Latest News

Kindness and creativity

Fri 29 Nov 2019

We have been treated to two brilliant performances this week from Year 4 and Year 6. Year 4 presented a lovely assembly focussed on kindness - they reminded everyone of the benefits being kind to others brings and how it makes us feel better in ourselves too. Year 6 presented a range of work from their 'Is there anybody out there?' topic which has looked at all things related to Space. They have created wonderful art pieces which have been framed and displayed around school, they performed dances inspired by listening to The Planets Suite by Holst and have designed and made models of buggies for exploring the moon's surface.

Our school council have met with the Telford and Wrekin catering team this week to redesign our school dinner menu. They discussed a range of options and shared their own ideas that they have collected from talking to their classmates. They have organised a visit from the Eat Well team so that pupils can sample different foods and are now going to work with their class mates in designing the new menu.

Sports Council have also met this week, they are always looking for how to develop our sporting offer across school gathering ideas for teams and sports our pupils would like to become involved in.

Rehearsals are well under way for the Christmas performances, Early Years are again planning an outdoor nativity after the success of last year's event and Nursery have the farm visiting. Our Year 5 team are planning the Victorian Christmas evening again this year which was so enjoyable last year. We also have a number of community events planned where our Short Woodies are out and about singing their Christmas songs.

Kindness was a theme running through our Golden leaves this week - kindness is an essential part of being a fab Short Woody. Congratulations to all of our winners this week we are really proud of them all.

Speak up saty safe

Fri 22 Nov 2019

The volunteers from the NSPCC returned to school this week to work with Year 5 and 6 pupils on how to keep themselves safe. They were really complimentary about the engagement of our pupils and the range of questions they asked and the responses they gave. A range of topics were covered including online safety and bullying as well as identifying different forms of abuse and the need to speak out if there was anything that worried them.

Staff across school have been undergoing safeguarding training around exploitation and vulnerability delivered by West Mercia police. The sessions this week focused on the dangers the online world can present. We are all aware of the amazing possibilities the internet presents but there are pitfalls and issues we all need to consider. Communication with our pupils about online activity is crucial and we would encourage you to have discussions at home about apps they are using and games they are playing. The NSPCC have a dedicated online safety helpline 0808 800 5002 which you can call for any guidance or support, if you need to check privacy settings or parental controls O2 also offer a free advice service with their O2 gurus - you can call into any store whether you are an O2 customer or not. Apps are constantly evolving as is the language our young people are using in the online environment, for all of us as professionals and parents, our challenge is to keep talking to our young people to keep them safe.

We were delighted to receive our School Games Platinum Award, the best we can get, this week. Bridie and Evan represented the school, alongside Coach Butler, and collected the trophy at the event at Telford Langley School. We are really proud of the range of activities on offer at Short Wood both competitive and non competitive opportunities, the curriculum offer and the number of free after school and extra curricular clubs. The commitment of the staff is a real credit to our school, everyone appreciates the benefits both physically and mentally of regular activity and the sense of achievement our pupils show is a pleasure to see.

Our Golden Leaves this week were also a pleasure to share today, the core values of friendship, commitment and resilience really stood out this week.

Poppies, Odd Socks, Spots and Stripes!

Wed 13 Nov 2019

We have had a full week of events at school this week. The whole school took part in the national 2 minutes silence on Monday to mark Armstice Day. The children were really respectful and reflective during our whole school assembly.

Class 7 delivered an excellent assembly this week

It has been National Anti-Bullying Week this week, the Anti-Bullying Alliance are running a campaign called 'Change starts with us'. The school council took a lead across school to deliver assemblies to highlight the need to speak up and to share ideas about the best ways to tackle bullying behaviour. It felt like a proactive response to an issue that needs to be challenged. The children were all very clear about how they can help themselves and each other by talking. The weblinks below provide more information about the national campaign and valuable advice for parent and carers - particularly around cyber bullying, this is a particular concern for us at school as children have an increasing access to online games and social media. We have emphasised to children that online the same rules about how you treat others and encouraged them to talk to adults about their online activity:

https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/

https://parentinfo.org/

Speaking out was the theme for the NSPCC assemblies on Tuesday too. As part of our Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum the NSPCC volunteers talked to the children about their mascot 'Buddy' who is spreading the message that children have the right to be heard and not to be harmed and that they need to speak out. Years 5 and 6 will having follow up workshops next week. If you would like further information or resources to talk to your child about at home please follow the link below:

https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying/

Today was a sea of spots, stripes and Pudseys across school as Short Woodies supported Children In Need. This was a light hearted way of supporting such a valuable charity. IT has given us another opportunity to talk about our community and the power of working together to make positive things happen. Seeing our young people show how much they care is really empowering.

The qualities of a Short Woody have been celebrated this week in our Golden Leaf awards. These are shining examples of whom we are really proud.

Many thanks for your support this week with poppies, odd socks, spots and stripes! This is a busy term, if you have any questions or queries please do speak to your child's class teacher or call into the office.

Whizz, bang, wow!!

Fri 08 Nov 2019

Thursday night certainly went off with a bang here at Short Wood. Our Key Stage One team planned and delivered a fabulous range of experiences for the children as part of their celebrations topic which culminated in an amazing firework display, enjoyed by adults and children alike. Sharing the excitement, awe and wonder with the children was just brilliant and the creative ideas and follow up has been a pleasure to share.

Year 6 have been developing their engineering skills this week as they have taken on the challenge of designing and building a Mars Rover, building on the skills they developed in Year 5 making rockets they planned and made buggies to be tested on different surfaces, combining DT and Science skills to good effect.

Our teaching team came together to share writing examples across school this week, we were looking at age related expectations to ensure children are making good progress from one year to the next. There was a wide variety of writing on show and it really demonstrated the creative approaches used to engage our pupils.

Thank you to a group of Year 6 boys, led by Dylan our school council captain, for organising a charity chocolate tombola in school this week. We will let you know the final amount of money raised which will be heading to a good cause shortly.

Next week we will be supporting the national Anti Bullying week with assemblies and work in school discussing this important message, an odd socks day next Thursday will highlight the campaign. We will also be supporting Children in Need next Friday, for a donation of £1 pupils can come to school dressed in spots and/or stripes.

Congratulations to our Golden Leaf winners this week, they have displayed excellent Short Woody characteristics and are excellent role models for others to follow.