We hope you enjoyed another long bank holiday weekend! Well done and thank you to all of the Year 6 children who worked so hard during the SATs week. We are all so proud of their perseverance and resilience. Thank you to the staff and parents for all your support given over the last few months in the run up to SATs.

Year 5 had an exciting opportunity to discuss planets and will be securing this knowledge with a planned trip to the Science Museum on Monday. In Year 1, the children are exploring their senses and had a great time out on the field, they brought out cushions and blankets and used this time to describe the field as a setting.

In Year 4 they explored the effects of fizzy drink on their teeth and had lots of discussion about what fizzy drinks can do to the enamel of your teeth. This lesson will be supported by a visit from a local dentist next week and the children cannot wait to ask the dentist lots of questions.

We ended this week with a celebration of the King's Coronation and held class parties! Our wonderful children, some of whom were dressed up in Royal colours, shared snacks, danced, and laughed with their peers. Thank you to Chartwells for providing a lovely Royal lunch. Thank you to all of our families for providing the children with snacks to share, this meant a lot for our children.

Lastly we say good bye to Mrs Rookmin who starts her maternity leave today, we wish her and her family the very best in the future and we all look forward to meeting your bundle of joy soon!

We hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs Ashley & The Woodside Team

Attendance

These are this week's attendance figures and leading class in each phase

EYFS: Cherry Class 91.6%

KS1: 1 Ash 94.9%

KS2: 4 Ash 94.6%

PE Updates

Sports Leaders

This week in PE the Year 5 Sports Leaders have been challenging themselves to design stations for the Year 2 to experience Multi-skills sessions.

The Year 5 children had to work together, design a station and then take responsibility for each station. This was a great learning experience for the class and the children really enjoyed interacting and adapting to different children's needs.

Well done Sports Leaders!!!

A reminder for the following sessions and times are taking place this term after school.

Inclusion

The Inclusion Team have been working to improve the communication of the younger children at Woodside. Here are 6 ideas for things that you could do at home with your children to help them with their communication:

1. Active Listening: Encourage your child to actively listen to others by making eye contact, asking questions, and summarizing what the speaker has said. This helps to build strong communication skills and promotes positive interactions with others.

2. Open-Ended Questions: Ask open-ended questions to encourage your child to share their thoughts and feelings. This can help to build their vocabulary, develop their critical thinking skills, and promote healthy communication patterns. Try asking questions like "What do you think about that?" or "How did that make you feel?"

3. Model Good Communication: Children learn a lot by watching and imitating adults. Be a good role model for your child by being an attentive listener, using clear and concise language, and expressing yourself calmly and respectfully. This will help your child learn to communicate effectively with others.

4. Practice Turn-Taking: Encourage your child to take turns during conversations, songs or activities, which can help build their social skills and promote positive communication patterns. You can use games like "I Spy" or "20 Questions" to practice turn-taking and encourage your child to take an active role in conversations.

5. Use Visual Aids: For children who struggle with verbal communication or language delays, visual aids can be a helpful tool. Use pictures, symbols, or even sign language to support communication and help your child express themselves and make choices more effectively. This can also be helpful for children who are learning a second language or have difficulty with abstract concepts. You can find resources online to help you create visual aids for your child.

6.Use Songs and Music: Music is a powerful tool to help to improve your child's communication skills. Singing introduces new words and phrases in a fun and engaging way, which can help to build their vocabulary. It can also improve pronunciation and help your child to develop clearer speech as many songs are repetitive. Singing with others can help to develop social skills such as turn-taking and music can be a safe way for children to express their emotions.

EYFS

This term, our core text is “The three little pigs”. The children in the Nest have been listening to the story, retelling the story and enjoyed getting into different roles for example, being a wolf and blowing the houses down. They have been very busy doing a variety of activities to understand the story. They visited the field to collect sticks to make a house,they also have been building houses using large foam bricks.They also made puppets and used the puppets as props when reading the story.

This week we have also been celebrating the King’s coronation. They have been exploring with role play (tea party), and they have been pretending to make tea,and share food with their peers. They enjoyed decorating crowns and finger painting on their flags.

Key Stage One

This week in Year 1 we have explored setting descriptions using our 5 senses; the children enjoyed our experience lesson which took place on the field with lots of cushions and blankets to ensure a comfortable day. We used our 5 senses to describe the field and wrote setting descriptions based on our observations. We also started a new science investigation all about plants, we are comparing how a plant grows in the dark and the light - we will complete our science investigation in a couple of weeks once the plants have started their life cycle.

In Year 2 we have explored how to write effective instructions using imperative verbs and time adverbials as well as putting our instructions to the test to make our very own bird feeders! We used plastic bottles and cups along with some bird friendly seeds to create our bird feeders. We are hoping the birds will love them as much as we do! We have also explored pictograms and how to efficiently collate data in maths.

Lower Key Stage Two

Babbage's Difference Engine

In Year 3 we looked at the Victorian inventions that changed the country forever. In particular we learnt about the Industrial Revolution and the changes that the railways of Britain brought to the country. We discovered some of the great engineers of the age such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and learnt about the world's first ever computer, the Difference Engine, that was built by Charles Babbage.

In year 4 this week, we have been investigating the effect fizzy drinks have on our teeth. Children conducted a coca cola and water experiment. They were able to observe the effect cola has on the enamels.

Upper Key Stage Two

Year 5 have been extremely hard working this week. In English, they researched a range of habitats. They considered what they needed to find out (biomes, climate, food supply, animals and vegetation) to gain information for their documentaries. In maths, children have built on their knowledge and understanding about angles. We have looked at how many degrees make a quarter, half, three quarter and full turn, estimated and measured angles and we problem-solved positions and movement using available information. In Geography, we used the internet to support our learning; we analysed the impact of natural disasters on the distribution of natural resources.

This week, Year 6 pupils at Woodside were treated to some delicious breakfast before they sat their exams. The children showed their positive mindset and resilience answering many complicated questions. We are all very proud of you! Well done Year 6.

Weekly Mental Maths Contest

Our weekly competition winners are:

KS1: 2 Ash

KS2: 4 Willow

Well done for practising you mental maths skills. We wonder who the winners will be next week?

Key Dates

Monday 17th April - First day of the Summer term

Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th April - Year 1 hearing tests

Wednesday 19th April - Year 3 cable car trip to Greenwich

Monday 24th April - Year 3, 4, 5 Cross country at Ashburton Park

Wednesday 26th April - Year 5 trip to the Buddhist Temple

Monday 1st May - School closed for Bank Holiday

Tuesday 2nd May - School closed Teacher Strikes

Monday 8th May - School closed for Bank Holiday for the Coronation of King Charles

Tuesday 9th to Friday 12th May - Year 6 SATs week

Friday 12th May - Celebration of King's Coronation (wear something Red, White, Blue or dress as the King and Queen) bring a snack for a class party. (Celebrated at the end of SATs week, as a whole school, for a double celebration).

Monday 15th May - Year 5 trip to the Science Museum

Friday 26th May - Last day of half term

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