Latest News

Cornerstone Church, who meet at Woodside on Sundays are offering to host a warm space with warm food here on certain Saturdays during the cold weather and to anyone who needs it. The dining hall will be open from 11.00 am to 1.30 pm on Saturday 18th February, 4th and 18th March and the 1st April.

We are continuing with online parent-teacher consultations this term for convenience but also holding "book looks" so that you can come into school to see your children's work. These will be after school when the book fair is running so that you can easily go to both events. The first Book Look will be for Year 1 and Early Years classes and will be after school on Wednesday  22nd February. Full dates are in our newsletter.

We have always encouraged good attendance but over the last 3 years we needed to emphasize this less because of Covid19. What we really want is for children to attend school every day they can but not if they are ill and infectious to other children and staff. Minimizing infection had to be the priority, especially after we lost a member of staff early in the pandemic. Covid19 has not gone away but there have been plenty of opportunity to protect ourselves with vaccinations.

We are now looking at a range of incentives which will encourage children to attend regularly and on time so that they get best out of school. These will not necessarily be for those who are able to get 100% but those who are at school whenever they can be. We are issuing penalty notices to parents whose children have unauthorized absences but as in everything we do in school we think rewards and recognition of improvement are more effective than sanctions.

Children who have 100% over the year will be rewarded along with children who complete the Big Summer Read with a session on our inflatable obstacle course at the end of term. Children who complete the read and get 100% attend will have 2 sessions.

Each class will compete for a special cup for the best attendance each week. The winning class will have an extra playtime of Friday afternoon.

This Easter break will see the return of our  FREE Year 6 Holiday Workshops. These are upbeat teacher-led session focusing on English and mathematics to help children who attend to achieve their very best in the SATs next term. There will be four workshops during  the holiday; on the Tuesdays and Thursdays of both weeks and you can sign your children up for as many or as few as you wish.

We have a highly successful record of training teachers at Woodside, formerly working with Essex Initial Teacher Training as their lead school in Thurrock. All candidates who completed their training with us went on to work as teachers in local schools, including Woodside. As Essex are no longer operating this training we are now working with Schools Direct through the St Clere's partnership. This programme is for graduates only but we also work with other organizations who provide an apprentice scheme leading to a degree.To find out more contact Ms Ryder at Woodside or click on one the links below.

St Clere's Partnership

School Direct

Funding and Support