Year 6 Transition

Head Teacher's Welcome:

Meet the Team:

Mrs N Wykes, Head of Year 7 & Mrs L Atkinson, Head of Transition.

Contact us via email: 

Mrs Wykes - NWykes@woodlandsschool.essex.sch.uk

Mrs Atkinson - LAtkinson@woodlandsschool.essex.sch.uk

 

 

Parent / Carer:

Our Ref: DWt/SCa

March 2024

Dear Parent/Carer,

 

ASPRATION RESILIENCE OPPORTUNITY EXCELLENCE

We would like to extend to you a very warm welcome to Woodlands School and we are delighted that your youngster will be joining us in September 2024. It has been an incredibly competitive year to get into our school with 1,100 applying for just 300 places.

At Woodlands School, every young person will have the foundations laid for a lifelong love of learning, through a fully inclusive and appropriately challenging curriculum, taught by outstanding and highly qualified teachers.  All will have barriers to learning removed, ensuring a safe and stimulating learning environment where all make outstanding progress, allowing them the opportunity to be excellent.

Working together with our local community we will create opportunities and ensure we develop resilient young people, with excellent social skills and a strong moral purpose and as a result they become adults that can go on and make a real difference locally, nationally and globally.

As a learning community we work with all stakeholders to have the highest aspirations, be resilient and seek all opportunities to be excellent.

I thought it might be useful at this stage to provide you with details of our induction programme which will take place during the Summer Term.  Our firm belief at Woodlands is that in order to bring about the high achievement of all, there needs to be a close partnership between home and school.  Some events which help to establish such a partnership are:

Induction Days – Tuesday 25^th June and Wednesday 26^th June 2024

This is an opportunity for your youngster to join us in order to experience lessons and day to day life at Woodlands.

New Intake Evening – Tuesday 25^th June 2024

The chance for parents/carers to meet with some of their young person’s teachers and Head of Year.

Admissions Form – Submission date Friday 15^th March 2024

It is compulsory to complete an admission form to collect necessary information about you and your youngster. We will take receipt of this form as official acceptance of your place here at Woodlands School. Please click here  to access the admission form which needs to be submitted by Friday 15^th March 2024.

Language Curriculum

You will know that academic success for each and every young person who attends Woodlands is at the heart of every aspect of our provision.  The curriculum model is based on a pathway system and it provides a personalised curriculum for everyone, therefore increasing engagement, attainment and raising aspirations.

Part of the curriculum model in Year 7 and 8 is that all will be placed into two different halves of the year group (Aspiration and Resilience bands). These are completely mixed ability and they are then set within each band for individual subjects.

The MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) faculty at Woodlands offer French, German and Spanish. In Year 7 your youngster will study two languages and then choose one of these languages to continue from Year 8 up to GCSE.

We firmly believe that learning languages helps all to develop an academic focus, enhance their communication skills and increase their global understanding.  Each will receive one lesson per week in each language and then two lessons per week in Year 8 in their chosen language to support their progress.

Although it cannot be guaranteed, we will try to take into consideration any parental request regarding a specific language choice at this point and ask that if you have a strong preference for French, German or Spanish you inform us by clicking here to complete the language request form.

Multi Skills Sports Sessions

Sport plays a huge part in school life at Woodlands and your youngster will have the opportunity to participate in a range of sporting activities including Football, Rugby, Basketball, Netball, and Athletics whilst at school.  Therefore, these multi skills sessions will enable all to develop the fundamental core skills in these particular sports, which will hold them in good stead for their PE lessons and extra-curricular activities in September.                    

The three multi skill sessions will take place on Monday 24^th June 2024, Monday 1^st July 2024 and Monday 8^th July 2024.  The first sessions for boys will be football on our outstanding 4G facility and the girls will be playing basketball in our Sports Hall.  The sessions will run from 4.00pm to 5.00pm and youngsters are expected to turn up in sports clothing (bring boots as well as trainers), with a drink (no fizzy or energy drinks) and be ready to exercise. The training sessions are free of charge.

Should you wish for your youngster to attend these sessions please click on this link click here for Multi Skills Sports Sessions to indicate which sessions will be attended so we can plan appropriately.  I hope you agree that this opportunity will play a big part in the transition period from primary to secondary and hopefully will be a successful one.

Please contact Mr Manners, Head of Faculty Athletic Performance via email at bma@woodlandsschool.essex.sch.uk if you have any questions about the Multi Skills sports sessions.

Creative Arts Event

The Creative Arts Department will be running three workshops in musical theatre.  These will be taking place on Monday 1^st July, Monday 8^th July 2024 and Monday 15^th July 2024.  The sessions will run from 4.00pm to 5.00pm in the Activities Studio and youngsters are expected to turn up in suitable clothing and bring a drink with them (no fizzy or energy drinks).  The disciplines being used will be Dance, Drama and Music and they will be working on a musical theatre number that will be shown to you at the end of the final workshop, these sessions are free of charge.   If your young person would like to get involved in these sessions, please indicate by clicking on this link click here for Creative Arts Sessions

The small project will be a great way for your child to be aware of creative arts within our school and will give them the skills and confidence to audition for our school musicals in September. 

Please contact Mr Townsend, co-ordinator for the Artistic Performance Team via email at mto@woodlandsschool.essex.sch.uk if you have any questions about the Artistic Performance sessions.

Access to Laptops

At Woodlands School, we use a range of excellent online resources to support your youngster's home learning.  If they do not have access to their own device at home, or do not have access to the internet, we may be able to support.  Please could we ask that all parents/carers complete a short online survey, so that we can gauge the home connectivity needs for our incoming Year 7s, please click here to access this survey.

In Summary

Although the prospect of moving from primary school into secondary school seems daunting, it is also an exciting time.  The various pieces of information being collected from this letter will enable Woodlands to provide your young person with the best possible opportunities and support them in achieving excellence. In summary, the information shared and collected is:

 

1. Induction Days – Tuesday 25^th June and Wednesday 26^th June 2024
2. New Intake Evening – Tuesday 25^th June 2024
3. Admission Form – Submission date Friday 15^th March 2024 - click here for Admissions Form
4. Language Curriculum - click here for Language Preferences
5. Multi Skills Sports Sessions - click here for Multi Skills Sports Sessions
6. Artistic Performance Sessions - click here for Creative Arts Sessions
7. Access to laptops - click here for Woodlands Connected Survey 2024-25

 

If you have any queries regarding the transition from primary to secondary education please contact Mrs Atkinson, Head of Primary Transition and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead via email at LAtkinson@woodlandsschool.essex.sch.uk

I hope the enclosed information is useful and shows our commitment to ensuring that your youngster gets the best possible start at Woodlands.  In addition to the above, I enclose a copy of the parent/carer information booklet to further support you in the transition process. 

Yours sincerely,

Mr David Wright

Head Teacher