It was lovely to see everyone at our Christingle Service on Wednesday.  The children really enjoyed making the Christingles and learning about the meaning and the work of The Children’s Society.  A special thank you to Rev Brian Whitley and Lloyd for conducting the service.  We will send the money donated in the Christingle Candles and from the refreshment donations to The Children’s Society.  Thank you.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Wednesday all the children were invited to our FOWS Film Night.  We all enjoyed watching Sherlock Gnomes and had hotdogs, sweets and juice during the interval and sang Christmas songs at the end of the night.  Everyone had a great time!

Thank you to the people that helped on the night.

Children in Need day was a resounding success at Woodland Primary on Friday 16^th November. School Council and Play Leaders organised a fun- packed morning of activities where the children had the opportunity to buy cakes, pick up some bargains from the Bring and Buy stall and hunt for Pudsey Bears! Other activities included ‘Guess the number of sweets in a jar’, ‘pin the bandana on Pudsey’ and a raffle for a fantastic Pudsey Bear cake, kindly made by Thea and her Grandma. Along with art activities and a story tent, you will agree we had a very busy morning raising money for such a worthwhile cause.

The winners of the Design a Pudsey T-shirt competition were announced and as winners, Charlotte S and Caleb  had their designs made into a t-shirt to keep!

Finally, School Council and Play Leaders counted up the proceeds which came to the grand total of £167.20p!

What an achievement for such a small school!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last week Owl class took part in a workshop at school on WW1 delivered by Kevin Richardson and Jeanette Newell from the Evenwood, Ramshaw and District History Society and the Gaunless Valley History Trust .The workshops were part of the ‘In the Pink’ film and project bringing to life the stories of the local WW1 soldiers and their families, which was screened in school on Monday night this week and was watched by over 30 people.

It has been a fantastic project which the children have really enjoyed taking part in and have learnt so much from.  In years to come they can pass this information and history on to their own families.

A Special ‘Thank you’ to Kevin, Jeanette and Bob for putting this film and exhibition together and allowing our children at Woodland and the local community to experience it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Wednesday 31st October and Thursday 1st November an artist called Eva Mileusnic who has a website named www.eva.uk.net showed us her amazing ark work.  She then led a workshop in which we made around 150 plaster of paris feet, Eva also brought over 70 pairs of feet for us to decorate.

During the sessions we looked at textiles from around the world and Eva told us how they inspire us.  We then used ink, paint and transfers to decorate our plaster feet.  We all really enjoyed trying out the techniques and we were really pleased with the end results.

Our decorated feet will be part of the Craft & Conflict Exhibition at the Witham on 13th – 21st November and we have a school trip booked for all the children to go and see our work and all the other exhibits.

The feet we made will also be on show at the Leftbank Leeds exhibition in January 2019.

We would definitely say we have some ‘budding artists’ at Woodland!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Just before half term our Year 3 & 4 children took part in a Tag Rugby Competition at Staindrop Academy.  They played 5 matches against other schools and ended up winning the final competition, they performed the ‘Hacker’ as a celebration!

Well done everyone.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Before half term we had the grand opening of our Art Gallery in Squirrel class The children invited their families to join us for a stay and play afternoon. They all received a ticket and the details are below.

This ticket entitles you to

• a cup of homemade soup
• a personal tour of the art gallery
• take a masterclass on drawing a portrait
• make an autumn wreath to take home
• create a silver swan sculpture
• decorate a picture frame
• go on an art hunt around school
• look at our topic work
• make an outdoor sculpture like Andy Goldsworthy.
• Try out some computer art
• paint a tiger like Rousseau or the one who came to tea

Everyone had a great time and we discovered that we have very artistic parents.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thank you to everybody that helped and attended the Halloween Party on Wednesday night. There were lots of fantastic costumes and some brilliant carved pumpkins. A fun time was had by all!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Squirrel class have been looking at different authors and illustrators as part of the ‘Picture This’ topic. We were really lucky to take part in a Durham Book Festival event where we met the author and illustrator Helen Stephens. She showed us all how to draw a lion and she read two of her books ‘How to Hide a Lion at School’ and her new book’ How to Hide a Lion at Christmas’. We were some of the first children to hear her new one. She dressed Lucy up as a lion and we really enjoyed our visit. Helen Stephens signed our copy of How to Hide a Lion. We have been writing stories about hiding a lion in our school since our visit.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Only at Woodland Primary School can children create a game that involves the wind!   They had a great time this week seeing who’s coat would stick to our school fence the longest!