Autumn Newsletter 11

Dear Parents & Carers

Bears! Hundreds of bears. Everywhere you look there were bears. Big bears, little bears, tall bears, short bears, hairy bears, lairy bears, bears in hats, bears in caps, bears from TV & bears from film. We even had a few bears from Peru. The children looked wonderful in their costumes or escorting their bears to class - thank you to everyone who made this possible. We raised £308.67. Thank you! [There's lots of photos at the end of this newsletter]

Our House Captains have been very busy this week, not only have they planned & presented 2 assemblies explaining the good work that BBC Children in Need does (one for Y1&2, one for Y3-Y6), they visited Southport Foodbank. The children found out what happened to the items everyone donated as part of our harvest festival appeal. Soon, they will lead another whole school assembly to tell the rest of the children what they discovered.  Our House Captains this year have been wonderful so far; they are enthusiastic, are able to work as a team (independently from constant adult supervision) & are obviously committed to their role.

This week, our Y1&2 pupils had a wonderful day at Chester Zoo as part of their science topic ‘Living things & their habitats’. I’d like to thank all the parent helpers who made the trip possible – I bet they had a good night’s sleep on Tuesday! If you like to see photos from the trip please head over to the Class Pages on the school website & click on Y1&2 or follow the link below. https://www.woodlandsschoolformby.co.uk/year-12/

In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about the need for us (the school) to work harder/smarter to ensure that parents are as informed as they need to be. A case in point is the statement from the parental survey ‘The school makes me aware of what my child will learn during the year’. 85.3% of parents agreed with this, 8.7% of parents didn’t know & 6% of parents disagreed. This information is available on the school website, but it is tucked away & we haven’t drawn parents’ attention to it recently. If you click on the ‘Key Information’ tab & then ‘Curriculum’ you will arrive at a page that has all of the subjects on it. By selecting a subject, e.g. Geography, you can then scroll down & open the document named ‘Geography Overview’. this sets out the topics that each phase will cover over a 2-year cycle. This academic year, we are following Cycle B, so Y1&2 are currently studying ‘The British Isles’, Y3&4 ‘Mediterranean Europe’ & Y5&6 ‘North America’. Alternatively, you can click on the following link to find the different subject overviews https://www.woodlandsschoolformby.co.uk/topic/curriculum

Here’s this week’s conversation starters to help you talk to your children about their learning…

Nursery

Where did Little Red Riding Hood go? Why did she go there?

{Communication & Language}

Reception [Red & Blue]

This week we have been listening to stories* that rhyme. Can you think of any rhyming pairs?

*e.g. ’Potion Commotion’ Peter Bently

{Literacy}

Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]

What did you learn from our ‘Living things & their habits’ workshop at Chester Zoo?

{Science topic: ‘Living Things & their Habitats’}

Y3&4 [3A, 3/4M & 4G]

How does an artist create perspective in their painting?

{Art topic: ‘Space’}

Y5&6 [5D, 5/6P & 6R]

How did democracy in the 19th Century compare with democracy today?

{History topic ‘The Suffragettes’}

I asked Mr Grant to report on the TTRS (Times tables Rock Stars) Latest competition. This is what he wrote:

This year’s England Rocks competition took place between the 8th November and the 11th November. Every child from Purple Class to Year 6 had the opportunity to contribute towards not only their own individual score, but their class and the school scores in a nationwide competition.  The children were only allowed to score points for one hour each day but could use any game they wished.  To say Woodlands Primary School did “ok” would be an understatement of the greatest order.  As a school, Woodlands scored 173398 correct answers, an average of 1275 correct answers per pupil, across four hours of tournament play which allowed for a placement of 209th in the country out of 4250 schools, both primary and secondary, taking part. We also finished 29th in the North of England and, some would say more importantly, 1st out of all the Formby schools.  This is a fantastic achievement that we should all be proud of.  5/6P however took that pride to another level, scoring 113862 correct answers allowing them to finish 83rd overall in the country out of 83097 classes taking part. In the individual competition, it was the 5/6P pupils who took the glory of the top three places in the school, Thomas Szabo finishing 3rd with 10532 correct answers, Ava Kelly finishing 2nd with 13578 correct answers and Ellie Jones finishing first, and just missing out on a top 50 finish in the country, with a whopping 26474 correct answers!   This is the best finish the school has ever achieved! Well done to everyone who took part.

Still no classes achieved 100% in their attendance this week & our overall attendance has fallen further to at 92.8%. Mind you this is mainly due to the outbreak of something nasty in Red Class – their attendance is 78.6% for this week.

We had 4 classes who had no late marks this week: Green, 3/4M, 5D & 6R. There were 10 late marks across the whole school.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

KD Williams

Headteacher

Last word

I get very annoyed when people mix up there, they're and their…

from now on I'm going to point it out, weather they like it or not.