Autumn Newsletter 8

Dear Parents & Carers

Thank you to everyone who made an appointment to speak to their child’s class teacher to see find out how the year has begun for them. We are very lucky to have such supportive parents at Woodlands; we know that when links between school & home are strong the children will achieve more.

I’d like to thank Mr Richard Coles, one of our parent governors, who is stepping down after 4 years. We will miss his input into our meetings. His opinion was one I, & the whole of the governing body, always valued; his contributions to our governors’ meetings were always well thought through, reliable & insightful.  We wish him well.

We may have lost one parent governor but we have gained three! I’d like to welcome Mrs Alison Evans, Mrs Cara Halliwell & Mr Stephen Mercer to Woodlands governing body. I’m sure they will bring a lot to our governing body.

Here’s the conversation starters to help you find out about your children’s learning this week.

If our pupils in Y3&4 can provide some answers to their question, I think we should send them up to Glasgow for COP26 which starts on 31 October – I’m sure our politicians would be thrilled to hear from them…

Nursery

What signs of autumn can you spot?

{Understanding the World}

Reception [Red & Blue]

Can you say all the colours of the rainbow? Which 2 colours make orange? Which 2 colours make green?

{Expressive arts & design}

Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]

What did our results from our class investigation tell us about how healthy our class is?

{Science topic: ‘The Human Body’}

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

What can we do to save our planet for future generations?

{Science & PSHE topic:  ‘Here We Are [notes for living on Planet Earth]’}

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

What negative effects can smoking, alcohol & drugs have on the human body?

{Science topic & PSHE}

Still no classes achieved 100% in their attendance this week & our overall attendance has fallen to 94.5%. Hopefully, after everyone’s recharged their batteries during half term, we’ll be able to get our attendance up above 97% again.

We had 4 classes who had no late marks this week 3G, 3/4M, 5D & 5/6P. There were 11 late marks across the whole school.

Yesterday, we received a thank you letter from Southport Foodbank for the donations you made for our Harvest Festival Appeal: “It is with pleasure that I am able to write to say THANK YOU for your generous harvest donations. In total you donated 305kg of food and other essentials, which will be distributed to those in need at our foodbank centres across Southport and the surrounding area”. Good news.

With half term approaching, it is a good time for those of you with children in Y5&6 to replenish the equipment they need in school – please check with them as to what items need restocking.

We’ll also be sending out a parent survey via Google Forms tomorrow, so please keep an eye out for the ParentMail with the link.

Please make sure your children continue to read during half term - I can’t emphasise enough how important this is. Fluent & accurate reading is the key to so much – it allows our children to access the wider curriculum as well as unlocking their imaginations as they travel to far-flung places, through different periods of history or learn to walk in someone else’s shoes. If you can, a couple of times a week, sit with them while they read; talk to them about their book, get them to read a paragraph aloud to you (no matter what their age) - you could read a passage to them too.

Remember, there is an INSET day tomorrow (Friday 22 October) so the children will not be in school.

Finally, I would like to thank all the members of staff at Woodlands for the hard work they have put in over this first half term – I hope they will manage to have a well-deserved rest next week.

Have a lovely half term break

KD Williams

Headteacher

Last word

Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl go to the toilet?

Because the ‘P’ is silent!

Thanks to Ted for this one