Wood End Primary School Newsletter
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www.woodendprimaryschool.com
Tel: 0208 422 6175
Email: admin@woodendprimaryschool.com
25th September 2026
ALL-HERE - ALL STARS
Gold Award to Oak Class 100%
Silver Award to Poplar Class 98.64%
Bronze Award to Chestnut Class 96.55%
ON TIME - ALL STARS
Willow, Beech and Maple class this week had 0 Late students
Your weekly round up of events
Dates For Your Diary - Events Coming Up Soon
Dates For Your Diary - Events Coming Up Soon
1st October - Black History Month
1st October - Parent Workshop - Applying for Secondary School at 9am in Lunch hall
13th October - Parent Workshop - Motor Skills and Handwriting Nursery and Reception at 9am
15th October - Wear Red Day - Show Racism the red card - Donation of £1 to charity
16th October - Wellbeing Day (school closed)
Date changed to 22nd October - School Individual Photo's - Children to come in full school uniform (even if a P.E. Day)
23rd October - Diwali Celebration Day - Children can wear their own cloths if they wish
26th October to 30th October - Half Term School closed
18th December 2026 - End of Term 1 - School will close at 2pm
Pen Licences 🖊️
Raising the Standard: Our New Approach to Pen Licences at Wood End
Pen Licences 🖊️
Raising the Standard: Our New Approach to Pen Licences at Wood End
At Wood End Primary School, high standards of presentation and handwriting are key to encouraging pride, fluency, and legibility across all subject areas. We adopt the Letterjoin continuous cursive handwriting scheme to ensure a smooth, consistent style from Early Years and Key Stage 1 through Key Stage 2.
Aligning with National Expectations
Our handwriting expectations directly match the National Curriculum expectations for primary pupils:
Neatness & Legibility: Maintaining clear and uniform letter sizes, distinct ascenders and descenders, and tidy spacing.
Consistent Joining: Developing fluent, continuous diagonal and horizontal joins across all written work.
Physical Posture & Grip: Demonstrating correct upright posture, supportive non-dominant hand placement, and a comfortable dynamic tripod pencil grip.
A Centralised Approach to Awarding Pen Licences
To ensure whole-school fairness and maintain high presentation standards, we have introduced a centralised approach to awarding Pen Licences across the school.
Pupils start by using pencil for all written work until they demonstrate a consistently high standard of Letterjoin cursive across all of their exercise books. Once a pupil maintains this neat, joined style over time, their work is submitted for senior leadership review.
Pen Licences will now be officially reviewed and awarded directly by Mr Stainbank (Headteacher) or Mr Best (Deputy Headteacher).
Key Criteria for Earning a Pen Licence
Letter Formation: Lowercase letters sit correctly on the line with clean lead-in and lead-out strokes.
Capitals & Digits: Capital letters and numbers are clearly formed, correctly proportioned, and remain unjoined.
Consistency Across the Curriculum: High presentation standards sustained in English, Maths, Science, and foundation subject books.
We look forward to celebrating our pupils' hard work, pride, and dedication as they work towards earning their pen licences!
Nut Free
Nut Free
At Wood End Primary School we aim to be a Nut-Free School. We have a number of children with Nut Allergies, therefore we are a nut free school. We do not use nuts in any of the food prepared on-site. Children who suffer from nut allergies can develop a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
If someone has a nut allergy it is not just eating nuts that can cause a severe reaction, just being touched on the skin or smelling the breath of someone who has had nuts or a product containing nuts can trigger anaphylactic shock (which can cause breathing and swallowing difficulties).
The school requests that parents and carers observe the nut-free policy and therefore do not include nuts, or any traces of nuts, in packed lunches and for breaktime snacks.
The following items should not be brought into school:
Packs of nuts
Peanut butter or Nutella sandwiches
Fruit and cereal bars that contain nuts
Chocolate bars, sweets or cake that contain nuts
Sesame seed rolls (children allergic to nuts may also have a severe reaction to sesame)
Any home-cooked meals for packed lunches that are made from nuts, peanuts, or nut oils
This list is not exhaustive, so please check the packaging of products closely. Food contributions for class parties must have a label detailing all ingredients present, and the kitchen environment where the food was prepared must be nut-free. If you wish to give nut free sweets out for birthday treats you are welcome to do this at the classroom door at the end of the school day.
If you become aware your child has an allergy please talk to a member of staff at the school office so that we can update your details and make dietary adjustments if required. Thank you for your help.
Celebrations Certificates
Celebrations Certificates
Encouraging and celebrating Positive behaviour.
Every Friday teachers have the opportunity to award a certificate in assembly to a child from their class. The certificate recognised when a child has displayed one of the positive behaviours attributed by one of our learning friends. This weeks learning friend is Rafiki Rabbit, who encourages you to do your absolute best and put in every effort into whatever you do. Well done to Hileterwork in year 3 who did exactly that this week.
Ready, Respectful, Safe — and Why It's a Safeguarding Policy Too
Ready, Respectful, Safe — and Why It's a Safeguarding Policy Too
You'll know our school values: Ready, Respectful, Safe. What you might not know is that our behaviour policy is also a safeguarding policy.
Our approach is built on Therapeutic Thinking — the idea that behaviour is a form of communication. When a child struggles to meet our expectations, our first question isn't "how do we stop this?" but "what is this behaviour telling us?" Sometimes it points to something a child is finding difficult to say out loud.
This means every conversation about behaviour is also a chance to understand a child better and check they feel safe, supported and understood — not just corrected.
At home, the same idea applies: a change in behaviour is often the first sign worth a gentle conversation, not a punishment.
Kind regards,
Chris Best
Early Years
Early Years
Growing in Independence
Growing in Independence
As the children continue to settle into Reception, we are encouraging them to become more independent with their everyday self-care skills. These small steps make a huge difference to their confidence at school!
This includes having a go at putting on and taking off jumpers and coats, zipping up coats, wiping their own nose and managing their shoes independently. As the weather begins to change, children will also be taking layers on and off more regularly throughout the day.
We have sent home a separate letter with some simple ideas for how you can support these skills at home. Even a few minutes of practice can really help — “Have a go first!” is a phrase we use lots at school.
Thank you for working with us to help our children become confident, capable and increasingly independent.
Inclusion
Inclusion
Click on the link to access the Padlet:
https://padlet.com/agohil5/the-wood-end-primary-school-inclusion-toolkit-b8sdiw0559h1jd1b
Parent workshops taking place next week:
w/c 28th September 2026
Handwriting, Keyboarding & Using My Hands (In Person – Durdans Park Primary): Monday, 28th September | 09:30 AM
Sign up: Eventbrite Booking Page
Coordination and Using My Body (In Person – Durdans Park Primary): Monday, 28th September | 11:15 AM
Sign up: Eventbrite Booking Page
Coordination and Using My Body (In Person – Derwentwater Primary W3): Tuesday, 29th September | 09:30 AM
Sign up: Eventbrite Booking Page
Handwriting, Keyboarding & Using My Hands (In Person – Derwentwater Primary): Tuesday, 29th September | 11:15 AM
Sign up: Eventbrite Booking Page
Promoting Positive Behaviours (Ages 0–5): Wednesday, 30th September | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Sign up: MS Registration Form
FREE weekly English Classes!
📍 Where: West Ealing Community Library, Improve your English with our two specialised classes designed for adults whose first language is not English. Every Friday - ⏰ 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
What You’ll Learn:
✅ Basic pronunciation ✅ Introductions and greetings ✅ Weather, dates, and appointments
✅ Food, shopping, and restaurants ✅ Money and numbers ✅ Family and relationships ✅ Places in London and the UK
Developing Friendship Skills
Developing Friendship Skills
Your child may be in a class with the same children as last year or they may be with some different children. Mixing classes may offer an opportunity to make new friends. School is the place where children learn to navigate the world of friendships and at this age, alliances often shift and change. Learning to make friends and get along with peers can cause some distress to most children.
How can parents help? - It is important to listen to your child’s experiences with peer challenges. Instead of telling them what to do, help them problem-solve, and also to clarify and understand their feelings. It is always best to stay away from taking sides with either child- offer empathy for all of your child’s feelings, and also reflect together on how their peer might be feeling. Coach your child to stand up for themselves using their words and help them learn to express their needs rather than attacking their friend. It is helpful to practice this together!
If you would like to meet Helen for a confidential and non-judgemental chat about you, your child, or any other worries, she is available on Wednesday ‘s at 9-10am. How to book? Email me: helen@schoolscounsellingpartnership.co.uk or text 07429 654584
African Drumming
African Drumming
Our new year 3 students are loving their thursday afternoons when they get to work together and learn to play african drums with Mr Souleymane our African Drumming teacher .
Learning drumming teaches fundamental musical and rhythmic elements. It enhances physical coordination, listening skills, concentration when learning complex patterns. Teamwork is a plays a big part as well as boosting individual confidence. We will invite parents into school in the summer term to show off the skills the Year 3 children have learned over the year. Don't be surprised if your child starts drumming on various objects around the house as they practice their new found skill!.
Thank you
To all parents that supported the book fair this week. Every book you purchase allows the school to purchase a book for our library.
The book fair will be back in March to celebrate World Book Day.
Calendar of Events
Scan the QR code or click HERE to view the SCHOOL CALENDAR. This is on our school website to keep you updated with our range of events at school. We will do our best to inform parents and carers well in advance of any changes.
Coffee Morning ☕
Coffee Morning ☕
Thank you to all the parents that attended the Coffee Morning with Mr Stainbank on Tuesday. Mr Stainbank will have an open coffee morning every term, so if there is anything you would like to know about the school or have any questions please look out for the coffee mornings. Notes from the Coffee Morning will be emailed to all parents.
Ealing Family Support Network e-Bulletin
Family Support Padlet
Everything shared through the network meetings and e-Bulletin will be uploaded to the online Family Support Network Padlet so you can always find things quickly and easily. You can SEARCH the Padlet using the icon in the top right-hand corner. TOP TIP: Save the Padlet link to your favourites for easy access: https://padlet.com/EalingFSN/EalingFamilySupportNetwork
OUR 3 RULES...
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