Latest News

For latest news, please check our Newsletter page. We also share regular updates through our main Facebook page and class Facebook pages. Please follow us on Facebook and request to join the private Facebook Page for your class to stay up to date.

On this page you will find our archived newsletters from previous years.

• Newsletter- w/c- 26/10/20

  Thu 22 Oct 2020
  Dear Parent/Carer,

   

  Thank you for making this first half term manageable.  We know that many parents and carers were feeling anxious about the children returning to school so we remain grateful that our attendance has been above the national and local average, showing that our families are both brave and understanding of how important a child's education is to their future success.  

   

  We are also pleased that our parents and carers have been appreciative of us trying to keep the school as normal as possible for the children.  Thankfully, our staff and parents and carers' sensible behaviour alongside our enhanced cleaning measures have meant that we haven't had to close any part of the school in September or October due to a positive case of coronavirus among children or staff.  

   

  We are hopeful that November and December will be the same; however, please click here to read our current information about coronavirus, including what to do if you suspect your child is showing symptoms, and please click here to see what we have in place for remote education (i.e. children learning at home) if the school needs to close to all or some of the children.

   

  The half term break is one week, starting Monday 26 October 2020 and ending Friday 30 October 2020.  School reopens on Monday 2 November 2020 and we have some exciting activities planned for the children on this day, including toasting marshmallows on a bonfire and making fruit rockets!  It would be a shame if your child missed out.

   

  Please see below for some important notices about school life, and please enjoy your October half term break as a family.

   

  Yours sincerely,

   

  Mr D Short

  Headteacher         

   

  Dates for the Diary

   

  Usually, we have our Reception Christmas Concert and KS1 Nativity Production to look forward to in December.  Unfortunately, these events will not occur this year.  However, there are still some events parents and carers should be aware of and these are listed below:

   

  02/11/20 - On the first day back to school, every child will have the chance to roast marshmallows on a bonfire and make a fruit rockets!

  06/11/20 - Poppy-making Day - Mrs Kanzaria (Subject Leader for Art and Design Technology) has arranged for all the children to make a face covering decorated in the theme of Remembrance Day

  13/11/20 - Individual and Sibling Photographs

  13/11/20 - World Kindness Day - Mrs Geggus (Assistant Headteacher for KS2 and Subject Leader for PSHE) has organised a day's worth of activities all focused on showing kindness

  16/11/20 - Open morning for prospective parents/carers of children starting Reception in September 2020 - click here for the details 

  17/11/20 - Year 6 completing the Lancaster Model Survey (N.B. this is a survey the children take themselves on a computer overseen by a nurse that analyses their mental health and well-being - the results are not shared with the school but a medical practitioner may contact a parent/carer directly if they have concerns about a child)

  17/11/20 - Flu Vaccination

  19/11/20 - Book Fair (for 2 weeks) 

  07/12/20 - Open morning for prospective parents/carers of children starting Reception in September 2020 - click here for the details

  07/12/20 - Year 2 children taking the Phonics Screening Check (which they should have taken in Year 1) 

  11/12/20 - Friends of Hurst Drive Christmas Sale

  11/12/20 - Christmas Jumper Day

  17/12/20 - Class Christmas Parties

  18/12/20 - Last Day of Term - school finishes at 1:45pm
   

  Nearer the time to each event, we will share more details (e.g. how the book fair will operate, how we will organise sibling photographs etc.).  

   

  Food Bank

   

  Mrs Bye (Family Support Worker) is pleased that the Food Bank is running well.  Of course, we do not have any control over what food the supermarkets donate so there will be some days when we have a lot of food to offer to families and some days where we have only a little food to offer.  

   

  Please note, children must be accompanied by an adult at our Food Bank.  Mrs Bye will not know every child's allergy and dietary requirements so if a child appears at the table without an adult, the child will be sent to fetch their parent/carer, otherwise no food will be given.  

   

  Parent/Carer Survey

   

  Thank you to those parents and carers who have already completed our annual survey.  If you wish to share your opinions of the school, please click here to take the survey.  Please note, the survey closes tomorrow afternoon.  

   

  Breakfast Club & Wraparound Care

   

  From Friday at lunchtime, parents/carers will be able to book their child's place at Breakfast Club and/or Wraparound Care for the next half term (i.e. up to the Christmas Holidays).

   

  Breakfast Club costs £1 per day and Wraparound Care costs £8 per day (and £2 for a sibling and then any other siblings attend for free).    

   

  As a reminder, we have a set number of spaces for these clubs and these are arranged on a first-come, first-served basis.  

   

  If you require more definite childcare, we recommend finding a local registered childminder which you may do by clicking here.

   

   

  School Meals

   

  We know it took a week or two for everyone (including us) to understand how to use School Grid but we are pleased that so many parents and carers are successfully using this system to book and pay for their child's school meals.  

   

  Remember, you can set up a direct debit on School Grid so that you won't ever have a debt on your account, or, alternatively, you may use the SchoolGateway app to pay for your child's meals.  

   

  We have listened to parents and carers and set up a flexible payment option on the SchoolGateway app, allowing parents and carers to pay for more than a week's worth of meals to avoid them having a debt on their account and their child being refused a school meal.  

   

  Please click here to see the new menu for after October half term and know that this is the same menu you may see on School Grid.  For your information, we will start on Week 1 when the children return to school on Monday 2 November 2020.  

   

  We recommend you book your child's meals on the Sunday for the week ahead; however, if you want to book their meals for the whole of the half term, you may!

     

  Homework

   

  If you wish for your child to complete additional homework, please click here and find the booklet for your child's year group with suggestions of projects they may complete at home up to the Christmas Holidays to complement what they will be learning in class.  Please don't forget that the most important homework you can do at home with your child is to read to them, read with them or listen to them read.    

   

   

  Kind regards,

   

   

  The School Office Team

  Hurst Drive Primary School

  admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk    

  01992 624099    

• Newsletter - w/c- 19/10/20

  Thu 15 Oct 2020
  Dear Parent/Carer,

   

  Please see below for some important notices about school life:

   

  Parent and Carer Survey 2020

   

  Please click here to complete our annual parent and carer survey.  

   

  It is very helpful for us to know what parents and carers think we are doing well as well as what parents and carers want us to further improve.  

   

  There is an open question at the end of the survey, allowing parents and carers to share any thoughts about the school they have not been able to share elsewhere in the survey.  The responses for this question will be shared confidentially with Mr Short (Headteacher) and the Governing Body so will not be included in the results we publish on-line but will be considered for school improvement purposes.    

   

  For your information, the following changes that occurred in school in the past 12 months were because of comments made by parents and carers:

  • Class Facebook pages for all classes, and on-line learning journals in Reception, so parents and carers may see what their child's class is learning
  • Class timetables and teachers' planning saved on the school website so parents and carers may know what their child is learning across the week and across the year
  • A weekly e-mailed newsletter so parents and carers are kept up to date with events and changes in school
  • The ability for all children to be collected from their external classroom door, allowing for a parent/carer to communicate with their child's teacher, if desired
  • An apprentice Sports Coach hired to allow for more after-school sports clubs with no charge to parents and carers (N.B. we run 8 sports clubs per week now where previously we ran 3)
  • Healthier packed lunches since January 2020 when we introduced clear guidelines for parents and carers to follow, and we also removed desserts from our school dinner menu that were high in added sugar and replaced those with fruit-based desserts (e.g. fresh fruit, sugar-free fruit jelly, yogurts etc.)
  • A Family Support Worker was hired to allow for more parental engagement in school (e.g. the weekly coffee morning)

  We thank you in advance for completing the survey and we look forward to reading your kind words about the school and its staff as well as reading your suggestions that we may use to make our school even better.  The survey will close on Friday 23 October 2020 at noon.  

   

  Lockdown Procedure

   

  As you may or may not know, the school has a lockdown procedure designed to keep the children and staff safe in the event of an emergency.  

   

  We practise this procedure once a year and we always let parents/carers, children and staff know that there is going to be a practice.  This year, we will practise the lockdown procedure on Wednesday 21 October 2020.  

   

  Please click here to read what the lockdown procedure involves so you may discuss it with your child.     

   

  Parents and Carers' Consultation Evenings

   

  Thank you to those parents/carers who have already booked a 10-minute telephone appointment with their child's class teacher on either Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm, or Thursday 22 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm.  If you have not made an appointment, please click here to find the information.    

   

  SchoolGrid - Booking School Meals for a Child

   

  Thank you to all the parents and carers for working with us as we introduced this new system.  Please remember to book your child's meals in advance in the coming weeks.  We recommend booking your child's meals on a Sunday for the week ahead.  Remember, if your child has a home packed lunch on one or all the days in a week, you do not need to log this on School Grid.  

   

  Please see the new menu for after the October half term on the School Website.  This will shortly be available on School Grid.  We start on Week 1 of the 3-weekly cycle on Monday 2 November 2020. 

   

  Black History Month - Workshops

   

  We are holding storytelling and music workshops for the children in school next Tuesday and Wednesday as part of our learning for Black History Month.  Please ask your child about the special visitors, and please also ask them about the historical persons they have learned about in class as part of their learning in English lessons.  

   

  Halloween Dress-up Day - Friday 23 October 2020

   

  Every child in the school is placed into one of our four house teams: Eagle House, Falcon House, Hawk House, and Kestrel House.  Each house has a local charity it raises money for once a year.  Kestrel House are linked with Herts Young Homeless.  To raise money for this charity, we are inviting children to dress up in Halloween-themed costume on Friday 23 October 2020.  If you do not celebrate Halloween, you are very welcome to send your child to school in non-school uniform or school uniform.  

   

  We are asking for a donation of £1 per child; however, we will happily accept whatever money you are able to donate.  

   

  There will be prizes for the children wearing the most creative outfits.  

   

   

  Kind regards,

   

  The School Office Team

  Hurst Drive Primary School

  admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk    

  01992 624099     

• Newsletter - w/c - 12/10/20

  Thu 08 Oct 2020
  Dear Parent/Carer,

   

  Please see below for some important notices about school life:

   

  SchoolGrid - School Meals

   

  Parents and carers will have received an e-mailed invitation from SchoolGrid.  You need to create an account so you may order your child's school dinners in advance - you can order on the day, the week before or even the month before.  Please note the following:

   

  • All school meals need to be ordered in advance via SchoolGrid from Monday 12 October 2020.  We are not taking meal orders in school.
  • If your child has a home packed lunch, you do not need to record this on SchoolGrid.  
  • The advantage of using SchoolGrid is that parents/carers have complete ownership over what their child eats in school - for example, if your child only eats fish, you can select the fish options alongside the vegetarian options for them.  Similarly, if your child is a fussy eater, you can order those meals you know they will eat and then choose to provide a home packed lunch for the other days.    
  • If a child's parent/carer has not selected their school dinner, the child must have the default option.
  • The default option is a jacket potato with cheese and/or beans along with assorted salad.  
  • After the October half term, there will be a new menu .This menu will include pork dishes.  We have four meal options each day so for any child who does not eat pork, there will still be three other options to select.    

   

  If you have not received an e-mail invitation to join SchoolGrid, please check your inbox and junk mail before telephoning or e-mailing the school for support.  

   

  The e-mail invitation will have been sent from accounts@schoolgrid.co.uk.

   

  We have scheduled a reminder e-mail and Facebook post this Sunday to parents and carers about booking their child's meals for the week ahead.  Please spread the word among other parents and carers too so that every child who takes a school meal gets the one of their choice.  

   

  Parents and Carers' Consultation Evening

   

  We have made the decision to hold our meetings remotely by telephone on Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm, and Thursday 22 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm.  

   

  From Monday 12 October 2020 at 4:00pm, you will be able to click here to make an appointment to speak with your child's class teacher.  To log into the booking system, you will need to write your name and e-mail address as it appears on our system.  If you have difficulty logging into the system, please telephone or e-mail the school, being ready to share your child/ren's names and the date and times you would be available to take a telephone call on Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm, or Thursday 22 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm.

   

  Please click here to find the same information listed above on our school website.

   

  Flu Vaccination Programme

   

  The Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust have arranged the flu vaccination programme to be in school on Tuesday 17 November 2020.

   

  Please click here to find information, including information translated into other languages, about the flu vaccination programme.  

   

  If you wish to give consent for your child/ren to have the flu vaccine, you must complete the form.  We have given paper copies of this form to your child's class teacher - you can ask them for a copy at the end of the school day.  Please return the form completed to school by Friday 23 October 2020.  You can give the completed form to your child's class teacher or you may hand it in to the School Office via the blue parcel box outside the door.    

   

  School Curriculum

   

  Did you know we store all the teachers' medium-term planning for subjects on-line?  If you click here, you can find out what the children learn in each year group for each subject.  This is particularly useful for those parents/carers who wish to do additional work with their child at home, and it is also useful if your child has a tutor outside of school.  

   

  Regarding homework, if you would like your child to complete additional work at home, you may click here to find our homework booklets with details of projects to complement learning in class.  

   

  Also, at our school, children's personal development is as important as their academic achievement.  If you click here, you will find our Curriculum Policy.  It tells the story of why we teach in the way we do, and, if you scroll to the end, you will find the Hurst Drive 100 - 100 things we aim for your child to have experienced from Reception to Year 6.

   

  We take pride in keeping our school website up to date.  We would highly recommend parents and carers take time to look through our website to learn more about our school, and, if there is information you wish to know that is not included, please let us know by telephone or e-mail so we may add this to the website.    

   

  Parent and Carer Annual Survey

   

  It is very important that we gather parents and carers' opinions of the school - after all, if we know what we are doing well, we can keep doing more of that, and if there are parts of the school that parents and carers want to be improved, we can focus on those as part of our continuous school development. 

   

  We will be sending out the link to the survey next week.  In the meantime, if you would like to read the results of the 2019 Parent and Carer Survey, you may do so by clicking here.   

   

  Reception - Lending Library

   

  Parents/carers of children in Reception should note that the lending library will take place on Wednesdays after school from now on.  

   

  Halloween Dress-up Day - Friday 23 October 2020

   

  Every child in the school is placed into one of our four house teams: Eagle House, Falcon House, Hawk House, and Kestrel House.  Each house has a local charity it raises money for once a year.  Kestrel House are linked with Herts Young Homeless.  To raise money for this charity, we are inviting children to dress up in Halloween-themed costume on Friday 23 October 2020.  If you do not celebrate Halloween, you are very welcome to send your child to school in non-school uniform or school uniform.  

   

  We are asking for a donation of £1 per child; however, we will happily accept whatever money you are able to donate.  

   

  There will be prizes for the children wearing the most creative outfits.  

   

   

  Kind regards,

   

  The School Office Team

  Hurst Drive Primary School

  admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk    

  01992 624099

  
   

   

   

   

• Newsletter - w/c 05/10/20

  Thu 01 Oct 2020
  Dear Parent/Carer,

   

  Please see below for some important notices regarding school life:

   

   

  School Dinners - Introducing SchoolGrid

   

  From Monday 12 October 2020, we will be introducing SchoolGrid.  This is an app where parents/carers will select their child's meals in advance (e.g. on a weekly, monthly, or half-termly basis).  This gives parents/carers more control over what food their child is eating in school.

   

  Parents/carers will receive an e-mail invitation to set up their account within the next few days.  

   

   

  To be clear, from Monday 12 October 2020, we will no longer be recording children's school meals in school.  If you forget to record your child's school meal options via the app, your child will have to take the option of a jacket potato with cheese and/or beans along with salad.  This is because food ordering will be done much more in advance to reduce wastage.  

   

  There will be a new menu for after the October half term.  We will receive this in the next couple of weeks and we will share it with parents/carers.

   

   

  Food Bank and Clothes Bank

   

  Thank you again to those parents/carers who attended our weekly coffee morning organised by Mrs Bye (Family Support Worker).  Because of your input, we created a clear flowchart for parents/carers regarding what to do if a child shows the symptoms of coronavirus, which you may see by clicking here, and Mrs Bye has also begun the initial work into setting up a Food Bank and a Clothes Bank in school.  We will share more details regarding these services in the coming weeks.

   

  One parent has shared the details of an app where families may donate food and household belongings to others.  Please click here to find out more information and please be mindful of your own safety and wellbeing if visiting people you do not know or if welcoming people you do not know onto your doorstep.  

   

   

  Parent/Carer Behaviour

   

  This week, Mr Short (Headteacher) has had to send two warning letters (as per our Managing Abusive Parents, Carers and Visitors Policy) to parents whose behaviour has not been in line with school expectations.  It would be a shame to have to ban a parent/carer from the school premises but Mr Short has done this previously and will do this again if it is needed to keep children, staff and other parents/carers safe.

   

  We understand that many parents/carers are feeling anxious about current events but we would remind you to remember that we work in school to serve the local community, and particularly the children, so please ensure you speak politely to members of staff in person, on the phone and via e-mail.

   

   

  Parents and Carers' Evening

   

  We have taken the decision to run this autumn's Parent and Carers' Consultation Evening remotely and by telephone.  

   

  There will be more information in next week's newsletter but please note that the telephone appointments will be available for Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3:30-6:00pm and Thursday 22 October 2020, 3:30-6:00pm.    

   

   

  Kind regards,

   

  The School Office Team

  Hurst Drive Primary School

  admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk    

  01992 624099

   

   

  http://www.hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk