Dear Parents

This week we have had visits from our school improvement partner, Craig Duncan, and an assembly from Reverend Tony. Thank you to parents for attending the reading in class sessions, these will continue next Monday. Our Forest School sessions and Yoga classes with Mrs Easteal continue on a rota basis and the children continue to really enjoy these lessons.

We have had a number of staff absent due to Covid this week, including teachers, office staff and our catering team. Thank you to all our staff who have taken on different roles to cover absence.

Our small band of WISPA helpers do a fantastic job planning activities and fundraising which benefits every child in the school. However they cannot do it alone and are in need of support. If you could help, please contact their Whatsapp group - a number was sent home by ParentMail earlier this week. WISPA will be selling craft packs for Easter and running an Easter bonnet competition later this term. They will also send home an Eventbrite link soon for their Mother's Day-linked event, where children can buy a present for a special someone on Friday 25th March.

We are all aware of the tragic situation in the Ukraine and I have understandably had queries about our approach with such young children in our school. We aim to answer children's questions sensitively, acknowledging any feelings of concern and worry while balancing the fact that children have different levels of understanding as to what is happening. We know of families affected personally by the situation and our thoughts are with them. Details of All Saints' Church appeal for donated goods were sent home this week, or to make a monetary donation, please click here to support the DEC appeal.

A reminder that next Thursday morning there is a short meeting for Year 2 parents about the end of Key Stage 1 assessments. It is Red Nose Day next Friday 18th March and we are having a non-uniform day. We ask that the children wear something red to school in return for a donation to Comic Relief.

Please check the lost property box in reception, as anything not claimed at the end of term will be recycled. I have a swimming badge (15m) in my office that I think has got separated from the certificate when showing in assembly. Please let me know if it belongs to your child!

Warm regards
Helen Castell

Hi folks,

I'd like to invite you along to the Church in Writtle on Sunday 20th March at 2.30pm to celebrate together the opening of the Labyrinth. You may recall that back in the Autumn, I worked with some of our Writtle Junior School Year 6 students to design and lay out the Labyrinth. A few weeks after that, some more students came along to plant it out with hyacinths (kindly donated by Writtle University College), and daffodils (kindly donated by Hanging Gardens garden centre).

Well, the bulbs have come up and it's looking great and we'd like you to come along for a cuppa and some cake in the Church, and see the work of our students and be introduced to the Labyrinth outside.

Looking forward to seeing you then,
Cheers

Reverend Tony

Please can you ask your children not to run in the flower beds along the path, as we have had some damage to our delicate Spring bulbs!
Please ensure that children arrive at school between 8.45 - 8.55am. Persistent lateness will be followed up with parents.
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.

SHARKS - Miss Wakeling wants to nominate Freddie and John-Joseph for inclusivity and being kind to younger children at break and lunchtimes. Zara for persevering with her reading comprehension. Charlie TB for politeness. Sophia for inclusivity

DOLPHINS - Stanley M for perseverance in maths making a tangram! Scarlett for her independent work in English, she was very proud of herself too! Alexa for showing independence. Millie N for inclusivity. Marwan and Roman for politeness

PARROTS - Evie G for perseverance during playground games & Eden-Rose for independently supporting her friends in class. Frankie C for independence. Parker for honesty and Kim L for perseverance.

TURTLES - Alex G and Farrah for politeness

SQUIRRELS - Maria for inclusivity - letting a friend play who was lonely and Isla for persevering with her handwriting. Eden and Nilha for politeness.

FOXES - Rex for independently working out different ways to make numbers 1-9!
Finley for always being polite to adults! Dylan and Poppy for inclusivity.

This week we have been history detectives looking for clues to answer the question ‘Why did the fire spread so quickly?’ This involved researching about the houses and materials they were made out of at the time. We also researched the sequence of events and created a timeline. We have a few budding architects on our hands and their talents were visible when the children drew 17th Century houses and worked in teams to create bridges to cross the River Thames. The children were able to use their knowledge of geometry during these tasks. We have now completed our Maths unit on 2D and 3D shapes. Please try and complete the shape hunt on the home learning activity passport.

The children are really enjoying this topic and have been particularly enthusiastic during Music lessons. These have been based around the BBC Teach unit and have really appealed to the children. Here is the link if they want to show you. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/music-ks1-the-great-fire-of-london-songs/zmd9r2p

REMINDER! Coffee Morning/SATS meeting for parents is next Thursday, 17th March at drop off time until 9:30am. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. We will also send information to anyone unable to attend.

Click here for this week's home learning.

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

This week we practised some reading comprehension skills, in particular we looked at inference. We used the front cover to look for clues as to what the story will be about. We then had a sneak peak at the first few pages and described the boat to our partners and they had to draw them using only their partner's description. We have introduced measuring and comparing capacity and volume which included some very tricky questions. This week in R.E we learned about Judaism and what is important in that religion. We have also explored properties of materials.

Click the link for this week's home learning.

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

This week our poem 'Spring Wind' has inspired us to create pictures of the wind and make wind wands! We enjoyed learning about the different types of wind and what makes the wind. We have enjoyed having family members in to read on Mondays. Please can just one family member come into class as we only have small classrooms. This week has been all about the number 9. We enjoyed making pictures with 9 dots like the story '10 Black Dots' https://youtu.be/uPJEqUB2CxA. We also found all the different ways 9 can be made. In phonics we focused on the phonemes ear, air, ure and er. This takes us to the end of phase 3. We will revisit all the phase 3 phonemes focusing on writing and reading them in words and sentences. This is the tricky part so lots of practice is needed. We hope you have a good weekend, don't forget to look at our Tapestry challenges each week!