Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Happy Christmas

  Fri 20 Dec 2019

  We started this week being welcomed into Christ Church where the children were able to see the wonderful array of Christmas trees on display as part of their Tree festival, including the trees made by pupils form our school.  The children were brilliant ambassadors for our school as we walked to the church, it was a lovely opportunity for our younger and older Short Woodies to chat and spend time together.

   

  Christmas lunch was served to over 450 pupils and guests on Wednesday, our lunchtime team do an amazing job to ensure this is a celebration for everyone to enjoy.  Mrs Harris made a guest appearance at lunchtime, she wants everyone to know she is working hard on her recovery and hopes to be back with us early in the New Year. 

   

  The school sparkled and shone with all the party gear on Thursday, lots of fun and games were had and a visit from Santa was a highlight.

   

  As always our Golden Leaf winners have been celebrated today - we are really proud of them.  We were sad to say goodbye to Mrs Lucas who is leaving us today, she is going back to New Zealand this weekend to take up a new post next year.  We wish her well and thank her for her hard work at Short Wood.

   

  As we have reached the end of term we are reflecting on a busy time.  Getting to know our new Short Woodies that have joined us this year has been delightful.  So much has been achieved this term through hard work, perseverance and the resilient attitudes of our pupils and staff.  We are grateful to the commitment our staff show to ensuring the creative curriculum provides a broad context for learning, as well as a range of opportunities for the whole community. 

   

  Kindness has been a theme of many of our assemblies this term, today was no exception as our Golden leaf winners were commended for being kind and considerate.  At this busy time of year we hope you can all find time to be kind to yourselves too.  We wish you a Happy Christmas if you are celebrating next week, a happy holiday and peaceful New Year.  School will reopen for pupils on Tuesday January 7th 2020.

  

• Christmas magic...

  Fri 13 Dec 2019

  Wow! That has been the response to many of our performances this week.  We have been treated to such a variety of Christmas inspired performances and the children have truly shone.  The week began with Reception, two out of the three classes beat the weather and had their Christmas around the campfire, and when the weather was really too wet and windy the other class showed great resilience in adapting their performance for the hall.  Whatever the weather the opportunity to share hot chocolate and biscuits with family and friends afterwards was enjoyed and the smiles were heart warming, thank you for the positive messages we have received about how precious these performances were.  Impressive plays from Year 1 and 2 pupils came next, they were brilliant at remembering their lines and their cues to come on and off stage for their moment in the limelight, and sang many songs to make us smile.  Again performing for their family and friends was a highlight.  Thursday began with a visit from The Farm on Wheels - a donkey, sheep, turkey and rat formed the backdrop for the Nursery children to retell the nativity story in their own words and fir them to share what Christmas means to them.  The children's singing was a particular hit with the turkey who got louder as the performance went on.   Our finale came on Thursday night when our Year 5 pupils presented a Victorian Christmas - an evening of traditional Christmas songs were performed to a packed audience, who were treated to handmade gifts too.  The pupils have really been the stars of our shows this week but none of these events would be possible without the creativity and enthusiasm of our staff.  We have also been supported by Jack and Mari from The Schools Arts Trust, we are grateful for their ongoing support.  They have all worked so hard to enable and empower the children to be the best they can be and we thank them for that.  We also want to thank everyone who have come to watch and support the children, family and friends are the most important of audiences, having the Short Wood community together at these events is such a positive experience.

   

  Secret Santas have been  reading in the library this week, sharing some of their favourite Christmas stories.  Thank you to Sky's family who have donated a box of books to school this week we are really grateful.  Next week Mrs Link will be collecting books in and doing her end of term sort out of the library so if you have any books at home please return them.

   

  We have also welcomed some new Short Woodies this week as part of their transition into Nursery.  They will be joining us in January but have come in to experience time in school.  It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to their parents and carers and welcome them to our community.

   

  Next week is a busy one - we have visits to Christ Church on Monday and Tuesday morning, followed by Christmas lunch on Wednesday and parties on Thursday.

   

  Golden Leaf winners are below, they have displayed such an array of talent and Short Woody characteristics and we are very proud of them.

   

  Have a great weekend.

   

   

  

• Singing stars

  Fri 06 Dec 2019

  This week we have had some wonderful comments from community members who have seen our children out and about spreading Christmas cheer.  Key Stage One have visited different care homes to sing their Christmas songs and the Year choir visited Sunnycroft earlier in the week to sing some of the songs they have been learning for their Victorian Christmas celebrations next Thursday.  Thank you to anyone who went along to support them - we know from Sky's Grandma how much everyone enjoyed their performance.

   

  Next week we have a range of Christmas performances planned - dates and times have been sent out by email and on Dojo, if you have any queries please contact the school office.

   

  The library will be the place to be next week after school - we have been informed that Santa is sending some secret readers in.  Visit the library next week to hear Christmas themed stories form our 'Secret Santas'.

   

  All of our staff have been working with Karen Wilding this week on developing the teaching and learning of maths across school.  Karen will be returning for our PD day in January to follow up this training. Staff came away inspired and ready to use some new ideas.

   

  The Year 5 trip to Blists Hill was a success, they were learning all about Victorian life in this area.  They undertook various Christmas related activities such as making a Christmas pudding and rag decorations.  They watched the 'dipping donkey' (ask a Year 5 to explain!) and made their own candles. Everyone really got into the spirit of the day by dressing up and taking on the role of a Victorian person.

   

  The full governing body met on Thursday evening.  This was the second meeting of the term to review their involvement in school development and maintain their strategic overview of the school. There was particular focus on meetings they have held with middle leaders in school and how they are leading initiatives in reading, writing and maths.

   

  Our Golden leaf winners this week have shown all the qualities of brilliant Short Woodies.  We have been talking a lot about kindness over the past couple of weeks, thinking about how simple small things really so mean a lot.  Our Golden Leaf children are great examples of kindess in action!