13 January 2017
Issue 236
Dear Parents and Carers,
There are weeks in the school year when lots of things happen, but this week has been one where the focus
has been in the classrooms and teaching spaces around the school. Pupils working hard, teachers having
prepared lessons, and those who are in support roles ensuring that tasks are completed. That is, in fact,
what a school should be about. Mind you, the snow today has brought extra excitement!
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100: 5
The closing date for letters of application for Takeover Day was today. Ms Tomes has sent
staff away with homework: there is the short-listing of letters to take place, and we have
our deadline to meet! I have a pile to peruse, both for the role of Principal and Deputy, so
shall look forward to an hour or so of interesting reading.
You will find on the final page of The Insider, as well as the website, the term dates for the next academic
year. As Walkwood is an academy school it has the freedom to set its own start and end of terms, as well as
when the holidays will be. However, varying that from what other local schools offer would make things
difficult for parents and carers, so we have worked as part of the community in setting these.
I mentioned last week about Parent View and sharing your thoughts of our school. There are still no
responses listed by Ofsted, so if you have some time, please share your thinking with them as you have with
us. There is a reminder of how to get to Parent View on a later page.
There are Parent and Carer Consultation Evenings coming up for Year 6 and 8 on Thursday 2nd and
Wednesday 8th February. Do read the section about Insight as bookings to meet teachers will be done
electronically. Reports to parents and carers will be sent securely through Insight rather than paper
versions, so do ensure you can access your Insight account.
Rev. Clive Leach
Principal
A Prayer
In our prayers, Heavenly Father, we ask that you guide us
to recognise every opportunity
to serve one of Your precious
children. Help us to go
through each day with our
hearts full of faith and love,
looking for someone to help.
Amen.
This week’s theme was:
Charities
Jesus was sitting in the temple near
the offering box and watching people put in their gifts. He noticed that
many rich people were giving a lot
of money. Finally, a poor widow
came up and put in two coins that
were worth only a few pennies. Jesus told his disciples to gather
around him. Then he said: “I tell you
that this poor widow has put in
more than all the other.” Mark 12:41
-43
Letters this week:
Whole school Attendance 96.85 %
Whole School Target –
95.2 %
04.01.17 to 06.01.17
Year 5 —
Year 6 —
Year 7 —
Year 8 —
95.65 %
98.07 %
96.76 %
96.84 %
For the week ahead
The Fruit of Faith
is:
The tutor group
virtue:
The assembly
theme:
Inclusiveness
Generosity
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on
the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45
You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will
produce thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:11
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck
Giving your time up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to
break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to
laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3
We ask your thoughts and prayers in the week ahead for:
The weekend
support and comfort to those who
have been made refuges by war
Monday
our teachers of English, especially
those who are preparing Year 6 for
the SATs
Tuesday
pupils and staff of St. Luke’s Church
of England First School
Wednesday
the Bishop of Worcester,
The Right Reverend Dr John Inge
Thursday
world leaders, that they may act in
the common good
Friday
sport leaders and coaches
By Ryan Moisy, Y6
NUMBER CHALLENGE
W/c 9th January
How many
Hexagons are
there in this
shape?
Answer revealed:
Friday 20th January
Early in the term we held an information evening and shared information via the Insider about Insight which is a parent information system that allows parents to log on
and access data such as academic reports and attendance data.
From this academic year we have also begun using Insight for parents evening bookings and school academic reports. Please note that this will replace our old method of booking parents’
evening appointments and pupils will no longer receive paper copies of academic reports. Login details for
Insight were handed out during the information evening or sent home via your child earlier in the Autumn
term.
On February the 2nd and 8th we will be holding Parents’ Evenings for years 6 and 8 whilst years 5 and 7 will
receive an academic report via Insight on the 15th February. With this in mind I would encourage all parents
who have not yet accessed Insight to do so to ensure all is working correctly. Insight can be accessed using
the following link:
https://insight.walkwoodms.worcs.sch.uk/INSIGHT/secure.aspx
If you have any issues with logging in then please use the password reset function on the Insight homepage.
Please allow up to 48 hours for your password to be reset. If you are still unable to access Insight then
please contact our IT team by email at [email protected] again allowing 48 hours for the issue to be sorted.
When emailing the help desk please state your name, your child’s name and that your child attends Walkwood Church of England Middle School as the team support numerous schools.
Once you have accessed Insight can we please ask you to check all your contact details are correct. Any
change of address, email and phone number can be amended in Insight and will feed straight into SIMs for
us. We are moving towards using text messaging to pass on information and contact parents so it is important we have the correct numbers for all parental contacts.
Homework
We are continuing to develop the use of e-Praise to set homework and award points for its
completion. From January we will no longer be stamping pupil’s planners to show that they have completed and handed in a homework as this will be recorded on e-Praise instead.
The homework process will be:
1) Teachers will set homework on e-Praise . Pupils and parents are able to log onto e-Praise to see
what the homework task is and when it is due. At present pupils will still record homework in
their planners.
2) Pupils complete homework and mark it as having been done in their e-Praise accounts.
3) On the date the homework is due teachers will be collecting homework and recording whether it
has been completed on e-Praise . By ticking that a homework has been completed they are able
to award points. A demerit will be given if homework is not completed.
4) Parents are able to login to their e-Praise accounts to see if their child has completed their homework.
Just a reminder that you are only able to log into e-Praise if we have an email registered for you; you
can do this by logging into Insight and completing/checking your details there. Once this has been done
you can input your email on the e-Praise login page and a password will be emailed through to you.
Yorkshire payment reminder.
Please be aware that the next instalment for this trip is due by the end of January
2017. Please make your payments through ParentPay.
Thank you
Have your say!
Parent View is the response survey for Ofsted which allows it to gauge the views of
the parents and carers who know the school. Please register your views at:
https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/login?destination=give-your-views
Last chance!
Applications for places at middle schools must be submitted to
Worcestershire County Council by Sunday 15th January 2017. The
same date applies for first school applications too.
If you wish to make a preference for a pupil to begin at a first or middle
school in September of next year, please ensure that applications are
submitted on time.
On Saturday 7th January 2017 the combined Warwickshire and
Worcestershire cross country championships took place at Leamington’s Newbold Comyn. Taking part in the U13’s Boys race was
Josh Robins. Josh dominated the race and finishing the race in 12
minutes 13 seconds, 12 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Congratulations
Josh on being crowned U13’s Warwickshire and Worcestershire
cross country champion.
Some parents are having issues where they can login to Insight but then find that they can
only view a blank screen with no information on it.
This is because their web browser is blocking Javascript from running , they will need to
allow scripts to run on this website then refresh the page.
To do this in chrome:
They will have a prompt in the address bar on the right hand side with a very small red cross. Left click this and
then click Always Allow Javascript to run on this site.
If there is no prompt they can manually change the settings in the chrome browser settings:
1. Open Chrome
2. Click the Chrome menu icon on the browser toolbar.
3. Select Settings.
4. On the "Settings" page, click the Show advanced settings... link.
5. In the "Privacy" section, click Content settings...
6. Select Allow all sites to run JavaScript (recommended) in the "JavaScript" section.
7. Click Done.
To do this in IE:
1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Select the "Tools" menu. ...
3. Select "Internet Options" ...
4. Select the "Security" tab. ...
5. Click the "Custom Level..." ...
6. Scroll down and change the Active Scripting setting to enabled. ...
7. Confirm the change. ...
8. Close "Internet Options" ...
9. JavaScript is now enabled.
10. Refresh the page
Top Readers for 8th December to 12th January
Congratulations to:
Top Girl
Niamh Gibbs AECO Year 6 who has read a fantastic 84,561
words
Top Boy
Rayyan Mahomed AECO Year 8 who has read an outstanding
192,937 words
Girls’ athletics
On Friday 6th January, a team of year five and six girls
went to an indoor athletics competition held at Arrow
Vale sports hall. Three members of sports council –
Lauren Heath, Louise Carter and Lucy Cann – accompanied the girls, helping to make sure they were all at the
right events.
The girls did very well winning the 1x1 relay and the 4x1
relay as well as numerous other events. Overall the
team came joint 2nd, but were given 3rd on a tie breaker
due to the amount of events won between the 2 teams
who tied for 2nd.
The team consisted of thirteen members; they were
Georgie Coldicott, Sophie Evans, Maisy West, Chardae McKenzie, Frankie Griffiths, Ashleigh Green,
Freya Harley, Niamh Campbell, Lily Paice, Ella Scott, Lea Van Gelder, Charlie Robinson and Gracie Morris. They all performed exceptionally well and Mr Hunt was extremely proud of them all.
Louise Carter, Lauren Heath and Lucy Cann.
Assembly Summary
This week’s whole school assembly was about ‘Charity’. Rev Leach had a video and music of lots of
different charities as we came in. We have raised money for a lot of these.
The Head Girl, called Honor, did a reading from the Bible. The story was Jesus watching people in the
temple giving money. There was an old woman who had two pennies. Jesus said this was worth more
than the bigger coins from the richer people because two pennies was a lot of
money for that woman. Charity is about giving something but not just because
it is easy.
Rev Leach reminded us that the school had raised money for the charity called
Toilet Twinning, and showed us a picture of what a toilet in another country
could look like. Our school ones are better and more colourful
and we should be thankful for that. He also told us about another charity that takes rolling water barrels to make it easier
for children to bring water home from a well.
It made us realise that there are big charities like the NSPCC and Comic Relief, but
also small ones that are run by a few normal people who have had good ideas. We
can raise money for charity through our bake sales and other stuff we do and we
should give what we can, like the old woman did. We can make a difference even if
we never know about it.
Year 6 English revision sessions
From January the English department will be running revision sessions for year 6 pupils to support you with your SATs in May. You can decide which sessions you would benefit from. All year
6 pupils will be given a timetable which will be signed by the English teacher running the session,
to show attendance. Your English teacher will then award you with a merit on Epraise for each
session you have attended. You should bring a packed lunch or meal deal to the relevant room at
the start of lunchtime.
Date
Week
Teacher/Rm
1
NCA R16
Reading: words in context
2
MJO R15
Prefix/suffix/root words
Friday 13 January
2
CJO R16
Determiners
Wednesday 18th January
1
RSH R15
Verb subject object
Friday 20 January
1
TPO MOB
Wednesday 25th January
2
LBA R19
Colons and their functions
2
ZBI R16
Semi-colons and their functions
1
MFR R15
Adverbs of time and place
1
NCA R16
Reading: retrieving relevant information
Wednesday 8 February
2
MJO R15
Inverted commas and their functions
Friday 10th February
2
CJO R16
Progressive tenses
1
RSH R15
Commas to mark clauses
1
TPO MOB
2
LBA R19
Modal verbs
Friday 3 March
2
ZBI R16
Relative clauses
Wednesday 8th March
1
MFR R15
Standard English
Friday 10 March
1
NCA R16
Reading: making an inference
Wednesday 15th March
2
MJO R15
Pronouns & possessive pronouns
Friday 17 March
2
CJO R16
Conjunctions subordinating & coordinating
Wednesday 22nd March
1
RSH R15
Adverbs of manner
1
TPO MOB
2
LBA R19
Main & subordinate clauses
Friday 31 March
2
ZBI R16
Synonyms & antonyms
Wednesday 5th April
1
MFR R15
Apostrophes for possession
Friday 7 April
1
NCA R16
Reading: making a prediction
Wednesday 26th April
2
MJO R15
Adverbs of manner
2
CJO R16
Progressive tenses
1
RSH R15
Active & passive voice
1
TPO MOB
Friday 6th January
th
Wednesday 11 January
th
th
th
Friday 27 January
st
Wednesday 1 February
rd
Friday 3 February
th
th
Wednesday 15 February
th
Friday 17 February
st
Wednesday 1 March
rd
th
th
th
Friday 24 March
th
Wednesday 29 March
st
th
th
Friday 28 April
rd
Wednesday 3 May
th
Friday 5 May
Topic
Sentence types (command, exclamation, question, statement)
Hyphens and their uses
Simple forms of past, present & future tenses
Contractions
Year 6 Maths revision sessions
From January the maths department will be running revision sessions for year 6 pupils to support them
with their SATs in May. Pupils can decide which sessions they would benefit from. All year 6 pupils will
be given a timetable that will be signed by the teacher running the session to show attendance. Your
child’s maths teacher will then award them with a merit on e-Praise for each session they have attended. Pupils should bring a packed lunch or meal deal to the relevant room at the start of lunchtime.
Date
Thursday 5th January
Friday 6th January
Monday 9th January
Thursday 12th January
Monday 16th January
Thursday 19th January
Monday 23rd January
Thursday 26th January
Monday 30th January
Thursday 2nd February
Monday 6th February
Thursday 9th February
Monday 13th February
Thursday 16th February
Monday 27th February
Thursday 2nd March
Monday 6th March
Thursday 9th March
Monday 13th March
Thursday 16th March
Monday 20th March
Thursday 23rd March
Monday 27th March
Thursday 30th March
Monday 3rd April
Thursday 6th April
Monday 24th April
Thursday 27th April
Tuesday 2nd May
Thursday 4th May
Teacher and
room
HBa – Rm 7
HLi – Rm 6
NSa – Rm 9
LCu – Rm 4
HLi – Rm 6
DBr – Rm 5
NSa – Rm 9
HBa – Rm 7
HLi – Rm 6
HLi – Rm 6
CLo – Rm 8
SWa – Rm 4
SWe - Rm4
HBa – Rm 7
LCu - Rm4
SWa – Rm 4
LCu – Rm 4
SWa – Rm 4
CLo – Rm 8
DBr – Rm 5
NSa – Rm 9
LCu – Rm 4
SWe- Rm4
TTo – Rm5
CLo - Rm 8
DBR - Rm 5
HBa - Rm7
TTo – Rm5
TTo – Rm5
LCu - Rm4
Topic
Calculating missing angles
Rounding
Order of operations
Properties of numbers-factors, primes, multiples…
Ordering and comparing numbers
2D shapes including circles and 3D shapes
Translation and reflection
Negative numbers
Place value, including x and / by 10,100 & 1000.
Units of measure and converting them
Measures word problems
Interpreting graphs
Interpreting tables
Mean
Comparing & ordering fractions (decimals and %)
Equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions
Equivalent fractions/decimals and %’s
Volume
Area of rectangles, triangles and parallelograms
Perimeter
Co-ordinates
Algebra
+ and – fractions
X and / fractions
Written X, including decimals
Written division, including decimals
Written + and -, including decimals
Using the inverse
Word problems involving all operations
Time problems and timetables
DATE
ACTIVITY
LOCATION
OPEN TO
COST
LEADER
Outward Bound
Wales
Y8
£ 300
Mr Jenkin
Fri 9—Mon
12
Outward Bound
Yorkshire
Y6
£ 250
Mr Sanders
Thu 22—
Mon 26
WWI Battlefield
Tour
Belgium
Y7
£ 320
Miss Philpotts
Fri 23—Mon
26
Outward Bound
Yorkshire
Y6
£ 250
Mr Sanders
Wed 28—Fri
30
Arts and Theatres
London
Y8
£ 225
Rev Leach
Brecon Beacons
Y5
£ 145
Mrs Cull
Drayton Manor
Y8
£TBC
May
Mon 22– Fri
26
June
Fri 30—Mon Outward Bound
3 July
July
Wed 19
Theme Park
Day
Before School
from 7:45am
Lunchtime
After School
Monday
Homework Club
Y7 & Y8 Art club
Homework Club
(Library)
Tuesday
Wednesday
(Library)
3.30 – 4.30pm
Orchestra
(Music Room)
8.45-9.30am
Movie Club— all year
groups (DT block)
Dynamite cheerleading 4 - 6pm
Homework Club
Week One only:
Homework Club
(Library)
Green Ambassadors
(Lab 3, week 1)
(Library) 3.30 – 4.30pm
Homework Club
(Library)
Gifted and Talented
STEM club (DT block)
Signing Club - all year
groups
(Textiles Room)
Silent reading club (Rm
19)
Y7 & Y8 netball 3.30 - 4.45pm
Homework Club
(Library) 3.30 – 4.30pm
Cooking Club 3.30 – 4.45pm
(Rota/groups TBC once reply
slips returned)
Y8 boys basketball 3.30-4.45pm
last week 11th January
Y7 boys basketball 3.30 - 4.45
pm starts 18th January
Thursday
Homework Club
(Library)
Gardening Club - all
year groups (Textiles
Room)
Choir - all year groups
(Music Room) 12.50—
1.20 pm
Friday
Homework Club
(Library)
Y5 Art club
Homework Club
(Library) 3.30 – 4.30pm
Fitness 3.30-4.45pm
Step aerobics (invite/sign up
sheet only) 3.30-4.45pm
Homework Club
(Library) 3.30 – 4.30pm
Date
Event
2
Thursday 2 February
Y6 & Y8 Parents’ Evening, 4.00pm - 7.00pm
Wednesday 8 February
Y6 & Y8 Parents’ Evening, 4.00pm - 7.00pm
0
Wednesday 15 February
Y5 & Y7 reports to Parents / Carers
Monday 20 – Friday 24 February
Half term
Monday 27 February
Parent Focus Group 6.00pm - 7.00pm
Friday 7 April
End of term
Monday 24 April
First day of the Summer Term
Friday 19 May
Parent Focus Group 2.00pm - 3.00pm
Monday 29 May – Friday 2 June
Half Term
Monday 5 June
Staff Development Day
Thursday 8 June
Y5 & Y7 Parents’ Evening 4.00pm - 7.00pm
Wednesday 14 June
Y5 & Y7 Parents’ Evening 4.00pm - 7.00pm
Wednesday 5 July
Y 6 & Y8 report to Parents / Carers
Monday 10 July
Parent Focus Group 6.00pm - 7.00pm
Wednesday 12 & Thursday 13 July
Transition Days
Friday 21 July
End of term
Monday 4 & Tuesday 5 September
Staff Development Days
Wednesday 6 September
First day of the Autumn Term
Friday 20 October
Staff Development Day
Monday 23 – Friday 27 October
Half term
Tuesday 19 December
End of term
Wednesday 3 January
Staff Development Day
Thursday 4 January
First day of the Spring Term
Monday 19 – Friday 23 February
Half Term
Thursday 29 March
End of term
Monday 16 April
First day of the Summer Term
Monday 28 May—Friday 1 June
Half Term
Monday 4 June
Staff Development Day
Tuesday 24 July
End of term
1
7
2
0
1
8