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Our Children

We have wonderful children at Merry Hill, and we take delight in watching them grow and develop physically and emotionally as they progress through the school.

Visitors to the school often compliment our children on their confidence and courteousness.

At Merry Hill, we recognise and praise pro-social behaviours and attitudes. This is in line with our school ethos and behaviour policy. Children’s behaviour here at Merry Hill is excellent! You only have to witness first hand the smiles in the morning and after school to believe this and to see the desire and thirst for knowledge in our children and the way they are always eager to learn.

We hold a number of weekly pupil celebrations:

Achievement Every Friday one child is chosen in each class to receive a ‘Star of the Week’ award in recognition of positive behaviour which link to our golden rules.
Birthday Book Club In class assemblies, we celebrate all children who have recently had a birthday and contributed to our birthday book club.
Jigsaw In class assemblies, children are chosen to receive a ‘Jigsaw Award’ in recognition of special effort when following our weekly Jigsaw theme. The awards have space for the Teacher to write a special message which is read out to the rest of the class. A certificate is sent home with the children who received an award to inform parents of their child’s special achievement and their names are written on our Jigsaw display in the hall.
Play Leaders Year 2 Play Leaders share tricky problems that they helped to sort out during play and lunch times every Friday. Play Leaders discuss how they have helped and supported the children’s behaviour and social interaction at playtimes every Friday. The rest of the children discuss which play leaders have helped them and how it made them feel.

Leadership and Responsibility

In KS1 we have expanded our leadership responsibilities to provide all children with an opportunity to serve on a council. The Leadership groups meet at least fortnightly with the nominated class teacher. The children are able to choose from:

School Council

The School Council meet fortnightly with Miss Stringer. They discuss British Values and civic responsibility and consider how our school culture reflects this and what changes and improvements could be made. We are often amazed at the maturity of the suggestions for school improvement that the children come up with!

Digital Leaders

The Digital Leaders meet fortnightly with Miss Honnor. They love having an input into how technology is used within the school and are always particularly excited when they get to be ‘mini teachers’ and help children in Early Years to use the iPads and laptops.

Eco Warriors

Miss Bates meets our Eco Warriors fortnightly. The children are learning about ways to reduce single use plastic as a whole school and how to improve our school environment and local area. All children are given an opportunity to express their views but also the views of their peers as well as passing on information from eco meetings.

Mini Rangers

Miss Finch meets our Mini Rangers fortnightly and children discuss behaviours they have noticed on the playground and identify things the children need support with. Together they think of ways they can best support the children’s social interactions. Sometimes new games are learnt and then feedback given on the success of these on the playground.

Military Children

April is the Month of the Military Child and each year we love taking the time to celebrate our military children here at Merry Hill. Service children can face challenges with parents in the armed forces. Yet these children are also an amazing asset to families, schools and the local community. The Month of the Military Child helps us remember this and helps us celebrate their achievements.

 

Did you know the official flower of the military child is the dandelion because its seeds are blown far and wide by the wind but it will always plant roots and blossom wherever it lands?

 

The children celebrate ‘Purple Up Day’ every April; purple is a colour used to represent all military services and shows unity with each other. This day is to celebrate the wonderful contributions our military children make to our community, bringing experiences from around the world. We celebrate our military children and thank them for their service.

What support can we offer you as a military family?

We have a Forces Liaison Mentor (FLM) who has first-hand experience of military life and therefore understands the unique challenges faced by military families.

Our FLM works alongside our military families and within our school to:

  • Support transition to and from our school
  • Provide bespoke support for children whose parents are deployed
  • Work alongside our Y2 Forces Ambassadors to instil a sense of pride and share their life experience with our learning community
  • Forces Club – to further establish links amongst our military community and provide support for our forces children
  • Liaise with Northwood Headquarters to provide further support and celebrate military life eg Padres leading assemblies, visits from PTIs into school
  • Organise events such as Purple Up Day and Remembrance Day which celebrate our military families and the sacrifices made for our freedom