Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
This week has been one of adventure, team work and creativity for our Year 6 pupils in particular. On Monday a group accompanied by Dr Saunders, Coach B, Miss Taylor and Mel set off to Arthog in North Wales for their residential. The pictures on the gallery page of our site have shown how much fun they have had. The staff have reported amazing team work, courage with tricky new challenges and super Short Woodiness all round. A highlight for Mrs Harris was receiving a video of 'Power in Me' performed from the welsh hillsides. Back in school the Year 6 children have had their Arthog adventures at home. They have done some amazing outdoor learning, including some beautiful natural Art work inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. They have canoed with the Arthog team and written some powerful poetry too. What a week - phew! Half term will be needed to recharge!!
Class 5 visited Sunnycroft this week to explore their grounds. Everyone had such a great time. They searched for clues and images, they identified different plants, comparing them to those they saw at during their Botanical Gardens visit, and had a great time playing freely in the open space. Thankfully the weather brightened up through the morning so they could enjoy a picnic lunch too. Children in Reception had planned to visit too this week to use their apple press, however the weather beat us on this occasion, hopefully we will be able to rearrange this visit soon.
Year 5 had the chance to develop their scientific knowledge and understanding of how animals have evolved and adapted to their environment with a visit from Mo from Animals in Hands. This not only improved their scientific knowledge, but also supported their emotional health and well being as they handled the animals and understood the importance of each species.
We are excited to share that we have also received money from Wickes this week to purchase equipment to support the STEM week in Year 6 following one of our pupils writing to the store. Thank you to Wickes for supporting this project.
We have also been awarded a grant to develop our music curriculum outdoors from Universal Music UK Sound Foundation. We will be using this to develop our outdoor spaces by putting a range of musical instruments around the site.
Our school council badges were given out this week. Each class discussed and demonstrated their understanding of democracy as they voted for a member of their team to become the representative on the school council. These pupils will be working together to share their classmates views and ideas about school. They will meet with the Head Teacher, the Governors and other key members of staff across the year to work together.
You will now be receiving regular online safety newsletters by email, with relevant and up to date information and guidance. The online world continually evolves at a pace that can be difficult to keep up with. Online safety is taught across our curriculum but we wanted to support you at home too. We hope you will find this a useful resource.
You will be aware of the rising number of COVID cases nationally and in the locality. We continue to implement a range of controls in school, including increased ventilation, a cleaning regime, and regular testing for staff. The one way system is still in use, and we do ask everyone to take responsibility for their own social distancing around the site. Children in Year 5 and 6, with permission, can walk to and from school but all other pupils need to be accompanied by an adult around the site. We have had to step up measures for 2 classes on the advice of the public health team. This has meant resuming the bubbles for those groups, they have played at different times in the MUGA and had lunches delivered to class. Staff have remained within these bubbles too. All staff have been asked to wear masks in communal areas, if you are visiting school please have a mask available. After the half term break we will be reviewing our measures in light of the latest guidance and will inform you of any changes, thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Today is the last day of half term, we return to school on Monday 1st November. We hope you all have a fun half term and find time to relax too.
Thank you to everyone this week who contributed to our Harvest celebrations. We had an amazing array of food and other essentials to donate to the Kip project locally which supports homeless people locally as well as supporting the work of the local foodbanks which anyone can access if they need some additional support. The Year 1 and 2 children delivered a beautiful assembly - The performance of Little Red Hen was a particular highlight. We were delighted to welcome SImon, from the KiP project alongside Stuart and Ann who hosted our visits to Christchurch earlier in the week. Following their visit to the church to see their harvest displays the children had made their own bread to add to our harvest display. This week has been an excellent opportunity to understand how some of our food is produced, but also a time to reflect on the importance of sharing and how we build stronger communities by working together.
Year 6 have been immersed in their Arts fortnight. Having explored a range of artistic skills and techniques to discover how to build texture for fur, the resulting pictures have blown us away. It has also been delightful to hear how having time to be totally focussed on the art work has helped pupils understand the positive impact on their emotional health. We hope to have some of the wolf pictures displayed around school and online - accompanied by the soundscapes composed by the pupils.
Visits to the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham this week for Years 3 and 4 were a real success. Pupils were amazed and intrigued by the range of plants and animals they encountered. Being able to take the children out on these experiences is such a crucial part of our curriculum, we have missed being able to go during the pandemic, it really brings the topics alive. We are looking forward to seeing the resulting work this half term and how the children use the knowledge they acquired during the visit back in school.
Our Early Years children are getting to know Squirrel school. They are finding out about what grows in and around our school site, with a particular focus on the apple trees near the sports hall. We are looking forward to working with the National Trust at Sunnycroft this term to use the apple press to create our own juice.
Congratulations to our Year 6 pupils achieving their swimming awards in recent weeks. So much swimming time was lost through the pandemic, however we are working hard to ensure we catch up as quickly as we can.
Next week we will be putting our special golden leaves onto the tree in Tim's Garden. This is a really important part of being a Short Woody, they act as a reminder of the promises we make to care for each other, to work hard, to follow the rules and to believe in ourselves. If you haven't already returned your home school agreement please do so as soon as possible.
Have a great weekend, hopefully we can enjoy some bright Autumn days.
Overall School: 93.2%