Owl Class children are entering a writing competition organised by the Darlington Building Society.

Darlington Building Society has launched a competition to spark the imagination of the next generation of writers, the buliding society which released its first children’s book earlier this year, is asking children and young people from across the region to submit short stories to be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes.

This is a fantastic opportunity for young authors to really showcase their creative flair and we can’t wait to read the entries.

“The Society is ‘Big on Education’ and proud to support literacy across the areas that they serve. Darly’s Magical History Ride – their children’s book charting the adventures of mascot Darly the Train was just the start of that and they hope that this competition will encourage those who have a passion for writing to put their creativity to work.”

The competition, entitled ‘Little did I know…’, will feature entries from primary and secondary school aged children judged by a well-known panel including award-winning Paddington Bear and Rudyard Kipling animator Sheila Graber, and Jessica Shepherd, whose celebrated Grandma books have been praised for helping children understand dementia.

Three finalists will be chosen for each of the two age categories and their stories will be read to the judges, families, and VIP guests at Darlington’s Theatre Hullabaloo on Friday, February 15th, in the weeks leading up to World Book Day.

There is guaranteed to be a happy ending to the tale with the two winners each receiving £500 worth of books for their school library, their own height in books, and a magical mystery ride for their family.

The winning entries will be featured on the Darlington Building Society website, along with being in The Northern Echo and on tfm radio.co.uk.

Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone had a happy and enjoyable Christmas and New Year, we all certainly did.  The children have settled back into school well  this week and are looking forward to starting their new topics.  Keep a check on the School Blog during 2019, it lets you see what fun and exciting activities and events happen everyday at Woodland Primary School!

What a busy couple of week it’s been at Woodland!

Last Monday we all had a delicious Christmas Lunch made by our school fantastic cook Karen Yum, Yum! It was a lovely meal and we all had great fun eating and sing Christmas songs together.

Last Wednesday we performed our Christmas play –  Strictly the Nativity – Lights, Camel, Action! The children were amazing and the dancing and singing was wonderful! They all really enjoyed performing and appreciated all the kind comments from parents and families.

The Christmas Fair was a great success and FOWS have raised a grand total of £424.80 which will be used to benefit all the children.

Over the last few weeks Karen our school cook has been making Christmas cakes with the children and they finished by decorating them on Monday, they look and smell amazing.  We would like to say a ‘Huge Thank you’ to Karen for volunteering to  do this in her own time with the children.

On Monday Squirrel Class enjoyed a ‘Stay & Play’ afternoon and Owl Class went along to Woodland Village Hall to perform some songs and dances from our Christmas Play for the luncheon club.

On Tuesday we all went to The Georgian Theatre in Richmond to see the pantomime Sleeping Beauty. It was great fun and our children really got involved and quite a few played starring roles! It was a great afternoon with lots of laughs and excitement.

Wednesday was party day and we had lots of exciting games. The children played in teams and it was lovely to see how well they all help each other to share the fun. Santa made a surprise visit with presents for all the children and then we enjoyed a party feast!

Thursday was ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ and we all enjoyed our last day in school before Christmas and finished the afternoon off watching a Christmas film!

We have had a fabulous term and wish you all a happy and relaxing Christmas break.

See you all next year!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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