Autumn Term 1 Newsletter

Executive Principal's Update

We've had an exciting start to the year at Willow Primary and so I wanted to share some of the recent highlights with you.

Catering and Meals

This term, we changed our school meals catering provider to Mellors, who are offering freshly baked bread, salad bar and meals prepared on-site every day. The quality of the food has been fantastic and, following some feedback from children and parents, we have refined the menu. If you've had the chance to try some of the food during parents evenings this week, I'm sure you'll agree that it's delicious. Look out for the new menus dropping in your inbox today.

Fundraising

You may have noticed more play equipment around the site including outdoor table tennis tables, a huge sandpit and a bandstand/ performance zone on KS2. These items have been part-funded by your generous fundraising efforts throughout last year. This year, we are fundraising to install air conditioning in Forest Hall (anyone who has sat/ melted through a performance in summer will agree this is a good investment!) and an upgraded sound, speaker and projector system in Coppice Hall. This is in addition to other 'treats' we provide for the children. In total, our target is to raise over £10,000 this year for these items in the school and then up to £2000 for local and global charities. I hope you will work together with us to help us to achieve our goals.

Friends of Willow are looking for more members to join their fundraising team. Many of the parents involved have older children in the school but we would love for more parents and carers of children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 to join. Without the Friends of Willow volunteering their time and support, we wouldn't be able to provide as much as we do. All the children benefit from their help and support so even if you have a short amount of time or can contribute in different ways, please get in touch via the schools office. Everyone is welcome.

Personal Development

In assemblies, we’ve been linking the UN's Sustainability Goals with our ASPIRE Values and our SOW Curriculum model (understanding our Self, Other and the World), this has helped our children to think globally and act responsibly, this included collecting a whopping 195kg of food for the Doncaster Foodbank - thank you to everyone who contributed. Next term, we will focus on our social responsibility, including the Social Justice project for Year 6 pupils, our whole school pupil leadership election, Remembrance, Children in Need and further charity and community work nearer to Christmas.

Team Members

We've given a warm welcome to our new teachers, Mrs Ahmad (Y2), Mr Clarke (Y5) and Miss Hnatyszyn as a teaching assistant in Year 5 & 6, who have settled in brilliantly. However, we will be saying goodbye to Miss Hall, who is leaving us to get married and start a new chapter with her husband – we wish her all the best and thank her for the amazing 4 years she has had at Willow. She has been an inspirational and nurturing teacher and we will miss her.

Updates

As you'll be aware, my role changed to become an Executive Principal in June and I now lead both Willow and Mallard Primary Schools. I'm thrilled to announce that Mallard will formally join Exceed Learning Partnership from 1st January as The Mallard Academy, which brings with it an incredible £3.6 million investment directly for the school to fully upgrade their site over the next two years and lead to significant school improvements. I will continue to split my time across both academies, ensuring a smooth transition and continued improvements in both.

It's been wonderful to see so many parents and families over the last week during parents evenings, thank you for supporting and encouraging your children and our school so positively, we are incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful community. I hope you all enjoy a break over half term, have a great Halloween if you celebrate it too!

Best wishes

Mrs Sumner

Reading at Willow

Autumn term has been a really great start to reading in lots of different ways. There have been a lot of new books added to our class and shared library areas and it has been lovely to see so many children enjoying these new books. We have welcomed the amazing Boggledy Book Fair and children were so excited to buy their own books. Thank you so much for this support as it means we are then also able to choose books to add to our school stock.

Phil Sheppard, local author and illustrator, entertained the whole school with some storytelling and a fun drawalong. The children and the staff were all laughing along with Phil. Years 3,4 and 5 have also taken part in some great online author visits and these are a great opportunity to experience different authors and genres of books.

Thank you to all the parents who are working hard to record reading at home on Learning with Parents. We appreciate everyone is busy, but it is a great way to share home reading with adults in school. Reading for Pleasure is so important to us at Willow and this is part of our whole school approach. Monday mornings are very exciting when Mrs Rossall gives out trophies for the classes with the highest number of children achieving their reading targets!

After half term we will also be relaunching our Reading Passports for this year and holding one of our popular Reading Cafes supported by Friends of Willow. We hope you will join us at this event.

Doncaster author and illustrator, Phil Sheppard, entertaining school with his storytelling visit.

Reception

Reception have settled beautifully into school and have made lots of new friends.

They have learned about school rules and the importance of collaboration and resilience in the school day. They have become familiar with the Reception environment, building dens, having a go on the Trim Trail and finding their way around school.

This half term, to help keep them safe and healthy, they have taken part in an experiment to understand why we use soap to get rid of germs, practised eating dinner independently using a knife and fork and tried some new foods.

The artist Mondrian has inspired shape patterns and paintings and confidence in drawing and writing has increased hugely since September.

The story 'Superhero Like You' by Doctor Raj has introduced careers to the children and they have enjoyed lots of roleplay dressing as people that help us to practice new vocabulary and show caring and kindness.

First day of school

A germ experiment

Mondrian

People who help us

Year 1

Year 1 have been incredibly busy in their first half term of the year! The children have shown their resilience within their new learning environment and have worked incredibly hard to be independent and try lots of exciting new things. In Forest school with Mrs Ackroyd, the children have been learning the rules of Forest school and how to ensure they stay safe whilst learning and exploring outdoors. During playtimes, the children have collaborated with their peers to build obstacle courses using the planks and crates. Mrs Cullen and Mrs Singh have been blown away by the amazing team work the children have showcased, both on the playground and indoors.

In Geography, Year 1 have been learning how to identify human and physical features in their environment. They have expressed their understanding in a range of creative ways including sketches. In Art, the children have been learning about the work of Artist and Author Lynley Dodd. They have read 'Hairy Maclary' to identify and explore the various lines.

Year 2

Year 2 have had a fantastic start to the new school year and have settled extremely well into their new classroom environment. In writing, they have been using the story 'The Friendship Bench' to retell the story and they have also learnt how to use expanded noun phrases to describe a character. In maths, they have worked really hard in their place value topic, where they have partitioned numbers and compared and ordered two digit numbers.

A highlight of this half term has got to be the trip to Conisbrough Castle where the children took part in a workshop where they leant about the history of the castle and what medieval life would have been like in the castle. Some children got the opportunity to dress up in medieval costumes to help tell the story of when Henry II came to visit Conisbrough Castle. The children also had an opportunity to explore the castle and climb to the top of the keep.

Kingfishers having their photograph with the famous Conisbrough Castle.

Children in Kingfishers in their medieval costumes helping to retell the story of Conisbrough Castle.

Children in Robins enjoyed the view of Conisbrough from the top of the Keep at Conisbrough Castle.

Year 3

We are so proud of how our Year 3 children have adapted to their new learning environment in Key Stage Two. They have all made a fantastic start to the year. They have enjoyed learning all about prehistory; creating their own original stories based on the book 'The Stone Age Boy' in Writing and exploring how life changed for people during the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age in History lessons. In Art, they have been creating cave paintings, just like those found in the Lascaux Cave in France.

They stepped back in time, spending a day in a Stone Age Village at Murton Park in York. Here they dressed up and took part in a number of activities including pottery, farming and hunting. A mystery story about Otzi the Iceman in the dimly lit roundhouse was definitely a highlight. The staff at Murton Park congratulated them on their behaviour and attitude to learning. Well done Year 3!

A village meeting around the fire

Learning how to weave

Ready for the hunt!

Making pottery

Year 4

Year 4 have made a great start to the year and have been developing their resilience and independence across the curriculum. Our topic is all about the Anglo Saxons and Vikings and they have enjoyed learning about why the Anglo Saxons came to Britain and what their life was like. After half term, they will learn more about the Vikings and an important part of that will be an immersive Viking Day where they will come dressed as Vikings ready to take part in some craft activities, as well as learning about archaeology.

In writing, they have worked well to write instructions on how to become a good student which was full of lots of useful advice for the upcoming year and have also written detailed explanation about how the Knit-o-matic machine works. They really enjoyed watching some of Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions too.

Year 4 have so started to show their creative side. They have enjoyed beginning to learn how to play the ukulele with Mr Hume. They have shown good focus in lessons to play along to some pop songs and have learned 3 chords already. Some children have also started sewing with Mrs Wright and have learned lots of new stitches. All Year 4 children will take part in this throughout the year.

A really positive start to Year 4 - well done!

Concentrating on sewing!

Learning to play the ukulele - it is hard work, but really rewarding.

Year 5

Year 5 have made an impressive start to the school year, adapting well to their new classrooms. They have thoroughly enjoyed exploring their engaging topic, "Ancient Egyptians." So far, they have learned about significant events that occurred in ancient Egypt, including insights into daily life, the importance of the River Nile, social structures, and the process of mummification. All pupils have shown incredible enthusiasm and curiosity for understanding history.

We are thrilled with the excellent homework that some of our pupils have produced about Egypt. They have created some great pieces that we are extremely proud of and their depth of understanding and the creativity is very impressive!

Year 5 have also worked so hard on their writing this term. They have improved their understanding of direct speech, relative clauses and have developed their use of vocabulary, which they have effectively included in their writing. We are particularly proud of their exceptional work in creating newspaper reports about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Their high level of engagement and fascination with the topic has undoubtedly enhanced their creative writing skills.

We are so proud of our Newspaper reports about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Publishing a newspaper report.

Here are some of our wonderful newspaper reports! We are feeling so proud of our presentation!

Learning about the most significant events which took place during the Egptian civilisation.

Learning about the process of mummification in ancient Egypt.

Researching about the social hierarchy system in ancient Egypt and presenting knowledge.

Learning about the social hierarchy system and feeling really proud of presentation.

Year 6

The children have made a fantastic start to year 6. We are very proud of them! The term got off to a galloping start, when the children visited Doncaster Racecourse to learn about the heritage of the St Leger. They took part in a quiz, got to run along the actual track, visit the weighing and changing rooms and saw a real-life race horse. The children represented the school extremely well and enjoyed the day.

As part of their World War Two (WW2) topic in History, the children have been learning about evacuation, the Sheffield Blitz, the role of women and black and Asian soldiers during the war. They visited Cannon Hall for their evacuee day, where they learnt about rationing, made carrot biscuits, learnt to sew (Make do and Mend) and learnt about code cracking and propaganda. A great day was had by all!