Dear Parents

Currently we are all looking resplendent in our spots and yellow as we celebrate Children in Need today. Thank you for your donations, we raised over £160 for this very worthy cause.

Rehearsals are in full swing for our Christmas events. Tickets for all performances will be available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/writtle-infant-school from 6pm this evening. Due to limited space in the hall, we need to restrict audience numbers, so a maximum of 2 tickets is available per family. There are two performances for Years 1 and 2, so you can buy two tickets for one performance, or one ticket per performance. We are asking for a £3 donation to our Hub fund for each ticket, which includes an online booking fee of 30p. This is a way for the school to raise much needed funds for a project that will benefit all children, but we are very conscious that times are difficult at the moment, so please talk to us if the donation is an issue for you. We absolutely do not want anyone to miss their child's performance due to cost.

Next week is the last week for staff clubs. Please check our clubs timetable for the final dates of all other clubs.

This week's tip from our Eco Warriors is to make sure you put thicker clothes on in the evening and only put the heating on if you really need it!

There are no HIPIP awards today but these will return next week. Attendance this week is 95.4% compared to our school target of 96%.

Finally, a reminder that parents of children due to start Reception or Year Three in September 2023 must apply for their school place by 15th January 2023. Late applicants risk losing a place at their preferred school. We have open days next Wednesday and on 12th December, please invite family and friends who may be interested.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes

Helen Castell

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.

We use the NSPCC's PANTS rule when talking to children about keeping them safe. There is information for parents at: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

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.

We have been on a polar expedition this week to learn about the similarities and differences between the North and South Poles. The children’s knowledge of the Polar regions is increasing rapidly and they are thoroughly enjoying this topic. We have also looked at how we use an index and glossary in our English lessons and plan to include these when we create Polar Information books to share with Y1 classes. The Aurora Borealis and work of the artist Bob Ross were the inspiration for creating the Northern Lights with chalk in this week’s art lesson. They are amazing!

We would like all the children to have a festive/sparkly top or Christmas jumper for our Christmas performance. Can you please bring them to school by next Friday in a NAMED bag? You will be advised individually of any other specific costume requests. Many thanks.

Reminders:
Please remember to bring book bags to school every day so we can change reading books regularly.

Please click here for this week's home learning.

It’s been a busy week! We were introduced to subtraction and the take away sign. We would draw dots and cross out objects, we then would count what was left. We looked at Pattan’s Pumpkin further and created a story map ready to write the story next week. We found out about different materials and their properties such as being hard, soft or transparent. We also found out about the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes. We also practised our Christmas songs! The children are fantastic and we are looking forward to seeing you at our show.

We would like all the children to have a festive/sparkly top or Christmas jumper for our Christmas performance. Can you please bring them to school by next Friday in a NAMED bag. Many thanks.

Please click here for this week's home learning.

This week we have been learning all about the Christmas Story! We made a story map to help the children remember the story of the first Christmas. We are using this to help the children recite the story. The pictures help the children remember the order of the story. They will then tell the story to an adult and we will choose some of them to act it out in our Christmas show! We will send more information about this next week. This week we have learnt the new phonemes r, u and h and we have learnt the tricky words, the, no and go. In maths we have been learning all about the number 4 and introduced 'double trouble' when we looked at 2 + 2. We looked at all the different ways we can make 4 and even had birthday parties as Puppy (in Squirrels class), Fred and Boris (the aliens) had their 4th birthdays. We made cards and banners as well. Have a lovely weekend.