Woodland Grange Primary

NEWSLETTER 13th December 2011

Tel: 0116 272 0401 email: office@woodlandgrange.leics.sch.uk www.woodlandwideweb.org.uk

Diwali celebration What a great night run by the Friends of Woodland Grange (FoWG). Fantastic food, dancing, singing and henna art. It was great to take part in all of it! Christmas Tree Festival It was wonderful to have so many parents join us to make decorations with the children and then for a very great number join us, for the first time in the hall, for our Christmas tree festival. I am sure you will agree that the avenue of trees looked fantastic with all the childrens decorations hanging from them. Thanks, in particular, again go to the FoWG and Mrs Pickering from the Foundation Stage, for organising such a great evening.

Parking
We continue to work closely with the police to enforce safe and courteous parking on all roads near the school. The Police have told me that they will be making random checks over the forthcoming months and will not hesitate to follow-up on parking offences. We will continue to open up the school car parks and playgrounds in the evenings to ease congestion on local roads for late evening performances.

Behaviour
Overall, behaviour in the school continues to be of the highest order but, as has been the case recently where I have excluded a child from school, I will not tolerate continued bad behaviour that impacts upon the well-being, sense of safety and learning of others.
Children In Need - Total Raised
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Important Dates
14th Dec - KS 2 Christmas Production (2:00pm) - KS 2 Christmas Production (7:00pm) 15th Dec - KS 2 Christmas production (9:30am) 16th Dec - KS 1 Singing (St Peters in Oadby, 9.45am) 20th Dec - FS Nativity (9.30am) 20th Dec - Christmas Dinner Thursday 22nd Dec- Last day of term 9th Jan - School opens 10th Jan - Life Education Caravan visiting School for wk 13th Jan - Mr Smytons Class Family Assembly 17th Jan - School Food tasting session at end of day (more details to follow)

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As a result of everyone's efforts we ended up raising nearly 900 for Children in Need - a great total. A special mention to the children in Yr 4 who raised over 300 as part of their homework by doing jobs at home. 2011/12 Academic Year

MISSING! A note book & a weekend challenge folder have gone missing from the Year 3 classrooms. Please check your childs bag to ensure no one else has put these items in it. The return of these teacher items would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks to the Underwood family for all the paper and card donated to the school. It is greatly appreciated.

Autumn Term School Closes Thurs eve 22nd Dec 11 Spring Term Begins Mon 9th January 2012 Mid-Term Break Mon 13th to Fri 17th Feb 12 School Closes Fri eve 30th Mar 12 Summer Term Begins Mon 16th April 12 May Day Holiday 7th May Extra day holiday for Queens Diamond Jubilee 1st June Mid-Term Break Mon 4th June to 8th June 12 School Closes Fri eve 13th July 12

Class Organisation this year and into next...

I would like to respond to some of the parents of children in Year 3 who recently put their name to a petition raising concern about the class sizes in that year group and also to the parents of children in Year 4 who will be thinking ahead to what we may have in store for the children as they become Year 5s. One of the outcomes of the school being so well regarded is that parents are very keen to get their children into the school. This combined with the new Pipistrelle Way development, means that there is an increasing pressure on the school to accept more children. Quite simply, the Local Authority Admissions Policy says that we cannot refuse a place if the pupil resides in our catchment/priority area. Since the beginning of this year, this equates to 20 additional pupils. Also to bear in mind, is the fact that we get NO ADDITIONAL FUNDING for the new pupils until next April i.e. the new financial year. Were all the children to be of the same age it would simply be a case of setting up an additional class (if of course there was a spare classroom!) but this is not the case and children have arrived in many different year groups, including 8 within Year 3 (classes would have remained at just 29 or 30 had they not appeared on our doorstep). There are now a total of 67 children in Year 3 and 70 in Year 4. Having taught large classes myself, in years gone by, I appreciate the pressures on teaching and learning in such a large year group and because of this, as numbers have begun to rise I have increased the amount of Teaching Assistant support to Year 3 where the class sizes are the greatest. If it were purely a matter of class size being the deciding factor then the solution next year would be clear: 5 mixed Year 4/5 classes giving a class size of no more than 28. Many schools, because of their numbers, are organised in this way but it is a means of organising a school that ideally, I would wish to avoid. There are considerations far greater than just ones of class size to be taken into account. We need to consider what the curriculum would look like and the need for a rolling program of topic delivery to ensure nothing is missed or repeated. Also we need to consider that for the current Year 4s next year will be their final year before heading off to High School. I would like to assure all parents that I, along with the Senior Management of the school and Governors will make the very best decision in the interests of ALL the pupils in the school. I wish to assure parents that I am very mindful of all the points raised above and will take a great many factors into consideration when coming to a decision later in the year. Mr Hayles

Save all your Christmas cards this year as we will be recycling them in January - send them into school. Have a very merry Christmas & a happy New Year!