Collaboration matters Excellence in everything Community first Equity for everyone Continuous growth
Message from the Headteacher
I hope that you all had a lovely break and we have been delighted to welcome you and the children back to school this week. As is customary, I started the week with a discussion around goals for 2024 and the children continued these conversations in classrooms. Each year group has started a new core text and their focus shifts to a new global theme. Reception will be focussing on sustainable development, year 1 on social justice, year 2 on peace and conflict, year 3 on human rights, year 4 on identity and diversity, year 5 on social justice and year 6 on power and governance. Our school dog, Coco, has also had a busy start to the year with his intervention sessions starting right from the first day. You will have all received a letter yesterday outlining the Mayor of London's commitment to providing free school meals to all Key stage 2 children for the next academic year 2024-25. It is great to know that families will be supported with this initiative for a further year.
Over the course of this term, we look forward to welcoming parents into school for a variety of workshops and experiences. We will be sharing a full schedule soon but one for your diaries is a Chartwells cooking workshop which will take place on Wednesday 31st January from 2:15pm in the lower hall.
Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday.
Messages from the office
After School Clubs - Spring Term 2024
We are pleased to offer the following after school clubs during the Spring Term (Monday 15th January – Thursday 28th March 2023).
Following valuable parental feedback to expand our extracurricular activities, we have organised for outside specialists to come into school and offer some new and exciting clubs for the children to join. We have subsidised the costs for these clubs to make them more affordable for you. However, we are confident that the modest price will not deter you from booking these compelling activities.
To ensure that we maximise attendance at all clubs, for this term we will charge £12 per block (less than £2 per session.) If you have any questions about this, please speak to a member of the office staff or Leadership team.
All after school clubs are still open for live bookings We urge you to check you know your Arbor login details before this and will close once all spaces have been allocated via Arbor.
Please log onto your Arbor account to book your child into one of the clubs.
After School Club Table - Spring Term 2024
FareShare Market
Recently, our Friends of Woodhill and staff have been collecting parent and pupil voice on ways they can help improve at Woodhill. Lots of feedback gained was around our FareShare Market on a Friday.
While we understand that it is a staple of our community, we want to ensure that as many people as possible are able to access it fairly.
While we always seek to support our community in any way we can, we would like to remind everyone of the principles of the Fareshare market. The school pays a set fee each year to the Fareshare charity and as a result, we then receive the variety of consumable goods and items which you see on a Friday.
The rationale is then that members of the community pay a fare to receive some of the items and that we hold in mind that we would like everyone to have the option to access the Fareshare market. Please be considerate of others on Fridays and be balanced in what you take and please do continue to support the charity; any funds made that exceed what Woodhill pay for the service go into the school fund and support us to provide prizes and food at other events such as World cafe, the summer and winter fairs.
Please continue to access the Fareshare market and give what you can and take fairly so that as many members of the community as possible can continue to access this provision. Thank you for your continued support.
Bee Ready Competition
We are encouraging all children to enter the 'Bee Ready' competition and design a colourful 3D flower garden for bumblebees to feast on when they come out of hibernation.
Each child will be handed out a A4 poster template this afternoon by the class teacher to draw their design and then make it 3D by adding bits of material, paper, wood, card, buttons or anything else you have. Once you have designed your entry, please hand it into the school office to have a chance of winning a flower garden starter kit for your child's classroom.
Entries are open from Monday 15th January until Friday 9th February 2024.
Absence from School procedure
If your child is absent from school, please ensure you follow this guidance: -
Telephone 0208 8545055 or email info@inspirewoodhill.co.uk or message on Arbor by 8.30 am on the 1st day that your child is absent. Please continue to update the school daily on your child’s illness. Please also follow it up with medical evidence, where possible.
Absences will only be authorised if medical evidence has been supplied to the school. Medical evidence can be a copy of a prescription for medicine, the prescribed medicine or packaging and medical appointment letters/card or text message.
Make any dentist/doctor/hospital appointments outside of school hours or school holidays where possible.
Do not keep your child away from school if there is a school issue. Please contact the school to discuss the problem with a senior member of staff to help resolve the issue.
Do not keep your child away from school for reasons other than severe illness. Absences due to birthdays, holidays, relatives’ visits, shopping trips and your own ill health will not be authorised.
All holidays will not be authorised and you will be at risk of a penalty fine from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Attendance Advisory Service.
Correct Uniform
PE Uniform
As with expectations around the Woodhill School uniform, please may we urge you to stick to plain white or black t-shirt with black shorts and joggers for PE uniform. We will not be permitting football style shirts, or coloured logo tracksuits and trainers.
If you would like to discuss anything about our PE lessons or uniform expectations, please do contact the School office via telephone or email on info@woodhill.greenwich.sch.uk
School Uniform Expectations
As the Autumn Term draws to an end, we would like to remind the community of our expectations for uniform at Woodhill Primary School to ensure all children return in January with the correct uniform. We ask that parents and carers ensure all items of clothing are labelled appropriately with your child’s name.
Winter
Black V-neck jumper or cardigan (Woodhill logo is optional)
White polo shirt (Woodhill logo is optional)
Grey or black trousers, skirt or pinafore dress (no jeans or tracksuit bottoms)
Plain flat black shoes or plain black trainers (no coloured soles, laces or designs)
White, black or grey socks or grey tights
Book bag with Woodhill logo (Woodhill logo is optional)
Summer
White polo shirt (Woodhill logo is optional)
Grey or black trousers / shorts, skirt or pinafore dress (no jeans or tracksuit bottoms)
Green summer dress
Plain flat black shoes or plain black trainers (no coloured soles, laces or designs)
White, black or grey socks or grey tights
Book bag with Woodhill logo (Woodhill logo is optional)
Year 5 - Residential Trip
If you have booked your child onto the YEAR 5 school Journey from Monday 11th March until Friday 15th March.
The total cost for the week is £300 per child, including accommodation, travel, all meals plus all of the fantastic activities and experiences.
Please can you make a payment. We have noticed some parents have not made the October and/or November payment. This payment needs to be made ASAP and each month from the instalment plan below.
Primary Applications
If your child's date of birth is between 01st September 2019 to 31st August 2020 they will be due to start primary school in September 2024.
You need to apply for a primary school place online, the deadline for applications is 15th January 2024.
Please see link below to submit your application
Pizza The Action - Theme Day Menu
We are having a 'Pizza The Action' Theme Day Menu that will be taking place on Thursday 18th January 2024.
If your child is normally a packed lunch and you wish your child to have a school dinner on this day please let the school office know.
What we have learned this week
Year 3 - It’s wonderful to see the children settled and eager to learn with a positive mindset. In our science lessons, we’ve been experimenting with magnets, discovering different materials that attract and repel to our magnets. in English Year 3 have been expanding emotive vocabulary and exploring synonyms for various emotions.
Year 6 - This week, Year 6 have been excited to get back to their learning at school. For English, they began diving into their new core text 'No Ballet Shoes in Syria'. They enjoyed creating predictions and inferences using the text to justify their opinions. In Maths, they have been continuing their learning of fractions, decimals and percentages by comparing the three areas and then applying this knowledge to problem solving. In History, the children have started their topic of Ancient Benin; they enjoyed using secondary sources to investigate the main events that happened during this time period before adding it to a historical eras timeline.
Community Support, Events & Activities
Weekly Food Bank - Clockhouse
Following clockhouse weekly food bank each Friday, they often have a surplus of food, mostly Ready meals from Fareshare, these are items that must be used within 24 hours. On occasion these can be frozen on the day but most do need to be used. They are available for collection from the Clockhouse on Friday evenings until around 7pm should you wish to take some.
Birthday & Merits
Conker - Amelija & Daniella
Rowan - Sellyne
Chestnut - Nana
Aspen - Yonis
Cherry - Tiwadayo & Henry
Silver Birch - Maisie
Oak - Chidi
Cedar - Juwon
JLT Merits - Maya, Amas, Madison, Emily
Catkins - Naomi & Maryum
Saplings - Shanlea & Great
Acorns - Demba & Davina
Hazel Tree - Roseline & Logan
Pine Tree - Aahil & Faith
Hawthorn - Brodie & Hussein
Rowan - Ariana & Neveah
Chestnut - Esther & Iris
Aspen - Mary & Aaliyah
Cherry - Faye & Tenyang
Juniper - Kris & Elissa
Silver Birch - Zain & Frankie
Willow - Ronin & Oscar
Beech - Caser R & Mason
Oak - Denis & Emily
Cedar - Fatima & Seedy
Dates for your diary
Wednesday 10th January - Reception Admission Session 2024 at 3.30
Wednesday 17th January - Girls Football League Match
Thursday 18th January - Theme Day Lunch Menu
Wednesday 31st January - 'Young Voices 2024' School Choir
Wednesday 31st January - Chartwells cooking workshop - 2.15pm
Friday 09th February - Children break up for half term
Monday 12th February until Friday 16th February - Half Term
Monday 19th February - Children return to school
Wednesday 28th February - Girls Football League Match
Wednesday 06th March - Girls Football League Match
Wednesday 20th March - Girls Football League Match
Wednesday 15th May - Girls Football League Match
Wednesday 05th June - Girls Football League Presentation Evening