This week the children have carried on with their D&T learning as they are building up to preparing their food for today's World Cafe event. There has been a real buzz around the school as well as some lovely sights and smells. Different cakes, tzatziki, salad sides and breads are all being created. A group of girls from across Key Stage Two visited the Toca Social experience at the o2 in what was an exciting and sporty afternoon for them. As we approach Remembrance Sunday, children across the school have had assemblies and sessions in class linked to this important commemorative day and as you will see from the photos below our Key Stage 1 children are very proud of the poppy display they have created outside on the Key Stage One playground. As part of our focus on respect, we had a light introduction to the protected characteristics and over the next few weeks will focus on race, religion, age, disability and gender discrimination and how these link to being kind and respectful in a primary setting. 

Don't forget that next week we have our parents evenings on Wednesday and Thursday and so far 206 appointments have been made out of a possible 445. Please remember to log onto Arbor to ensure your appointment is booked for you to meet your child's teacher to discuss your child's start this year, their learning strengths and areas for development. 

Happy Diwali to all of our families who are celebrating this festival this weekend.

Have a good weekend from myself and the team.

Safeguarding of the site and Attendance

I am writing to you to clarify a number of important clarifications that affect the start of the day. 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 with gates opening at 8.40 and the children going up to their classes to begin registration . Your child will be classified as being late if they are not on the school premises by 8.55. 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. 

In order to best support children who arrive late from the 30th October we will be reintroducing the late gate. The late gate will be positioned by the main entrance to the office and you will be asked to sign your children in and they will be escorted to class by a member of staff. In line with the school’s safeguarding policy it is important we have to be vigilant of members of the community who are on site and this includes parents. With this in mind we rely on your support in asking parents to refrain from taking themselves around the building without a member of Woodhill staff. We understand that some parents like to take their children to class, however it is important that children develop a sense of independence by taking themselves to class like their peers. If you are concerned about separating from your child then please speak to a member of the leadership team or your child’s teacher and we can support. 

In addition to this we ask for your support in ensuring that if you are waiting for your child to finish an after school club that you wait in the front entrance pen or if it is raining you are welcome to wait in the corridor by the office. We are aware that some parents have been using the hub but as children are still onsite at this time we are required for safeguarding reasons to limit any members of the community being onsite without staff supervision. 

If there are any concerns you may have which you feel prevent you from ensuring your child’s regular attendance and punctuality to school, please contact the school office on 020 8854 5055 or email info@inspirewodhill.co.uk - Thank you for your continued support.

Year 1 -  This week has been all about baking banana bread in Year 1! The children have been fully immersed into their food-fortnight learning journey and have been bubbling with excitement. They have learnt more about how fruits and vegetables grow, as well as the importance of a balanced and healthy diet. They enjoyed tasting different foods, which helped them choose their ingredients, before writing their recipes and instructions. “We should write a list of ingredients first, so that people know which foods they will need before they start making the banana bread”, Marwa explained. “We could number our steps so that people know the right order to make it in and so they don’t get confused”, suggested Lexi. Then, they followed their recipes to make their banana bread. Everybody was super excited to see the transformation of the bake after it came out of the oven! “We made banana bread, it’s warm and tastes like banana!” Padmond said. The children are all very proud of what they have created and are excited to share this at Woodhill’s World Cafe. They have even been designing logos and packaging for their banana bread. 

Alongside food-fortnight, Year 1 have been exploring their core text ‘Island Born’ in more detail. The children have sequenced and captioned images from the book, which supported them in writing a retell of the story at the end of the week. “I love the part where there is so much music on the island that people even dance in their sleep”, recalled Afiyah. 

In maths, the children have been using part-whole models to write addition sentences. They have learnt that addition is cumulative, so the parts of the addition sentence can be written in more than one way. They have been using this skill to find fact families by recording multiple number sentences to show addition facts for part-whole models.