Newsletters

The Wooden Post - 26 March 2021

26 March 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

The newsletter is back! Now that the children are all back in school, our monthly newsletter has made a return. Our monthly newsletter will update you on any school events or achievements, and contains reminders but also summarises the learning in each year group which is put on the school website each week. Seeing the pictures of all the amazing things that children have been doing is definitely a highlight!

Following my letter yesterday, just to remind you that the windows for drop off and collection after Easter have changed. Drop off is 8.40am – 8.55am and collection is 3pm – 3.15pm. Please do not arrive before these times.

It may seem like a million years ago, but huge thanks to everyone who supported our fundraising during February. We had our ‘Together but Apart’ parties on Friday 12^th February. The sale of the party food packs and the party bags raised £451.16. Thank you for everyone who made and decorated hearts in the run up to half term. The heart hunting maps raised £187.00 for the school. Don’t forget that we are putting together a recipe book so please send any recipes to the office before we break up.

Next week the children break up on Wednesday 31^st March and return to school on Monday 19^thApril. We all hope that you have a wonderful Easter break and look forward to seeing everyone back on the 19^th.

Best wishes,

Mrs Lagares

~ Notices and Reminders ~

UNIFORM REMINDER

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct uniform, including school shoes.

WATER BOTTLES

Water bottles must only contain water, juice is not permitted.

DROP OFF AND COLLECTION REMINDER

After Easter, drop off is 8.40am – 8.55am and collection 3pm – 3.15pm. Please do not arrive outside these times.

SOCIAL DISTANCING

Keep our school open! Please ensure that social distancing on the school site and while waiting to come in to school is followed at all time.

POLLING STATION

To confirm, Wooden Hill School or Nursery is NOT being used as a polling station for the forthcoming elections in May.

Bag2School

Due to the success of the last Bag2School collection, we will be arranging another one after the May half term. (Date to be confirmed) Keep hold of your old clothes until then and help us raise some extra funds for the school.

TERM DATES 2021-22

AUTUMN TERM 2021

Wednesday 1^st September - INSET day (1) for staff – no children in school

Thursday 2^nd September - INSET day (2) for staff – no children in school

Friday 3^rd September - School begins at 8.50am

Thursday 21^st October - School finishes at 3.15pm for half term

Friday 22^nd October - INSET day (3) for staff – no children in school

OCTOBER HALF TERM - Monday 25^th October to Friday 29^th October

Monday 1^st November - School begins at 8.50am

Friday 17^th December - School finishes at 3.15pm for Christmas holidays

SPRING TERM 2022

Tuesday 4^th January - School begins at 8.50am

Friday 11^th February - School finishes at 3.15pm for half term

FEBRUARY HALF TERM - Monday 14^th February to Friday 18^th February

Monday 21^st February - INSET day (4) for staff – no children in school

Tuesday 22^nd February - School begins at 8.50am

Friday 1^st April - School finishes at 3.15pm for Easter holidays

Tuesday 19^th April - INSET day (5) for staff – no children in school

SUMMER TERM 2022

Wednesday 20^th April - School begins at 8.50am

Monday 2nd May - Bank Holiday

Friday 27^th May - School finishes at 3.15pm for half term

MAY HALF TERM - Monday 30^th May to Friday 3^rd June

Monday 6^th June - School begins at 8.50am

Friday 22^nd July - School finishes at 3.15pm for Summer holidays

Nursery Roundup

Over the last half term the nursery children have been looking at animals. They have looked at all kinds that they know about and may have seen at the zoo and have talked about their own pets and how they look after them.

They have looked at toy animals and grouped them according to how many legs they have and whether they have wings or not. They have mad model animals from recycled materials, made collages and painted animal pictures and thinking about the colours. The children have been great at sharing their knowledge of animals and where they can be found.

They have enjoyed sharing stories about zoo animals and particularly liked The Star of the Zoo, Dear Zoo and Owl Babies.

Click here to see all the Nursery news.

Reception Roundup

Following the return to school the children have really enjoyed seeing and playing with their friends. They are remembering the power of learning and resolving problems independently. They are so proud when they can do something by themselves.

With the improving weather there has been lots of exploring outside and the children have been using the new exploring bags from the Understanding the World Shed, these include magnifying glasses, phones, magnets and other resources that they can use outside.

They have been making up their own version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar by changing the food he eats and have listened to lots of stories.

Click here to keep up with all the Reception news.

Year 1 Roundup

It has been fantastic having all of the children back in school, and there has been a real buzz in Year One. The staff are incredibly proud of all the children and how well they have adjusted back to school life so quickly and effortlessly.

The children have taken part in circle times to discuss their feelings and emotions and had plenty of opportunity to talk to each other and work together whilst playing and taking part in team building activities. One of the circle times was all about their attributes and what makes them so special. The children created a rainbow cloud which displays 5 words that they chose to describe themselves.

In English the children have continued their story ‘Emma Jane’s Aeroplane’ and have focused on the second city that Emma Jane visited, which was Paris. The children used adjectives to write sentences that describe the Eiffel tower. They used ‘hold a sentence’ for this and focused on using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops in our writing. We also learnt about some of the food that is eaten in France and the children really enjoyed tasting some cheese, croissants and French bread which they used adjectives to describe.

In PSHE the children have enjoyed taking part in team activities which included working in a team to make the tallest tower using only paper, scissors and tape.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 1 news.

Year 2 Roundup

Mrs Nunn and Mrs Evans were very busy over half term and transformed the Year 2 classrooms into castles and the children were very excited about their new topic, castles!

In school and at home, the children have been reading and writing about 'George and the Dragon' in English, and learning about 2D and 3D shape in maths.

In topic the children have been learning all about castles. Miss Smart arranged an amazing virtual school trip to Windsor Castle, the children both at home and school both participated amazingly!

Wow! It was so lovely to welcome back all the children and everyone has been so impressed by how the children have hit the ground running, and it seemedas if they had never been away! The children have shown such kindness and empathy towards their friends as they made the transition back to the classroom.

The first week back started with a mediaeval banquet which was a huge success with many children declaring it "the best day ever." The children dressed in formal attire, feasted and the children even had a Tudor dance!

In English this week, we have been continuing our work on ‘In My Heart: A Book of Feelings’. The children have been writing some amazing sentences using metaphors and similes. Here are some examples:

"When I am furious, my heart feels like King Henry VIII ready to chop off heads" – Olivia N.

"Keep going! Never give up! This is when my heart is brave" – Alfie.

"I move slowly, I relax my body and I feel calm like the trees swaying in the gentle breeze." – James

Linked to this book, children created their own heart pictures to express feelings and emotions. We have been so impressed with how they have shown such resilience returning to Deer and Rabbit classes.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 2 news.

Year 3 Roundup

Since half term the children had great fun celebrating World Book Day dressed as their chosen characters. We collected class data based on their characters and used this to plot and draw bar charts. The children also had fun creating their own stories by mixing up known fairy tales! We even had Goldilocks climbing the giant bean stalk!

In science the children are continuing to study the topic of plants and have learnt what plants need to grow and have started an investigation to find out if plants grow healthier and stronger with plant food.

The children have also been learning about length and measure using millimetres, centimetres and metres. Maths was bought into the childrens PE lesson and tested their ability to measure how far they could throw a ball and how to find the perimeter of a shape by measuring the outline of various shapes and adding those measurements together.

This week in Maths, Year Three have been looking at fractions, recognising and finding halves and quarters of amounts and shapes. We used resources and drawings to represent a 1/2 and a 1/4 of objects and amounts and are able to explain what the numerator and denominator represent in a fraction.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 3 news.

Year 4 Roundup

Year 4 have been reading the story The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child and worked super hard to write their own versions. There were stories such as The Knight and the Banana, The Prince and the Watermelon and The Princess and the Pizza! The children have also looked at the story There’s a Rang-tan in my Bedroom by James Sellick, which was also an advertisement for Iceland a few years ago. This then linked nicely with the geography topic of palm oil and orangutans.

The children have celebrated World Book Day and we received some brilliant new books, look how happy the children are to have them!

In maths, the children have worked incredibly hard to understand fractions. Equivalent fractions is a very tricky concept and the children have shown real resilience and determination as it was pretty difficult!

Click here to keep up with all the Year 4 news.

Year 5 Roundup

English

In English the children have read an example balanced argument and have collected research and vocabulary ideas ready to start writing their own balanced argument about screen use and well being . They have been developing their formal vocabulary and gathering information fom different viewpoints to support their agrument. The children have read research articles, watched videos and gathered views from a range of sources through interviews which included Mrs Lagares and Mrs Critchlow.

The children have really enjoyed having this debate with one another and are regularly changing our own minds from the information gathered!

In science the children have learnt about the life cycle of a plant and got too dissect a daffodil and explaining each part's role in reproduction and extended their knowledge of life cycles by looking at amphibeans and kangeroos.

It has been a great opportunity for the children to extend their knowledge and learn some new interesting facts. For example, “the Common Cuckoo uses a host nest and never actually brings up their offspring!” – Evan.

The children have been thinking about respect and have considered what it means to respect ourselves and others. They started by creating their personal islands to show what is important to them and finished the week by thinking about what respecting ourselves, our family, our community and our world would look like.

Since we have been back at school, we have really pushed the importance of our mental health and wellbeing both in school and online!

Click here to keep up with all the Year 5 news.

Year 6 Roundup

It has been amazing having the children back in school their resilience and adaptability to the changing routines has been incredibly positive. The children have been straight back into their learning about how soldiers used camouflage in WW2 to keep themselves safe; understanding the importance and use of the Mezuzah in RE whilst creating their own; discussing and investigating the respect that we show and have for ourselves, friends, family and the wider community.

The children have been immersing themselves in poetry written by Mordechai Gerbitig, a victim of the holocaust. They have learned about the life of Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing and his invaluable contribution to the war effort. In Art this week, the children built on their sketching and shading techniques and their understanding of proportion in order to draw self-portraits which, combined with ideas gained from last week's camouflage activity, they used to create some lovely WW2 inspired portraits.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 6 news.