Please find below a link to the Dog, Duck and Cat Trust:

https://www.dogduckandcat.co.uk/parent-carer-guardian

The Dog, Duck and Cat Trust want to help you teach your child, or the children you work with, about some of the things in their world that could potentially cause them some bother. Children have accidents, that’s just a fact of life, but if we can cut down their opportunities to hurt themselves then we can help keep them out of emergency departments, or worse!

We also want to help them to develop their core skills, skills that will be needed by them today and for the rest of their lives. We want them to understand what good friendships and relationships are, to know how they can help themselves, and, know when they should seek help from a trusted adult.

Our overall attendance this term was 94.4%

Please find attached the Autumn Term Newspaper, which has been produced by our school pupil journalist team and which summarises lots of the events which have gone on at Smith’s Wood Primary during the Autumn term.

We would like to thank you for all of your support during this term and we hope you enjoy the 2 week holiday with your family and friends. The school office will close at 3.30pm tomorrow (16^th December) and reopen on Tuesday 3^rd January 2023 at 8.00am.

Have a great Christmas, we look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 4^th January 2023, when school reopens to pupils, following the INSET day on Tuesday 3^rd.

Father Hudson’s Care (a local charity based in Coleshill) were recently contacted by the supermarket chain Aldi to ask whether they would be interested in a donation of reading books for school children – needless to say they agreed that they would be!

The idea behind this donation of books was from Marcus Rashford MBE (Manchester United & England footballer) who wanted to get 100,000 school children reading over the summer.  Marcus teamed up with Aldi to set this campaign rolling – he arranged for 100,000 copies of his book ‘The Breakfast Club Adventures – The Beast Beyond The Fence’ to be given to Aldi for them to then share within the local community and as a charity that works closely with Aldi in Coleshill they contacted Father Hudson’s.

Father Hudson’s staff members Andrew Penny (Registered Manager, Domiciliary Care) and Paul Reynolds (New Routes Fostering) contacted local schools to offer them copies of the book – they had already given out over 7000 books to schools in the Coleshill, Water Orton, Kingshurst, Smiths Wood, Castle Bromwich, Bromford and Shard End areas.  In total, Father Hudson’s have distributed over 10,000 copies of the book to various schools and projects.

The books which were donated are ideally for ages 8-11 so they have been distributed to our Key Stage 2 pupils.

Smith’s Wood Primary Academy were keen to receive a supply of the books and we were so grateful to be contacted. The photo shows some of our pupils proudly receiving the books, along with Andrew Penny and Paul Reynolds.

We hope that the children in KS2 enjoy reading their books over the holidays.

Our overall attendance this week was 91.4%

On Thursday 1^st December, children in Year 4 experienced what life was like for an evacuee child of WW2. They arrived at Holdenby House and were greeted by the headmistress, who informed them they needed to learn a few key skills ready before they left with their host families. Following this, children experienced life in a kitchen where they learnt about rationing and using a range of ingredients to make tasty dishes. In the sewing room, children learnt how to sew buttons and do finger knitting, as well as writing Christmas cards to injured soldiers. Under Holdenby House lies the air raid shelter, where children experienced an attack on Holdenby House and learnt of the sacrifices men, women and children made during the war. At the end of the day, the children sang, ‘God Save the King’, before departing on the bus back to Smith’s Wood.  

For more pictures from the day, please see our gallery