World of Woodland Issue 05

This month's value is: Peace

The Christmas period actually begins tomorrow – advent calendar windows start to open and the Christmas lights inside and outside homes start to shine – and our pupils start to get that feeling of anticipation…Christmas is coming…

 At Woodland we do try and strike a balance between assuring that all our pupils (and staff) are focused on their learning (an d teaching) right up to the holidays but also that there are fun events too and that begins today with our non-uniform day. Thanks for your generosity in donating items for our Christmas Fayre (6-8pm on 7th  December) we particularly appreciate the gifts for our tombola's (drinks, Christmas foods, soft toys, chocolates, toiletries) and also the toys & games for our sales. We are happy to receive items all through next week, so please do let us have what you can spare – thank you so much!

 The Christmas cupcake competition is open to all – all entries for this CASH PRIZE competition should arrive at school Thurs/ Fri next week to the front office. They will all be sold on our refreshment stand along with hot dogs, mulled wine, mince pies and a few other items from our licensed bar.

Our Christmas period events are as follows:

3rd Dec Christmas Card post box opens

7th  Dec Christmas Fayre 6-8pm

10th Dec Y5  Christingle service 2.40 pm

12th Dec Carol Service 7pm

13th  Dec Christmas Lunch 12-2pm

13th  Dec Christmas disco  5pm/7pm

14th Dec Christmas Pop-up Shop £1-3

18th  Dec Christmas Concert 7pm

19th Dec Staff Panto performances (am)

19th Dec KS   Panto trip (pm)

Over the past couple of weeks we have had several curriculum events at school to support our pupils’ learning including a visit by Danny Butler, a stunt BMX cyclist who not only ‘wowed’ the audience with his daring stunts but also delivered a powerful anti-bullying message.

Y8 pupils all attended the Skills Show in Birmingham to consider their future career paths, with exhibitors there from diverse vocations such as Motor Sport to Film makeup and Aeronautics to Medicine; the pupils are sure to have found something that might be interesting to them for their future. Thanks to the PTA for hugely subsidising the travel costs for this event.

Rugby Success from Mr Guthrie
On Tuesday 27th November the Year 6 rugby team travelled to Henlow middle school to take part in their first rugby tourna-ment. The team was a mixture of experienced Ampthill players and several who had never played a competitive game. The team performed brilliantly and won 5 out of their 6 games, scoring 21 tries in the process. Congratulations to all involved and a big thank you to James Wiggett for coaching the team this year.

We hope they were inspired by this and also by the England Team that they all went to support at Twickenham last week.


Parents – please reinforce the Road Safety messages that we have been emphasising over the past 2 weeks. The evenings are dark so quickly and even the mornings are gloomy too. Our pupils are prone to taking risks by running across roads, even between moving traffic and crossing in dangerous spots (like roundabouts) – we have shown pupils videos and run assem-blies but we still get calls from the public about ‘red jumpers’ being silly on the roads. We have a good safety record and we want to maintain that. PLEASE talk again to your child(ren) about using the crossing points/patrols and not being on a phone call whilst crossing! All Y7 pupils have had a chance to use the “OSCAR” recently - a road safety simulator which has been effective in getting across the safety message.

Our Remembrance 100 video featuring the silence for Remembrance Day, the trumpet solo by Josh Bowman and the ‘crowd poppy’ all filmed by our former pupil Elliott Heathcote using his drone, is now available to watch on our YouTube channel - a link is on the school website under News & Events http://www.woodlandacademy.co.uk/Remembrance-100/ and via Twitter too @WoodlandAcademy

In January 2019 we have some unavoidable staffing changes to let you know about. Mr Burns will be leaving us for a promo-tion to a Head of Year position at Bedford Academy. Mr Burns (Maths) will have all of his Maths classes (except Y7 Maths) and his form class (6APB) taken on for the rest of the school year by Mrs Wilshaw. Mrs Wilshaw has been covering the ma-ternity leave of Miss Dimmock who will be returning in late Feb/early March, so we do have to cover the Jan & Feb ‘gap’ with a returning colleague Mrs Barrett. Mrs Barrett covered 2 terms of maternity for us last year & will be with us for at least the Spring Term next year. Mrs Barrett will take on all Mrs Wilshaw’s classes (except Y7 Maths) and form class (5ED). Mrs Barrett will also teach Mr Burns’s Y7 Maths class whilst Mrs Wilshaw will retain her own Y7 Maths class. If you would like to discuss any matter of these class changes please email Mrs Wilshaw wilshawp@woodlandacademy.co.uk or Mrs Barrett barrettn@woodlandacademy.co.uk . We don’t like to change a pupil’s teacher mid-year but we are pleased that we can staff these changes with our own staff rather than substitute teachers being introduced.

We also have a new Teaching Assistant starting in January - Mrs Carolyn Stewart – an additional SEN team member to help our must vulnerable learners. You may have been watching the BBC series #school (available on iPlayer) which has highlight-ed the funding crisis in SEN education. Episode 4 really shows how this is impacting on pupils – strongly recommend this series to parents and staff for a fly on the wall look at an SEN department.

Next week (6th Dec) we have our Y6 Parents’ Evening – if you would like to book your appointments (online) but have not received your login details – please contact Mrs Brown on brownt@woodlandacademy.co.uk

And finally…do please come and support the Christmas Fayre this Friday 6-8pm. We have the tombola’s, adopt a teddy, Santa’s chimney, Wheel of Fortune, Popcorn, Candy Floss, Hoopla, refreshments, Grand Raffle with cash prizes and much more. Oh…and mulled wine and selected seasonal beverages for the adults.

We raised £429.71 for BBC Children in Need through our MUFTI day. Thank you for all your donations.

Key Dates 2018 - 
December
Mon 3rd-Wed 5th Book Fair in Library

Thurs 6th Year 6 Parents Evening

Fri 7th Woodland Christmas Fayre 6—8pm

Mon 10th—Fri 14th House Cross Country week—All Years

Mon 10th Christingle Service in School 2.40pm

Wed 12th Carol Service 7pm

Thurs 13th Christmas Dinner/Christmas Jumper Day
                     Christmas Disco (KS2 5pm, KS3 7pm)

Tue 18th Christmas Concert

Wed 19th KS2 KS2 Pantomime Visit to Milton Keynes
                  Last day of Term

Thursday 20th—Tuesday 1st January—School Closed

January
Wed 2nd Inset day (Training—school closed)
Thurs 3rd School Open

Attachments: 
World of Woodland Issue 05