Dear Parents,

We have marked Children's Mental Health Week with a variety of activities in school. In class the children were asked to think of things that they are good at, such as riding a bike, or being a kind friend. They then thought of things that they would like to improve upon and explored how it feels to do well or get better at something. Children in our Forest School lessons took the theme of "Know Yourself, Grow Yourself" quite literally, making seed balls to plant across the school. We can’t wait to see what emerges in the coming months! Thank you to Charlotte from Super Star Sport Essex for joining us each lunchtime this week and engaging all year groups in new playground games. It was a great boost to the children’s activity levels and also to their sense of wellbeing. Our family of long-tailed tits must have known it's Mental Health Week, as they have been checking in on us through the office windows all week (video below). They've certainly lifted our spirits!

Parents' Evening

Hopefully you have all booked your appointments for our Parents Evenings next week on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th February. Your child is welcome to accompany you to this appointment if you wish. Our wonderful PTA team will be on hand to offer refreshments, so we advise you to arrive a few minutes before your appointment time so that you can enjoy a tea or coffee while you look through your child’s work. If you cannot attend either day, please contact us and we will try to arrange an alternative meeting at a later date.

Parent Lunches

Thank you to our Turtles parents who came to lunch on Wednesday, it was a pleasure to host you all. Foxes and Squirrels will have their parent lunches after the half term break. Please remember our calendar of upcoming events is available at writtleinfantschool.com/events.

New Governors

We are delighted to announce that the Governing Body has appointed 3 new governors this week. Jack Colthurst and Ross Dempster-Johnson join us as parent governors and Lee Dorman has been co-opted onto the governing body. Between them they bring a wealth of experience in education, law, finance and business management and we very much look forward to working with them over the coming months and years, particularly as we finalise preparations for the formation of our new multi-academy trust, the HIVE Family of Schools.

Important Reminders for Next Week

Please remember there are no clubs after school on Tuesday or Thursday next week, due to Parents’ Evening. This includes Gymnastics, Music, Drawing, Mindfulness and Football.
It's Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 11th February, we will be marking this in school and sending home resources for parents next week.
Entry forms for the PTA’s Draw Something You Love competition for Valentine’s Day have been sent home today. The PTA will be collecting your entries on Thursday morning and prizes will be awarded for the best entry in each year group! The cost is 50p to enter so please book online.
There is a non-pupil day on Friday 14th February, so both the Infant and Junior Schools will be closed on this day.

Reading

Just a reminder that the staff are updating your child's Collins Hub library so that you have plenty of e-books to choose from by half term. You should all have received an email from parents@writtleinfantschool.com with your Collins Hub login details. Please ensure any reading books that have been sent home are returned each week, so that we can pass them on to the next child who needs them.

Essex Libraries’ Winter Reading Challenge finishes on 22nd February, so you only have 2 more weeks to take part. Some children have brought in their certificates to school already! Please visit Writtle Library or the one closest to you to 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!

A reminder that World Book Day on Thursday 6th March will have a nautical theme this year. Please don’t go to any expense over costumes, a simple headband or marine colours will be absolutely fine!

Home Learning

We love to hear about the learning children have been doing at home, so please let us know how your child is getting on with our half-termly activity passports for Years 1 and 2 and the weekly Tapestry challenge for EYFS. You can email photos to parents@writtleinfantschool.com, send in work to class, or upload your photos and comments to Tapestry if your child is in EYFS. We know the children feel very proud of their achievements when they share them in class, so we are keen to encourage home learning activities to support their wellbeing and independence as well as their academic progress.

School Nurse Appointments

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. Please take a look at the flyer to see the list of health concerns they can help with.

Community Events

As ever, our Community Links page is absolutely packed with information about local events and resources that you might find useful, including the next Messy Church on Sunday 23rd February. A final reminder that this includes a link to half price tickets for Miss Wakeling's ice hockey game tomorrow! Every ticket sold raises £2 for our school - thank you to the Romford Buccaneers for raising money for us!

Enjoy your weekend.

Best wishes,
Tracey Wilson

If you’ve already ordered your colouring competition templates, printed copies will be coming home with children this afternoon. If you missed the opportunity to order online, spare copies will be available from the school offices for 50p cash each. Don’t forget to return entries at morning drop off next Thursday 13 February - we can’t wait to see their designs!

Dates for your diary

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!

Friday 23rd May – Inflatable Fun – our after school celebration of the half term holidays

Saturday 28th June – Summer fair

Free easyfundraising appeal!

For the month of February, are favourite free fundraising platform, easyfundraising, are offering an additional £2 per new sign-up via the app. If you’re not already using this to shop online, please do download the app and sign up – see the attached details, follow the link below, or drop by for a cuppa at parent’s evening for help.

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/create-an-account/

Discounted Barleylands tickets

With half term only 1 week away, secure your discounted days out! Follow the link below to grab one of our limited discounted tickets;

https://square.link/u/GoOZH0e5

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 6

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

As we have been learning about Chinese New Year, why don't you try some Chinese food this weekend if you haven't done so before? If you decide to make it at home, you can get involved and help your grown ups! Please upload any pictures to Tapestry!

Have a great weekend.

The EYFS Team

We loved the theme of "Know Yourself, Grow Yourself" for Children's Mental Health Week, so we made seed balls from a mixture of clay, compost and wildflower seeds this week. We will plant them around the school and see what pops up in the weeks and months to come! It was also National Storytelling Week so we took turns to sit in our favourite chair and read stories aloud for the whole group.

On Thursday we spent some time around the pond, clearing and checking the area for rubbish, including the pond itself. We topped up the feeders (thanks to Mrs Dolan's donation of bird seed) and added new feeders to the Forest School area. We will see which feeders the birds prefer!

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.

EYFS

This week the children have been learning all about Chinese New Year. They have made and decorated lanterns which look fantastic!

Year 1

This week we have re-written our class text ‘Good Little Wolf’. The children have amazed us with their fantastic writing and we cannot wait for you to read their writing next week!

Year 2

This week, Sharks and Dolphins have been counting money in Maths, learning about internet safety for Safer Internet Day, practising their letter writing in English and exploring once alive, never alive and living things in science. It's been a week full of learning and fun alongside the sun (finally) shining!

Weekly News – Friday 7th February