Woodberry Down Update
Friday 5th November 2021
A Message From Mr Hewie
I hope that you had a restful and enjoyable halfterm break and that the return to school this week has been easy. We have certainly noticed the darker evenings and longer nights! With this in mind, we ask that you consider the busy traffic on Seven Sisters Road and Green Lanes and the journeys taken by our children as they make their way home after school. Please speak with the children about road safety and the need for great caution during these months.
With safety in mind, I ask that if you are attending any firework displays or are using your own fireworks at home this weekend, that you always follow the Firework Code and take great caution.
Have fun, stay safe!
We would like to thank all of our families who have kindly donated to our collection for Hackney Foodbank, your generosity is greatly appreciated. We will be sharing your donations with Hackney Foodbank on Monday. Anyone wishing to make a lastminute contribution can drop these off at the school office on Monday 8th November at the start of the school day.
We are working hard to ensure all pupils are in school, ready to learn on time. We open the school gates at 8.45am each day at which time the children can make their way to meet their teacher. Please arrive at school by 8.55am so that our children can start their lessons on time!
Mr Patrick Middleburg
Many of you will already have met Mr Middleburg at the school gate, at pick up time in the school playground or at our coffee morning today.
Mr Middleburg has recently joined us as an Assistant Headteacher from Shacklewell Primary School. He has been teaching with New Wave Federation for over ten years and has been an assistant headteacher for five school years.
Mr Middleburg will be leading across Year 5 and Year 6 as well as with the teaching of mathematics at Woodberry Down.
He is delighted to have joined us and looks forward to meeting more of you in the coming weeks. We are sure that you will welcome Mr Middleburg to Woodberry Down and will approach him if you need any support or advice with mathematics at home. He is always pleased to help.
The History of Woodberry Down
With all pupils at Woodberry Down currently studying a period in history, the children have been asking lots about our school. They have been very interested in when and why it was built. They often ask about the children who have attended the school in the past and for how long the school has been open. In an assembly this week the KS2 children learnt some key facts about the local area such as the fact that the school stands on what was at one time farmland and orchards. You may wish to look at the photos below with your children at home and discuss what school was like for you or for their grandparents in the past.
Building Woodberry Down Primary School in 1948
The KS2 Woodberry Down school hall in 1952
A Woodberry Down classroom in 1952
Woodberry Down from the air in 1961
School Attendance Raffle
In our ambition to maintain good attendance figures at Woodberry Down, we are introducing some exciting new initiatives for the children.
We will be promoting two separate raffles with the children awarding prizes for good attendance across each halfterm and at the end of the school year. All children with between 97% and 100% at the end of the school year will be entered into a raffle draw with the chance of winning a bike or scooter. In addition to this, children with 100% attendance each week will be entered into a halftermly raffle where they could win games to take home.
We would like to remind our families of the importance of good attendance and punctuality at school. We believe that those children who have consistently good attendance year on year are more likely to leave our school ready for secondary school and the KS3 curriculum.
Mathematics Coffee Morning
Thank you to all of the families who joined us for our Mathematics Coffee Morning on Friday 5th November to hear about mathematics from Mr Middleburg. It was great to see so many of you at the meeting, eager to learn how you can help your children at home.
We would like to remind you that we will be holding two further coffee mornings this term. These are:
Friday 19th November - Science
Friday 3rd December - Geography
You may also want to add our Family Consultation Meetings to your diary. These will be taking place on Thursday 2nd December from 3.45pm. Further information on how to reserve an appointment will be shared very soon.
We appreciate all the support you give us.
The slides shared in the mathematics coffee morning can be found here.
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!
Pantomime Trip
You will have read in our previous letters that the children will be returning to Hackney Empire later in the term to join in with the annual seasonal pantomime.
For your information, KS1 will be travelling to Hackney Empire by public transport to see Jack and the Beanstalk on Wednesday 8th December. For our older, KS2 children, the trip will take place on Tuesday 14th December during our final week of term.
You may also like to note that Christmas Lunch for the children will take place on Wednesday 15th December.
PGL Parent Meeting
We are pleased to let you know that we are inviting all Year 6 parents to join us for a short meeting to discuss the upcoming PGL trip. This meeting will take place at 3.30pm on Tuesday 9th November in 6W. So many of our families have already signed up to allow their children to attend the exciting residential visit and have paid a small deposit to secure the place. See you there!
EYFS family friday
We are holding 'Family Friday' sessions 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!
Reading Breakfasts
Thank you to all of our families who attended our Reading Breakfasts this week. It was a delight to see so many of those families who had been invited to attend, come along on the day. These events will take place weekly during the rest of the term. We will be extending the invite to more families in the coming weeks so please do look out for an invite. These sessions have been held for Reception, Year One and Year Two families. Thank you to Miss Rogers, Miss Blackburn and Mr John for organising these.
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.
Reception 2022 Family Tours
For those families with children moving up into Reception in September 2022, you may be interested to hear that we are currently carrying out school tours each Wednesday at 9.30am.
If you would like to join the tour, please contact the school office to book a place.
Likewise, if you have any friends or family who have children due to start Reception in September next year, you may like to let them know that we are now welcoming visitors into the school to show them some of the amazing things we have at our school. We appreciate the support with sharing this news and encouraging people to join us at Woodberry Down.
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.
