Woodhill

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

It has been great to have the children back at Woodhill this week and to see them so enthused about their new learning. Across the school they have started to reflect on this academic year and have written their pupil reflections as their contribution to their end of year reports. Our Year 4 children have started their Multiplication times table check and have been incredibly determined to demonstrate the progress they have made. Our Saplings children had a lovely day at the farm this week and our girls football team had their presentation evening at Meridian sports club after a successful season where they finished in a respectable 10th place out of 20 teams. A reminder that our summer fair will take place on 5th July, please speak to Ms Bywater if you wish to participate or are able to support in any way.

Have a good weekend all

Mr Phillips and the team

Messages from the office

Summer Fayre - Friday 5th July 2024

Thank you to all of you who attended our summer fair coffee morning before the half term holiday - it was great to be able to share our ideas. Our Summer Fayre this year will be held on Friday 5th July from 2.30pm. (to facilitate this, children can be picked up from their classes at 2.30pm).

Building on from the success of our previous summer fayres and to ensure that our 2024 Summer Fayre is a enjoyable event for all of our families and for our community, we would appreciate any help that you are able to offer, including organising and/or running the following stalls and donating or lending items to use at the fayre:

Volunteers to help with stalls or run their own stall on the day

Bottle donations for the tombola

Donations for stalls such as teddies, games, children’s toys

Food and cakes donations for the food stalls

Raffle prizes for both adults and children such as local activities, brand new toys, gift sets etc

Bottles for our ever popular tombola stall - we will hold a ‘Bring a Bottle’ non-uniform day closer to the event!

If you are able to volunteer to run a stall, or would like to set up a school to run on the day, please contact Ms Bywater on hbywater@inspirewoodhill.co.uk

If you or anyone you know would like to hold a Community Stall on the day or to do an activity please let the office know by emailing the school on: info@inspirewoodhill.co.uk

We are also looking for local businesses to attend to promote their products and share their business within the community, so please do speak to people who you think may be interested.

Nursery Spaces Available for Sept 2024

If your child is going to turn 3 years old before the 07th September 24 he/she will be eligible for a nursery placement at Woodhill. Please collect a application form from the school office ASAP.

Extended Provision & School Meal Debt

Please can you log into your Arbor account and clear any dinner debt that is owed, some parents still have an outstanding debt from the previous academic year. Please can you also ensure your breakfast club & Playzone account is also cleared of any outstanding debt.

Punctuality

Punctuality As with attendance, it is very important that children arrive at school on time each day, every minute missed adds up to a vast amount of learning time lost over the school year. School starts at 8.55 a.m. every day. Your child will be classified as being late if they are not on the school premises by this time. Children who arrive late are greatly disadvantaged because they miss starting the day with their peers and the beginning of lessons. This can be disrupting for the rest of the class and teacher.

PE Kit

When children have PE lessons please can you ensure school uniform is NOT worn to school. Their PE kit must be brought to school in a bag and left on their peg for the term.

REMINDER - Swimming Lessons – Beech Tree

Just a reminder that Beech Tree class will now have swimming each week on the following dates:

Weekly Lessons each Friday as follows:

June Weekly Lessons – 07th, 14th, 21st, 28th – 2pm-3pm

July Weekly Lessons – 05th, 12th, 19th – 2pm - 3pm

Children will not return to school until 3.40 on the Friday weekly lessons due to the timings

Children will need to bring the following

• Swimming costume/Trunks and towel

• Swimming hat

Uniform Expectations

We are writing to you with regards to our school uniform expectations. As we enter the Summer Term, we would like to remind the community of our expectations for uniform at Woodhill Primary School to ensure all children are in the correct uniform at all times. 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 with or without Woodhill logo

● White polo shirt with or without Woodhill logo

● 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

Summer

● White polo shirt with Woodhill logo

● 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

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.

PE Kit can be kept safe in a kit-bag in school throughout the week.

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

Safe and respectful parking in the school community

As we are all aware, there are a number of works happening in and around the school which has for the time has had a significant impact on parking before and after school. Even so, I felt it was important to write to you once more about our collective responsibility to maintain a safe journey to school for everyone while also respecting the local residents. We can do this in a number of ways:

Please refrain from parking over driveways as many residents grow frustrated with the school if they are trying to leave for work and are unable to
On Woodhill, cars must not be parked on the yellow zigzag “School Keep Clear” markings. These markings are to prevent vehicles stopping or parking specifically outside the entrance of the school in order to keep sight lines clear for motorists and pedestrians
Please do not park too close to a road junction (for example, between Woodhill and Godfrey Hill) as this is an illegal offence. Take note of the signs that are placed on the junction
Cars should not be parked on pathways during drop off and collection times
Please consider the safety of young children and parents with pushchairs who may have to walk into the road and into the path of oncoming traffic to get past. Again, it is illegal to park a car on a pavement

In the meantime, we will continue to speak with parents who place members of our school community at risk and if deemed appropriate, warning letters will be distributed.

Please consider whether you really need to use your car to make the journey to school at all. Not only is walking a healthier option and better for the environment, but it also helps to alleviate some of the problems we are currently facing at the start and end of the school day.

I am sure we are all in agreement that the safety of all our children must continue to be our primary responsibility. In these circumstances, I appreciate your support in ensuring this takes priority over a convenient drop off or pick up.

What we have learned this week

EYFS - This week, we had an incredible adventure visiting Woodlands Farm. The children were delighted to meet various farm animals, participate in hands-on activities, and learn about the different aspects of farm life. In Maths, our focus has been on doubling numbers above 5, and the children have shown great enthusiasm and progress in mastering this new concept. The weather has been wonderfull, providing us with sunny days perfect for outdoor learning. During our nature school sessions, the children had a fantastic time exploring the environment and discovering a variety of mini beasts. They eagerly used magnifying glasses to observe insects up close, sparking curiosity and excitement about the natural world.

Year 1 - This week Year One have been reflecting on their learning over the past year in English. They have been discussing what they have learnt, their achievements and proud moments, and celebrating all the hard work they have put in during their time in Year One. Arzoo said that she was proud of her handwriting, as she has worked hard to perfect it. Olivia said that she found dribbling a football hard but with some practice she learnt how to do it and now finds it easy.

In Maths Year One have been learning multiplication and division, in particular looking at arrays and equal grouping. Noah said 'there are columns and rows. The columns go up and down and the rows go across. I learnt the vocabulary 'vertical' and 'horizontal' and used my times table knowledge to work out how many counters there were in the array,'

In Science the children have been learning about parts of the human body, and have been labelling pictures of themselves and other children in the class. Aaron pointed to parts of the body and told the class the names, making sure to take care that he was giving each body part the correct name.

Year 6 - Year 6 have had an exciting few weeks, in their curriculum learning, as they started learning more about the USA - particularly the physical geography - as well as researching about physical geography in the UK. To keep those arithmetic skills developing, the children have been maintaining their `Personal Bests` as well as fine tuning their times tables knowledge.

Using their maths more fully, the children have also been fine tuning their `business skills` in the What could you do with £5.00? -an opportunity for children to work in teams and develop ideas that could lead to having a stall at the Summer Fair. Nilton commented,

`` Bring on the Summer Fair. ``

In Science, Year 6 have continued to research and find out more about `Light and Electricity`, and have been recording their findings from independent research. Rebecca said, `` I didn`t realise that different colours of light had such different wavelengths." David said, " I am looking forward to sharing all my research with the whole class."

In English, the children have just started reading and exploring `Stella By Starlight ` - a fascinating story set in the 1920`s USA - which follows the journey of Stella - and her family - as they face a range of challenges in a small town. Although a fictional story, the themes of human kindness, dedication, resilience permeate the whole story.

The events in the story have prompted some excellent discussions so far. Bella said, " Stella is really brave and sees the best in people." Nilton commented that, ``Stella and her family must have been terrified sometimes. `` The children are really exploring the rich vocabulary, the plot, sequence of events, and background to the story. They will compose language rich taster drafts - as well their final published work over the coming month.

Additionally, the children also took part in exciting discussions and enquiry tasks in RE, whereby they explored Judaism -using the `5Ws` - to develop very well researched presentations. Lastly, but not least, the children continued to improve their Art skills- in preparation for Arts Fortnight- by developing a class mood board that showcases their growing confidence with Continuous Line Drawing. They will draw inspirations from recognised artists - Mark Burton and Charis Tsevis.

In PE, the children continue to develop their practical skills and teamwork in a range of sports.