Weekly News – Friday 19th January

Dear Parents

What a very cold week it has been! Thank you for making sure your children have winter clothing to keep them warm, I know we are expecting a drastic change in temperature next week, but please continue to ensure they are prepared for all weathers.

Today we celebrated the children's achievements in assembly, including some amazing artists! Year 2 have produced some brilliant work this week related to their topic, Dragon Quest.

This week Foxes had a particularly chilly walk to Writtle Library, in the last of our class visits for this term. Remember the Essex Libraries’ Winter Reading Challenge ends soon, we'd love your child to take part. We also welcomed Sharks parents for lunch and the children loved sharing a lunchtime with their grown-ups. Dolphins are next Wednesday, please check our diary dates for future parent lunches.

Please ensure you take a look at the home learning activity passports for Years 1 and 2. The teachers offer ideas for engaging activities that are not just academic but also develop the children's practical skills, wellbeing and independence. These have been designed to complement the half termly topics, details of which can be found in our topic maps so that you can see what your child will be learning in each area of the curriculum.

Finally, please take a look through our Community Links page for lots of useful resources, events and support. Currently we have details of the next Messy Church, half term activity camps, teacher training opportunities, SEND and NHS notices. The school receives lots of information to distribute to parents and this is the best way to disseminate it to you, so please keep checking the page for updates.

Stay warm this weekend and we look forward to some higher temperatures next week!

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson

Essentials for next week!

  • Children must stay at home for 48 hours after the last instance of vomiting or diarrhoea. We have seen some nasty sick bugs in school and they can spread like wildfire if we are not vigilant.
  • In cold weather, coats, gloves, hats, scarves and warm layers are essential for PE kits and Forest School. Even if they are not the school colours, we would rather the children were warm than have unsuitable clothing and be uncomfortably cold!
  • Please ensure every item of clothing and footwear is named, as our Lost Property box is already overflowing and it is only the start of term!
  • Please check the diary dates for details of upcoming events.

Home Learning

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

Highlights of the week

Year 2

We have dived deeper into our class text 'Moon Dragons' and thoroughly enjoyed reading the story and learning new vocabulary. We also created some beautiful artwork of dragons flying over mountain ranges. Dolphins have had fun coding this week, looking at algorithms. Sharks will be doing the same next week.

Year One

We loved reading our new text Good Little Wolf. We started to explore the concept of twisted tales and have come up with some excellent adjectives to describe wolves!

EYFS

Foxes and Squirrels have had a brilliant time this week learning our poem 'Popcorn'. We also popped some kernels and enjoyed eating it!

Forest School

On Tuesday we learnt some amazing worm facts while finding worms, made sure the birds had enough food and replenished the bug homes with hay to keep them cosy during the cold weather. On Thursday we kept warm with hot chocolates and lots of physical activity!

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.