Latest News

Spring is in the air

Fri 29 Mar 2019

It has been uplifting this week to enjoy the bright sunny days - there is a definite sense of Spring in the air.

Professional development has been high on the agenda over the last couple of weeks. We are part of a Telford and Wrekin initiative called 'Future in Mind', this term's event has provided some useful training materials to support our pupils and staff in dealing with difficult issues that may arise for our pupils and families and how to support a positive sense of emotional health and well being, it compliments the impact of calm brain in school brilliantly. This training will be run with all staff in the coming weeks. Mr Peckham, Miss Smallman and Mr Shaw are currently working on a middle leadership qualification to further develop their skills - demonstrating to the children that learning really is a lifelong process.

Carrying on the lifelong learning theme we welcomed lecturers from Newman University this week to work with our Research Council. This is a group of Short Woodies who are supporting Mrs Saunders in her research for her PhD. The council members set the lecturers a number of challenges in our outdoors - their den making skills and team work were noted as particular strengths.

The outdoors has been used over the last couple of weeks to enrich the learning about Anglo Saxons with Year 6 becoming Anglo Saxons for the day, using their knowledge and understanding to take themselves back in time.

Our youngest learners in Early Years have been inspired by their topic of 'I am an engineer' to enter a national competition this week. The competition open to 3 - 16 year olds, it asked entrants to identify a real life problem and come up with potential solutions. The children had some brilliant plans - take a look at the Early Years pages of this site to explore some of their learning this term.

The governing body met last night for their second full meeting of the term. They were delighted with the outcome of the recent Ofsted inspection and congratulated the whole community for their support and efforts to make Short Wood a really positive place to be.

We are celebrating last weeks and this weeks Golden Leaf winners today - we are really proud of their hard work and commitment to being the best they can be.

Don't forget the clocks 'spring' forward and air this weekend.

A sea of red...

Fri 15 Mar 2019

Today certainly looked different across school as our Short Wood blue was replaced with a sea of red in support of Comic Relief. We have been selling red noses for the last couple of weeks, we sold so many we ran out and had to order more!! Our breakfast club has also been producing their own red nose badges to support the fundraising efforts. The cake sales after school will be added to the total before we send off our donation, so far we have raised over £1000, we'll let you know our final total next week.

Science week has generated great excitement across school this week. Children have been designing, making, testing and evaluating a range of vehicles. Leanne Mee is returning to school today so the children can share their science adventure this week. Thanks to the team that lead Science across school for planning such a great week of learning.

We are also really proud of one of our footballing stars, Marriah in Year 4 has been invited to receive additional coaching from Wolves RTC, which is part of the FA Girls England Talent Pathway. Following a tournament at TCAT she was spotted and has been invited to coaching alongside their U10s team. We are so proud of her, hopefully it will be a great experience.

We have been visited by Severn Trent this week to deliver assemblies across KS1 and KS2 to encourage the children to consider our responsibilities to save water. She also met our Eco Warriors who discussed how they can include saving water in their action plan.

Our letter detailing the outcomes of the Ofsted inspection last week has now been released. A copy is on our website and will be emailed out to everyone - printed copies are available from school on request too. We are delighted the letter identifies many of the strengths of our school and recognises how great Short Woodies young and old are.

Congratulations to our Golden Leaf winners this week, we are proud of their achievements and it is lovely to see their chance to shine this week.

On the move...

Fri 08 Mar 2019

British Science Week kicked off in school today with an assembly with The Stem Workshop, led by their managing director Leanne Mee. During the assembly all of our pupils were challenged to become scientists, engineers, mathematicians and designers. Throughout the day each year group have spent time looking at individual challenges and issues relating to journeys and being 'on the move'. Next week everyone will be engaged in tweaking their designs, making them, coming up with their own hypotheses and testing scientifically. They will then draw their own conclusions from the results gathered and share these with their peers.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the Parent view survey as part of our Ofsted inspection this week. We were visited on Tuesday by HMI Bianka Zemke, who undertook a thorough and rigorous inspection of our school. We look forward to sharing the outcome of this inspection in due course.

World Book Day was celebrated on Thursday with storytelling across the school as teachers shared favourite books in different classes. All pupils have had a book token which can be exchanged at book stores for a book specially produced for World Book Day.

We have sold out of red noses this week ahead of Red Nose Day on Friday 15th March. We will be inviting children to wear red on that day for a donation of £1, there will also be a cake sale, all money raised will be sent to Comic Relief. We are hoping to get more noses for next week.

Our girls football team reached the semi finals of their tournament this week and narrowly missed out on penalties. Well done girls - great team effort.

Congratulations to our Golden Leaf winners again this week, they are shining examples 'Short Woodiness'.

Spring is on it's way..

Fri 01 Mar 2019

What a great start to a new half term, pupils and staff have returned refreshed from the mid term break and the sunshine joined us too in order to make this a positive first week back.

We have plenty of exciting learning planned for this half term. We are taking part in National Science Week later this term, we will be having a launch event on Friday 8th March for our 'On the move' science challenge. Look out for updates later in the term.

Thank you to parents who came along to meet Mrs Kennedy to find out about Key Stage 1 SATs. We will be working on these throughout May, everything will be as normal for the children in school. You can support your child by reading together, ensuring they are well rested and have breakfast and a water bottle daily.

The Year 5/6 Girls football team came second in their group this week, the girls played well.

Year 5 experienced how it may feel to be evacuated this week as their teachers transformed the hall into a wartime cinema experience to discover how it would have felt to be in an Air Raid and to develop their empathy towards young people who would have been evacuated.

Nursery and Reception children are really stepping up to the challenge of the Daily Mile. They are arriving ready to go and full of energy. They are also focused on their engineering plans for a national competition called 'The Leaders Award', a competition open to 3-19 year olds.

We have sent out some parental guidance about 'Momo' which you may have seen in the news. Please check your emails for that information. We are also looking at setting up a page on our website to include guidance and links for parents on a range of online issues to support you in talking to your children.

Congratulations to our Golden Leaf winners this week - what a great way to start the half term.