What’s On – Friday 11th December

Dear Parents

The children looked wonderful in their Christmas jumpers today, thank you so much for supporting WISPA and making us all feel very festive! Don’t forget that WISPA’s Big Christmas Raffle closes at 8pm tonight, so you still have a few more hours to buy tickets and ask friends and family to do the same! It has been hugely popular, with over £700 raised already. We are incredibly grateful to WISPA for their efforts in putting it together and to you all for donating such amazing prizes. We received a lovely festive message from our reading dog, Lola (right), wishing the whole school a very happy Christmas. We can't wait to invite her back to read with us again in future. The Christmas performances will be released next week, so please look out for them; I was lucky enough to watch EYFS filming this week and was so impressed by the children’s confidence. I have also been hearing about the mischievous antics of various elves in our classrooms!

As we approach Christmas and cases in Essex are unfortunately on the rise, it is absolutely essential that we follow social distancing rules and remain vigilant for Covid symptoms, testing and isolating where necessary. Obviously we want all our children, families and staff to have a safe and happy Christmas, without needing to isolate. We sent an email earlier this week to remind you all to stick to the drop off and pick up times so that children do not mix bubbles. Today we are sending home important guidance on what to do if your child develops symptoms and has a test after Friday 18th December. It is vital that you let us know the test result if symptoms began in the first weekend of the holidays, as if it is positive, schools are expected to trace all contacts in the child’s bubble and ask them to isolate.

Essex Library Services are hosting a Winter Reading Challenge to encourage the love of reading. Very much like the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge, they are providing large bookmarks which will be stamped for each book your child reads. The aim is to read 6 books over the winter period. This year’s theme is “The Animals of Snowy Wood” where Connie the fox and her friends help Fraser the squirrel to get a good night’s sleep. You can collect a bookmark from any Essex library and fall in love with reading this winter.

The last day of term is Friday 18th December, with children finishing at the usual times for each year group. As said in a previous ParentMail, we are not having an INSET day next Friday. Despite some reports, the Government was not offering schools an extra INSET day. Instead we would have had to move one of our non-pupil days from the summer term to next Friday. This would have changed dates already published and I am well aware that parents may have already made holiday arrangements.

Stay safe this weekend. 

Kind regards

Helen Castell