Dear Parents and Carers

This week at Woodside, we have been re-emphasising our work on expectations and our ethic of excellence. With staff, we have explored the notion ‘What makes Woodside beautiful?’ - we have a clear vision and will be implementing steps to ensure this beauty is felt all across school. With children, we have been practising some key routines, including how we line up and end our lunch times. This collaborative learning all helps us to improve our provision and make sure our expectations are high!

Year 6 have been busy with additional assessments this week in preparation for their KS2 SATs in May. The Year 6 team are marking and assessing papers so we can better adapt learning for our children. Next week, we have a busy week at Woodside. We will be holding deep reviews into our phonics and reading provisions to see what successes we have and what next steps we need to develop. We are sure this visit and review will support us in our provision for children. 

We have sent some reminder letters to parents and carers about us being a nut-free school and to restrict the amount of personal belongings being brought into school by children. We appreciate support from you all.

Lastly, yesterday was Census day. Thank you to all children who made it into school. As we shared, all children who attended school would be entered into a raffle and I can confirm the following 4 children have won (Paris in Cedar Class, Ansh in Pine Class, Timothy in Pear Class and Harry in Rowan). Please could parents of these children contact the school office to claim your vouchers.

The weather is meant to be getting warmer (I hope) but please do still wrap up warm with the cold winds. I hope everyone has a restful weekend.

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!

Nest

The New Children are settling in very well, they are beginning to follow Nest routine and expectation with support.  We have introduced our core text for this term, “ Goldilocks and the Three bears”. They have been listening to the story with interest, building their language by using repeated phrases, asking and answering simple questions. To embed the story children have been exploring with Oats, using silver spoons and containers and also pictures of the bears porridge bowls. Children have been really enjoying filling and emptying the containers, whilst engaged, they talked about what they were doing, like pretending to cook. Children used mathematical language, they talked about which container was big, small, empty and full. This activity has been supporting children’s fine motor skills, cognitive development and other learning objectives like sensory explorations, imaginative and problem solving.

Nursery

In Nursery this week, children have been learning about recalling events in fairy tale stories. They listened to the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. They had to talk about how the baby bear felt when she found her porridge had been eaten, her chair broken and someone sleeping in her bed! The children enjoyed acting out the story and expressing their opinions on the story. In Maths, children were learning to recognise numbers using number blocks. They also had a go at writing the numbers.

Phonics: This week, the children learnt the following Phase 3 sounds (all are digraphs: 2 letters that make one sound): oo, oo, ar, or. They used their knowledge of sounds learnt this week to read and write these words: book, zoom, car, farm, fork, sort.   

Home Learning: Practice saying and writing the digraphs learnt this week and make a list of words that have the phonemes : oo (zoom, moon, soon), oo (cook, book, look), ar and ‘or’.

In Maths this week, Year 2 have recapped the different methods of addition, including using a number line to add on a single digit number, drawing their 10s and 1s and using the column method. For English, the children have continued planning and begun their own persuasive letters, trying to convince Mr Atwal to buy them a class pet. Each child has thought about what pets would be most suitable for a classroom, then thought about the multiple reasons how they could persuade Mr Atwal to buy it.

Year 3

This week in English, we have been writing our own leaflet on the Amazon Rainforest. Children have been identifying the key features in a leaflet and tried to include that in their own one using paragraphs, subheadings and rhetorical questions. In Maths, we have been using our multiplication table to multiply 2 digits by 1 digit numbers with and without exchanging. In geography, we have been learning more about the Amazon Rainforest and comparing it with a forest in the UK by reading interesting facts and looking at different pictures to see what is the same and different in the Amazon Rainforest and a woodland forest in the UK. In science, children have been identifying the different types of rocks and handling the rocks in class.

Year 4

In Year 4 the children have experimented with making different designs of clay tiles. The children will develop their skills by making clay bowls based around the theme of Ancient Greece.

For writing the children have been improving their character descriptions by adding fronted adverbials and checking for any grammatical errors that need to be corrected.

Year 6

This half term, Year 6 has been learning all about World War Two. In History, they have enjoyed exploring the countries - Axis and Allies- involved, events leading up to and during the conflict as well as how life would have been affected for people living in the UK. To support this, they have read part of the book 'Goodnight Mister Tom', written by Michelle Magorian, in their English lessons and whole class reading. The text, which follows the story of a boy called William and his evacuation to the countryside, has allowed children to write in a range of different ways, from writing in role to writing recount. The quality of the children’s writing has been amazing and they have shown great effort and resilience throughout.

Art has been engaging for the children, they have explored the different sketching techniques to allow them to effectively prepare for their final outcome of poppy making, manipulating clay.

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

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.

Belongings and equipment

Please remember that children should not bring pencil cases, toys or other items to school - we cannot be held responsible if these items go missing or are damaged. Pencil cases are a distraction - we provide all necessary equipment for our students to use during lessons.

In line with our school policies, we ask that children do not wear smartwatches during school hours. This ensures a fair and uniform approach to the use of technology within the classroom setting. 

To avoid confusion and loss of personal items, please ensure your child's name is clearly written on all of their clothing. This includes uniforms, PE kit, jackets or coats, and any other items they may bring to school. This simple step greatly aids in the quick and accurate return of lost belongings. Please regularly check that your child is returning home with their own property.

Thank you for your support with these requests.

Please note that this year, we are asking children to change in school. They should bring in their PE bags and keep them in school for the term and take them home at the end of the term. Thank you for supporting us with this.

All children need elastic fronted plimsolls for indoor/outdoor PE which are best kept in a drawstring bag on their cloak peg. Children will need black/blue shorts and a white t-shirt in their PE bag to wear for PE lessons. 

Places are limited for school-run clubs and parents can sign children up for school clubs by signing into Arbor online or using the Arbor App. This help page will show you how this is done: Arbor support to sign-up for clubs

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