Please see the link above - Easy Fundraising can work for Birkwood!
Happy New Year! Welcome to our first Newsletter of 2026. I hope that everyone managed a lovely break. It has been brilliant to see the children and hear many exciting adventures and stories. As ever, I mentioned New Year Resolutions in our assembly – it seems that Cudworth should be enjoying a LOT of tidy bedrooms and dishwashing assistants aplenty! If anyone has embarked upon any resolutions I hope that they are going well.
A New Years' Resolution for all would be to please remain vigilant around Parking & Road Safety. In the new year, I am looking forward to some extended measures to help us to keep everybody safe.
Thankfully, Storm Goretti hasn’t impacted us this week. A few schools in Barnsley are closed and late openings were common. However, we deemed the school campus safe and have played on as normal! An enormous relief. The forecast over the next week seems fine too.
The cold weather doesn’t disrupt outdoor PE at Birkwood. Our staff have asked me to politely request that families encourage all children to remember suitably warm PE kit please.
Breakfast Club is now open at 7:30 each morning. The cost will be £3.50 due to additional running costs.
Years 5 and 6 have had the opportunity to experience cycling this week. Bikeability was absolutely brilliant. A great initiative.
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.
The children’s commissioner has released an updated digital safety guide for families. Please do have a look!
Sleepline – we have been asked to share information around sleep issues. A superb service.
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 fabulous weekend and stay warm!
Reminders
Our next SEND Parent Meeting is on 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 - 96.7%
School attendance this year so far - 95.6%
- FS2 Berry - 99.1%
- FS2 Costa -92.9%
- Y1 Earps - 95.5%
- Y1 Piper - 97.2%
- Y2 Cox - 99.1%
- Y2 Nightingale - 99.2%
- Y3 Jemison - 96.4%
- Y3 Obama - 96.2%
- Y4 Lovelace - 97.6%
- Y4 Wonder - 97.6%
- Y5 Biles - 95.6%
- Y 5/6 Angelou - 96.9%
- Y6 Simpson - 92.4%
Well done to class Nightingale with an awesome 99.2% 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.