Dear Parents and Carers,

It's been an incredibly busy and successful week here at Woodside!

On Tuesday, our Year 3 children had a fantastic trip to the Horniman Museum, which linked perfectly with their current history learning. The children thoroughly enjoyed the visit, and we were very pleased with how successful the day was.

Thursday was a particularly important day for the school. It was Census Day, and we are thrilled to report that we achieved just under 98% attendance! Thank you all so much for ensuring your children were in school; this excellent attendance figure is vital for securing necessary school funding. Also on Thursday, we held our individual photo day. We successfully trialled an early opening for sibling photos, and we received great feedback on this new initiative. Your children should have brought home their paper leaflet with the unique QR code for viewing and ordering.

This week, we also continued with our literacy initiative as our Year 4 parents attended their 'Parents in to Read' session on Tuesday. It was wonderful to see such a strong turnout once again! Looking ahead to next week, it will be the turn of our Year 5 parents to join us for their session next Tuesday.

Lastly, I want to recognise that October marks Black History Month. Our Global Curriculum incorporates Black history across all year groups through the teaching of protected characteristics and the selective choice of authors, artists, and other figures from diverse backgrounds, including those of Black heritage. We have embedded these principles within our curriculum, which has been reviewed positively by Ofsted following inspections, resulting in strong outcomes. However, we recognise the importance of still marking this cultural occasion. This year, all year groups are completing a mini art project focused on successful Black artists and their contributions, and we will hold an assembly next week to recognise and mark this event.

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

A reminder that we have started the year with a focus on the value of Excellence. This week, in our assembly, we focused on responsibility - how we need to take ownership of our actions and behaviours. If we accept that we are in control of our success, we can achieve great things.

So ask your child:

• What are you responsible for? 

• What can you do now?

• Why did that happen?

Transfer to Secondary School September 2026

If your child’s date of birth is between 1st September 2014 - 31st August 2015, they will be due to start

Secondary School in September 2026.

Reminder!!! The deadline for applications is 31st October 2025.

It is recommended that you submit your application no later than 17th October 2025 (Friday before half-term) 

Late applications will be processed after those received on time, which could severely reduce your child’s chances of being offered a place at your preferred school.

Applications are made online through eAdmissions which can be accessed through Croydon Councils website

- click on the link below; 

Apply for a secondary school place: step by step | Croydon Council. 

You will also find information on local Secondary Schools and step-by-step guidance to help you through

the application process.

If you are familiar with the application process, you can apply straight away here; www.eadmissions.org.uk 

Click here for the  Link to Croydon Secondary Schools Prospectus;

Secondary-admissions-prospectus-2026-2027 

Follow this link for the Transfer to Secondary Schools open days / evenings; Open-Days-Evenings-Timetable-for-Secondary-Schools-2025-2026   

If you missed an open day/evening for a particular school, please contact the individual school

- most will be happy to accommodate you at another time.

For any parents and carers who need help understanding the school admissions process or need support making an application, please make an appointment to see Mrs Georgiades (Family Support Officer) who will be happy to help you complete the application. You will need your council tax reference number to make an application.

Nest

We're so proud to share that throughout all our sessions, the children have become noticeably more confident! They are showing great enthusiasm and are always willing to try new fun and learning activities—a wonderful sign of a secure and engaged class!

This week in the Nest, the children have been deeply engaged in exploring this versatile material (Play dough). They absolutely enjoyed feeling the texture of the dough, talking about how it felt, eg soft, squidgy or smooth. They have been busy rolling, squeezing, and flattening the dough using a variety of tools such as, cutters and rolling pins to develop their strength and control. Children were fascinated to see the face mats, they took small pieces of dough and created facial features, they talked about what they made.

We have also begun to incorporate more mathematical language into our daily routine. At carpet session time, we had a great time singing number songs and rhymes and introduced a number game (Hoops and bean bags), counting the bean bags, which supported children to become familiar with counting and number order in a fun and engaging way.

Saplings

This week in Saplings, we have been exploring our faces and body parts, using our circle time to allow the children to feel their faces, what they can name such as eyes, ears and mouth. We then go onto facts about the face such as eyelashes protecting our eyes from dust, and our ears helping us balance. The children are encouraged to get up and move their bodies with a song to promote a start in physical education and healthy moving bones. We have also placed mirrors in the class for the children to draw and explore what they can see.

In Maths, we have been using numicon to count, showing how we can count the holes to find out the number.  Also using the numicon to decide how many exercises we will do to keep fit with Number Gym by showing numicon to the children and completing the correct number of actions, such as 1 jump, 2 hops, 3 stretches.

In Literacy, we have been tracing lines and patterns to help progress our pincer grips and mark making skills, we are also encouraging the key vocabulary of the body parts whilst the children name them, and complete the exercise.

Year 1

This week in English, the children have been writing sentences about themselves and creating a poem. They wrote about what their shadow likes to eat and drink, and what their shadow likes to do. They tried to remember to start sentences with capital letters, leave finger spaces and end with a full stop. They then talked with an adult to see if they could identify where they could improve their work.

In Maths, they continued using greater than and less than using the signs <  and >. They also used a number line to find missing numbers and numbers that are one more and one less than a given number. In addition, children were introduced to the part-whole model and found 2 numbers that make a number less than 10. Eg. 5 and 3 are the parts, 8 is the whole.

In RE, we learnt about Harvest Festival and created a basket of food that they would like to say thank you for. We linked this to our upcoming school celebration of Harvest. Please remember to send in a food or cleaning product donation if you can, to help our local Nightwatch charity. Many thanks. 

Teddy Bear day was a great success! The children loved sharing their day with their favourite cuddly toy.

Year 2

What a busy and exciting week we've had in Year 2! The children have been fully engaged in new topics, flexing both their creative muscles and their mathematical minds.

This week in English, we dived into our new text, 'Izzy Gizmo', the wonderful story of a young inventor who shows great perseverance. Inspired by Izzy, the children truly transformed into young inventors themselves! We had a brilliant hands-on experience, using different materials to design and create imaginative inventions. We spent time exploring what it would truly be like to be an inventor, using our problem-solving skills to bring our ideas to life.

In Art, we continued our practical project by adding the final layers of colour to our relief sculptures. We carefully used bright oil pastels and a contrasting watercolour wash to make our unique creations pop!

Our focus in Maths this week has been on building a strong foundation with number bonds and fact families. The children have been exploring how numbers are linked together, understanding that if you know one number fact (like 3+7=10), you instantly know three others! This knowledge is vital for faster mental calculations.

We had a blast enjoying Photo Day this week, and we're so proud of how well the children have engaged with all their new learning.

Thank you for your continued support!

Year 3

Year 3 had a highly successful and deeply engaging trip to the Horniman Museum to explore their current history topic: Ancient Egypt.

The highlight of the visit was the incredible opportunity for the children to have hands-on exploration of genuine ancient Egyptian artifacts. This tactile experience allowed them to directly apply the knowledge they'd been building in the classroom, solidifying their understanding of ancient life, culture, and history in a truly memorable way. The museum visit successfully embedded and deepened their knowledge, making their learning more tangible and exciting.

The children were reportedly "ecstatic and intrigued" by the exhibits and the opportunity to interact with the artifacts. Their enthusiasm made the trip a resounding success!

A special note of thanks goes to the parents who volunteered to help supervise the trip. Their participation was invaluable in ensuring the day ran smoothly and safely, giving the children the best possible learning experience.

In Science, we continued with the same important theme. The children created posters with clear messages to protect the habitats of animals that are now endangered due to human actions, pollution, and deforestation.

In Maths, we have been mastering rounding to the nearest 10, 100, and 1,000.

During Geography, we are continuing our study of physical and human features of the UK and comparing them to the features of Sri Lanka.

A big thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us for our reading morning—it was wonderful to see so many of you taking part. Please continue supporting your child by reading together daily at home.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Year 6

This week, the children had the wonderful opportunity to visit our local library. During their visit, they took part in engaging reading activities and even had the chance to become library members. The children asked thoughtful and purposeful questions, which kept them completely engaged throughout the visit. They came away feeling inspired to explore new books and continue their reading journeys both at school and at home.

In English, the children have begun identifying the key features of persuasive texts. They have been researching products that are cruelty-free towards animals and those that are not. Armed with these facts, alongside the persuasive techniques of AFOREST (Alliteration, Facts, Opinions, Rhetorical questions, Emotive language, Statistics and Triplets), they are learning how to create powerful and purposeful pieces of writing. The children have shown great enthusiasm in presenting their arguments, carefully choosing their words to capture and convince their audience. Looking ahead, we are excited to see how they will apply these persuasive skills in their own writing projects, and we encourage families to talk at home about persuasive techniques they notice in adverts, posters, or even everyday conversations.

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.