Dear Parents,

It is lovely to see your children enjoying their learning and being so enthusiastic over the past month. I spend at least one afternoon in a different class every week which I consider a privilege. We were delighted to see so many parents at our EYFS picnic and play sessions this week. We also had a very special visit from last year's Sharks teacher, Miss Williams and her newborn son - the very cuddly Hugh!

There have been two positive Covid cases in school this week and more in the wider school community, which is a reminder that we all still need to follow the guidance and the school must risk assess every event. Thank you for your understanding about the one ticket per family rule at the Years 1 and 2 Harvest Festival next Wednesday. I appreciate that many parents have not attended a Harvest Festival before, but in pre-Covid times it was often standing room only once we had seated 120 children plus staff in the church. If we were to have a positive case, the impact could be widespread, so we invite you to take a lateral flow test before the event.

To further clarify arrangements for the Harvest Festival, please drop your Year 1 and 2 children off at school as normal next Wednesday, then make your way to the church. We recommend that parents are seated by 9.45am. The children and staff walk down once they have been registered in school. Turtles class should still arrive to school in their Forest School clothes, as they will be going straight out to Forest School on our return from the church.

Food sent into school

Natasha's law comes into force today, which requires all ingredients and allergens to be listed before food is sold and applies even to home-made produce. If you would like to send in any treats on your child's birthday, we suggest pre-packaged sweets rather than homemade cakes, to enable parents to check ingredients for children with allergies. Can we also remind you that we are a nut free school; this includes fruit and nut bars/cereal bars, peanut butter, Nutella-style spreads and all other nut-based products. We also request that your child's daily snack consists of only fresh or dried fruit or vegetables.

Finally, we are sending our best wishes and lots of luck to our teaching assistant Ellie Wakeling, as she goes off to Nottingham tomorrow to compete with the GB Women's Ice Hockey Team in the Olympic qualifiers for Beijing 2022. We're all behind you Ellie, go Team GB!

Have a lovely weekend.

Helen Castell

A reminder that we love to share awards, medals, trophies, even anecdotes from children’s achievements outside of school. Please hand them to me or email parents@writtleinfantschool.com for assemblies on Friday.
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.
Our school meals page has been updated with the current menus for you to download if you wish.
Diary dates and school events can added from our website to the calendar on your phone. Click on your chosen list of dates from the Links section and then click export at the bottom of the page.

Autumn has officially arrived and the Harvest Festival is truly upon us. We’ve had fun this week writing Harvest acrostic poems and applying our knowledge of statements, questions and commands to write about Harvest. We look forward to seeing lots of you at our Harvest festival on Wednesday at the Church.

Thank you for sending such a variety of lovely fruit into school for the kebab making! The children absolutely loved this activity and used the knives with great care and skill. Perhaps they could show you at home. We’ve also had fun exploring counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Any opportunities to practice this at home would be beneficial.

Click here for this week's home learning and an update on the children's reading.

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

This week we have started our new guided reading book ‘the lost storm’. The children have thoroughly enjoyed sharing this story with their friends and answering questions to do with the text. In Maths, we continued to compare numbers using our greater than, less than signs. We also began to order numbers and understand where they are on the number line. We have continued to practise our harvest festival songs, which we look forward to singing in church next week.

Click the link for this week's home learning and information about the children's reading.

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

This week we absolutely loved having you into school for our 'Picnic and Play'! The children were so excited to show you their classroom and garden. We hope you enjoyed it and found it useful to see what they are doing at school. We have been reciting our poem 'Falling Apples' and learning about how apples grow. This week in maths we have been sorting and comparing objects using language such as equal, fewer and more/most. Next week our poem will be called 'Falling Leaves' and we will be learning about autumn. If you go on any walks this weekend, why don't you collect some leaves, conkers, pine cones or any other things you find on your walk. Then bring them into school next week. Have a lovely weekend.

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