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School Games Mark Award

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We are delighted to announce that East Hoathly and Chiddingly Schools have achieved the School Games SILVER LEVEL Mark Award for the 2021/22 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

We are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our events possible. We are committed to using the School Games to try and engage those young people who haven’t previously been active or represented our school and to try and ensure that all our students have a positive experience and want to try out new activities beyond school too in our community.

We believe in the power of physical activity and school sport as a school and give opportunities to those young people that need it most either as a participant, leader, official or volunteer. As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas linked to the five School Games outcomes and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.

What Key Workers’ Children Did at School

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The sun shone and there were Key Workers children at Chiddingly School this week.

The children started their Thursday with breakfast club and the spent an hour on online work on the laptops.

All the staff and children then took  half an hour with a workout in the hall following ‘Joe Wicks’ with his daily online PE session. It was tiring, but a great start to the day. Everyone then worked hard for over an hour with their set work from their class teachers.

We then all went painting and drawing. Easter cards, dinosaurs, birds and portraits. We explored paint and chalk pastels before heading out to the sunshine for lunch.

After lunch there was time to explore the trim trail and then explore the garden. The children started by weeding and cutting back dead herb growth from the flower beds. We collected the dried herb stalks to be good kindling for fire lighting for future forest School sessions.

The children tried tasting a few of the herbs growing. The gardening escalated and by the end of the day they had weeded a whole flower bed, dug up roots, shrieked at massive spiders, spotted tiny snails, made muddy holes and replanted lots of plants which were kindly donated to the school in January.

It was a great afternoon of engagement, learning and fun.

Eco Helpers 2017

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Last year we had a great set of Eco Helpers who did a tremendous job in helping make our school more eco aware! This year we are looking at recruiting a new group to work with.

Mr Herdman spoke to each class last week and explained what the Eco helpers do and what a high standard the new Eco Helpers will have to reach following on from last year’s group. This year, instead of being chosen, the children have been asked to apply for the post. The two successful applicants from each class will form our new Eco Helper group. We look forwards to announcing the new Eco Helpers soon!

Eco Schools Bronze Award

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Chiddingly Primary School has been awarded its Eco Schools Bronze Award for its achievements in promoting energy efficiency and being green. A certificate is on its way for display in the office and we will now work our way towards a Silver Award.

Mr Herdman is Caretaker of the Year

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A CARETAKER who has raised more than £280,000 for the three schools he works at has been hailed for going ‘beyond the call of duty’.

Paul Herdman, who works at Laughton Community Primary, East Hoathly CE Primary and Chiddingly Primary schools, has been named East Sussex Caretaker of the Year 2017.

As well as working tirelessly to maintain the three sites, Mr Herdman has researched, applied for and secured a total of £285,024 in funding from various sources to improve the schools.

Projects delivered as a result include playground resurfacing, a new roof, play equipment, energy-saving LED lighting and restoration of Laughton’s school clock and bell tower.

He said: “It’s brilliant and came as a complete shock – I wasn’t expecting it at all. The kids are really enthusiastic and I’m really proud that they recognise what I do and enjoy the things I’ve helped to raise money for.”

Mr Herdman also manages to fit into his busy schedule running a breakfast club, leading the children’s ‘eco group’, managing an area of woodland and looking after the school chickens.

Victoria Brown, deputy head teacher at Laughton, said: “Paul works tirelessly for the school and is not only a brilliant caretaker but fantastic with people, with a great sense of humour the children love.

“We feel lucky to have a caretaker who is so passionate about the job and who is so driven to make the school a better place for everyone.”

James Procter, executive head teacher at East Hoathly and Chiddingly, said: “Paul is a friendly, hard-working caretaker and a real asset to our schools, who goes out of his way to be part of the school community.”

The winning nomination included glowing references from pupils, one of whom, Tom, said: “Mr Herdman is very generous with his time and has a massive effect on how happy we are at Laughton.”

Schools across the county were asked to nominate their caretaker of the year, with the winner selected by Stuart Gallimore, East Sussex County Council director of children’s services.

He said: “It was clear that all those nominated do an incredible amount of work and are highly regarded by staff, children and parents, but one person stood out.

“Paul not only works across three schools, which is impressive enough, but has raised a huge amount of money to improve the fabric of the schools – that’s what I call going beyond the call of duty.”

Narrowly pipped at the post was runner-up Mark Cornford, of St Andrew’s CE Infants’ School, Eastbourne, who has also raised money not just for his school but for the pupil it sponsors at a school in Uganda.

Head teacher Carol Meakins said: “Mark is keen to be involved in every area of school life, acting with integrity and a sense of humour. He knows each child and they know him.”