Summer Term Newsletter #35

26th June 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for your understanding and support this week as we worked our way through a tricky situation. The high temperatures have made learning incredibly difficult and we have done our very best to make the week purposeful whilst keeping everyone safe and comfortable. As a team we reflected on the friendships and connections children have formed across classes through the outdoor sessions this week and the amount of joy shared by everyone from the introduction of a water-mist spray in the corner of the playground. We are so focused on the learning and progress of your children that it has been a silver lining to this weather to stop and observe joy and playfulness taking centre stage.

Values: Collaboration has been the theme of the week inspired by the words of Helen Keller - 'Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.' The heat challenge has brought us all together and examples of collaboration - sharing resources, collecting each others' children, looking after each other - have been evident throughout the community. Next week, we consider curiosity: 'I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.' - Albert Einstein

Votes for Schools: 'Will the social media ban work?' (Y5 & Y6) and 'Does banning things work?' (R-Y4) was met with a resounding 'no' from our children with 79% of children disagreeing. Many older children felt it was already integrated into the lives of youngsters and they will find a way around the ban.

Sports Day: Is only a week away! We look forward to sharing the event with you all. We are fortunate again that West Herts Sports Ground will be hosting us. Events will begin at 10am and we will finish with a picnic lunch. Rumour has it there is a staff race with a twist this year... I look forward to seeing you all there.

LanchestFest: We are incredibly lucky to have a PTA that is able to put on exciting events such as LanchestFest. However, the committee need volunteers to help run the day. Please offer your time, as little or as much as you can, to ensure we have a memorable day.

Thank You & Good Luck: Sadly for Lanchester, Nick Hunt is leaving at the end of the term to join the team at Jupiter Primary School. Nick has been an excellent site manager going above and beyond in many ways to ensure the school runs efficiently. From tackling daily logistical puzzles to ensuring everyone stayed safe and on track, Nick has been the backbone of our operations. He will be missed but we wish him well and are pleased he is staying in the Trust so we can still call on him in an emergency. If you know anyone interested in working as the Site Manager at Lanchester, the role is posted here.

With the warm weather easing over the weekend, I encourage everyone to have a relaxing weekend catching up on rest, hydration and sleep. Fingers crossed for 20 degrees and cloudy next week!

Best wishes,

Mr. Matt Morey - Headteacher

Upcoming Dates...

Mon 29th June - Tokyo & Jakarta Library Trips

Hosted by the education team at Watford FC, children will enjoy story time and a chance to explore the library.

Tue 30th June - Rome & Colombo Library Trips

Hosted by the education team at Watford FC, children will enjoy story time and a chance to explore the library.

Fri 3rd July - Sports Day

Families are welcome to join us at West Herts Sports Ground for the morning of sports and a picnic lunch.

Thu 9th July - Transition Day

Y6 visit their new schools and all other classes spend the morning with their teacher for next year.

Sat 11th July - LanchestFest, 12-5pm

The iconic festival returns for a second year of excitement and entertainment!

Thu 16th July - Transition Session #2

Rec - Y5 spend a second morning with their teacher for next year.

Tue 21st July - Transition Session #3

Rec - Y5 complete their transition work with their teacher for next year.

School calendar

Attendance

Whole-school attendance this week has been 90.5% due to the challenging conditions. Excellent attendance is vital for successful learning. Our curriculum is sequenced and builds knowledge cumulatively, so any absence can hinder their learning journey. Be sure to get your child into school every day. Congratulations to London who have taken the top spot this week with a stable 94.6%

Class Attendance Summary:

1. London 94.6%

2. Tokyo 93.0%

3. Colombo 92.8%

4. Cusco 92.6%

5. Rio 92.4%

6. Jakarta 90.6%

7. Rome 90.0%

8. Kampala 89.7%

9. Kingston 88.4%

10. New York 86.6%

11. Cairo 83.2%

Values Champions

This week has been full of children making excellent choices and working on our school values. The children listed below were recognised in assembly for their outstanding efforts! They were ready to learn, respectful of the environment and their peers and they were resilient and worked hard throughout. Well done, everyone!

Year R:

London - Aaniya

Year 1:

Rome - The Whole Class

Year 2:

Colombo - Aoi

Jakarta - Antonia

Tokyo - Grace

Year 4:

Cairo - Neev

Kampala - Frida

Year 5:

Cusco - Sofia

Rio - Linda

Year 6:

Kingston - Gavinu

New York - Muhammad-Fayd

House Points

Children’s attitude to learning has been recognised through the collection of dojo points, which are then totalled as house points across the school. Every child continues to show their commitment to being Ready, Respectful and Resilient, earning points for their house. Each half term the points are reset and a new competition begins. Well done to Alhazen as they launch themselves to the top of the table!

Here’s how the points stand:

1st: Alhazen with 2345 points (+575)

2nd: Sharman with 2235 points (+479)

3rd: Carver with 2162 points (+472)

4th: Curie with 2070 points (+443)

Let’s keep up the great work and continue to support each other as we aim for the top!

Class News

This week in Reception

This week in Reception we have been looking at the story 'What the ladybird heard.' The children have enjoyed creating silly sentences based on the tricks the animals played on the bad guys. We have made the most of the sunny weather by using our outdoor area to explore bubbles with a range of different sized tools. The children worked collaboratively to create the largest bubble possible, successfully using a hula hoop to make giant bubbles. This linked closely to this week’s value of collaboration, as they worked together to achieve their goal.

This week in Year 1

This week, we linked our Geography learning to the excitement of the World Cup. The children explored different countries' flags, chose their favourites, and practised drawing and naming them. We had lots of discussions about the teams taking part and the children are now ready to cheer on their chosen World Cup team!

This week in Year 2 / 3

This week, the Year 2/3 children have had a wonderful time learning and enjoying the outdoors under the shady trees. In English, they have been learning about heatwaves and discussing how to stay safe during periods of hot weather. They have also been exploring weather forecasts, including the BBC Weather website, and talking about the information it provides and how forecasts help us prepare for different weather conditions. The children have particularly enjoyed spending time outside this week, cooling off in the sprinklers and creating colourful sun safety posters.

This week in Year 4

It has been a memorable week in Year 4, highlighted by an unforgettable whole-school assembly with Team GB Olympic silver medallist Hammy McMillan, who captivated the children with stories of his journey to the Winter Olympics. Back in the classroom, the children produced brilliant pieces of persuasive writing, using rhetorical sentence starters and powerful statements to craft highly convincing paragraphs encouraging people to visit Watford. Finally, in Maths, the class showed fantastic resilience as they tackled the complex skill of converting time from analogue to digital formats.

This week in Year 5

It has been a scorching week, but Year 5 showed incredible resilience in the face of the heat! To keep everyone fresh, we tackled our core learning first thing in the morning before temperatures rose—including our writing toolkit on how to inform readers effectively. We spent our afternoons staying cool in the school’s shaded outdoor areas. It wasn’t easy, but the children did a fantastic job powering through.

This week in Year 6

Year 6 have been working hard on their enterprise project and this week saw the exciting launch of their production lines! Both classes have been busy manufacturing their stock, creating brilliant products ranging from handmade bracelets to custom squishies and more. The children are showing fantastic business minds as they prepare for the upcoming sale.

Friends of Lanchester

LanchestFest

With just over 2 weeks to go, we’re busy getting ready for LanchestFest and hope it’s going to be bigger and better than last year!

We’re very excited to have an amazing line up of performances including our own school groups, B Dance and Stagecoach. We’ve got fun and music from Tiger Jazz, Joe Farry, Big Mama Funk and don’t miss our LanchestFest kids disco where all the songs are chosen by the classes.

Volunteers

Thank you to everyone who has signed up for a slot to help. We’re still very low on volunteers and will need to take some of our brilliant stalls away if we can’t fill our slots. New stalls this year include the World Cup coin drop so we'd love to keep as many as possible.

If every Lanchester family donated an hour of their time, we'd be able to fill our slots twice over! An hour really does make all the difference, please sign up here: https://volunteersignup.org/DYHWX

Raffle tickets

Please let us know if you would like more raffle tickets. We have some amazing prizes including a midweek round of golf for 4 at The Grove (worth £1000+), a family activity at the Grove, Watford FC signed shirts, Watford FC tickets, an inflatable party at Everyone Active, and much more.

Please return all money and stubs to school by 10th July.

Donation requests

Please support LanchestFest with donations of the following:

We’re still collecting bottles for the bottle tombola, party bag toys and jazzy jars.

Bottles should be unopened and in date until at least the end of July

Friday 10th July / Saturday 11th July - Cakes and bakes. No nuts please.

Please leave all donations in the boxes in the glass foyer or with the office.

Watford Fringe event

Mitch Benn is Asking Elvis

The King is back! Mitch Benn resurrects Elvis from BBC Radio 2's legendary "Steve Wright in the Afternoon" show, to answer hunks of burning questions about life, death, cheeseburgers and everything in between... including the story of how Mitch managed to be possibly the most popular thing on the most popular show on British radio for over ten years, without anyone ever knowing it was him.

If YOU have a question for Elvis, go to: www.mitchbenn.com/asking-elvis

Thankyouverymuch...

Book tickets here: https://watfringe.co.uk/events/mitch-benn-asking-elvis/

Recommended age: 14+

Dates for your diary

We’ll be at school events such as Sports Day selling ice lollies, snacks and drinks throughout the next few weeks so look out for us!

Saturday 11th July - LanchesFest

Friday 17th July - End of term stay and play in the playground with snacks, drinks and fun.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendsoflanchester or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsoflanchester/ or contact us by email: friendsoflanchester@gmail.com

Thanks for your support!

Friends of Lanchester committee - Tracey Bravo, Lawrence Brown, Louise Brown, Helen Gibson, Chloé Harper and Laura Robson

On Behalf of 'Friends of Lanchester CFS'