Weekly News – Thursday 13th February

Dear Parents,

It's a Thursday newsletter this week, as we have a non-pupil day tomorrow. Thank you so much for attending our Parents' Evenings, which mark the half way point in the academic year. It's been our pleasure to host you and we know the children have loved showing you their wonderful work. Thanks to the PTA and office teams for providing refreshments which are always gratefully received and, we understand, quite an incentive for the children to come along! If you were unable to attend for any reason, please get in contact with your child's teacher, they will certainly want to catch up with everyone.

Safer Internet Day

Children in all classes have been talking about how to stay safe online for Safer Internet Day. Technology moves so quickly and the children have very inquiring minds, so it can be hard to keep up with the pace of development and prevent access to things that may not be age-appropriate. We have had to have delicate conversations in the past, so we do recommend that all parents look at the many resources available for keeping children safe online. A good starting point is here: https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers.

PTA Valentine's Competition

Well done to everyone who entered the PTA's Draw Something You Love competition this week! We had such a difficult time trying to decide on a winner per year group, but the entries from Theo in Year 2, Owen in Year 1 and Violet in EYFS caught our eye for their beautiful drawings and their kind and thoughtful messages. Well done to them all. The hearts are now on display for you all to see in the hall this evening.

Miss Wakeling and her fan club!

Romford Buccaneers Ice Hockey Game

What an amazing turnout there was at the Romford Buccaneers game last Saturday! The event raised £124 for the school, which is wonderful. Well done to Miss Wakeling's team, who (naturally) won the game with a final score of 10-4. It must have been all those homemade posters and cheers from the children that spurred them on! The team really appreciated such enthusiastic support from the crowd. In the interval the spectators enjoyed a beautiful ice dance from former pupil Aria, who showed incredible confidence on the ice. There has been so much positive feedback from parents and there will be another game in March, details to follow.

Parent Lunches

Squirrels will have their parents lunch on Wednesday 26th February, if you haven't yet made your choice of a school dinner or packed lunch, please check ParentMail > Payments > Shop as soon as possible. Our final parent lunch will be for Foxes class on Wednesday 5th March. Please remember our calendar of upcoming events is available at writtleinfantschool.com/events.

Important Reminders for After Half Term

  • Clubs resume on Monday 24th February. Please check our timetable for details.
  • Forest School lessons will be for Year 1 next half term, with Turtles every Tuesday and Parrots every Thursday.
  • EYFS PE lessons will continue to be on a Monday.
  • Year 1 PE lessons will be on Wednesdays and Fridays.
  • Year 2 PE lessons will be on Mondays and Thursdays.

Reading

All children should now have plenty of books in their Collins Hub library to read over the half term break. You should all have received an email from parents@writtleinfantschool.com with your Collins Hub login details.

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

A reminder to finish your activity passports for this half term, we would love to see how you get on. Send us your work to parents@writtleinfantschool.com and after half term we will celebrate your child's achievements in assembly! For the weekly Tapestry challenge please upload your photos and comments to Tapestry.

School Nurse Appointments

The school nurses will be back on Tuesday 25th February. They 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 and then book your appointment online.

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. See you there!

Wishing you all a restful half term break. See you on Monday 24th February at 8.40am.

Best wishes,
Tracey Wilson

PTA Update

Well done to all the children for their beautiful drawings of things they love, and their wonderful ideas for acts of kindness.  Congratulations to the winners! (please add names)

Dates for your diary

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

Saturday 28th June – Summer fair

Free easyfundraising App-eal!

For the month of February, our 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 next week, secure your discounted days out!  Follow the link below to grab one of our limited discounted tickets. Be sure to include your phone number on purchase so we can contact you for collection;

https://square.link/u/GoOZH0e5

Home learning

Home Learning Passports

Please try to complete this half term's passports and 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 2, Week 1

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

You should all have been given a copy of the phase 2 and 3 letter sounds and tricky words. Please start to go through them with your child. Further instructions, hints and tips are on Tapestry. PLUS please have a wonderful half term and let us know what you get up to and all the fun you have!
Have a great weekend.
The EYFS Team

Forest School Update

This week we enjoyed painting what we could see whilst sitting in the field, we talked about everyone having a different perspective and that there are no right or wrong ways with art, the process being just as important as the product. Some really beautiful pictures were created!

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 hope you enjoyed the parents' evenings as much as we did. It was lovely to see you all and share the children's progress.
This week in phonics we have been revising all the phase 2 and phase 3 letters and sounds. The children are impressing us with their ability to read and write longer words like 'picnic' and 'ladder'. Wow!
In maths we have been learning all about more and fewer and comparing amounts using the toys in the classroom.

Year 1

This week we have finished off our 'Good Little Wolf' stories and some of us went back to improve them using adjectives and punctuation. During art we used our wolf drawings and added pattern and line to create new works of art!

Year 2

In Year 2, we have enjoyed creating clay dragons using scoring techniques and designing our own Top Trumps dragon cards in English. We’ve also wrapped up our money unit in maths and dance unit in PE. A term full of creativity and learning!