Newsletters

Newsletter 

Green Lanes School Newsletter

Issue 1: Thursday 11th September 2025

Welcome Back! Important Updates

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Green Lanes Primary School and welcome to our new families who have joined our school community! I hope you all had a restful break and are as excited as we are for the term ahead. To improve communication and so you know what is happening at Green Lanes Primary, we are moving our newsletter and communication day to a Thursday. SEND will send their communications on a Tuesday and there is now an option to leave the SEND team a message by ringing the school line and selecting option 2 (remember to press 3 at the end of your message!)

Join Us: Parent Café – Tomorrow, 9:00–9:30am

We are excited to invite you to our first Parent Café of the term, taking place tomorrow from 9:00 to 9:30am in the library. No need to book, just pop along.

This is a relaxed opportunity to:

  • Meet the team: Get to know myself (Head Teacher – Michele Johnson), our INCO (Amy Russell), Parent Governor (Elinore Dissington), office admin staff (who can help with app setup and queries – Shahana Islam), and our family worker (Maria Panter).
  • Ask questions: We will be on hand to answer any queries about the term ahead.
  • Find support: Whether you need help with school apps or want to find out more about school life, we are here for you.

Parent Cafe - Friday 19th September, 9-9:30am

We will be explaining how we teach ‘Phonics’; this workshop will go over how we teach phonics reading sounds and how you can support your child at home with their reading. Booking not required.

New: Men’s Group – 'Build and Belong' Wednesday 17th September 4-6pm come to the main entrance. 

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new Men’s Group this term. This is an informal space for dads, grandads and male carers to connect, build together and offer support. If you are interested, please let us know at admin@greenlanes.herts.sch.uk, parent Richard Wharton will be running this group and is happy to chat.

Save the date – Tuesday 23rd September-Thursday 26th September

Open classrooms-3:15-3:45pm

We are hosting our termly open classrooms this week. This will give you an informal chance to see the classroom, meet the teacher, and your child to show you their proud work. There is no need to book, just pop in after you collect your child. 

Electric Umbrella visit Thursday 2nd October

We are delighted to have the Britain's Got Talent golden buzzer group, Electric Umbrella, music group, who will be visiting the school for an exciting performance to Y2-Y6. 

Wet weather clothing

We are definitely experiencing mixed weather and we go out in light rain, please ensure your child has a raincoat, with hood, left in school. It would be great if you could also leave a pair of wellies too and amazing if they also have waterproof trousers. Remember to name everything. 

Remember to pre-order your child's school dinner

We no longer take orders in the classroom. To enable your child to have their preferred lunch choice, please make sure orders are completed by 8:55am at the latest. Please use the link to complete your order https://app.schoolgrid.co.uk/

Parking Reminder

We kindly ask all parents and carers to be considerate when parking outside the school. Please do not park across residents’ driveways or block access to any properties. This not only causes inconvenience to our neighbours but can also create safety issues for our children. One of our residents who is a medical worker could not get off her drive to attend an ill patient. Let us work together to keep our school community safe and respectful.

We are looking forward to a fantastic term together. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.

Warm regards,

Michele Johnson

Head Teacher

Parent Cafe - Meet the Team
9:00am – 9:30am
12
September
GLSA Teddy Bear Picnic
3:10pm – 4:10pm
12
September
Parent Cafe - Phonics / Little Wandle
9:00am – 9:30am
19
September
Open Classrooms
3:15pm – 3:45pm
23
September
Open Classrooms
3:15pm – 3:45pm
24
September
Open Classrooms
3:15pm – 3:45pm
25
September
Harvest Festival
9:00am – 3:15pm
29
September
Electric Umbrella visit
2:00pm – 3:00pm
02
October
Parent Cafe - Action Research Project
9:00am – 9:30am
03
October
Parent Cafe - SEND Support
9:00am – 9:30am
10
October

Foundation Stage

 

The last two weeks have been an amazing start to Green Lanes. We are very proud of how well all the children have settled in. Make sure all jumpers and shoes are named clearly as the children will take them off during the day and it would help us enormously if all of the shoes can easily be reunited with their owner! Thank you for your support with this. Don’t forget your family photos, either put them in their bags or email them to the office. We look forward to working with your children throughout the year and if you have any questions or concerns, please just ask.

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 1

 

The children have had a fantastic start to the school year. They have enjoyed starting to learn about other subjects. This week we have completed an Art topic on making marks. The children are very excited to start learning our phase 5 sounds in two weeks time. 

Please do remember to name all items of clothing so we can return any lost property to the right owners. We have a few unnamed jumpers and cardigans in Year 1. Do ask to have a look if you think they are yours. 

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 2

 

Year two has had a great start to the new school year. The children have all settled in to the new routines and have already impressed us with their fantastic year 2 work. In English, we have been focussing on the book 'Frog and the stranger' and we have been making predictions about what the characters might be like and how they might feel. In Maths we have been using a range of manipulative equipment to represent numbers in different ways. We have started the year with Art, focussing on using a range of media and mark making on different papers. We look forward to seeing more of their wonderful work.

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 3

 

Year 3 have had a fabulous start to the term. The children have worked hard on establishing routines and using the different digital backpacks to check in throughout the day. They are all excited to start learning French and have enjoyed the lessons. In our English, we have been focusing on narrative writing, where we have been practising key grammatical punctuation as well as exploring characters, settings, and plot. Our maths has focused on place value and regrouping, recapping their previous learning using concrete resources to explore numbers. The topic lessons have covered Art, where the children have explored different painting techniques including; sgraffito, tonking and impasto. Please feel free to ask them about it. 

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 4

 

We are so proud of how calmly the children have transitioned into their new Year 4 classrooms. It’s been fantastic to see them adapt to their surroundings and the new routines of the KS2 corridor. In Maths, they have revisited place value and in English, they have revised some key grammar. They have also started a new book – Arthur and the Golden Rope – which is a graphic novel we aim to add over the next two weeks during our writing sessions. The children have also explored shape and form in our afternoon Art lessons, focussing on contours, detail and negative space. Journaling books and our new check-in dials are being used well, with the children using them throughout the day to record key events and express their feelings. Finally, well done to everyone for remembering to wear their PE kit for our extra session on Mondays. 

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 5

 

Welcome to the new school year at Green Lanes Primary School! We are excited to start the term and look forward to working together to support your child’s learning and well-being. Here’s what we’ve been up to during our first week back:


Maths – This week, we’ve been exploring place value and comparing numbers up to millions. Pupils have enjoyed using practical resources and interactive games to deepen their understanding of large numbers. Ask your child to show you how they can read and order numbers up to 1,000,000!
How you can help at home:

  • Challenge your child to spot large numbers in newspapers, books or online.
  • Ask them to compare two big numbers – which is larger? How do they know?

English – Our English lessons are all about monsters and mythical creatures this term. We have been reading stories and researching legends to inspire our writing. This week, we started planning and drafting a non-chronological report about an imaginary creature.
Ask your child:

  • What creature are they writing about?
  • What interesting facts have they invented?

Art – In Art, pupils are getting creative with charcoal drawing and painting. We are learning about subtractive techniques – using erasers and tools to create highlights and textures by removing charcoal from the paper. The children have produced some fantastic mythical creature artwork already!
Why not try:

Encouraging your child to experiment with charcoal or pencil shading at home.

PE – This term, our focus in PE is football. Pupils have started practising their dribbling, passing, and teamwork skills. Please ensure your child has their PE kit in school every Tuesday and Thursday.

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

Year 6

 

What a first week it has been! Year 6's have blown us away with their maturity and readiness to learn. We have been learning all about ordering and comparing numbers with more than 7 digits. They have done exceptionally well with this and have shown beautiful presentation in their maths books. In English, we have been practising our use of relative clauses, expanded noun phrases and adverbials to reflect our class book 'Night of the Gargoyles'. In reading practice, we are reading Rooftoppers! We have been really enjoying this book so far and are excited to see where it is going. Keep up the good work Year 6! 

Click here to see the curriculum overview for this term. 

 

Inclusion and Banksy

 

A big welcome back from Inclusion and Banksy. The children have come back to school so well and have settled in with their consistent routines, and we are so happy to welcome our new Reception children. We will have a section in the newsletter to fill you in and signpost things that are going on. Any further inclusion communication will be sent out on a Tuesday, so please keep your eyes open for that. We have a new Inclusion and SEND answerphone which is the quickest and most efficient way to communicate with us. This is option 2 when you call the school. Once recorded, press 3 to send and we will receive this straight away.

We have drop-in, Assess, Plan, Do, Review meetings, and a SEND parent Café coming up, so please look out for those communications.

 

 

GLSA - September 

 

Dear Parents & Carers,

We know it's a very busy time for you all getting back into the school routine, getting to know new teachers, signing up to new clubs and everything else that comes with starting a new school year – especially for those of you with children who are starting in either Kusama or Riley classes, but we wanted to let you all know exactly what was raised from the major fund-raising events that we held during the 2024-25 school year.

Summer Fair - £7,668

Hallowe'en, Valentine's & Summer Disco - £3,289

Easter Bun Run - £540

Festive Movie Night - £205

Happy School Bags (Clothes Recycling) - £131

These amounts really are phenomenal and myself and the team really can't thank everybody enough that signed up to help, donated, took part or hopefully just enjoyed being a part of any or all of our activities.  We really can't stress how important it is that we have the support from as many of you as possible.

We will be running most of these activities again during 2025-26 (dates will be confirmed in the very near future) but we are also hoping to run a few new events, or at least some that haven't been on the calendar for the last few years.  Please keep an eye out on Social Media for dates and event updates and, of course, in the regular school newsletters that are sent out regularly throughout the year.

Please search for us, give us a follow, subscribe etc.

Facebook – "GLSA - Green Lanes School Association" and "Green Lanes Mums and Dads"

Instagram – "green_lanes_school_association"

On a slightly more serious note... our committee is at risk of not being able to continue to do the good work we do without attracting new members to join and get involved in organising our events.  WE REALLY DO NEED YOU!  Being part of this fantastic committee is a lot of fun.  It's fulfilling to be a part of a team of fun, occasionally geeky, kind-natured, generous and caring people with a shared aim.

Could you attend a virtual meeting?

Could you help to set up an event?

Are you able to design a poster?

Do you have a professional skill that you think would be a benefit to the GLSA?

Many of our planning and preparation activities can be done from home, although we are a social bunch so we enjoy meeting up together too.

The more people that get involved, the more we can achieve and the easier it will be to raise money for our much-loved school and children, to leave a lasting GLSA legacy into the future.

We will be holding a Meet & Greet in the very near future, so please keep an eye out for more information – we will be sending out an email to all parents/carers as soon as the details have been finalised.

In the meantime, if you'd like to get in touch with us, then please send us an e-mail at glsa@greenlanes.herts.sch.uk 

Kind regards,

Mike and the GLSA Team

Join your local library today! 

 

To celebrate World Book Day, not only would we like the children to come dressed up as their favourite book character, we would also like them to join their local library.

We are planning a trip to the library, in small groups, and in order to visit,  parents will need to sign up. So that we know your child is registered, please complete the consent form on Arbor (under Arbor Trips). Once we know your child is registered with their library, we will arrange for them to participate in one of the trips. We will send further details of the trips once confirmed.