Dear Parents

Well, I think that might be the end of the lovely weather we have experienced! A vital element of our risk assessment is keeping all enclosed spaces well ventilated, so classroom windows will remain open even in cold weather. We recommend that the children layer up to stay warm, for example with base layers, sweatshirts, fleeces or coats. Thank you again for your cooperation with our necessary arrangements. Just a couple of reminders:

Please do not sit at the picnic tables - we have to sanitise everything that is touched before the children use them.
Please leave the playground quickly after drop off and pick up and, unless you are collecting from multiple year groups, please do not arrive until very near your time.
Please keep your children with you and do not let them run around - I do feel mean saying this, but we have to maintain social distancing and keep other adults 2 metres from children other than their own.

I want to thank Liz Morris for donating a wonderful custom-made trolley (pictured) to store books to support children's well-being. I showed our Smile Box to the children this morning in our virtual assembly. It will be shared between classrooms (with appropriate cleaning and quarantining in between uses). I am meeting with WISPA to discuss how we can continue to fundraise in these tricky times. You will see at the bottom or side of this newsletter that there are 3 ways you can continue to support us at no extra cost to you - through your Co-op membership card, Easyfundraising when shopping online and My Nametags if you need to label belongings.

I have had a couple of queries about Parents Evening. As you will be aware, we are not able to welcome parents into school, but teachers will call you during the week commencing 19th October. You will be able to book a time slot for your phone call - further information will be sent home via ParentMail soon.

Today would have been our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning, an event that we always love to host in school. Sadly we are unable to run it this year, but if you would like to donate £5 to this very special cause you can text CUPCAKE to 70550 or donate to Macmillan online using the dedicated fundraising page we would have had for our coffee morning.

We are looking at how we can share more school events remotely with parents, starting with our Harvest Festival, so please watch this space. Celebration assemblies take place virtually on Friday mornings and awards are sent home via ParentMail. Shooting Stars returned this week and are celebrated below. While children cannot bring in trophies etc. to school, you are very welcome to email parents@writtleinfantschool.com with details of your child’s achievements outside of school and I will mention them in assembly.

Next Friday we will trial delivering hot school meals to the classroom. Thank you to the many of you who have selected fish and chips that day. If the trial is successful, we will proceed with offering hot lunches from the following Monday. For this reason there are 2 options for each day in the lunch menu sent home via ParentMail today. Please order both a hot and cold option, so that we know what your child would like to eat. We'll let you know which menu is running next week.

Individual school photos will be taken by Kittle Photographic on the morning of Tuesday 6th October. Unfortunately we are not able to offer sibling photos this year, as this would involve mixing staff from different bubbles.

Finally, you will have seen the letter from the Department for Education this week to all parents. Please ensure you refer to it when deciding whether or not you need to isolate or test - we know it can be tricky to make that decision, but the NHS Covid symptoms list and the BBC video we sent home this week also offer a useful guide. Do call the school office if you are in any doubt.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Helen Castell

Please send in a snack of fresh/dried fruit or vegetables with your child every day. The government provides a free fruit/vegetable snack in the afternoon for each child, but the mornings are long and children do get hungry at breaktime.
Please ensure that your child knows whether they are having a school lunch or a packed lunch from home each day. This is particularly important if they are bringing their snack in a lunchbox, as this has led to confusion when we find that their lunchbox only contains a snack.
Please try to remember to bring everything your child needs for the day in the morning. As staff cannot enter another bubble, it is more difficult than usual to drop off forgotten items to classrooms.
Please report any cases of headlice or threadworms to the school office, so that we can let parents know that they should check their children for symptoms. Both conditions are very common in young children and are easily spread, so please don't feel embarrassed, we will always be discreet. It is just important to alert other parents, so that children can be treated quickly if necessary.
We have new email addresses! Please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com if you need to contact the office. Class email addresses are listed in the year group sections below.

Shooting Stars are back! Well done to the following children in Years 1 and 2 who have set a great example to others this week.

Sharks: Iris for wonderful Maths work! Oscar for an excellent 'can do' attitude and giving everything a go!
Dolphins: Hugo for super listening skills and participation in all lessons! Finn for great listening and for always being ready to learn!
Turtles: Teddy-James for settling in really well and getting used to a new school! Roman for always being ready to learn and following all instructions!
Parrots: Jessica for coming into school with a happy face! Ted for a great attitude to learning and always trying his best!

Well done to the following children who have been given HIPIP awards for demonstrating our value of inclusivity this week. Ruby and Ted in Dolphins, Nayla-Rae and Emily in Sharks, Michael and Austin in Parrots and Freddie and Alexa in Turtles.

Here’s what to look forward to next week:

English:
Reading/writing: Poetry focus - All about me
Handwriting: One armed robot letters r,b,n,h,m,k,p
Phonics: Unit 16 ‘igh’ written as ie, i_e,y and i
Maths: Addition and Subtraction - Number facts
Geography: Introduction to Oceania
PSHE: Friendship focus
Computing: Using iPads to take photographs, saving and retrieving work
Music - Learning to play the glockenspiel

Have a go at ICT Games' Look, Cover, Write, Check game. It’s a fun way to learn spellings, ten at a time. The national expectation is that at the end of Y2 (KS1) children can spell all of the Y1 and Y2 common exception words. We are currently working our way through the Y1 words.

Home learning activities for this half term are listed in our Year 2 Activity Passport: Autumn 1, which you can also find on the Year 2 Home Learning page. Please also log in to Bug Club, we have updated your child's account with phonics lessons, grammar activities and new reading material.

Our new email addresses are dolphins@writtleinfantschool.com and sharks@writtleinfantschool.com.

Here’s what to look forward to next week:

English: Reciting the alphabet, recognising both letter names and sounds and identifying the different purposes for capital letters.
Maths: Comparing different groups, using greater than and less than to compare.
Geography: Learning about the four countries that make the United Kingdom and their capital cities. Discussing where we live in comparison to other places.
PE: Challenging ourselves to increase our time during circuits. Learning about the different parts of our body we use during exercise.
Forest School: Apologies but Parrots will not have Forest Schools on Tuesday due to staff absence. We will make up for missed sessions.

Please click this link for the week's home learning.

Our new email addresses are parrots@writtleinfantschool.com and turtles@writtleinfantschool.com.

The children have had their first full week and have done so well! We are still getting to know each other and learning so many new rules and routines. They are super at tidying up! They really enjoyed our 'Chop, Chop' poem and we have been reading stories with a vegetable theme! We enjoyed 'National Fitness Day' by joining in with the whole school skipping challenge. Most children can't skip at 4/5 but we practised skipping with hoops which was brilliant fun! Next week our poem is called 'Falling Apples' - look out for it on Tapestry.