Atwood News for week ending 20th January

Mr Veale’s welcome

Shocking electricity prices

This week, the children have experienced another cold snap.  I had a bit of a shock (pardon the pun) myself when both November and Decembers’ electricity bills arrived in the post.  We know that November was warmer than December but the bill leapt up from around £1500 for November’s electricity to £5000 for December.  Don’t forget that Atwood was only ‘open’ until Friday 16th December.  The wholesale cost of electricity leapt from around 15p per kilowatt hour to around 65p per kilowatt hour. Despite turning off all lights that are not required and urging the teachers to switch off their whiteboards and the like, Atwood, like all schools across the country, are really struggling to pay these bills.  We now await the gas bill!

Strike Action

You will all be aware of the planned industrial action, the first of which occurs on Wednesday 1st February.  Many of you will wish to know the plans for the first day of industrial action.  Parents should prepare themselves for a partial opening of Atwood on Wednesday 1st February.

At the time of writing, only a minority of classes will be open. Classes will not be being doubled up; we won’t be using the sports coaches or TAs to cover, and in the case of siblings, one of whom may be in a class that is closed and one of whom is in an open class, we won’t be inviting both siblings in to school.  The industrial action being carried out by members of the NEU has been brought about as a grievance with the Secretary of State and as such members’ actions should be respected.  I know many parents will have mixed feelings about strike action in schools, but please may I ask that you respect the decisions that will be made, even if these cause inconvenience to working families. Such decisions are never taken lightly.

Word of the Week

This week’s word is NIVEOUS.  This is a beautiful word from the Latin Niveus meaning ‘snowy-white’.  Children, you may wish to use the word niveous to describe a winter landscape which is covered in a blanket of snow.

Young Voices

On Tuesday, Year 6 travelled to the O2 to take part in the ever popular Young Voices.  Having learned the range of songs that were going to be performed on the night, the children practised these alongside around 6000 other children from across the south east.  Heather Small guest starred alongside a range of other talented performers.  The children arrived back to Atwood very late but full of the experience, which was also enjoyed by a number of parents who watched the show in the audience.  My thanks to Mr Beaumont for organising and preparing the children for this special event as well as the teachers and TAs who gave up one of their evenings to take the children.  I have placed some photographs into the gallery below.

The Pegasus Poetry Competition

On Friday, the Atwood winners from Year 1 to 6 of the Pegasus Poetry Competition travelled in the Pegasus minibus to Whitehorse Junior to perform their masterpieces on stage in front of an appreciative audience.

The theme was Winter and the inventiveness and creativity of not only the Atwood children but the other finalists in the Trust was impressive.  Mr Simons and I were impressed with how the event was organised and reflected upon how important it is for the children within the Trust to be able to travel to each others’ schools and meet each other.  It was great to have use of the Pegasus minibus- yet another benefit from being part of the Trust.

I know that the children who took part under the guidance of Mr Simons, will be writing a more in-depth news article about the Poetry competition next week so watch this space.

Team Points (Pupil Reward Points)

Remember that everyone at Atwood believe in the Terrific Trio- Kind Words, Kind Thoughts, Kind Actions and for that, the children are rewarded.  The first key milestone for a pupil is to reach 50 Pupil Reward Points because they will be awarded a £5 Book Token in Celebration Assembly, as we also wish to promote the love of reading at Atwood.  Each pupil has been assigned to a Team or House.  These are Air, Earth, Fire and Water.  All Pupil Reward Points also contribute to the Team Points each week.

Here are the all important totals for the term so far:

Congratulations to AIR who have won the Team Points Competition for the third week of the Spring Term

Why not head over to the Pupil Reward Points website?  https://www.pupilrewardpoints.co.uk

Attendance

With those holiday adverts all over the TV at the moment, just a polite notice to families- we do not authorise holidays in term time.  Children are expected to attend school for 190 days per year leaving plenty of holiday time for those summer vacays!

Attendance is important.  After all, children only have one opportunity to go to school, don’t they?  As a rule of thumb, we expect children to attend school at least 95% of the time.  Here are the Attendance figures for this week:

Forthcoming dates with newly added items in BOLD

Saturday 21st January- SLH Cross Country Races
Tuesday 24th January- Class Reps Meeting- 2pm at Atwood
Thursday 26th January- Year 2 Post Box Trip
Thursday 26th January- Netball match vs Greenvale (home)
Friday 27th January- LAC or AFC event- 2pm-3pm
Tuesday 31st January- Happy’s Circus Tickets Early Bird offer ends!  Grab a bargain and support Atwood. 
Wednesday 1st February- First day of planned industrial action
Thursday 2nd February- Netball match vs Forestdale (home)
Friday 3rd February- Mums and Female Carers’ Number Day
Monday 5th February to Sunday 12th February- Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week
Tuesday 7th February- Year 2- Superhero Day
Tuesday 7th February- Netball match vs Gresham (away)
Tuesday 7th February- Safer Internet Day
Thursday 9th February- Netball match vs Selsdon (home)
Friday 10th February- International Day of Women and Girls in Science 
Friday 10th February- Last day before the half term holiday
Monday 20th February- Pupil and staff return after the half term holiday
Wednesday 22nd February- Year 6 Dental Screening
Week commencing 27th February- Book Week
Monday 27th February- Author Visit- Dan Freedman  author of Unstoppable
Week commencing 6th March- Whitgift Primary Project for Year 5
Thursday 2nd March- Planned industrial action- London Area 
Saturday 11th March- Farthing Downs Cross Country Race
Week commencing 13th March- Science Week- Our Theme is CONNECTIONS
Tuesday 14th March- KS1 Science Wizards Workshop
Wednesday 15th March- Planned industrial action
Thursday 16th March- Planned industrial action 
Thursday 16th March- KS2 Science Wizards Workshop-TBC
Saturday 18th March- SLH Cross Country Races
Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd March- Year 5 Residential to Carroty Wood
Tuesday 28th March- Red Class to visit Sanderstead Methodist Church- 12.30-1.15pm
Thursday 30th March- Yellow Class to visit Sanderstead Methodist Church- 12.30-1.15pm
Friday 31st March- Last day of the Spring Term- School finishes and 1.30pm
Monday 17th April- Children return from the Easter holidays
Saturday 22nd April- Happy’s Circus- Gates open at 12 noon.  FOAP Event- Please do support this Atwood community event
Thursday 20th July- 6.00pm to 8.30pm- Year 6 Leavers’ Party
Friday 21st July- 9.30am- Year 6 Leavers’ Service
Friday 21st July- Last day of Summer Term closing at 1.30pm

To note, all of the ATW dates are on the calendar and so please click on this link to find them: https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/events-calendar?school=ATW