Summer Newsletter 13 [Tuesday 18th July]
Dear Parents & Carers
I can’t believe another school year is nearly over - I’m sure the years are getting shorter!
Our Y6 pupils are, spending their last couple days at Woodlands before embarking on their next adventure at Range, Formby, Presfield & St Mary’s high schools. We wish them all the best for the future – we hope they will do us, and their families, proud. I’d like to thank those children who have had a positive impact on life at Woodlands: house captains, playground pals, sports leaders, tech crew, school councillors. Y6 pupils have planned, organised & run their own clubs for younger children too: from coding club to times table club, from art club to Christmas club.
We’ve had good year at Woodlands – as always, the children have been wonderful. I am so proud of them each time I take prospective parents on a tour of the school. The children are so focused, so eager to learn: from investigating floating & sinking in nursery to creating superb pieces of art, inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, in Y5; from practising their phonics in Y1&2 to learning about Henry VIII {divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived} in Y3&4; from exploring capacity & volume in the mud kitchen in reception to producing jaw-dropping pieces of writing in Y6. I am privileged to witness these things on a daily basis. Parents will often comment on the lovely atmosphere as they walk around the classrooms. This is created by positive relationships between staff & children, children & children and staff & staff.
Thank you to all of you who have sent messages of thanks to your children’s class teachers/TAs – you will never know how much a few words can mean to our staff. The partnership between home and school is vital and we know that when this is strong our children will thrive – this is something that is strong at Woodlands & I’m sure will continue next year.
Please encourage your children to read over the summer – if they say they don’t like books it’s just because they haven’t found the right ones to read yet! There are so many wonderful books & wonderful authors who write about anything & everything – there’s no excuse not to read. It’s so important. Research has shown that children who read during the summer actually do better with their reading (& therefore writing) when they return to school.
Formby Library is running the Summer Reading Challenge - your child just needs to read 6 books over the summer break to complete the challenge. We are again the defending champions of the schools in Formby – it’d be great to retain the trophy & get a hat trick of titles!
I feel very fortunate to be headteacher of a school with such extraordinary staff: our teachers & our TAs; our office staff & Mr Inskip (site manager); our LWAs (dinner ladies) to our cleaners. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to all of them. They work hard & want the best for the children in their care. I know they will recharge their batteries over the summer break & come back in the autumn term firing on all cylinders! Personally, I find lying in a darkened room for 72 hours always helps…
Thank you to Holly & her wonderful team in the kitchen. Another year of delicious food every day – next year’s menu is looking good too!
The summer term finishes at 2pm tomorrow, Wednesday 19th July (1.30pm for Y6).
Good luck to Y6 – we hope you are going to fly at high school. We can’t wait to see the rest of you in September! There is an INSET day for staff on Monday 4th September, so school begins for the children on Tuesday 5th September.
Have a lovely summer
KD Williams
Headteacher
Last Word revisited
Jokes about white sugar are rare.
Jokes about brown sugar… Demarara
Thanks to Olaf Falafel
