Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have had a good week. We have had a busy and great week. This week we celebrated Anti-bullying week by wearing our odd socks and choosing respect. We enjoyed an assembly where we learned the meaning of respect, and how to spot bullying if it happens. We also celebrated World Kindness Day on Wednesday. Each class wrote acts of kindness on leaves, and created a whole school kindness tree to show kindness grows kindness. The children enjoyed sharing positivity and happiness. I reminded the children that their kindness is evident all the time, not just on this special day. I am so impressed with how kind and thoughtful the children are at Betty Layward. 

Thank you for attending your parent’s meeting yesterday. We are so proud of how well the children are doing and how focused they are on learning. It is also lovely to see them when they are proud of themselves. 

This week, as part of their Mapping unit, year 5 visited Hampstead Heath for an orienteering session. They looked at maps and compasses in more detail, created their own islands and tested their map-reading and teamwork skills by exploring the Heath's orienteering course. 

On Tuesday 12th November a group of year 5 and 6 children participated in the Hackney Football League at The Eastway Hub against Halley House. The boys kicked off first and despite displaying great teamwork skills with goals from Joe and Lorcan the boys were defeated. The Girls were up next and blew away their opponents with an 11-0 victory with goals from Livvie, Bonnie, Clara and Martha. Well done to all the children who took part and a special thank you to all the parent volunteers.

It was lovely to have our parents and carers visit us in Reception for Family Friday today.  The children and families were thinking about Understanding the World and our local area.  They drew maps of the local area that surrounds Betty Layward and thought about their journeys to school.

Our Winter Fair is on 7th December from 12:30-3:00pm. On Friday 6th December please can the children wear their own clothes and bring in a donation for the fair. This can be toiletries, chocolates or bottles of alcohol. If you also have a suitable raffle prize please let us or your PTFA rep know. We will also need help setting up the fair on the Friday and setting up, running a stall or clearing up on the Saturday. Any help is greatly appreciated and we can only run these events if we do have enough help. Thank you for your support with this.

We have a new venue for our Year 2 to 6 Christmas concert. It will be held at St Matthias Church, Wordworth Rd, N16 8DD on the afternoon of Tuesday 17th December. We are just confirming the times and will let you know soon. You will not be able to take your child home from the church. The children will go back to school first. 

I look forward to seeing you at the quiz night tonight. Thank you to everyone for your excellent organisation skills, your help and for buying tickets. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have a lovely weekend 

Jessica 

Headteacher