Latest News
Keep up to date with the latest news at Bridgewater School
-
New Website Launched!
Sat 10 Jul 2021Welcome to our brand new school website! We have created the website to keep parents up to date with school news and notices, and to showcase some of the great things our pupils are achieving. The website is extremely easy to edit by all staff at the school, so check back soon for new updates!
-
Government announcement regarding school closures from close of Friday 20th March
Wed 18 Mar 2020Many of you will have seen the announcement from the Government this afternoon, to say that the schools in England will be closing from the end of the day on Friday 20th March, except for the children of key workers and vulnerable children.
Schools were made aware of this announcement at the same time as the general public, so although we have been preparing for a potential closure for some time and planning to provide home learning for our pupils, we were not aware that the school would need to be partially open. As a result, we are not yet in a position to give full details of how we will manage school provision for the children of key workers and vulnerable children etc.
We are hoping for more information from the DfE shortly and will update you tomorrow with more details. Mrs Doodson is meeting with the Berkhamsted headteachers tomorrow morning, to discuss planning for the latest developments.
We are communicating closely with Rialize, who will also need to follow the guidance issued by the Government today and going forward. This being the case, Rialize won’t be able to give parents any further information about their provision going forward at this time.
We will update as soon as we have further information to give you.
We would like to thank all of our Bridgewater families for their support and patience during this difficult and worrying time.
-
Dr Kathy Weston returns to Bridgewater for another inspiring parent talk
Fri 03 Jan 2020We are delighted to have Dr Kathy Weston returning to school on February 5th to talk to parents about the world of technology and digital hygiene.
In this dynamic talk, Dr Weston will look at family and parental factors that contribute to children’s emotional, academic and digital resilience. Using her evidence-based approaches, Dr Weston will share the latest research relating to raising a resilient child and her practical tips that busy parents can apply to good effect.
Dr Weston is the author of Engaging Parents and a motivational speaker in the area of parenting, education and family life. She is passionate about empowering parents so that children can fulfil their great potential. Read more about her work here: www.drkathyweston.com
Here is the feedback from parents about Dr Kathy's last talk at Bridgewater School
This talk will be suitable for all parents but probably particularly so for those of KS2 children.
Please sign up using the Parents' Evening System. Here is the feedback from parents about Dr Kathy's last talk at Bridgewater School
-
Thank you from Zambia
Thu 05 Sep 2019Dear Children, Parents and Carers,
Welcome back!
I hope you have all had a really good rest and have enjoyed some fun family times whatever you have been doing throughout this Summer.
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped sell and buy ice creams long ago at the end of term picnic. I wanted to tell you that in the short space of time we managed to raise £240! Megan in Year 4 helped me to sell, and her mum kindly donated all the ice cream which was so kind and much appreciated.
As many of you will know I was raising money to help sponsor a child through a year's education in Kabompo, Zambia. Over the last few years I have become very involved with a local charity called the Wynaud Trust charity which is based at Northchurch Baptist church, which supports poorer, rural students through school and uni. Education is so important, life changing infact, and we now have students from the orphanage who have gone on to study at university and are nursing, teaching and even environmental health officers! We also support communities to set up and run pre-school nurseries and health clinics. I have visited twice but am unable to go out this year. There is however, a team hoping to go out in November and so I will be able to ask them to sponsor two more children as a result of our ice cream selling which is amazing!
What a lovely start to the year.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support our work in Zambia.
If you are interested in knowing more or sponsoring a child through school then please get in touch
with me.
Best wishes and thank you once again.
Kathy Beaumont
Goldcrest Teacher
-
Our year in review and our Governors' Gazette
Tue 23 Jul 2019It has been another busy and exciting year at Bridgewater.
We hope that you enjoy looking back over the year in our Annual Review and reading our Governors' Gazette.
-
'STEPS' Behaviour Parent Workshop
Tue 09 Jul 2019Thank you to the parents who attended the presentation on our therapeutic approach to behaviour. As the presentation is the property of Hertfordshire we cannot publish it on the school website.
Bridgewater has been using this approach towards behaviour for over 3 years now, so the aim of the talk was to inform you how we approach behaviour in the school. Our Behaviour policy was reviewed recently in light of this and the evening was designed to help you understand how the therapeutic approach to behaviour looks and the theory behind it.
The STEPS behaviour approach has been adapted from original work produced by the Norfolk STEPS team led by Angela Waddham
The term “Steps” is drawn from the Norfolk County Council statement on inclusion: “The process of taking necessary Steps to ensure that every young person is given an equality of opportunity to develop socially, to learn and to enjoy community life.” This statement reflects the philosophy, policy and practice at our school. Our approach has an emphasis on consistency, on the teaching of internal discipline rather than imposing external discipline, and on care and control, not punishment. It uses techniques to de-escalate a situation before a crisis occurs and, when a crisis does occur, it adopts techniques to reduce the risk of harm. An important aim of Hertfordshire STEPs is to provide opportunities to support and debrief both children and staff after a crisis, particularly if physical intervention has been required.
The feedback was very positive and we will be looking to repeat the presentation in the autumn.
Feedback:
The most useful parts were:
Being talked through the approach and the thinking behind it. The examples given were very useful….
Practical examples of how the approach is applied at the school…
Principles we can also apply at home…
Excellent informative delivery with plenty of opportunities for questions…
This is a link to the behaviour policy on the website:
-
Chiltern Educational Trust update
Fri 05 Jul 2019You will be aware that Ashlyns School, Bridgewater Primary School, Greenway Primary & Nursery School, Swing Gate Infant & Nursery and Westfield Primary & Nursery have been working together over a long period to form a multi academy trust, to be known as the Chiltern Educational Trust. The Governing Body of Ashlyns School had initiated that process and the four feeder schools were excited to be involved in closer collaboration.
The Governing Body of Ashlyns School has however, now decided to withdraw from the process of forming the Chiltern Educational Trust.
All schools involved continue to remain committed to ensuring that the high quality of education currently delivered to our children will be maintained and that collaborative working between all local schools will remain a priority, for the benefit of all children in the town. -
Clean Air Day
Thu 20 Jun 2019Pupils and staff have been invited to wear something to green to acknowledge Clean Air Day on Thursday 20th June. We think that it is very important to raise awareness of improving the quality of the air in our environment. Clean Air Day raises the issues of how much we pollute the air around us everyday and what we can do to reduce the impact we have on the environment and on the health of ourselves and our children. Things as simple as walking short journeys instead of driving, not leaving engines idling while we are waiting and planting more plants - indoors and out!
Please follow the link for much more information about what you can do to help; http://www.cleanairday.org.uk/
This leaflet explains more about clean air day.
-
Oscar Baker winner of Dacorum Young Artist competition
Tue 07 May 2019Several year 4 and 5 pupils took part in the Dacorum Young Artist competition, which is run by Berkhamsted Rotary club. There were some fabulous entries from Bridgewater pupils, so thank you to all who took part. We are proud to announce that Oscar Baker, a year 5 pupil at Bridgewater School took first place in the whole competition.
-
Eco-Schools bronze award
Wed 13 Mar 2019We have been awarded our first Eco Schools Award - the bronze award!
This is our first step towards the Green Flag Award. Thank you to the pupils of the Eco Team, who have helped achieve this by carrying out an environmental review and using it to create an action plan based on three topic areas; healthy living, litter and waste. They have also been responsible for following up these actions points and helping to spread the eco-word in their classes. Our next task is the silver award which is about making links with other areas of the curriculum and informing and involving the school and wider community.
Well done!