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We are looking at our school times in response to the government asking all schools to work 32.5 hours a week (this includes lunchtime) by September 2024. Last year, juniors started at 8.45 am and infants at 8.55 am although their classrooms were open and staffed from 8.45 am if parents wanted to drop them earlier. As a first step towards 32.5 we requested infant parents bring their children to school at 8.45 am from September 2023 and governors have now confirmed that infant children should now start at 8.45 am. Children have an hour for lunch time and the extra time time could be achieved with a longer lunchtime. However we feel that extra teaching time would be more useful and a longer lunch time is not necessary as no children go home for lunch. All children (apart from nursery)now have the same start and finish times. Children coming into school after this time will be marked as late.

Now we are looking at how we find the remaining 75 minutes to bring our hours up to the new expectation of 32.5 hours per week by September 2024. It is worth noting that Woodside children can in fact already access this time by attending some of our many clubs and activities and that Woodside is open to children for the full 190 days a year while many schools are not. However, we are seeking to comply with the  directive in the way that most benefits our children and which we can afford. We are currently looking at the possibility of finishing at 3.15 pm instead of 3.00 pm or possibly starting earlier. If you are a parent we would very much like to hear your views on this. 

Please note, these times are for children from Reception to Year 6. Nursery hours will remain the same as they are now.

Thank you for coming to our harvest festivals and for your amazing generosity. Well done children for 4 excellent harvest festival performances. Each house had their own harvest festival to give the children more chance to display their talent and enabled us to fit in all the parents who wanted to come and all children from year 1 to year 6. Thank you to staff for all your hard work preparing for this event.

Our online consultation system is very convenient and has helped us to included more parents in the conversation, especially people whose work commitments make attending in person very difficult. It also saves you waiting around and gives everyone a fair allocation of time. However, as we know you also like to look at children's work we have combined these with after school "book looks" when you can come into school and see first-hand what your children have been doing. We will have this find of consultation in the autumn and spring terms and in the summer we will send you a written report and an invitation to our "Exhibition Evening" when you can look at  your children's work and also have a look at the class where you child will be next September.

We know that dressing-up theme days are much enjoyed by the children and we try to make sure that you have good notice of them, that  you don't need to go and buy clothes for them and that they are not always to raise money. All dressing-up theme days are optional. Children can come in normal uniform if they would rather not dress up. Our first opportunity for dressing-up is Thursday 5th October when we are holding a Monster Day - this is  the official launch of our new Monster Phonics programme for younger children and we would like them to choose a Monster Phonics character; these are very easy as they include Tricky Witch, Silent Ghosts, Black Cats and lots of different coloured letter monsters. Older children can join in with this or choose another monster costume they may have or can borrow or improvise. We don't want anything too frightening as we want it to be a fun day. There will be a special Monster Lunch including Miss "Oh No"s doughnuts with chocolate sauce straight from Tricky Witch's cauldron. Every child having the lunch will received a Monster sticker.

We have now met with the School Council to decide our fund raising and other days and they  again chose Children in Need on Friday 17th November which involves wearing pyjamas, and also two Christmas Jumper Days: on the official Christmas Jumper Day Thursday 7th December and Wednesday 20th, the last day of term. We will not be collecting money but you can given directly to Children in Need if you wish. There is no need to buy a Christmas Jumper as children can wear any Christmassy clothes or just use their imagination to decorate an ordinary jumper, or of course wear their school uniform. There will not be a Hallowe'en Disco this year as we felt the costumes were getting a little too gruesome and not everyone appreciated this event. There will be a Christmas Disco and discos in the spring and summer terms.