MONTHLY JANUARY
Attendance & seeking feedback
Dear families,
We’ve had a great start to 2026 and the children, as always, have been making a huge effort in class.
In this newsletter, we have a few updates including our new approach to guided reading in Key Stage 1 which we shared in the December update. The classes have made a fantastic start and we hope it will not only raise attainment in reading but instil a wider love of reading amongst the children.
Miss Thompson has also written about our ‘Believing Day’ which was held last week. We want our school ethos of ‘Belonging, Believing, Becoming’ to be visible and lived out on a daily basis and these off-timetable days really help us to do that. It was a team effort but particular thanks goes to Miss Thompson for coordinating the days and to Miss Price for incorporating our Rights Respecting lessons. Miss Thompson is already planning our next day where the children will be visiting local, multi-faith places of worship. Keep an eye out for updates on that next half term.
The school community have been acknowledged a few times recently for our work on attendance with an award from the Local Authority and other schools have been in touch due to WDCE being highlighted positively in reports from the DfE. Attendance is a whole school effort and I wanted to say thank you to all of you for helping us improve our attendance since September. It makes a huge difference for the children’s educational outcomes.
Lastly, thank you to everyone who has responded to the parental survey. Your feedback has been read and in many cases already acted on. Your views and experiences at the school are invaluable in helping us make this the best school it can be for the community. A pupil survey will be completed next week and the parent survey Is still open if you want to share any views or comments. Please follow this link to the survey.
Have a great weekend!
Best wishes,
Mr Roberts Head of School
Belonging, Believing, Becoming
Miss Thompson, RE & Ethos Lead, writes about our second Ethos day of the year.
On Wednesday 21st January, we enjoyed a wonderful whole-school celebration of Believing Day. We began together in Collective Worship, led confidently by our Ethos Ambassadors, who reminded us of our school ethos and helped us think about spirituality through our relationships with God, Creation, our Neighbours and Ourselves.
Throughout the day, the children explored these ideas in thoughtful and creative ways. Reception and Key Stage 1 spent time reflecting on themselves, making beautiful mirrors to remind them that they are loved, valued and precious. They also thought carefully about how to show love to their neighbours through kind hands and kind words.
Key Stage 2 threw themselves into creating entries for the national Spirited Arts competition, producing imaginative and reflective pieces of work. Across the school, children also learned about UN Rights of the Child, focusing on Rights 13 and 14: the right to share their thoughts freely and the freedom of religion and belief.
We ended the day with a lovely time of sharing, where each child paired up with someone from a different year group to talk about what believing means to them and to reflect on their day.
It was a joyful, uplifting day that reminded us how special it is to learn, wonder and grow together.
To see a few clips from Believing Day, please visit our Instagram page.
Improvements to our reading curriculum
Miss Carter, our KS1 Lead, with an update on our new approach to Guided Reading in Years 1 & 2:
“We know the profound and life-changing impact reading has – improving wellbeing, overcoming disadvantage, strengthening relationships and helping to develop creativity.”
Book Trust 2025
At West Didsbury, we are passionate about helping children become confident readers who see books as places to explore, imagine and learn. This term in KS1, we have launched an exciting new approach to guided reading. Classrooms are buzzing with curiosity, excitement and lots of lively book talk!
Children now enjoy ELS fluency sessions twice a week, alongside whole-class guided reading three times a week, all based around carefully selected, high-quality texts. This gives our children more time to immerse themselves in stories, revisit favourite moments and explore ideas through thoughtful discussions.
Our curriculum engages children in a mix of classics, contemporary stories and non-fiction. Through these carefully chosen texts, children are inspired to read, develop empathy, and build key skills like inference, vocabulary and discussion. Sessions encourage connections between texts and the children’s own lives, helping them see themselves reflected in what they read. The children have made a fantastic start this term, showing curiosity, enthusiasm and a real love of reading that we hope will continue both at school and at home.
We hope this approach will nurture a lasting love of reading and ensure every child leaves KS1 as a confident, motivated reader who sees books as doors to new ideas, cultures and adventure
New extra-curricular opportunities
There’s been a great take-up for after school clubs recently and with gym, drama, art club, skateboarding and a host of sports clubs proving popular.
All of the clubs will still be running in the next half term but we want to open up as many opportunities for the children as possible so from next half term, we will also have:
• Mini golf (KS1)
• Mini golf (KS2)
• Archery (KS2)
• Netball
• Kickboxing
• Lego club
Next week, we will be sending booking information for these clubs so please keep checking the app for messages on how to sign up.
We hope these will be popular and we will be running more morning clubs to widen our offer further in Summer. Please let us know if you have any particular requests.
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:
Celeste and Olive from 2EC were awarded with certificates from Francis House yesterday. They raised a brilliant £280 for the charity selling homemade Christmas hair bobbles and scrunchies.
What a perfect example of ‘Kindness First, Effort Always’ in our community and thank you for being such great role models for our school.
Well done, Olive & Celeste!
Our peer mediators have been doing an excellent job supporting children with any fall outs or minor upsets during lunchtimes.
We’re incredibly proud of how responsible, kind and caring the Year 5s have been and a huge thank you to all our peer mediators (pictured left) who spend some of their time each day reminding children about our ‘Kindness First, Effort Always’ approach.
You’re all excellent role models Year 5. Well done and thank you!
