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Thank you to the parents and carers who baked, bought or turned out bright and early for a drink and a cake or two, in support of Mrs Stanley’s coffee morning. Mrs Stanley did a roaring trade and is very happy to announce that you helped to raise £342 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thank you Mrs Stanley, for organising the event.

The school entrance was busier than usual today as, alongside the coffee morning, FOBS also held their latest Bag2School drop-off. A mountain of donations were ready for collection, helping to raise much needed funds for our school. Thank you FOBS!

Most pupils have made an excellent start to the year in terms of their attendance, with our whole school attendance currently at 96%. Please ensure that your child attends school on time, every day so that they do not miss the teaching and learning experiences that they need, to enable them to flourish and reach their potential. Let’s see if we can maintain 96% attendance for the rest of this term!

Thank you for attending our ‘Meet the Teacher’ afternoons. We hope that you found the sessions useful and that they gave you an overview of what your child will be busy learning this year.

If you have not already done so, please ensure that you book an appointment at next week’s Family Consultations, to discuss your child’s start in their new class and the next steps that they will be working towards, this term.

Please can we ask that you do not allow or help your child to pull on the branches of the Horse Cheshunt tree that stands very proudly on the Key Stage One playground. It is currently heavily laden with conkers which always causes much excitement at this time of the year but some of the branches have been damaged and broken due to the force with which they are being pulled.

Tomorrow, our annual Open Morning takes place. It is a great opportunity for new and prospective families to find out more about Bowmansgreen, meet teachers and governors and look at work and classrooms. Current families are also welcome – it would be lovely to see you there!

During this morning’s celebration assembly, staff and pupils said ‘goodbye and good luck’ to Miss Golding as she worked her last day before starting maternity leave, next week. I am sure that you will join me in wishing her and her family well as they prepare for their new arrival, in not-so-many days time!

Enjoy your weekend.

 

This Week’s Celebrations

Author of the week

KS1 – Joshua

KS2 – Zara

Reader of the week

KS1 – Jenson

KS2 – Poppy

Mathematician of the week

KS1 – Gustavo

KS2 – Mia

Musician of the week

Loay

 

Star of Kindness

Oliver

Award for Effort

Alfred

Macmillan Coffee Morning

We would love you to stop by for a cuppa and cake at Mrs Stanley’s coffee morning, in support of Macmillan.

Friday 29th September, 7.30am – 9.15am, outside the dining room.

Please donate bought or baked cakes or biscuits to the school office by the end of day tomorrow.

Reminder: NO NUTS.

Bring your travel mug or flask if you can, to reduce our waste.

Mrs Stanley looks forward to seeing you there.

Thank you!

 

FOBS Blog

The first Friends of Bowmansgreen School (FOBS) meeting of the new school year was held at the Colney Fox on Wednesday 20th September. There was a great turn out with new faces who came along to find out how to get involved in all our events or in the running of the charity.

The FOBS disco is back!  This extremely popular event returns on Friday 6th October at 4pm for Early Years and Key Stage 1 and at 5.30pm for Key Stage 2.  Tickets are available on the School Gateway priced at £3 which includes a drink and biscuit and face painting.  There is an option to ‘pay it forward’ if you would like to donate a ticket to someone else who may be struggling.  If you need a free or discounted ticket, please ask at the school office.  If you would like to volunteer to help please sign up at volunteersignup.org/AECQL

Bag2School collection bags have been sent home!  FOBS collects used clothes and linens through Bag2School which are converted to cash towards our fundraising.  For a full list of what we can collect go to https://bag2school.com/what-we-collect  Our next collection is on Friday 29th September.  Drop a bag at the mosaic between 8 and 9am then join Mrs Stanley at the Macmillan Coffee Morning for a hot drink and some cake!

Be our guest at the family trip to the Beauty and the Beast Pantomime at the Eric Morecambe Centre in Harpenden, on 16th December at 6pm.  Tickets cost £14 each (RRP £20) and are available from https://www.pta-events.co.uk/fobsevents Please note that this is not a school trip and all children must be accompanied by a paying adult.  No transport is included.  Ticket sales close on the 6th October.

We have started to plan our Winter Fair and need all the help we can get.  A planning meeting will be held on Wednesday 4th October at 7.30pm at the Colney Fox.  If you want to get involved then please come along!

Finally, our Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 1st November 2023 at the Caledon Club in London Colney.  Further details will follow soon.

This Week’s Celebrations

Author of the week

KS1 – River

KS2 – Emily

Reader of the week

KS1 – Louis

KS2 – Reef

Mathematician of the week

KS1 – Rayan

KS2 – Sofia

Musician of the week

Thea

Word of the Week

Week beginning 18.09.2023

EYFSEmotions
Y1Plenty
Y2Entice
Y3Kingdom
Y4Reflecting
Y5Accuracy
Y6Privilege

 

Word of the Week

Week beginning 11.09.2023

EYFSExplore
Y1Label
Y2Notoriously
Y3Necessity
Y4Lagoon
Y5Undaunted
Y6Obvious

 

This Week’s Celebrations

Author of the week

KS1 – Lacey

KS2 – Seth

Reader of the week

KS1 – Jacob

KS2 – Irvin

Mathematician of the week

KS1 – Jascha

KS2 – Sienna

Musician of the week

Yohan

Headteacher’s Blog

It is lovely to be back after the summer holiday and it has been a happy, positive start to the new school year at Bowmansgreen.  Pupils have settled quickly into their new classes and have been working hard, demonstrating a calm, purposeful attitude. The focus for the first week has been about setting and reinforcing standards and expectations – of uniform, attendance, learning and behaviour – and pupils are already aiming high. Pupils have been reminded of our three school rules – be kind, be safe, be respectful – and the expectation that they are demonstrated by every member of our school community, at all times.

We have welcomed lots of new families to Bowmansgreen this week, with new pupils joining classes across the school. I know that they are being made to feel very welcome and helped to settle in by their peers and I hope that they have enjoyed their first few days as part of our school community.

Our new reception pupils have made a confident, settled start to school life at Bowmansgreen. They spent their first full day at school yesterday yet looked like they have been attending for weeks! They have been busy learning and playing well together, forming new friendships, having fun and becoming familiar with their new environment. I am sure that some will sleep very well this weekend…

I am sure that you are aware of the recent media headlines about RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) and that some schools have been affected by the presence of RAAC in their buildings. RAAC is a lightweight form of concrete which was used in schools and other building construction from the 1950s until the mid-1990s. After some time and in some circumstances, this concrete can collapse. I can reassure you that Hertfordshire County Council had the school surveyed by appropriately qualified building surveyors in the last few years and I can confirm that there is no RAAC at Bowmansgreen and therefore no risk to pupils or staff. I can only begin to imagine the disruption, upset and stress experienced by the many school communities who are affected by RAAC and feel so sorry for those who have been denied a settled start to their school year.

Mrs May, our new school SENCO has been busy getting to know pupils, during her first week at Bowmansgreen. I look forward to working closely with Mrs May during the coming weeks, to ensure a smooth handover of information and to support her getting to know families and the needs of pupils with SEND across the school.

This half-term’s school value is kindness. Staff will be looking out for examples of pupils going over and above to demonstrate kindness towards each other, acknowledging and reinforcing the importance of kindness within our school community, both as a value and one of our non-negotiable, three school rules. Some pupils have already been mentioned frequently during the first week, regarding their excellent attitude and kindness towards others. Some early contenders for class recognition boards, I am sure.

Yesterday’s celebration assembly started with our new Bowmansgreen school song and finished with three excellent piano solos, performed by Isla, Reef and Zara. Mr Bronstein expressed how proud he was of all three musicians who recently passed their Grade 1 piano exams with flying colours! Congratulations to all three and I look forward to their next performances.

Parents and carers are once again welcome to attend Friday celebration assemblies whether or not your child is receiving an award. Pre-covid, Friday assemblies were a lovely community occasion, well attended by families across the school. Please feel free to join us, 9am every Friday. We do have limits and regulations to follow regarding the number of people allowed into the school hall at once so we may have to cap numbers if attendance is high. Celebration assembly usually lasts between twenty and thirty minutes. Please enter via the breakfast club/dining room door, where you will be able to wait from 8.35am.

Family adults are also again invited to join their children at our breakfast club each morning. Breakfast costs £3.00 per person (£3.00 for the first child and £2.00 for each sibling) and is served between 7.30am – 8.15am. Mrs Stanley and her team offer a range of breakfast items and a tasty, hot breakfast, every Friday. Come and join us – Mrs Stanley would love to see you there!

Congratulations to the pupils in Year 5 who completed their first aid course with St John’s Ambulance, at the end of last term. Yesterday, they received their hard earned and well deserved certificates. Their course included learning about CPR, choking, treating burns and stemming bleeding – invaluable knowledge and skills that could one day be used to help others, even prevent a death. Thank you very much to Miss Russell who organised and led the course and has helped train many Bowmansgreen pupils in first aid, over the last few years.

During the next two weeks, all classes will take part in Forest School. You will receive a letter notifying you of when your child’s session takes place and what they will need to bring.

Please be reminded to park safely and respectfully on the roads around school, at all times. Neighbours have been upset and inconvenienced during our first week back, with driveways having been blocked and some inconsiderate parking, ignoring the parking restrictions.

Pupils in Y4, Y5 and Y6 can enter and exit school grounds via the back gate, as independent travellers. Please collect a form from the office if you would like your child to become an independent traveller for the first time.

We have a vacancy on our governing board for a parent governor. If you are a parent or carer of a pupil currently on roll at Bowmansgreen, with a keen interest in supporting the school’s leadership, school policy, financial matters and educational outcomes, you might be interested in joining the school’s governing body as a parent governor. Look out for next week’s letter detailing the nomination and election process and procedures.

Upcoming key dates: KS1/KS2 Meet the Teacher events – during week beginning September 25th 2023; Open Morning – Saturday September 30th, 2023; Family Consultation Meetings – October 3rd and 5th, 2023;

Enjoy your weekend.

Word of the Week

Week beginning 04.09.2023

EYFSExcited
Y1Expectation
Y2Respect
Y3Pledge
Y4Assurance
Y5Enchanted
Y6Unfazed