Weekly News – Friday 17th May

Dear Parents,

Thank you to WISPA for organising a very successful Bag2School collection on Monday morning! Some thorough clearing out of wardrobes has definitely been had, so I hope you are enjoying the extra room! Remember WISPA are running the Inflatables Afternoon next Friday, tickets have sold like hot cakes and more information is available below.

National Numeracy Day, Wednesday 22nd May

Next Wednesday we will be celebrating National Numeracy Day with a series of activities to encourage a love of all things numerical! Some children have entered a drawing competition to show how they would use maths in their future jobs, they were very inventive! We would love your support with the children at home to develop their maths skills. They could recognise 2D and 3D shapes (look at food packets in the kitchen) or counting as they go up and down the stairs. We recommend you take a look at the White Rose 1 Minute Maths app as it is a brilliant way to improve your children's fluency and confidence with their maths.

Free Maths course for parents - £10 Amazon voucher for all attendees!

We are delighted to say that we have 15 places available on a FREE Maths course for parents to be held in school from 1 - 3pm on Wednesday 5th and 12th June. You can learn about how maths is taught in school and come home with free resources to support your child with their maths. This is suitable for parents of ALL year groups, as it focuses on maths for children aged 5 to 7. Please sign up here or speak to the office if you want to find out more information.

NSPCC Pantosaurus

This morning in assembly I shared the NSPCC Pantosaurus story and sang the Pantosaurus song with the whole school, as there have been some instances of inappropriate behaviour among the children, which of course we take very seriously. We would encourage you to watch this video with your child and remind them that private areas are just that, private. Children must never be afraid to say no, or stop anything that makes them uncomfortable and that they should speak to a grown up immediately if they are upset by anyone's behaviour.

Forest School

Mrs Winsley, Mrs Stobbie and the children have been very busy in Forest School lessons, planting up pots and troughs around the school to ensure we have wonderful displays of flowers in the summer. Sadly we have discovered that many of the seedlings and young plants have been pulled out at break and lunch time. I have explained to the children this morning that growing plants are delicate and must be nurtured, so that they can benefit everyone and make us all feel happy. We would love the children to develop a healthy respect for nature as we need our plants and trees to protect the environment for their future. We would be grateful if you could reinforce this message at home too.

The last Year 1 and Year 2 Forest School lessons of the year will be held next week! Year 1 will get their turn again in September, while Year 2 will enjoy the Forest School provision at the Junior School. Dust off your wellies, Foundation Stage, as after half term, Squirrels will have Forest School lessons on Tuesdays and Foxes on Thursdays.

School Uniform

Our uniform supplier One Stop Schoolgear has published information today about ordering school uniform for the coming academic year. Please take a look as we know it is a busy time of year for them.

Walk to School Week

Next week is officially Walk to School Week 2024. We always encourage eco-friendly methods of travel wherever possible, but if you do need to drive then perhaps one morning next week, park a little further away and enjoy the early summer sunshine on your stroll into school! Thank you for your support.

Avia's Princess Ball

A reminder to our Year 2 parents that Avia would love to see you at her Princess Ball this weekend. Details have been emailed to you all in ParentMail.

Enjoy the weekend, half term isn't long away now!

Best wishes

Tracey Wilson

Essentials for next week

  • A reminder that the children must have suitable sun protection this term, including water bottles, sun hats and sunscreen applied before school. Raincoats are still a useful backup plan!!
  • Please remember your child's additional daily snack in a named box.
  • Please try to take good care of our school reading books as they are very expensive. Thank you to parents who have generously replaced books that have been damaged.
  • Please check the Lost Property box in reception for any missing items and use the half term break to ensure all clothing and footwear is labelled!
  • If you are interested in volunteering, please speak to the office.
  • Please check the diary dates for details of upcoming events.

Message from WISPA

Inflatable Fun Day – Friday 24th May

Online sales for tickets will close at 6pm on Tuesday 21st  May.  Don’t worry though, if you miss the online sales you can still buy wristbands for your children on the door from 3.15pm.

Book advance tickets via the link;  https://square.link/u/063c9gP1

Bag2School

Thank you to everyone who donated on Monday – as a community we sent over 300kg of unwanted clothes and fabrics for recycling and raised £130 for our schools.  Look out for the next collection in the Autumn term!

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 discussed materials and their properties, then designed & made a boat in DT from various materials. These were then tested to see if they would float or sink! A few did sadly sink! Some children have started to put their ‘bug hunt’ data onto an Excel spreadsheet to turn into a graph! It’s all happening in Year 2!

Year 1

This week we have been creating soundscapes in groups to add atmosphere to part of our book ‘The Marvellous Moon Map’. We used body percussion, objects and our voices to represent certain words like ‘rustled’. We then performed our sounds whilst our teachers read the story. We also made a group piece of art work to go with our soundscapes.

EYFS

This week the children have been experiencing 2D shapes and tangrams. The children have been exploring how to make different shapes and images using 2D shapes put together in different ways.

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.