Dear Parents

It is lovely to see signs of Spring emerging all around us, the daffodils are blooming and we have pretty pots of flowers in the playground and Forest School area. Thank you to Mrs Winsley for creating such a beautiful display at the school entrance, we have had lots of comments about it! As always your child’s safety is paramount, so please encourage them not to pick the flowers (did you know that daffodils are toxic?). We also ask that children do not trample the flower beds on the approach to school. I know they love to play hide and seek, but it will really help us to keep the bulbs looking lovely for as long as possible. 

Thank you to Foxes parents for joining us for the final class lunch this week and to our lunchtime staff and caterers, Stir Foods, for accommodating parents for the last few weeks. We hope you have enjoyed the lunches and will send a short survey to all parents to give you an opportunity to provide feedback on the school meals. 

The children had an exhilarating day yesterday, celebrating a love of reading on World Book Day. We saw creativity in abundance as the children (and parents!) really used their imaginations to choose their outfits for the day. There were some fabulous word choices - a shark was "serrated", a fairy was "enchanting", a footballer was "agile" and a butterfly represented "metamorphosis". We even had a gymnast who performed the splits to become a "split digraph", Mrs E was so impressed! What a brilliant way to expand the children's vocabulary and develop their reading comprehension. In school our activities included book quizzes, a reading assembly and the children are making bunting from the words they had chosen. We hope that between World Book Day and our Little Wandle reading programme, the children have been inspired to read even more, so look out for our sponsored Reading Challenge next week!

I am pleased to say that attendance has been consistently improved in the last few weeks, despite many children suffering coughs, colds and sick bugs this term. In fact 99% of children were in school on World Book Day and Dolphins have had 100% attendance for the whole week! Thank you for your support in keeping children at school, we can see it's having a really positive impact on their academic progress too. Remember we will always call you if we feel your child is too unwell to be in school.

Next Friday is Red Nose Day, so we are having a dress down day in aid of Comic Relief. We encourage the children to wear something red (please don't buy anything new, any accessory is fine) and come prepared with their funniest joke to share with the class! You can donate online here www.justgiving.com/rnd24-writtle-infant-and-junior-schools or bring a small donation with you on the day.

Thanks to WISPA for organising our Someone Special shop today - those children with tickets will return home with beautiful gifts to give to their grown up this Sunday. All children will be bringing home something special for Mothering Sunday, so maybe keep your eyes closed when you’re emptying their book bags tonight!! We wish you all a relaxing weekend and hope you are thoroughly spoiled.

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson