Woodlands Newsletter 12/02/16

@Woodlands_CC

Upcoming Diary Dates

At Woodlands we aim to become an outstanding school by INSPIRING and CHALLENGING

our pupils so that they ACHIEVE well and are able to enjoy successful and happy futures

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February

25th KS3 Parental Support Evening

5.30pm to 7.30pm

Inspiring

Challenging

Achieving

February

23rd Rock Challenge Southampton Guildhall

February

15th Half Term Feb 15th to Feb 19th

“Coming Soon! ...Harefield

and Thornhill Festival of

Talent”

ISSUE 20

A Message from our Head Teacher…

Dear Parents/Carers,

The end of another half term is upon us. During the half term holiday the school is open for a number of activities. On Tuesday and Wednesday Year 10 and 11 GCSE Art students will be in working on projects for their upcoming art GCSE. On Thursday and Friday Year 10 and 11 GCSE ICT and iMedia students have been invited in to work on their GCSE coursework too. Monday and Tuesday of half term is the all-important final preparation for Rock Challenge. On Tuesday, 23rd February the school competes in the first round of this event. We all wish the students well in this. I know they have been working incredibly hard to perfect their dance routine.

School returns again on Monday, 22nd February with a prompt 8.25am start. During the first week we have our Key Stage 3 Parental Support evening on Thursday, 25th February where parents will have a choice to visit a variety of hands on sessions designed to support their child socially and academically. I hope to see many of you there. A copy of the letter is on the website if you have not already received it.

I wish you all a restful half term.

Best wishes,

Toni Sambrook

February

22nd Return to school

At 8.25am

March

3rd World Book Day

Adult Learning During the Autumn & Spring Term Woodlands Adult Learning department successfully saw their learners complete a 13

week computer course (pictured above and below). We would like to thank and congratulate the two fantastic adult tutors, Tarina Saddiqi and Julia Wills, for their time and efforts in enabling the adult learners’ to achieve.

All of our Adult Computer courses are fully funded by SO18 Big Local and Lovell so that they can be offered free of charge to introduce IT skills to adults who have little or no experience.

Accelerated Reading

WORDS * WORDS * WORDS

Staff and student Librarians are always promoting every opportunity for our readers to extend their vocabulary. After all, this is what is needed in order to access information in all subject areas, to be able to work independently and to be able to interpret questions in an exam.

A WORD of the DAY, with its definition, is displayed by the Library door.

VOCABULARY QUIZZES are available on the Accelerated Reader system for

many, though not all, books. This can be seen when students log on to Renaissance Learning and enter the unique book number. Also look out for AR book labels marked with a V.

A vocabulary quiz checks the reader's knowledge of 10 words from the text they have just read. A printed report identifies those that were not known so they can be recorded in the student's planner and learned. Every vocabulary quiz earns a stamp and just 10 stamps earn a reward.

Please remind your child to use these and all other opportunities to record and learn new words. They can contribute ideas for Word of the Day at the Library desk.

**Our Reading Star of the Week** is Corban Edmond.

Corban (pictured left) has passed 17 quizzes this year, nearly all of them have been above his set target level and yet he has still achieved an average pass rate of 95%. Corban is using the quizzing system not only to measure his own progress and to earn rewards but also as a teaching tool. He has taken 3 vocabulary quizzes this year and has scored 90%, 60% and 70% which means that although he did not initially know all the words presented, the system helped him identify 8 that he was able to learn. Corban likes the fact that words you get wrong are presented again on the next quiz so that you can test whether you remember them.

The rewards are useful as well. Last time Corban chose a pencil sharpener to stock up his stationery supply.

At the moment Corban's favourite series is the Gladiator Boy. These are action packed adventure books: exciting enough to actually WANT to read at home.

Reading is like any other skill, e.g. a sport or playing a musical instrument, it needs to be learned incrementally, step by step; you improve with effort. Nobody knows all the words in the English language but with regular practice eventually you can become expert.

Our Book of the Week this week:

"Artemis Fowl" written by Eoin Colfer.

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire and a cunning twelve-year-old supervillain. He has been described as a juvenile James Bond. This is the first in a series which offers an interesting blend of fantasy and science fiction as Artemis and the characters he tries to exploit, attempt to outwit each other.

As well as being a riveting read Eoin Colfer introduces challenging vocabulary. A conscientious reader can go online and explore some of the difficult words even before they read the book using websites such as verbalworkout.com or vocabulary.com both of which have vocabulary lists for Artemis Fowl.

Artemis Fowl books also have Accelerated Reader vocabulary quizzes which can be taken before or after the reading quiz.

The Book of the Week is on display opposite the Library desk.

Thank You!

Thank you Woodlands for taking part in our Christmas Jumper Day 2015 and raising an incredible £238.60!

Your donation has made a real difference to the lives of children and young people in Southampton and Hampshire.

Natalie Hutchins, No Limits Fundraiser

Sailor’s Children’s Society

Sailor’s Children’s Society offers support to children whose parent made a living at sea (Royal Navy, Merchant Navy or fishing fleet). Their primary aim is to let each child of a seafarer achieve their full potential and not be disadvantaged by family circumstances.

For more information about the Sailors Children’s Society and the Seafarers Children’s support line please visit their website www.sailorschildren.org.uk

Eco Zone

Attendance Corner

**A reminder that texting back a truancy call to explain your child’s absence is free**

Please provide medical evidence for all absences where possible.

Did you know that if your child’s attendance is below 90% by the end of the academic year, they will have missed at least 4 weeks of school this year? This also means they are likely to achieve at least one grade below their target.

Thank you as always for your support.

Science

News

**15 weeks until your Science GCSE exams**

STEM Club STEM Club is running after school on Wednesdays and Fridays. The deadline for submitting their work on ‘The Internet of Everything’ is today with regional finals taking place in just over a week. Please tell your child to see Mr Vetterlein if they would like to come and join in.

Doddle homework Remember, your child’s Science teacher will set homework

at the beginning of every week. This must be completed by the following Friday.

Chins are a bit useless so why do we have them?...

We all have them, sitting a bit uselessly at the bottom of our

faces. Some people have strong chins, others are said to

have weaker chins. Nobody seems to use their chin for

anything useful and among all the primates, including our

extinct relatives, only we have them. Even chimpanzees don't

have chins, their jaws slant inwards. Scientists are having a hard time explaining why, so if

you were pushed to explain what chins are actually for

would you have a good answer?

The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could

power a television for 5,000 hours.

By Timothy Whitmore, Eco Squad