What’s On – Friday 16th December

Message from Mrs. Castell

Dear Parents

We love Nilha's drawing of Father Christmas!

This will be the last Friday message of the term and I wanted to thank you all for your support this term. I can see how the children have progressed and settled and as I say at every prospective parents meeting I am very proud to be the Headteacher of this school. Thank you to our teaching staff and our wonderful team of LSAs and middays who continue to go over and above to support the children (and each other), our unflappable office team and our site manager Mr Turner. Most importantly thank you to the children for being such a joy!

At the time of writing we are looking forward to our school Christmas dinner today. The WISPA elves will host the Elfridges gift shop on Monday and Father Christmas himself will visit next week to give each child a book funded by WISPA. Thank you for your amazing support for the joint parents' association Christmas Fayre last Friday. We raised an amazing £2800 to be split between both schools. Once again we would like to thank the organising committee for their tireless efforts in staging the Fayre and also BSW Marquees Ltd for their incredible generosity in putting up a huge marquee for the event, not to mention taking it down this week in sub-zero temperatures!

I am delighted to announce that Matt Coffey and Esther Burton, both parent governors, have been elected joint chairs of governors. My thanks go to them for taking on this role as we plan to move forward.

Thank you for your cooperation with the necessary arrangements to keep you all safe during this cold snap. My particular thanks to Mrs Wilson and the team for dealing with this while I had the dreaded sickness bug. I understand the difficulties that the snow and ice presented this week and that for some of you being absent was unavoidable. Attendance this week is 82.3% compared with our school target of 96%. The attendance has been the lowest ever this term and I know that many children have experienced bouts of illness. I attach the government's latest guidance for parents on attendance and I hope that as we go into a new term, attendance will improve. We have had to chase several parents for reasons why their child is off, you must ring in (unless agreed otherwise) or email us by 9.15am. It is the law that parents/carers inform us when children are absent.

Football competition
Thank you to Miss Wakeling and Mrs Scott-Simons for organising our world cup tournament which 113 of our children took part in. In all year groups both girls and boys worked together in teams and it has been great fun and a chance for children of different ages to work together. Due to the bad weather we have postponed the final until next week.

Many parents were unable to attend our open day on Monday due to the poor weather, so we will hold another session on Friday 6th January at 9.30am. Please pass details to friends and family who have children due to start school in September 2023. You can register to attend our open day on our website. A reminder that the deadline for primary school applications is 15th January. This includes our Year 2 children who need to apply for their place in Year 3.

We break up for the Christmas holidays on Tuesday 20th December at 3.10pm, returning at 8.45am on Thursday 5th January. Forest School lessons have now finished for the term, resuming next half term for Sharks class on Tuesdays, starting 10th January and Turtles class on Wednesdays, starting 11th January. Clubs will begin in the week commencing Monday 9th January, with the exception of the Wednesday staff clubs which begin on 18th January.

With very best wishes for a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mrs Ho Ho Ho Castell

Notices

  • Lost property will be put out next week. Anything left will be recycled.
  • 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 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

For information on safety at Christmas please visit https://www.escb.co.uk/parentcarer/child-safety/

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.

Message from our good friend Reverend Tony

Hi folks,

We invite you and your family to our famous Crib Service at 5pm on Christmas Eve at All Saints' Church again this year to join in the Carols, and experience the great story of God's love for us all, which is the heart of the Christmas story.

We can only have 360 people in church, so booking a free ticket on Eventbrite is necessary to enable attendance. Here's the link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writtle-christmas-crib-service-tickets-481516718467

Tickets will be available from Wednesday 7 December.

Buggies will be accommodated in the Christian Centre next door, so please drop them off there before entering church.

Children are very welcome to dress up as a biblical character to help set the scene too.

Looking forward to seeing you then,

With every blessing to you all,

Rev Tony

Year 2 News

Our snow-filled and frosty week started with a wonderful trip to see Raymond Briggs film ‘The Snowman’ accompanied by Essex Youth Orchestra. The children were introduced to all of the different instruments and sounds of the orchestra and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Those left in school had fun with some snowman themed activities and also watched the film. We have completed our Maths geometry unit by counting the vertices and sorting 3D shapes and making patterns with 2D and 3D shapes. We’ve also done some guided reading around a Christmas theme.

Please click here for this week's home learning.

Year 1 News

This week we have been very busy working hard and finishing our Christmas activities! The children have shown us their fantastic independent writing as they wrote a recount of our Christmas performance. They have also written letters to Santa and their christmas cards. We have been super proud of their efforts and progress this term! In Maths lessons we have consolidated our understanding of 2D and 3D shapes. The children have also demonstrated their understanding of place value within 10 and addition and subtraction within 10. We enjoyed dancing, playing games and being creative at our christmas party. The children also loved their Christmas lunch! Thank you for your continued support, we hope you are enjoying the Christmas season.

Please click here for this week's home learning.

EYFS News

This week we have been really getting into the Christmas spirit! The children had a fabulous time outside on Monday, building snowmen and exploring the snow. We all had a great time during our Christmas Party and we missed some of our friends who were not feeling very well. During the party we played some traditional games and then enjoyed the party food. We have consolidated our phase 2 sounds ready to start phase 3 sounds after Christmas. In maths we have been learning more about shape and we have been doing some Christmas themed maths. We hope you have a lovely weekend.