Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have had a good week and are ready for those final few get ups before a well deserved break.

As you may know, over the summer holidays we initiated a project to transform our library into 'The Orchard,' a hybrid facility integrating both a library and a dedicated wellbeing and nurture space. As part of that process, we are saying goodbye to many of our outdated library books. We were delighted to be able to donate many of our books to 'Free Books Hatfield', an independent charity run entirely by volunteers with the aim of saving unwanted books and promoting literacy in the local community. My thanks to Miss Sorano, Ms. Gordon and Mr. Anderson who organised and transported the books to their new temporary home on Thursday. The remaining books will be available for parents to collect at our parent consultation evenings next week. 

Speaking of our parent consultations next week, we are all really looking forward to seeing you and providing an update on how your child has settled in and their progress thus far. Members of the senior leadership team will be available each evening as will our chair of governors, Jan Stevens, who would be delighted to speak with you and hope to even tempt you to apply for the vacant parent governor positions! I would like to take this opportunity to just remind parents / carers that if younger siblings are in attendance, that we do expect them to remain seated and closely supervised at all times. Activity such as running or playing loudly is highly disruptive to the consultations taking place and also poses a significant safety risk in busy corridors and waiting areas.

This week, I wanted to also give a shout out to several of our children in Year Six. Firstly, to Harry and Faiha, who have made it their mission to help Mrs. Crockett clean up the dining hall after lunch each day. Secondly, to Teddy and Xenia, who helped support one of their peers into school this morning and even stopped by to catch up with myself in the process. Throughout the week, I do need to undertake certain operational or administrative duties which necessitate time away from being around our brilliant children but witnessing genuine acts of kindness and engaging in authentic, meaningful conversations with our children provide the greatest reward.

Next week is the final week of this first half-term and in addition to our parent consultation evenings, we are delighted to invite you all to our very own DeHav Scarecrow Festival! This will be taking place next Friday 24th October after school. Whilst further communication will be shared with families next week, I just want to just take this opportunity to remind parents of children in our Early Years and Key Stage One that pick up time will be brought forward to 2:40 pm next Friday. This will ensure we are staggering families meandering through the display of scarecrows on our field. Children who are unable to be picked up at this earlier time will stay with a class adult until the usual pick up time of 3:15 pm. For Key Stage Two, dismissal time will be as normal. We are really looking forward to this event and I am sure everyone is going to have an a-maize-ing time!

Have a lovely weekend and see you all next week.

Mr. Bostock