As a Christian school we recognise the unique and wonderful in everyone.
As a community we support one another to flourish and live life in all its fullness.
Edwinstree Middle School
A Voluntary Controlled Church of
England School
NEWSLETTER for PARENTS &
CARERS
Week Ending: 17/05/2024.
Edwinstree Term dates:
https://www.edwinstree.herts.sch.uk/school/term-
dates.aspx
Diary Dates:
Contents: please click individual titles to take you to the relevant
section in the newsletter, please ensure you open the document in pdf
reader to use this function.
SATs Volunteers
How can I support my child to stay safe online?
Food and Nutrition:
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7
Year 8
What is the Bike Race and what opportunity does your
child has to observe the event?
School Production Programme Competition
Gardening Club
Year 5 news:
Y5 RE Faith in Queen's Park
Year 6 news:
SATs
Trips
Year 7 news:
Foundation evening
Year 8 news:
The Globe Theatre trip – 21st May 2024
Year 8 Maths Home-Learning
Transition to Freman
Edwinstree School Association
EasyFundraising
Pre-loved Uniform
Information Flyers
• Do you have a child with an EHCP or currently
considering a request?
• Understanding my Autism/ADHD
• Parenting SEN Children when separated, online
programme.
SATs Volunteers
Thank you so much to everyone who supported us through the
SATs this week by reading for and supporting pupils. The pupil's
and staff really appreciated your help, and that you gave up your
time to support us all. You helped make our week run smoothly
and calmly.
School Day – 8:40am – 3:10pm
20/05/24
Year 7 Foundation Evening in
person.
21/05/24
Year 8 Shakespeare’s Globe trip.
£36.43 per student.
23/05/24
Cambridge University Careers
talk – Day in the life of a
university Student Year 7 & 8
(details to follow).
27-31/05/24
Half Term.
12/06/24
Year 7 Shakespeare’s Globe trip.
£38.43 per student.
17/06/24
Year 8 Foundation Evening in
person.
21/06/24
The Rt Hon Sir Oliver Heald KC
MP talk to Year 8
22/06/24
*Save the date*
Edwinstree Summer Fayre
(details to follow)
26 & 27/06/24
Show dates for School
Production. 6.30pm both nights
28/06/24
INSET Day.
08/07/24
Year 6 Whipsnade Zoo trip
(details to follow)
09/07/24
Sports Day
11/07/24
County Transition Day.
16/07/24
Visit from Bishop of St Albans.
17/07/24
Year 5 Queens Park trip £14.50
per student.
19/07/24
End of Summer Term 1:20pm.
02/09/24
INSET DAY.
03/09/24
Year 5 Induction Day.
04/09/24
Autumn Term Begins Years 6-8.
16-18/09/24
Year 7 Residential – Essex
Outdoors Bradwell.
28/10/24 – 01/11/24
Half Term.
06/12/24
Occasional Day.
20/12/24
End of Autumn Term 1:20pm.
As a Christian school we recognise the unique and wonderful in everyone.
As a community we support one another to flourish and live life in all its fullness.
How can I support my child to stay safe online?
The week you will have received a Parentmail alerting you to a
WhatsApp group in year 5 receiving pornographic images. The
police have been informed and on first look, it seems to have
been a person who is not part of our community. I have been
asked to give you guidance on how to help your child stay safe.
Having taught online safety to all year groups for the last 5 years,
and by inviting parents annually to online safety talks, these are
the key messages and websites that we know help.
• When you give your child a phone you open your child
to the world, like opening the door of your house and
saying off you go.
• The online world has wonderful space to research and
discover, but also significant risks that adults struggle to
manage let alone children.
• Without privacy settings and an adult monitoring a
child’s phone regularly, a child is at greater risk.
• Helping your children to learn that to stay safe is to chat
to those they know and trust, not to strangers or big
groups of students, this helps to protect them.
• 11-18s | CEOP Education This website provides helpful
guidance on setting up privacy settings and monitoring
sights.
• Home Safety Activities (ceopeducation.co.uk)
We will look again to organise and offer parent talks from an
outside speaker, on how to keep your child safe online. In the
last 5 years we have had around 40 parents attend these events.
Parents have found these informative and help to support your
child to navigate the immense resource the internet offers, but
in a safe way.
Food and Nutrition:
Year 5
We've started our evaluations which are the final part of our
pizza project. There has been some very good descriptive
writing. I am looking forward to marking these over the half
term. Merits have started going home, so keep an eye out! No
cooking next week.
Year 6
We've been looking at our digestive system and seeing how fibre
is beneficial in 'moving everything along'. We will be creating
fruit cupcakes next week where we are reducing the sugar
content and increasing our fruit and fibre intake.
Year 7
The last of our Spaghetti Bolognese has been cooked and I hope
you thoroughly enjoyed it. This is one of our most complex (due
to knife skills involved) dishes and the pupils smashed it! Well
done everyone. Evaluations next week, so no ingredients
needed.
Year 8
Excellent work with our protein alternatives. We'll be
completing our evaluations next week. No ingredients needed.
Please could I ask for Food room containers to be
returned. Over the past 2 weeks, 24 containers have been
borrowed and only 2 returned - these are the chocolate and
sweet tubs. Please can you also ask your children to collect any
ingredient tubs - I have a large collection of tubs growing, none
are named so I don't know who to give them back to.
Mrs van Wyk
What is the Bike Race and what opportunity does
your child has to observe the event?
On the last day before half term, we have been invited to watch
the Ford RideLondon Classique race speed competition that is
coming through Buntingford as part of its planned route. This will
give your child the opportunity to witness all be it fleetingly,
international cyclists competing in an international competition.
The event will take place between 11.30 and 12 midday, so we
will be wanting to collect students and bring them to the high
street to watch after break. Students will be walked down to
various agreed viewing sites to watch the race. If you would like
to support us in taking the children down to watch this event,
please email: admin@edwinstree.herts.sch.uk
School Production Programme
Competition
Calling all artists! As you know the school
production will be showing in June this year.
The cast and I would love to have a lovely
picture on the programme we give to the audience.
The production is called: “Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies”
which is a fun version of the legend of Robin Hood. Please find
further details attached.
Gardening Club
I was a little worried we would be
contained in the classroom this week due
to rain, but we were lucky enough for it to
blow over. Lots of muddy hands and happy
faces by the end. We have been very
industrious, planted another 30
sunflowers, planted our donated runner beans and aubergines,
replanted chives that were escaping, watered our turnips,
lettuce, radish, leeks, and potatoes. We are planting echinacea
from seed too - great plant for attracting insects with its pretty
flowers and has medicinal purposes. I managed to stop the lawn
mowing lady from cutting our wild bed
outside the science block as our bit for
'No Mow May'. We are hoping to get
some more colour in there after half
term for all the school to enjoy. The
pictures are of a few of the beds in our
enlarged garden.
We have one empty bed and would love some seedlings or plant
donations to go in there. We're more than happy to grow both
vegetables and plants. You might spot one with trees in it -
these are the trees for our Kings' Coronation walkway. We
still need to purchase a few more, but
these are settling in and getting ready for
planting in the next few months.
Mrs van Wyk
As a Christian school we recognise the unique and wonderful in everyone.
As a community we support one another to flourish and live life in all its fullness.
Year 5 news:
Y5 RE Faith in Queen's Park
Thank you to those who have completed and returned their
forms. Payment can be made via the school Gateway. Payment
and consent form should be completed by Friday 24th May
2024. If the cost of this visit will cause you financial difficulty,
please email the office on admin@edwinstree.herts.sch.uk.
Pupils will have a collective worship next week where we will go
over what the trip will entail and answer any questions they may
have. If, as parents and carers you have any questions, I would
direct you first to the FAQ page:
https://faithinqueenspark.org.uk/faith-tours/faq/
If you would like to discuss with me, please email:
hoy5@edwinstree.herts.sch.uk
We look forward to the pupils having this shared cultural
learning experience. Thank you, Mrs Kelly
Year 6 news:
SATs
Well done to all year 6, who managed the SATs well and gave it
their best shot. Whatever their result is, they can be proud of
themselves and know that they have another two years with us if
they have not quite managed national standard to catch up.
Trips
We know year 6 parents are currently paying towards the
residential trip, but we would like to offer your child a trip before
the end of term as they are desperate to celebrate and explore
post SAT. We will be sending out Whipsnade letters next week
for a trip in July as part of their Humanities studies of biomes
around the world and the animals that live in them.
Year 7 news:
Foundation evening
This takes place for year 7 on Monday 20
th
May, this is the
evening where you are invited to attend with your child from
5pm to 7pm. Your child will tour with you around the school and
to the foundation subject rooms, here you can meet their
teacher and review their books. Please note this is an informal
session with no booked appointments. We will have a Governor
representative available for part of the evening who is keen to
hear your views on the school and to talk to you.
Year 8 news:
The Globe Theatre trip – 21st May 2024
Year 8 have the opportunity to visit The Globe Theatre on
Tuesday. Our English unit in the summer term is based on
Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, and The Globe offers a
fantastic interactive workshop that will enable students to
explore the play’s characters and themes.
If your child is not attending the trip, we would ask that they
come into school, we will be running a year 8 class for those
students not going.
Year 8 Maths Home-Learning
We know that most parents/carers are supportive and double-
check that their child has completed their weekly maths home-
learning. We've been recently noticing that more and more
pupils are slipping through the net.
Did you know that each child has 3 pieces of home-learning a
week:
1. Online quiz on Show My Homework
2. Weekly Puzzle Home-Learning on Show My Homework.
We also supply a paper copy to be stuck in their Home-
Learning book.
3. Challenge Home Learning. Either to catch up on any
gaps or to challenge themselves on a new topic.
In total this work should take between 60 and 90 minutes each
week. Their work should be detailed neatly in their yellow home-
learning books and brought into school each week on the due
date.
If you are unsure about weekly home-learning do contact your
child's teacher via the school office.
Transition to Freman
Is your child in need of additional support to make the transition
to Freman? As well as the transition day, Freman offer, post half
term, additional and bespoke transition visits for those children
who are worried and anxious, or who have a particular need that
means they would benefit from extra visits.
If you believe your child would benefit, can we please ask you to
register by sending an email to: admin@edwinstree.herts.sch.uk
to identify your child and what particular need or worry they
have, and how they would benefit from the additional visits.
Once we have gathered the list of names, we liaise with Freman
and they offer us timetable slots for your child to attend during
school time with their peers, to view the school and meet some
of the staff there, who they can gain support from. Freman like
us to drop your children off with them, during these visits and
not to accompany them, so that they can begin to get used to
the new team of people who will be working with them.
In the next two weeks we will be talking to your child about their
transition and the next steps and will send you further
information on the process and how we hand over to Freman.
As a Christian school we recognise the unique and wonderful in everyone.
As a community we support one another to flourish and live life in all its fullness.
Edwinstree School Association
EasyFundraising
Parents that support us through Easy Fundraising have raised
£78.93 this quarter (our biggest pay out yet!). Funds are raised
when shopping online from everyday things like groceries to the
extravagant holidays! Please sign up using this link if you would
like to help raise funds for our
school. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/support-a-good-
cause/step-1/?char=256941&invite=1XMMXB&referral-
campaign=s2s&utm_campaign=refCROtest
Pre-loved Uniform
After selling lots of preloved uniform at the Year 5 and 6
foundation evenings, our stock is running low and therefore we
will be unable to attend the Year 7 foundation evening on
Monday 20th May. Donations of school branded jumpers, PE t-
shirts or hoodies are always welcome via the school office. You
can purchase preloved uniform at any time via our online
shop. Edwinstree School Association Online Shop
(sumupstore.com)
Information Flyers
Attached to the newsletter.
• Do you have a child with an EHCP or currently
considering a request?
• Understanding my Autism/ADHD
• Parenting SEN Children when separated,
online programme.
Understanding my Autism/ADHD offers a range of workshops
aimed at children and young people in Hertfordshire aged 7-
16 years with a diagnosis of Autism, ADHD, or both. These
workshops, delivered by five specialist charities in a group
setting, will provide children and young people with resources
and strategies to enhance their understanding of Autism and/or
ADHD. For individuals aged 14 and above, diagnosed or not,
there's the opportunity to access Cog's, a mental wellbeing app
developed for and by the Neurodivergent community. This app
aids users in navigating daily life, understanding neurodiversity,
and building positive habits. Courses run for between 6-12
weeks, with both online and face-to-face. For more information
here is the link: thetoolbox.mindler.co.uk .
New initiatives for Neurodivergent Children and Young people.
The Toolbox from Mindler is a dedicated webpage specifically
focussing on ADHD and Autism support for children and young
people. The Toolbox offers inspirational content, self-help tools,
interactive livestreams, anonymous text chat service (to ask any
questions they may have about Neurodiversity) and lots of other
resources and information. It also serves as a guide, signposting
users to alternative services and accessible interventions within
Hertfordshire. The toolbox will be hosting a Livestream on 29th
May where the team play popular video games and answer all
questions related to Neurodiversity. Here is the link: The Toolbox
| Autism & ADHD Support For Young People (mindler.co.uk)
Keeping language simple with clear The National Autistic Society
is a fantastic organisation that offers support and information for
children and young people with ASD. Here is a link to their
website. https://www.autism.org.uk/
The Neurodiversity Support Hub – Herts
The Neurodiversity Support Hub which is delivered by ADD-
vance, has recently been expanded. A team of parents/carers of
neurodivergent children and young people man the phones
where they can offer advice and answer questions on a range of
issues from distressed behaviours, anxiety, school, anger, and
sleep. They are there to offer support and advice as well as
signpost to further help. call: 01727 833963 or email:
supporthub@add-vance.org
Every county in England has a Local Offer as per the SEND Code
of Practice 2015. This is a website that provides information
about health, education and social care for children and young
people (birth to 25 years old) with SEND. Hertfordshire’s Local
Offer has an abundance of information, advice, and signposting
on support available in education, clubs and activities, parent
workshops, services for young people and parents, preparing for
adulthood, EHCPs and more. The website is easy to navigate and
has contact details for all their services including links to
associated organisations and charities. Here is the link: The
Hertfordshire SEND Local Offer
Mrs J Gant – Headteacher
admin@edwinstree.herts.sch.uk
