Dear Parents

My goodness, what a scorcher of a week! Thank you to all the children, parents and staff for braving the heat on Tuesday and delivering a magnificent Sports Day. We were thrilled to see that the huge amount of organisation and planning paid off and the Infant and Junior school children had a brilliant time competing together, cheering each other on and looking after each other in the sunshine. Mrs Scott-Simons, Mrs Cookson and Mrs Harris have been superstars so thank you to them for all their work behind the scenes. It was also a pleasure to have help from students of Hylands School, many of them former pupils. Their assistance was absolutely invaluable and they were so supportive of the younger children, we were so proud of them all and we know from your comments that many parents felt the same. Massive congratulations to the Green Team for winning the first Writtle Cup, no doubt there will be stiff competition from Reds, Blues and Yellows next year!

Of course as you know it's another huge event tomorrow, as the PTA bring us the joint Summer Fair at the Junior School from 11.30 - 1.30pm. Thank you so much for your donations of sweets and cakes today. It looks like we continue to be lucky with the weather and we hope to see friends and extended families all joining the children in the fun. Cheerleaders, remember to meet Mrs Scott-Simons at 11.45am for a special performance at 12pm, then the WJS Choir will sing for you all at 12.45. Stick around until the end, as we will be calling the raffle and there are some wonderful prizes to be won! And of course, if you can give a little time to help set up or clear away, we would be endlessly grateful. The PTA work so hard to put on a great event and at the end of it all we still have to ensure that both schools and their grounds are fit to welcome children again on Monday morning!

Watching the England football team hasn't been the most thrilling experience this week, but luckily for fast-paced, high-scoring, nail-biting matches, we simply turned to our lunchtime Euros competition!! England and France have done brilliantly, both scoring 12 goals in 3 matches in the group round. Miss Wakeling and Miss Heseltine have done a fabulous job and the children are really enjoying competing in their mixed teams.

Year 2 had a fabulous day of pond-dipping, bug hunting and den building at the Wilderness Foundation on Wednesday. There is more detail in their highlights for the week below. There will be more outdoor adventures to come, as Year 1 will be going to Maldon Promenade Zoo for a myriad of animal encounters on Monday!

Next week we will all turn our attention to the Paris Olympics, with a week of French-themed fun! We began today, with a series of drama workshops for Years 1 and 2, led by Perform for Schools. The children were taken back in time to Ancient Greece to understand how and when the Olympics first began, before taking the train under the English Channel to Paris to explore the Olympic host's culture, language and history. Thank you so much to WISPA for funding this day for the children, they were all enthralled and inspired to continue the theme next week. We look forward to telling you more next Friday!

See you at the Fair tomorrow!

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson