Friday 24th April 2026 – Dulwich Wood Primary School

Learning Journey: Myths, Monarchs & Mayhem

Our learning at Dulwich Wood this week:

Reception

This week we’ve been inspired by Joe’s ideas in ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’ and how they helped him create a world less dull and ordinary for himself and those around him. After everyone had a turn planting seeds, we used our planning and imagining tools to design our very own dream gardens. We then wrote some wonderful sentences to describe what makes each of them so extraordinary!

Year 1

This week we had a cheeky little friend join us in Y1. ‘The Naughty Bus’ came whizzing in creating lots of mess. We used our collaboration and planning tools and wrote a letter to ‘The Naughty Bus’, giving him some advice about how he could use his empathy goggles and look after our school. We think it’s worked as thankfully he’s not created any more mess, phew! We also used our reasoning tool to think of what could be included in a healthy packed lunch, during our PSHE session.

Year 2

Y2 have been continuing to use their managing distractions and making links tools in their multiplication and division topic this week, persevering to master the 2 and 5 times tables. They have also been researching two London landmarks in Literacy and recording lots of interesting facts!

Year 3

Y3 have been using their imagining tool to understand what life would be like in the Stone Age, and then had a debate about whether we would like to live in the Stone Age or not – the answer was a pretty resounding no! In reading, we used our perseverance tool, trying to work out what the BFG is trying to say (he often gets his words mixed up) and then we had fun coming up with our own BFG words.

Year 4

Y4 have done some amazing learning this week, discovering and sharing so much about the ancient Egyptians across history, literacy and guided reading lessons! In particular, we used our asking questions, reasoning and collaboration tools to debate and discover how Tutankhamun may have died and how the mummification process worked. The children have shown amazing enthusiasm for the new topic!

Year 5

Y5 have been using their planning and reasoning tools in science this week to carefully dissect a flower, identify its different parts and explain their roles in plant reproduction. In literacy, we used our imagining tool and empathy goggles to step into the roles of different characters and write thoughtful quotes for a newspaper report.

Year 6

This week, Y6 have continued our learning about the ‘Suffragettes’, focusing on Emmeline Pankhurst and the strikes of the Match Girls. Through this work, we have used our empathy goggles and imagining tool to better understand the struggles and determination of those who fought for change. In history, we have also been learning more about the changing role of women over time and the impact this has had on society today.

Dulwich Wood Nursery School Ofsted Inspection

The Nursery School was recently inspected by Ofsted and we are delighted to share our report with you!

We are incredibly proud of our whole team and pleased that we were able to showcase our wonderful setting.

Ofsted has recently introduced a new inspection framework, and we were among the first maintained nursery schools to be inspected under these changes. The report no longer includes a single overall grade; instead, it provides a detailed “report card” designed to give parents a clearer picture of how the school performs across key areas. Each area is graded on a five-point scale, from “urgent improvement” to “exceptional,” alongside a short explanation to help parents better understand the school’s strengths, areas for development, and overall context.

We are very pleased that the report reflects our happy and nurturing nursery school.

Dulwich Wood Nursery School Inspection Report Download

Parent Survey Feedback:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our recent parent survey. We are very grateful for your feedback, which is extremely important in helping us to continue improving our school.

We were very pleased to see that the survey highlighted a number of strengths. In particular, parents told us that children are happy at school, feel safe, and are well supported in their learning. Parents also responded positively about behaviour in the school and many said they would recommend the school to other families. We are very proud of these areas and of the positive school community we have built together.

We also carefully considered the areas where parents felt we could improve. The main areas identified were communication between school and home, and how the school responds to, and follows up on, concerns raised by parents. We take this feedback seriously and we’ve been reflecting on how well we handle concerns raised by families. We’d like to understand your experiences better. This short survey is completely anonymous and will help us improve. It should take less than 2 minutes.

Please complete the survey here!

Attendance & Punctuality at Dulwich Wood – Every Day Matters

Please read the following information about attendance and punctuality:

5 mins late every day = 3.4 days of learning lost every year
10 mins late every day = 6.9 days of learning lost every year
15 mins late every day = 10.3 days of learning lost every year
20 mins late every day = 13.8 days of learning lost every year
30 mins late every day = 20.7 days of learning lost every day

What Does My Child’s Attendance Percentage Really Mean?

Many parents don’t realise how quickly absences add up. Here’s what different attendance percentages mean in terms of days of learning lost over a school year:

Attendance Over One School Year (190 days)

Attendance %	Days Absent	Days of Learning Lost	Equivalent to
100%	0 days	0 days	Perfect attendance!
95%	9.5 days	9.5 days	Nearly 2 weeks
90%	19 days	19 days	Nearly 4 weeks
85%	28.5 days	28.5 days	Over 5 weeks
80%	38 days	38 days	Over 7 weeks
75%	47.5 days	47.5 days	Nearly half a term
70%	57 days	57 days	Over 11 weeks

Understanding Attendance Categories

✅ Good Attendance: 96-100% : Your child is getting the most out of their education and building positive habits for the future.

⚠️ Concerning: 90-95%: Your child is missing important learning. Small absences add up quickly.

🚨 Persistent Absence: Below 90%: A pupil misses 10% or more of school – equal to 1 day or more every 2 weeks. This seriously impacts learning and wellbeing.

🚨🚨 Severe Absence: Below 50%: A pupil misses 50% or more of school. This is a safeguarding concern and requires immediate support.