Newsletter: 31st January 2020
Posted on January 31, 2020 | By Mr Cole
Please remember that if you use Amazon for shopping, music or books, you can go to smile.amazon.co.uk and access your account as usual, but can nominate Friends of Woolsery School as your chosen charity. It doesn’t add anything to your cost, but multi-billion-pound company Amazon donate a small percentage of their profit from your order to the school via their Amazon Foundation. 0.5% of the purchase cost doesn’t seem much, but it soon adds up, so please register if you’ve not already done so. If you use the Amazon app instead of the website for ordering, you can now configue the app to use Smile automatically.
Parent Governor Vacancy
Please remember we still have a parent governor vacancy on the school’s Governing Board. If you are interested in becoming involved with the strategic direction of the school, or would like to become more involved in monitoring our provision, please either speak to Sue Miles in the Office, or to any of the Goverors which can be found on the Governors’ Page here on the Blog.
New kitchen assistant
Next week, we welcome Becky Fisher as our new kitchen assistant working alongside Dave during service of school meals. Becky will become a familiar sight in the dining hall and will try to learn all of the children’s names and food likes/dislikes as quickly as possible! We are hugely grateful to Becci Tanner for filling in the gap in our staffing whilst we carried out recruitment and wish her the best of luck as she returns to Bideford Bay Holiday Park.
School Security
If you come on to our site at breaktime or lunchtime, you will notice some increased security. You can still access Preschool in the usual way, but access to the school office via the red gate will not be possible. If you are collecting, dropping off or need to come in to school during those times, you can use the new Intercom button which is on the wall by the red gate. Someone will come out and let you in. Thanks.
Height and Weight Checks
Next Thursday the School Nursing Team will be in doing height and weight checks for children in Reception and Year 6. It is puely a statistical exercise, so no data is shared which could be traced back to your child. However, if you would prefer your child to NOT take part in this year’s check, please email admin@woolsery.devon.sch.uk before the end of the day on Wednesday so we can remove your child from the list.
Welcome to Mrs Harding
On Monday, Mrs Hayley Harding begins work with us as Teaching Assistant in Cranford Class. Mrs Harding takes over from Mr Steve Pennington, who left at the end of the summer term and whose post was filled temporarily by Mrs Walter. We very much look forward to welcoming Mrs Harding as part of the team, and I am sure your children will enjoy working with her.
Class-based staff have all now received their intial training for a new approach to Physical Education that we will be introducing across the school, from Sunflowers to Year 6 from after Half Term. The new approach is very much focused on developing key PE skills alongside strategic thinking, cognitive development, creativity and health & wellbeing. We are very excited by the new approach and the classes who have been trialling it for us (mostly Stroxworthy Class children) have been very positive about it so far. Create Development, who own the Real PE brand, are well established in the education community and the package we have bought will see an uptake in active participation during lessons and skills progression across the Early Years and Primary phases.
Specialist Teachers from Create Development will be in school all day next Tuesday to run “demo” lessons for each class – so please ask your child about it when they get home and give us any feedback via this form: https://forms.gle/NrJxPmhvhasPukzA8
With your input, we can ensure that as many children as possible enjoy their PE lessons and develop the skills needed to be physically active. There are only four questions so it really won’t take long to do. Thanks for your help!
London Residential
Just a reminder that I will be giving a presentation about the Year 5 London residential straight after school on Monday. If you are able to attend, it would be very useful as I will be able to give you key information about the trip and what your child needs to prepare for it. The meeting will take place in Mrs Farmer’s Classroom (Alminstone). Your child is welcome to come along too, although I will be meeting with them seperately in the run up to the visit so they won’t miss anything if they’re unable to come along.
Team Woolley Burscott Bake Sale and Coffee Morning
Team Woolley (formerly known as FOWS) are running a Cake Sale and Coffee Morning in the school hall next Friday morning between 9am and 10am. This is for parents, grandparents, friends and the wider community so please spead the word! We would really love to see you there and help with Burscott Class’ half term fundraising effort for our newly re-formed PTA. Burscott Class children will be helping to serve you and keep you entertained for the morning.
Left-overs will be sold to the children at breaktime in place of the usual Tasty Tuck (for the usual 50p) but really this fundraiser is aimed at the grown-ups – please support if you can – thank you.
Enterprise Voice are expanding their business empire next week, building on their success with Fridays Tasty Tuck Shop. On Wednesdays they will be running a stationery shop at morning breaktimes, selling items such as rubbers, bendy rulers, colouring pencils and so on. This is a great exercise for them in profit and loss, as they need to repay their start-up loan and reinvest any profits into buying more stock. If your child would like to buy any items, please send coins in in a named envelope, thank you.
First of all, well done to the children who received Headteacher Awards on Monday for last week (I was out of school all day…)
- Cranford: Isabeau – Amazing work in letters and sounds; Arthur – amazing maths, adding three numbers together
- Burscott: Melanija Bankova – demonstrating good skills in PE; Evie – working well as part of a team in gardening
- Ashmansworthy: Morgan – trying hard to improve his answers in reading comprehension; Natalie – being an effective team member in High-Five
And also, very well done to the chidlren who received a certificate for this week’s work:
- Cranford: Mollie-Jo – sounding out so many words in Letters & Sounds; Jenson – working hard in Letters and Sounds
- Burscott: Isla-Mae – being kind and helpful to adults; Finley – being resilient with his learning
- Stroxworthy: Elayna – excellent effort in all lessons; Jackie – excellent effort at the Multiskills Festival
- Alminstone: Isla-Mae – always being supportive of her class mates, even when it’s difficult!; Ralph – Showing good understanding of fractions in maths
- Ashmansworthy: Alexander – working hard in science to make circuite and explaining how they work; Aiden – trying really hard to answer questions clearly and in detail in reading this week.
So far this term, the Family Group Point Totals are still very close, so it’s all to play for for the Crazy Hair Day at the end of term…
- Oak and Willow – both on 225
- Elder – 223
- Hazel – 213
- Sycamore – 203
- Beech – 199
- Silver Birch – 168
- Monday: London Residential Parents’ Meeting 3:30 – 4:30pm
- Tuesday: REAL PE lessons with each class throughout the day
- Wednesday: Stroxworthy Class Viking Day, Stationery Shop launches.
- Thursday:
- Friday: Team Woolley’s Burscott Bake Sale and Coffee Morning (9-10am; all welcome)