Weekly News – Friday 18th October

Dear Parents

Andy Goldsworthy, Sycamore Tree, 2013
Forest School, Sycamore Tree, 2024

It's been a week of fascinating weather phenomena: the Northern Lights last weekend; Comet A3 on Tuesday; the Hunter’s Moon last night and a very foggy morning today! The children are still taking inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy and were replicating his "Illusion Tree" in Forest School this week, which looked incredible!

Thank you to the immunisation team who came to school on Thursday to deliver the flu vaccine. If your child missed this for any reason and you would like them to have the nasal spray, we suggest you contact your GP.

Next week

Tuesday 22nd / Thursday 24th - Parents’ Evenings: A reminder that our Parents’ Evenings at both schools will be held on Tuesday and Thursday (Dolphins on Monday and Thursday). Children are welcome to attend these appointments. Both schools will run a Book Fair at the same time, giving you the opportunity to buy some wonderful books before or after your meeting with the class teacher. Please remember there are no after school clubs on Tuesday or Thursday due to Parents’ Evening. 

Thursday 24th: A few children from both schools will go to the Writtle Parish Council offices on Thursday morning, to meet with the Parish Councillors. This is a great opportunity for the children to understand a little more about the workings of local government in Writtle and to give their suggestions on how the village can support its children. 

Friday 25th - Dress Down Day and Pumpkin Competition: You will have received a separate letter about the PTA Dress Down Day and Pumpkin Competition. We can’t wait to see your creations! Please donate £2 via the Square link or bring cash on the day.

Reminders

Phonics Books: We are missing quite a few phonics books in school, so if you have been reading them at home, please return them by the end of next week so that we can issue them to other children. We are aware that many children have been absent with illness, which would account for the backlog, but please have a look at home and return any you find. Thank you!

Snacks: As you know we invite children to bring in 2 snacks per day, one fruit/vegetable and another savoury. Please try to keep the savoury snack as healthy as possible and use your judgement if you are finding that the snacks are not eaten - we are happy for you to send in 1 snack rather than waste food.

Enjoy the weekend.

Best wishes,

Tracey Wilson

PTA update

Halloween dress-down & pumpkin decorating competition – Friday 25th October

£2 donation for dress down and entry into the competition for the best decorated pumpkins – the most imaginative in each year group will win a spooky prize!

Cash on the day at drop off or donate via the link at https://square.link/u/N90JPvyv

Barleylands & Adventure Island tickets

We have 50 discounted Barleylands and a last few discounted Adventure Island tickets now available. Get yours in time for the half term via the links below:

Barleylands: https://square.link/u/GoOZH0e5

Adventure Island: https://square.link/u/ZNuQtufZ

FREE fundraising

easyfundraising – WIN a £50 meal at the Rose & Crown

easyfundraising are offering a £2 bonus for all new supporters registered during October. To support this, we are offering all new sign ups before the end of October the chance to win a £50 voucher for a meal at the Rose & Crown on the Green.  Sign up and get raising here;
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk

ASDA Cashpot for Schools
Until 30th November 2024, every time you shop with Asda using their Rewards app, ASDA will donate 0.5% of the value of your shop to your chosen primary school. And that’s not all - for every customer who chooses our school, Asda will put £1 into our school’s Cashpot, and another £50 when our school’s first opted-in customer spends in-store or online! Please sign up and select Writtle Infant School Parents Association so our schools can benefit from these free donations: https://www.asda.com/cashpotforschools 

Home learning

Home learning passports have now been published for this half term. Please try to complete these activities over the course of this half term, and email any work or photos to parents@writtleinfantschool.com.

Year 1 Home Learning Passport, Autumn 1 2024
Year 2 Home Learning Passport, Autumn 1 2024

Highlights of the week

Year 2

We all had a fabulous time bread tasting this week and decided that we were very lucky having so many varieties of bread to choose from, unlike the people of 1666! We also enjoyed showing off our computer skills and printed off some rather fabulous pieces of work!

Year 1

We learnt about the artist Paul Klee this week and took our pens for a walk and doodled just like he did! Some of us challenged ourselves to change the tone of the colours by shading.

EYFS

This week the children in EYFS have been having fun playing games with parachute in the garden. The children have been super brave while the received their flu immunisations. Well done everyone.

Keeping Children Safe

  • Thanks to those parents who have supported us in protecting the children’s privacy by waiting on the path by the main entrance until 3pm.
  • 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.