Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome back!

We hope you and your children thoroughly enjoyed the two-week half term and had a good, relaxing break. It's been great to see the children return refreshed and quickly settling back into their routines and diving into new learning across all year groups this week.

Today, we hosted our School Improvement Partner. They conducted a full walk-through of the school and met with our leadership team to discuss our successes so far this year and our strategic plans for the next academic year. The visit went very well, providing valuable affirmation and constructive guidance for our work ahead.

Finally, we are currently looking for new parent members to join our Local Council Committee (our governing body). This is a fantastic and vital role. You do not need any special qualifications to join, but to be successful, you must be committed to the overall success of the school and willing to play an active part in the work of the committee, contributing with integrity, honesty, and objectivity. If you are interested in finding out more about what the role involves, please email us at admin@inspirewoodside.co.uk.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Iman Atwal

Headteacher

We have started the term with the value of Respect. In our assembly, we focused on what we think respect means. It means treating others the way we want to be treated. Showing respect means not only being kind and polite to others, but we can also show respect to our environment by taking care of property. We shared that even when angry, we can still show respect to someone.

So ask your child:

• How do you show respect to me?

• How can you show respect at home?

• Why is breaking something not respectful?

Supporting children with SEN needs at home - Part 1

Supporting a child with Special Educational Needs (SEN) at home is both a privilege and a challenge. Each child has their own unique strengths and areas where they may need extra help, and creating an environment that meets their needs is essential for their growth. Here are some practical tips, resources, and strategies to help you support your child’s learning, development, and well-being at home.

1. Understanding Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a broad term that refers to children who require extra support in areas such as learning, communication, behavior, or physical abilities. Children with SEN may have conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, autism, sensory processing difficulties, or physical disabilities. It’s important to understand your child’s specific needs so that you can support them effectively at home.

Autumn Term Parent/Carer Webinars 

To further support your child's emotional wellbeing, please find below information about upcoming Webinars and Workshops for Parents/Carers.

These are online workshops that are FREE to attend.

Nest

✨ Our Wonderful Start to the New Half-Term! ✨

We are so delighted with how smoothly the children returned after the half-term break! It has been absolutely fantastic to see them settle back into the Nest routine with such confidence. The children came in confidently and happily greeted their friends and teachers.They remembered the routine and were able to self-register independently. They quickly engaged themselves in activities, showing great focus and enthusiasm. We are so incredibly proud to see our children flourishing with their social skills, communication, and language development!

This half-term, our core text is: 'The Family Book'. The children have truly enjoyed listening to the story and discussing the important people in their lives. This has sparked wonderful conversations about who is in their family and celebrating the different ways families are made up. It's a great opportunity to build self-identity and a sense of belonging.

Creative Fireworks: The children were also very excited to mark the recent celebrations by making vibrant fireworks pictures! Using lots of different colours, they named the colours they were using and many were able to talk about the fireworks they had seen and describe the exciting noises they made.

Saplings

Welcome back everyone!

This week in Saplings, we have enjoyed hearing the children's lovely stories of everything they got up to in half term. Our core text for this term is ‘We Are Family' by Patricia Hegarty. We shared this book in circle time and started to discuss who lives in our homes and who is in our families. The children have enjoyed using small figures to create representations of their families, drawing pictures and making a start on our family trees.

In literacy, we have begun to focus on phonics with a daily game of what's in the box, starting with the letter S for this week, looking at images of snakes, socks, stars and the sun.

In Numeracy, we are exploring numbers 1-5, encouraging the children to name things that are individual, such as "we have one head" and then in pairs, ‘"we have 2 knees". The children enjoy singing "how many fingers on one hand", showing their counting with their fingers and learning the words to remind them of the first five numbers in counting.

Year 1

This week in Year 1, the children have settled back in nicely and have shown great enthusiasm for their learning.

In English, they were introduced to their new core text, 'Little Red Riding Hood', and have spent the week investigating and exploring the events in the story.

In Maths, the children have extended their knowledge of the part-part-whole model and have been using subtraction methods and fact families within their lessons.

In Science, the children concluded their topic on materials by making boats out of recycled materials. Well done, Year 1!

Year 2

This week in Maths, we have been securing our knowledge of addition by exploring different methods. The children have been practising adding numbers using number lines, bead strings, and hundred squares to build confidence and accuracy.

In English, we started our new core text 'Drawn Together'. We have been talking about the importance of communication and how people can connect even if they don’t speak the same language. The story helps children see that there are many ways to show understanding and love. The class also enjoyed a fun “coding” activity where they had to solve which letters were hidden behind numbers!

During Reading, we have been exploring the book 'Talk to the Tail', learning about how animals communicate with humans. The children were especially excited to look through the “dog dictionary” and find out what different dog behaviours might mean!

In History, we began learning about the time of the Great Fire of London. The children are starting to discover what London looked like in the past and how it changed after this important event.

In Science, we planned an investigation to test which materials are waterproof and which are not. The children shared great ideas about how to carry out a fair test and what they think will happen.

A big thank you to all the children for completing their homework and for bringing in such wonderful projects—robots, spaceships, cars, and more!

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.