Autumn Newsletter 1 [Friday 8th September]
Dear Parents & Carers
Our first week is almost over. It’s been a great start to the new academic year: the children have made a smooth transition to their new year groups; their behaviour has been wonderful too.
I’d like to welcome all our new families whether your child has started in nursery or reception or one of our other year groups. As ever, staff have been impressed with how caring our children are – making sure the new children in their classes feel welcomed, included & cared for.
This week has seen new starters (N1s) visit nursery before they start their regular hours from Monday. The old hands in nursery (N2s) have already started their core hours. Our reception children, after coming to school for 3 half days, are now in full time. They stayed for their first school lunch today; they had the choice of fish fillet & chips or cheese & bean quesadilla. The rest of the school have ‘hit the ground running’ – our teachers & TAs have been impressed with their eagerness to learn & their positive attitude to school life in general.
I would like to give a special mention to the pupils in Y6. They have had a particularly good start to this academic year. At Woodlands, we want our children to be the very best they can be: motivated, both in & out of their classroom; kind & caring to each other & their environment; respectful to children & adults alike; trying their best in everything they do. It’s early days but our Y6 pupils have been brilliant; we feel that they are going to have a wonderful year. As our children move through the year groups at Woodlands, they are given more & more responsibility. This culminates in Y6. Our new Y6 house captains will be announced in celebration assembly this afternoon. Over the coming days, the children will be allocated their various Y6 roles: playground pals, tech crew or sports leader. We want our children to make a difference at school – I’m sure this year’s Y6 will.
On Thursday 5th & Tuesday 10th October, we will be holding our reception class open mornings from 9.30am-10.30am. Children, who are due to start in reception September 2024, can come along with a parent & experience life in our reception classes first hand. The children will be able to work & play alongside our new reception intake. These open mornings are primarily aimed at parents & children who do not have siblings at Woodlands. Booking is essential (please contact the school office 01704 876444 / [email protected] ). Please pass on these details to any friends, neighbours or colleagues who could be interested in coming along with their child.
I would also like to give you advanced warning of our parents evenings (for reception – Y6 pupils) later this term. They will be held on Tuesday 17th & Thursday 19th October from 4pm to 7pm. Details on how to book your appointments will be sent out later this half term.
As I told you earlier in the week, we are holding Parent Information meetings (reception – Y6) next week so that your children can make the best possible start to the new academic year in their new classes. The teachers will be running through a whole series of subjects: from how you can help your child at home to our school rules; from the topics your children will be studying to what day they’ll have PE; from what their homework expectations are to when forest school or swimming will be.
Each of the following meetings will begin at 5pm (all the meetings will be held in the junior hall, apart from reception which will be held in Red & Blue classrooms):
- Monday 11th September: Reception {Red & Blue} [Miss Dollery & Mrs Fortune]
- Tuesday 12th September: Year 3&4 {3G, 3/4M & 4W} [Mr Grant, Mrs Mowatt & Mrs Wall]
- Wednesday 13th September: Year 5&6 {5D, 5/6RP & 6R} [Miss Dale, Miss Pickford & Mrs Rimmer]
- Thursday 14th September: Year 1&2 {Green, Purple & Yellow} [Mr Seery, Mrs Crilly & Mrs Dempster]
This week, our whole school attendance is 96.5% - almost at our 97% target. We have 2 classes with 100% attendance: Yellow Class & 3/4M. We have 2 classes which bettered 97%: Purple Class (99.6%) & 5/6P (99.2%).
We had 10 classes who had no late marks this week: Red Class, Blue Class, Green Class, Yellow Class, 3G, 3/4M, 4W, 5D, 5/6P & 6R. We only had 1 late mark across the whole school. 1 late mark was ‘before the register closed’ – that’s before 9.20am & 0 late marks ‘after the register has closed’, that’s after 9.20am.
I have attached ‘Nature Haven News’ – the summer update from National Trust Formby – it’s a good read!
Have a good weekend
KD Williams
Headteacher
Last word
Why do you never see pigs hiding in trees?
Because they’re pretty good at it.
