Newsletters

25 February 2022

Dear Parents/Carers

Thank you for your support when we returned to school this week following the storms.  There are a few tree trunks that are due to be collected in the next couple of weeks but all other debris has now been removed.  From Monday we will be able to open the back gate again.  If you use the back gate, please do not allow children to play on any of the equipment or play on or near the tree trunks.  We also ask that children remain with parents at all times during drop off and collection and do not wander off to play.   

As you may know, whilst the legal requirement for people to self-isolate following a positive test ended yesterday, the public health advice has not changed.  Adults and children who test positive are still advised to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five days, and to follow the guidance until two negative test results on consecutive days are recorded.

The Department for Education also stated this week that, ‘If a child has any of the main symptoms or a positive test result, the public health advice remains unchanged and is to stay at home and avoid contact with other people'.

In his announcement, the Prime Minister stated that the country was moving from ‘government restrictions to personal responsibility’.  As part of that personal responsibility, it is important that we continue to remain vigilant for Covid-19.  Just as is the case with other viruses, for example norovirus or chicken pox, those infected should stay at home and follow the guidance until they are clear of the illness.  At Wooden Hill School, if your child tests positive for Covid-19, they will not be allowed in school for 5 days following the positive test.

Kind regards,

Mrs Lagares

Calling all NURSES…

This term, Year 2 will be studying Nurses in History. We will be learning about significant historical figures such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, comparing hospitals and nursing in the past with today. We will be having an Experience Day on  Wednesday 30^th March and we would love to organise a visit from a real nurse. If you are nurse or have a background in nursing and would be willing to come and talk to use, please could you let us know.

Thank you!

Parent Support Workshops

To book a space please email your name, school and contact number to Inge.Taylor@bracknell-forest.gov.uk

Your chosen course which will be delivered face to face at the Bracknell Open Learning Centre. You will be asked to complete an enrolment form prior to the start of the course and to follow COVID guidelines. Your place at the session will be confirmed prior to the course and if the paperwork is not completed your space will be offered to someone else.

Parent /Carer Telephone Consultation Sessions

Educational Psychology Service

During the first Covid-19 lockdown, the Educational Psychology Service offered telephone consultations for parents/carers to support with challenges which arose with children and young people during this period of significant change.    Although things have moved on since then, the impact of Covid on the wellbeing of some children, young people and families remains significant.  In response to feedback from our schools, and funded through the government Wellbeing for Education Recovery grant, we will be offering parent/ carer telephone consultations during the Spring term of 2022.

Educational Psychologists (EPs) have expertise in child development, learning and psychological wellbeing. We work collaboratively with children, young people, their families and the professionals who work with them in a range of settings to promote positive change, progress in learning and emotional wellbeing. This is an opportunity for you to discuss, in confidence, any issues which you are struggling with or concerned about in regard to your child /young person.  The focus will be on emotional wellbeing but may also include issues relating to learning, relationships, behaviour and communication. 

What’s on offer

• You will be able to access a confidential 30-minute telephone consultation with an EP or Trainee EP
• These sessions are open to any parent/carer of a Bracknell Forest child or young person (0-25)
• The aim of the session is to provide parents / carers with an opportunity to discuss any concerns and to think through how to move forward with the situation
• Our hope is that by having some time to discuss and reflect on your situation, you will feel better able to cope with your situation and will also have identified some strategies/ways forward
• This is a stand-alone session so there will be no follow up and no written record of the session will be kept 
• We will keep a very brief record of issues discussed for our administrative and monitoring purposes
• Places are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis

What will be covered?

You are the expert on your child/young person, and so we will ask some questions to explore and better understand your concerns.  These may include:

• your child/ young person’s strengths and needs
• key issues for your child/young person
• what things you have already been able to do to support your child/young person
• what your best hopes are for a way forward

You may find it helpful to jot down, in advance, key information you would like to share or to make a note of any questions that you want to ask.  It may also be helpful to make some notes during the consultation.

All that we ask of you is that you provide us with some brief feedback after the session.

For booking details see the form below.  Please complete the table and send to the EPS email address provided. Bookings can only be taken via email and following receipt of a completed booking form (below).

Parent Telephone Consultations Form - Spring 2022 (PDF)

Parent Telephone Consultations Flyer - Spring 2022 (WORD)

Nursery Roundup

Since we last wrote the children have been looking at capacity and using  sand, rice and water to fill containers and used the vocabulary full, empty and half full. They have also poured water and rice between containers, to find out which can hold the most. They also found out about Chinese New Year, how it is celebrated and listened to a story about the animals of the zodiac. From this they completed activities included making lanterns and tiger masks. Some children also chose to draw and colour pictures of the animals from the Chinese zodiac. Other activities have included making marks in flour, a numeral treasure hunt and junk modelling.

During the final week of the term, the children got to look at musical instruments. They enjoyed looking at different types of instruments and how to play them. They then tried to make loud and quiet sounds and play the instruments quickly and slowly.

The children had a very exciting start to the new term by hunting for bears! The children greatly enjoyed listening to the story “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and joined in with the words and actions. The children have greatly enjoyed acting out the story using the small world figures in the bear hunt themed tuff tray and acting it out themselves in the playground. They climbed in and out of the tyres pretending it was ‘squelchy mud’ and used the climbing frame as the ‘deep, dark cave’. Some children have even drawn pictures showing the places that the family from the story walked on their bear hunt.

The children have also been decorating bears and completed bear pencil control activities. Our home corner has been transformed into ‘The Three Bears Cottage’.

Click here to keep up with all the Nursery news.

Year 1 Roundup

A particular highlight for the children before half term was when they explored 'wheels' and 'axels' as part of their Design and Technology lessons. The children learnt how these components work and designed their own adaptations. 

The children have been very careful thinking of the purpose of their model  with many children selecting to create them for their parents and carers or younger siblings. They thought carefully about what colours they might use, the materials they were going to select and even the strength of the model- with many children saying " I need to ensure it is strong so my little sibling can't destroy it".

The children have had lots of fun with their 'maths fluency' lessons. These lessons are short, snappy and practical. The children are learning to 'subitise' numbers - realise what a group of numbers is without counting them and the children are doing a fantastic job at this.

We were exploring numbers 1-10 looking at numbers one more and one less than a given number. We ensured to unscramble our numbers first, and then used our class instead of number blocks to represent numbers. For example, Presley was number three and Teddy was number 10!

We had to make sure to use the language of 'before' and 'after' and our sentence stem was 'I am thinking of a number it is between ___________ and ____________'. Can you have a go playing with an adult at home?

Following the half-term break the children have started a new big question of "What is it?" based on animals. To introduce the children to the topic, they were asked to bring in their favourite animal in photo or toy form. The children were also encouraged to research some fun facts about their animal that they could share with their friends. We were amazed with their facts and their beautifully presented research. Miss Smart learned lots of new facts herself, including that monkeys can feel very poorly when they eat bananas and that huskies love avocado!

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

Year 2 Roundup

Year 2 finished their English topic before half-term bywriting our own reports on lions. They enjoyed making lion masks and watching information videos - Andy’s Adventures was very enjoyable and caused lots of giggles. They then used the information they had gathered to create fact files using headings, subheadings, labels and questions. 

IThe children have been using iPads and Chrome books to create their own digital art. The children have used a range of websites to create their own art, using different shapes, lines, colours and patterns.

On the last day before half term, the children were very excited to go off timetable for the day and focus on a Design and Technology project! They began the day by exploring freestanding structures using a range of construction sets and tried to make their own towers as tall as possible without them falling over. 

They were then set a challenge for the day – to design and build a playground using freestanding structures. They worked together in small groups to think about what our playgrounds would need and which materials they could use. They experimented joining junk materials together using a range of techniques. There was lots of fun and a lot of mess using cardboard boxes, tubes, pipe cleaners, sticks, paper and paint! At the end of the day the children spent time evaluating the playgrounds, sharing what worked well and suggesting ways on how to improve them. 

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

Year 3 Roundup

Year 3 finished the term exploring money, they practised converting between pounds and pence, added and subtracted amounts of money and calculated change. They have used coins, notes and number lines to help with their calculations.

In English, they have begun the unit of work based around the book 'The Wolves in the Walls' which they are finding a bit spooky!

After spending time publishing their Little Red Riding Hood inspired stories, they took them to share with the Year One children who really enjoyed hearing them!

Finally, the children were able to open up their mummified oranges and got to see how the skin had changed both colour and texture and how the salt had changed its consistency where it had absorbed the moisture, they found it all very fascinating!! 

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

Year 4 Roundup

Year 4 have learnt and grown so much in the short term after Christmas. The staff are, as always, incredibly proud of their attitudes to learning. 

Before breaking up for half-term, the children visited Great Hollands Library. The children had a lovely time, learning all about the library services in Bracknell Forest and looking around at the huge selection of books on offer. If you're interested, please visit the Bracknell Forest Libraries website at bracknell-forest.gov.uk/libraries to find out how you can join the library. It is free to join and families are able to take out up to 20 books at a time (these must be returned within 3 weeks or you will be charged).

We hope you all have a safe and fun half term and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 22nd February.

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

Year 5 Roundup

Prior to half-term Year 4 started a new film unit called The Present. The children finding it very relatable so far as it starts with a boy playing video games and getting grumpy when Mum distracts him with a big box. They were all very good at coming up with reasons why Mum would want him to spend more time outside rather than in front of the TV! The children discussed in depth, what could be in the box and how the boy would be feeling. 

In art, the children were inspired by the African artist Thandiwe Muriu, who creates art using bold, bright patterns and photo imagery. They designed their own using felt tips to colour repeating patterns and photographs to create a collage. The children also learnt about society in Benin and performed African dance songs in music.

The term concluded with the children writing their own stories about receiving a gift – a gift that seemed wonderful until the recipient looked closer! We have practised using our success criteria independently and wrote some excellent stories. In Reading, we looked at two examples of persuasive texts – arguing that teachers should be allowed free chocolate! We explored the features and talked about the purpose & audience for the text to decide which was more effective.  

In PSHE, the children learnt about giving First Aid, from managing an asthma attack to finding someone unconscious. They learnt that it is always important to stay calm, call for help and that everyone has a responsibility to help. In RE, we discussed the persecution of Christians, the reasons why and explored how we felt about it, making some informative posters.

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

Year 6 Roundup 

During English lessons, Year 6 have been exploring the life of Anne Frank and the treatment of Jewish children during WW2. They have used her inspirational diary to immerse themselves in the conditions that her family faced. From this, the children created our own diary entries from the point of view of Anne Frank. 

Since half-term children have concluded their investigation into the conditions best suited for growing bacteria. They used this knowledge to understand how they can store food to prevent it from being spoiled and remain edible. 

The children's wartime artwork concluded with the bursting shell-inspired 'bomb explosion'. All of their art can be seen on a new display in the school hall. 

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

~ Dates for the Diary ~