Woodberry Down Update
Friday 15th October 2021
A Message From Mr Hewie
As you will be aware, we break up for the halfterm holiday at 3.30pm on Friday 22nd October and return at 8.55am on Monday 1st November. These first seven weeks of the school year have been incredibly positive and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your consistent support of the school and your positive spirit; your smiles are so incredibly encouraging for all of us. We value your commitment to Woodberry Down immensely.
I ask that parents of our Year 6 pupils are mindful that the application deadline for secondary school places closes on Friday 22nd October. We have sent text reminders to you recently and would also like to remind you that we are here to offer any help you might need. Our final parent session regarding this matter is to be held on Monday 25th October at 3.30pm. Further guidance from Hackney Education can be located here. We have recommenced our school tours for prospective Reception 2022 parents which can be arranged through the school office. These are currently taking place each Wednesday morning at 9.30am.
It is our intention to provide you with all the information and support you need. A member of the team is always available to help. A reminder of the school's leadership team and who to contact should you need advice or support can be found here.
HISTORY
You will be aware that, for the first half of the Autumn Term, our children have been studying a geography topic called 'Map It!'. We are confident that they will be able to answer many of your questions and will be able to tell you what they have learnt including how they can use maps to locate features and to identify land gradient and grid locations.
When we return to school after the halfterm break on Monday 1st November, the children will begin studying their new history topics. Many families heard all about these this morning and suggested ways in which they can help their child develop interest and learn new facts linked to their topics. It was great to hear that your children have a genuine interest in history and that they are keen to learn new facts and hear more about how people lived in the past.
So that you can continue helping your child with their learning, please find the new history topics below. These can also be located on our school website here.
Year 1 - Living History (1950s and 1960s)
Year 2 - Hackney's History
Year 3 - Stone Age to Iron Age
Year 4 - The Romans
Year 5 - The Vikings
Year 6 - Benin
We have attached a link to each topic as a suggestion for a halfterm museum visit. These museums include the British Museum, Museum of London and Museum of the Home.
Mathematics Coffee Morning
We have been overwhelmed by the positive support for our family curriculum coffee mornings since we returned for the new academic year. The enthusiasm and interest you have each had in supporting your children with their learning has been fantastic.
At the request of our families, we are delighted to let you know that we have set some dates for the upcoming weeks to ensure you have all the information you want. These dates are:
Friday 5th November - Supporting with Mathematics and Number
Friday 19th November - Science & Investigations
Friday 3rd December - Helping with Geography
We are keen to have as many parents as possible at these sessions so that we can give you everything you need to help your child to succeed. We also believe that by sharing this information with you, you have a better understanding of what your children should have learnt by the end of the school year. Each session lasts for approximately 40 minutes.
DR BIKE
We are pleased to announce that Dr Bike will be making a welcome return to Woodberry Down Primary School at 8.30am on Friday 22nd October.
If your bike is in need of some professional attention, there has never been a better time. Please bring your bike to school to receive some TLC!
EYFS family friday
We will be holding a 'Family Friday' session for our Nursery and Reception families during November and December. We invite any family member who would like to share a story, poem or song with the children to contact the school office to arrange a timeslot. In Nursery these are available twice each Friday and in Reception this time has been set as 3.00pm.
Please contact the office if you would like to share!
SCHOOL UNIFORM
We would like to remind our families that children attending our school must wear black shoes and either grey or black bottoms. The children in the photographs are a great example of the uniform. Uniform can be purchased here and can be delivered to school free of charge.
Please remember that children should remain in these colours on days when they have PE lessons. We are always here to help or to answer any questions that you might have for us.
INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL PHOTOS
We wanted to inform you that our children will be having their photograph taken on Friday 19th November, during the school day.
We will give you further information about any photographs for younger siblings nearer the date.
We are sure that you will want to send your child to school looking even better than normal on this day to make sure that the photos are perfect for sending to family and relatives.
Strike a pose!
New woodberry down website
We have recently launched our new Woodberry Down Primary School website. We are very pleased to be able to share this with you and hope that it provides you with all of the information you need at the click of a button. We are always open to feedback and so, should you have anything you wish to share with us about the website, please do let us know.
A link to the new website can be located here.
Attendance & Punctuality
Please be aware that the school gate opens at 8.45am each day. All children should attend from this time. In the mornings, the gates will close at 9.00am. Any child who arrives after this time will be recorded as being late. Punctuality in the mornings is essential.
All children should be collected from school at 3.30pm each day. We cannot allow children to be collected earlier than this time so as to ensure they do not miss any important curriculum content. We appreciate the understanding with this.
FAMILY READING BREAKFASTS
We will be writing to some of our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 families to invite them to come to school slightly earlier on one day of each week.
During this time we will be sharing books, stories and possibly a little bit of breakfast as we continue our ambition to encourage every child to develop a love for books and stories.
Please remember that we have a great number of new and exciting books at school and are always happy to share these with our families so that they can take them home to read. If you want to borrow any of our books, please do ask. In addition, if you would like us to recommend any books for you to borrow from the library or to purchase from a bookshop, please let us know.
