Across school we have been inspired by the book 'Inside the Villains' by Clotilde Perrin this week.  This is a wonderful book that looks at different fairy tale villains - The Wolf, The Giant and The Witch. 

Early Years explored why The Wolf was being so bad and decided that it was because he felt so sad and must have a broken heart.  From this idea they invited parents in to a DT workshop event to create The Wolf and create a circuit to light up his heart again.  Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend, take a look at Mrs Doult's blog in the Early Years section of the Class pages for pictures :https://www.shortwoodprimaryschool.com/mrsdoults-blog-1/

Key Stage 1 started their week by following a trail to discover the witches who had come to visit on Monday.  They asked questions and created some beautiful art work based on The Witch in the book.  Key Stage 2 pupils explored the character of The Giant.  They used the giant in our playground as part of their Maths work and found out about the tallest people alive too.  Year 6 pupils were able to decide how to express their ideas creatively.  Evie in Year 6 wrote an amazing poem which looked at how The Giant was perhaps not so mean after all and that maybe Jack wasn't such a good guy - she is going to illustrate her work then we will publish it on this site. 

Key Stage 1 classes also managed to pack in the DT workshops with parents where they got to create their own puppet designs. These were really well attended, thank you for your support.

Year 5 enjoyed a trip up to Ercall Wood on Tuesday to see a preview of their production of 'Little Shop Of Horrors'.  The year group were accompanied by Mr Corbett, our Vice Chair of Governors.  It is always inspiring for current Short Woodies to see the older generation of Short Woodies in the next phase of their school lives.  There was a real buzz from the children about the performance.  Following their trip to Ercall Wood Year 5 got to launch their gliders this week that they had created in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workshops previously.  They were evaluating the success of their designs - great fun was had by all with some great learning in evidence.  Later in the year we are going to be building on the success of the workshops by using one of our PD Days in June to focus on STEM learning across school. 

PTA Bingo was well attended last Friday, a fun family night out.  Thanks to the PTA members who volunteered their time to organise and run the event which raised over £250.  If anyone has ideas for future events please speak to our PTA members who can be found selling cakes on a Friday or contacted through the school office.  We have also had a group of Year 5 boys who have worked with Mrs Harris to create a 'Valentine's Day' tombola. Dylan, one of our school council captains, and his team have raised over £130.  Well done boys, a great example of Short Woodiness.

Congratulations to our Golden Leaf winners this week, they are great examples of everything Short Woodies are.  One of our winners was particularly thrilled to receive her prize from award winning author Berlie Doherty too, for writing the star letter on her webpage this month - well done Alexandra a double celebration today!

Today was the last day of this half term and marks half way in the academic year. We are encouraging all of our pupils to increase the time they spend reading at home, the practice is so important to reinforce the work in school, we would appreciate parents and carers supporting them in this and completing reading diaries so we can acknowledge their efforts in school. 

We want you to have a lovely happy half term - please find time to spend some quality time to enjoy together, hopefully the weather will be kind!  We will see you all back on Monday 25th February.