Friday 10th January 2025
Headteacher's Update
Happy New Year to all of our children and families. It's been a busy start to 2025.
This week our School Council wrote and presented a brilliant assembly to the school about all the projects they are working on and the progress they have made. The highlights being the fundraising for Children In Need, the Food Bank collection and the purchasing of new resources. This was in response to the School Council asking their classes 'what would make WHJS an even better place to be?'
The School Council have been supported by a donation from the 'Friends of Woolton Hill' and have used the money to buy: lots of new playground equipment, a friendship stop sign, den building kits and recycling boxes. The new lunchtime Den Building area was launched this week by the School Councillors and has being thoroughly enjoyed by children from Hazel class for the first week. Each class will have a week to make dens and play in them during their lunch break. This is a great way to connect with nature, collaborate as a team and problem solve!
Let's all do our bit for the Environment
We should recycle more to avoid single use plastics going into landfill sites and our precious ocean environments. The Eco Team and School Council have worked together to ensure that we are doing our bit too. They have organised new recycling boxes for both schools so that we can reduce our plastic waste and do more to help the environment. Each class now has a pen recycling box and at the Juniors (inside the school entrance) parents can also drop off these items from home for us to recycle:
print ink cartridges
old pens (of any sort)
batteries (any sizes welcome but please ensure adults drop off any small buttons batteries).
We hope to add to and expand our recycling area and if any parents have any links to local recycle centres or schemes please do get in touch.
Reindeer Rumble
A huge thank you and well done to our Year 6 Ambassadors for organising and leading a fantastic festive fund raiser at the end of term. The children looked amazing, ate delicious biscuits, played festive games, won prizes, raced as reindeer and had lots of fun! The day's activities raised a huge £218.23 for the Ambassadors chosen charities of St Michael's Hospice and Crisis. We are very proud of our Ambassadors and their role as courageous advocates in raising awareness of homelessness and end of life care. The money raised will make a huge difference but has also educated our school community about these vital charities and how others are less fortunate than themselves.
Spelling Homework
A few parents have fed back to me recently that their children preferred written sheets to support their learning of spellings, rather than the interactive games on spelling shed. We have considered this at a recent staff meeting and, starting this term, we will return to providing a written spelling worksheet. However, instead of promoting rote learning, these sheets encourage children to think carefully about the words, understand their definitions and bring in other aspects of English. Research shows that regular practice shifts learning from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. Please can parents encourage their children to practice spelling their words several times throughout the week.
Children can still access the games on Spelling Shed for additional practice.
Psychological Perspectives in Education and Primary Care (PPEPCare) Workshops for Parents and Carers Spring/Summer 2025
These are education sessions that last 1.5 hours and are delivered to Parents and Carers across Hampshire online via Zoom. No sign up is required, simply click below to open the document and join the link at the time of delivery. Type in the meeting ID and Passcode listed. For confidentiality reasons, please only type your first name when joining.
Sensory Processing Workshop
Wednesday 29th January 2025- 1.00pm-2.30pm
This sensory processing workshop focuses on how to support school age children (5-11 years). This session can be attended by parents/carers and school staff supporting a child or young person in order to understand the young person's needs and how these can be best supported.
To register to attend these workshops please click on this link: Sensory Processing online workshops | Children Young People and Families Online Resource (berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk)
NHS Pharmacy First Service
Did you know that the NHS Pharmacy First Service enables children and adults to get convenient access to healthcare advice and treatment where appropriate, for seven common conditions without the potential delay of having to wait for a GP appointment?
Accessing the service may mean that we can help children feel better and get back to school as quickly as possible, as well as supporting parents/carers to also get better if they are unwell with one of the conditions covered under the service.
There is no need to make an appointment; parents or carers can pop into their local Boots pharmacy with their child and ask for help under the service.
Support for the following conditions can be accessed under the service, free of charge (unless NHS prescription charges apply):
Common condition | Patient eligibility |
Earache | 1 to 17 years |
Impetigo | 1 year and over |
Infected insect bites and stings | 1 year and over |
Sore throats | 5 years and over |
Sinusitis | 12 years and over |
Uncomplicated urinary tract | Women 16 to 64 years |
Shingles | 18 years and over |
A summary of the service is available as an animation and more information can also be found at nhs.uk/thinkpharmacyfirst as well as at: https://www.boots.com/healthhub/a-z-services/pharmacy-first.
Girls Rugby
Star Awards
The following children received Star Awards this week! They should all be really proud, well done!
10th January: Millie C, Noah P, Poppy R, Thea B, Bella K, Charlotte B, Jack W, Joel H, Alice M, Bertie J, Noah A and Harry D
Hot Chocolate
10th January: Holly D, Gregory L, Jack D and Noah A
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