Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been another incredibly productive and collaborative week here at Woodside.

Firstly, we were absolutely delighted to welcome colleagues from James Allen Girls’ School (JAGS) to our school this week. They visited to observe our exemplary EYFS provision, enjoying a full tour of our early years setting and speaking at length with our leaders about our pedagogical approach. It is always a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with fellow educators and share the fantastic, impactful practice happening daily within our Nursery and Reception teams.

It has also been an incredibly busy and exciting week for curriculum enrichment across the year groups. Year 2 explored their heritage during a vibrant Culture Day earlier this week, wrapping up their celebrations today with a fantastic carnival to celebrate their learning. Meanwhile, Year 4 stepped back in time for their immersive Roman Day and took to the stage for their special Year 4 assembly. A huge thank you to the many parents and carers who joined us for the assembly; it was wonderful to see such a brilliant turnout and share in the children's success.

Additionally, today marked the official relaunch of our PTA, and what a perfect start it was! The team was out hosting an ice lolly sale to celebrate the relaunch and help everyone cool down as the weather starts to get hotter. Thank you so much to everyone for your fantastic support in purchasing these, your contributions are greatly appreciated by the whole school community.

Today, we say goodbye to Mrs Mckenna. Mrs Mckenna joined us recently to support our SEND and inclusion whilst we recruiting a SENCO. Mrs Mckenna has had a huge impact in her short time. After half term, she is going to support West Thornton Primary School, a school in our trust; so we are fortunate that we still have her close. We wish her the best of luck!

Looking ahead, please remember that next week is the half-term break, and school will be closed. We look forward to welcoming all of our children and families back to school on Monday 1st June. We hope you all have a safe, restful, and lovely half-term week!

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

This week we finalised our value of Integrity, with a particular focus on responsibility. We explored the importance of taking responsibility for our own actions and thoughts. It is important that we understand our actions have consequences and how we should be honest in our approach.

Ask your child:

• What are you responsible for?

• What happened and what could you have done differently?

• What impact did your actions have?

Nest

This week has been an amazing week of learning in the Nest, with the children engaging in a variety of hands-on activities that supported both their academic and physical development.

In Maths, they practiced matching numbers to quantities by using tweezers to carefully pick up pom-poms and buttons, placing the correct amount onto each corresponding number. This brilliant activity not only strengthened their mathematical skills but also provided a fantastic workout for their fine motor development and hand-eye coordination.

Indoors, the children were also very busy exploring the small-world doll's house, where they meticulously arranged the furniture, guided the small play figures, and practiced playing cooperatively and sharing beautifully with their peers.

Finally, our outdoor learning was just as active, as the children headed into the EYFS gardens to explore and dig using a wide variety of tools, building their gross motor skills and enjoying the fresh air.

We hope you all have a wonderful, restful half-term break, and we look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday, 1st June 2026!

Saplings

This week in Saplings, we have been exploring looking at the life cycles of mini beasts. The children have loved learning new information about the lives of the creatures around us, such as what they eat, how they travel, as well as their different patterns and details. The children have gotten creative making all different types of mini beast art, such as paper plate bees, printed caterpillars, using symmetrical paints to print butterflies and much more, our classroom is covered in beautiful new art work all around!

In Numeracy, the children have been recapping their learning of shapes by finding the difference between 2D and 3D, as well as using the names of the shapes that they have learnt over this term. It has been wonderful to see the children putting this new information to use around their daily loves here by pointing out shapes they may see during their time at school, such as the shapes of their water bottles, lunch boxes, and shapes they can see in and around the construction area.

In Literacy, we have been exploring the phonic sound ‘V’, through repetition and song, and finding items around the room that begin or include the V sound. 

The children have also loved the continuation of caring for our Tomato plant, Talula has become another member of the class and its been lovely for the children to see it grow and create new tomatoes on it!

Reception

This week, we are taking a virtual safari into one of the most spectacular habitats on Earth: the savannah. We are exploring its incredible wildlife, learning about the challenges these animals face, and stepping into the boots of the brave rangers who protect them. Through looking at pictures, storytelling, and roleplay, we have been exploring what makes this habitat so special, the dangers the animals face, and how brave people are working to save them. Children were able to identify the animals that live in the savannah. A few of the children shared that they had seen some of the animals at the zoo. We learned about poaching—which is the illegal killing or capturing of wild animals.

We have continued with our handwriting practice and children are now beginning to extend their senses they have written independently. They have been able to use their phonics knowledge to be able to write sentences they can read.

In Maths, Reception children have been learning about grouping and sharing equally. They have been using the ‘Bears’ picnic story to support their understanding of what sharing equally means. For example, given 6 pieces of pasta to share between 2 bears, the children carefully counted them out until each bear had an equal amount (3 pasta pieces each). We practiced checking our work by counting to make sure it was "fair" and that nobody had more than anyone else.

Year 1

It’s been a busy and fun week in Year 1. We were all very excited to plant a bean seed and are eagerly waiting for signs of growth! As well as linking to our science work, this was part of our English learning as we then spent the rest of the week writing instructions about “How to plant a seed”. We made sure to use imperative verbs and time adverbials, as well as checking our instructions were in the correct order and made sense.

In Maths, we have been learning about numbers from 50 to 100. We’ve counted,  found missing numbers and drawn representations. We also used a part whole model to partition numbers into 10s and 1s making them using base 10 resources. We recognised the number of tens is different to the number it represents.  Eg. 5 tens is 50.

In History, Mrs Timms came to talk to us about Woodside in the past. She told us about Woodside school when her grandfather was here and showed us a book he won over 100 years ago! It looked very different to the books children read today!

We finished our DT work on weaving by creating a circular weave on a plate using strips of recycled fabric. It was quite tricky and we needed to persevere and be resilient, but ended up with some lovely results and are proud of our products.

Year 2

What a spectacular, high-energy week it has been in Year 2!

We have packed so much into the last few days, concluding some of our major termly projects and celebrating our diverse school community. The children have worked incredibly hard and should be immensely proud of everything they have achieved.

In English, the children have put their instructional writing skills to excellent use by drafting a guide for next year's Year 2 cohort. They have written clear step-by-step instructions on how to make a carnival headdress, ensuring that the incoming pupils will know exactly what to do. The children took great care to ensure their steps were sequential and easy to follow, passing on their expert design knowledge with pride.

In Maths, we have been tackling the concept of time. The children have taken to this topic with fantastic enthusiasm, and their progress has been remarkably fast. We are delighted to share that the children can now confidently read the time on an analogue clock. They have shown great determination when mastering both the hour and minute hands, which is a tricky skill that they have picked up with ease.

This week marked the conclusion of our science investigation into plant growth. We have been monitoring our seeds to see how the process of germination is affected by light. The children have loved watching their seeds grow and sprout over the last few weeks. There was a lot of excitement in the classrooms as we reviewed our initial predictions, with many children thoroughly surprised by the actual results of whether the seeds in the light or the dark germinated quicker. It was a wonderful way to bring our biology topic to a successful close.

Culture Day and our Carnival Parade

The highlights of our week were undoubtedly our two fantastic celebratory events.

For Culture Day, the children looked absolutely amazing in their cultural outfits. It was wonderful to see the variety of traditional clothes on display. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring different heritages together and sharing the tasty foods brought in from home.

We followed this up with our long-awaited Carnival Parade day. The children put a tremendous amount of effort into dressing up in bright, colourful clothes to showcase the magnificent headdresses they have been making this term. Parading for the parents was an absolute joy, and the atmosphere was full of music, fun and celebration.

Thank you parents for helping us make this week memorable for the children. The Year 2 Team

Year 3

As we come to the end of Summer 1, we want to say a huge thank you for your continual support; your partnership makes a world of difference to the children’s learning and success. It has been an incredibly busy and rewarding term!

Guided by our Global Theme of Social Justice and Equity, the children have dived deep into our core text, 'Oliver Twist', exploring the features of a playscript and even writing brilliant adaptations of their own.

In History, we journeyed back in time to explore the fascinating changes in Britain from the Bronze Age, while in Design and Technology (DT), the children put their textile skills to the test by handcrafting their very own Victorian money pouches.

Our PSHE sessions focused on the vital topics of online safety, relationships and economic well-being and in Religious Education (RE), we explored the meaningful question, "What is prayer?".

In Music, we have been bursting with creativity, exploring improvisation and learning the basic skills of how to play the recorders.

Looking ahead to Summer 2, the children have shown challenging competency with their basic skills in telling the time. We will be continuing to embed and extend this learning next term. Please carry on practicing reading the time with them at home to keep those skills sharp.

Thank you once again for your brilliant, ongoing support!

Year 4

Year 4 continued writing a biography of Henri Matisse, a famous French artist. We also created cut-outs inspired by Matisse’s techniques, using geometric shapes and bold, bright colours.

Our Maths lessons were dedicated to our new topic: money. We learned how to convert pounds into pence and pence into pounds, as well as how to solve reasoning problems involving money.

We celebrated the outcomes of our hard work produced during the Summer 1 term with parents and carers during our sharing assembly. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to celebrate with us.

As we usually do at the end of term, we consolidated our knowledge by producing double-page spreads. In History, we created an information page about the Roman legacy.

Our Science double-page spread was dedicated to the digestive system.

Please do not forget to spend some time revising the times tables, as the MTC tests will start on the first day back after your holiday!

We wish you all an amazing break and a well-deserved rest.

Year 5

This week, our Maths sessions took a geometric turn as we launched an exciting new topic on angles! The children began by exploring physical turns, discovering that a quarter-turn is identical to a right angle, and that four of these turns create a full 360-degree rotation. Building on this solid foundation, they progressed to classifying different angles, successfully mastering how to spot the differences between acute, obtuse, and reflex angles. The children have shown fantastic spatial awareness and mathematical vocabulary throughout—well done to our angle experts!

In English this week, the children have been busy finishing their voice over scripts. They then put their scripts to the test by practising reading them out loud, working hard to calculate exactly where to add pauses so their narration timed up perfectly with the action on screen. Once they mastered the precise timing of the pika video, the children took time to record their final voice-overs, bringing the wildlife documentary to life with fantastic expression and delivery!

This week in Geography, the children tackled our 'Big Question': How does the use of natural resources impact the planet? Drawing on their prior knowledge, they produced fantastic, informative double-page spreads. These detailed showcases highlighted the critical importance of transitioning to renewable energy and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

In our English lessons, the children have been channeling their creativity to design their very own underwater hotels. They have been working hard on their writing, using all of the persuasive skills they have learnt to pitch their designs and convince their audience that their resort is the ultimate holiday destination. The creativity on display has been absolutely phenomenal, and they have done a brilliant job of bringing their ideas to life through their writing.

The children have worked exceptionally hard over the past few weeks and thoroughly deserve a break.

We hope you all have a fantastic, restful May half-term. Please encourage the children to switch off from schoolwork, spend quality time with family, and get outside to enjoy the beautiful May weather.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. Have a wonderful week!

Summer Term Clubs

Bookings will be open from Friday 20th March at 6pm and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The dates exclude the half term week, 25th May 2026 - 29th May 2026 and Bank holiday, Monday 4th May 2026. Also, Inset day, Friday 19th June 2026.

Please book directly using the links provided or via Arbor where it is indicated to do so.

Kindly ensure your child commits to the duration of the club, as we cannot guarantee refunds.

Sign-up starts at the beginning of the club, not once the club has started.

Please follow this link for futher information and booking links:

Summer Term Clubs 

We are using 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.