Dear Parents,

Our Christmas planning is in full swing! We will deliver our Christmas performances to you virtually this year and the children will have parties and other festive activities within their bubbles. To get you in the festive mood, we're very grateful to our piano tutor Bonnie for posting another piano lesson on YouTube. This one teaches the children how to play a couple of Christmas tunes! Please note that we will be unable to distribute Christmas cards from children to their friends this year, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. The staff will donate to the British Heart Foundation instead of giving cards this year. In place of our charity collections at the Christmas concerts, we would like to invite parents to support Barnardo's through our JustGiving page this year. The charity supports the well-being and protection of vulnerable children, which is even more vital this year given the circumstances.

As you know, we love seeing your emails with work that the children have done at home and I get the chance to see the home learning as well. At a time when it is difficult to bring things into school or have a catch up with parents on the door, this method of communication is so important. However, I am conscious of the teachers' workload and the time they are taking in the evenings to respond to emails. To achieve a balance, from now on we will acknowledge your email automatically so that you know it has been received, but the teachers may not be able to respond individually to every piece of home learning. Please be assured that we do give verbal feedback to the children in class and share their work with their peers. This only applies to emails about home learning - we will of course continue to respond to any other concerns as soon as we can. Our aim is to reply within 48 hours during the week, although it is normally quicker than this.

We are still planning our Health and Happiness Hub and we had a real boost this week from Chelmsford Athletics Club, who gave us a donation of £250 following fundraising activities with Writtle University College Students' Union. We were also delighted to learn that the Co-op Community Fund awarded us £2900 through Co-op members nominating us as their local cause and raising money through their shopping. Please look out for more news on the Hub in the next few months. At the moment the first step is to add a new gate to the front of the school through our Forest Schools area. In time this will lead to our new building, but it will also enable us to create a one way system to facilitate social distancing for parents.

WISPA are also looking at ways to raise money for the school in the absence of their biggest annual fundraising event, the Christmas Fayre. They will be holding a virtual raffle and have posted on their Facebook page, other Facebook and parent Whatsapp groups to ask for prizes. This might be a way of promoting your business so please contact WISPA if you can offer any help, or you are welcome to drop a prize into the school office (please wear a mask). There will also be a Christmas Jumper day and a Crazy Hair day in the next few weeks, so please look out for those!

Thank you again for persevering with our pick up and drop off arrangements. Please can you ensure that your children stay with you while you wait, rather than running around. Even though they may be playing with children in the same bubble, if they run around they may still pass by other adults. With schools all around us sending bubbles home, or in some cases closing whole schools, we are just trying to do everything we can to stay open.

The new NHS Essex Child Health app is live from this week and can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play store. This has been designed to support parents, grandparents and carers across Essex to find NHS advice to help look after their children’s health and recognise when they are unwell. It is hoped that by signposting families to appropriate services, this may reduce demand on A&E, especially during the crucial winter period.

Have a lovely weekend. Stay safe.
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: Evelyn M for showing wonderful pride in her English work! Luke M for showing great enthusiasm in his maths work!
Dolphins: Jamie B for displaying all of the HIPIP values! Samuel for showing interest and enthusiasm in our frozen topic!
Turtles: Rowan for whizzing through his shape work this week, you must be so proud!
Hope for being such a kind friend and always letting others join in her games!
Parrots: Charlie M for using adjectives and taking pride in his story writing! Suzie for always being a kind friend and helping to cheer her friends up!

Here's what to look forward to next week.

English: The Ice bear: Arctic/Polar animals non chronological report and fact files.
Phonics: Revision of phase 5 phonemes and preparation for phonics screening test.
Maths: Money: Coins and Notes
Science/Geography: Animal adaptions
Art/DT: Christmas decorations
Preparations (filming) for our Christmas play: On Monday please can each child bring one white sock to School (adult or child size) as we will be making sock snowmen.
Dolphins: Please bring in a pair of sunglasses on Monday!

The new activity passport has been published - please give these a go and let us know how you get on. We can't wait to see your photos!

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

Here’s what to look forward to next week:
English: We are looking at the traditional tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and will begin to describe the characters and setting.
Maths: We are going to look at the value of numbers up to 20.
Music: We are going to practise our songs for our lovely Christmas Show
PE: We are starting to develop our throwing and catching skills.
Forest School: Turtles every Tuesday - they've had great fun so far, please take a look at our gallery for photos and an update of what they've been doing! 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 email addresses are parrots@writtleinfantschool.com and turtles@writtleinfantschool.com.

This week we have been learning about the weather and the wind! We have enjoyed being outside in the wind using streamers and material and some of us made kites! We have found out about the number 3 and have used the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears to help! We have also read the Three Little Pigs and recited Three Blind Mice. We have also been talking about being safe on the internet and when we use devices. Next week we are learning about the number 4! Next week we will be practising our secret surprise so we would like you to practise the poetry basket at home. We will be learning the sounds e, r, u and the tricky word go! Have a lovely weekend.

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