Message from Mrs. Castell
Dear Parents,
My thanks go to our EYFS team and our wonderful children for their performance of Our Christmas Helicopter Stories this week. To see how the confidence of the children has grown this term and to see them perform so well and with such joy for us was amazing.
The children enjoyed a fantastic pantomime performance of Aladdin from the Rainbow Theatre Company this week (oh yes they did!). Thank you so much to WISPA for funding this annual event for all the children, we all loved it.
At the time of writing our Christmas Fayre is in full set up mode. If you have not yet volunteered please consider if you can help, particularly with clearing away! My thanks go to our WISPA and WJSPA teams for planning the event and to Mr Norfolk, who very generously donated the marquee.
We were delighted to win the Children's Prize at the Writtle Christmas Tree Festival. Thank you to the many of you who came to the church and voted for us, we hope you enjoyed this very festive annual event. Thank you to the team for creating the tree, now re-named "Winner Winner, A Christmas Dinner!", it is proudly displayed in our reception area.
Thank you for the fantastic response to our parents' questionnaire. We were very happy to receive both positive comments and also points to consider within meetings this week. I will share the full report with you shortly. A couple of parents strongly disagreed with certain aspects but chose to remain anonymous. I would urge all parents to speak to me directly so we can address any concerns in person.
Some of our Year 2 children sang at Oxney House yesterday and I understand that the residents were overjoyed to see them. They made a donation to our Hub fund which was so thoughtful. I know from the experience of my mother being in residential care how events such as this make a real difference to the elderly. Year 2 will also be singing at the Link Club Christmas party next week.
Congratulations to all of our 107 children from across the school who have been taking part in our Writtle World Cup. It has been a fabulous tournament. Look away now if you don't want to read the scores....
Quarter Finals
Group A: Netherlands v USA (3-4)
Group B: Portugal v England (1-6)
Group C: Ecuador v Australia (5-3)
Group D: Mexico v Japan (2-1 after penalties!)
Semi Finals
USA v Mexico (2-0)
Ecuador v England (3-2)
I am therefore delighted to announce our two teams that have made the final: USA v Ecuador. The children have all been amazing, on and off the pitch. My thanks go to Miss Wakeling, who has helped run the tournament and has been a marvellous referee and also to Miss Heseltine, who has been an integral part of getting the children organised and ready for play. Roll on next week’s final, which is planned for Thursday 15th December and will be guest refereed by Mr Taylor!
If you go along to Tesco in Springfield Road you will see some lovely pictures from our children to celebrate their 40 year anniversary. Thank you to the children for creating such lovely artwork.
Next week, each year group will hold a Christmas party and our school Christmas lunch will be on Friday 16th December. The children can all wear a Christmas jumper or festive top on this day.
Another reminder that the deadline for primary school applications (for places in Reception and Year 3 from September 2023) is 15th January 2023. Please tell family and friends who have children due to start school next September, as parents are no longer notified by post. Late applications go to the bottom of the pile, so please don't miss the date! Our final Open Day is Monday 12th December.
As is customary every winter, we attach our updated school closure procedures. We stress that we are not anticipating a school closure, but we always publish the document just in case!
Attendance this week is 88.9% compared to our school target of 96%. Please refer to our list of common childhood illnesses as a guide for isolation periods, which has been updated with links to NHS advice on Strep A and scarlet fever. A reminder that if your child is absent you must inform us by 9.30am. If we are already aware your child will not be in, for example 48 hour isolation after sickness and diarrhoea, you do not need to call. However for all other absences, whether we are notified on the day or in advance, we are legally obliged to record the reason. Many thanks.
Enjoy the Fayre this afternoon and have a wonderful weekend.
With very 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 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.
Awards
SHARKS - Robin and Franklyn for persevering with an amazing piece of writing retelling the Nativity Story!
DOLPHINS - Yasin for his super independent number work and Bonnie for perseverance in doing some fabulous phonics!
PARROTS - Amelie and Rex for persevering with their writing to retell the Christmas story
TURTLES - Ava for always being kind and looking after her friends. Melody for persevering and trying her best!
SQUIRRELS - Amelia for independence when getting her onesie on and off after the Christmas performance and Taylor for perseverance when his tray was stuck!
FOXES - Darcy for independence when stepping in at the last minute to say her lines in our show. Tristan for independence when being a wonderful sparkling star in our show.
Safeguarding
We are very lucky to have regular updates from the 2 Johns and they have a lot of resources on their website for parents. https://esafetytraining.org/resources/parents-carers-area/
They also have a parents/carers workshop on 13th December which will look at the online world and how young people are using it, also how they are navigating around restrictions and using the internet without parents’ knowledge.
Date: Tuesday 13th December
Time: 8:00pm to 9:30pm
Location: Online via Zoom (link to be shared once you have booked your space)
Click here to book your place
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.
Message from our good friend Reverend Tony
Hi folks,
We invite you and your family to our famous Crib Service at 5pm on Christmas Eve at All Saints' Church again this year to join in the Carols, and experience the great story of God's love for us all, which is the heart of the Christmas story.
We can only have 360 people in church, so booking a free ticket on Eventbrite is necessary to enable attendance. Here's the link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writtle-christmas-crib-service-tickets-481516718467
Tickets will be available from Wednesday 7 December.
Buggies will be accommodated in the Christian Centre next door, so please drop them off there before entering church.
Children are very welcome to dress up as a biblical character to help set the scene too.
Looking forward to seeing you then,
With every blessing to you all,
Rev Tony
Year 2 News
The Christmas season is well and truly upon us. This week the children have retold the Nativity story in their own words. It’s lovely to see how much their writing has progressed and to see so many children being so enthusiastic about writing. We have continued to investigate 2D and 3D shapes and have focused on sorting 2D shapes and beginning to look at the properties of 3D shapes. We took half of the Year 2’s to sing at Oxney House and they were absolutely amazing. They remembered all the words to our songs from ‘I’m Gonna Shine’ and remembered the actions much better than the adults! There were so many children who wanted to come that those who did not go to Oxney House will go to the Link Club next Thursday afternoon. They certainly put a smile on the residents' faces and showed a sense of pride in their performance.
Reminders:
Remember reading books. They need to be in school every day.
Make sure your child has a full PE kit in school - lots of children are missing out as they do not have socks, tops etc.
Year 1 News
This week we were back to normality, sort of! We revisited the Christmas story and retold parts of it in our own words. We deepened our knowledge of 2D shapes and used 2D/3D shapes to create patterns. We had P.E on Monday with Mrs Gowers and practised some of our throwing and catching skills. We have been finishing our Christmas decorations ready to bring home soon. We also got to watch the pantomime ‘Aladdin’ in school, which was so much fun! It was so lovely to see the children laughing and giggling away at the silliness. Thank you so much for your support so far this term, you have all been fantastic.
EYFS News
Well, wasn’t that a fantastic show! I know we have already said it but the children were amazing and so confident! This week we have been mostly practising for the show. On Wednesday we performed to KS1 and Ducklings too although they didn’t watch the long video! We have also been leaning about 2D shapes and have learnt the tricky words I, the and her. We have been making our Christmas cards and folders. We all enjoyed the pantomime yesterday, the cast were great at keeping the children’s interest and there were lots of songs and actions to join in with. We look forward to seeing you later at the Christmas Fayre. Have a lovely weekend.
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