Dear Parents/Carers, It was wonderful to welcome you and the children back to school this week. The children settled back…
13 March 2021
It has been a pleasure to welcome everyone back this week and a delight to see the children happy and confident to return.
They have been amazing, displaying independence and resilience. Congratulations children you are remarkable and simply the best!
Staff are not only focusing on core subjects but spending time to support wellbeing. We have used the following texts, ‘Book of Hopes’ and ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’ to talk about emotions. It helps to reassure children that there is always someone to talk to when faced with feelings of anxiety or sadness. It is important for children to know it is ‘fine not to feel fine’ as illustrated through one of our favourite books, ‘Lucy’s Blue Day’. Encouraging them to talk about it through stories is an effective way of supporting children.
Thank you for your positive comments about the school and the support you have received. We have missed coming together as a school community and celebrating all the events we would normally celebrate through the year.
Next Friday is St Joseph’s day and Fr Anthony will be coming into school to lead short year group assemblies. Children will work together to produce a piece of art work linked to St Joseph. We are hoping to have a school Mass to celebrate the year of St Joseph in months to come, once restrictions have been lifted. Details will be shared in due course.
During the season of Lent, children will be participating in The Stations of the Cross and will lead on year group assemblies during Holy week. It is important for you to talk to your children about the importance of Lent and help them understand the significance of Easter to Christians.
Celebration of reading
Children had the opportunity to dress up as a book character this Friday. It was wonderful to see children on zoom and in class, dress up last week. We thought it would be a nice way to end our first week back by coming together to celebrate reading for pleasure and giving you a chance to donate some outdoor plants, bulbs and seeds for our school gardening areas.
Time to Write
Thank you for supporting your child with our new initiative ‘Time to write’. I have seen some amazing work and great parental comments. Please do encourage your child to complete their weekly tasks. Going forward, we would like your child to continue this task at home with you.
Uniform
Please remember that long hair must be tied back and full school uniform used at all times. I appreciate it may be difficult to obtain uniform, but our suppliers do offer an online shopping and delivery service.
Click here for School Wear United’s website
PTA
Please note that the PTA will be holding their AGM on Thursday, 25th March 2021 at 7.00 p.m. via zoom. Joining details link will be emailed to parents on the day of the meeting. I do hope you will be able to attend and offer your support for future events. We are currently looking into the possibility of hosting our first Fireworks evening in November and the PTA have lots of exciting ideas, but are always looking for new input and support. So please do try and attend.
Together we can!
Parking
Whist I am delighted to have all the children back, the downside of things is that the problem with parking has returned.
Sadly, I received an email from a local resident stating that some of our parents were parking on the kerb and blocking driveways, causing a danger to pedestrians. This picture below was emailed to the school.
Inconsiderate parking is dangerous and does not promote our school values of respect and consideration. Parking like this endangers lives and makes it impossible for emergency vehicles or other traffic to pass through. We have worked hard to rebuild good relationships with our neighbours and it is a pity if our reputation is tarnished because of inconsiderate parking.
Please park with due respect to others, park further away and walk in. Woodend continues to be a pedestrian zone during school times. So if you choose to drive down between the hours of 8.00 to 9.30 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. the Local Authority will issue you with a £130 ticket.
Outdoor areas
A big thank you for all the kind donations of outdoor plants, seeds and bulbs. The children will be busy planting next week and we look forward to seeing the outcome of their hard work over the weeks and months.
I know you have enjoyed seeing all the photos of the children and their work over the past week and from your positive comments, the children eagerly await the newsletter to see if they feature in it. Now that the children are back I will be working with our Pupil Leadership team to organise the photographs and pupil comments for next week’s newsletter.
So, I hope you are not disappointed this week, but will look forward to next Friday’s newsletter.
Final thoughts
Next week will be busy and we have our special year group assemblies with Father Anthony next Friday to celebrate St Joseph’s feast day.
To support children in need, Miss Ugbo will be sending out details of a fundraiser to be held on Thursday, 18th March 2021 to raise funds for this worthwhile cause.
I hope you have a restful weekend. It has been wonderful to walk the school and talk to the children and hear the noise of children’s laughter. Thank you for all you have done to support your child. Our children are a credit to the school and I am confident they will continue to progress and go from strength to strength.
Do remember that there is always someone available to offer help and advice should you need it.
Mrs L Fernandes
Headteacher
