Weekly News – Friday 31st January

Dear Parents,

At the time of writing we are looking forward to the PTAs first Hot Chocolate Friday! Thank you so much to them for organising another fundraising event. The children really do benefit from the extras that are funded by the PTA, so we are hugely grateful.

Thank you to Miles and Simon Rothstein for visiting our Year 2s last Friday to give a talk on the Jewish festival of Chanukah. The children really enjoyed it and were able to pass on some of what they had learned to the Year 1s, who are studying Judaism in their RE lessons.

Parents' Evening

The booking window is now open for our Parents Evenings, which will be held on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th February. Your child is welcome to accompany you to this appointment if you wish. If you cannot attend either day, please contact us and we will try to arrange an alternative meeting at a later date.

World Book Day

We are delighted that all children will take part in a drama workshop from Drama4ALL on the morning of World Book Day, Thursday 6th March. The theme of these workshops is "Splash! A Deep Sea Adventure" so we thought we would extend this idea to the whole day, to immerse the children (not literally) in an underwater experience! Children are therefore welcome to dress up on the day in any costume based on a book (ideas here), character or even a word with a nautical theme! We are sure we'll see pirates and mermaids aplenty, but please don't go to great expense with a costume - you could come in deep sea colours of azure or marine blue, or wear a headband with a character drawn or printed on it, we are equally happy to have a school of Writtle Infant fish! All we ask is that children can still play and learn outside in their costume (it will be Forest School day for Parrots!) so the clothing/footwear does need to be practical. Let your imagination run wild, we can't wait to see your ideas. The Junior school will be sharing their theme in the coming weeks.

Parent Lunches

Our next parents' lunch is for Turtles class on Wednesday. The Parrots children really enjoyed seeing their parents this week so thank you for coming. Foxes and Squirrels will have their turn after the half term break. Please remember our calendar of upcoming events is available at writtleinfantschool.com/events.

Next Week

Next week is Children's Mental Health Week and we will be exploring the theme of "Know Yourself, Grow Yourself" across the school. Physical activity is of course crucial to developing good mental health, so we are looking forward to welcoming Super Star Sport Essex to join us each lunchtime, to encourage the children to play new games and have fun through sport.

Writtle Library Visits / Winter Reading Challenge

We concluded our trips to Writtle Library with Squirrels' visit on Thursday. We hope the children have all enjoyed their time there and we are very grateful to Mrs Soden for introducing them to the library. Do go along and visit and remember you still have time to sign up for the Winter Reading Challenge, it finishes on 22nd February, so pop in and collect your challenge booklet. There is also a maths festival at some local libraries over the half term break, please take a look at our Community Links page for more detail!

Reading books

The teaching staff are currently adding e-books to your child's Collins Hub library, so that by half term you should have a good library of books to choose from. You should all have received an email from parents@writtleinfantschool.com with your Collins Hub login details. This is in addition to the reading books that we are sending home. Please ensure that these books are returned each week so that we can give them to the next children who need them.

Childhood Illnesses/School Nurse Appointments

Please remember that we follow NHS guidance on all childhood illnesses. We know that children in the first few years of their school journey are building up their immunity to lots of common illnesses, so together with parents we try to strike a balance between ensuring that children are well enough to learn and making sure they are in school as much as possible. If your child is unwell, please give us a call or email at the start of the school day to let us know that they won't be in school. If you're not sure whether to send them in, we will follow the guidance with you to see if they are well enough for school. Sometimes this can mean us monitoring a child in school and sending them home if they are not feeling well. 

Hopefully all parents are now aware that you can book appointments online with the School Nurses, who come to our library weekly on a Tuesday afternoon. These are becoming very popular and we are sure you are grateful for the nurses' availability to discuss any ongoing health concerns - please click on the link to see a list of issues they can help with.

Non-pupil day

Just in case you hadn't spotted it, Friday 14th February is a non-pupil day, so please be advised that both the Infant and Junior schools will be closed on this day!

Community Events

As ever, our Community Links page is absolutely packed with information about local events and resources that you might find useful. A reminder that this includes a link to half price tickets for Miss Wakeling's upcoming ice hockey game! She would love your support for this game on Saturday 8th February and we would too, as every ticket sold raises £2 for our school! Tickets are selling well so thank you to the Romford Buccaneers for their generous fundraising event, we are very grateful!

Enjoy your weekend.

Best wishes,

Tracey Wilson

PTA Update

A big thank you to everyone who helped make the first Hot Chocolate Friday a fun event, especially our fantastic team of volunteers. We hope all the children enjoyed their treats!

Dates for your diary

Monday 3rd February - Something You Love drawing competition template sales open.  Watch out for the purchase link on email and via the class reps on WhatsApp.

Sales at midday on Thursday 6th February, and purchased templates will come home with children on Friday 7th.

Thursday 13th February – children can return their Something You Love artwork to enter the competition.

Tuesday 11th & Thursday 13th February – your lovely PTA volunteers will be offering free refreshments during Parents Evening at both infant and junior schools.  Drop by and say hello!

Discounted Barleylands tickets

With half term only 3 weeks away, secure your discounted days out!  Follow the link below to grab one of our limited discounted tickets;

https://square.link/u/GoOZH0e5

Home learning

Home Learning Passports

We have now published our home learning passports for this half term. Please email any work or photos to parents@writtleinfantschool.com.

Year 1 Home Learning Passport - Spring 1 2025

Year 2 Home Activity Passport - Spring 1 2025

Spelling Practice

There is also some spelling practice for Year 1 and Year 2 below.

Year 1 Spelling Practice

Year 2 Spelling Practice - Spring 1, Week 5

Topic Maps

We have also published our topic maps for the this half term, so you can see what the children will cover in all areas of the Key Stage 1 Curriculum.

 

Click to access Year-1-Half-Term-Plan-Spring-1-2025.pdf

Click to access Year-2-Half-Term-Plan-Spring-1-2025.pdf

EYFS Tapestry Challenge

Using Lego bricks, Duplo or similar, ask your child to make a tower of 5 bricks using 2 colours. How many different ways can they do this? For example 2 red and 3 blue, or 4 red and 1 blue.
Have fun and don't forget to post your towers onto Tapestry - we love to see them!
Have a lovely weekend.
The EYFS Team

Forest School Update

Some of the children were enjoying the bird song and sunshine whilst writing our collaborative story about the forest school robin who has a magical secret! All will be revealed!

It was another wet and muddy week in the Forest School area, so please ensure all children have a change of clothes with them on Forest School days! We would be grateful if you could return any spare clothes you have been given. Thank you!

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.

Highlights of the week

EYFS

We have been busy, busy, busy this week. The children enjoyed splashing around in the puddles earlier this week and loved the sunshine later on. Squirrels class were wonderfully behaved during their library trip. Thanks so much to the fantastic parent and grandparent helpers who came too.
In phonics we have finished teaching all the phase 2 and 3 letter sounds and tricky words! Now we will practise reading and writing longer words and revise all that we have been taught.
In maths we have been learning about different amounts that make 5 when put together. The children really enjoyed singing, '5 Little Speckled Frogs', to help them with this.

Year 1

This week we have learnt about habitats and retold our class text 'The Good Little Wolf'.

Year 2

This week, Year 2 have finished reading The Moon Dragons in English and expanding their vocabulary with expanded noun phrases. In maths, they've wrapped up their shapes topic and are now diving into their next unit on money. In PE, they've been grooving to Just Fine by Mary J. Blige, which was a blast! Keep up the great work, Year 2!