Well... what can I say. It has been a little bit of a whirlwind term, however it has been a very successful one. I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has been so positive and supportive throughout. I am extremely proud and pleased that I have been able to share and celebrate our recent Ofsted visit with all stakeholders. The opening two lines, in particular, are still a pleasure to read: “Pupils at Paddock Wood Primary Academy are excited to learn. The school is a safe and stimulating place which offers a myriad of opportunities to develop pupils’ interests and talents.”  

Below is an overview of all the wonderful experiences that the children have been offered this term:

Keeping children safe

As a whole school, we took part in ‘Anti-bullying week’ and ‘Be an Internet Legend’ day. A plethora of age appropriate activities were completed by children and culminated in the whole school taking part in ‘Odd Socks Day’. Odd Socks Day is an annual event that encourages people to wear mismatched socks as a way of celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion.

Curriculum enrichment

We have organised many different experiences to enrich and enhance learning for the children across the whole school. We have had a visit from a local poet who came into school, led assemblies and ran workshops for all of the children. This love of reading and writing was also built upon in our whole school writing week where all of the children used the same high quality text (Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo) as inspiration for many different purposes for writing. Hearing children across the school talking about the same text and their learning was fantastic.

Individual year groups have also organised their own more specific workshops. Year 3 has had a hands-on fossil workshop, Year 4 were immersed in their very own History Day and Year 5 were transported to outer space with a visit from the planetarium. All of these experiences were fantastic and the children were fully engaged throughout!

During a RockSteady Workshop, we also invited our children and staff to embrace their inner rockstars. All year groups were involved and we are eagerly awaiting a performance from our own school rock band in the coming months (keep your eye out for further information).

Community

Being at the heart of the community is extremely important for us and we ensure we make the most of all the opportunities to work with and support the community in as many different ways as possible. We are extremely proud of our Year 6 representatives who took part in the Paddock Wood Remembrance service and our school choir who sang at the recent Christmas ‘Light Up’ event. Both of these events were extremely well attended by the whole community. We have also continued our close links to the local church. Every single class has visited the local library. Many have used this opportunity to become members and have shown great pride and pleasure in describing which book they are now reading. 

Sporting events

Sporting opportunities and events are always a high priority here at Paddock Wood. We try to ensure all children who want to are given the opportunity to represent the school throughout the year. Alongside many sporting after school clubs, we have taken part in friendly sporting events and recently our football team won their first league match of the season. Our children thoroughly enjoyed representing our school at the recent LAT swimming gala. 

Pantomime and our wonderful PTA

We have an extremely proactive and successful PTA. They once again funded our recent pantomime visit. Children (and the odd unlucky staff member) were involved in the whole event and they thoroughly enjoyed welcoming Christmas into the school. It was the perfect way to start the festive season! They have also helped support the school by providing all of the Christmas crackers for our whole school Christmas dinner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the PTA for their help, hard work and unwavering support of the school.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful time with your family and friends during our break and we will see you back on Wednesday 3rd January 2024.