about the school status can also be found on ‘Hertsdirect.org’ or BBC Three Counties Radio station.

Friday 11 January 2013

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas and feel well rested after the break. Although the festive period can be quite hectic it was nice that we had a few days after the celebrations to try to get back to normal before we returned to school. It is still hard though getting used to the early starts again and I know one or two of the children have found it difficult getting up in the morning but I am sure they will be used to it again by next week.


Apart from the tiredness everyone seems happy to be back in school. The children will probably be even happier next week when all the clubs start up again – we already have some sporting fixtures planned so let us hope we can enjoy the sporting success that we had last year.

As some of you know we offer individual music tuition to our pupils through a service in St. Albans known as ‘Musicale’. Unfortunately their guitar teacher has left and they cannot find a replacement for him. I am able to get another music teacher to come to the school to continue with the guitar tuition from the Herts Music Service but they would like a couple more pupils learning how to play the guitar to make it viable for them. If your child would be interested in receiving guitar tuition please inform the school office by Thursday, 17th January.

I know it is the start of the year but I am afraid that I am going to have a little moan. The gates to the school car park are not working and it is apparent that something has hit the mechanical device that operates the gates. We know that it most likely happened on Thursday morning between 8.00am – 8.30am and I feel very disappointed that whoever hit it just drove off and did not inform the school.

Anyhow I hope that that will be the only issue we have this term and we have a very successful and enjoyable time. I hope everyone has a great 2013 and that everyone can stick to their resolutions for the whole year!