WDCE MONTHLY SEPTEMBER
Belonging, Believing, Becoming
Welcome to September’s WDCE Monthly! We’ve had a great start to the academic year and in this issue, you can find out more about our first Ethos Day, Year 3’s trip to Quarry Bank Mill, updates to our Early Years provision and some PTA updates. Our ethos at WDCE is ‘Belonging, Believing, Becoming’ and those words mean an awful lot to the daily life and culture of the school. We have three ethos days throughout the year and on 9th September, we had our first: Belonging Day. The day began with collective worship, led by our Ethos Team, and they shared the meaning of Belonging.
The children explained that belonging is being part of a caring school family where everyone is warmly welcomed, loved, and never left alone. It means opening hearts to new friendships, treating each other with kindness, and ensuring no one is excluded from conversations, games, or groups. Rooted in the idea of growing together like a mustard seed, belonging involves learning and playing side by side while having your voice heard and respected.
Belonging, Believing, Becoming
The children completed several activities throughout the day, including writing letters to new pupils welcoming them to the school. As a Rights Respecting School, we also focused on two rights linked to belonging: the respect for children’s views and the right to set up groups. We thought about the groups we belong to and their importance to us. We also thought about how we can best respect each other’s views including good listening, open minds and showing kindness first. The children had some great discussions and we’re very grateful to Miss Thompson and the Ethos Team for organising the day!
Bringing local history to life
Local history is a vital part of our history curriculum and as part of Year 3’s topic on the Victorians, they recently visited Quarry Bank Mill. The children had the opportunity to experience an industrial community and learn more about the very different lives of workers and owners. They had a guided tour of the Apprentice House and saw firsthand some of the machinery that the workers used, many of whom were children. The children had really memorable learning experiences, proven by the excellent recount on the next page!
A super start for Reception!
We’re delighted with the start Reception have made on their WDCE journey and what a busy few weeks they’ve had! Not only have they settled into new routines and established lots of new relationships – they’ve made excellent progress already through our phonics scheme, their classrooms were disturbed by a visit from the Little Red Hen, they’ve learned new number facts, listened to lots of stories and poems and they’ve helped plant lots of new flowers in our outdoor area. Our old outdoor storage area has been transformed into a new learning space with easels and workstations and more work is underway to further enhance the outdoor provision in the coming weeks. Well done to all the Reception children for making such an excellent start and to our Early Years team for enabling it!
PTA updates
The PTA had a successful AGM towards the end of September, electing a new committee with many returning to previous roles with new faces joining the committee too. A lot is already being planned for this year but it’s worth taking stock of what the committee achieved last year. If you haven’t seen the Annual Report that was sent recently, the PTA provided a breakdown of everything they purchased last year. When it’s all looked at together, it’s clear to see what an impact the PTA have and the considerable benefit that the children receive. We’re hugely grateful to the PTA team who dedicate so much time to organising engaging events for the children and we’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you who volunteered and organised. If you would like to get involved with the PTA this year, please email Fran (our re-elected PTA Chair) at ptawestdidsbury@gmail.com. Any time you can give is greatly appreciated and helps us to provide our children with the best school years we can.
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:
A huge well done to Bea and Eva in Year 2 who, in August, ran a stall at Cavendish Park to raise money for the Trussell Trust food bank. They sold homemade cakes, lemonade and iced coffee. Thanks to their efforts, they raised £140 for the charity which will go a long way. Well done Bea and Eva – we’re really proud of you!
If you would like to celebrate your children’s efforts in the monthly newsletters, please email the school office: office@thrive-wdce.com.