Dear Parents and Carers

It has been a busy week despite the challenges with the weather during what should be “summer”. On Monday and Tuesday, our Reception and Year 1 children had the opportunity to meet a real life author - Kita Casey. Kita came in and delivered workshops to the children, read her story and played games. The children really enjoyed the experience and the chance to meet her.

Throughout this week, we have been joined by members of our new leadership team. They have spent time going round classes, speaking to children and completing handovers. A reminder next Thursday, there is an opportunity to meet the new Leadership Team when we host a Coffee Morning (Thursday 18th July at 9am in the Community Room).

Today, children’s reports have gone home and we are excited to share their progress with you. On Tuesday 23rd July, children have the opportunity to bring their learning home (their exercise books) so don’t forget to get your child to bring in a bag on this day!

Lastly, I want to share some good news. On Tuesday, the school received the outcomes of the KS2 assessments for pupils in Year 6 - parents will find their child’s individual outcomes in their child’s reports. I am pleased to share that for pupils meeting the expected standard across reading, writing and maths, we have the highest results the school has seen in over 5 years and we exceeded the national average. Not just that, those pupils working at a greater depth standard across reading, writing and maths has not only exceeded the national average, but also is the highest the school has seen - including during its time during the Synaptic Trust. I will speak more about our successes around not just Year 6, but our other year groups and statutory assessments in my end of year letter but for now, I want to not only thank all the school staff who have supported the Year 6s, but also to the children themselves for showing great determination and resilience.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

We expect pupils to maintain a high standard of attendance here at Woodside. We want all our pupils to be able to achieve their very best and in order to do this, they need to be in school as much as possible so they don't miss out on any learning. Everyday is a new learning opportunity!

We want all children to come to school each day, but we know that there are some days children are just too ill to attend, or will spread illness to others.

The NHS website Is My Child Too Ill For School is a useful place to look for guidance.

If your child has vomiting or diarrhoea they should stay away from school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days (48 hours).

Children can attend school with cold sores, conjunctivitis, hand, foot & mouth disease, slapped cheek (fifth) disease, sore throat, thread-worms or ear infections as long as they don't have a temperature as well.

Please encourage your children to wash their hands regularly and use and throw away tissues properly.

Transitions can be very challenging to children as they often involve unfamiliar environments, new routines and the need to adapt to different social dynamics which can lead to feelings of uncertainty. Here are three tips to help to prepare your child for transition into their new year group or school:

1. Familiarise your child with the environment: Introduce them to new staff, arranging a visit and taking pictures of the environment with your child to create a book or slideshow simply stating who staff are, what the areas are and what they will be used for. This helps to alleviate uncertainty and anxiety and helps children to feel more comfortable and confident.

2. Talk about the changes: Have conversations with your child about what they can expect in their new year group or school. Actively listen to their thoughts and feelings and address their concerns or worries. By involving them, you are empowering children to feel more in control.

Encourage your child to make friends: Help your child to develop their social skills and create opportunities for them to interact with their peers. Arrange playdates or social activities with other children from their new class or school if possible. Teach them how to make friends and role play situations. This can help the transition smoother and foster positive experiences.

Nest

Children had a fantastic week in the Nest, they really enjoyed our role-play 'Ice Cream Parlour' area. Children have been playing co-operatively, making ice creams for each other, taking turns in the pop up ice cream van, selling and making ice creams and counting the ice creams, writing down the orders. This activity was led by the children's interests. Through the activity, they have been expanding their language, mathematical skills, social skills and confidence along with other areas of learning. Children also have been enjoying making hand prints on their folders, talking about the texture, how it feels and naming colours, going on to count their fingers.

Nursery

This week, Nursery children have been learning about ‘The Enormous Turnip’. The story is about helping each other and linked well with our value of collaboration. The children read the story and then acted it out. Children here can be seen helping to pull the turnip out as it had grown and ready for harvesting. They have also been practicing songs for their end of year performance for their parents and carers.

In Maths, children have been learning about using the maths symbols such as plus (+) minus (-) and equals (=). They have also used the outdoor area to support their knowledge about numbers through the hop-scotch game and skittles game during carpet sessions.

Year 2

This week, Year 2 engaged in many art activities in the afternoons. They have been focusing on the work of 'Eric Carle', a famous author and artist. They learnt facts about him before exploring his style of work. Year 2 looked at the different types of collaging skills, tearing and ripping, discussing the effect they have on the artwork as a whole. They then explored the use of colour and patterns using oil crayons to create mark making patterns on paper before going over their patterns using watercolour paints. They created an ombre effect background, before cutting and sticking their patterns together to make a garden scene to link to our core movie of 'Gnomeo and Juliet'.

Year 5

Year 5 began to publish their amazing, third person narratives based on the core text ‘Floodland’ by Marcus Sengwick. We are very proud of our much improved handwriting and presentation skills.

Our Maths lessons were dedicated to converting between various metric measures. We have used the bar model and the double line method to find the equivalent conversions.

In History, we are working on the double page spreads showing all the knowledge that we acquired about the Anglo Saxons. 

Polite Reminder

At  the start and end of the day, please do not use any of the climbing equipment in the playground.

This equipment needs to be supervised by a member of staff due to our health and safety policy.

Thank you for you cooperation

We are starting to use in-app messages to communicate with parents through the app - please could parents ensure they are able to log-in and Arbor is set up to accept these messages - they should be visible in the Communications section of the portal.

Parents who have the app should enable Push Notifications - this will alert you through the app that a message has arrived.

Over 90% of our parents have logged into Arbor - if you are having difficulty,

please talk to the office who can help.

Check your Child's Data

Please log in to Arbor and check your child's/children's details are correct - and let us know if not. You can also request changes directly through the app which will take place once we have seen them - if we have questions, we will get in touch. Or you can let the office know directly.

It is important we have the correct data for all our families.

Please remember to check Arbor - either the Parent Portal (at https://login.arbor.sc/)  or the parent app (available from the App Store or Google Play).

Parents who log in can:

* see their child's attendance

* log consent for local trips and those further afield

* pay for trips and book and pay for clubs

* receive In-App messages - and message the school

* book parent consultations

* see their child's details and request changes to ensure they are completely up to date

If you have more than one child at the school, they should be visible via a drop-down so you only need to login once.

To set up your account, you need the email you use for school communications and the date of birth of one of your children. Follow the Forgotten Password link on either the app or the website.

If you need support with logging in, please talk to the office team who will be glad to help.

Collaboration matters   Excellence in everything   Community first   Equity for everyone   Continuous growth