Headteacher Blog Archive Spring 1 2024

9 February 2024

I would like to start this week by thanking all my staff for coming together and helping out across the school where needed. It is always difficult when teachers are unfortunately unwell and unable to come to school, but thanks to the rest of the staff all the children have continued to receive a high level of teaching and learning each day thanks to adaptability of the team.

This week was Children’s Mental Health Week. Children’s Mental Health Week 2024 takes place from 5th-11th February. Place2Be launched the mental health awareness week in 2015 to empower, equip and give a voice to every child in the UK. Every year Children’s Mental Health Week sees hundreds of schools, children, parents and carers taking part. Now in its 10th year, Place2Be hope to encourage more people than ever to help their goal that no child or young person has to face a mental health problem alone.

We began the week with a whole school assembly around the theme for this year, My Voice Matters, which was lead by the Barnet Integrated Children's Services (BICS) team. They discussed with the children the importance of looking after our Mental Health and how talking to someone could help, even a small bit, in making someone feel better if they are struggling to feel mentally healthy. This message has been reinforced in all classes across the week in order to help children to understand the important message it is trying to convey.

This year's theme is 'My Voice Matters'

During Children’s Mental Health Week they wanted all children and young people, whoever they are, and wherever they are in the world, to be able to say – and believe - “My Voice Matters”.

My Voice Matters is about empowering children and young people by providing them with the tools they need to express themselves.

When we feel empowered, this can have a positive impact on our wellbeing. Children and young people who feel that their voices are heard and can make a difference have a greater sense of community and self-esteem. This year, we want children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to be empowered to work together to create a positive change for their mental health and wellbeing.

During Children’s Mental Health Week we want all children and young people, whoever they are, and wherever they are in the world, to be able to say – and believe - “My Voice Matters”.

If you would like some more information or resources to support your children with their learning about this at home, please follow the link below: https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/families/#resources

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had an additional focus on online safety as Tuesday was World Internet Safety Day. The Digital Leaders helped me to run an assembly in which we disused how to stay safe on line and the importance of not sharing certain information with people on line. I spoke to Years 4 to 6 about this in more detail to help them understand the importance of not believing everything they see on line and the sad reality that not everyone on line will always be who they say they are.

On Tuesday evening Streetwise ran a fascinating and extremely useful parent session around helping our children to stay safe online, thank you to all those parents that attended. Having attended these sessions annually for around the past 15 years there is always something new to learn and key messages to remember and we are extremely grateful to Streetwise for running the sessions as well as the sessions they ran in school on Wednesday in each class.

Congratulations to the following children who were selected by their teacher to attend my tea party today for showing educational excellence in class this week:

Aaron H, Brooke R, Noa H, Robi N, Eva B, Ruby B and Liv A.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported our charity collection today in aid of Grief Encounter. Aside from being our neighbours, Grief Encounter are there to support bereaved children and young people to find hope and healing after the death of a family member. They are a charity that none of us want to have to utilise but it is comforting to know that they are there if they were ever needed.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a happy and restful half term.

Shabbat shalom,

Mrs Martin

2 February 2024

As we get ever closer to the end of this half term, the learning focus around the school has really impressed me this week. This has been demonstrated in all classes, with some fantastic examples of the independent application of learning in our Best Seat in the House Awards this week.

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to regularly drop into lessons in all year groups, seeing how engaged and proactive everyone is as a learner. This is all due to the hard work of our staff, who are continuously developing engaging and exciting learning opportunities for all of our classes. Thank you to them, and a huge thank you to our children for showing a growth mind set and working hard!

This week children in Year 5 and 6 have been lucky enough to take part in Bikeability level 2 training. This involved them leaving the school premises and learning how to safely cycle on the roads around school. They learnt how to navigate the roads and also learnt basic road rules, something that will be useful to them when travelling on foot too.

On Tuesday Miss Genn introduced Maths in Art week to all the children. She led an interesting discussion with the children over the value of maths and explained to them how maths is used all the time by everyone. She challenged them to find a job that did not need maths and managed to explain to them how each one suggested would involve the use of maths. The children were amazed to discover that even footballers and Rabbis use maths! Over the week each class have studied pieces by different artist and learnt how they use maths in their creative work to help make their masterpieces. They have then created their own pieces inspired by the artist.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we are lucky enough to be visited by a team of actors from Israel to share with us age specific plays as part of the Festival of Spoken Ivrit. The plays kept the children's attention and focus and there were a lot of giggles coming from the hall each day. It was wonderful to see the children enjoying drama and basic comedy as well as realising that Ivrit is very much a live language which they can enjoy on a variety of levels.

As always, one of the highlights of my week is welcoming people to my weekly Tea Party for showing academic excellence. A huge well done to the following children for being nominated by their teachers this week:

Teddy R, Sophia R, Asher C, Jordan H, Lily G, Olivia Y and Leah O.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Martin

26 January 2024

There have been so many different topics and subjects covered all across the school this week. In Reception they have been continuing to focus on the theme of winter and learning about Antartica. They have also been learning about 'subatising' in maths and creating their own colourful Number Blocks to demonstrate this. Year 1 have looking deeper at the numbers up to 20. They have used part whole models to identify number bonds to 10. Year 2 have been looking at portraits of people and buildings and learning how to create their own inspired by the artist L.S. Lowry. In Geography Year 3 have been learning about counties in England and trying to work out where Mill Hill is - something they learnt which wasn't as easy as they first thought! This week in Computing Year 4 have been looking at putting their Word skills to good use creating a poster about a fictional cake sale. now I know who to turn to when I need help in this area. Year 5 and 6 have enjoyed delving deeper into their English texts this week. Year 5 have taken on the imaginary role of a Guard from the Kingdom of Benin in around the year 1000 communicating with the Chief. Year 6 have created information leaflets about the fictional town of Glockenheim. Some of the leaflets were extremely persuasive and made me wish that the town was real so I could go and visit.

Reading is a skill that most of us take for granted, yet is one that is essential for being able to get on in life. As a child grows up, being able to read well not only enables them to discover new facts and to learn at school, but also opens them up to a world of new ideas, stories and opportunities. As research shows, children who read for pleasure will achieve more than those that don’t in later life. All the decisions we make as a school on reading are based on research – we are well informed and up to the minute. All our staff are committed to ensuring that all children become independent and fluent readers during their time at our school. We want our children to enjoy books as much as we do!

Congratulations to the following children for being voted by their class as this terms library monitors:

Reception - Lana and Willow

Year 1 - Cecily and Harrison

Year 2 - Joseph and Summer

Year 3 - Hannah G and Maya

Year 4 - Tamar and Celine

Year 5 - Felix and Olivia

Year 6 - Milly and Lila

This week we had our termly visit from our School Improvement Partners. They were impressed with the progress made since their last visits in September and November. They commented on the increased independence and confidence towards their leaning they noticed in children as well as the fact that the children are articulating information about their learning more successfully. This was seen in maths through their use of subject specific vocabulary as well as the way in which staff and children are now linking learning to previous lessons and their prior knowledge. They commented on the benefits of the consistency with the structure of teaching seen across the school in order to reduce cognitive load on the children so they can focus on learning the lesson content.

Finally, congratulations to all the children for their fantastic hard work and commitment to learning in school this week. particular congratulations to the following children for showing educational excellence and joining me at my tea party: Nadav R, Mia C, Myla R, Joely T, Freddie J, Joseph R and Sofia C.

Shabbat shalom,

Mrs Martin

19 January 2024

This week we have had a lot of fantastic learning opportunities both in and outside of the classroom.

Year 2 went on a walk of the local area as part of their Science learning. They looked at different materials used to build things around the school and in the park and discussed why those materials had been used.

Year 6 have been out and about twice this week. On Tuesday they went to the Benjamin Franklin House to learn more about Electricity. They had a tour of the house and attended a hair raising workshop during which they conducted some experiments around static electricity. On Wednesday Year 6 went to JFS School to take part in a number of other challenges along side many other schools. The children enjoyed listening to a live band playing all the Jewish classics and came second in the escape room competition - congratulations.

Also this week, Year 5 had a visit from an expert in all things space. They learnt about the first lunar landing as well as rocket launches prior to Apollo 11 and even heard Neil Armstrong talking from the moon on a record player! I am not sure if the concept of the record player or hearing his voice was more surprising to them!

Children in Year 1 and 2 attended a Road Safety Workshop this week in which they learnt more about how to safely cross the road. Although all school staff share crucial messages like this with the children it is always goo0d for them to hear about it from someone else too.

We have also had a number of visitors into school this week. On Wednesday a group of teachers from Jewish schools in Belgium came to visit us to see how we tach at Etz Chaim. They got a tour of the school and sat in a number of lessons. They were amazed by the things we offered to our children as well as the facilities we have here. Also on Wednesday I showed round some teachers from a more local Jewish primary school who wanted to look at our approach to teaching and learning and how it compares to what their school offers. All the way round the school they commented on the positive atmosphere within the school and were impressed by the quality of work the children were producing.

On Monday all class teachers went to Rosh Pinah after school to sit together and meet with the Rosh Pinah teachers working in the same year group as them. We took along some of our children's work to share with them and also got to see some of the work their children have produced. It was wonderful to see the similarities between the two schools as well as learn from each other and share ideas and resources.

I had my first meeting this week with our new class ambassadors. We discussed they importance of their role and how they are acting as the voice of their friends in the class so that I am aware of how all the children are thinking and feeling. I am looking forward to meeting with them again in a few weeks time to hear back from the Ambassadors about what helps to make their peers feel happy and supported in school.

Congratulations to the following children who attended my tea party today for showing Educational Excellence - Amelia M, Ella I, Zac B, Raffie G, Ava O, Luca DM and Ava M.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Martin

12 January 2024

Welcome back to our first full week of 2024. I hope that everyone had an enjoyable winter break and found time to recharge their batteries.

As always, we have had another busy week in school with each class starting a number of new topics and texts across the curriculum. You can find more details of the topics and units each class is covering this half term on the half termly overview posted on SeeSaw.

On Tuesday this week the new Class Ambassadors were announced to the whole school in assembly. Congratulations to the following children for being elected by their class teacher for the role.

Reception - Rafi

Year 1 - Jagger

Year 2 - Asher

Year 3 - Eden

Year 4 - Shulamit

Year 5 - Eden

Year 6 - Daniel S

This week Year 4 were fortunate to have the opportunity to take part in a Bikeability course over two days. The course helped the children to developed cycle handling skills in order to ride their bikes to a competent and consistent level. Despite the cold weather the children went out on their bikes each day with gusto and enthusiasm and learnt how to ride their bikes in a safe and confident manner.

We are constantly thinking of ways to promote our five school values to the children in school. Two things that we do each week which celebrate those that have shown two of our values (independence and educational excellence) are Best Seat in the House and my weekly tea party. If a child is awarded Best Seat in the House for showing independence during the past week they are invited to sit on the 'best seat' in our Tuesday morning assembly and help to lead whole school tefillah. Children who have shown education excellence at some point over the past week are invited to my Friday morning tea party where we enjoy a sweet treat together and celebrate their achievement.

Congratulations to the following children for showing Educational Excellence and joining me for tea this morning; Mila F, Nili W, Lulu B, Illai E, Sarah B, Sopia G, Bella R. We had a lovely tea discussing the hard work they had done in class this week as well as some of things the children did out of school during the Winter break. The conclusion as a group is that we would all recommend the film Wonka which is currently in the cinema!

Shabbat shalom,

Mrs Martin