On Thursday 5^th March, Smith's Wood Primary Academy took part in World Book Day, taking part in different activities all day and helping children to find their reading identity. With 2026 being the National Year of Reading, Smith's Wood Primary have decided to 'Go All In', and are participating in many activities throughout the year to help promote and encourage pleasure for reading.

Throughout the day, children were creative in designing their own reading shields based on their hobbies, interests and genres, before becoming 'book detectives' and helping their teachers find appropriate books to recommend. They then discovered their reading identities through a quiz shared by The Literacy Trust, and had discussions surrounding the types of books they do and do not enjoy. It was an important message that not everyone needs to enjoy the same book, and that every child has their own reading identity to uphold and be proud of. 

After lunch, the children looked at multimodal reading, and shared things that they read which aren't books. We had children bringing into school their weekly shopping lists, LEGO manuals, football magazines and even receipts and postcards, to discuss how reading is an important life skill - not just for reading books, but for every aspect of their life as they grow. Towards the end of the afternoon, all children had the opportunity to share their favourite texts with a partner from a different class. We had sisters dressed as Dorothy and Alice in Wonderland reading to each other, as well as a child dressed as Dog Man, reading with a Year 6 boy who absolutely loves the Dog Man stories. 

The whole day was surrounded in a love of reading that everyone enjoyed, and was topped off by the Children's Book Project! This is an incredible charity who donate books to our school, therefore we held a free book fair where every single child had the chance to take home a free book. A huge thank you to the Children's Book Project for making this possible. 

For more pictures from the day, please see our gallery.

This morning, the top rowers from schools across the county gathered for a thrilling final match in the Inclusive County Rowing Final! Competition was both fierce and epic, with Smith's Woods own champion rowers setting a blistering pace. Our awesome athletes showed superhuman levels of determination, perseverance and teamwork with every rower beating their personal best to secure a well-fought 5th place victory!

We are immensely proud of our team and the wonderful effort they all made!

For more pictures from the competition, please see our gallery.

Smith's Wood boys had a fantastic morning at the Vertu Primary Schools Cup. The team played a series of difficult matches against some very tough competition, finishing with a highly contested 4th place! We are immensely proud of the teamwork and dedication the team displayed  today. Well done to everyone involved!

Our overall attendance this week was 95.5%

Each week, during our Friday Achievement assembly, we celebrate our ‘Pupils of the Week’ from each year group. Pupils are recognised for this weekly award for a variety of reasons and are nominated by their class teacher. They may have excelled in a particular subject through the week; may have shown one, or more, of the school values in abundance, or they may have impressed their teacher, or other staff members with a huge amount of effort. Whatever they are nominated for, they are recognised in the whole school achievement assembly, receive a certificate to take home and get to wear one of our prestigious black and gold t-shirts. 
During the assembly, we also celebrate children who have 100% attendance for the week and have been in school every day on time. A lucky dip, of all children who are eligible takes place, and one pupil walks away with £5 to spend on whatever they want, Standards and presentation of a child’s book, chosen at random, are also reviewed and celebrated with the school and the child, whose book has been chosen, has the chance to win a dip out of the basket of goodies, as long as they have used their best handwriting every day, completed their feed forward marking and taken care in the presentation of their date and learning objective. We are extremely proud of all of the efforts of our pupils and the Friday Achievement assembly recognises this pride. 

Our weekly winners this week are:

Kimani - REB

Noah - RJL

Alanna-Mae - RPM

Haider - 1AP

Sienna - 1RW

Mihra - 2HS

All of 2SWS!

Huey - 3JC

Teshanna - 3NW

Harley - 4HA

Aaden - 4PW

Keeyan - 4BB

Harlei-Belle - 5KG

Jaxon - 5LH

T'zyah - 6ES

Phoebe - 6LM

Isla - 6ST

Book Look Winner – Sally -  5LH

Attendance Hero Winner - Evie-Lou - 6ES

Year 2 had a magical time at our very own Disney Day! ✨ The children “visited” Disney World for the day, where their creativity truly shone. They designed and built their own thrilling rides, took part in a fantastic parade full of music and smiles, and even created their very own Mickey Mouse ears! It was a fun-filled day of imagination, teamwork and Disney magic that we will never forget. 🏰🎢🎉

For more pictures from the day, please see our gallery.