What’s On – Friday 26th March

Dear Parents,

As we break up for Easter, after our most challenging term yet, I want to thank you all for your support and hard work whilst homeschooling your children and your trust in us as they returned to school. I want to thank our wonderful staff for working throughout the most worrying days of the pandemic and providing remote education and communication with all families while teaching full time. I am proud of the provision and the support we have given to families throughout this time and it's fair to say that we are all exhausted but proud of what we achieved as a team.

The school observed a minute's silence for the national day of reflection on Tuesday, as so many of us have known loss during this last year. Each class planted a tree of remembrance and we will enjoy watching them grow.

The children return on Monday 12th April and we will continue with the same staggered drop off and pick up times as we will still be under restrictive measures. Thank you for sending in extra snacks for the transition back to school, we will discontinue this for the summer term, so you will only need to send in one snack of fresh or dried fruit/veg.

As the weather improves and the evenings are lighter, please remember that we all still need to limit social contact to reduce the risk of positive cases and bubble closures when we return to school.  I have written to you separately to ask that if someone in your household tests positive this weekend, you must inform the school at parents@writtleinfantschool.com  as I am still required to liaise with track and trace during the Easter break. I will only need to inform the rest of the bubble if the child/adult concerned was in school within 48 hours of symptoms. Please remember that if any member of your household has any of the three main coronavirus symptoms, you must arrange a full PCR test - a lateral flow test is not sufficient. In our anonymous survey, 60% of parents said that they were regularly using lateral flow tests at home for asymptomatic testing and this is of great comfort to the staff. We would strongly encourage you to order tests and for asymptomatic adults to use them twice weekly, including during the school holidays.

Last week's Red Nose Day raised over £250 for Comic Relief - thank you so much for your generosity. This week WISPA has been delighted with the response to Easter Egg Hunt around the village and the bath bombs sale - both wonderful ideas! Please consider how you can support WISPA, there is a very small band of helpers who do amazing work - you can get in touch with them at wispacharity@gmail.com. We are balancing our new budget at the moment and the additional costs due to Covid have proved a challenge for a small school such as ours, especially when all our major fundraising events, which would normally buy the little extras we love to offer the children, have not been able to take place. You can donate to the school at no extra cost to yourselves by doing your online shopping via smile.amazon.co.uk and easyfundraising.org.uk. Just nominate Writtle Infant School Parents Association as your chosen charity, then shop with Amazon or click through to your online retailer as normal.

It is 25 years since Mrs. Raymond, our wonderful teaching assistant in Parrots, started working at the school. She is a very much-loved member of staff and we celebrated her special anniversary with a virtual assembly, although we could hear her class cheering her from down the corridor! We are also delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs. Elizabeth Garrod to our governing body as Parent Governor. Her background in education, knowledge of the village and commitment to our school will be a great asset and we look forward to working with her over the next few years.

I wish you all a lovely Easter break - let’s hope for some good weather!

Helen Castell