Dear Parents and Carers,

The children have been busy getting ready for our upcoming festive winter celebrations, and we can't wait for you to join us for the various festive concerts. Please be reminded that there has been a change of times for the Nest and Saplings performances—full details can be found in the letter sent home. Next week, our popular Winter Warmer Nights begin, starting with our EYFS families next Thursday. Join us from 4pm for a cosy night in!

Also next Thursday, our Year 2 pupils will be hosting their Sharing Assembly. This is a lovely chance for them to showcase their recent learning to parents and carers, and we encourage Year 2 parents and carers to attend.

Just a final, important reminder about the cold weather: please ensure your children are wrapped up warm every day, including coats, hats, and gloves as needed, for their comfort and health while they are outside.

Please remember that tomorrow, Friday 28th November, is an INSET day, meaning the school will be closed to all pupils.

We hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

We have started the term with the value of Respect. This week, we explored how we can show respect with our friends, focusing on the character skill of friendship. We learnt how we can become good friends by listening to each other, sharing and respecting our differences. Showing respect means we may sometimes disagree with each other but we can stay calm and accept we may think differently and that is ok.

So ask your child:

• How can you be a good friend?

• What happens if you disagree with your friend?

• How can we be respectful to each other?

Every child/family in receipt of benefits-related Free School Meals will have the chance to book onto programmes running during the upcoming Christmas holidays.  You will have received an email or text message from HolidayActivities (hello@holidayactivities.com) stating ‘You have been issued a voucher’. The email will contain details of how to register/sign-in to the booking platform and claim your child(ren)’s voucher. Once you have claimed your voucher you will be able to link your HolidayActivities Voucher to your Holiday Activities Account, which will show the available credits you have to use. If you are unable to locate this email please do look in your junk mail.

If you have more than one child, you will have received multiple vouchers via email/text. Please ensure you access the individual link for each of your children for their credits to show in your Holiday Activities Account. 

When you first log in, HolidayActivities will ask for you to share your location. By doing so, clubs will be displayed based on those closest to you. If you have any trouble with accessing the platform, please email support@holidayactivities.com. 

Spaces on the HAF programme are limited and pre-booking is essential. All bookings must be confirmed using the HolidayActivities online platform.  Please look out for your email or text message from HolidayActivities.com (hello@holidayactivities.com) which contains your voucher code, and book now to ensure that your child does not miss out.

All holiday clubs cater for children with low-medium levels of SEN and/or disability and children will be considered by each club on a case-by-case basis.

 Reception Places for September 2026

If your child’s date of birth is between 1st September 2021 - 31st August 2022, they will be due to start school in Reception in September 2026.

The deadline for applications is 15th January 2026.

Applications are made online through eAdmissions which can be accessed through Croydon Councils website; Apply for a primary school place: step by step | Croydon Council where you will also find information on local primary schools and step-by-step guidance to help you through the application process.

For any parents and carers who need help understanding the school admissions process or require support to make an application, please make an appointment to see Mrs Georgiades (Family Support Officer) by emailing Familysupport at Woodside Primary School 

You will need your council tax reference number to make an application.

For those parents/carers whose children currently attend our Nursery, you must still complete and submit an application for entry

to Reception in September 2026.

Nest

We have been reading 'Owls Babies'. This story has supported children with their cognitive development and other learning areas like Personal social and emotional, communication development, listening. Children have learnt new vocabulary related to night and nature. Children were very excited to make Baby Owls, they were incredibly engaged exploring with Play-Dough, to make their very own baby owls! Using a variety of materials, including: Buttons, googly eyes, shape cutters and rolling pins. This activity was a powerhouse for development, supporting several key areas:

• Fine Motor Skills: Pressing, rolling, and carefully placing the small buttons and eyes significantly strengthened their small hand muscles.

• Speech and Language: While playing, the children naturally discussed the story. Their most favorite repeated phrase, which they enjoyed saying with great enthusiasm, was "I want my Mummy!"

• Mathematical Language: We integrated early math concepts by encouraging them to count the eyes, the owls, and the buttons they used, naturally expanding their mathematical vocabulary.

Saplings

This week in Saplings, we have been enjoying lots of different activities such as junk modeling, collage making and also getting some lovely christmas decorations made for the festive period! The children have enjoyed exploring 'Stick Man' as part of our core text, collecting sticks on the way to school to get creative with next week.

In Numeracy, we have been exploring heights and measurements, discussing comparisons between the children and teachers heights, as well as using a measuring tape to find the children's height in centimeters. We are also enjoying measuring the heights of things around the classroom such as chairs, books and windows.

In Literacy, we have been focusing on the phonic sound ‘P’, through song and imagery. We have also been practicing our mark making as the children are encouraged to write letters to Santa and place them in envelopes.

Children have continued to make amazing progress with their phonics. They have been using their phonics knowledge to read simple words such as sit, pat, nap and tip. As they have been reading these words, they have also learnt what these words mean. They have also been able to use actions to show their understanding of the new vocabulary. Children have also been practising their handwriting.

In Maths, children have been comparing objects and using words such as more, fewer and equal. Children were able to use numberblocks, stories, and animals to compare whether they had enough, not enough or more than enough.

Reminder: Please remember to practice phonics reading with your child. Story books are changed every Monday and Phonics book every Friday.  Thank you.

Year 1

This week, we looked at the features of diary writing. We identified first person, date, greeting, past tense, emotions and time adverbials. We then looked at some of these features in more detail. We thought about how Little Red Riding Hood felt at different parts of the story and role played some of these emotions. We also recapped time adverbials and used them to order events in a day. Then we wrote some of the events in the story of Little Red Riding Hood starting our sentence with a time adverbial.

In Maths, we continued with work about 3D shapes identifying the odd one out in a group and sorting shapes into groups. Eg. ones that roll and ones that stack. Then we moved on to find out about 2D shapes. We learnt about circles, rectangles, triangles and squares and identified the straight and curved sides and how many different sides each shape has.

In DT, we tested different materials to see which is the strongest. Although wood and metal were the strongest, they are hard for us to cut, fix and shape, so we will make our own buildings out of cardboard as it is stronger than the plastic, fabric and paper that we tested.

Year 2

What a fantastic and busy week we've had in Year 2!

The classroom has been buzzing with creativity and hard work across all subjects.

This week, we successfully completed our Design and Technology project: designing a new fire engine! The children worked incredibly hard, starting with the planning and moving right through to the final design. We focused on making sure our engines had all the essential parts—a long, strong ladder, a powerful hose, and bright lights and sirens. We've had some very creative ideas, from new storage solutions to special water cannons. The children can be very proud of their innovative and practical designs.

In English, we have been immersed in the wonderful book, 'The Dark' by Lemony Snicket. The children have loved following the main character, Laszlo, as he confronts his fear. We used the story to explore a wide range of emotions—from being scared to being brave and finally relieved! This focus on language has flowed into our poetry work. We are preparing to write a poem about our history topic, the Great Fire of London. This week, we practised creating rhyming schemes and used the Great Fire theme to find excellent rhyming couplets (two lines that rhyme). This has built a strong foundation for next week when we start drafting our poems.

Maths has been a little tricky but ultimately very successful! We've been tackling the difficult area of adding two 2-digit numbers where the ones digits add to more than 10 (for example, 27 + 15). The children have done brilliantly in learning the key strategy: using their knowledge of making a 10 and then combining the tens and ones. This is a crucial skill for building fluency in mental and written calculations, and the children should be praised for their concentration and effort!

Finally, we have been spending time every day practising for our upcoming Class Assembly! The children have been learning their lines, perfecting their songs, and making sure all the props are ready. They are doing a superb job and cannot wait to perform and share all their learning with you.

Next Week's Focus: Drafting our Great Fire of London poems, and continuing our work on number fluency in Maths.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Year 3

We extend our deepest gratitude to all the parents who joined us for our recent Reading Morning!

The event was a wonderful success, largely due to your enthusiastic participation. The classrooms were filled with palpable joy and excitement as the children were absolutely thrilled and beaming with happiness to share their school reading time with you. Seeing so many families together, sharing stories and fostering a love for books, reinforces the strong partnership between home and school, and your dedication to supporting your child's literacy journey is truly appreciated.

Year 5

This week in Maths, the children completed the first segment of their multiplication and division learning journey. The primary focus was revisiting multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, and 1000. They successfully solidified their understanding of the place value chart, recognising that digits move to the left when multiplying (making the number larger) and to the right when dividing (making the number smaller).
Please continue to encourage your child to revisit their times tables knowledge as we prepare to begin our new topic on Fractions next week.

In English this week, the focus was on newspaper reports. The children researched various reports to identify their key features (such as the headline, orientation, and main body) and understand the techniques writers use to grab the reader's attention. They then applied this knowledge by beginning the planning phase for their own newspaper report, which will be based on the strange events detailed in the class novel, 'The Boy in the Tower'.

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.