What’s On – Friday 30th September

Message from Mrs. Castell

Open Days for parents of children starting school in September 2023 are now published on our website. Click the photo to sign up and share the link with friends and family!

Dear Parents,

Another busy week, as we prepare in earnest for the Year 1 and 2 Harvest Festival which takes place next Wednesday 5th October, 10am at All Saints' Church. Please note that in line with the Church's fire risk assessment, a maximum of two members per household can attend.The first few pews will be reserved for the children - this is never an exact science, so please bear with us! We will hold a collection for the Link Club, an association which supports the elderly of the village. After 2 years' absence due to COVID restrictions, we look forward to resuming the annual tradition of Year Two entertaining the members of the Link Club at their Christmas party.

Next week also sees our WISPA and WJSPA coffee morning which will be held at the Junior School on Tuesday morning at 9am. Please pop along if you would like to find out more about the valuable work of our parents' associations. Foxes' Picnic & Play session is on Wednesday and Squirrels' on Thursday, we look forward to welcoming parents to these events.

It was lovely to see so many of you join us for Reading Monday this week. We are reviewing the frequency of these events, currently held weekly, and we invite your comments and feedback. Parents, grandparents or other family members are welcome to attend the short reading sessions, which last from the Monday morning drop-off at 8.45am until 9.15am.

Lateness

A reminder that our doors close promptly at 8.55am, to allow the four members of teaching staff to return to their classrooms. While delays such as yesterday's traffic chaos are bound to occur, please try to be punctual. Some children find it upsetting to enter the classroom via the main entrance, without familiar staff or their peers for support.

Lucky Listener Cards

We are introducing Lucky Listener cards to enable children to record their reading at home.  These are more succinct and manageable than formal reading records - please look out for them in your child's book bag. We keep records of when children read in class as well. 

Avia is still receiving treatment at GOSH and I have let her mother know we are all thinking of her. 

Attendance this week was 95.9%, which compares to our school target of 96%.

Enjoy your weekend - I shall be supporting my son as he runs the London Marathon this Sunday!

Best wishes
Helen Castell

Notices

  • Children go outside in all weathers, so it is essential that they bring a coat to school daily. Please label all belongings, clothing and footwear sent into school.
  • It is really helpful if you can write your child's name on bananas sent in as a snack!
  • As we have children in school with life-threatening allergies, please do not send products containing nuts into school, or egg-based foods such as egg mayo, scotch egg, omelette, frittata etc.
  • Teachers cannot always check the class email during the day. Please send urgent messages to parents@writtleinfantschool.com.
  • 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.

Safeguarding

We always remind children before using computers or tablets in school that they should tell an adult if they see something they do not like. Due to effective firewalls in school, we are fortunate that this has not happened, but please encourage your children to do the same at home.

Talk PANTS helps children understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell someone they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried.Information can be found on
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

We all have a duty to safeguard the children in our care and if the school suspects or knows that a child is at risk of significant harm, we will make a referral to Social Services. The school does not investigate any disclosures that children may make, we are a referring agency. Procedures on safeguarding from the Government make it clear that all staff should operate with an ‘it could happen here’ approach to any concerns they may have. If you have any concerns about a child please telephone the Essex Child and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627.

Awards

SHARKS: Prezlee for persevering with his writing and phonics this week. Eric for fantastic independent work! Hettie and Zara for inclusivity.
DOLPHINS: Rowan for his independence in creating a wonderful worry monster. Evie for always trying her best in every lesson this week. Yasin for inclusivity and Brody for politeness.
PARROTS: Alyra for being honest when things go wobbly and Albie for being so polite to adults and his friends. Ava-May for her wonderful writing. Isla for independence and Alfie N for honesty.
TURTLES: Filippos for independence and perseverance with his writing. Felix for perseverance with his writing. Skyla for her wonderful writing. Archie J for independence and Archie T for politeness.

Year 2 News

The children have been comparing and contrasting houses and firefighters now and at the time of the Great Fire of London. We also looked at a map of London and used a key to check if a statement was true or false.

For Computing, we have looked at how to take photos of their work and upload them into their own folder. This will be used as another assessment tool which is useful for practical, paired and group activities.

This week the children have been very busy getting ready for the Harvest Festival, which will take place at All Saints' Church next Wednesday. They are really excited about sharing this performance with their adults. Our phonics focus has been on alternative graphemes for the ‘igh’ phoneme; ie, i-e, y and i.

Please make sure that your reading books are in school every day.

Please click here for this week's home learning.

Year 1 News

We are definitely feeling the cold this week! But the children have persevered. We have introduced our topic book ‘Leaf’ and have explored the characters and settings. We have continued to work through our Phase 3 phonemes and writing sentences. We have explored what the words ‘more, greater, less and equal’ mean in maths. Using our greater than, less than symbols we were able to compare numbers. We looked at parts of the human body and the children were able to name basic parts of the body such as head, legs, arms etc. We also further developed our football skills with Mrs Gowers. Have a great weekend!

Please click here for this week's home learning.

EYFS News

This week we have started 'Poetry Basket'. Each week we learn a new poem and link some of our activities to it. You might have already heard the poem being recited by the children! It's called 'Chop Chop', it is a poem all about chopping vegetables. This week all the children have had a go at chopping some vegetables using a child friendly knife. They all really enjoyed this and we know some children have been practising at home too! This week we started our phonics and maths programmes. We have been learning about sorting and matching in maths using buttons and have been looking at a book called 'All Sorts of Art' in phonics. We have been practising listening carefully and working on initial sounds of words and oral blending. We will talk about this in more detail at our online meeting. We look forward to seeing you all next week at 'Picnic and Play'. Please remember only one adult per family.

Have a lovely weekend.