20 February 2023

Newsletter Articles

Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

As this half-term finishes, I am taking the time to reflect not only on the new year but also on my new role at Honilands. I am extremely proud to take up the role of Headteacher and would like to thank you all for your support and kind words in my first half term in the role. I promise to continue to keep working hard for our wonderful school to ensure we provide the best possible education for our children.

It has been a pleasure to see ‘Stay and Play’ sessions starting up again at school. These sessions are taking place in our ‘Treehouse’ building in the Infant Playground on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. If you wish to find out further information on how to join, please contact our school office or speak to Gemma and Vicky who are leading it.

Another event that is returning is our Year 6 journey to PGL. Parents were quick to secure a place on the weekend visit to PGL Liddington, despite an initial low level of interest via our Google Form. We were lucky to secure an additional 6 places on the trip taking our number up to 32 pupils. The trip will take place in the Summer term over a weekend. We will look to ask Year 5 parents about their interest next term so that we can book additional places early for next year.

My thanks to our wonderful PTA for their support in organising yet another successful school disco this half term, not only raising money for the school but also providing a lovely evening for our children. The children had a fantastic time and were brilliantly behaved, it was lovely seeing them have such a lovely time with their friends.

Thank you to all of you who responded to the questionnaire regarding interest in an after-school club. It is clear that a lot of you would like that provision and would make regular use of it. As such, I have started having talks with a provider in the hope that we can get provision set up to start for the next academic year. I will keep you updated on our progress.

We are very fortunate to have been selected as the school in this ward to offer a Community Hub to our parents. The Community Hub will aim to link parents to help and advice with money, debt, housing, jobs, skills, health and well-being in Enfield. There will be 3 slots offered per session and you will able to come and meet privately with a support worker in the school who will be able to offer advice and support in these areas. This will be between 9:30 to 12:30 on a Tuesday and can be booked through the school office – please speak to Carmel to secure a slot. Our first session will be on Tuesday 28^th February. The following sessions will be 4 weeks later.

World Book Day will be occurring in the next half term and we will be celebrating it on Friday 3rd March. It is nationally planned for the 2nd March but this is currently a proposed strike day, unless an agreement is reached between the government and unions before this date. So we have set the date for the 3rd March and we will also be celebrating the day as a Family Fun Day, where you will be able to come to school and work with your child/children in their classes. Further details will be sent out next half term. We will not be dressing up as part of World Book Day, in the current ‘cost of living’ crisis families are facing enough financial pressures without adding another unnecessary burden. However, we will focus on having a fun day with work around great books and stories, something all our children can join in with.

Finally, look out for Honilands on the BBC. The school was approached to take part in a documentary about Rose Ayling-Ellis (winner of Strictly Come Dancing) and her experiences as a deaf child in education. Martine Monksfield, a teacher specialising in working with deaf children and who supports one of our pupils, recommended the school to the production team. We were very proud to host them and it was fantastic experience for the children in Hazel 6 who got to be a part of the production, seeing what filming a documentary looked like and, of course, meeting Rose.

I hope you have enjoyed the half term break and I look forward to seeing you next week.

Mr Irvine

Attendance

Spring Term 2022 Attendance Winners: Hazel 6 (93.5%)

Whole school attendance: 90.8%

It has continued to be a difficult term with particular illnesses continuing from the Autumn term. Thank you to all of you who continually communicate with the school to explain why your child is absent and to provide evidence for their absence. This really helps when we meet and work with the Enfield Education Welfare Service.

New Year’s Resolution Assembly

We started off 2023 with a special assembly with our new headteacher, Mr Irvine. The focus was on new beginnings and new goals for the rest of the year. Happy New Year to all our staff, parents and children.

Bead Winners

Children in years 1 and 2 had a wonderful time on their scooters as a reward for their determination and learning this term. Well done red bead team for following our school values and earning the most beads

Chinese New Year Lunch

Chinese New Year lunch at Honilands this week. In line with promoting British Values within our school, our pupils learnt about why and how Chinese New Year is celebrated. We especially enjoyed our noodles which we learnt are eaten to bring good luck for a long length of time.

Children’s Mental Health Week

The week started off with whole school assemblies to introduce why looking after mental health is important and ways in which our pupils can do this. During the rest of the week the children joined in a whole host of activities including Let’s Connect and Our Peaceful Snapshot to encourage them to build friendships and connect with others if feeling anxious or worried.

ReadWriteInc

As part of our ambition to ensure all of our children become successful readers, we take part in regular RWI development days. This is where a member of the Ruth Miskin ReadWriteInc team comes to visit the school and watch our practice and support the staff in delivering the best outcomes that they can. It was another successful visit and our children are on track to make fantastic progress. Please keep reading at home and practicising the sounds the children are learning with them. Please also make use of the resources we share with you and the Oxford Owl website where the children are able to practice what they have learnt in school.

Special Assembly

We had a special assembly to think about the impact of the earthquakes in Turkey hopefully helping the children to make sense of what they are hearing in the news. As part of the support we offer, our children are also able to access Place2talk where they can talk to our school councillors about how they are feeling. We will be collecting donated items from the community to send abroad to help those in need. Our thoughts and condolences go out to all our families experiencing a sense of loss and grief for their loved ones who have lost their lives in this tragedy.

Hellos and Goodbyes

This half term we are sad to be saying goodby to some of our members of staff. Firstly, we say goodby to our hardworking apprentices - Ms Hassan, Ms Eshmene and Ms Watts. We also say goodby to Ms Wilkinson who will not be returning to us after this half term. We thank her for her hard work and commitment to the children over these past couple of years. Mr Kay will be taking full time responsibility for Cedar 5 while Ms Georgiou will be moving to work in Willow 3 after half term.

Diary dates for Spring 2