Please see the link above - Easy Fundraising can work for Birkwood!
Welcome to this week’s Newsletter. As always, we have plenty to share! Our School Council hosted a Road Safety Assembly to start our week. As you are aware, this is something that we are working to improve even further. The help of the children is crucial in this. The engagement from all children listening to their peers is always fabulous – understandably, they enjoy a fresh voice and sharing key messages was great to see. Thank you to Mr. Davis and our Councillors for their hard work in encouraging everyone to stay safe.
We hosted Headteachers from 3 other schools this week as part of a Local Authority Peer Review. As always, the children were just brilliant and showcased our school values wonderfully. Thank you to Mr. Markham for his help on a busy day. It is a privilege to visit other schools and to reciprocate this as a way of gaining fresh ideas etc. I am incredibly proud of the efforts of both children and staff. I already have feedback that the schools have plenty to ponder and found things at Birkwood to ‘steal’ & introduce into their setting.
We also had a full day visit from ‘Inclusive Attendance’ who came to evaluate our attendance work and gave us some ideas on how to improve our offer and attendance procedures. An intense day that will help us drive forward with improving attendance across school. This also included discussions with children – again they shone and did our community proud.
Thank you to families who were able to attend our Reception Phonics Meeting. Miss Betts and the staff do a wonderful job with our early reading offer and I thank them hugely for this. We believe reading can enable learning in so many areas and strive to get it right early.
Huge congratulations to Team Air who enjoyed a House Winners Party for their efforts last half term. Thank you to Mr. Davis for leading us as ever in this. The children loved the KFC & Disco treat! Good luck to all teams for this half term.
We also will hold a Y6 SATS meeting for families next week on Wednesday. I will send out the presentation to all but if you can make it, we look forward to seeing you.
Sporting competition has restarted with Dodgeball for Years 5 and 6 at Milefield today. Good luck to everybody – it certainly reminds me of one of my favourite films!
Our mental health partner, Compass Be has produced another brilliant online safety guide. We hosted extra eSafety sessions for Years 5 and 6 this week and are also having an extra ESafety Workshop for families. Please see the poster and families of older children please try to attend. New devices can bring issues too! This workshop will be really informative and is to be run by our safeguarding partners. It will be hosted by a former chair of the Barnsley Safeguarding Partnership. Online safety is something that will always require updates and refreshes as technology moves forward.
Breakfast Club is now open at 7:30 each morning. The cost will be £3.50 due to additional running costs.
We are hosting an extra ESafety Workshop for families. Please see the poster and families of older children please try to attend. Christmas often brings devices as gifts and this can bring issues too! This workshop will be really informative and is to be run by our safeguarding partners. It will be hosted by a former chair of the Barnsley Safeguarding Partnership. Online safety is something that will always require updates and refreshes as technology moves forward.
DISCO- Our February disco is on Tuesday 3rd February 4.30-6pm Tickets are now on sale. Please send money in a sealed envelope and hand to your class teacher.
Bingo - Our February Bingo is on Thursday 5th February 6pm start All welcome!
Have a brilliant weekend and enjoy the family time.
Reminders
Our next SEND Parent Meeting is this Monday 19th Jan, 1:30pm.
Our eSafety Workshop for families is at 2:15pm on Wednesday 25th February.
Community sessions delivered by Grass Roots are available. They take place on Darfield Road; the darts has caught my attention! Give it a go.
School attendance Target for the Year - 97.0%
School attendance this week - 96.%
School attendance this year so far - 95.6%
- FS2 Berry - 96.6%
- FS2 Costa - 95%
- Y1 Earps - 95.5%
- Y1 Piper - 96.3%
- Y2 Cox - 96.3%
- Y2 Nightingale - 96.1%
- Y3 Jemison - 95.2%
- Y3 Obama - 97.4%
- Y4 Lovelace - 97%
- Y4 Wonder - 97.6%
- Y5 Biles - 94.1%
- Y 5/6 Angelou - 98%
- Y6 Simpson - 94.2%
Well done to class Angelou with an awesome 98% attendance.
Our suite of X (formerly Twitter) Handles is here for you. Below is a link for 'all things Birkwood.'
PE & Sport
Appropriate trainers must be worn. No crop tops – Sports t-shirts please and shorts. A tracksuit may be worn – please make a judgment on temperature. NO JEWELLERY.
Term Dates Below
For current Year 6 children, SATs tests will be Monday 11th to Thursday 14th May 2026.
For current Year 5 children, SATs tests will be Monday 10th to Thursday 13th May 2027.
For current Year 4 children, SATs tests will be Monday 8th to Thursday 11th May 2028.