Atwood news for week ending Friday 9th June

Mr Veale’s welcome

Welcome Back to the final half term of the academic year.

This year has been incredibly fast paced and here we are in June already; this half term will fly by as well.

Atwood has much to look forward to with Sports Day this month. as well as Croydon Athletics, as well as a whole host of trips and visitors to look forward to.  I am driving the Pegasus Minibus to Eastbourne for the Year 2 Trip and I am hoping to sneak an ice-cream on the beach with the children.  I know that Reception are visiting Godstone Farm, Year 3 are going to Wisley, and Year 6 are going to Chessington.  Oh! and before I forget, Year 4 are taking part in Camp Atwood- our overnight camp on the field.

I love this time of the school year- hopefully, the fruits of our labour are paying off:  our children are growing in maturity and growing up, and in some cases moving on to secondary school or other schools.  With the sun on their backs, the children enjoy time outdoors, playing on our wonderful field and taking part in a wide range of sporting activities and competition.

In terms of Year 6, they will be so busy this half term- The Wizard of Oz rehearsals have begun in earnest.  They will also be preparing for their Leavers’ Service  and really looking forward to their trip to Chessington and of course, their Prom.

Maths news form Miss Dunn

Just before half term, Miss Dunn ran a parent/carer workshop about how ‘Maths Mastery‘ is taught at Atwood.  She explained the research behind why we have chosen to use this model, explained how this looks specifically at our school and gave some practical examples of what sorts of questions children in our school might encounter.  The workshop was very well attended and there was much positive feedback, including comments such as:

“Nice to see how it progresses across the school, it has changed a lot over the years.  I love the emphasis on understanding of process and concepts.”

“Great, very insightful.”

“I found it really useful because I learnt maths in a totally different way.  It was good to know that we should be careful with our vocabulary if we teach at home.”

“Very useful – 10/10.”

We are always striving to improve as a school and take on board that it may have been better to have broken the workshop into two sessions (given the amount of information that was shared) and that a print out of the slides at the beginning would have helped things to be more visible.  We will certainly consider this moving forwards for other workshops.

If you were unable to attend the meeting, but are interested in the information, all slides and handouts have been added to every Google Classroom page.

Ducklings land in Reception

On Monday five eggs arrived at Atwood’s Reception classes.  The children were not told about what was in the egg, but after researching animals that do lay eggs, the children made their prediction of what they thought would hatch out.  On Tuesday morning the first egg hatched.  The children submitted their name suggestions into the name box and one was pulled out at random.  Our first yellow pekin duckling was named ‘Donald’.  Next to hatch was another yellow pekin duckling which was named ‘Rainbow’, followed by a black and yellow Indian runner duckling which was named ‘Rosie’.  Over night the last two ducklings hatched out of their eggs, giving us a full house (names to follow…).  Welcome to our world beautiful duckies!!!

News update:  The latest names for the our two new ducklings are:  Smash and Chocolate.

Ladybirds in Year 5

Building upon the the Stick Insects in Year 5, the children are now observing lady birds.  Ms Tomei takes up the story:

In Year 5 we have been observing the life cycle of ladybirds.  We learnt that the larvae go through different stages of development and shed 3 times before turning into nymphs, (the small black bits in the bottom of the pot were remnants of their skin!).  As nymphs they become immobile for around 8 days before emerging as adult ladybirds.  

The process took 21 days. Once the ladybirds emerged from their pupae, we kept them fed with aphids before releasing them into nature the next day.​

Photos in the gallery below.

Sun Safety 

As we approach the zenith of the year, with the summer solstice upon the horizon on the 21st June, the sun is at its highest and is at its strongest, and therefore, we all need to consider our own safety in the sun and of course, for the children.

Please ensure that you send your child to school with a hat and apply plenty of sun-screen in the morning.  I took at look at the NHS advice about sun safety.  There is a very brief overview:

Children and sun protection

Take extra care to protect babies and children. Their skin is much more sensitive than adult skin, and damage caused by repeated exposure to sunlight could lead to skin cancer developing in later life.

Children aged under 6 months should be kept out of direct strong sunlight.

From March to October in the UK, children should:

• cover up with suitable clothing
• spend time in the shade, particularly from 11am to 3pm
• wear at least SPF30 sunscreen

Apply sunscreen to areas not protected by clothing, such as the face, ears, feet and backs of hands.

Why not take a look at the Atwood news stories from this week?

Reception Chicks: https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/eyfs/hatching-at-atwood
Wonderful World of Reception:  https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/eyfs/atwood-reception-celebrate-being-part-of-our-wonderful-world

Thought of the Week 

‘Fortune favours the bold’. – Virgil

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.  I will be taking a look at the leaderboard after half term.

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 this week.  

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

Attendance

The DfE continue to be concerned about attendance in the post covid world.  Indeed, governments across the world have noticed a worrying trend of children attending school less than before covid.  Atwood works on the 95% expectation and each year, we endeavour to hit our whole school community target of attending at least 95% of the time.  Most years, Atwood nearly reaches 97% which is higher than the national average.  Looking at the Year to Date percentage we have crept to the 95% mark and this is excellent news- let’s keep it up, Atwood.

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.  This allows for a child to be absent for a couple of days per year due to coughs, colds and medical appointments that cannot be made in holiday times.  Remember that we never authorise holidays in term time.  Often I am asked to authorise a family wedding abroad, or to visit a poorly relative abroad.  None of these are valid reasons for absence in term time.  Please bear this in mind.

Here are the attendance figures for this week:

From us all at Team Atwood, enjoy the warmer weather this weekend.  Stay safe and see you all on Monday 12th June. 

Mr. Veale