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Short Wood superstars

Fri 30 Nov 2018

"The best thing about Short Wood is that you can ask for help and no one judges you." Erica, Class 17.

Every week at Short Wood we use positive quotes to inspire each other - these are researched carefully by our team and shared with everyone, today Erica's quote felt inspiring and definitely worth sharing.

There has been lots happening over the last couple of weeks. The sports teams are having a lot of success. The gymnastics team came 7th out of 17 teams, Armani showed particularly good posture and core control. The Year 5/6 boys team are through to the quarter finals having beat Aqueduct 5-2. The Year 3/4 Girls football team are currently top of their league after a 1-0 win at John Fletcher with one match to play.

Some of our Year 5 and 6 pupils recently experienced a musical theatre extravaganza at Wrekin College where they experienced what is was like to be part of the musical The Lion King. Jack Pierce from The Schools Arts Trust and TACT was leading the day and fed back how engaged and enthusiastic our Short Woodies were - brilliant ambassadors for the school.

Back in school the Key Stage 1 pupils have put on two brilliant shows this week and we are really pleased so many of you came to support your children. They created their Grand Show as the finale to a great term of work using the Katie Morag books as their starting point. The staff team wrote and produced the whole performance showing just what a creative team we have. Well done to everyone involved, the pupils were total stars. Our Early Years team are currently putting together their outdoor celebration while Year 5 are perfecting their songs for the Carols around the Tree on December 11th.

The school council met recently and nominated two of their members - Sami and Ameena - to be health and safety representatives. They have since met with Nigel Evans, our Health and Safety Governor and Chris from the Site Team to do a health and safety walk around school. They identified some issues with finger strips and queried the maintenance of the throw lines that are on balconies. These are issues that are now being followed up, Sami and Ameena will be doing a follow up walk soon.

We have hosted Swedish teachers in school this week, a group of 10 teachers, some from the schools our teachers visited last year, came to experience school life in the UK. They were impressed by the openness and welcoming nature of the school and how interested the children were in learning from them. One of them even led a session in Class 17 teaching about how life is in Sweden.

As always we have had our Golden Leaf assembly this week to say a big well done to our winners. They are great examples of everything we want our Short Woodies to be.

Golden Leaf winners!

Tue 27 Nov 2018

Choose Respect

Fri 16 Nov 2018

'Choose Respect' has been a theme across school this week as we have highlighted the Anti Bullying Alliance's national campaign. Pupils responses have been powerful and they have discussed with each other how being a Short Woody helps to remind them for the need to be respectful, to themselves and each other. Amna in Class 12 wrote a beautiful poem which has been published on our Brighter Minds page, please take a moment to read it.

Year 5/6s won their football match against St Mary's Primary, Madeley this week 3-1. The Year 3/4 girls football team also won, 2-0 against Coalbrookdale. Our Tag Rugby team played in the Telford and Wrekin finals, narrowly missing out on a place in the final match due to a golden try. The Boccia team joined other teams from Telford and Wrekin schools in a tournament at Telford Tennis Centre. Our teams all showed a great team spirit and most importantly really enjoyed representing the school.

Our teaching team welcomed teachers from High Ercall Primary school this week. We worked together and discussed the Maths teaching and learning happening in both schools. We shared ideas and strategies, we will be getting together next week to look at writing across the two schools.

Class 9 performed their sharing assembly on Thursday this week focussing on the theme of Recycling, Reducing and Reusing. This was a timely assembly as the Eco Warriors have also met this week. Their main idea is to look at the potential of composting, they are going to discuss what happens to fruit waste in their classes.

On Wednesday evening the Wrekin Cooperative Learning Trust AGM took place. One of our key targets for next year is setting up a parents council. If anyone is interested in developing this idea please contact Mrs Harris through the school office.

On Thursday this week we welcomed student teachers from Rotterdam. Last year we had a visit of 12 students, they shared how good they thought the visit was and this year there were 25! The focus of the visit was to consider the benefits of learning outside the classroom. They had the pleasure of visiting Class 10's forest school session, they joined in Year 5's outdoor maths and finally they joined Reception at squirrel school where they were exploring the story of Little Red Riding Hood and how they might deal with the Big Bad Wolf. The students left inspired by the approaches to learning they observed and by just how delightful and welcoming our Short Woodies are.

Today has been 'spottacular' in school as Short Woodies have come together to raise money for Children in Need, by break time we had raised over £400, this total will rise with the after school cake sale proceeds. We will let you know the grand total next week. Thank you for supporting this worthy cause.

As always we have celebrated the success of our Golden Leaf winners today, we are really proud of them as they are of themselves.

Welcome back

Fri 09 Nov 2018

We have had a busy start back in school for the second half of the Autumn term. Teachers have been busy planning inspiring learning for the term ahead.

The week began with a visit from Wellington's Mayor. She joined our assemblies to present prizes for the Peggy Harrison poetry competition. Following the assemblies she joined our Year 3 pupils for Calm Brain to see how our Short Woodies are being supported to find moments of calm in their day. We have been invited to visit the council offices to see the Market Charter on display as part of our 'In the Shadow of the Wrekin' topic.

Staff have visited BEAM in Wellington this week to find out what the project has to offer. We are really lucky to have such a valuable resource right on our doorstep to support the Emotional Health and Well Being of our young people. We have joined their mailing list and will share information on our website as we receive it. If a young person you know needs some help or support it is really worth a visit.

Our Eco-council are going to be busy as the term goes on - we are looking at achieving Green Flag status so will be taking a careful look at how eco friendly we are and where we can potentially make changes to get even better.

School council met on Wednesday, they discussed how we can make the playground even better than it is. Mrs Lowndes who teaches in Year 5 and Mrs Duce, who leads the lunchtime team, joined the meeting. The council have come up with a set of rules and reminders that we are going to have displayed around the play ground. They are also gathering ideas about additional equipment that would enhance playtimes. They are going to recruit new play leaders and playground mentors to offer peer support on the playground at break time and lunchtime. Posters are being created to advertise the roles and then interested individuals will be asked to complete a short application and take part in training.

Remembrance has been a theme through school this week. Pupils have taken part in assemblies to think about why we wear poppies and some classes have used this theme as part of their class based work, early years pupils proudly wore their home made poppies to the Golden Leaf assembly this morning, where as a school we took a moment for quiet reflection. This afternoon Year 5 are visiting the 'Gratitude Café' in Wellington, they will be taking their '100' poppy display. On Sunday members of the school council will be representing Short Wood at the Remembrance Parade in Wellington, our council captains will be laying a wreath on behalf of our school. Thank you to parents who are bringing members along to enable us to be part of such an important community event.

On Thursday Year 5 were joined by Jack Pierce from The Schools Arts Trust and The Arts Centre Telford (TACT) to begin their preparations for their 'Carols around the tree' Christmas celebration. The singing yesterday was beautiful, we can't wait to share their performance later in the term. Preparations for all Christmas performances across school are underway. We are doing things a little differently this year, early years are planning outdoor celebrations, KS1 are rehearsing for their Grand Show - inspired by Katie Morag stories. Look out for key dates, we will get them added to the calendar on this site as soon as possible.

You may have thought you had travelled back in time this morning if you arrived as the 'Ancient Greeks' were heading into the sports hall. Year 6 are emerged in all things Greek today. Later in the term they will be presenting their learning in their 'Night at the Museum' experience.

Next week is Anti Bullying week - a national focus to highlight how important it is that we deal with any issues that arise and support individuals involved. The theme this year is 'Choose Respect' . We will be having a day on Wednesday where children will be invited to wear odd socks to highlight the focus. There will be work across school next week on the theme of Respect - for themselves, each other and the world in which we live. We want to empower our children and adults to feel equipped to deal with situations that present themselves. Please take time to chat to your children about this topic. At the end of the week we will also be supporting Children in Need, look out for details.

Well done as always to our Golden Leaf winners this week, we are really proud of them and as importantly they are proud of themselves.