It has been another fantastic half-term for sports at Green Lanes!

The term kicked off with our netball team competing at a fixtures night at Stanborough School, playing against teams from across Welwyn and Hatfield. We were incredibly impressed with their teamwork and determination throughout the evening.

Next, our Year 4 cricketers took part in the Rapid Fire Cricket event at Stanborough. The team showed amazing skill and determination, finishing in an impressive 2nd place and securing their spot at the District Finals taking place this Friday. Well done to the whole team!

Our Year 6 archers then headed to Ridgeway for a competitive archery tournament. The team thoroughly enjoyed the experience and finished 3rd overall. Special congratulations go to Musab, who was the top scorer for the entire day out of 40 children – an outstanding achievement!

Most recently, twenty-three children from Years 5 and 6 represented Green Lanes at the Stanborough Sports Family Sports Hall Athletics competition. Their teamwork and encouragement for one another was exceptional, leading to fantastic team success alongside some truly outstanding individual performances.

We're incredibly proud of all our young athletes and look forward to more sporting success next half-term!

Reception has been busy learning all about the Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated in different countries around the world. We have enjoyed creating our own paper lanterns, dragons, and even participating in a dragon dance. As it is the Year of the Horse, we also learnt and re-enacted the story!

The children have also loved taking part in our school trip of walking around the block. Thank you again to the parent helpers. It was so lovely to see the excitement on the children's faces when finding something on their tick list. There are so many more exciting trips planned. 

We can't believe that we have finished another half term in Year 1. It is just flying by!

This week we have been continuing our phase 5 sounds.

In Maths we have been learning about equality and how we can make different arrangements of the same total.

Our CUSP topic this week has been exploring the safe use of the Internet using our Natterhub sessions. 

We have sorted out all of the wellies. Please take them home over the holidays to test for sizing. It isn't too late to bring your child in a named pair.

This week many children didn't change their school reading books. Our change day is Monday. It is very important to encourage your child to read at least three times a week. 

In Year 2, the children have been writing non-chronological reports about fascinating animals – sloths, whales, snakes and penguins. They've learned how to organise information and have included some amazing facts. Ask your child: "What's the most interesting fact you discovered about your animal?"

In D&T, we've started an exciting new topic on mechanisms. The children are exploring the history of the wheel and will soon be designing and making their own mechanisms with wheels.

In maths, we've begun learning column addition. This is an important method that helps children add larger numbers accurately by lining up the ones and tens.

In English, the children have published their newspaper reports, where they included important features to inform the reader. The children have now started to consider how to persuade their reader, when creating a travel leaflet. They have loved sharing their experiences of places they have travelled to and have used this to help them create sentences using the power of three and expanded noun phrases. 

In Maths, we have continued to explore decimals. The children have explored using the formal written method to add and subtract decimals. Next, we will be relating decimals to money and solve problems using the methods they have learnt. 

In Geography, Year 4 have been very curious about what creates seasons and how we get day and night. We have been exploring longitude and latitude, which has helped answer the many questions. The children have learnt how the climate of a country relates to how close it is to the equator and how time differences across the world happen. 

There has also been lots of talk about our upcoming trip to Tolmers. The children are very excited to take part in different activities and stay overnight with their class. 

We have had another busy and productive couple of weeks in Year 5 and are excited to share what the children have been learning, as well as what is coming up next.

In Maths, the children have been developing their understanding of fractions. Students have been learning to identify and represent fractions, including proper, improper, and mixed numbers; finding equivalent fractions using diagrams and number lines; comparing and ordering fractions with different denominators; adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator and explaining their thinking using mathematical language.

In English, the children have been exploring the features of a non-chronological report in the context of nature and the world around us. They have worked hard on applying the language choices for their own non-chronological reports including bullet points, headings, subheadings and brackets for parenthesis. The pupils have enjoyed exploring the orientation and layout of their reports to include features such as images, captions and a glossary to impactfully inform the reader. They will publish their final work which will be compiled in a class book for our Year 4 students to read at the end.

In our computing lessons, we have been exploring the use of videos. The children, in their groups, have completed a storyboard based on a video they want to record as their final project. The pupils have had to collaborate effectively in their groups to come up with ideas for props and make decisions about how the video is going to be filmed. We look forward to watching the outcome of this project.

In our Art & Design lessons, we have been exploring textiles and collage using natural resources. Tasks have included creating a simple loom using branches, yarn and raffia, and using fabric and paint to create textured surfaces.

We hope you have an enjoyable half term break and thank you for your continued support.  

The past few weeks have been jam-packed with learning!

In Maths, we have been exploring long division with both one and two-digit numbers. It has been tricky, but the pupils have done excellently to just follow the system 'Does McDonald's Sell Burgers?'.

In English, we have been practising our dialogue writing skills and making sure to balance speech with narrative.

In the afternoons, we have been looking at living things, vertebrates, and invertebrates in Science. Even Mrs Toms brought in her pets 'Go' the gecko and 'Athena' the frog (apparently, she really is a goddess!).

Just a reminder to replenish your children’s stationery – especially glue sticks, pens and rulers.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham are conducting the ELSA study. The ELSA study is screening children, aged 3-13 years to find out their risk of getting type 1 diabetes. This is a simple finger stick blood test, you can do it at home or at your child’s school. We are offering the screening at your child’s school on Thursday 12th March 2026.

Children at high risk can be monitored and could enter research studies aiming to delay the start of type 1 diabetes. Every family who takes part in the ELSA study is helping us to understand more about type 1 diabetes.

If you would like to take part or to find out more information, please visit the ELSA website or scan the QR code on the above poster. If you have any questions, please contact the ELSA study team by email, phone or on their website. 

Further information can be found here.

https://www.elsadiabetes.nhs.uk/

Please find a link to a BBC news article Screening all UK children for type 1 diabetes would be effective, study says - BBC News