What an exciting week for our Foxes and Squirrels, as they performed for the very first time to a huge audience! Mr Taylor and I were so proud to see their confidence and enthusiasm yesterday morning, we love to see all that hard work from the children (and staff!) turn into such a special memory for their families. We hope it was a magical morning for you all.

We awarded certificates to our Magical Musicians today, celebrating stand-out performers from recent rehearsals and Christmas shows. The festivities continued with the ever-popular Eldridges store in the library this morning. The children have chosen from our incredible selection of gifts (thank you again for your generous donations) and our elves have been busy wrapping them into perfect packages to place under the tree. Tonight over 100 children attended our Movie Night until 4.30pm, so WISPA have had a non-stop day! We are so grateful for the time they volunteer to give the children these extra treats, and to you all for your support of their fundraising activities. We are also thankful to Tesco for generously donating some of the hot dogs for this evening.

Following another very popular story-time with parents last Friday afternoon, our love of reading continues in class and I really enjoyed my group reading sessions with Year 2 this week. Reverend Tony also read with a group of children on Monday and Parrots loved their trip to Writtle library yesterday. It will be Turtles’ turn next Thursday morning, Foxes and Squirrels will go in the New Year. Please take a look at the Essex Libraries’ Winter Reading Challenge, as we would love the children to take part. We hope you are enjoying the Big Cat books at home, please make sure your books and reading records are in school every day. A few books have been irreparably damaged, which sadly means they cannot be used for either reading at home or in group sessions at school. The replacements are expensive, so please take good care of our resources.

Next week is packed with festive fun! Ducklings will have their Christmas performance in our hall on Tuesday morning and Mr Taylor will be at the church for the Junior School’s annual Christingle service on Wednesday afternoon. As part of our RE curriculum exploring world religions and cultures, Year 2 will learn about the Jewish festival of Chanukah on Wednesday afternoon. Years 1 and 2 are super-excited to perform “Children of the World” to their loved ones on Thursday and Friday morning, and the whole school will enjoy a Christmas lunch together on Thursday. Year 2 will then go to sing at the Christian Centre in the afternoon, for the Link Club’s Christmas party. We really value our relationship with the elderly community in the village and beyond, so we have made Christmas cards for the Writtle ward at Broomfield Hospital and also for local company Home Instead, to deliver to the senior citizens they care for at home. We round off the week with a pantomime for the whole school, a production of Snow White by the Rainbow Theatre, which is another special experience for the children that has been funded by WISPA.

We know how hectic life gets at this time of year, so thank you as ever for your support and for taking the time to absorb the many messages we need to send in these busy final weeks of term.

Wishing you all a relaxing weekend ;-).

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson