Newsletter: 10th December 2021

Plenty of Fairy Dust!

I very often say how proud I am of our children, but it’s hard to know where to even begin following this week’s performances of Peter Pan. We have been inundated with wonderful comments from parents and friends who are completely unanimous that the children’s enthusiasm and commitment to this year’s Production was first rate and that the performance was outstanding. I can only agree!

It’s just impossible to single anyone out for their performance as everyone gave it absolutely everything they had for the four performances this week. What’s been particularly amazing as teachers is to have seen how some usually reserved and perhaps underconfident children truly shine through their portrayals and we very much hope that for these children especially, the experience of Peter Pan will stay with them for a long time to come.

For those of you who weren’t in the audience last night, we had a lovely email from Naomi Johnson, the Peter Pan songwriter, who saw the photos on our blog page. She was so impressed that she was going to drive down from London yesterday to watch the show, but sadly Covid restrictions prevented her from doing so. This is her message:

Dear Children of Woolsery School,

As the songwriter on this project, I am beyond thrilled to hear about how your school have been getting on with Pan.

A crocodile made of reception boys is a fabulous idea- I love it! These photos look stunning – the time an effort that has gone into the costumes and staging is incredible. I’m so glad you’re back to singing!

Please congratulate your whole cast, from tinkerbell to the reception class croc! They’re all absolutely amazing, and are truly the reason we write these shows! You’ve well and truly made my day- and I will pass this on to my co-writers.

Kind regards and best of luck for your final show! (if you weren’t 4 hours away I’d be hopping in the car and asking for a ticket!)

Naomi Johnson

Please remember to leave a comment on the photo page – we’ll share all comments withe the children between now and the end of term.

If you didn’t manage to pick up a souvenir programme at the performances, there is a stack of them by the Office if you would like to pick one up. The donation bucket is next to them if you’d like to pop in a few coins. Thank you.

FOWS

We are so delighted that Peter Pan went ahead, another amazing experience the children will never forget – Thank you Mr Cole and Siobhan.

Two weeks ago Team Woolley started running around to fund raise for Peter Pan. We took photos for the programme, designed it, found businesses to sponsor it, and sent it to print. We asked you for raffle prizes and you kindly donated. We approached supermarkets who donated mince pies.

Before each show it was great to see so many of you generously buy raffle tickets, purchase a programme and donate for a mince pie. We have been astounded by the generosity from you, and the Woolsery community.

And what was the result of all that running around? Team Woolley raised £1,600 for the children of Woolsery school.

The money will be used to pay for show costs, but remaining funds will go towards trips out, essential equipment and start work on our new school garden.

Thank you to Neil, Sarah, Louise, Kate & Ally for making it happen.

…Imagine what we could do with more help…

Christmas Lunch

I hope your children enjoyed Dave’s delicious Christmas Lunch yesterday. It was a lovely occasion and the food was absolutely lovely.

Thank you to Dave, Tina, Rachel and Judith for all their hard work!

Free School Meals families: holiday opportunities

There is a national scheme which has been rolled out by Local Authorities including Devon County Council. The scheme, called Holiday Activities and Food, (or HAF for short) aims to support families in keeping their children active and well fed during the school holidays. It is available for families in who qualify for means-tested Free School Meals (not universal Free School Meals for KS1) If you would like to find out more, go to this link: https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationandfamilies/family-support/haf-programme

School Zig Zags

Please remember that you must not park on the yellow zig zags on the approach road to the school. This is because we need access to the car park at all times and the zig zags have been applied by the County Council to give maximum visibility for, and of, children. Thanks.

Next Week…

The last week of term is almost here! Each class has a party planned and teachers will have been in contact if they need children to bring in particular items. If your class are wearing party clothes, these should be sent in in a bag so the children can change from their school uniform at lunchtime.

We’re really sorry to have had to cancel the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 Christmas Songs morning in the Church and also Burscott Class’ Polar Express event, but with restrictions tightening further, coupled with the closeness to the Christmas weekend we’d much rather err on the side of caution.

On Friday morning, the children will be together for our annual Carols Round The Tree. This is a very low-key and relaxed time for all children to get in the festive mood. Each class performs an item or two and we sing some of our favourite Christmas songs. There will be no Tasty Tuck next week.

And finally, on Friday the winning Family Group will be able to come to school in non-school uniform. We will announce the winning family group on Wednesday once the final points have been tallied up.


Well done to everyone who has received the last Headteacher Awards of the term for showing great Learning Behaviours…

Sunflowers: JJ (tortoise) – Separating from parent independently and confidently;  Maddie (tortoise) – Separating from parent independently and confidently

Cranford Class: TJ (bee) – being kind and helpful to his friends at school; Harry (spider) – writing a “Dear Santa” book, sounding out all the words

Burscott Class: Ariah (tortoise) – for always working hard trying her best; Alfie (owl) – super effort in his learning, looking forwards and backwards across the sequence, and amazing behaviour at our performances

Stroxworthy Class: Tommy (dolphin) – diving into his learning when working with alliteration in English; Olivia (tortoise) – being resilient by continually improving her handwriting

Alminstone Class: Arthur (spider)  – thinking of some beautifully descriptive noun phrases this week; Harry (dolphin) – working so hard at learning all of the words for the songs, and singing them with such enthusiasm

Ashmansworthy Class: Henry (tortoise) – being resilient and not giving up despite his voice flying off to Neverland!; Isaac (tortoise) – being resilient and shining through this week regardless of the distractions around him!

 

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