Great Wood News
November 2011
To the Parents/Carers of _________________
Class 4 and 5 were hard at work making felt
pictures last week thanks to PTA support. Local
artist, Gill Ferguson inspired the children with some
of her work and then demonstrated the techniques
involved before the children got stuck in. It was one
of those activities where children could really get
stuck in and then needed to be followed with a
thorough vacuum by Mr Butler and team. Some of
the results are displayed in the hall. You can also
see more pictures of the process on the new infant
blog that we are trialing
http://greatwood.primaryblogger.co.uk/
http://theblogboys.primaryblogger.co.uk/ is the link
for a small group of junior boys who are trialing this
media too.
Mrs Stroud’s class made a fabulous presentation to
the rest of the school on Monday. They have been
learning about the Amazonian Rain Forests and
shared interesting facts, a song, a playlet where a
woodcutter came to his senses, and information
about how tribes survive in this extreme
environment. They had written the scripts, prepared
the slides and props and shared their work with
confidence.
Lower Junior parents are invited to a Volcano
Assembly in the hall at either 9:15 or 2:15 next
Friday.
Yesterday, the upper juniors had an Extreme
Environment Day with presentations and
opportunities to ask lots of questions. Eric Ashford
shared information on destruction in the Amazonian
rainforests, Mike Davis form Bay Search and
Rescue focused on quicksand and water rescue
and Nick Mattock from Bowland Pennine
Mountain Rescue shared experiences and advice
about mountain rescue and staged a mock
mountain rescue with the children. We are
indebted to the gentlemen who gave up their free
time to support the children.
Thank you to the PTA who have organised three
events so far this term. Thank you to those who
set up their wares on table tops last Saturday; it
was a shame that there weren’t so many
customers despite the advertisements on local
radio, paper and leafleting locally. The Halloween
Discos were very popular with the children.
Please put December 9th 5-7pm in your diary as
it is the PTA Christmas Fair.
Thank you to those who are supporting PTA fund
raising. We are being sensitive to the economy
when determining if parental contributions are
needed for activities to be possible. Our school
budget IS tighter despite what is said in the media.
Although the amount allocated to schools may not
have dropped significantly a number of services
that were once free to schools are now billed to
schools.
Sport
On Saturday 12th November, Great Wood sent 17
children to the Lancashire Team Table Tennis
Championships in Blackburn. The girls team of
Alice Dillon, Anna Duckworth, Rosie Logue and
Nicole Melrose were crowned champions with the
team of Nadine Bowles, Olivia Hepworth, Abbie
Washington, Jayde Emmerson and Natasha
Norman finishing as runners-up. The winning
girls team now travel back to Blackburn in
January for the North West finals. The boys team
of Ryan Grime, Oliver Holroyd, Owen Jackson
and Andrew Logue battled to a commendable
runners-up position, beaten to the title by an
extremely strong team from Garstang. The other
boys team of Morgan Foster, Ryan Towers, Josh
Winder and Lachlan Carr gained valuable
experience and finished 4th.
progress and we have had a recent photo.
Unfortunately, Ella, sponsored by the infants
developed a terminal tumor and the children were
told that she has died. The children have seen
photos of Abby, their new puppy.
Thank you to everyone for thinking of others.
After seeing the joyful faces of children in the
Ukraine receiving presents and hearing from Mrs
Thomas Woodhouse about the lives of some of
the children, pupils were inspired to wrap up over
100 Operation Christmas Child presents. Our
School Council members kept the momentum
going and are commended for their work.
In recent friendly matches, two girls football teams
took on two teams from Torrisholme. The younger
girls battled well and lost an exciting game 8-5. The
older girls dominated their match and finished up
13-0 winners. Our High5 netball team also had
friendly matches against St Mary's. The younger
team winning their match 5-1 and the older boys
and girls winning their match 7-0.
The Indoor Athletics teams have competed twice
since the last Newsletter and there have been some
notable individual performances with both teams
enjoying the experience.
On Thursday 24th, we hope to take around 20 Year
3 and 4 boys to a football tournament at Morecambe
High School. Trials took place this week and were
well attended.
With the stage going up there is a winter break for
clubs. Please refer to letters from each club teacher
for the last day of each club. Parents dropping off
children for clubs before school are reminded not to
use the car park; please drop off at the bus stop and
children can enter by the nearby entrance.
On that note, despite earlier discussions with
traffic officers about the use of the bus stop layby, I have been informed that cars parked in the
lay-by are in breach of the Highway Code and
drivers will be prosecuted.
Thank you to parents who are making an effort to
keep roads near school safe for children.
Last year the children raised money to sponsor two
guide dog puppies following a visit from ex-Great
Wood teacher and puppy walker Miss Mattingly.
Angus, sponsored by the juniors is making good
Our house captains and their vice captains did a
fantastic job hosting parents interested in their
children attending Great Wood from next
September on October 8th. We have been
oversubscribed in past years and so it is good that
we will be able to take more families. Please let
friends or neighbours know that we will host a
second open morning on December 1st between
9:30 and 11:30.
The response of parents to the decision by the
governors to respond positively to the county
council’s request to expand the school by ten
pupils per year was 85% in agreement with the
response and 15% against. At a county level
Cabinet determined that the change was not great
enough to require a consultation process, however
any building work will of course be required to go
through planning consultation. We are in the early
stages of planning, greatly helped at this early
stage by the vice-chair of governors and parent
Mr Harwood.
Please note the dates for Christmas events.
Christmas Dinner for children will be on Tuesday
13th, however the roast dinner menu that Thursday
will be replaced by Tuesdays meal. The Community
Singing group are visiting nursing homes on the
Thursday and we didn’t want them to miss
Christmas Dinner.
Children have safety lessons and assemblies
through the year. Messages about road safety and
information on child deaths in England had been
shared a few weeks ago. We have also recently
stressed that it is illegal for under 13 year olds to
use Facebook and shared the potential dangers of
‘gossip’ or thoughtless comments on social
networking sites. To help their judgement we have
said that they should not write anything that they
would feel uncomfortable if their parent were to
read it. Each class this week has been introduced to
Egghead the Egg, and how a mini-helmet protects
Egghead when he falls off a bicycle.
You may be aware that we achieved a bronze award
for promoting cycling last year and our work is
continuing. We are promoting Winter Wheely
Wednesdays along with local schools.
For 6 Wednesdays next term pupils, parents and
staff will be encouraged to cycle to school. Each
weekly winning school will choose a prize of either
a half day of the wonderful Dr Bike or an extra day
cycling activities in school.
The weekly categories are
1
2
3
4
5
6
Wednesday 18th
January
Wednesday 25th
January
Wednesday 1st
February
Wednesday 8th
February
Wednesday 22nd
February
Wednesday 29th
February
Highest proportion
children cycling
Highest number parents
cycling
Highest actual number
children cycling
Highest proportion staff
cycling
Highest increase from
baseline data
Best blinged bike!
Solar Panels
Following some suggestions by the School Council
to make Great Wood more eco-friendly, we applied
for free solar panels on the roof. We have passed
the first hurdles with the Eco-Schools Solar Panels
project within the Keep Britain Tidy group and are
awaiting a roof assessment.
As you also may know, the government are now
changing the “deal” for solar energy, which could
stop schools across the country from participating
in this very exciting project.
If you can spare a minute to register on the epetition at
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/21193
it will hopefully push the matter for discussion in
the House of Commons.
We have a new Energy Monitor in school
provided by British Gas and accessible on all
pupils computers. We are currently checking our
use at different times during the day.
Great Wood Houses
In the summer term a competition was held to
name Great Wood’s four houses. Joseph
Cronshaw’s winning entry was announced earlier
in the year. Local artist James Fox with the
support of former teaching assistant Helen
Boothman who runs Etty Lily craft shop in
Bolton-le Sands have created four fantastic flags
for the houses. See if you can name them?
Anti- Bullying Week
There has been a focus on preventing bullying this
week at Great Wood. If you have not received our
Anti-bullying Handbook for Parents along with this
newsletter, please ask for a copy at the school
office.
New Spanish Club.
From January 2012 we will be offering children in
years 3 and 4 the opportunity to learn Spanish after
school as part of a course run by 'La Jolie Ronde'.
Letters will be coming home to children in years 3
and 4 around Nov 28th to explain what is involved.
It is a good opportunity to learn another language
and promises to be great fun. Look out for the letter
in your child's book bag!
There may be the possibility to extend this offer to
children in other years in the future. Please contact
Mrs Harris if you have any questions.
Dates For Your Diary
9:15 and 2:15
Lower Junior Volcano
Friday 25th
Assembly – parents invited
November
to attend
Mon, Nov28th
Progress Reports for Y2 and
the years above sent home
by pupil post
6:30 – 8:30 Dragon’s Den
Event
st
Thur Dec1
9:30-11:30 Open Morning
Fri Dec 2nd
Non Uniform Day- Tombola
Prize donation
th
Thurs Dec 8
9:30 Nativity
2pm Nativity for local
community and grandparents
th
Fri Dec 9
9:30 Nativity
5-7pm Christmas Fair
th
Tue Dec13
Christmas Dinner
Fri Dec 16th
Year four boys and girls have been learning cooking
skills. These after school sessions have been greatly
enhanced by parental support and the children are
taking the recipes and trying out their chopping,
rubbing, mixing and tasting skills at home too.
There are still two further groups next year. This is
a project funded by the Lottery and organised by
Mrs Hampshire.
Christmas Cheer
Looking ahead, the juniors will join the end of the
Infant Nativity to sing the school’s Christmas Song
at 9:30 on the 8th and 9th December. Please see the
attached letter for ticket sales. At 2pm on the 8th the
children will do a performance for the elderly
community with older neighbours and some guests
from local nursing homes; grandparents may want
to join this performance.
Lower juniors will host a performance in the spring
term and upper juniors will do so in the summer
term.
We will be practising our Original words and music
for Christmas Eve at school but they are also
available on our website at
http://www.greatwood.lancs.sch.uk/index.php?secti
on=6&page=76
Dec 17th–Jan 2nd
Non Uniform Day-Christmas
Theme
£1 - School Fund.
School finishes at normal
time
Winter Holiday
Tue Jan 3rd
Return to school