A lot to celebrate!
Dear families,
It’s been a very busy June with a lot of curriculum enrichment including trips, workshops, cooking, music and themed days like our Writing & Music Day and Becoming Day. The staff have gone above and beyond in providing these extra opportunities and I hope your children have enjoyed them.
We’ve also had a number of assessments in late May and June and the results we’ve had so far are exceptional. Our Year 1 phonics pass rate is 97% and our Year 4 multiplication screening pass rate is 90%; these are considerably higher than local and national averages and the highest we’ve achieved as a school.
The reading, maths and grammar tests that Year 1 to Year 6 took are at similarly high levels and most importantly, they show a significant amount of progress since September. We’re really proud of these results and your children should be too. We always remind them not to look at scores but to think about their progress and effort and every child has a lot to be proud of. Meetings will be taking place in these final two weeks to review every child’s attainment and to decide on any adaptations or additional interventions that need to be made so the next teachers can hit the ground running in September and your children receive tailored support
As well as celebrating the children’s academic development, their character development has been on full display from our ‘Becoming Day’, our celebration worships and the daily interactions we see in school. There are a lot of great examples of ‘Kindness First, Effort Always’ on the next pages, all a testament to the fantastic attitudes at West Didsbury CE.
Thank you for taking the time to read this month’s update and for your continued support.
Mr Roberts Head of School
KEY DATES
Tuesday 7th July:
Reception Sports Day – 9 15am
Year 1 & Year 2 Sports Day – 1.30pm
Year 6 performance – from 6.30pm
Thursday 9th July:
Year 3 & Year 4 Sports Day – 9.15am
Year 5 & Year 6 Sports Day – 1.30pm
Year 6 performance – from 6.30pm
Saturday 11th July: PTA Summer Fair 2pm – 4pm
Belonging, Believing, Becoming
Miss Thompson shares what our Ethos Group organised for our third Ethos Day = Becoming Day
On Wednesday, our school community came together for our third Ethos Day of the year, focusing on the "Becoming" element of our school ethos. Drawing on the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the School Ethos team challenged us all to think not just about what jobs we want when we grow up, but about the shape of our hearts and the character traits we want to grow.
Through a wonderful assembly, the children explored how ordinary people can become extraordinary forces for good. They looked at the courage of Emmeline Pankhurst, the resilience of Ellie Simmonds, the compassion of Marcus Rashford, and the curiosity of David Attenborough.
Closer to home, the children were delighted to highlight our very own caretaker, Mr Harrison, as a shining example of everyday kindness and generosity, noting how he fills our corridors with joy.
Following the assembly, the children took part in lessons on the Rights of a Child and our School Ethos, looking into an imaginary mirror to reflect on how they can actively nurture these positive traits in their own lives today.
On the next page is one of the letters the children wrote to their future selves which we think epitomises how ‘Kindness First, Effort Always’ is so front of mind in our school.
Creative Writing & Music Day
On Wednesday 24th June, we held our second creative music & writing day (this time with a Star Wars theme) and we were amazed at the writing it inspired.
As many of you will have seen, the day began in the playground with large sheets of paper, coloured pens and the Star Wars soundtrack playing which got the children’s imaginations going.
In class, the children wrote to music and they produced short narratives, poems, scripts, journal entries, character descriptions, labelled maps and more! It was completely child-led and we were so impressed with the quality and creativity of the writing We then mixed the classes so the children could share their writing with all age groups and it was a delight to see how much pride they took in their writing and how encouraging they were of each other.
Thank you to Mrs Sheehan and Miss Carter for organising the day and to our PTA for decorating the playground and providing refreshments.
A smartphone-free school
We were pleased to welcome Sapna Sanghvi, Greater Manchester Rep for Smartphone Free Childhood, earlier this month to discuss our smartphone ban and the attitudes the children have towards smartphone usage.
As one of the first primary schools in Greater Manchester to become a smartphone-free school, Sapna said she was buoyed by how informed the children were on the harms of smartphone usage and she has since shared our groundbreaking (in her words!) work at WDCE at teaching conferences across the North West.
As SFC state, one of the most overlooked trade-offs with smartphone usage is emotional development. Smartphones give children constant access to social media – and with it, a relentless stream of filtered images, curated lives and addictive feedback loops.
These platforms push children to measure their worth in likes, follows and comparisons. They create new rules for social life and identity and it has a real impact. For girls especially, studies show links between social media use and rising rates of anxiety, depression and body image issues.
This isn't just about what children see. It's about how it makes them feel – about themselves, their friendships and their place in the world.
We’re proud to be a smartphone-free school at WDCE and we hope that for you, as parents, it prevents any pressure in buying your children smartphones
Please note this also applies to the Year 6 disco on Friday 10th. There will be plenty of opportunities for parents to take photos and we want the children to enjoy the moment away from screens.
The Walk to School challenge
WDCE is part of 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. Journeys are logged on the Travel Tracker app and we share a weekly leaderboard showing which classes are collectively making the healthiest journeys to school.
Our School Travel Ambassadors (pictured left) are doing a brilliant job keeping track of our school journeys and awarding badges to those who are regularly making healthy travel choices.
We appreciate that a lot of our families live further away and have to travel here by car A ‘park and stride’ option is available for children to select on the Travel Tracker app which will give them the same rewards as walking or cycling. Park and stride means parking a short walk from school and making the final part of the journey on foot. Not only is
this healthier for the children but it helps reduce traffic on Central Road, making all our journeys safer. We urge all families travelling by car to take this option if possible.
Well done to our School Travel Ambassadors and thank you to them for their enthusiasm and diligence in helping promote our Walk to School challenge.
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:
After we celebrated Earth Day last month, Danyal was inspired to do more to look after the world and since then, he’s been litter picking with his family in his local area.
What a brilliant example of ‘Kindness First, Effort Always’ Danyal. We’re very proud of you!
Some great footballing achievements this half term! Tishe (pictured left) won his league with his Stockport team – a brilliant achievement Tishe!
A huge well done too to Flynn in Year 1 who has been invited to join the Manchester City academy. Good luck, Flynn! We know you’ll impress!
