Dear Parents

It's been a busy week of school photos and preparation for next week's Harvest presentations. I hope you have all received your Kittle photo cards and been ordering online. Fish and Chip Friday went really smoothly and the children were very enthusiastic about the food, hence it being repeated again today. We are looking to expand the hot lunch options after half term, with choices that are easy to transport to the classroom and for children to eat in class. We'll update you next week.

Children will now be able to choose a library book for the week! They can take it home on a Monday, to share with you or read independently, and bring it back on a Friday, where it will be quarantined for 72 hours. Once the previous book has been returned, they may choose a new one to take home. This is in addition to the reading books set for them on Bug Club. We welcome your feedback on Bug Club and our new arrangements.

Reverend Tony has sent us a lovely video message in advance of our Harvest week. We have posted this on our Writtle Infant School Facebook group too. If you haven't joined the group yet you are very welcome - it is a private group set up to share resources to support the children's learning and wellbeing. We have also posted a special video message from former teacher Mrs. Herring. She is a wonderful storyteller and has written and illustrated her first book, The Busy Bugs, inspired by her time in the Squirrels and Foxes garden!

A reminder that both Writtle Infant and Junior schools will hold a collection to support the homeless charity Sanctus. Donations can be left outside the school entrance from October 19th to 24th. Please donate items from this list only:
Tinned items: fruit, baked beans, tomatoes, fish, ready meals (tinned). Ideally tins with ring pulls, not requiring a tin opener.
Store cupboard items: Pot Noodles, cereal, coffee, sugar, long life milk, small juice cartons, biscuits, cake bars, chocolate, bottles of water, salt, pepper, mustard, stock cubes.
Toiletries: disposable razors and shaving foam, deodorant, shower gel, shampoo.

Finally, I met with Claire Gaskin from our Parents' Association this week, to discuss some of their innovative ideas for the year ahead, as our usual key fundraising events cannot take place this year. The WISPA AGM will take place on Friday 16th October at the Beryl Platt Community Centre, 12-14 Redwood Avenue, Writtle, which you can also join remotely if you prefer - please email WISPA to register your interest. Please consider how you can help, as additional costs due to Covid-19 have left the school even more financially challenged this year. Fundraising events already being planned are a non-uniform day on Friday 23rd October in exchange for a suggested donation of £2 and an online Halloween scavenger hunt - further details to follow!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Helen Castell

Well done to the following children in Years 1 and 2 who have been awarded Shooting Stars for setting a great example to others this week.

Sharks: Michael for his amazing running in PE! Prim for her super sentences in English!
Dolphins: Adora for her wonderful reading and Louie for his super Harvest writing and picture!
Turtles: Humphrey for being super switched on all week! Arjana for trying so hard with her maths work!
Parrots: Zara for excellent sentence writing using the word "and"! Nuala for taking pride in the presentation of her work during English!

HIPIP awards will return next week.

Here’s what to look forward to next week:

English:
Reading/writing: Poetry focus - Linked to Harvest
Handwriting: The alphabet - Upper and lower case letters
Maths: Addition and Subtraction - Number facts - using different strategies e.g. part, part whole diagrams, number lines, bar models
Geography: Introduction to North America
PSHE: Exploring how our feelings affect others. Yoga for relaxation
Computing: Using iPads to take videos, saving and retrieving work
Music: Listening,appraising and improvising

Home Learning

Remember to continue with your Activity Passport if you haven't ticked everything off yet!

The children are loving the ICT Games Look, Cover, Write, Check game. Try the letter patterns as well as the tricky words. It’s a fun way to learn spellings 10 at a time. The national expectation is that at the end of Y2 (KS1) children can spell all of the Y1 and Y2 common exception words. We are currently working our way through the Y1 words.

To support recall of addition and subtraction number facts to 10 and 20, try Topmarks' Number Fact Families.

Our new email addresses are dolphins@writtleinfantschool.com and sharks@writtleinfantschool.com.

Here’s what to look forward to next week:

English: We are going to be showing the adults what sounds we know and how fantastic we are at reading.
Maths: looking at the different fact families and exploring addition.
Geography: Recapping the capital cities of the UK and the surrounding seas.
PE: Challenging ourselves further during circuits to increase our fitness.
Forest School: Parrots every Tuesday (Turtles after half term). Please arrive in warm Forest Schools clothes now the weather is colder! Children should wear trainers to school as their 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.

Twit twoo! We enjoyed our poem ‘Wise Old Owl’, learning about owls and listening to the different sounds they make. We were amazed to find out that different owls make different sounds! Some children made their own owls using paper and feathers. Next week we will video our new poem ‘Who Has Seen the Wind’. We will be finding out about Autumn and the weather next week, as well as whatever the children are interested in! Have a lovely weekend.

Our new email addresses are foxes@writtleinfantschool.com and squirrels@writtleinfantschool.com.