Summer Newsletter 11
Dear Parents & Carers
I’ll start this week with some sad/happy news. Mrs Chapman has made the decision to retire. On the last day of term, she will switch off her smartboard, log off Google Classroom & unplug the laptop in her classroom for the very last time at Woodlands (the days of hanging up a whistle are long gone…). It’s sad because we will miss her terribly, but happy because she feels that it’s the right time AND she will be able spend more time with her family – in particular her grandson, Jacob. Mrs Chapman has held a long association with Woodlands: she started as a parent in 1994; became a TA at school in 1999; later, she tackled a 4-year foundation degree (whilst still doing her day job) before qualifying as teacher in 2013. She worked at Bedford Primary in Bootle for 3 years before we were lucky enough to be able to appoint her again at Woodlands. Not only is Mrs Chapman a wonderful teacher (her classroom is always an oasis of calm & her pupils make wonderful progress too), she brings so much more to Woodlands. She has many strings to her bow but mental health & reading are two of her great passions: she is a champion of mental health (for both children & staff) & made sure we participated in #HelloYellow (YoungMinds) each year; she introduced the Patron of Reading post (currently held by Sean Perkins); she started an extra-curricular book club; the book trolley, which is trundled on to the junior yard each break & lunchtime, is another of Mrs Chapman’s innovations. I haven’t got the space to write about all the curriculum developments she has made in her role as English co-coordinator! As you can tell, we will miss Mrs Chapman as a colleague, however, we will miss her even more as a friend. We wish her all the best for the future.
Thank you to everyone who came to our summer fair last weekend – it was fantastic – I can’t remember a better one. FOWSA did a brilliant job (as always) – it takes an awful lot of hard work & dedication to make something run so smoothly. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way to make the fair so successful. A staggering sum of money was raised, £2407.86. Thank you (again).
The KS2 SATs results were published this week. I’d like to congratulate our Y6 children for working so hard not only this year but throughout their time at Woodlands – we are very proud of what they achieved – they should be too. I’d like to thank the team in Y6 (Mrs Hughes, Miss Pickford, Mrs Rimmer & Ms Taylor) for preparing the children so well but also making sure they carried on with a broad curriculum throughout the year. At Woodlands, we ensure our children continue with history, geography, art, design technology, computing, forest school, PE, RE & French – children in Y6 deserve a full curriculum too. Y6’s success is a team effort; it’s not just about their final year in school but the quality of teaching they’ve had since they started in the Early Years.
KS2 sports day went really well yesterday – if somewhat overcast & grey. Thank you to all the spectators who gave the children such encouragement. Congratulations to The Owls for winning the house sports trophy for 2022.
Next week, we’ve got Nursery’s ‘Craft: Stay & Make’ on Tuesday 12th July at 2pm, reception sports day (Red & Blue classes) on Wednesday 13th at 9.15(ish) & KS1 sports day (Green, Purple & Yellow classes) on Thursday 14th July at 9.15am(ish). Y2’s end of year show ‘Pirates v Merpeople’ is on Tuesday 12th July at 9.15am(ish).
I would like to remind all our parents & carers of our policy when it comes to taking photographs or images at occasions such as sports days & performances at school. Please feel free to take as many photos/videos of your children as you wish, but if you are posting them on social media do not include anyone else’s children in the image. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Here are the final ‘nudges’ of this academic year to help you find out about your child’s learning this week…
Nursery
What has been your favourite thing about nursery this year?
{Literacy, Communication & Language}
Reception [Red & Blue]
What has been your favourite topic & story this year? Talk about why you enjoyed it so much.
{Literacy, Communication & Language}
Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]
What is your proudest accomplishment from this year?
{All Y1&2 topics: ‘2021-2022’}
Y3&4 [3A, 3/4M & 4G]
What have you learnt about the United Kingdom this year?
{All Y5&6 geography topics: ‘2021-2022’}
Y5&6 [5D, 5/6P & 6R]
In English, which of our texts have you most enjoyed studying this year& why?
{All Y5&6 English topics: ‘2021-2022’}
This week, our whole school attendance is 93.4% - unfortunately we are even further away from 97% mark! We have only 1 class which bettered 97%: 6R (98%). Well done 6R.
We had 1 class who had no late marks this week (Yellow Class). We’ve had 24 late marks across the whole school. All late marks were ‘before the register closed’ – that’s before 9.20am.
Have a great weekend
KD Williams
Headteacher
Last word
A ship carrying blue paint collided with a ship carrying red paint.
The sailors were marooned…