Atwood- Weekly news for week ending 25th November

Mr Veale’s welcome

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Atwood News.

News Round-up

Bruno News

Bruno, one of our school dogs, has taken a trip to Stonehenge!  Autumn from 4T, Bruno’s owner, who was accompanied by Roman her older brother, who also used to come to Atwood, travelled to this historic site.  Here is Autumn’s report:

‘We went to Devon for a surprise party over the weekend and stopped off at Stonehenge on the way back. It took half an hour to walk from the car park to the Stones and then half an hour back again. On the walk back the heavens opened and we were drenched and Bruno was less than impressed and refused to walk for a while, so we ended up carrying him while his legs recovered for a bit. He spent the rest of the journey sound asleep and then when we got home he had his dinner and then continued to sleep on the sofa for the rest of the evening. I think it’s safe to say he was exhausted’.

Thanks, Autumn- good to see Bruno is taking his exercise and his history learning seriously.  See the pictures in the gallery below.

Tennis News

Well done to Harrison from 5D who won his first LTA tennis tournament on 19th November beating all 7 competitors at Purley Bury Tennis club.  There is a super picture of Harrison in the gallery below.

Casey’s Mascot News

Casey from 6S was lucky enough to be selected as the mascot for the Chelsea Women’s Team last Sunday. It was quite a historic event, they played at Stamford Bridge to a record crowd for any Women’s League Team on the exact date of 30 years of the ‘Chelsea Ladies’.  There is a great shot of Casey in the gallery below.

Boys’ Trip to Palace for Life

Well done to the Boys’ football team who visited Palace’s training ground last week to brush up on their skills.  The Girls’ team will visit this week and so I will include a photo of their visit in next week’s edition.  Be sure to take a look at the Boys’ football team in the gallery below.

Year 6’s Bikeability

The intrepid Year 6 children took part in their Bikeability training.  As a keen cyclist myself, I know the importance of training children to feel confident cycling in traffic.  I also know how much the weather can affect the enjoyment of cycling.  This week has been blustery and wet, especially on Monday and this delayed the start of the training, but not to be put off, the children got stuck in later in the week.  Take a look at the gallery below.

This Week’s Big Debate

The Big Debate is a hit with children having their say on some of the issues of the day.  Last week, we debated ‘Should young athletes put sport first?’  At the time of writing, 83.3% disagreed that sport is more important that learning.  I added a comments box for this Big Debate as I want to encourage the children to explain their reasons.  Here is a selection of reasons:

• I think sports are important to keep healthy but education must come first to help you learn to read and write
• If you learn stuff, you can get a job.  You may not be able to play sport when you are old!
• No, because you should put learning first and then sport.

This is a Poll held on Google Classroom for KS2 and focuses on this week’s question:  Should we sweep up the leaves on our streets?

To find out more, you can head over to this page on the Pegasus website: Should we sweep up the leaves on our streets?

Word of the Week

This week’s word is SUMMIT.

You may not think that a climate summit and a maths sum have anything in common, but come come from the Latin summus, meaning ‘highest’.  It also describes a chief or top part of something.  COP27 is a meeting of top government people; a maths sum makes a total or main part.

Mrs Standing

Mrs Standing is expecting a baby in the new year!  We wish Mrs Standing and her family all the very best for when the time comes.

Staffing Changes 

Mrs Gilby will be leaving us at the end of this term.  From January, 5G will be taught my Mrs Tomei.  This means that 4MT will be taught by Mrs Mitchell, who will increase her days and therefore teach 4MT on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Mrs Hutchinson will teach 4MT on Fridays.  This arrangement will continue until the end of the academic year to ensure consistency for the children.  It is increasingly difficult to secure good teachers by advertising for them and so my thanks to Ms Tomei and Mrs Mitchell for stepping up.

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 third week of this half term.

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

Attendance

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

Monday 21st to Friday 25th November – Year 6 Bikeability
Tuesday 22nd November – Netball Match- Atwood vs Forestdale AWAY
Monday 28th November – Year 3 Egyptian Workshop
Monday 28th November – Year 2 Methodist Church Visit
Monday 28th November- 3.15pm to 4.40pm- Girls’ Football Match- Atwood vs Park Hill HOME
Wednesday 30th November- Atwood Christmas Market- FOAP Christmas Market
Wednesday 30th November- Netball Match- Atwood vs Ridgeway HOME
Friday 2nd December- EYFS Making Day
Friday 2nd December- Christmas post box day
Tuesday 6th December- Netball Match- Atwood vs Greenvale AWAY
Wednesday 7th December- Christmas Jumper Day- £2 contribution to the FOAP
Wednesday 7th December- Christmas Lunch Day
Thursday 8th December – 9.30am and 2.30pm- Reception Christmas Concerts
Thursday 8th December – 9.30am and 2.15pm- Nursery Christmas Concerts
Friday 9th December- Christmas post box day 
Tuesday 13th December – 9.30am and 2.15pm- KS1 Christmas Play
Thursday 15th December – 9.30am and 1.30pm- Chaplins Pantomine
Thursday 15th December – 4.30 to 6.00pm- School Disco- Years 1, 2 and 3
Thursday 15th December – 6.00pm to 8.00pm- School Disco- Years 4, 5 and 6
Friday 16th December- Christmas Jumper Day
Friday 16th December – 1.30pm- Last Day of Term!
Tuesday 3rd January- INSET day for staff- school closed for the children
Wednesday 4th January- First day back for children

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  

Have a wonderful weekend from the Atwood Team.