World of Woodland Issue 10

This month’s value is: Respect

Today we welcome back our Y7 Normandy trippers. They will arrive back this evening after their cultural and historical tour including Bayeux Cathedral & tapestry, Arromanche WW2 museum, the D-day beaches and the Allied and German cemeteries. Our Twitter page @WoodlandAcademy has lots of photos and some stories.

Last week we held our swimming gala at the Flitwick Pool – with around 130 swimmers taking part through 2 hours of racing - Saxons came out victorious - but their secret weapon was making sure that they had racers entered in every race whose points counted (ie 1 individual and 1 relay race per person). In other words “team work” won the day and Saxons earned much Respect from the staff in particular for this…our value of the month after all!

Our PTA have planned two upcoming fundraisers - a Mothers’ Day pop-up shop on Monday with gifts from £1—£3 for pupils to buy and have gift wrapped for their Mums (31st March is Mothering Sunday) and a Quiz Night for the 26th April. An invitation has previously been emailed out however we have attached a copy of the entry form to this newsletter. Do join us, for an evening of quizzing and of course the fish and chip supper and the licensed bar. Teams can be up to 6 people.

Parents you will be aware from national and social media reports that pupils’ mental health is facing a crisis in this country. The NHS may be ear-marking more funds for child mental health services (CAMHs) and the Royal Princes have highlighted the issues too, however schools have been expected to help with the crisis without funding. It is becoming clear that a significant issue in this rise is the role that social media is playing in the lives of young people…so I have attached a letter to all parents/carers, with this newsletter is some context, some advice and some recommendations for keeping children safe in our online world.

Coming soon is our Alice in Wonderland KS2 Production directed by Miss Bryan. A musical version featuring Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and of course the Mad Hatter… If you’d like to watch a perfor-mance, tickets are now on sale for Tuesday 2nd & Wednesday 3rd April at 7pm—£3 per adult, £2 per child, £8 per family (2 adults 2 children).

Earlier in March it was World Book Day and many of our pupils dressed up as characters from 19th Century literature. We had lots of Gothic horror, Sherlock Holmes, Victorians, Dickens characters and in keeping with the Alice theme…one Cheshire Cat! Well done to 5ST who had EVERYONE in costume…that takes some commitment!!

And finally, Woodland is so proud of the charitable acts that our staff and pupils undertake. Raising money for great causes is part of the Values approach. We realise that we do have quite a few days during the year where we dress down to raise money and want to stress that all donations are voluntary and that parents are never under obligation to make one…although we recognise that pupils are quite insistent about it. Last week we raised nearly £3000 for Red Nose Day with an auction of promises including £200 raised by 8NH alone for their purchase of the Y8 VIP week.

On March 29th we will be having one final non-uniform day for sometime, “Wear a Hat Day” to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, a charity that has been very close to the hearts of Woodland’s pupils and staff in recent years. A letter will come home next week with an explanation – but it is the usual £1 voluntary donation for non-uniform form next Friday.

World book day— Victorian theme Winner - Zoe (5ST -Queen Victoria)
Runner ups:
Year 5 - Liberty (5SKP)
Year 6 - Ffion (6APB)
Year 7 - Francesca (7PDS)
Year 8 - Tom (8KP)

Don't forget that our latest Scholastic Book Club is now online at http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/woodland-middle. There are hundreds of fantastic children's books to choose from, and every £1 you spend on this month's Book Club will earn 25p for our school in Scholastic Rewards.

Woodland has talent! 
Apologies this was omitted from a previous newsletter—Amelie in Year 7 spent a week working in Angel Studios with a professional producer from the USA, Directors from MTI and the Musical Director from Matlida West End. She learnt so much and loved every second of it. Off the back of this she has now been recognised by the Chief Exec and Casting Director of the British Theatre Academy and has been invited to join their Elite Team based in Isleworth to train on Sundays. This has opened up a whole lot of opportunities for her!

Eco Warriors – a new club set up to encourage everyone to recycle their plastics and look after our environment.

On Friday 8th March we organised our first ‘Trash Mob’ where 70 young people took part in collecting litter around the school grounds. In a fantastic effort over 20 minutes, six large black sacks of rubbish was collected, alongside a box full of crisp packets.

We are currently registered with Walkers crisps as a collection centre which means we collect empty packets and once we have 2000, will send them to Walkers. They will recycle them into plastic pellets which will then be made into new recycling products. Please send in your crisp packets from home including the packaging from multipacks. They can be any brand of crisp or popcorn. We cannot accept mini cheddar packets.

Parent Governor Vacancy
The Woodland Governing Body are seeking to appoint a new parent governor. If you are interested you can learn more by visiting http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/school/governors/being.aspx. Please contact our Chair of Governors – Catherine Baker on bakerc@woodlandacademy.co.uk for further information and to register your inter-est. We are especially interested in parents that have expertise in property management or IT – but everyone has skills to offer so if you’re interested please do get in touch.

Reporting a child’s absence
If your child is going to be absent from school due to a medical appointment or illness—please notify Mrs T .K. Barker (Attendance Officer) on 01525 750400 Ext 205 or email: barkert@woodlandacademy.co.uk.

Parking around the school —on a sombre note…..
We have received a number of complaints recently regarding parking in our neighbouring residential areas. Unfortu-nately on a few occasions this has lead to verbal abuse and threats of violence towards home owners. Please be aware that such behaviour is unacceptable, we sincerely hope that our Woodland parents do not behave in such a manner and are parking respectfully. We kindly ask that every effort is made not to block driveways in or around the Clover Road area or park or drop off on the zig-zag and double yellow lines in Malham Close. Please note that the car park is for staff only, due to limited spaces we have a park and stride arrangement with Tesco where children can safely cross and access the car park via an alleyway, we would ask all parents to use this when dropping and collecting your children, we would appreciate your support in this matter, thank you.

Key Dates 2019—
March
Mon 25th Mothers Day Pop Up Shop
Fri 29th Whole school Wear a hat Non Uniform Day

April
Mon 1st—3rd KS2 production “Alice in Wonderland”
Thurs 4th Year 8 PSHCE Theatre Visit
Fri 5th—13th Ski trip to Italy
Mon 8th—Mon 22nd Half Term—School Closed
Tuesday 23rd Return to School
Thurs 25th Class Photographs
Fri 26th PTA Quiz Night

May
Thurs 2nd KS3 painting course
Mon 6th Bank Holiday—School Closed
Thurs 9th KS3 painting Course
Mon 13th—Thurs 16th Year 6 SATS Tests
Thurs 16th KS3 painting course
Mon 20th—Fri 23rd Year 6 PGL residential trip & activities week
Mon 27th—Fri 31st HALF TERM—School Closed

June
Mon 3rd Year 8 exam week
Tue 4th—Thurs 6th Book fair in the Library
Tue 4th Year 6 trip to Harry Potter
Wed 5th Year 8 leavers photograph 2pm
Thurs 6th Year 7 trip to Warwick Castle
Mon 10th—Wed 12th Year 5 trips to Wadelows
Mon 10th Year 5 & 6 house rounders week
Friday 14th Values Day
Tue 18th Year 8 Girls 2nd HPV
Wed 19th KS3 Sports Day
Fri 21st Summer Fayre
Fri 28th Year 5 Boulogne trip

 Attachments: 
World of Woodland Issue 10.pdf