** Woolgrove News **

As some of you may be aware the Infant Department is currently working towards the Herts Quality standards award. To achieve the award we need to frequently seek pupils and parents views about various topics. Currently we are working on the staying safe module. We would appreciate your comments on the following:

• What do you feel the setting does best to ensure your child is safe?
• How does your child show that they feel safe and secure in the setting?
• What can we do to make Woolgrove even better (a safer place)?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Vicky Litchfield - Head of Infant and Year 3 Department.

The pupils and staff of Woolgrove School returned in September refreshed and relaxed from the summer break. The children settled in really well with their new teachers ready to begin work in the autumn term. 19 new pupils joined us and we’re delighted to report that they are very happy in their new classes and have made many new friends.

As usual, we have had a busy term. The School Council have been working hard organising fundraising events and theme days for all the school to take part in.  They held a sponsored mime and raised £93.47 for the Blue Cross Pet Charity and their recent Bonkers for Conkers event raised £61.66 which is going to SSAFA the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association. In addition to this, we all had a dress down day and wore our demins for Jeans for Genes Day and collected £69.39. Pupils voted to have a PE theme day, which gave classes the opportunity from different year groups to join together and take part in a variety of sporting activities. The ‘playground’ is the next theme day to follow soon.

We’ve welcomed three new speech therapists as part of our team, as well as two new teaching assistants in the infant and junior departments. Gill Crouch, the school’s Family Link Worker continues to support our families on a wide variety of issues and can be contacted via the school office for anyone wishing to speak with her.

18 year old Clara Bagenal George from Letchworth finished her A level Design Technology studies at St. Christopher this year on a high. She designed a Multi Role Play Vehicle - the dream toy that could be a helicopter, car, plane or anything else a child might want it to be - for the children in our Early Years Foundation area. The children were absolutely delighted with the new addition to their outside play area. Clara’s Craft Design Technology teacher, Gavin Fraser-Williams said, “It is great to see Clara’s project in situ after a year of hard work! In her A level studies, Clara has tackled a demanding design brief with a particularly thorough and creative approach. Working for a real client at Woolgrove has stretched Clara’s design skills in preparation for her University degree course. It has also led to a great piece of educational play equipment which I am sure the children will love exploring”. Woolgrove are very grateful to Clara for all her hard work, enthusiasm and dedication; she is obviously destined for greater things in the future and we wish her every success as she embarks on her degree course at Nottingham University, where she is studying Architecture and Environmental Design. Photos of Clara’s design can be seen on the events page of our website.

At the beginning of October,  Friends of Woolgrove held a fashion show which was a great success; they raised just under £300 for school funds. Our models enjoyed being pampered by local hair and beauty saloon EV-S Hair Design, so many thanks to them for supporting us with this event.

Woolgrove has taken part in the Bright Stars Programme which has been offered to primary schools in North Herts. The programme focuses on meditation and relaxtion and is drawn from methods used in the Relax Kids Programme developed by Marneta Viegas. Deborah Bone, Emotional and Mental Health Advisor for the East and North Herts PCT says, “As well as learning to feel good about themselves, children are encouraged to put their energies to good use by joining in with gentle dancing and stretching exercises…these techniques can help children in both their home and school lives”. Deborah and many others in her field believe that children start to thrive in an environment that supports their emotional health and wellbeing. There are huge benefits for the children in that it can improve sleep, concentration, memory and listening skills as well as building confidence, imagination and creativity. Places for this programme are on a referral basis by individual class teachers and another course will be taking place some time next year. We are grateful to Karen Johnson, School Health Advisor and Woolgrove Family Link Worker Gill Crouch for running this programme and allowing our children to benefit from these invaluable sessions.

Many of our school policies are now on our website as well as a variety of useful information about Hertfordshire Extended Schools.

Carl Williams is to be congratulated on his success on becoming Woolgrove’s champion marathon runner for the Vigin London Marathon 2010. Carl is employed by the National Grid and also plays football for Hitchin Football Club. He is very enthusiastic about this forthcoming event and has some fantastic ideas for fundraising. Up-to-date news will be posted on the Woolgrove website home page noticeboard.

Volunteers from Liverpool Victoria in Hitchin have been busy helping us get our sensory garden project off the ground. There is still a way to go yet but they have been incredibly supportive and are currently organising a planting bulbs and willow project which our children will be taking part in.

Rehearsals for Cinderalla our Christmas pantomime are in full swing and everyone has been working very hard. There will be an afternoon performance on Monday 30th November and two evening performances on Wednesday 2nd December and Thursday 3rd December. Please contact the school office for details (01462 622422).

Forthing events leading up to Christmas are:

•  The Friends of Woolgrove Secret Present event. All classes will be taking part in making a variety of Christmas gifts for children to buy.
• Christmas carol service at King’s Baptist Church
• Christmas lunch with guests from the local community
• Visit from Father Christmas
• Christmas party and a visit from ‘Talk to the Animals’.

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This year, the focus of our annual art week has been African Art. The children have had the opportunity to work on a number of projects using a range of mediums. Thabani Nyoni, from Kultural Fusion, is a Zimbabwean artist and opened the event with an amazing dance, music and storytelling workshop.

Throughout the week, various local artists have worked with the children making African masks, weaving, painting, and modelling with clay. Africa’s diverse dance and music have also been the focus in our Music and PE lessons. They have explored traditional  tribal dance movement and recreated African drumming sounds and patterns and performed call and response songs. In Design and Technology lessons, children also made traditional African food.

Sue Cracknell, a former Woolgrove Governor, talked to classes, showing photos and artefacts of her travels across Mali.

On Friday we held a celebratory Art Exhibition of all the work our children produced. We invited parents/carers, and a wide range of guests from the local community to share in this special event with us.

Lisa Hall, Art Co-ordinator said, “The standard was, as always, outstanding and clearly demonstrates how talented and creative all the pupils at Woolgrove School are. It has been a wonderful week and a huge learning curve for our children. As well as enabling us to meet and work with members of our community, it has also developed their awareness of global diversity”.

STAFF and pupils at Woolgrove rarely need much encouragement to do something outrageous when it’s raising money for a good cause. ‘Doing Something Funny for Money’ for Comic Relief, was the perfect excuse!

When news of the ‘WoW Factor’ competition spread across the playground and along the corridors, our budding celebrities were eager to show their many talents. Before the big day, everyone was busy preparing their props and costumes, rehearsing their lines and lyrics and fine tuning their acts, so as to give their best performance to WOW the panel of judges.

All the contestants were absolutely fantastic and put on an amazing show. Their many talents varied from telling jokes, singing favourite nursery rhymes and lyrics, telling stories and singing and dancing. Do have a look at the photos on our website of the children performing!

YEAR 6K pupils were delighted to welcome local senior citizens and councillors into their classroom recently, to celebrate 100 years of active citizenship in Letchworth.   Schools had been invited by the Mayor of Letchworth Garden City, Philip Ross, to take part in the council’s project of marking the important event of active citizenship.

Y6K have been learning about World War II and, in particular, what it was like to be a child during that time. Teacher Liz Ellis and the class thought inviting local senior citizens into their classroom to share their memories and experiences, seemed the perfect way to celebrate Citizenship Week.

The informal gathering was a tremendous success. The visitors brought an assortment of interesting memorabilia to show and had many a tale to tell. The classroom was a hub of activity and conversation as people’s voices, young and old, were heard.

After a tour of the school, the pupils entertained their guests at an afternoon tea party where friendships were forged and promises made of “…we must do this again; we’ve had such a lovely afternoon”.

All the children and staff were very grateful to their visitors who made the afternoon such a memorable occasion. We were also delighted to be awarded £1,000 towards school funds by Letchworth Garden City Council for being one of the best 10 projects submitted.

More photos of the citizenship celebrations will soon be on our Activities Page for you to browse and enjoy!

 A recent curriculum evening held at Woolgrove was on the subject of PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic) education.

Michelle Swift and Irene Thorn’s presentation was very informative. Parents and carers were able to walk around the school to see PSHCE work on display, as well as observing how class based activities take place during the children’s’ learning time.

The evening was a good opportunity  to explore and understand the elements that PSHCE education covers and why it is important to children and young people. SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) is a curriculum resource which helps schools develop children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills. Woolgrove uses the SEAL themes and differentiates the resources used, as appropriate,  to the children in each year group. The materials are organised into seven themes:

•  New Beginnings,
•  Getting on and Falling Out,
•  Say no to Bullying,
•  Going for Goals!,
•  Good to Be Me,
•  Relationships and
•  Changes.

Each theme is designed for a whole-school approach with the aim of helping to develop children as effective learners. There are four SEAL Certificates that accompany each of the above themes. When a pupil achieves any of the above goals, or is seen to be working towards them, they are awarded the relevant certificate in a school assembly, which is celebrated by the school as a whole.  

Woolgrove School were delighted to welcome the recent return of M & M Theatrical Producations. The lively, energetic cast brought to life the timeless, swashbuckling classic, Treasure Island. They were a huge hit and gave their audience a real sense of what life was like in the 18th century.

We look forward to them visiting again soon!

Pupils in classes Y1L and Y2T had great fun making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

Cooking is always popular with children and is an excellent way in which to motivate them in their learning. The fun element and prospect of ‘making a mess’ and being allowed to eat the fruits of their labour, never fails to catch their interest and curiousity. Pupils from Miss Litchfield’s class and Miss Thorn’s had a wonderful time and gained lots of practical experience with estimating, weighing and wisking their ingredients. They became familiar with the names of their utensils (who has and hasn’t got a whisk at home!) the ingredients required to make a pancake and the method involved. The best part was obviously tossing the pancake. They all had a go and all but one landed back in the pan…quite an achievement! As the chocolate sauce slowly melted into their hot pancakes, most of them relished the end result.

Our children can learn so many things when cooking…it’s amazing how much maths and science for example plays a part in preparing and cooking a meal. If you had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, hopefully you enjoyed yours as much as the children did theirs…I think the expression on their faces says it all!

We hope you are all enjoying the half-term break. The days are getting longer and the temperatures are improving…yet only a short while ago our everyday routines ground to a virtual halt due to the heavy downfall of snow. A ‘will they or won’t they’ scenario developed throughout the week, as communities across the county awaited to hear if schools would be open or closed. As people hit the internet by the second and radio DJs read out the ever growing long list of school closures, the met weather watch became the head teacher’s new best friend! Due to the erratic and variable fall of snow across the region, taking the decision to close school was not always an easy one to make; despite what we may all think. Fortunately, most schools made the right one, leaving those of us at home to take advantage of the snow by dusting off our sledges, taking to the hills and perfecting our snow-building techniques!

For all schools and colleges, the issue of health and safety was first and foremost a priority; especially for those children and staff travelling into school via transport. This in turn, reinforced the importance and urgency of how to communicate to people whether schools would be open or not. By the second day, Woolgrove was able to post up-to-date information on the home page of the website, as to the school’s position. In addition, transport staff were notified personally by telephone. We are currently looking into alternative methods of how we can communicate with everyone more effectively than we already do so. As soon as these changes are in place we will notify you. In the meantime, there is at present a link on the Woolgrove home page, which gives information on local radio stations, their frequencies, website addresses and telephone numbers.

 

We are delighted to be able to welcome you to our new Woolgrove News Page!

Communication between home and school plays an important part in ensuring the well being of our pupils. It is also the key in maintaining a successful partnership between parents/carers and teaching/support staff. We are always striving to improve the ways in which we keep you in touch with what is going on in the community. The ways in which we deliver such information to you, via letters, newsletters or the website, obviously depends on its significance and the required timing element in which you need to be informed.

The introduction of the Woolgrove News Page is a form of communication that will come into its own in several ways: 

we will be able to bring you news, and coloured images, of activities that take place in school as they occur;

both you and your children will be able to enjoy reading and discussing school news together; they may even remember what they did that day and want to tell you all about it!

it gives you the opportunity to comment, suggest ideas and give general feedback on what happens in school instantly;

it is yet another way in which we, as a whole school community, can utilise ICT to our advantage by ‘keeping in touch with each other’.

Hopefully, by visiting our news page, people will feel as much a part of the school day, as the pupils and staff themselves. We will continue to send home letters, newsletters etc. in the normal way, but we hope you will enjoy reading our news page and visit often. If you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment or telephone Angela Gooding on 01462 622422 - thank you.

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