Dear Parents

This week we continued a very busy and rewarding end of term with presentations from the NHS Education Officer and also from Writtle Library staff. Children were very excited to hear about this year's Summer Reading Challenge - Gadgeteers! All children have received a bookmark and a library card, so please try to make your way to your local library over the summer holidays. We look forward to seeing the children's stickers in September!

EYFS had their Teddy Bears' picnic at Hylands Park this week and enjoyed themselves immensely. Thank you to all of the parents who joined us!

Thank you for all of your positive comments about the annual reports and class allocations which were emailed to you on Monday. We also published our SATS results to Year 2 parents this week and will update the website shortly with our overall results, which compare very favourably to the last set of national figures in 2019. Given the challenges of the last few years, we are enormously proud of the children's achievements.

Please ensure you check the finishing date for the club your child attends. The only clubs running next week are Multi-Sports and Mini Tennis on Monday, Football on Thursday and Young Architects Group 3 on Friday. All other clubs have finished for the term.

Next Monday, 11th July, will be the last Reading Monday of the year, we look forward to seeing you. Forest School lessons have now finished for this term, as Year 2 are on a trip on Tuesday and it is Class Swap Day on Wednesday 13th, when all children will move up to their new class and spend the morning with their new class teacher.

The year group performance for EYFS takes place on Thursday 14th July at 9.30am and the celebration assembly for Year 2 will be at 9.30am on Friday 15th July. A reminder that we will hold a collection for Great Ormond Street Hospital, as the amazing staff there are currently looking after our lovely Avia in Foxes class.

For children going into Year One and Year Two only, there is an opportunity to Meet the Teacher on Tuesday 19th July at 3.20pm. Please allow us to dismiss all the children first and then you will be invited back into the building. Miss Smith, our new teacher for Turtles will be present. The new Turtles class will also meet her for our Class Swap morning.

The children break up for the summer on Wednesday 20th July at 3.10pm and return on Monday 5th September at 8.45am. Please use the calendar on our website and check our weekly newsletters for official information on dates and times of events. We are more than happy to answer any queries.

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the sunshine!

Best wishes
Helen Castell

Lodge Road will not be covered by a School Crossing Patrol officer from Monday 20th June until the end of term. Please take extra care.
Teachers cannot always check the class email during the day. Please send urgent messages to parents@writtleinfantschool.com.
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.
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.

Our final HIPIP awards this year go to:

SHARKS - Henry for persevering with his work, with a broken finger! Jessica for independence (always being ready to work and producing work of a great quality!)

DOLPHINS - Neil for being so polite to the Junior School staff and for being inclusive. Roman and Luca for inclusivity and Alexa for perseverance.

PARROTS - Robin for being such a polite and kind friend and Bonnie for persevering with her tennis skills. Parker for independence and Jacob for inclusivity.

TURTLES - Yasin for independence in writing, Mae, Henry G and Franklyn M for showing perseverance when spelling common exception words this week. Erol for independence and for looking after his new glasses this week! Henry K for perseverance and Max for inclusivity.

SQUIRRELS - Alyra for inclusivity and kindness to her friends, Alesha for always being so polite and remembering her manners, Maria for inclusivity and looking after all the Squirrels, Noah for perseverance when making his wonderful Lego models. Also Skyla for politeness.

FOXES - Archie J for perseverance when making his amazing designs. Cara for perseverance with her handwriting, Charlie for inclusive play with his friends and Isla for always being polite and helpful. Rosa for settling well into school, Imayah for politeness, Naomi for inclusivity, Jessica for perseverance.

This week we have been on safari and learning about the ‘Big 5’. The children created fact files, completed quizzes and played African animal Guess Who? They also had great fun discovering how a mother rhinoceros protects her baby from predators. Maths was also African animal themed. Children worked together to solve problems using different strategies.

Reminders: Please make sure children have their costume for the celebration assembly in school by Monday 11th July.

We are all looking forward to the trip to Danbury Country Park on Tuesday. Please ensure you have read the ParentMail messages regarding essentials for the day. We have been advised by the park ranger that the children should wear long sleeved lightweight tops and full length trousers, to avoid sunburn, bites and scratches. We will be in the woods for at least part of the day so although the weather is predicted to be extremely hot, we should be able to stay in the shade wherever possible. Staff will take cooling sprays and water sprays with them and ensure that the children stay hydrated. Sun hats and sunscreen are essential on Tuesday.

Click here for this week's home learning.

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

In English this week we have been revisiting the use of punctuation and practising using full stops and capital letters in longer pieces of writing. We have also been working on spelling the Year One common exception words and including them in our sentences. As part of our Grandma Bird topic we looked at the use of similes in the text and went on to try and write our own. The children also had a go at drawing some of the illustrations from the story in the style of the author and illustrator Benji Davis. In maths the focus has been on money and coin recognition. The children also found totals, paid and gave change. Using our visit to Southend last week as inspiration, we have focused in history on making comparisons between seasides through the ages. In science we have been learning about the parts and functions of a plant.

Click the link for this week's home learning.

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

This week we have been reminiscing about our trip to Hylands Park. We have talked about all the activities we did and our favourite parts. We then wrote a sentence or two about the trip. In maths we have been revisiting doubles and odds and evens. This week we have been practising for our end of year assembly. The children are getting confident at remembering their lines and we look forward to performing it to you on Thursday 14th July at 9.30. We will collect reading books next week so make sure you don't have any books from school at home. Could you also check your child's uniform to make sure you don't have anyone else's at home. We have so many unnamed cardigans and jumpers in class. We will put them in lost property next week so if you have lost one you can look in there.
Have a good weekend!