Welcome to Birkwood An #IncredibleCommunity

We wish you a very warm welcome to the Birkwood Primary School Newsletter.

20th December 2024

I must start this week’s Newsletter with some very sad news. Mrs. Smith, a former teacher at Birkwood has sadly passed away. There are literally hundreds of stories about this most special person. Some of our parents will have been taught by her at Birkwood in their very early years.

Mrs. Smith has had an enormous influence in my career. My favourite story of her is a selfish one. Mrs. Smith gave me a second chance in my training years at Mapplewell Primary and was always a fantastic mentor and later a fantastic colleague. Mrs. Smith is truly amazing. She had an incredible gift for teaching, for relationships and bringing out the best in young people. Mrs. Smith always had the children's interests at heart and will always be an incredible inspiration to me. Mrs. Smith is Mrs. Sutton’s mum, and I know exactly how their lovely family will be feeling at this time. I know you will join me in sending them your thoughts and your love.

Speaking of thoughts for others, the amount raised for our Barnsley Hospice Elf Run is remarkable. As a school which aspires to promote 100% kindness, if 101% was possible then our children and families have shown this. A fantastic initiative for a fantastic cause! I will update you in the New Year with a final total. This is because it keeps growing!

This week in school has of course been exceptionally busy with lots of Christmas activities at its forefront.

Year 1 and 2 hosted their Nativity and it was fabulous. Well done to everyone involved!

The older children starred in our Christmas Soiree. Many thanks to Mr. Froggatt for his role as compere during a lovely evening. Thank you to all the staff who helped in supporting the children. Mrs. Rennison, Miss Hayward & Mrs. Porter do some great work in the Arts.

The week has been full of Christmas Parties. Thank you to all our families who were kind enough to donate items for a party buffet. The children have had a great time.

We hosted our traditional Selection Box Raffle. Again, thank you to everybody on our staff team who donated the prizes. It is always a lively yet lovely and excitable event.

As ever, it was a pleasure to host our Carols in Church. Saint John's is a beautiful venue, and it is always a pleasure to visit. At this time of year, it is always a little bit of a challenge thinking what to say (and trying to be original!). As I was working in Year 5, I asked the children to help. Their Christmas message was fantastic.

Reviewing 2024, we have had several highlights.

We have achieved fantastic results which demonstrate some superb practice within our school.

Our beautiful extension is open. The children deserve world class facilities; it is up to us to attempt to deliver a world class education within them.

Our brand-new Sports Pitch is of course staging playtimes, lunchtimes, PE lessons and sporting fixtures. The absence of competitive sport within our school has always been a great frustration to me. Now it is back, I am delighted that the children can enjoy this magnificent facility.

Our Ofsted Inspection came at a very interesting time of year! I will share the feedback from this as soon as I am able (legally).

A huge ‘moment’ for our school in 2024 has been the ongoing magnificent support of our families. This is humbling, motivating and so gratefully received. When school and home align together, magnificent achievements are possible. This will continue to be the magic ingredient in Birkwood remaining successful.

2025 will start with an exciting new initiative. Please click the link below if you are interested in exploring after school provision provided by Grass Roots. Please direct all questions to them should you have any. I know this will be of great assistance to our community.

Our Inclusion Team are delighted to share date 3 for the parent group meeting.

This group is for ALL parents/carers. Thank you to everyone who has supported so far - we would love to see more parents/carers at our next coffee meeting on Tuesday January 21st, 1:30pm in school.

I wish everybody a peaceful Holiday Season, full of love and family time. I am very excited to see what 2025 has in store for all of us at Birkwood. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year. To anyone making a resolution, I wish you the best of luck in being able to stick to it.

I have reminded the children to say thank you at this time, I am certain that they will not let anybody down – they never do!

Half Term House Winners

• Half Term Winners - Earth
• Overall Leaders - Earth

• School attendance Target for the Year - 97.0%
• School attendance this week - 94.7%
• School attendance this year so far - 94.7%
• FS2 Donaldson - 92.8%
• FS2 Montessori -94.5%
• Y1 Potter - 96.4%
• Y1 Windsor - 95.1%
• Y2 Goodall - 95.5%
• Y2 Kahlo - 94.3%
• Y3 Hepworth - 92.8%
• Y3/4 Armstrong - 94.9%
• Y4 Burrow - 94.1%
• Y5 Kane - 95.8%
• Y 5/6 Sinfield - 95.7%
• Y6 Shelley - 93.5%

Well done to class Potter who are this week's winners with an excellent 100% attendance. Congratulations!!

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.

Term Dates Below

For current Year 6 children, their tests will be Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May 2025.

For current Year 5 children, their tests will be Monday 11th to Thursday 14th May 2026.