Weekly News – Friday 15th March

Dear Parents

It was fabulous to see the children in red at this morning's Red Nose Day assembly, it's a nice change from our usual sea of blue! Thank you for your generous donations, we raised over £100 at the door this morning, with even more donated at www.justgiving.com/rnd24-writtle-infant-and-junior-schools. We are also grateful for the children's hilarious jokes, which were a brilliant way to start our Friday! There was a range of achievements to celebrate from across the curriculum, from phonics to art to science.

Q: Why did the Jelly Bean go to school? 

A: Because he wanted to become a Smartie!

Our Year 2 children sang beautifully at the Infant Music Festival at Christ Church on Tuesday. It is a fantastic opportunity for them to work together with other local schools. We are especially proud of them as there is only an hour's workshop in the morning to pull together the performance with other children they have never met. We have some real musical talent in our school and it is great to see the children show off their singing, dancing and musicianship in the orchestra. The children sang a couple of their favourite songs from Eddie the Penguin Saves the World in today's celebration assembly. Well done to them all.

Thank you to Mrs Fisk for making the wonderful scenery for the Infant Music Festival!
Check book bags today for your reading challenge, or download it here!

Please check your child's book bag today for details of our Sponsored Reading Challenge. There are 12 reading challenges to complete over the next month and we invite the children to seek sponsorship from family and friends to raise money for reading books for our school. We hope the children enjoy the challenges we have set, they should all be very accessible and we can't wait to hear how they get on. We would love to see photos of the children reading, please email them to parents@writtleinfantschool.com and we will make a display in school! Please bring any sponsor money to the school office. Thank you for your support.

Next Friday we are offering parents the opportunity to come and read with their children in our Spring Storytime at 2.40pm. This is a short 20 minute reading session at the end of the day. We will ask parents to leave the classroom and wait on the playground at 3pm, just to give us room to get the children ready safely for home time. A ParentMail sign up form has been sent home today and we hope you are able to attend.

Enjoy the warmer weather this weekend, remember Beat the Street is still in full swing, so build up your points for our school with by tapping the Beat Boxes on your walks, cycles and scoots around the village and beyond! We still have spare cards and maps in the office if you haven't yet started the game.

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson

Essentials for next week

  • Forest School days are back to normal next week, so Dolphins on Tuesday and Turtles on Thursday.
  • Please try to take good care of our school reading books as they are very expensive. Thank you to parents who have generously replaced books that have been damaged.
  • Our Lost Property box in reception is overflowing. Please check for any missing items  and ensure that you label all clothing and footwear.
  • We are lucky to benefit from many parent helpers in school, as well as governors like Mrs Gentle and Reverend Tony who come to read with the children regularly. If you are interested in volunteering, please speak to the office.
  • Please check the diary dates for details of upcoming events.

Message from WISPA

Exclusive Paint and Sip Event!!

The joint Writtle PTA are running an adults *paint and sip* night with a fantastic artist who takes you through the whole process step-by-step!!

For £30 you will receive a glass of bubbly on arrival and your very own canvas painting to take home at the end of the night!

Have fun with your friends, get creative and raise money for the school!

There are only 22 spaces but if it proves popular this could be something we do regularly!

*Saturday 23rd March*
7-9pm
Rose & Crown
£30 cash on the night

Please message Emily on 07912882903 directly if you would like a ticket, it will be first come first served!

If you want to check out our artist Effy and for more of an idea of what the evening will be like have a look here:
https://effytheartist.com

Home Learning

Please follow the links below to access this week's home learning and topic maps for Years 1 and 2.
Year 1 Home Learning
Year 2 Home Learning

Highlights of the week

Year 2

We were all so proud of how well the children sang, acted, musically played and danced their way through the Music Festival, they were all stars. Their creative sides also shone through with their fantastic Giacometti styled sculptures they created this week too!

Year One

We participated in British Science week, thinking about floating and sinking. We explored materials and carried out an investigation making our own boats, testing them to see which floated the longest. We learnt about fair testing and enjoyed observing the boats both floating and sinking. We collected our results and reported our findings.

EYFS

We really enjoyed our poem: 'Mrs Bluebird' and learning all about birds and the habitat of animals. We had a brilliant time when Angie brought in her beautiful white pigeons to show us, which ended in a release when they flew home all by themselves! We also had a great time sharing jokes for Red Nose Day!

Forest School

On Tuesday the Year One children were given maps to find hidden gold. The forest school area flooded, so we made the most of it and jumped in all the puddles using blue powder paint as an experiment to turn into the sea so we can walk the plank. On Thursday the pond area needed some attention so we cleared weeds from planters and cut and collected herbs for a spring wreath!

Keeping Children Safe

  • Emergency contact details must be up to date. Please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com if your details have changed.
  • Any food brought to school must not contain nuts or egg-based foods (e.g. egg mayo, scotch egg, omelette etc.).
  • We all have a duty to safeguard the children in our care. If you have any concerns about a child, please contact the school, the Chairs of Governors (if your concern is about a member of teaching staff), or the Essex Child and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627.