I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. Nelson Mandela

1. ISSUE 14|November 2013 I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. Nelson Mandela Upcoming events Mon 2nd DecOpen classrooms Fri 6th DecSchool pantomime atElgiva theatre Wed 11th Dec | 2pmKey Stage 1Christmas production Wed 11th Dec | 6pmLower Key Stage 2Christmas production Thu 12th Dec | 2pmLower Key Stage 2Christmas production Thu 12th Dec | 5pmKey Stage 1Christmas production Fri 13th DecLast swimming lesson Y5&6 Tue 17th DecChristmas dinner Thu 19th Dec | 10am-11amService at St Johns Thu 19th Dec | 10am-11amClass Christmas parties Fri 20th Dec 2pmEnd of term Value of the month Our value of the month is Courage. We looked at several pioneers in their respective fields such as Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg and the children explored how they used courage to move from their failures and mistakes to being successful. The children also enjoyed Andrew Masters assembly based on King Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace. We held anti-bullying week this month which fits really well with the value of courage – see below for more details! Martin Smith, Headteacher Anti-Bullying Week The school council put together a programme of events for anti-bullying week to raise the profile of this important issue. We looked at what bullying is, why bully and what can be done about it. Children in groups of 5 drew around their hand and labelled 5 people they could tell if they were being bullied. The week culminated in drama, special PSHE lessons and a poster competition.Congratulations to Phoebe who won the competition. Her poster will be put up around the school for the remainder of the academic year. Anti-Bullying Competition Winner | Phoebe Causer Year 5 Heart FM Well done to Year 4 who were nominated as class of the week on Heart FM. DJ Daniel Fox and team recorded members of the class which was broadcast on weekday mornings between 7-8pm. A great deal of fun was had in the process and Daniel remarked about how well behaved the children were at all times and what a pleasure they had been Children in Need A big thank you for all the fund raising support. The children looked fantastic in their onesies and we even made the front page of the Hemel Gazette! We managed to raisea staggering £357.16. Well done everyone. Members of Year 4 with DJ Daniel Fox

2. Stars ofthe week New Website The children and staff are very proud of the new school website which mirrors the style of the newsletters. We hope you find the new site easy to navigate around, informative and a great resource for the years to come. We have added news pages, links to Wisepay and a live Google calendar so you can keep up with events. A big thank you to Graeme Snell who has spent many hours putting the site together. We will continue to update the site over the year so do check back every now and then. Pupil Questionnaire We are delighted to share the key headlines of this year’s pupil questionnaire with you. 98% of our children enjoy coming to school, 92% of children feel teaching is good in the school and 93% of children feel safe in school which is a rise of 6%. Last year, 31% of children felt bullying was sometimes an issue but this figure has dropped to under 20%. When the children were asked if they knew how well they were doing, 27% of children responded that they felt this was the case but only sometimes. This is quite timely as the staff have been working behind the scenes on a new marking and feedback policy and we hope to see more children confident in the feedback given to them by the time next year’s survey comes around. Week of 08/11/13 Reception: ArjunSawant Year 1: Emily Simpson Year 2: Jacob C Smith Year 3: Max Kingsbury Year 4: Joshua Harpley Year 5: Lauren McAullife Year 6: Joshua Corfield Week of 15/11/13 Reception: ZohhaAlvi Year 1: Malachi Hardy Year 2: Sam Dale Year 3: Lucy Lamburn Year 4: Thomas Baker Year 5: Ben Smith Year 6: Katlyn Palmer Week of 22/11/13 Reception: Luis Auld Year 1: Oscar Walkley-Broad Year 2: Harrison Leeks Year 3: Kian Blackshaw Year 4: Drew Smith Year 5: Scott Blythe Year 6: Ben Birch Week of 29/11/13 Reception: Lara Nath Year 1: Isabelle Parrott Year 2: Teddy Hook Year 3: Louie White Year 4: Kathryn Cook Year 5: Harry Charlton Year 6: Oliver Hogan Website Address| www.pixieshill.herts.sch.uk General News Chaulden Junior School are exploring interest in a breakfast club which we will run. We hope to have further news on this soon. Please can you check your child’s lunchbox is labelled, we’ve had a few lost boxes of late. Thank you for supporting us on a morning with the cordoned off grass areas in the playground. Although it looks a little unsightly, we feel it necessary to keep mud from entering the school building. Mr Woods and I are exploring options on how to make these areas look better for later in the Spring term. Phonics Workshop Thank you to all who attended our phonics workshop. All the feedback was positive and will help us to decide what workshop theme to run in the summer term. If you missed out then please see either Mrs Fitzgerald or Miss Best who will be happy to provide you with the resource materials to help you support your child at home in learning to reading, developing a love of reading and enjoying the process with some fun games. Well done to everyone!