From the Headteacher…

Dear Parents and Carers,

We’ve had a lovely week at BL!

On Monday we kicked off with a pupil led assembly by Dureti, Holly and Elena on the Referendum in Europe! The children approached me a few weeks ago with the idea, which they came up with themselves, and prepared a superb and insightful presentation to their peers on the matter. The assembly ended with a vote! And Betty Layward pupils voted to stay in Europe! Our pupils never fail to amaze me, but for children of 8 years old to be interested in such a complex topic and to have prepared so eloquent a piece on the subject blew us all away! We are incredibly proud of you girls and you have inspired others. Pupil led assemblies happen at least four times a half term, they are written and presented by students and no adults are present in the hall when they take place. Our student monitors are in charge of behaviour management during it and pupils are given an opportunity to be totally independent and develop their skills as leaders. We plan on developing pupil voice further within the school over the coming months.

Also on Monday our Year 5s enjoyed a visit from the Sir Teachalot Vikings! During the Viking re-enactment, the children had a chance to yield Viking swords and shields and greatly enjoyed the experience!

This week I watched some of our classes during their Philosophy 4 Children work. I was so impressed with the quality of conversation I witnessed between children and the way that they were able to listen so respectfully to their peers’ opinions, even if they did not match their own. Supporting conversations on this level within our classrooms is a focus for us as a school and the P4C work links beautifully with our Hackney Loves Reading programme to create lots of opportunities for developing discussions and asking questions.

Many of our classes have visited a bookshop in Wood Green this week to buy books as a continuation of Book Week. The Big Green bookshop commented on how respectfully our children behaved, so well done to all for representing our school so well!

On Wednesday Year 1 Lavender did a fantastic assembly on dinosaurs which was informative and funny! Thank you to all involved and to Salwa, Lisa, Annie and Charan for organising.

Also on Wednesday we held a meeting for parents of our children attending the residential trip to Madrid in May! We are all very excited about this and thank Claire, Bibi and Helen for successfully biding for the funding and for organising what will be an amazing experience!

On Thursday we greatly enjoyed watching Year 4 Cerise class perform their assembly on the Tudors! Amazing outfits were worn and I loved the song at the end! Thank you to everyone involved and to Gemma, Karren and Jamila for their hard work in putting it together.

Good news for those of you who have been frustrated by our website speed! It is now supplied by a new server and should be much faster to access! Our website is in the process of being updated and more news on how you can access all of our social media outlets will be available after Easter.

Thank you to Stella, Eva and Anya for taking the Layward family around the school last Friday, the family had a wonderful time and loved what they saw. (Please see pictures opposite)They were so impressed by our incredible pupils and the atmosphere they experienced! I enjoyed a cup of tea and a biscuit with the girls this week to say thank you, all three of you are wonderful ambassadors for BL and top notch tour guides! Well done!

Have a lovely weekend!

Verity Carter, Acting Headteacher