What’s On – Friday 24th September

Message from Mrs. Castell

Dear Parents

Another very busy week here! We really enjoyed the assembly given by Reverend Tony from All Saints’ Church this week. We also met the team heading up the celebrations for next year's 100th anniversary of the first radio entertainment broadcast, which led to the formation of the BBC. Both Writtle schools are working with the Ideas Hub in Chelmsford and Writtle Parish Council to mark the event. There will be activities in school, but on Friday 11th February 2022 there are plans for a parade and an event on the green for families after school, so please pencil that date into your diaries!

A reminder that we love to share awards and achievements from children’s activities outside of school. Please hand them to me or email details to parents@writtleinfantschool.com in advance of our Friday assemblies. Can I also remind you that messages regarding absence, Covid test results or messages for my attention must go to parents@writtleinfantschool.com, not via class emails or Tapestry.

First Aid and Medication

We have reviewed our procedures for reporting accidents and agreed the following:

Very minor first aid: e.g. those require a wipe with water
A minor accident record will be completed in class, or in midday assistants' notebooks.

Minor first aid: e.g. a graze requiring a plaster
A blue note will be sent home in children's book bags OR a first aid notification sent home via ParentMail OR reported to the adult at the end of the school day.

First aid given - further monitoring/intervention necessary: e.g. a head bump
We will call parents so they are aware of the reasons for concern. In some cases parents may be advised to take their child for further checks from a medical professional. If we cannot contact parents, we will leave a voicemail and send a first aid notification via ParentMail.

Medicines

We do not normally administer medicine to children in school, unless it is required as part of their daily life, e.g. allergy / asthma medication. If this applies to your child please contact the school office. If your child is prescribed medicine that needs to be given during school time, and you are unable to attend the school to administer this yourself, please speak to the school office. You will need to complete a consent form giving full details of dosage, frequency and storage. Medicine should always be handed to a member of staff and collected again by an adult, even if the container is empty.

Picnic and Play / Harvest Festival

Next week we look forward to seeing Foxes and Squirrels parents at our Picnic and Play sessions. Wednesday 6th October at 10am is our Harvest Festival for Years One and Two at All Saints’ Church. We look forward to seeing you there. Please be seated by 9.45am, the front few pews will be reserved for the children. Our Harvest collection always goes towards the Link Club, a social group for the elderly in Writtle, so if you have any loose change please bring it along. Our Year Two children sing at the Link Club’s Christmas party every year, which is partly funded by our Harvest collection. We ask that you take a lateral flow test before attending as it will be very busy.

Uniform

We have had a number of queries from understandably concerned parents about lost uniform, including some items which are named. We search high and low for lost uniform on a regular basis - being a small school there are limited places that the uniform can go to! If an item of clothing is named, it goes back on the child's peg. If it either has no name, carries the name of a child who has left the school, or is unclaimed, it goes into the lost property basket in reception.

To help us:

  1. Please name every item of clothing. In some classes at least half of the uniform is not named and we have no way of distinguishing between identical items of uniform.
  2. If you have uniform passed onto you that once belonged to another child, please ensure you update the label to show your child's name.
  3. Please double-check at home that your child has not accidentally picked up someone else's uniform, as some of the lost items are named.

Many thanks for your help.

Have a lovely weekend
Helen Castell

Notices

  • Please ensure that your child's daily snack consists of only fresh or dried fruit or vegetables.
  • Please ensure that you are aware of the symptoms of headlice and threadworms and treat your child promptly if necessary. You can follow the links to NHS advice. Both conditions are very common and easily spread, so it pays to be vigilant! Thank you for your support.
  • Our school meals page has been updated with the current menus for you to download if you wish.
  • Diary dates and school events can added from our website to the calendar on your phone. Click on your chosen list of dates from the Links section and then click export at the bottom of the page.

Awards

Well done to the following children who have received HIPIP awards this week!

Zara, Layla, Charlie T-B, Frankie C, Eden-Rose, Suzie, Jessica  V,  Aria, Coen, Carter, Amy, Teddy G and Annabel S

Year 2 News

Dolphins class logoSharks class logo

Apologies for the essay this week but the children wanted us to share the things that they have enjoyed! This week our focus text was ‘Only One You’ by Linda Kranz. It allowed us to discuss how special and unique everyone is. We talked about compliments and how they make us feel. Everyone painted their own fish and gave compliments or positive messages to each other. Our maths work has been based around our greater than, less than and equal to signs. The children compared objects and numbers and chose the appropriate sign. We have been using part-whole models and learning about how to partition numbers in different ways.

The children have really enjoyed listening and learning the Seven Continents and Five Oceans songs. If you follow the links to the YouTube videos I’m sure they would put on a fantastic performance for you! We have also learnt about some countries around the world and we are looking forward to learning more about the other countries and continents over the next few weeks.

The children have really enjoyed our carousel activities and have been playing a few maths games to secure and strengthen their understanding. The children have enjoyed a few activities and asked us to share them with you. The following websites have fun games to consolidate place value work. On ICT games website, there are Shark Numbers and Counting Caterpillars and Topmarks.co.uk have Place Value Basketball and Caterpillar Ordering.

Click here for this week's home learning.

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

Year 1 News

Parrots class logoTurtles class logoThe Year One children have continued to settle into their new routine and are really finding their feet this week! In English we have started our whole guided reading sessions, which the children have thoroughly enjoyed. In Maths we have compared objects and numbers using the language, greater than, more than or equal to. In the afternoons we have continued to enjoy play and discuss how to be a kind friend.

Click the link for this week's home learning.

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

EYFS News

Squirrels class logo

Foxes class logo

This week we have been finding out about Owls. We learned some interesting facts! We loved our ‘Wise Old Owl’ poem and talked about the new vocabulary. We have been doing lots of listening games and playing games to help the children learn everyone’s names. In Maths we have been matching and sorting objects. The children loved sorting all the socks! They could do them at home too! Next week’s poem is ‘Falling Apples ’ and we will be thinking about Autumn too.