Dear Parents,

We are at the end of the first full week since March and the children have continued to impress me with their return to school. They have all adapted well and settled into their new routines and the additional measure we have put in place. Our new Foxes and Squirrels have visited in small groups and it has been lovely to see them.

Thank you again for cooperating with our new drop off and pick up arrangements, which we continue to tweak where necessary. As we approach cough and cold season it is inevitable that you will receive notifications across the school about people being tested. We are very grateful to you all for being so vigilant about symptoms and will always keep bubbles informed.

As a school we are required to prepare for the possibility that a bubble may need to isolate. We have a learning-from-home programme ready to go, although we hope not to have to use it! With this in mind, year groups will now provide a simplified plan of the next week's learning with our Friday newsletter. Previously we told you what the children had been doing that week, but from now we will prepare you for the week to come instead.

We were delighted to start Forest Schools again with Parrots class this week. The children have a whole half day of outside learning and we are lucky to have a trained forest schools specialist in Mrs Winsley, ably assisted by Mrs Stobbie. I am lucky that I can see what they are doing from my office and it is clear that the children hugely enjoy their outside learning.

We are sorry to say that one of our Parent Governors, Suzy Newman, has resigned her post. She has been a fantastic support to us all and has been responsible for several areas in the school including English. She will be much missed and I thank her for the time and commitment she has given us. We will need a new parent governor and will be seeking nominations shortly. If you think you would be interested, please call me and I can discuss the commitment involved. Another regular visitor to school, the wonderful Reverend Tony from All Saints’ church, sends his virtual best wishes to us all, as we are currently unable to welcome him into school.

Sadly at the moment we cannot make any definite plans for the year ahead in terms of parent events, so I am unable to send home a list of dates for your diary. We will look at how to do things differently to ensure that the children do not miss out. I will keep you informed and we look forward to resuming the normal school events as soon as we can. In the meantime I am meeting with WISPA next week to talk about possible fundraising opportunities. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Finally, I am pleased to say that orders can now be placed for school uniform through our new supplier, One Stop School Gear. Their website is onestopschoolgear.com/writtle-infant-school.

I hope you have a nice weekend and that after a full week your children sleep well!

Kind regards
Helen Castell

We have new email addresses! Please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com if you need to contact the office. To contact your child's teacher please email the class name @writtleinfantschool.com, so for example dolphins@, foxes@, parrots@ etc.
Can we please ask that parents do not arrive on site too early. The gate will not open until 8.30am.
Please keep your child close to you, to help with social distancing. Thank you!
Children in Year 1 and 2 should be dressed for PE every day, as we take every opportunity to be active. Please ensure children are wearing joggers/leggings, trainers and have long hair tied back.
If you are sending in grapes for your child's snack, please cut them in half lengthways. They are a choking hazard and there have been serious incidents at other schools in the past. Many thanks.

English: Writing the story of our book, "Super Duper You". Handwriting curly caterpillar letters.
Reading: Focussing on Rex the Retriever from the Pawsome Gang.
Phonics: looking at the phonemes ay, ae, ai, ie, ey (allocated to all children in Bug Club).
Maths: Numbers and place value, comparing numbers and ordering numbers. Counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s.
Geography: Introduction to Africa.
Art: Painting self-portraits.
Science: Our topic is All About Me, this week we will be asking "What do I need to survive?"
PSHE: Being reflective, using a journal to record feelings. Mindfulness and relaxation exercises.
Music: Listening and appraising. Clapping rhythmic patterns. No singing!
Computing: Taking digital photographs using ipads.
PE: Fitness & stamina, running the Golden Mile, skipping and jumping.

Home learning activities for this half term are listed in our Year 2 Activity Passport: Autumn 1, which you can also find on the Year 2 Home Learning page. Please also log in to Bug Club, we will be updating your child's account with phonics lessons, grammar activities and new reading material. Our new email addresses are dolphins@writtleinfantschool.com and sharks@writtleinfantschool.com. Please use these to contact your class teacher or send us any home learning.

English: Reading 1:1 with adults, writing sentences using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces.
Maths: Counting forwards and backwards within 20. Exploring one more and one less.
Art: Creating self-portraits and looking at the art of Picasso.
PE: Fitness and stamina activities, learning how to keep our bodies fit and healthy.
Forest School: Parrots every Tuesday (Turtles after half term). Please arrive in Forest Schools clothes and trainers. Wellies stay in school. A change of clothes is only necessary if it will be wet that day.

Please click this link for the week's home learning.

Our new email addresses are parrots@writtleinfantschool.com and turtles@writtleinfantschool.com.

We are super proud of the Foxes and Squirrels children. They have amazed us with the way they have so confidently started school. We really enjoyed meeting all of you during our ‘door step’ visits and we hope it helped the children with their transition to our school. Please make sure that the children have their wellies, spare clothes, Pac-a-Mac, hand sanitizer and hand cream in school by their next visit. Finally, our new email addresses are foxes@writtleinfantschool.com and squirrels@writtleinfantschool.com if you need to contact us. Have a lovely weekend!