Autumn Newsletter 5 [Friday 7th October]
Dear Parents & Carers
Well, that’s the first week of October over – I can’t believe how quickly this term is passing.
Thank you to everyone who’s signed up for the School Spider app so far, I know there’s been one or two teething issues but we seem to be making headway with over 50% of parents successfully on board. School Spider is a complete system, so in the future, we will be able to use the app for parent communications & move to online payments for dinner money, school trips, etc.
Please keep an eye out for a ParentMail later this afternoon which will give you information on how to book your parents evening appointments for Tuesday 18th & Thursday 20th October (4pm-7pm). You will have needed to have downloaded the School Spider app & created an account in order to do this (see the ParentMail dated 4th October 2022).
This week, the school council elections have been held for our children in KS2 (Y3-Y6). The children listened to the candidates’ speeches for their year group & were able to ask them questions about their ‘policies’. Each pupil was then able to vote for up to 4 children to represent their year group on the school council for this academic year. Voting by secret ballot was held yesterday & the results announced today by the returning officer (Mrs Mowatt, our school council lead). I’d like to thank everyone who stood for election; the teachers were impressed with the quality of the speeches & the effort that had been put into writing them. Don’t worry if you weren’t elected, there will be another chance for you to stand next year, whether that’s at Woodlands or high school. Congratulations to all the successful candidates – I’m sure they will be able to put some of their ideas into practice to make Woodlands even better. Maybe one day they will be standing for election to the Houses of Parliament – let’s face it, they would probably do a better job of running the country than our current politicians…
Here’s this week’s conversation ‘nudges’ to help you find about your children’s learning…
Nursery
Can you find any signs of autumn? What colours do you notice?
{Understanding the World}
Reception [Red & Blue]
Can you find patterns around you? Can you say & carry on the pattern?
{Mathematics}
Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]
What did you find on your autumnal walk? Can you describe them using adjectives?
{English topic: ‘Poetry’}
Y3&4 [3G, 3/4M & 4T]
Can you name the different kind of teeth & their role in digestion?
{Science topic: ‘The Human Body’}
Y5&6 [5D, 5/6P & 6R]
What physical changes occur from adulthood to old age?
{Science topic: ‘The Human Body’}
This week, our whole school attendance has slipped to 94.3%. We had no classes with 100% attendance this week & only 1 class exceeding our 97% target: 3/4M (99.3%).
We had 3 classes who had no late marks this week: Yellow Class, 3/4M & 5/6P. We had 18 late marks across the whole school. 11 late marks were ‘before the register closed’ (that’s before 9.20am) & 7 late marks ‘after the register has closed’, that’s after 9.20am.
Next week, on Tuesday11th October, we’re holding the second of our two reception open mornings. Children, who are due to start in reception September 2023, can come along with a parent & experience life in our reception classes first hand; booking through the school office is essential.
Enjoy the weekend
KD Williams
Headteacher
Last word
Do you know you can’t use ‘beef stew’ as a password?
It’s not stroganoff…
