Dear Parents / Carers

Welcome to another newsletter where this week, it has been a busy one! We celebrated Harvest and we were joined by Fr Sam Dennis on Tuesday for a special Harvest celebration assembly. The children found out what Harvest festival is and why it is celebrated. As a school, we want to thank everyone for their kind donations; it will go a long way in supporting our local NightWatch Croydon charity.

On Thursday, we also had our Census day and school photos. It was lovely to see everyone getting their individual photos taken - samples and information about buying the photos will be made available as soon as possible. Year 3 also went on a school trip on Wednesday to the Horniman Museum. They had a fantastic time, bringing their learning to life!

Last Friday, we sent a whole school letter reminding our community about our values and how we expect all members of our community to behave when on school grounds. I also want to remind parents of our complaints policy. We will try our best in supporting children and families the best way we can but there may be times when you feel you need to address a concern - all members of our community should follow our complaints policy. This can be found on our school website or a copy can be requested via the main office.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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!

Dame Rachel De Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has launched ‘The Big Ambition’ to hear directly from children, young people, and parents from across the country.  

Through ‘The Big Ambition’ survey the children’s commissioner wants to hear from children and young people about their education, the support they receive and the wider world. She also wants to know what they want for their future, their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. 

This survey is for all children and young people aged 6, up to 18. Alongside this, parents and other adults can complete the survey on behalf of children and young people aged 0, up to 5.

The survey can be completed here: www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition 

Through this link there is an easy read version and different questions based on the age of the child or young person. Tomorrow, 'The Big Ambition' webpage will also go live and includes resources and overviews of the survey. 

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. 

Nest

We have had an exciting week in the Nest. Children have been exploring with dry pasta, using silver spoons and containers. Children were enjoying filling and emptying the containers, using their hands and spoon, counting the scoops and feeling the texture. Whilst engaged with the activity children were talking about how they eat pasta with for example, “I eat pasta with sauce”, “I eat pasta with chicken”. We have started learning about our facial features using our core text ‘It's Okay to be Different.’ Children were very excited to use a mirror template, to draw a self portrait of their face. They were naming their features, talking about their own hair. Last week was our first family time, which went really well. Parents enjoyed joining in with their children's play and with singing rhymes and story time.

Nursery

This week in Nursery we have been exploring and learning about the colour of our hair and that of our friends. We used the mirrors to look at our own hair and then chose the colours from the vocabulary mat and told our friends. We then looked at our friends’ hair and told them what their hair colour was. In the creative area, we were creating our faces, thinking about the facial features. We used the playdough to support us with our numbers in Maths. As it is Autumn, we made hedgehogs and added some eyes and their spikes. Each hedgehog had a different number of spikes and we had to count some pasta to add to the hedgehogs. 

Phonics: This week, we have been learning the graphemes (letter name) and phonemes (letter sound); ck, e, u, r. 

Home Learning:  How many things can the children think of that has the initial sounds: e, u, r ? Can they recall words that end with ‘ck’  (rock, sock, lock)?

Reminder: Please remember to label all your child’s clothing with their name and class. If your child accidentally brings home another child’s clothing, please remember to return it promptly. Thank you .    

Well done, Reception class for having a great week!

The Reception Team

Pear Class: Ms Hunte, Ms King, Ms Brown, Mrs Katsaounis - Apple Class: Mrs Patel, Ms Georgiades, Ms Lee

Year 1

This week children have started writing a narrative about the Lonely Beast. They first created the story map and came up with the actions to retell the story. Then they used the time adverbials to structure the story in their writing. In maths children were learning how to order numbers from the smallest to the greatest and vice versa. They used cubes and numicon to build their numbers and put them in the right order. This week we are focusing on our final outcome of the core book The Lonely Beast. In art children created different patterns to make their prints inspired by the artist Raphael Lopez.

Year 3

We are thrilled to share our Year 3 students' recent visit to the Horniman Museum. As part of their history curriculum, our young explorers embarked on a journey to ancient Egypt through a captivating workshop at the museum. This hands-on experience allowed our students to immerse themselves in the rich history, culture, and mysteries of this ancient civilisation. During their time at the Horniman Museum, our Year 3s had the opportunity to engage with real artifacts from ancient Egypt. 

Year 5

This week, Year 5 has been focussing on their maths learning by using formal methods for adding and subtracting, remembering to exchange when needed. They have also been using mental strategies to calculate sums and differences using partitioning.

In English, the children have been continuing to analyse play script writing and have endeavored to start to produce their own based on our core text - The Boy and the Globe. In reading, the children have also been taking the time to read for pleasure to gain a real love of books.

Year 6

Your daughters and sons have been determined to acquire the skills and strategies when finding common multiples and factors. They have used their times tables, multiplication facts and venn diagrams to successfully identify factors and common multiples of given numbers. Their resilience and positive attitude to learning, have allowed them to deliver excellent math tasks, of which we are all extremely proud. A superb start to year 6… Keep mathing!

Primary Admissions

Is your child 4 years old before 31st August 2024?

We warmly invite you to join our school community. You are welcome to visit us for a school tour and to meet our passionate team.

Existing Nursery children will also need to apply for a Reception place.

There are a number of dates on which you can visit - use this form

or call the office to let us know when you will visit.

If your child was born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 you are now able to apply for them to join Woodside for a Reception place in September 2024. Applications for Reception next year should be made via the Local Authority. Information about the application process can be found HERE

Woodside would like to say a huge huge thank you to everyone who supported the Harvest Festival. Scouring through your pantries to enable this wonderful worthwhile initiative. An amazing donation of 12 boxes, have now been collected by the chosen charity ‘NightWatch Croydon', to be distributed to very grateful communities in need. Your generosity is truly astounding. THANK YOU!!!

Nasal Flu Vaccination Programme

Your child should have brought home a letter about the NHS annual flu vaccination programme for this winter.

The Immunisation Team’s visit will take place on 11th October.

Flu can be an unpleasant illness and sometimes causes serious complications. This annual vaccination programme is a quick and simple spray up the nose. It is in place to help protect your child against the flu. It also helps protect more vulnerable members of our community by reducing the spread of flu.

The letter was accompanied by a consent form. You should return the form to school as soon as possible whether or not you give your consent to the vaccine.

Please read the letter carefully for more information, or contact the office if you did not receive the letter and form.

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