Weekly News – Friday 29th September

Dear Parents

Macmillan Coffee Morning

We've had such a wonderful morning raising money for Macmillan today. Thank you so much for attending our Coffee Morning and donating such beautiful cakes. The atmosphere was lovely too, it was great to catch up with parents and to see everyone taking a little time out of their busy day to raise money for a cause that is so special to us all. There can be no better way to end the week! With our cake sale after school today to add to the takings from this morning, we've raised over £200 for Macmillan. You can still donate online to our dedicated fundraising page here: http://www.justgiving.com/cm23032492.

We are very proud of Dorothy, Theo, Seren and Albie for representing our school on Tuesday morning at the official re-opening of the playground area at Oxney Green Park. They'd been invited to attend by Writtle Parish Council and were accompanied by myself and Mr Taylor. Along with the Junior school representatives, the children met the Parish Councillors for the opening ceremony and tried out the newly refurbished play equipment. They also gave their recommendations for new equipment to add to the play area.  Having been tried and tested, the playground now has the Writtle schools' seal of approval!

It was lovely to see so many parents at our meetings for Year 1 and 2 this week - we hope you found them informative and have a good understanding of the curriculum for the year ahead. Information from both meetings has been sent to everyone via ParentMail and we have also published it on our website. Foxes and Squirrels parents have been invited to a meeting and Mini Picnic next Tuesday and Friday afternoons, we look forward to seeing parents there.

This week Mr Taylor had a brilliant time reading to the children in Foxes and Squirrels. He can't wait to visit the other classes too! I went to Ducklings Nursery to read a story to the little ones - it was so delightful and the children listened beautifully. We are also hoping to visit some of our other local pre-schools, as it is lovely to get to know the children in the village.

I have to say an extra special thank you to all of the staff who are working incredibly hard to get up to speed with the new Little Wandle phonics scheme. Their expertise in Phonics is long-established, but it does take a little while for a new scheme to settle in. In particular our English lead, Mrs Scott-Simons, is well and truly going over and above her part-time hours to ensure that everything is in place to improve standards of reading and the application of phonics skills for your children. We have just received some of our new reading books so we are excited to show these to the children. Thank you for being so understanding, I can assure you that the children are still having plenty of reading sessions in school and that assessments of their current reading ability are taking place regularly.

We look forward to new activities starting next week! Chris Michaelides from CMXSC, the company that leads our Gymnastics club, will take our EYFS children for PE lessons from Monday 2nd October. Our Foxes and Squirrels should already wear uniform suitable for daily active play, but please ensure that your child is wearing their joggers/leggings and trainers for Mondays from now on. As part of our enrichment activities for all children, we will also begin afternoon yoga sessions with Mrs Easteal on Monday. These will be conducted on a weekly rota, starting with Year 2, who will hopefully return home to you in a Zen-like state of calm on Monday afternoon! PE kits are not required for yoga lessons.

Finally a reminder that the School Census is next Thursday, when we encourage all children to have a school lunch. Also our Open Day for parents of children starting in September 2024 is next Friday morning at 9am. Please let friends and family know that they can book a place via our website.

Enjoy your weekend.

Best wishes

Tracey Wilson

Essentials for next week!

  • We've received a complaint from a local resident about parking on Long Brandocks. Please take extra care in the mornings and afternoons to ensure that you're not blocking driveways or parking on pavements and grass verges. It's really important to us that we maintain positive relationships with our neighbours and that we all have consideration for pedestrians and other drivers using the pavements and roads around the school.
  • Forest School lessons are on Tuesdays for Sharks and Thursdays for Parrots. On these days those children should come to school in their Forest School clothing.
  • Children should come to school in their PE kit on PE days. This is Mondays for EYFS, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for Year 1 and Thursdays and Fridays for Year 2. As the weather becomes cooler, please ensure children have joggers or leggings to keep them warm, and a school sweatshirt or plain hoodie for exercise outside. A waterproof coat is also useful.
  • Please check the diary dates for details of upcoming events.

Word of the week

Our word of the week chosen by Parrots class is "curious".  Please discuss the meaning of the word with your child and try to use it in conversations this week.

WISPA Update

Welcome to your PTA update! 2022-23 was a record-breaking year for Writtle Infant and Junior schools' PTA, with over £13,500 raised and grants of more than £10,000 given to benefit the children of both schools. This could only have been achieved with the support of our fantastic school community, so a big thank you to everyone who baked cakes, donated prizes, shopped for gifts, bought raffle tickets and so, so much more. The AGM for WISPA / WJSPA is at 2.30pm on Friday 3rd November at the Infant school. Everyone is welcome to attend to find out about plans for this school year opportunities to get involved. Tight for time and can’t make the AGM? We are going to be trialling a new system with the PTA this year to get more people involved and increase the wonderful Writtle community spirit! So we are looking for a parent representative from each class to act as a point of communication for a term at a time. If you’d like to be one of the first, please drop us a line at: wispacharity@gmail.com.

Home Learning

Please follow the links below to access this week's home learning for Years 1 and 2.
Year 1 Home Learning
Year 2 Home Learning

Highlights of the week

Year 2

This week we looked at extracts from Samuel Peyps and John Evelyn's diaries about what happened during the Great Fire of London. We then wrote a diary about our day. We also enjoyed learning to skip in PE!

Year 1

We're loving our book 'A House in the Woods'! We pretended to be the characters and discussed our views of the story. If you haven't already sent in a photo of your child's family, please email it to parents@writtleinfantschool.com or put one in your child's book bag. Thank you!

EYFS

We've learned to use our whiteboards and pens this week, so we're ready to begin our Phonics lessons. We've also been trying on dressing up outfits, so we can put on our clothes by ourselves.

Forest School

We drew on the logs with charcoal and loved watching our hands go black! We also made a gallery of our artwork.

Keeping Children Safe

  • Emergency contact details must be up to date. Please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com if your details have changed.
  • Any food brought to school must not contain nuts or egg-based foods (e.g. egg mayo, scotch egg, omelette etc.).
  • We all have a duty to safeguard the children in our care. If you have any concerns about a child, please contact the school, the Chairs of Governors (if your concern is about a member of teaching staff), or the Essex Child and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627.