Jessica's Newsletters

Newsletter Friday 26th June 2026

Fri 26 Jun 2026 Jessica

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a week. The children have been amazing in the heat and we are exceptionally proud of them. They have enjoyed the paddling pools, sprinklers, and the chance to dip their feet in cold water to keep cool. They have managed brilliantly. Thank you for all your support with the early closings this week. We also really appreciate your kind words about this week. We are looking forward to returning to normal on Monday. There will be no class newsletters this week due to the unusual circumstances.

Thank you for all your donations for the Summer Fair and for signing up to help. We are really looking forward to it. Thanks to everyone who is helping to set up, run a stall and then help tidy up. All help really makes a difference and we look forward to seeing you there.

Betty Layward enjoyed a special Windrush Lunch on Monday as part of our celebrations of the Windrush generation and their lasting contribution to Britain. The menu featured delicious Caribbean-inspired dishes, including patties from Brixton, giving children the chance to taste wonderful flavours.

This week we had the pleasure of hearing singing performances from Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3. The children had been working extremely hard to perform at the Hackney Music Festival, but due to the weather, we held the performances at school. It was a delight to hear the children's incredible voices and a variety of songs. Well done to all the children involved, and thank you to the parents and carers who came to support the events.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you at the Summer Fair tomorrow,

Jessica

Headteacher

Newsletter - Friday 19th June 2026

Fri 19 Jun 2026 Jessica

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for your wonderful support at Sports Day today. It was great fun and the children really enjoyed it. I always enjoy seeing the children join in and have a go at all the different activities. Thank you to those of you who also joined in. It was a hot one, but lovely as always.

Reception Ocean delivered an amazing class assembly this week. They retold the story of Oliver's vegetables and were brilliant. They spoke with confidence and sang beautifully. They were also the best advert for eating vegetables I have ever seen. Well done, Ocean class.

Year 1 enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Estorick Art Museum this week. The children were exceptionally well-behaved. They enjoyed seeing various styles and eras of Italian artwork before being given the task of being curators. They then created their own gallery. On our return, we recreated some of our favourite Futurist pieces.

This week, our Year 3 and Year 4 tennis team represented the school brilliantly at the Hackney Schools Tennis Competition. Demonstrating excellent teamwork, determination, and sportsmanship throughout the event, the children competed against several other schools from across Hackney and emerged as overall champions. Their outstanding performance and commitment secured a well-deserved victory, making the whole school proud.

We have our Windrush lunch on Monday. We will be providing Jamaican Patties made by Bickles Patties. They started as a Caribbean takeaway in Brixton in 2011, serving patties to the local community. Since then, Bickles has grown into a successful West Indian catering and wholesale business. They still make their patties by hand, and they are absolutely delicious.

Next week is Hispanic Week, and there are some lovely activities planned for the children. We look forward to telling you all about them.

The Summer Fair is on Saturday, 27th June, and we would love you to sign up to help. This event is really important for our children. They love it and it is not easy to organise. It is also an amazing fundraiser and any extra funds really make a difference for the children. We would appreciate as much help as possible. We are asking the children to wear their own clothes on Friday, 26th June and to bring a donation for the Summer Fair. This can be a bottle of alcohol, chocolates, new toys, or new toiletries. Any donations are very welcome. Thank you for all your support with this.

We have Parents/Carers week during the week starting 29th June. The focus this year is STEM activities. You will receive an email with more information soon, including the date for your child’s class. We hope you can attend.

We also have an afternoon on 9th July. During this time, you can come into school to be with your child/ren so they can share their work from this year with you.

Have a lovely weekend. Please sign up to help at the Summer Fair. We need you.

Jessica

Headteacher

Newsletter Friday 12th June 2026

Fri 12 Jun 2026 Jessica

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you have had a lovely week. We have, especially Year 6, who had an amazing week away in France, visiting a goat farm and a chocolate factory, as well as taking part in many other exciting activities. It is lovely to see them back and to hear how much fun they had. They behaved brilliantly and were a credit to the school. Well done to Year 6 and all the staff who accompanied them.

Thank you to those of you who attended our Eid Celebration on Monday. It was a wonderful success, bringing our school community together for a happy afternoon of celebration, friendship, and delicious food. Everyone had a fantastic time. Thank you for all the hard work that went into planning and preparing the delicious food, and for the kind donations.

Year 5 went on an exciting trip to the Natural History Museum this week. They used their creativity to design, build, evaluate, and share a solution to a real-world sustainability challenge using LEGO® bricks in a hands-on workshop.

On Monday, Year 2 went on a trip to the Estorick Collection of Italian Art. First, they looked at one of the exhibitions and discussed why certain pieces of art had been displayed together. Then the children explored the gallery and discussed which artworks featured geometric or organic shapes, warm or cool colours, and whether they were abstract or realistic. Finally, they had a go at being mini curators and decided which pieces of art they wanted to group together, creating their own class art exhibition.

We look forward to seeing you at Sports Day on Friday in Clissold Park. I hope the weather will be kind to us. Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will be there in the morning, and KS2 will be there in the afternoon. We ask that you stand behind the barriers provided. Children will walk back to school afterwards and will be picked up from school as normal. We look forward to the parents/carers race, too. A letter with all the information has been emailed, and we ask that the children wear their Team Betty t-shirts.

Please check the school calendar for any upcoming events. We have Parents and Carers Week coming up, during which the children will be doing STEM activities with you. Parents and carers will be invited in the afternoons, and your child can share their work from the year with you.

The school has recently partnered with an exciting new local food business in a fundraising initiative. Based in N16, Larder, makes delicious frozen ready meals using great British ingredients with no additives, and delivers to your door. Input the code BETTY at checkout and 5% of your purchase will go back to the school. In addition, you can sign up with the following link to get 15% off your first order here.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine,

Jessica

Headteacher

Newsletter Friday 5th June 2026

Thu 04 Jun 2026 Jessica

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely half-term break. It is lovely to see everyone back. Thank you for coming to Blastonbury yesterday and coping with the change in the weather. The children were amazing, and thank you for being such a good audience. It was a wonderful celebration of country music.

On Monday, Year 6 visited the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art for an Art in Motion workshop. They explored a range of artworks, focusing on how different artists captured movement in their pieces. Inspired by what they saw, the pupils practised sketching motion using several techniques observed in the galleries. To finish, they combined their new skills to create their very own flipbooks. A lot of our classes have had a trip to this gallery, as it is local, and we love an art trip where specialists support the children and their learning in Art.

Year 4 Fuchsia have had the wonderful experience of working with the London Symphony Orchestra, and on Thursday, they attended the LSO St. Luke's. They performed their own composition inspired by Holst's The Planets with musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra. All the children were incredible and really showed their musical abilities. Well done to Fuchsia class and Zoe.

On Saturday, 16th May 2026, 116 children from Betty Layward School took part in the Hackney Schools Challenge at Hackney Marshes. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather, and the children enjoyed a fun, energetic day, demonstrating great teamwork, enthusiasm and sportsmanship throughout. Thank you to Richard Babington for organising such a well-run and enjoyable event and for helping to create a memorable experience for all the children involved. Well done to Stanley in Year 4, who came first.

The week before half term, Y1 Lavender delivered an exciting assembly all about the Great Fire of London. The children confidently shared facts, sang songs, and acted out key moments from the famous event. They worked incredibly hard to learn their lines and performed with great enthusiasm and confidence. It was great to see all the hard work that had gone into the homework projects, which looked fantastic. Well done, Lavender class.

A group of children from our cricket club participated in a school cricket festival. It was an exciting sporting event where children from different local schools came together to compete in friendly cricket matches. The festival provided young players with the opportunity to develop their cricket skills, teamwork, sportsmanship, and confidence in a fun and supportive environment. The children really enjoyed the event.

Before half term, Year 6 were delighted to welcome back Eric Huang, our Writer-in-Residence, for an inspiring writing workshop. Eric spoke to the children about his journey to becoming a writer, explaining that many of his ideas stem from his own life experiences, and encouraged them to see that they, too, can draw inspiration from the world around them. He then challenged the pupils to write a fantasy or science fiction story based on a newspaper report about a dog called Hades who survived after being lost in the desert for three months. The workshop sparked creativity and enthusiasm, and the children produced some fantastic ideas. We would like to thank Eric for such an engaging session, and we look forward to welcoming him back to work with the rest of the school in the future.

We are proud to share that the children from Betty Layward came second out of 11 schools in the Hackney chess league competition. Their focus, teamwork and determination were outstanding throughout the competition. Well done to Gene, Sacha, Jacob, Lucas, Henry, Al and Acer.

In May, Hackney District Girls made history by reaching the semi-finals of the Southern Counties Cup for the first time ever. It’s one of the most prestigious cups you can win. After successfully beating Newbury in the semi-final, they went straight to the final to play Chiltern and Bucks and won. This is such a huge achievement for the team and we are immensely proud of them. Both Clara and Livvie are representing Hackney District for the second year, after playing a year up last year. They are both very proud to be representing Betty Layward and we thought you’d be pleased to hear of their success. I’m not sure if you are aware of this stat- Betty Layward has provided the largest number of girls for Hackney District teams since it started.

On bank holiday Monday, Luiza and Georgie set up a stall outside The Spence bakery on Stoke Newington Church Street to fundraise for our school. They sold rolls, watermelon, cookies, ice lollies and lemonade. They raised a total of £292.75 for the school, with £141.25 in cash and £151.50 by card. The day before the fundraiser, they made flyers and put them around Stoke Newington. On the day of our fundraiser, Chloe, Sunday and Raisa came to help us at the stall. Louisa sang some songs. A huge thank you to everyone who supported them, to their mums, Joanna and Aida, who helped with the set-up and items sold on the day, and to The Spence bakery for being closed on a Monday. They had a great location. Well done Luiza and Georgie. We are very impressed by all your efforts.

The silent disco was really fun this afternoon and we loved watching the children dancing around the playground.

We are holding an Eid event on Monday, 8th June, in the playground after school. I hope you can join us. Any food donations would be greatly appreciated. We look forward to seeing you there.

Year 6 are off to France on Monday for a week, and we hope they have the most wonderful, well-deserved time.

Have a lovely weekend,

Jessica

Headteacher