Message from Mrs. Castell
Dear Parents
It has been another busy week and it was lovely to see so many of you at our first Family Learning Time of the school year. Feedback on these sessions is always welcome. Thank you also to Squirrels parents who joined us for the Road Safety talk, we hope you found it useful.
Our wonderful Chair of Governors Ralph Bray has formally stepped down as Chair. I cannot put into words the dedication and selfless commitment that Ralph has shown to our school during his long and distinguished tenure. Our new chair will be Natalie Booker, who worked for our school for many years and knows us very well. Ralph will remain as a governor, offering wise counsel for which we are so grateful. Thank you, Ralph.
In addition Elizabeth Garrod has stepped down from her role as Parent Governor. We thank her for her support to the school and wish her well.
Next week - Reading Monday, Parents Evenings, Halloween/Uniform Sale
Reading Monday goes ahead next week but after half term we will change to the first Monday of every month, the next one being 7th November.
We look forward to seeing you at our Parents’ Evenings on Wednesday and Thursday. We are holding book looks for all Year One parents on Wednesday 19th October and Year Two parents on Thursday 20th October, both from 8.30am. This includes parents of those children who have already had PCP appointments. If you would prefer to look at your child's books just before your open evening appointment, please let us know by emailing parents@writtleinfantschool.com. The morning book looks offer an alternative opportunity for parents who are pushed for time in the evening. Please do not bring children along to your parents evening appointment, as there is no supervision for them and there will be no access to the playground area.
Please remember there are no staff clubs next Wednesday due to Parents Evening. Please ensure you make arrangements for your child to be picked up at 3.10pm, as all staff are involved in the appointments so they are not available to supervise children who have not been collected.
We are still seeking donations of spare uniform and Halloween costumes before our sale on Friday 21st October. These will be sold on the Juniors front lawn at 3.10pm on Friday 21st October, with money raised going to WISPA and WJSPA.
We break up for half term at 3.10pm on Friday 21st October, returning on Monday 31st October, which will be a Halloween dress down day with a pumpkin carving/decoration competition! Details are on the attached poster, we cannot wait to see your pumpkin designs! Please ensure that costumes and footwear are suitable for learning and playing outside, and don't forget to bring a coat as usual.
This week's Eco Tip from our Eco Warriors is to turn off the lights when you are not in the room and keep blinds/curtains open for natural sunlight during the day.
Attendance this week is 96.1% compared with our school target of 96%.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes
Helen Castell
Notices
- Children go outside in all weathers, so it is essential that they bring a coat to school daily. Please label all belongings, clothing and footwear sent into school.
- It is really helpful if you can write your child's name on bananas sent in as a snack!
- As we have children in school with life-threatening allergies, please do not send products containing nuts into school, or egg-based foods such as egg mayo, scotch egg, omelette, frittata etc.
- 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.
Safeguarding
In order to provide the best possible safeguarding for all pupils in our school we work with outside agencies to ensure we get expert advice and support. We follow procedures set out by the Local Education Authority, the SET procedures (Southend, Essex and Thurrock) as well as ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ in accordance with child protection procedures.
Below are some of the links we have with external agencies:
- Child and Family Services
- Educational Psychology Team
- CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Service)
- Family support workers
- Provide health - Speech and Language
- Health practitioners
- SEND ops
- Charities that support children and families in particular situations such as the Yoyo project for bereaved
Should you need more information about services available in Essex around early help for families, please speak to the school office.
We all have a duty to safeguard the children in our care and if the school suspects or knows that a child is at risk of significant harm, we will make a referral to Social Services. The school does not investigate any disclosures that children may make, we are a referring agency. Procedures on safeguarding from the Government make it clear that all staff should operate with an ‘it could happen here’ approach to any concerns they may have. If you have any concerns about a child please telephone the Essex Child and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627.
Awards
Year 2 News
Thank you to the parents who joined us for our Family Learning Time on Wednesday, the classrooms were packed! We hope you enjoyed learning how to support your children's reading fluency, as well as learning a little more about Samuel Pepys! We have continued our work on the Great Fire of London this week, with the children writing contemporary eye witness accounts, using a variety of conjunctions in their sentences. We have seen some brilliant written work as a result - the children clearly have vivid imaginations! In maths, we focussed on patterns and relationships between number bonds to 10 and those to 100, so for example 6 + 4 = 10 and 60 + 40 = 100. In PE we enjoyed football and fitness sessions. We look forward to seeing you at the Parents Evening appointments next week.
Year 1 News
This week we have ordered pictures and retold the story of ‘Leaf’ and used capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We have practised writing our numbers 0-20 and focussed on correct number formation. We have explored what the past is and looked at some of the events that have happened in our own pasts. We were inspired by Paul Klee to create self-portraits using only lines and shapes.
EYFS News
What a great week in Early Years! It was lovely to have so many parents in for Family Learning Time and we hope you enjoyed the little snapshot of how we practise name writing and how we teach phonics. This week the children have learnt the phonemes: s, a, t, p, i and we are beginning to practise the skill of blending the letters together to make words. Squirrels parents and children really enjoyed the road safety session and all the children could talk about what they had learnt when we returned to class. We have been learning about repeating patterns in maths this week, sometimes using all the natural objects you sent into school - thank you for those. Our poem has been, 'Things That I Can Do' and we have been encouraging the children to practise all the actions in it. What a busy week!
Have a great weekend.
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