What a start to the year!
I can't believe that we have already come to the end of our first half term back at school, and what a busy start to the year it has been! It has wonderful to see our children back in school with such positive attitudes to their learning - they have all made a really good start to the year in their new classes; behaviour and learning attitudes have been brilliant and we are already seeing many children making good progress across the curriculum. Have a look at some of the exciting things that have been happening across school this half term......
Introducing our Y6 Pupil Leaders this year......
It has become tradition now at Wynndale that at the end of the summer term, staff from across school work together to decide which of our new Y6 Wynndale Learners should be presented with the title of Head Girl and Head Boy. The children chosen have to be excellent role models and examples of Wynndale Learners, and we choose those children that have shown consistent exemplary behaviour throughout their entire school journey with us. Our Head Boy and Head Girl for this school year were announced and presented with their badges in the last assembly of the Summer term, and there was an official handover of roles from our previous Head Boy Tom, and Head Girl, Elizabeth. I am delighted to announce that our Head Girl for this school year is Reagan, and our Head Boy is Luca.
Both children have made an excellent start to their roles this year, undertaking a number of jobs for staff across school, including presenting awards in assembly, attending School Council meetings and supporting staff to undertake jobs across school. Very early on in the term we also welcomed a Headteacher from New Zealand to Wynndale, and Luca and Reagan did a wonderful job of giving the visitor a 'tour' of Wynndale, with him commenting on how knowledgeable, responsible, mature and kind the children were - some of the reasons why they were chosen to have these special roles in the first place! I am looking forward to seeing how they both blossom as the year goes on and I have no doubt that they will be keeping me on my toes - well done Luca and Reagan!
At the start of this academic year, we also held our annual recruitment process for our House Captain positions. We had a record number of children apply for the positions and following an application process, myself, Mrs. Evans and Miss Depledge had the very difficult job of choosing our next group of House Captains. The applications were very strong once again this year and everyone who applied should feel incredibly proud of themselves - we are very proud of them all. The successful candidates were presented with their badges in a special assembly at the beginning of this year and they have already shown great promise as leaders in their work across school. In fact, I have never known such organised and efficient counting of house points each Friday and never seen such organisation in running the House Point Shop each week! I am really looking forward to working with them and seeing how they all grow as leaders during this academic year. Here are our Wynndale House Captains for 2025-26.....
A round up of this half term.....
It has been a very busy half term for all of our children across school, with lots of learning across the curriculum taking place. Have a look at our class round ups for Autumn 1 ........
Learning in EYFS
What a wonderful start we have to our new school year. We started off by talking about our families and where we live. We shared photos of our family from home and created our own family portraits.
Our text of the half term has been Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We discussed the characters, main events and enjoyed mark making about the story.
We have thought about the season being Autumn and looked for signs of Autumn, as well as enjoying lots of outdoor learning. In addition to this, we looked at the Harvest celebration, discussing why we celebrate Harvest and saying what we are thankful for. Mr. Darlington came to school and we enjoyed a story from Mr. Crow all about Harvest.
What a fantastic start to the school year. We have loved making new friends, learning to share and following our "Wynndale promise".
Have a lovely half term and we look forward to a new half term where we a will focus on "celebrations".
Learning in Year 1
This half term, our learning has been focused around the 1960s. We have been building our understanding of what childhoods were like during that decade. We have explored 1960s toys and observed how they have transformed into the ones we use today. We have been practising how to use timelines and have made a 1960s child timeline and a toy timeline.
In English, we have published our very first book! We wrote the story The Tiger Who Came To Tea. We have worked independently on our books and done some fantastic writing! We have worked hard on our sentence formation, ensuring we include capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces.
In maths, we have been consolidating our knowledge of numbers up to 20. We have practised ordering numbers, counting forwards and backwards, and finding one more or one less. We have also been using inequality signs to compare numbers and exploring what a whole and a part can look like. We do our Mastering Number Maths in the afternoon, where we practise making numbers from 5 and a 'bit'.
In science, we have been exploring materials and their properties. We can now name objects made from rubber, glass, plastic, wood, and metal. In art, we have been sketching some still life. We have learnt how different pencils affect our sketching, how to create different tones, and how to add texture to our artwork. Our finished piece is a still life of a fruit bowl.
Learning in Year 2
In Year 2 this half term we have learnt all about The Great Fire of London. Children took part in an engaging Great Fire of London workshop where they reenacted events before, during, and after the fire. In theme lessons children explored a range of historical sources and artefacts from 1666 and discussed whether Samuel Pepys was a reliable or unreliable source. Children created their own timelines to show how the fire started, spread, and was put out, as well as creating timelines of their own lives.
In English, we used a non-fiction text to explore how authors effectively present and organise information. Throughout the unit we focused on grammar features including: Alan Peat’s two-adjective sentences, subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, compound nouns and commas in lists. We also worked on expanded noun phrases to improve description and vocabulary. Our final piece of writing this half term was a published version of children's own non-fiction book based on The Great Fire of London.
In Maths we have explored the composition of multiples of 10 and represented numbers up to 99. We have compared and partitioned two-digit numbers to strengthen place value understanding. We have also practised addition and subtraction within 20, then progressed to adding and subtracting ones and tens from two-digit numbers, using both mental and written strategies to solve problems. As the half term progressed we also began exploring grouping and sharing to introduce multiplication and division concepts. This half term we have also introduced Times Tables Rock Stars to develop fluency and confidence with multiplication facts.
This half term has also seen excellent engagement with our Book Lovers Tea Party, with many children attending weekly by reading at home at least five times and recording this in their reading diaries (checked every Monday). We have enjoyed celebrating reading success with drinks, biscuits, and story sharing on our picnic blanket for those children! As a result of your hard work supporting reading, children’s reading fluency and confidence have noticeably improved so thank you!
Learning in Year 3
It has been a fantastic and busy half term in Year 3! The children have worked incredibly hard in all areas of their learning and have shown great focus and enthusiasm. Our theme this term has been ‘The Stone Age’, which has inspired much of our learning across the curriculum.
In English, we have been writing our own narratives based on the book The Lost Happy Endings. The children have included plenty of description, used a variety of sentence types, and experimented with similes to make their writing exciting.
In Novel Studies, we have continued to develop our reading skills through our class text Stone Age Tales, building vocabulary and comprehension skills as confident readers.
As Mathematicians, we have been learning all about addition and subtraction, while also practising the rapid recall of our times tables; keep practising at home as this really helps!
In Science, we have explored the topic of Rocks, using our communication and investigative skills to make discoveries and draw conclusions.
In History, our learning has focused on The Stone Age, where we have also used and applied our ICT skills to research and present information.
Our PE sessions have involved developing our gymnastics skills and working on teamwork through games and group activities.
As Musicians, we have enjoyed singing and composing music inspired by Brazilian Samba, exploring rhythm and performance. We are now moving on to explore Brass instruments!
Thank you so much for your continued support this half term. The children have settled into Year 3 really well, and we are very proud of everything they have achieved!
Learning in Year 4
What a fabulous start to Year 4 we have all had! The children have settled into the new school year brilliantly and have loved learning about their new theme ‘Settlers and Invaders’.
In our English lessons, we have been writing an instructional text all about how to capture a mythical creature. We have worked hard to try to include rhetorical questions, imperative verbs and expanded noun phrases.
During Maths, we have been consolidating our learning on column addition and subtraction and have recently moved on to securing place value to the value of 1000. The children have worked so hard on this and made great progress in their learning.
We have also really looked forward to our History lesson each week. The children have learnt all about why the Romans invaded, the ways in which they changed Britain and all about the lives of poor and rich Romans. We enjoyed demonstrating what we have learnt so far during our Roman Day this week!
The children have also made a fantastic start to their swimming lessons, showing great enthusiasm, confidence, and determination in the pool.
Everyone has worked so hard this half term and have made us all very proud. We can’t wait for Autumn 2!
Learning in Year 5
Year 5 have had a positive and settled start to the new year. We have enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, including a very memorable themed day where an expert came in to teach us all about life in Ancient Egypt. We even got to do some mummification – don’t worry, it wasn’t a real body!
We’ve also had great fun learning about Earth and Space, including using different spherical fruits to represent the relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Did you know that the sun is so enormous that it could fit one million Earths inside it?
In Maths we have been exploring the concept of decimals and are now well-versed on tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
In Novel Study and in English we have been studying the amazing book Who Let the Gods out by Maz Evans. We love books in Year 5, and I’m sure lots of the children will be going out to buy the other books in the series, Against All Gods, Beyond the Odyssey, Simply the Quest and Oh Maya Gods. Finally, we ventured out into Mansfield earlier this month to visit the Museum, where we took part in an Art-themed day called ‘My Favourite Tree’.
Learning in Year 6
Year 6 have made a fantastic start to the autumn term, returning with excellent attitudes to learning, behaviour, and focus. All the Year 6 team are excited to see where the year will take us!
In English, the children have been enjoying The Boy at the Back of the Class and When Jessie Came Across the Sea. Linked to this second text, we are now working on their first piece of creative writing inspired by a storm at sea, which we know will be full of imagination and creativity.
History has allowed the children to show real empathy and understanding while learning about displaced families and exploring British impact on events in other countries, from the Treaty of Versailles to Kindertransport. They demonstrated exceptional behaviour on our trip to the Holocaust Centre and asked thoughtful and meaningful questions throughout the day.
In Maths, the children have impressed us with their recall of the four operations and their ability to tackle challenging problem-solving tasks. Over the next few weeks, we will be moving on to fractions—so regular times tables practice will continue to be essential!
Our Science theme, Animals Including Humans, has seen the children exploring the fascinating circulatory system and learning how the heart, lungs, and blood work together to keep our bodies healthy.
Our Harvest Celebrations at Wynndale
As part of our work with the local community, we are continuing our support to Bridge Street Methodist Church and have been collecting for their soup kitchen as part of our Harvest celebrations this year. The last few years have been so well supported and this year has been no exception; we have been over-whelmed with your donations - thank you! In school we celebrated Harvest this year on Thursday 9th October, with Alan Darlington coming to deliver his Harvest message from Big Barn Lane Methodist Church.
We would like to thank you so much for your continued support and for your generous donations this year. Thank you Team Wynndale!
Thank You Olivia!
You may remember that in our Summer term newsletter (before the Summer holidays), I gave a special shout out to one of our Wynndale Learners, Olivia, who had shown she was an entrepreneur in the making, by selling home made bracelets at WynnFest. Earlier this half term, Olivia came to see me again to ask if she could donate some of her bracelets to our House Point Shop for other children to enjoy. I was blown away by her kindness - and obviously said 'yes' straight away!
I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly say 'Thank You Olivia' - you are such a wonderfully kind example of a Wynndale Learner and we are very lucky to have you in our school!
Promoting a Love of Reading and Writing at Wynndale.......
This half term we have continued to use our vending machine to promote our 'Remarkable Readers' initiative. Children have continued to have their name put in their class jar for a range of reading behaviours, including showing a love of reading in school, reading regularly at home, engaging in our phonics, Novel Study and STAR Reading sessions or for making good progress in reading. Today our Autumn 1 Remarkable Readers have been chosen.....look at how proud they look with their book choices.
Each class teacher has also chosen one 'Wonderful Writer' to share their first piece of published writing in our celebration assembly today and receive a prize for their effort and outcomes in writing - we have been blown away by the quality of writing and the beautiful presentation across school this half term. Well done everyone!
Sporting Achievements this half term
This academic year, we once again continue to develop our sports provision here at Wynndale, both through our curriculum offer and also through extended school provision. Mr. Brookes is part of the Wynndale team working with us for five days a week this year delivering the PE curriculum across school and taking a lead on organising our engagement in sports competitions and festivals, as well as lunchtime provision. Have a look at some of the things that have been happening this half term in Sport.....
Year 5 and 6 Cross Country
Our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils did Wynndale proud at the recent Cross Country School Games event! Everyone showed fantastic effort, determination, and team spirit throughout the event. It was a brilliant experience for our Year 5 runners, with one pupil, Robin, qualifying for the County Finals in January. Our Year 6 class also ran superbly, with two boys, Harry and Liam, and one girl, Reagan, earning places in the County Finals too! We’re incredibly proud of all our runners for their hard work and the way they represented our school. Congratulations and good luck to our four qualifiers, we’ll all be cheering you on in the County Finals in January!
Intra-House Cross Country
What a day of running and teamwork our Intra-House event was this half term! Pupils from F2 all the way up to Year 6 took part in our annual Intra-House Cross Country event, showing brilliant determination and enthusiasm from start to finish. New records were set in every class, with lots of laps completed, plenty of house points earned, and plenty of red faces by the end! It was wonderful to see everyone supporting their teams and giving their best effort! A huge well done to all our runners for making it such a fun and successful event!
Congratulations go to Yellow Griffins, the winning house team overall with a total of 692 laps! Your coloured ribbon will go on our Intra-House cup to be proudly displayed in the hall until the next event!
Our Brand New 'MBLL' Provision
As part of our lunchtime provision, we have introduced 'Mr. Brookes Lunchtime League' this year - with children having the opportunity to take part in a range of different activities during their lunchtimes.
The first ever MBLL (Mr Brookes Lunchtime League) has this week come to an exciting end! Over the past few weeks, pupils from Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6 have competed every Tuesday and Thursday in our football tournament to find out which team would be crowned Wynndale’s top football side for their age group.
There were lots of close matches, incredible goals, fantastic teamwork, and brilliant sportsmanship on display throughout the league. The enthusiasm and commitment from all players made it a truly special event, with every game played in great spirit.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part and supported the league, you all made it a huge success! We can’t wait to kick off the next MBLL, where the sport will be… handball!
Congratulations to Tornado Athletic - our Y3/4 winners!
Congratulations to Tuck Shop Rovers - our Y5/6 winners!
Celebrating Hello Yellow Day
On Friday 10th October the whole school celebrated Hello Yellow - A campaign created by Young Minds, a young person's mental health charity. All children wore yellow and took part in different wellbeing-focused activities throughout the day. It was a really lovely day and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone across school!
Congratulations to Blue Unicorns....
Our Blue Unicorn Team were the half termly house team winners and celebrated their success on Friday with a Unicorn Party! All children enjoyed coming to school in non-uniform and enjoyed an afternoon of fun and games! Congratulations Blue Unicorns!
Promoting Democracy at Wynndale
This half term, many children applied for a School Council position, in order to have the chance to represent their class and contribute to decision making processes in school. Children talked about 'democracy' through their weekly class briefing sessions and then all children that applied were given the opportunity to deliver a presentation to their class, saying why they should vote for them. We were amazed by the effort put in to these presentations; children had obviously worked really hard on them and they spoke to their peers confidently and articulately.
Following the presentations, the children were then able to vote for who they would like to be elected for school council from their class. We set up a voting booth and a ballot box to replicate an actual voting process. The Y6 School Council representatives and our Head Boy and Head Girl assisted with the voting process. They registered the children as they came to vote, gave the children their voting slips and managed the ballot box too.
Votes were counted and the elected children were announced by the Y6 school council representatives. Have a look at our school council voting in action......
Our Parent Group.......
Our wonderful Parent Group are busy planning lots of events for this year in order to support school to be able to buy the 'extras' that we would otherwise not be able to afford. In the last year, funds raised have helped us to launch our whole school House Point Shop, have supported us to implement music lessons for children in Y1 to Y6, having a lesson every single week with Mr. Stanton, and they have also helped us to be able to enhance phonics and reading across the whole school.
Earlier this half term, Parent Group supported us to be able to begin our outdoor improvements, by paying for our brand new picnic benches, which are located under the canopy in the playground. We are developing this area to be a quiet space for our children, where they can spend time playing games and colouring or crafting. We will be continuing to develop our outdoors as the year goes on, and would like to say a huge than you to the PTA for enabling us to start the transformations.
Our PTA group are now busy preparing for the next fundraising event before Christmas - Our 'Bubbles, Beer and Bingo' night on 14th November 2025. Please support this event if you are able to - it is always a popular event and a really fun evening. You can purchase your tickets by following the link below:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/tpaws/1895991
Staffing Update
At the start of the new school year, I would like to welcome Miss Lucy Marsh to our teaching team. She is working in Year 2 this year whilst Mrs. Smith is on maternity leave. She has settled into the Wynndale Way brilliantly and has been a great addition to the team so far!
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Miss Mozley back to school after almost two years away caring for her daughter. We are delighted to have her back in school; she has settled back into school life seamlessly working alongside Mrs. Simmons in Year 4. Miss Depledge also returns after a period of absence due to ill health. She is now job sharing with Mrs. Evans in Year 6 and is really enjoying being back in school.
E-Safety Focus
Online safety quiz | NSPCC
Why not take the above quick online safety quiz alongside your child – it will provide great reassurance for you to see you are probably doing lots of things already to help keep your child safe online, but also some great tips and things to look out for as your child navigates the online world, with its endless exciting possibilities as well as its pitfalls and potential dangers.
Here are some dates for your diary for next half term. We may be adding to these throughout the half term when we have finalised our arrangements for Christmas activities. We will share any updates as and when we have them. Exhibitions of Learning will also take place next half term - a separate letter will follow.