Dear Parents

The children looked wonderful in their Christmas jumpers today, thank you so much for supporting WISPA and making us all feel very festive! Don’t forget that WISPA’s Big Christmas Raffle closes at 8pm tonight, so you still have a few more hours to buy tickets and ask friends and family to do the same! It has been hugely popular, with over £700 raised already. We are incredibly grateful to WISPA for their efforts in putting it together and to you all for donating such amazing prizes. We received a lovely festive message from our reading dog, Lola (right), wishing the whole school a very happy Christmas. We can't wait to invite her back to read with us again in future. The Christmas performances will be released next week, so please look out for them; I was lucky enough to watch EYFS filming this week and was so impressed by the children’s confidence. I have also been hearing about the mischievous antics of various elves in our classrooms!

As we approach Christmas and cases in Essex are unfortunately on the rise, it is absolutely essential that we follow social distancing rules and remain vigilant for Covid symptoms, testing and isolating where necessary. Obviously we want all our children, families and staff to have a safe and happy Christmas, without needing to isolate. We sent an email earlier this week to remind you all to stick to the drop off and pick up times so that children do not mix bubbles. Today we are sending home important guidance on what to do if your child develops symptoms and has a test after Friday 18th December. It is vital that you let us know the test result if symptoms began in the first weekend of the holidays, as if it is positive, schools are expected to trace all contacts in the child’s bubble and ask them to isolate.

Essex Library Services are hosting a Winter Reading Challenge to encourage the love of reading. Very much like the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge, they are providing large bookmarks which will be stamped for each book your child reads. The aim is to read 6 books over the winter period. This year’s theme is “The Animals of Snowy Wood” where Connie the fox and her friends help Fraser the squirrel to get a good night’s sleep. You can collect a bookmark from any Essex library and fall in love with reading this winter.

The last day of term is Friday 18th December, with children finishing at the usual times for each year group. As said in a previous ParentMail, we are not having an INSET day next Friday. Despite some reports, the Government was not offering schools an extra INSET day. Instead we would have had to move one of our non-pupil days from the summer term to next Friday. This would have changed dates already published and I am well aware that parents may have already made holiday arrangements.

Stay safe this weekend.

Kind regards

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: Isla for always giving everything a go and trying hard! Cody for taking pride in the presentation of his work in maths and English!

Dolphins: Tia for her great attitude to learning this week! Leo for taking pride in his work!

Turtles: Gabriel and Harvey for both trying really hard in their phonics this week!

Parrots: Layla E for always taking pride in her presentation across all subjects! Isaac R for excellent letter writing in English!

If dogs are tethered outside the school, please do not allow your child to approach them without supervision and the owner's permission. Equally, if you know your dog does not react well to strangers, please leave them at home. Dogs are not permitted on the school premises.
Please ensure that you are aware of the symptoms of headlice and threadworms and treat your child promptly if necessary. You can follow the links to NHS advice. Both conditions are very common and easily spread, so it pays to be vigilant! Thank you for your support.
To contact the School Office or Mrs. Castell, please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com. Class email addresses are listed in the year group sections below.

Here’s what to look forward to next week:

English: We will continue our letter writing to Father Christmas.
Maths: We are revisiting our knowledge of addition and subtraction.
R.E: We are revisiting the Christmas Story.
Art and D&T: We are going to create some of our own Christmas decorations.
Forest School: Turtles every Tuesday. 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.

We have published our video, letting you know how the children are getting on in Year 1! Please take a look at https://www.writtleinfantschool.com/2020/12/04/video-year-1-autumn-2/

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

We have been busy creating our Christmas surprise! We loved wearing our PJs on Tuesday and all did brilliantly while we filmed our surprise. Mrs Fisk has been editing it most evenings and hopefully it will be ready for the early part of next week. We have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes this week and next week we will be doing some fun Christmas themed maths. Next week we will not check words and sounds due to all our Christmas activities. So please go over all the old ones as this is important for children to retain them in their memory. Have a lovely weekend.

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