Wooden Hill Primary and Nursery School Parent Portal - The Wooden Post

30 April 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s hard to believe that we are in the summer term already! Over the Easter break the school had a big IT upgrade which is now complete. It may mean that some communications may have got lost in the process; if you have contacted the school and not had a response, please do get in touch. During the last lockdown, some of the KS1 children too part in a safer internet competition. Well done to the children from Wooden Hill who had a mention in the results video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXwb30QHYqw

We are hopeful that some of our usual summer events will be able to take place this summer, albeit looking a little different, once restrictions have been lifted. We haven’t set dates yet, as it is very much dependent on the national restrictions, so please keep an eye out for communications about forthcoming events.

Best wishes,

Mrs Lagares

Mrs Sawford’s Book Recommendations

Hi everyone,

If you don’t know me already, I’m Mrs Sawford and I teach in Year 4. I love reading and spend lots of my time doing it! I’d love to share some book recommendations with you each month, to get our wider community reading too. Your children are expected to read at home as part of their home learning but did you know that this could be a book that you read aloud together and talk about too? This still develops excellent reading skills and introduces them to new ideas and vocabulary that they may not be able to read by themselves. Please do let me know if you read any of my suggestions, or if you have any of your own (children and adults alike!) you can send your messages to reading@office.woodenhill.bracknell-forest.sch.uk – I’d especially love to see pictures of children reading!

Key Stage 1/Picture Book Recommendation

Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egneus

A beautiful, exciting but sad story about a young girl who is living in a refugee camp, finding friendship and comfort in a small pebble. This book is a great discussion point for children who are lonely, to start thinking about refugees and other children around the world.

Lower Key Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4) or read-aloud with an adult

The Highland Falcon Thief by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman

M. G. Leonard is well-known for her books full of action, adventure and suspense – this is no different. Harrison Beck reluctantly joins his Uncle Nat on a train journey of a lifetime, when a priceless brooch goes missing things get a lot more exciting! Full of intrigue and secrets, this had me on the edge of my seat as Hal uncovers the mystery piece by piece.

Upper Key Stage 2 (Year 5 and 6)

Check Mates by Stewart Foster

Another author with a whole host of amazing books under his belt, Stewart Foster tackles difficult subjects expertly, putting you right in the shoes of his characters. Felix is struggling in school because his ADHD makes it difficult to make the right choices and his mind is going at a million miles an hour. Reluctantly, he starts spending more time with his (slightly embarrassing) Grandad, which teaches Felix more than he could imagine.

~ Notices and Reminders ~

Neighbours to Wooden Hill School

Sadly we have received another complaint about children’s behaviour and inconsiderate parking from our neighbours in Silwood. Please be mindful of our neighbours in the roads around the school.

Scooters and bikes

Please do not allow children to ride bikes or scooters on the school site, including the main path down to the bike shed due to the slope that can cause injury.

End of Year Reports

This year, we will be sending out your child’s end of year reports via email. These will be sent out between the 5^th and the 15^th July. If you wish to discuss your child’s report with the teacher, a drop in session will be held between 4pm-5pm on Thursday 15^th July 2021. If we are unable to hold these drop in sessions in person, you will be able to request a call from your child’s teacher during this time.

Bracknell Forest's Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS)

The?Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS) provides free, confidential and impartial advice and information to support parents/carers?and children and young people who have, or may have, Special Educational Needs and?Disabilities?(SEND) in Bracknell Forest. You can contact IASS by email send.support@bracknell-forest.gov.uk or by telephone (01344 354011). They also have a dedicated website where you can find a range of information and factsheets relating to SEN www.bracknellforestiass.co.uk.?

Bag2School

Due to the success of the last Bag2School collection, we will be arranging another one after the May half-term.

Please return bags no later than 9am on Monday 14th June 2021.

Nursery Roundup

Over the Easter holiday, there were some changes made to the Nursery garden. The children were all very excited to explore the role-play shed that has now become a castle, to go with our new theme this half-term, Castles!

There is also a new soft construction area, which is proving to be very popular and the ever popular mud kitchen has been made bigger. Lastly there is a new and cosy little den for the children to snuggle up and chat in.

Click here to see all the Nursery news.

Reception Roundup

The childrens focus this half-term is Can we help the baddies in fairy tale land make good choices? Our focus book for the next two weeks is the ‘Three Little Pigs’. The children have been orally learning the story and have recorded our ideas into a story map. Ask your child to retell the story to you, we think you will have a nice surprise. The children have been making pigs out of playdough, and singing songs about the three little pigs.

In maths the children practised their recording by drawing the 3 Little pigs and counting how many legs they had and then show their answer. It's a good way to practise number recognition, addition and recording their understanding. It is something that you could do at home with them, using fruit or toys.

The children have also been completing Science experiments to celebrate Science Week. Their wrote their names onto a banana and they changed colour to brown. They also investigated putting boiled eggs in food colouring, as well as vinegar. Ask your child what they found out!

Click here to keep up with all the Reception news.

Year 1 Roundup

Year have been reading ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ this term and have used adjectives and a ‘who clause’ to describe her character, e.g. Little Red Riding Hood was a cheerful and friendly girl who loved to pick flowers. Understandably the children thoroughly enjoyed their experience day on Wednesday when they ventured into the school woods and imagined they were the wolf! The children have been creating clay wolves, painting wolf masks and watching videos to learn lots of interesting facts and played games such as ‘Pig, pig, wolf’ and ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?

This week the children went on a local area walk and lots of fun putting on the fluorescent jackets and following the route on our maps and seeing all the different types of homes such as detached, semi-detached, flats, bungalows and terraced houses!

Click here to keep up with all the Year 1 news.

Year 2 Roundup

This term, we are learning all about endangered animals and learning to care for our environment. On World Earth Day, we were very lucky that a kind family sent some butterflies in for us to release. The butterflies were beautiful colours and so friendly. Many of the children had the opportunity to hold a butterfly.

The children have been busy gardeners this week and planted lots of flowers and vegetables. We think you will agree that our new planters, made by Olivia and her dad over the Easter holiday, look brilliant in the playground.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 2 news.

Year 3 Roundup

Year 3 started the term off with an Egyptian day for their new topic, Ancient Egypt! This included digging for clues written in hieroglyphics to discover a secret code. The children also followed instructions to mummify an orange! They then thought about the steps involved and wrote their own set of instructions.

In Science the children have been learning about electricity and have looked at what electricity provides us (heat, light, sound and movement). The children then worked in groups creating circuits following specific instructions, some of which turned out to have components missing or wires not connected. The children then had to investigate why their circuit worked or didn’t work and discovered what a circuit needs to provide electricity.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 3 news.

Year 4 Roundup

Year 4, started the term with a new topic and an Egyptian Day. The children designed their own Egyptian collars out of paper plates, looked at patterns and symmetry. They explored mummification and discussed the processes, even mummifying an orange. The children practised their maths skills balancing number sentences as weighing hearts like Egyptians Priests would do. They build pyramids out of marshmallows and spaghetti and worked as a team to decide the best structure, as pictured.

During Science Week the children have been exploring innovation, by designing their own classroom of the future. They thought carefully about things that could be improved in the classroom and what technology there was around us before deciding how to innovate them. The children have come up with some fantastic ideas, from book-delivering butlers to super comfortable chairs!

Click here to keep up with all the Year 4 news.

Year 5 Roundup

For science week Year 5 completed lots of investigations. To start the week, we designed classrooms of the future using the results of our investigation, which took the form of a survey. On Tuesday, we explored different types of paint and used our observations to come up with a question to investigate to 'Which is the best paint?'. We then planned our investigations making sure they were fair tests. Questions we investigated included: 'Which paint dries the quickest?', 'Which paint has the best coverage?' and 'Which paint is visible from the furthest distance?'.

In English the children began learning about 'The Present'. They have written sentences using onomatopoeias (the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named e.g. cuckoo, sizzle) subordinate clauses, similes and metaphors.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 5 news.

Year 6 Roundup

It has been a fantastic start to the summer term. The children have been fully immersed in science week and completing their own investigations into the buoyancy of different materials. They have been testing a range of materials including: wood, felt, plasticine, plastic, paper, cardboard and foil.

The investigation focussed firstly on how buoyant these materials were, but we then moved on to create our own boats to see which material could hold the most weight.

Click here to keep up with all the Year 6 news.