Welcome to the first newsletter of the new academic year!
Following feedback from some parents and carers, and to reduce the amount in your 'inbox' we are trialling a monthly newsletter in the last week of each month (unless it falls in school holidays). Do let us know what you think - we always welcome your views.
Dates for your diary:
- 7th October - KS2 Cross Country event @ Hull University
- 12th October - 7-a-side football @ Sirius Academy
- 18th October - Get Glowing sport event @ St Mary's College
- 21st October - break up for half term
- 31st October - children return after half term
- 2nd November - Parents' evening
Please use the link below to take you to the school website, where you will find past newsletters, term dates, and much more useful information.
After school clubs:
Tuesday: Football (KS2) 3:30pm - 4:30pm £12.00 for 6 sessions
Wednesday: Judo (all) 3.30pm - 4.20pm (please book direct with Karen Briggs/Peter Inman)
Wednesday: Flex Dance
Thursday: Multi-sports (KS2) 3:30pm - 4:30pm £12.00 for 6 sessions
Note - Tue and Thu clubs will change after half term
Attendance - a good start
Building good attendance and punctuality habits from the start of the school year is really important to ensure that children settle well into school routines and do not miss out on their learning, both academically and socially. Children only attend school for 190 days of the year (38 weeks), so there are 14 other weeks when they can spend time with their families, on top of weekends. For this reason, holidays in term time will not be authorised. If you are having difficulty getting your child into school, please speak to us. Our pastoral team are here to help.
Please remember that our doors open at 8:40am and children need to be in school by 8:55am. Anyone arriving after this time will need to enter through the main office. Lateness is monitored and we may contact you if your child is regularly late.
Absence procedure
If your child is not well enough to come to school, please contact the school office by phone / email / MCAS by 9am (please give the reason, so we can code it accurately). You then need to contact school daily until your child returns.
Any absence due to medical appointments will only be authorised by providing proof of appointment. This includes collecting children before 3:30pm. Wherever possible, please arrange appointments outside of the school day.
Thank you
Beehive
What a good start we have had. Mrs Loftus has some new adult friends who have joined her - Mrs Thompson and Mrs Foster. They have all been very exited about starting the new year. All the new staff and children have settled in really well.
We have started our new story in ‘stories for taking’ which is the super story of ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’. The children have been looking at sizes big and small. They have been learning some repeated phrases from the story and have enjoyed tasting porridge just like Goldilocks did!
F1
Well, what a super few weeks we have had. A few new children have joined us, and they are coping well with their new routines.
We have started with our listening for sounds and the children have enjoyed learning songs that use their body parts to create a variety of different sounds. 'Copy cats' is one of their favourites and they have even started to use musical instruments to make their own music.
In our CKC sessions we have started looking at our bodies. We have labelled a body and the children have created fantastic self-portraits.
We had our first home learning challenge where the children collected Autumn treasures. The children have really enjoyed looking at the different items that they have collected and felt very important bringing in their bags to show their friends. This activity created a great deal of independence and self-worth.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Lester who built out water pump station for the children to enjoy. Thank you, Mrs Lester!! We love you!!
We are all very excited about the rest of the Autumn term especially our stay and play sessions. We look forward to seeing you soon.
F2
The children in F2C and F2D have made a fabulous start to school life. We have done lots of work on getting to know the routines and expectations at Wold Academy and can now follow signals, such as a stop hand, 1,2,3 for green sitting, stand up then Wold walking.
We have been really enjoying using the outside area and have been super at completing different gross motor challenges, such as using the A frame, balance trails and throwing beanbags into various buckets. We are trying hard to help all of the children in F2 develop their gross motor skills, as this is a key step in building their coordination and then their fine motor skills, which are essential for many skills including writing.
In the coming weeks we are going to be learning about Autumn, the story of 'The Little Red Hen' and number songs including '10 Little Leaves'. You can help by looking for Autumn treasures such as conkers and pine cones, as well as reading the story 'The Little Red Hen'.
The children are also working hard on blending during phonics activities. Blending is saying the individual sounds in a word and helping your child to blend them together. This is essential for reading. It would be a big help if you could try this at home too and encourage your child to blend sounds, for example saying “Can you put on your h, a, t?” Then help them to sounds and say “hat.” We call this Fred Talk and the children are trying hard with this.
We are also going to be starting our forest school sessions and the children in F2 will be able to enjoy weekly visits to our forest area on the school field and try out different forest schools activities, such as boundary games, den building, imaginative story telling and snack in the forest!
We would really welcome parents' and carers' involvement in F2. If any parents, carers or grandparents would be interested in becoming a regular volunteer in F2 please let us know. We would love to have some helpers to support with hearing readers and completing activities with the children.
Also, if any parents, carers or grandparents have any special interests or talents we would love to hear about it in school. This might be a keen interest in gardening, wood work, baking, an interest in playing a musical instrument etc. Please speak to Miss Childe or Ms Dervey if you would be interested in getting involved.
We have a number of schools systems and apps in use in school. In order that you are receiving all information please ensure you have access to Tapestry, Class Dojo, My Child At School (MCAS), School Grid and Parent Pay. If you need any help accessing any of these please have a chat with us.
We always have a wish list of things that we would like in F2. If you have any of the following that you would be willing to donate we would be very grateful. Our wish list currently includes:
- Used greeting cards/birthday cards/celebration cards. (You could tear off the side with writing and just give us the front of the card. These are used in our writing area.)
- Clean boxes, cartons, yogurt pots for the children to create models with.
- Clean socks, pants, trousers, leggings and shorts. We often need these as spares, so appreciate any that you no longer need.
Year 1
The children in Year 1 have made a fabulous start to the term. They have settled into their routines nicely and we are very proud with how hard they are working.
We are really enjoying our T4W story 'The Squeaky Story'. Why not ask your child to have a go at retelling the story using the story map on class dojo? Next week we will be innovating the story and writing it ourselves.
In Science we have been looking closely at the four seasons and what makes them different to each other. Next week we are going to become meteorologists and have a go at forecasting the weather.
Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at our school and locating different important places. We will be drawing maps and exploring aerial views.
We are looking forward to our history day (date to be confirmed) where we will be exploring stories from history, specifically Tutankhamun and Ancient Egypt.
The children have worked really hard in maths practising partner work and using practical resources to further develop their mathematical understanding. Over the next few weeks we will continue to explore place value and calculating. We will also be looking at Numbots and setting challenges every two weeks.
Year 2
Year 2 have had a very busy start to the year and we are impressed with how smart they all look in their new uniforms. We have launched straight into a journey story during our T4W lessons and have begun writing our version of the story 'The Papaya That Spoke'. Don't be alarmed if they tell you about talking pencils, rubbers, computers and so on, as it is all part of our story. We are still busy practising our phonics first thing in the morning in various groups and are grateful to you for reading with them at home - don't forget to record this using the QR code or the bookmark the children were given.
In maths we have whizzed through place value and have just ventured into column addition which is proving very tricky and will need some very hard work over the coming lessons but we know the children will rise to the challenge!
In our wider curriculum lessons, we have been thinking about how plants grow and have been watching with excitement the bean seeds we planted growing roots and leaves. We have been thinking about how seeds spread this week and last and had great fun doing some practical work outside looking at different ways of seed dispersal.
In geography we have been thinking about weather and how sometimes it can be extreme. We have also found the equator and looked at how being close to this can change the climate.
In history we have been learning about Protestants and Catholics so we can understand the history of Guy Fawkes. We have also compared the Christian religion and the Sikh religion and have found out that both religions think we should be kind.
We will be having some topic afternoons/ days in the coming weeks so watch out for an invite to come and see/hear what the children have been learning about.
Whole School Art Project
#WeMadeThisHull
The butterfly represents endurance, change, transformation, hope and positivity. How the world of 2022 would benefit from all of these!
Can you create a butterfly to have a cascade effect in our corner of the world at Wold Academy? Butterflies welcome in any colour, any craft, any shape or size.
Please submit your butterfly, with your name on it, to your class teacher by Friday 7th October.
Year 3
Year 3 have started the year off incredibly well and have settled into life in KS2 quickly and comfortably. We have worked very hard on setting high standards of learning behaviour around the school and making sure we carry the school's values of aspiration, ambition, courage and respect into every aspect of our learning.
In maths, we have looked at place value, using resources like base ten and number cards to represent numbers up to four hundred. We have now begun looking at different methods for addition and subtraction and have enjoyed exploring and explaining the different ways we can get to an answer. The 30th September also marks Rock Day, where we will be focusing on our times tables and getting stuck into some heavy metal maths! (Your child has their log on details for TT Rockstars, which can be accessed from any internet device. If you would like this information sent to you, please send a Dojo to your class teacher and they will provide the login details.)
In Talk for Reading our focus text has been 'The Only Way is Badger'. This story focused on the moral of selflessness and how one should not consider themselves better than their peers. The children explored themes of empathy, inclusion and equality and we discussed how we can help others through working together. (Shout out to Charlie Place-Bostock's superb 'stuck up Badger' character reading voice!). We have started our new text about Rosa Parks, a non-fiction book that details the life of one of the most famous civil rights activists of the 20th century.
In Talk for Writing, Year 3 have been writing a Warning Tale based on the short story 'Kassim and The Greedy Dragon'. We have explored how to improve our methods for description through simile, metaphor and personification and then adapted the story in our own styles to create an original piece of writing. The work so far has been superb and the children should be very proud of their efforts!
We have recently finished our look at Ancient Mesopotamia in history, where we explored how the empire grew out of nothing to become the cradle of civilisation in the ancient world and finished the unit by exploring how class systems impacted the treatment of individuals, such as women and slaves. In geography, we continue to look at the UK and begin to focus on the country of Wales; its physical and human geography and the role it plays as part of the United Kingdom.
Finally, we would like to thank the parents and carers for their support in the opening weeks of the school year. Parental engagement is important to us as teaching staff and we would like to involve you in our learning wherever we can. With that in mind, if there are any parents or family members that are willing to volunteer to listen to children read in an afternoon, please let us know as our children love nothing more than showing off their reading skills!
Year 4
The children have thoroughly enjoyed reading our T4R text: 'The Only Way is Badger' where we have explored the theme of friendship. We are now looking forward to starting our new biographical text: 'Rosa Parks'. The brand-new classroom library books have proved very popular and are helping to encourage the children to read at least 3 times a week at home (QR codes are now working for the online log).
In Maths we are spending more time on TT rockstars to enable the children to get a good result in their Year 4 times tables test. On Wednesday, we have started a TT Rockstars break time club which is proving very popular.
This half term we have been transported to Ancient Mesopotamia during our history lessons where we have learnt about class systems, cuneiform and laws. We would like to give a special mention to Pheobe, Evie-Mae and Lily C, Jenson and Harper for fantastic pieces of writing about women in Ancient Mesopotamia.
In Music, we have started to learn two choral pieces with Mr Keith and the children have been doing fantastically singing in rounds.
Our P.E lessons have been a great success; the children have excelled in football and basketball skills and we are now moving towards taking part in team games.
Well done everyone on a fantastic start to the school year!
Friends of Wold
We are your PTFA and would love you to come join us. Our aim is to bring together parents, teachers and our local community to raise funds and support our school. Our main focus is enhancing the future of our children through enriched learning, all funds raised are used to cover costs of resources and facilities for our children that might otherwise be out of reach.
We are meeting the first Monday of every month (from 7th November) at 3.45 pm in school and we’d love you to join us. We have lots of exciting events planned that we need your help with… watch this space for more details.
Friends of Wold PTFA
Year 5
In T4W, we have been looking at the 'Ice Forest' text. We have been working on relative clauses, fronted adverbials, subordinating and coordinating conjunctions and figurative language. We have then tried to include these skills in writing an ice forest and a rainforest setting. In T4R, we have been looking at two versions of 'Hansel and Gretel', looking at similarities and differences between the two of them.
In maths we have been looking at place value and just started our work on addition and subtraction. We have been reading and writing numbers, representing numbers on a number line, rounding, counting in 10s, 100s and 1,000s and working on number bonds to 1, 100 and a 1,000.
In geography, we have been learning about rainforests including the different layers of a rainforest and the different plants and animal species that live in the rainforest. As part of our end of unit goal we looked at the impact of deforestation, held a debate arguing for and against deforestation and then finally created a ‘Save the Rainforest’ poster. Here are some examples:
In the next few weeks, we are looking forward to learning more about Frida Kahlo in art, the Mayans in history and reading our new T4R text 'Jorinde and Joringel'.
Year 6
We are delighted with the way our Year Six children have settled into their first term at the 'top of the school!' Pupils arrive looking smart with a positive attitude whilst demonstrating an excellent work ethic.
This term we have been reading the text 'Wonder' and applying lots of high-level skills in lessons with a particular focus on inference and supporting our ideas with evidence from the text. In writing, we have been creating a non-chronological report on a mythical creature and have been learning how to include relative clauses, parentheses and formal language. We are so proud of how the children are including these skills in their writing and how they show a desire to continue to improve in every lesson.
Pupils are also embracing our foundation subjects. For example, in history we have been learning about early man and how man evolved over thousands of years so decisions could be made about his survival including migrating 'Out of Africa'. The children found this intriguing, particularly how stone tools were made. In science we have enjoyed exploring the three different states of matter. We have investigated the solubility of different materials and most recently have discovered the different saturation points of sugar and salt! The children were excellent scientists, controlling variables and observing outcomes closely.
In R.E we have enjoyed considering that whilst many people in the world have religious beliefs, we must also appreciate that world views and the views of all people are valid and should be respected.
Finally, a huge well done to the children who are completing their homework every week, including reading three times a week at home. If this attitude continues, we are certain the children will have an excellent year.
The Launch Pad
The Launch Pad has had a busy start to the year. We have been exploring our new self-help wall, which is full of strategies to help us be assertive and resilient as we settle back into school life.
In our first art project, we have been exploring aspirations, our hands really can do anything! It has been super-fun to create our handprints and share our aspirations with each other. Our next art project is 'Splendid Sparks', which we will share with you next month.
School dinners - Dolce
Our new caterers, Dolce, are settling into Wold now, and the electronic ordering system is getting quicker and easier. The children and staff have really noticed that the quality of the meals has improved and particularly enjoy the puddings! Yummy!
Please remember, that you need to order your child's meal choice using School Grid even if they are entitled to free school meals. If you have any issues or difficulties, please speak to the admin staff who will be more than happy to help.
Credits:
Created with images by Ourteam - "education and supplies for banner background on blackboard top view with copy space. Back to school concept." • Andrey Popov - "Businessperson Writing Schedule In Diary" • chamnan phanthong - "Set of butterflies isolated on white background" • ercan senkaya - "full lunch service station"