Great Wood News
February 2010
To the Parents/Carers of ______
The term had a busy start and now things are in full swing. The teachers have been working hard adapting to new ways of planning, to integrate the subjects and organise the activities so they are connected and relevant. The lower juniors are learning about life for the Tudors, the upper juniors about survival in extreme environments and the infants are exploring fantasy and reality about castles; before and after school clubs are back on schedule with the longer days and at lunchtime, upper juniors are running in the neighbourhood to keep fit and prepare for the interschool cross country run in March.
The School Council are commended for organising the fund raising for Haiti. Although a Mufti Day (or a wear a hat for Haiti day as suggested by Oliver in reception) were considered the reps thought it would be good to work for donations rather than just ask and the 'Bob a Job' idea was thought just the ticket. Nathan and Jessica in Y6 have been the main organisers and along with all the contributors can feel very proud that over £500 has been raised so far; Well done.
Two Great Wood children have been lucky winners in competitions recently. Lachlan in Y2 has won free school meals for the year in a School Food Trust competition and in Y6, Jessica's design for the ButterflyHouse in Williamson's Park won her and her classa pre-opening visit.
Parents Evenings will take place on two dates across the school; Tuesday March 9th and Wednesday March 10th between 3:30 and 5:30. Sign up slips will follow soon.
You may remember the children going to the Winter Gardens to experiment with light and climb the big glass wall. The organisers of the event will be at Great Wood on February 11th and 12th to share footage and listen to children and parents/carers. Please look out for details and if you weren't able to get to the Winter Gardens, you may be interested to see what the children did and what they thought about it.
Well done to the 3 football teams who competed against Trumacar on Monday after school. There was a fantastic atmosphere and the girls team and the A team can be proud of their success. All Indoor Athletic Teams have competed at Lancaster and Morecambe College this term. There are 18 children competing in a table tennis championship in Blackburn this weekend.
Over the past year, the governors have submitted bids for funds for a number of improvements to the facilities at Great Wood and we have been largely successful with these bids. Plans are being put in place to install fire doors, increase disabled access, extend and refurbish the staff room as an enrichment room, improve the drainage of the playing fields behind school and extend the hard surface playground area. Most of the work will begin during the summer and may cause some minor disruption (mainly to staff) in September. The first funded project of building willow structures for use began this week and the project is in keeping with our aim to make good use of our outdoor space.
Apologies to all parents who were confused by the error on the school calendar about our first day back. We opened them up when they arrived in December but our eyes must have been enjoying the pictures rather than looking at the dates as no-one noticed the error until it was too late.We have learned that the proof will have to be checked at school before printing. Sorry.
We have a box of changing clothes in case of accidents at school. We are short on underwear and socks; if you have some to donate they will be gratefully received.
We are happy to provide a school meals service and we ask that parents pay for meals on Fridays, in advance.This enables the banking to take place once a week so that minimal cash is left on the premises and helps the office staff to complete the job in one go minimising potential for error. At the moment we have more parents paying on days other than Fridays. We areinvestigating more convenient ways of making payments but in the meantime repeat that Fridaysare Dinner Money Days.
We have set up a text messaging programme to enable us to get information to parents. Please keep us up to date when either you or emergency contacts change a mobile telephone number.
Parking
Some of the residents on Beaufort Road would like to bring to your attention that since the school re-opened for the children after the winter holidays, more and more parents are parking on the new yellow line in front of their houses. This is a total disregard of the law and does not set a good example to the pupils. Please be considerate when dropping off and collecting your children at the start and end of the school day.
Diary Dates
Thurs, 4th Feb / Y1 class to Lancaster Castle (am)Y1/Y2 class to Lancaster Castle (pm)
Fri, 5th Feb / Y2 class to Lancaster Castle (pm)
Tues, 9th Feb / Y6/Y5 to MHS to see `Joseph’ musical (am)
Thurs, 11th Feb / Big Wide Talk
Fri, 12th Feb / Big Wide Talk
Mon 15th – Fri 19th Feb / Half Term
Tues, 9th March / Parents’ Evenings
KS1 & KS2
3.30-5.30pm
Wed, 10th March
Shooting Stars
Please book your child places for Feb half term with Shooting Stars – prices: £22 per day. Shooting Stars has been serving local families for over a year now.