WDCE Monthly February

WDCE MONTHLY FEBRUARY

Diary dates for Spring term Dear families, The children have made an excellent start back to school, and earlier this week it was a pleasure to share which house has won our first non-uniform day. In our new house point system, the house with the most trophies each half term earns a non-uniform day and our first winners are Turing House.

Every child in Turing House will have their non-uniform day on Friday 6th March. Well done, Turing House!

This monthly update focuses on the important issue of road safety (particularly on Central Road) and thank you to the parents who have contributed to this newsletter and who support the school with this through our working group. If you would like to get involved with this group (who meet virtually every few months) please contact carlyn.weale@wardhadaway.com.

Below is a list of diary dates for this half term. For parents evening, we will use the same online booking via the Weduc app and Mrs Clark will be in touch next week once bookings are live.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Roberts Head of School

KEY DATES Thursday 5th March: World Book Day

Friday 20th March: 2LS class worship

Friday 13th March: 1JG class worship

Tuesday 24th March: Eid celebration in the school hall (more information to follow)

Friday 13th March: Year 4 Shakespeare performances at the Contact Theatre

Wednesday 1st April: Easter Service led by Year 5 (8.50am) Year 5 parents invited to attend

Tuesday 17th & Thursday 19th March: Parents Evenings (email to follow next week)

Wednesday 1st April: School closes

Road safety updates

from Carlyn Weale Since our 2025 update, the PTA has formed a Road Safety Committee with Mr Roberts, Local Councillor, Debbie Hilal, and parent volunteers.

We are working on a number of projects to improve knowledge, reduce risk and pollution caused by road hazards in our area, as well as liaising with the Council about what further support can be offered to help in our local area.

Some key highlights include: • Susana joined our school community last year as our Schools Crossing Officer and we love seeing Susana helping us to cross Palatine Road safely every day! The number of people using her crossing has increased from c.30 to 100 people since Susana first started. This is great news! We ask all our families crossing Palatine Road to use this service where possible, to reduce the hazards and risk on the roads.

• The school are appointing School Travel Ambassadors and currently speaking to the children about the application process. Thanks to the school staff who have volunteered to support with this.

• The school has signed up to the Walk to School scheme and the schools place has been fully funded.

Badges and resources will be available in the coming weeks and the more information on this will be coming from school. We appreciate it is not practical for all families to walk to school but we encourage those who can, to do so and if you travel by car, please consider parking further away from the school, and walk the rest of your journey. This will help reduce traffic and pollution on Central Road.

• School Streets is currently being trialled by a nearby school and we have shown an interest.

• The Palatine Road crossing is coming – funding was approved some time ago and the plans are currently going through a long and formal consultation process. We hope to have news on a build date soon and our local Councillor has been speaking with the Council and providing updates. If you receive a consultation notice through the post, please support us!

Parking on Double Yellow Lines *** Important: We are still seeing children being dropped off with parents parking temporarily on double yellow lines on daily basis. This is dangerous, even if it is just for a minute or so, as it blocks visibility for others crossing the road.

We have also received recent complaints from neighbours as they have been blocked in by families parking across driveways at drop off/ pick up. We want to be better neighbours!

Local traffic enforcement officers do regularly ticket the area but regardless of whether they are on patrol, this is our plea to stop using this area for drop off and please choose the road safety of our community and reducing pollution over convenience.

If you have any questions or would like to join our Road Safety Committee, please contact carlyn.weale@wardhadaway.com

Next week, we’ll be appointing ‘School Travel Ambassadors’ who will help us lead on safer, healthier and greener ways to travel to school where possible.

We’ll be joining the ‘Walk to School Challenge’ where children are awarded badges and prizes if they walk, cycle or scoot to school at least once a week. For parents who drive, this can include ‘park and stride’ which means parking further from the school and walking for 5-10 minutes.

The scheme and the application process for our ambassadors will be explained to children in Key Stage 2 next week. It’s a great opportunity for the children to get involved and help us make our community a safer and healthier place. Our School Travel Ambassadors will be in touch soon to share their plans with you.

Kindness first, effort always.

Our behaviour motto – Kindness First, Effort Always – is always lived out in classrooms, corridors and the playgrounds. Here are some extra examples of kindness and effort to celebrate from this month: We’re very proud of Ernie who represented our school in the cross-country regional finals.

Ernie competed against children who were much older and he did brilliantly, placing 67th out of over 160 participants.

A huge well done, Ernie!

Miss Laffey and Miss Carter are taking on the London Marathon! We have been training hard and are running in aid of Francis House. This is a cause so special to our hearts and we would be very grateful for any sponsorship! Thank you so much!

Francis House Children's Hospice: Kerry and Ella’s page