Woodberry Down NEWS

Friday 13th September 2024

A Message From Mr Hewie

As we come to the end of our first full week of the term, I would like to extend my thanks to you all for your continued support as we begin this new school year. Your kind conversations and cheerfulness at the school gate is very much appreciated. It has been a very positive start, with the children settling into their new routines and adapting to their classes with enthusiasm and focus.

I would like to remind families of our morning procedures. The school gates open at 8:45am each day and all children must be at school, either in their line or into class by 8:55am. The gates close promptly at 9:00am and children arriving after this time will be registered as late. For our Year 2 families, we kindly ask that you allow your children to enter through the main school gate and make their way to their line on their own. To ensure a smooth and safe start to the day, families are kindly requested not to enter the school playground during this time.

A quick note on school uniform: we expect all children to be in full uniform, including black shoes. Please ensure that your child is not wearing colourful sports shoes, even on PE days. This helps maintain our school’s standards and keeps everyone looking smart and ready to learn.

Lastly, we are excited to announce that a letter will be shared with you soon, detailing upcoming events where we’d love to welcome families into school. This will include events such as "Come Dine with Me" and other special occasions, so please keep an eye out for the dates!

Thank you for your understanding, and I wish you all a restful and enjoyable weekend. We look forward to the continued progress and success of our school community in the weeks ahead.

School Attendance

Our whole school attendance figure for the school year to date is 94.7%. This figure remains lower than we had hoped and wish to remind families of the importance of school attendance.

During the week ending 6th September, the classes with the best attendance were:

KS1 - 1B 95.56%

KS2 - 5B 92.59%

During the week ending 13th September, the classes with the best attendance were:

EYFS - Red 95.7%

KS1 - 2W 96.4%

KS2 - 5W & 6W 100%

As always, we wish to be clear that we know that those children who attend school regularly achieve better results before leaving primary school and therefore enter secondary school at a better advantage. Children with lower attendance are less likely to leave our school prepared for the next stage of their education.

If your child is unwell, you must contact the school as soon as possible to inform us that they will not attend school on that day. We appreciate you support and with this matter. You can reach the school by using your MyChildAtSchool app.

Year 1 News from Miss Bowater

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome our children back to school after their long summer break. It was a joy to see so many smiling faces on their first day bacck. We are here to make this year a happy and memorable experience for every child. Year 1 is a significant and exciting step in your child’s learning journey, and we are committed to supporting your children as they explore new ideas, build confidence, and develop important social and academic skills. Your support and involvement also plays a crucial role in your child’s success, and we look forward to partnering with you to ensure the best outcomes for your children. From reading at home, practising spellings, to attending school events, your engagement makes a world of difference. We will be able to share more information with you about how best to support your child at our Meet the Teacher event on Friday 13th September.

Year 1 will be full of new adventures in writing, maths, science, and the wider curriculum. During our first week, Year 1 have particularly enjoyed starting their new art project called Spirals! The children have been exploring using their whole bodies to create large scale spiral patterns. They have also enjoyed experimenting with different materials, creating spirals at different speeds and spirals to represent different moods. Below you can see pictures of some of our amazing work so far. Over our next few lessons we will be exploring where spirals can be found in nature, so on your way to school see if you can spot any snails coming out after the rain. We will also be creating some spiral collages inspired by the work of the artist Kandinsky. We can’t wait to show you more of our incredible work soon.

Maths news from woodberry down

We are thrilled to welcome you and your children back to school for another exciting year of Maths learning.

In Early Years and KS1, we will be placing a strong emphasis on number formation and building a solid foundation of place value knowledge. Correctly forming numbers is a vital skill for our youngest learners, helping them to develop confidence as they begin to understand how numbers work. We’ll be exploring what numbers represent, how they can be broken down, and how they form the basis of more advanced mathematical concepts.

Children in KS2 will continue to deepen their understanding of place value, focusing on how each digit in a number holds its own value depending on its position. This knowledge is crucial as it underpins much of the Maths they will encounter as they progress through school, from working with larger numbers to decimals and beyond.

We are also encouraging all children to take pride in how they present their Maths work. Presentation standards are important in Maths, just as they are in other subjects. Neatly written work, with clearly formed digits and correctly laid out calculations, helps children check their understanding, identify mistakes, and show their thinking clearly. We will be reinforcing this across the school to help every child achieve their best.

You may also notice our Maths Learning Walls when you visit the classrooms. These displays are designed to help children stay connected to their learning journey by showing the current Maths units they are covering. The Learning Walls will be updated regularly to reflect the new concepts being explored and will be a valuable reference point for the children as they work.

We look forward to a year full of growth, learning, and exciting discoveries in Maths. Thank you for your continued support as we help our children become confident, enthusiastic mathematicians.

Year 2 news from miss cocker

Our Year 2 pupils have had a fantastic start to the year! They’ve been settling into their new routines really well and are loving all the new things they’re learning each day. It’s been great to see their excitement and eagerness to dive into lessons.

In Maths, the children are currently working on numbers up to 100. They’re exploring different ways to understand and use these numbers, which is helping them build a strong base in numeracy.

In Writing, we’ve been enjoying the beautiful story "Grandad's Island" by Benji Davies. It’s a lovely book about a boy named Syd and his grandad who go on a magical adventure to a far-off island. The story touches on imagination, adventure, and the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren. The children have been using it as inspiration to write sentences with noun phrases, and they’re off to a great start!

For Geography, the children are embarking on a fun journey to learn all about the continents. They’re discovering lots of interesting facts about the world and growing their knowledge of the planet we live on.

In Science, we’re exploring “Living Things and Their Habitats.” The children are getting the chance to learn about all sorts of living creatures and the environments they call home.

Thank you for your continued support. We are excited for all the amazing learning ahead in the coming weeks!

It's all about geography!

Welcome to a fantastic new year of exploration and adventure in our Geography department! We’re thrilled to kick off another year of discovery with our theme: Map It. This term, our students from Years 1 to 6 will dive into the fascinating world of mapping, and we can’t wait to share all the exciting activities lined up! In Nursery, under the theme, Understanding of the World, our students will be learning about different modes of transportation, while in Reception, they will consider why their families are special.

Here’s are some further details:

Fieldwork Fun: We’re taking learning outdoors! Year 1 and 2 will explore and gather data through engaging fieldwork activities. Get ready for some action-packed trips.

Orienteering Adventures: Our students will master the art of navigation with hands-on orienteering experiences. Year 3 will start their journey with a thrilling treasure hunt around the school, using map symbols and mapwork skills to find hidden treasures while Year 5 will be on the move at Hampstead Heath, navigating their way through nature.

In-Depth Studies: Year 4 will engage in a comparative study across North London comparing the topography and noise pollution in our local area and Alexandra Palace. Year 6 will embark on an exciting voyage through the world’s most famous waterways. They will conduct in-depth research on The English Channel, The Panama Canal, and the Straits of Gibraltar, uncovering the significance of these crucial channels.

We’re gearing up for a term full of excitement and learning. Encourage your children to share their adventures and findings with you—ask them about their orienteering skills, their map-making, or the fascinating facts they discover about different waterways.

Let’s make this year of geography a memorable one as we journey through maps and beyond!

Year 6 news from Miss nazu

Welcome back Year 6! I hope you all had a wonderful break, full of fun, rest, and maybe a few great books. This is an exciting year ahead, and we have lots to look forward to as we continue our journey together.

First, let’s start by setting the tone for the year. We want our classroom to be a place where everyone feels safe, respected, and ready to learn. That means we’ll all be following the rules—listening carefully when others are speaking, working hard in every subject, and making sure we’re treating each other with kindness and respect. We’re all responsible for making this a positive space where we can grow together!

One of the most exciting parts of this year is our focus on reading. Reading opens up new worlds, sparks our imaginations, and helps us become stronger thinkers. This term, we’ll be reading The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. It’s a wonderful adventure story filled with mystery, maps, and courage. As we read, we’ll dive deep into the themes of the book and explore the characters’ journeys. I’m sure it will inspire some fantastic discussions and writing from all of you.

In Geography, we will be doing lots of map work, which ties perfectly with The Girl of Ink and Stars! We’ll be exploring how maps tell stories, understanding the importance of direction and distance, and even creating our own maps. You’ll soon become expert cartographers, just like the characters in our book.

Remember, this year is not just about learning new things but also about developing good habits—whether that’s reading regularly, staying organized, or making sure we’re always putting in our best effort. I’m excited to see what you’ll accomplish and how much you’ll grow.

Let’s make this year one to remember, full of curiosity, creativity, and, of course, a lot of reading!

Year 4 news from miss brooks

We are delighted to welcome the new Year 4 children back to school - our first week and a half have been busy but the children are very happy to be back. They have settled into their new classrooms excellently and continue to impress us with their responsibility and focus. It was lovely to meet so many parents yesterday at the Meet the Teacher session and we hope you are as excited as we are for the upcoming school year!

In Science, Year 4 has begun learning about the different States of Matter. At stations around the classroom, the children were able to explore making gases visible such as through squeezing sponges underwater to see bubbles emerging and using straws to blow objects around the table. They have a good understanding of the differences between solids, liquids and gases, and have been asking interesting questions such as ‘Is slime a solid or a liquid?’ We have lots more engaging experiments coming up as we continue this unit over the next few weeks!

Year 4 have also thrown themselves into their Geography learning, where we have been looking at fieldwork and why a geographer might conduct it. In the coming weeks, the children will have the opportunity to conduct their own fieldwork focused around land use and noise pollution in our local area.

Nursery news from Miss clarke

A very warm welcome to our previous families, it was lovely to see the children come back safe, refreshed and cheerful this week, sharing their holiday experiences. To our new families, thank you so much for choosing to start your children’s learning journey at Woodberry Down Primary School. We have been incredibly proud of how well the children have settled into and adapted to the routines and expectations of the Nursery setting. The children have enjoyed exploring inside the Nursery through role playing in the Home Corner, mark making with chalk, felt tips, pens and pencils, painting pictures, making train tracks and building with Duplo, as well as making models with playdough! Outside the children have been navigating their space by using the bikes and scooters, playing with the balls and hoops, climbing on the apparatus and building sandcastles in the sandpit! To ensure your children continue to develop their independence, we ask you to please label all their personal belongs to help them take ownership of what is theirs, this includes water bottles and coats.

As the weather begins to get colder and wetter, please ensure that you bring your children dressed in appropriate clothing. If your child is wearing welly boots, please place their shoes in a bag and we will help them change. As the children are still learning the routines, they may have the odd toileting accident, so please ensure they have spare labelled clothes to change.

Every Friday, via parent portal, we will share with you all the different learning, activities, songs and s story of the week, as well as giving ideas for things to try at home with your children. Please feel free to share pictures and photos of what you have been doing with your children, all experiences are welcomed no matter how big or small! If you have any further questions or queries pertaining to Nursery life, come and see us after school or book an appointment and we will be happy to see you.

Autism training

Welcome back to all of our Woodberry Down Families. My name is Shayne Davids, our Assistant Head and school SENDCo. While your first point-of-contact should always be your child’s class teacher, if you have any questions regarding Special Educational Needs, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be holding weekly parent drop-in SEN surgeries Fridays from 2:30-3:30, so please don’t hesitate to come and see me then at the school office.

Over the course of the year we will be running a wide menu of information workshops for our families. We have no sessions in September 24, but Woodberry Down Families are welcome to attend the Autism Education Trust workshops led by the Family Coaches team. The initial session will be held at Grazebrook Primary School and you can sign up via the attached poster.

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