Headteacher’s Blog

Our final celebration assembly of the year brought the term to a fitting close. Pupils, staff (and some parents!) were in fine voice as they sang and celebrated the pupils who have shone this week. It was also an opportunity to say our goodbyes to Mrs Flatt and Ms Chivers and wish Mrs Gritz good luck as she prepares to have her baby in the new year. Congratulations to all of the pupils who have, throughout the term, achieved amazing things and done themselves and the school community very proud. Bowmansgreen pupils are fantastic!

….including Hannah who has done it again! Hannah in 2C has been busy raising money for charity again this winter. She has made a family of lolly stick people and raised £115 to fund four beds through the charity Crisis. We are all very proud of you Hannah and know that your beds will make a huge difference to homeless people this Christmas.

…. and also Bailey in 4H who won the Christmas card competition run by Holiday Inn Express, St Albans. As well as receiving some goodies as her prize, Bailey’s design has been produced as the official Christmas card for the hotel. Congratulations Bailey!

Pupils and staff at Bowmansgreen also helped to raise over £250 for Save the Children by supporting their Christmas Jumper Day 2019. Thank you.

Parents in EYFS may have noticed that Mrs Akbolat had not been at school for the last few weeks of term….  except for a couple of surprise appearances to say ‘hello’ to pupils and to tell Father Christmas that she has tried to be very good this year! I regret to inform everyone that Mrs Akbolat was suddenly taken very ill and gave herself, her family and friends more than a bit of a scare! I am very happy and relieved to announce that she is now on the mend and hopes to gradually return to work after the holidays. I know that you will all join me in wishing her a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her in the new year.

It has been a great first term at Bowmansgreen this year. We are all working hard to bring continued, sustained improvements to our provision in all areas and although we still have so much to do and achieve, we should all be very proud of how far we have come. Last month’s Ofsted inspection and subsequent report accurately reflect the great things that we do every day to provide a safe, happy and enjoyable educational experience for our pupils. In terms of our results and published data,  we are certainly holding our own with local schools in terms of the progress and attainment that pupils achieve whilst they are with us. It is a whole school, community effort and I would like to thank everyone for their contributions and support. It really makes a difference to the lives of the pupils who come through our doors each day.

On behalf of the staff and governors at Bowmansgreen, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.

Not long to go now until the Christmas break! It has been a very long term and pupils are certainly beginning to flag. They will have done really well if they managed to dodge flu and sickness bugs and keep going right until the end. One more sleep!

Pupils have enjoyed a very busy week including a pantomime, Christmas lunch and class parties. Father Christmas was also spotted at Bowmansgreen again this week, visiting Key Stage 1 classes to deliver a few more early presents.

We hope that you enjoyed the opportunity to share in your child’s maths work at today’s curriculum evening. Pupils are always excited to show off what they have been learning with you and are always proud of their work.

I am sad to announce that Bowmansgreen will be saying goodbye to Mrs Flatt and Ms Chivers tomorrow as they are both moving on to new schools after Christmas. Mrs Flatt has worked with pupils across the school for the last four years, singing, drumming and strumming your children through their music lessons, performances and assemblies. Mrs Flatt is changing roles and becoming a class teacher at another Hertfordshire school. Ms Chivers is leaving to teach at a school closer to her home. I know that you will join me in thanking both Mrs Flatt and Ms Chivers for their hard work and commitment to the pupils of Bowmansgreen and wishing them well in their new jobs.

Our latest Ofsted report has now been published and is available for parents to read.

Bowmansgreen remains a ‘Good’ school under the new Ofsted framework. The report acknowledges what a caring, inclusive school we are where pupils are happy and safe; where they work, behave and play well together. Staff and governors are already working on the areas for improvement and I am confident that Bowmansgreen will continue to go from strength to strength.

Last half-term ended with our school Harvest celebration. Year 5 did themselves proud by leading proceedings at our Harvest assembly, with their super readings and singing. Thank you to Mrs Flatt, Mrs Street and the Y5 staff team for organising such a lovely assembly. This celebration highlighted what a caring, giving school community we are, with over 500 items having been generously donated. Reverend Wood collected the donations for the Churches Together Foodbank and has asked me to pass on his thanks and gratitude to everyone who kindly made a contribution.

Last half term, we said goodbye to Iaonna who worked in our breakfast club and school kitchen. I know that you will join me in thanking Ioanna for all of her hard work and commitment to Bowmansgreen and wishing her good luck for the future.

Bowmansgreen has been chosen to benefit from the next round of the Co-op Local Community Fund which is open until 24 October 2020. If you are a Co-op member, please ensure that you choose Bowmansgreen as your local cause so that every time you buy selected own-brand products and services, school receives 1% of the money. Please encourage friends and family to register too. https://membership.coop.co.uk/new-registration

This week, all pupils took part in on-line safety workshops, to remind them about the best ways to keep themselves safe when navigating the internet and apps. Thank you to the parents who attended the evening workshop. We hope that you found it useful and an opportunity to be updated about what our children are accessing and can be exposed to on-line as well as ways to help keep them even safer. Once they are received from ECP, we will make the workshop slides available to parents.

Yesterday, pupils created our Bowmansgreen poppy field to help the school community commemorate Remembrance Day. Every pupil made a poppy and planted it to help them remember the lives lost in war and to symbolise the hope for a peaceful future. Each class marked the occasion in their own way, including with poetry readings and quiet reflection.

Enjoy your weekend.

This morning, our final celebration assembly of the year took place. As always, family and friends joined us to celebrate pupils who have behaved and achieved above and beyond.  It was fantastic to be able to recognise our super authors, readers, mathematicians and gymnasts. We were also able to congratulate Hudson for achieving his black belt in karate – an amazing achievement for a boy of 10. Well done, Hudson!

Celebration assembly was also an opportunity to say thank you and goodbye to members of staff who will be leaving Bowmansgreen this term. As many of you know, the Bowmansgreen Primary Support Base (PSB) will be closing next week. This closure brings about change for the pupils who are currently on-roll in its class as well as the staff who work there. Mrs De’ath has joined the Bowmansgreen staff team, working as a teaching assistant.  Ms Robson, Mrs Apicella and Mrs Plummer will be leaving us for adventures new. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their hard work and dedication to the pupils and families of St Albans and Bowmansgreen. We will miss them all very much and wish them well and much happiness for the future.

I would like to inform parents that Miss Corbett will also be leaving next week after just one year at Bowmansgreen, to work at a school where her son will be attending nursery. I know you will join me in wishing her well and good luck for the future.

This week, we also celebrated pupils across the school who achieved 100% attendance this year. Twenty seven pupils from reception to Year 6 went bowling as a special treat to congratulate them on being at school every day, for the whole year. Well done for this fantastic achievement, children! I look forward to being able to take even more pupils on a surprise day out, next year.

The Department for Education (DfE) has now published its final statutory guidance about how Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education should be implemented in all schools across England by 2020. We will be involving parents in the process of developing our new school policy by providing information as well as seeking opinions about various aspects of the content and materials that we will be using.  Please read this DfE parent guide as an initial overview about how Relationships and Health education will be taught. I have also included a link to an NSPCC briefing document that provides a summary and further references that parents might find useful.

Year 6 should be very proud of themselves for their fantastic end of year performances. They sang, danced and acted their way through the two shows and demonstrated just what a talented year group they are. Thank you to all of the staff involved in making the show such a success.

This afternoon, Year 3 and Eva performed a ukulele concert to their parents and the rest of the school. Year 3 were joined by Eva and Oscar, who performed guitar solos, to show their parents what they have been learning as part of their weekly music lessons.  Well done musicians, you sounded great! Thank you to Antony Pigram for organising this concert.

See you after the weekend, where your children will receive their end of year reports and we will say goodbye and good luck to our wonderful Year 6 as they move on to their secondary schools.