Dear Parents and Carers

As we approach the midpoint of the spring term, I wanted to take a moment to extend my warmest wishes to you and your families for a relaxing and enjoyable half term break. It's been a busy few weeks filled with learning, growth, and achievement, and I'm proud of all that our students have accomplished so far.

Before we embark on this break, I would like to remind our EYFS and KS1 parents of an upcoming phonics workshop that we are excited to offer. We understand the vital role that parents play in supporting their children's phonics skills, and this session aims to provide you with valuable insights and strategies to enhance your child's reading journey.

I encourage you to take this opportunity to rest, recharge, and spend quality time with your loved ones during the half term break. Whether you're embarking on exciting adventures or enjoying peaceful moments at home, I hope it is a time filled with joy and rejuvenation.

Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership in your child's education. We look forward to welcoming our students back on 19th February for another enriching term ahead.

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!

We want all children to come to school each day, but we know that there are some days children are just too ill to attend, or will spread illness to others.

The NHS website Is My Child Too Ill For School is a useful place to look for guidance.

Coughs and colds: It's fine to send your child to school with a minor cough or cold but if they have a fever they should stay at home until the fever goes.

High temperature: Please keep your child home from school until the high temperature goes away.

Chickenpox: Please keep them off school until all the spots have crusted over - usually 5 days after they first appeared.

Covid 19: If your child has a positive test (there is no requirement to test) they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day of the test.

Impetigo: Your child will need treatment from the GP and should stay off school until all sores have crusted over and healed or for 48 hours after antibiotic treatment has started.

Measles:  It is essential your child stays off school. You should call 111 for advice and you must notify the school. If there are other unvaccinated children who live in the house, they should also isolate in case they are infectious.

Ringworm: Your child should see a pharmacist (or the GP if it is on their scalp) and return to school when they have begun treatment.

Scarlet fever: Your child will need antibiotic treatment from the GP and must stay off school until 24 hours after starting their antibiotics.

If your child has vomiting or diarrhoea they should stay away from school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days (48 hours).

Children can attend school with cold sores, conjunctivitis, hand, foot & mouth disease, slapped cheek (fifth) disease, sore throat, threadworms,  or ear infections as long as they don't have a temperature as well.

Please encourage your children to wash their hands regularly and use and throw away tissues properly.

Open Door – Safe Space

​As we are sure that many of you are aware, during the pandemic lockdowns, there was a significant rise in incidences of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Domestic Abuse is any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

To help victims of domestic abuse, we will provide a safe space for our school community which will be open to any adults linked to the school – staff and parents. Mrs Georgiades, our family support worker, has been trained in how to respond should anyone need help. Should Mrs Georgiades be unavailable, the office staff are fully informed on how to help and support you.

There will be a private space with a telephone and easily located numbers for agencies who are able to provide help and advice. School staff will facilitate this, but not provide advice themselves.

Nest

Children enjoyed exploring with play dough using a variety of different tools. They manipulated the dough, talked about the texture, how it feels, smells, and what it looks like. Children made different shapes including cup cakes for their peers. This activity supported children with fine motor skills, building and extending language, understanding of the world, mathematical language and many more areas of learning. We also have been learning about people that help us in our community, for example, police and ambulance paramedics. Why do we need their help and when? Children have been exploring with small worlds, such as police station, fire engines and ambulances. They have been making the sounds the vehicle's make.

Have a great half term break. We will see you back on the 19-02-24

Nursery

This week in Nursery children have been reading the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood. It's one of the fairy tale stories from their core text, ‘You Choose Fairy Tales’. They looked at the beginning, middle and end of the story. They acted out the story and spoke about how the wolf was feeling when speaking to Little Red Riding Hood. After sequencing the story, children used the pictures to create zig, zag books.

In Maths, Nursery children have been subitising (saying how many without counting). They have been using dotted cards without numerals. Children have also been using 5 frames with discs for their counting. They have also continued to learn about numbers through nursery number rhymes.

Year 2

In English, this week Year 2 continued writing their newspaper articles about the horrifying event that happened in the classroom. Children focused on all the features of what makes a good newspaper article, i.e. the eyewitness statement, who to contact with more info & the picture/caption, the crime scene and the evidence found.

In Maths, Year 2 children understood the concept of Halving and Doubling. They know that 2 halves need to be the same size, equal parts and how 2 halves make a whole. Doubling is multiplying a number by two, so you have twice the amount. For instance, if doubling three, 3 x 2 = 6 or double five would be 5 X 2 = 10.

A number of policies have been updated on the school website

Please follow this link for more information: Woodside Primary School Policies Page

Updated policies:

Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) Policy 

Privacy Notice for Pupils 

Privacy Notice for Staff 

Staff Pupil AUPs

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.

Consent for local trips

You will have spotted that you can now give your consent for your child to attend trips in the locality on Arbor. You will always be told if they are attending a trip locally.

If you have not yet given your consent, please do so by logging into Arbor and checking the Notices section. Here you will see an arrow that allows you to consent.

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. 

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