Reaching high for the best for your child

Welcome to our updated and improved website!

As well as a brighter, fresher 'feel', you will find some new features like the straw poll surveys on the right of the home page. Let us know your views!

We also have amazing new class blogs that will be updated regularly, so you can keep in touch with what is going on in your child's class. Check them out now! Don't forget, you can use a service like www.blogtrottr.com to send you an email you every time a new blog entry is posted.

Hopefully, you will come back and visit us regularly in the future to find out what is happening at the school.

Our School has more information About Our Website.

A massive thank you goes to Andy Jeffries, one of our parents, and his company NextGen Development Ltd who continue to support the school by providing hours and hours of time developing the website.

Have fun exploring! If you have any initial feedback or ideas to make the site better, please feel free to drop me an email.

On Friday, following a hard week of SATs, Year Six took a well earned trip to Cambridge on the train.  As part of their Wild Kingdom topic, they visited the museum of Zoology to look at the adaptation of animals throughout history before taking part in a Polar Workshop at the Scott institute for polar research. They also took time to look around Emmanuel College where many of the children are now hoping to go...! Reach High, Year 6!

This weekend Stevenage Taekwondo had five students enter the Bristol Open Taekwondo Festival from the Fairlands Taekwondo club, their first full contact fights in a knockout competition environment (and for three of them their first ever fights).  All fighters represented the club with excellent sportsmanship and superb efforts.  James Chapman our youngest fighter (8 years old) fought a great first fight, unfortunately losing in the closing seconds.  Tom Elmes (Year 6) fought in his division against a Welsh fighter and unfortunately didn't manage to find an opening to what would become an eventual finalist (Oliver Gibbs).

Mitchell Elmes (ex-Fairlands School) fought against a tough opponent with lots of local support but managed to easily beat him, stopping the fight, winning by point gap (7 points above his opponent) before the end of the second round.  He then went on to fight Oliver Gibbs in the semi-final but couldn't find a way to beat him either, but ending the day with a bronze medal.  Tom Jeffries (Year 5) fought in his opening round match and displayed some excellent technical ability, winning that match putting him through to a semi-final against teammate Alex Paul (also Year 5) who had a bye in the first round.  A close match was fought between the two teammates, with Tom edging Alex out at the end earning Alex a bronze medal, putting him through to face Oliver Gibbs.  Tom fought well in the final, getting caught with an illegal blow in the first round and having a kick to his opponents head in the second that should have scored, ended up losing 5-3.  Tom finished the day with the silver medal.

In other action at the weekend, one of our assistant coaches Eloise Tarry (16 years old) went up to the national academy to take part in an assessment for the national Taekwondo squad for Rio 2016.  This is a multi-stage process, 435 athletes applied for the programme, 235 were invited to the assessment of which 94 were girls, so already this was a great achievement.  Eloise did really well in the physical assessments, finishing either top in each test or within the top few (as the results weren't announced out loud for one of the tests).  The end of the assessment was a single fight under full Olympic rules and being watched by World Champion and twice-Olympian Sarah Stevenson, among others. Her fight was against a higher ranked 21 year old lady, but Eloise went on to win 12-11 after a Sudden Death 4th round.  A win in the fight does not guarantee entry to the squad, but performances are considered as a factor. Comments from the judges afterwards were all very positive, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for the next stage of the assessment for her.

If anyone would like to join Stevenage Taekwondo, either child or adult, please get in touch with the club's instructor Master Andy Jeffries on 07939 164853, or visit the club's website www.stevenagetaekwondo.co.uk.

We were very proud last week to attend the first NHC Children's University Graduation at the Broadway Cinema in Letchworth! Two of our children graduated, Matthew Gray and Ben Muggleton - it was great to see them dressed up in their gowns and mortar boards to receive their awards.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS! 

The children have been taking part in a series of accredited after school actvities; each time they attend, they have earned points towards their Children's University award. We are expecting more children to graduate next year, so please look out for information in the future! 

We had great fun on Tuesday when the whole school took part in a snowman building competition! On Friday, Year 6 built an Igloo Cave!

Take a look at some of the photos in the Gallery section.

We had a lovely morning today when Mrs Ansell and Mrs Biggs took the Knitting & Sewing Club members down to the church to decorate our Christmas Tree!

Each year, Holy Trinity Church holds a Christmas Tree Festival where community groups contribute a themed Christmas Tree to make a wonderful display.

This year, our theme was 'Christmas Crafts' and the Knitting Club have been working hard for weeks to sew and knit Christmas Stockings.

We'd love the children's efforts to be recognised, so PLEASE make some time to pop into the church and place your vote for our tree to win!