Dear Parents,

Christmas is hurtling towards us and all around the school the children are enjoying preparations for our festivities. You have received details of the children's Christmas performances and we have had over 100 bookings already - thank you for your support with our adaptations. Please continue to be vigilant for Covid symptoms and test your children where necessary as we approach these significant school events.

We are hugely grateful to WISPA for the raft of actitvities and events they have prepared in the run up to Christmas. A full schedule has been emailed to you, or you can read details of WISPA's Winter Wonderland on our website.

This week began with yoga lessons for Year 1, led by Sue Easteal. It will be Year 2's turn next week. The NHS immunisation team delivered the flu vaccinations on Wednesday and on Thursday we all watched a web broadcast from the wonderful Michael Rosen, who delighted the children with his poetry. The children looked resplendent in their spots and stripes for Children in Need this morning. Today's celebration assembly featured the first performance by the school choir and we followed it with a special Children in Need workout, led by Joe Wicks! Thank you for your donations to such a worthy cause - our Just Giving page is still open if you'd like to donate.

A reminder that primary school applications are now open and the deadline is 15th January 2022. We are holding two more open days for parents of children starting school in September 2022, on Tuesday 23rd November and Wednesday 1st December. Mr Taylor, Headteacher at Writtle Junior School, held meetings for our Year 2 parents this week, as they must apply for places in Year 3 by the same deadline. If you have children starting school or Year 3 next year, please don't be late with your application, or you may miss out on your preferred school place.

As advertised previously, the week commencing 29th November is the final week for clubs, so please plan your childcare arrangements accordingly for the last 2 weeks of term, to ensure that children are not left behind after school. Parents have been notified of any adjustments to dates - there is an extra Tennis club on 6th December and Football club on 9th December to make up for sessions missed earlier in the term. Piano lessons will finish on 1st December and Reading Mondays have now been paused for the remainder of the term.

I'm afraid we have received further complaints from residents regarding access and cars reversing or turning around in private driveways. Please drive and park with consideration for our neighbours and also for other drivers and pedestrians. We advise anyone who witnesses nuisance or illegal parking to follow the guidance from Essex Police, given here: https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/nuisance-parking/

Finally, Essex Libraries have launched a Winter Reading Challenge, very similar to the one they run during the summer holidays. There are some fantastic prizes to be won, so please consider popping down to your local library to take part!

Best wishes,

Helen Castell

Please note that on the afternoon of Thursday 25th November there will only be one school crossing patrol available. Margaretting Road will be covered, but Lodge Road will not, so please take extra care and supervise children closely.
We encourage healthy lunches for all children. Please support us by not including sweets or chocolate in your child's packed lunch and reserving those treats for home.
A reminder that we love to share awards, medals, trophies, even anecdotes from children’s achievements outside of school. Please hand them to me or email parents@writtleinfantschool.com for assemblies on Friday.
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.

This week we have been exploring the Arctic. We’ve learnt about Polar Regions, the Aurora Borealis and the Amazing Arctic Fox. These were reading comprehension texts which the children thoroughly enjoyed. They have also found out about Matthew Henson who was one of the first explorers to travel to the Arctic. Ask your children to tell you about him and his struggles. We looked at features of the Arctic and the children made their own labelled diagram of a Polar Bear.

The children really enjoyed wearing spots/stripes to school on Friday for Children In Need. They completed Pudsey themed activities throughout the day and joined in with a Joe Wicks workout! They thought about children who are less fortunate than themselves and displayed great empathy.

Click here for this week's home learning.

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

This week we have continued to practise our Christmas show songs, if you haven’t brought in your clothes yet, please do by next Friday (a separate parentmail was sent, if you did not receive it, please let us know). In English, we looked at writing from the perspective of the cat and squirrel from out topic book ‘Pumpkin Soup’, we used speech bubbles and thought bubbles. In Maths, it has been shape week! We revised all of our 2D and 3D shapes and found that shapes are all around us! In the afternoons we discussed what country we currently live in and the four countries that make the United Kingdom.

Click the link for this week's home learning.

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

This week we learned all about mice! A poem about mice made us giggle and we enjoyed the story 'The Gruffalo'. We have been learning some Christmas Poetry Basket poems for our Christmas show and learning about the Nativity story. We won't tell you too much as we don't want to spoil the surprise!

In Maths this week it has been all about the number four. We have learnt the different ways we can make 4 and what is one more and one less than 4. We have also been exploring squares and rectangles. In Phonics we have been learning all about o, c and k. We have learnt the Jolly Phonics songs and have begun to write simple words that begin those letters. We all enjoyed dressing up for Children in Need and found out about the charity.

Our email addresses are foxes@writtleinfantschool.com and squirrels@writtleinfantschool.com.