Dear Parents and Carers,

The festivities kicked off on Tuesday with our Book Swap, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. It was wonderful to see every child take home a new book to keep and cherish. On Wednesday, we hosted Books and Breakfast, and I want to say a huge thank you for the fantastic turnout. It was heartening to see our community so engaged and sharing stories together. Finally, on Thursday, the school was alive with creativity as children and staff celebrated in their fantastic pajamas and costumes!

Our reading focus continues next week on Tuesday, when it will be the turn of Year 5 parents and carers to join us for 'Parents in to Read' from 9:00 am to 9:20 am.

Also on Tuesday, we welcomed a visit from our Trustees and Trust Leaders. We are pleased to share that the visit went very well. The leaders described Woodside as "calm but vibrant" and noted that we have clear, effective plans and priorities in place to continue moving the school forward.

Looking ahead, next week is British Science Week! A letter has been sent out with more details on how we will be celebrating. Please also check our letter directory for several other important updates sent out this week, including information regarding our upcoming Easter Bonnet Parade, details for Pine Class regarding their rescheduled Parents' Evening this term and specific letters for Year 5 concerning Peer Mediation and their upcoming Sharing Assembly.

Finally a letter has gone out to remind everyone about our early finish on the last day of term (1:30pm on Friday 27th March).

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

We continued the theme and value of Resilience, where children learnt Florence Chadwick, who was the twelfth woman to swim the channel and beat Gertrude Ederles record (Ederle was the first woman to successfully make the crossing), completing the crossing in 13 hours and 23 minutes, in August 1950. We reflected on her resilience and how she kept pushing on which enabled her to not only succeed, but beat the record set. This was despite obstacles she faced.

So ask your child:

• Who was Florence Chadwick?

• How did she demonstrate resilience?

• When you face obstacles, what can you do?

🧡Wellbeing Focus: Building Confidence & Resilience

Helping children believe in themselves supports their emotional wellbeing and helps them feel safe to try new things.

🌱Early Years (EYFS)

Young children build confidence through encouragement, play and reassurance.

You could try:

Praising effort, such as “You kept trying” rather than the end result

Offering comfort and encouragement when things feel tricky

Helping children name feelings when they are frustrated or upset

Celebrating small steps, like having a go or asking for help

These experiences help children feel secure and capable.

🌻Key Stage 1 (Years 1–2)

Children at this age are learning to manage challenges and mistakes.

You could try:

Reminding children that making mistakes is part of learning

Encouraging them to try again with reassurance and support

Noticing and praising perseverance and effort

Helping children talk through problems rather than fixing them straight away

Feeling supported helps children build confidence and resilience.

🌟Key Stage 2 (Years 3–6)

Older children benefit from encouragement that builds independence and self-belief.

You could try:

Focusing praise on effort, strategies and progress

Normalising mistakes and talking about what can be learned from them

Encouraging children to reflect on challenges they have overcome

Celebrating personal achievements, big or small

Consistent encouragement helps children develop resilience as they grow.

Nest

It has been an exceptionally productive and engaging week in the Nest, highlighted by a successful field trip that sparked a great deal of scientific curiosity. Utilizing magnifying glasses to observe the natural world, the children were delighted to discover various insects, including small spiders, and demonstrated excellent social skills as they shared these findings with their peers. This exploration transitioned into a focused study of 'The Three Little Pigs', where the children collected sticks of various sizes to discuss mathematical concepts of scale and length. These materials, along with hay and brick imagery, were used to construct houses, an activity that significantly supported both fine motor development and linguistic confidence. It was wonderful to observe the children so immersed in the narrative, fluently using repeated phrases such as, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in".

In addition to the literary excitement, we celebrated World Book Day, with the children delighting us by dressing up as their favorite book characters and outdoor exploration, the children have been refining their early writing and spatial awareness through mark-making in the sand tray. Many showed great focus while drawing vibrant rainbows, while others practiced their shapes by forming shapes such as triangles. Furthermore, our spring-themed sensory display has encouraged the children to explore textures through tactile play with mud and to expand their vocabulary by correctly identifying seasonal elements, including butterflies, ladybirds, and emerging flowers.

Saplings

This week in Saplings, the children have enjoyed exploring the story of the 'Three Little Pigs' from our core text. Together we have discussed the pigs' houses and what to use to build a strong house. The children have enjoyed making pigs from pink playdough, using straw and lollipop sticks to create their own houses and using sticks that have been collected from the fields, mini bricks and straw on our sensory tough tray to give the children a chance to describe how each material feels. We have also been exploring spring by adding cherry blossoms to our water tray and creating our own flower pictures in the creative area.

In Numeracy, we have been using our focus on positional language to place role play pigs in different places in the outdoor area, such as inside their houses, on top of their houses and underneath.

In Literacy, we have been exploring one to one correspondence of placing the correct sound with an image, such as an E of Elephant will match on the worksheet.

Reception

It has been a fantastic week in Reception! The children are really enjoying learning about space, from looking at different planets and describing them, turning themselves into astronauts, using a live telescope to look into space - it has been great fun! Try asking your child which planet is hot, or which planet has rings and watch them become space experts.

In Maths, we have been representing 8 as ‘5 and a bit’, this helps them to break down the number and get a good ‘number sense’. We have done this through various activities such as using a tens frame with 5 already added, and figuring out how to get to 8, having 8 objects and only circling 5, seeing that there is 3 left over.

This week we had the book swap, books and breakfast and world book day. It was so lovely to see all the children dressed up as their favourite characters! From Spiderman (lots of spidermen actually), Mary Poppins to Pikachu and fairytale favourites such as Little Red Riding Hood, the children looked absolutely amazing! Thank you parents for all of your support with their costumes.

Reminder: Reception are still in need of bits for junk modelling so if you have any empty boxes or loo rolls to be thrown away, please send them over to Reception instead! Thank you.

Year 1

A Wonderful Week of Learning in Year 1!

It has been a lovely and engaging week in Year 1, full of exciting opportunities for the children to explore books and learn about different cultures. One of the highlights of the week was our Book Swap event. The children were given a special opportunity to visit the book swap area where the school provided a wonderful range of books. They enjoyed taking their time to explore different genres, discover new authors, and look through a variety of interesting titles. The children showed great enthusiasm as they carefully chose a book that interested them, which they were then able to take home. It was fantastic to see their excitement and love for reading as they explored so many different stories.

In English, the children have been thoroughly enjoying reading the story 'Beegu'. The class has loved following Beegu’s exciting adventure and discussing the events that take place in the story. After exploring the book together, the children have begun retelling the story in their own words. We have been very impressed with their creativity and growing confidence in their writing.

In Maths, the children have been learning about weight, exploring the concepts of heavier and lighter. Using a variety of objects from around the classroom, the children investigated and compared different items to decide which were heavier and which were lighter. The children really enjoyed this hands-on activity and had lots of fun making predictions and testing their ideas.

In Geography this term, Year 1 are learning about the United Kingdom and its four countries. This week we focused on Wales, where the children learned about its location within the UK, aspects of Welsh culture, and the Welsh language. We also explored some traditional Welsh foods, including Welsh cakes, which the children were very excited to try. The class thoroughly enjoyed this experience and it helped bring our learning to life, making it feel as though we had taken a little trip to Wales!

We were very impressed with the children’s curiosity, enthusiasm, and willingness to try new things throughout the week.

Year 2

This week we have been working really hard! We did lots of learning, but we also enjoyed our book swap, where everyone could pick a book, as well as our dress-up day. Both classrooms turned into places full of different characters!

In our History lesson, we discussed the Victorian era and some of the dangerous jobs that children had to do. Some of the children were shocked by how hard children had to work in those times! We imagined that we were part of the Victorian era and created posters with key information about different jobs. The children could choose who they would be, such as a chimney sweep, factory worker, or street seller.

In our Science lesson, we identified differences and similarities between habitats in our local area. We learned what a habitat is and observed animals and plants living in these habitats.

In our English lesson, we planned our stories for next week.

In Maths, we secured our knowledge of the 5 and 10 times tables and started exploring measuring in centimetres. We also practised how to use a ruler correctly.

Year 3

Hi Parents, what a fantastic, fun-filled week we have had in Year 3! The children have been incredibly busy exploring new ideas, visiting special places and showing great kindness to one another.

We have been diving into the world of fractions! Using hands-on shapes and diagrams, the children have been learning how to split wholes into equal parts. We’ve looked at halves, quarters, thirds etc and it was wonderful to see their lightbulb moments as they mastered the names of each part.

To celebrate our love of reading, we took part in a whole-school book swap. It was heart-warming to see the children excitedly talking about their favourite stories and choosing new-to-them books to take home. There is a real buzz about reading in the classroom!

In our computing coding sessions, the children turned into software engineers! They used coding to control their very own games. They worked hard on their code to make sure their characters moved and worked perfectly.

One of the biggest highlights was our visit to the Gurdwara. The children showed immense respect as we learned about Sikh traditions and the importance of community and sharing. They were fascinated by the Langar (the community kitchen) and asked some very thoughtful questions.

Year 4

This week in Year 4, the children have been busy indulging in a wonderful world of books. From reading for pleasure and book sharing, to breakfast morning reading with their parents and celebrating World Book Day, it has been a fantastic week filled with stories, imagination, and a love of reading. The children enjoyed sharing their favourite books with their peers and talking about different authors and characters.

Our Year 4 Brainiacs also had the opportunity to become librarians, taking responsibility for organising and caring for books in the classroom. They showed great teamwork and enthusiasm while helping to keep our reading areas tidy and encouraging others to explore new books.

In English, the children planned and created their own entertaining poems based on their chosen gods. They explored a range of poetic techniques and worked hard to include rhymes, similes, metaphors, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in their writing. The children showed great creativity and imagination, producing engaging and expressive poems.

In Geography, the children explored human and physical features of both the United Kingdom and Greece. They discussed the similarities and differences between the two countries, comparing landscapes and landmarks. This helped them deepen their understanding of how geography shapes the environment.

In Science, children developed their understanding of how sound travels. They used key vocabulary to label the parts of the ear and extended their learning by explaining how these parts work together to help sound travel to the brain. The children enjoyed discussing how vibrations move through the ear and how our ears help us hear different sounds in the world around us.

Well done, Year 4, for another brilliant week of curiosity, creativity, and learning!

Year 5

This week, the children truly rose to the challenge during Assessment Week. It has been wonderful to see them putting weeks of dedicated learning into practice with such focus and determination. They approached their papers not just as tests, but as an opportunity to showcase how much they have grown as independent learners.

In Design and Technology, the children have been diving back into the world of engineering by exploring the vital role of trusses in bridge design. They have been investigating how triangular frameworks distribute weight and provide essential stability. By creating their own truss designs, the pupils are gaining the foundational knowledge needed to build their own models.

Beyond the assessments, we had a brilliant time celebrating World Book Day! The year groups were buzzing with literary excitement as the children immersed themselves in the joy of reading. The effort put into their amazing costumes was a particular highlight, with the classroom transformed into a vibrant sea of heroes, villains, and beloved literary figures. Their enthusiasm was infectious, making it a truly memorable day dedicated to the magic of books.

Year 6

This week has been Assessment Week, and our students have been busy with completing SATs papers in Maths, Reading, and Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling (GPS). The children truly rose to the challenge this week. It has been wonderful to see the children put their knowledge to the test with such resilience and focus. We are incredibly proud of the effort they poured into every paper; they truly showed great character and a positive attitude towards their testing.

This week in DT, the children explored how propaganda and censorship were used during World War II to manage public information and maintain morale. They discussed how the government shaped society's perception of the war by highlighting victories and downplaying setbacks. To apply their learning, the children were tasked with "flipping the narrative" on a frightening headline: A bomb has destroyed a bakery in Thornton Heath. Using their creativity, they designed posters to transform this news into a positive message of resilience, encouraging the community to stay strong and keep moving forward. It was a fantastic way to see them use art to understand the power of persuasion!

We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day! This year’s theme, "Go All In," encouraged the children to dive deep into their favorite stories, hobbies, and interests. It was wonderful to see the effort put into their costumes—everyone looked absolutely amazing and brought a brilliant energy to the classroom! Beyond the fun of dressing up, the day served as a vital reminder that reading is the key that unlocks every other subject, building the imagination and empathy our children need to succeed.

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.