Weekly News – Friday 2nd February

Dear Parents

We start this week's news by crossing over to the Sports Desk with Mrs Scott-Simons, for her report on some brilliant competition news!

"On Tuesday 30th January, myself, Miss Smith and Miss Wakeling had the pleasure of taking 13 Year 1 and 2 cheerleaders to a competition. The girls have all worked REALLY hard on their routine (dancing to S Club 7's Reach) and even put up with us making changes at the last minute! They looked beautiful in their shimmering blue outfits and made us all so proud. If they were nervous, they didn't show it as they smiled and performed their routine with ease and took second place. Well done team, you really did reach for the Stars!"

It's a fabulous result for our children to achieve 2nd place in a competition against other local schools. Not only that, the Year 3 cheerleaders at WJS also achieved 2nd place in their competition! Thank you to them and also our lovely Year 6 helpers, Jess and Lucia, for accompanying and looking after our cheerleading team. The squad demonstrated their amazing routine in assembly this morning. We also celebrated some marvellous maths work from Year 1 and some wonderful writers in Year 2. The children were asked to draft letters from characters in the book "Moon Dragons" and Mr Taylor and I were particularly impressed with Charlie's work. His composition, vocabulary and handwriting are remarkable for his age - well done Charlie!

It was great to see Parrots' parents in school on Wednesday for lunch with the class. Turtles is next week, while Foxes and Squirrels will have their turn after half term. We welcome your feedback about the school meals and will be inviting you to complete a short survey about your experience, so that we can pass on your views to our caterer.

Appointment bookings for our Parents' Evenings will open at 5pm today on ParentMail. These will take place on Tuesday 13th February, 5 - 8pm and Thursday 15th February, 3.30 - 6pm. You can discuss your child's progress or raise issues at any time with their class teacher in the first instance. Please contact us via the school office and they will arrange a phone call, email or meeting in person with your child's teacher. If further action is required, you are very welcome to make an appointment with me.

It was lovely to see lots of familiar faces at Messy Church last Sunday. We hope to see you again next time on Sunday 25th February, 10am. A reminder to check our Community Links page for local events, activities, teacher training opportunities, SEND and NHS notices.

As I'm sure you're aware, attendance is key issue for all schools. A high level of school attendance is the best way for your child to progress their learning, which is why every parent has a legal duty to ensure their child attends school and also why we are unable to authorise planned absences, unless there are exceptional circumstances. We are also keen to ensure that children are not late to school. Our doors open at 8.40am and learning begins as soon as the children enter the classroom. If your child is 10 minutes late daily, they are missing nearly an hour of their education per week. All classes start their day with Phonics and Reading lessons, so please be punctual to ensure that your child does not miss out on this crucial part of their day. We have updated our Common Illnesses page which gives NHS advice as to whether you should keep your child at home and also those conditions for which your pharmacist can now prescribe medication. We will always call you to come and collect your child if we feel they are not well enough to be in school.

The current after school clubs will continue after half term, with the addition of 2 lunchtime clubs: Cheerleading on Tuesdays and Spanish on Wednesdays if there is sufficient interest. You will hear more about booking cheerleading club places next week - we know this will be a popular club, so we will maintain a waiting list if you are not able to secure a place this time.

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes
Tracey Wilson

Essentials for next week!

  • Please transport and store our precious reading books separately from water bottles! We are sad to see many books with water damage, they are very costly, so please take care of them.
  • 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!
  • We are lucky to benefit from many parent helpers in school, as well as governors like Mrs Gentle and Reverend Tony who come to read with the children regularly. If you are interested in volunteering, please speak to the office.
  • 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

Drama, dragons, dance, and a sprinkle of money were the main ingredients to this week in Year 2! The children wrote some truly superb letters about discovering the Moon Dragons - well done to them all!

Year One

We talked about people who help us and spoke about the police force and what detectives do. We then tried to become detectives ourselves this week! We used evidence to find out what happened to Rolf; the good little wolf and Mrs Boggins. We took it in turns to hot seat the characters by asking questions. We then wrote down questions and tried using question marks.

EYFS

This week we have been making dens inside the classroom and outside. The children have been very creative with their ideas!

Forest School

We celebrated Hedgehog Day which is today (Friday) by making clay hedgehogs, using pine cones for the body. We've enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather this week!

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.