This week we have been focussing on reviewing pupil progress and looking at our aims for this term.  It is a pleasure to talk to the teaching teams about how the pupils in their classes are doing and the next steps or interventions we need to put in place to support every child to be the very best they can be.  This will be shared with parents and carers at the upcoming parents evening (Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st January). Don't forget to book appointments online or call the office if you need any help.

School council met this week to discuss the impact of Calm Brain and to share their views on the topics they have been learning about.  One of the key messages about Calm Brain is that it creates a ' better place for learning that is calm, quiet and focussed'.  Some of the other quotes included:

'you feel calm to work so you don't worry about giving everything a go',

'after the excitement of break when you have lots of energy it calms our brain and helps us think',

'some of the new ones make you laugh, it is good to laugh together', 'by doing calm brain first it changes the way I think, the way I am working on things'. 

Some of the older members were also keen to understand a little more of the science behind the programme so we will look at how we can do this as the year goes on.

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting this week that looked at our Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum and the new Respect Yourself resource to support the delivery of the relationships and sex education aspect of our curriculum.  The feedback we received was really valuable and will inform the way we implement the resource.  We will review this as a management team and then offer another opportunity for parents and carers to feed back to us.  Working in partnership with parents and carers is really important  to ensure we are delivering the best outcomes for all of our Short Woodies.

A groups of Year 6 pupils had a fabulous opportunity this week to spend a day at Newman University.  Mrs Saunders is currently studying for her PhD and has identified a small group of pupil researchers to work with her.  The pupils spent the day with different academics learning about ethics, data collection and research methods.  The pupils shared the Short Wood website and were excellent ambassadors for our school.

We have sporting successes to report again this week, our Archery team have qualified to represent Telford and Wrekin  later in the term after achieving third place in the local competition.  The basketball team played against local schools and achieved third and fourth place. 

The PTA met this week, they are planning some fun events as fundraisers for the school, including family bingo on Friday 8th February, look out for details being displayed around school soon.  If anyone would like to come along and volunteer to support these events please contact the chair, Mrs Marie Duce, through the school office.

Congratulations to our golden leaf winners this week we are really proud of all of their hard work.