Weekly News – Friday 9th May

Dear Parents,

What a special week we have had. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in photos of their loved ones and visited our VE Day gallery yesterday, what an amazing response! It has been our honour to celebrate your family members who served, or serve, in the armed forces and also to hear some incredible stories about the war effort. The children learned a song which has been specially written for the 80th Anniversary of VE Day. You can hear it being sung in our poignant video, which we hope you will enjoy.

Thank you to our governors Reverend Tony and Mrs Gentle who came to our celebration assembly on Thursday morning. We were also delighted to welcome our new governors, Mr Colthurst, Mr Dempster-Johnson and Mr Dorman for an extended visit on the same day. They visited every classroom to observe the children's learning in action and joined us for a lunchtime indoor street party which had a wonderful atmosphere, with music from the 1940s and bunting strewn across the hall. We even had our very own flypast by the Red Arrows - take a look at the video for all the fun! It is a stark contrast to our celebrations 5 years ago, when the pandemic meant that many of the staff were waving from their gardens!

We hope that the children have understood the significance of the anniversary and that by sharing collective memories from within our school community, we have made events which occurred a long time ago seem much more real and close to home. They have each brought home their commemorative poppy artwork, thank you to the PTA for funding this for us.

3 Tees Cricket

Well done to our Year 2 cricketers who played absolutely brilliantly at a competition on Tuesday. Each team played 4 very good matches - the scores couldn’t have been closer! We ended the competition with a 2nd and 4th place and we couldn’t be prouder, particularly as we were all so cold! Massive thank you to our parent supporters too who braved the weather!

Health Advice

A reminder that every Tuesday afternoon we offer a Health Advice Drop-In service with one of the school-age health practitioners. The team are available in the library for you to discuss any health concerns about your child(ren). Please click here to book an appointment.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Best wishes,

Tracey Wilson

Forest School Update

We have spoken about snails this week and the children have learned lots of facts about them! It was a chilly week with many children feeling the cold, so please ensure they have coats and jumpers, as even when it is warm on the playground it can be much cooler in our shaded area!

Home learning

Home Learning Passports

Please try to complete this half term's passports and email any work or photos to parents@writtleinfantschool.com.

Year 1 Home Learning Passport - Summer 1 2025

Year 2 Home Activity Passport - Summer 1 2025

Spelling Practice

There is also some spelling practice for Year 1 and Year 2 below.

All Year 1 children will undertake the phonics screening check in June. The link below gives you more information about the check. This term we are revising Phase 5 phonemes in preparation for the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) in June. Please practise the words in the spelling document below with your child, to help support them with their reading. Please also continue reading with your child at home. Some children will be sent home with phonemes and words practise reading in order to help them prepare for the screening check.

Year 2 Spelling Practice - Summer 1, Week 4

Year 1 Maths

Miss Smith has prepared a document which should help you if you would like to give your child additional support with their maths at home.

Year 1 - Ways to support your child with maths at home

Topic Maps

We have also published our topic maps for the this half term, so you can see what the children will cover in all areas of the Key Stage 1 Curriculum.

Year 1 Topic Plan, Summer 1
Year 2 Topic Plan, Summer 1

PTA Update

Inflatables Fun – Friday 23rd May, 3.15-5.30pm

It’s only 2 weeks until our annual Inflatables Funevent and tickets are now on sale.  The school field will be transformed into a bouncy wonderland with assault courses, slides and castles galore, plus ice-cream and refreshments to keep everyone going! Online sales will close at 6pm on Wednesday 21stMay.  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 or scan the QR code on posters around the schools.

https://square.link/u/Jq7cL9Hb

Summer Fair – Saturday 28th June

The countdown is on to the annual Writtle Infant & Junior School Summer Fair, from 11.30am – 2.00pmon *Saturday 28th June*.  Look out next week for raffle tickets, we have a huge number of fantastic prizes to be won including Chelmsford City Racecourse grandstand tickets, passes for Go Ape and Ninja Warrior, Premier League match tickets, meals at your favourite local establishments and lots more.

The fair is only ever a success with the help of lots of volunteers, so we need plenty of hands to run all the fun stalls.  If you are able to volunteer please let your PTA class-rep know, or email wispacharity@gmail.com (thanks to everyone who has already offered their help).

There are lots of stalls to help on, but we specifically need people with skills in the following:

  • *Face Painting*
  • *Hair braiding*
  • *Football goalies*

Please give us a shout if you can do any of the above.

We also have a couple of non-uniform days coming up...

  • *Friday 20th June*- in return for donations of cuddly toys and bottles
  • *Friday 27th June* - in return for donations of cakes and sweets

More information will be sent closer to these dates.

Discounted tickets

Adventure Island tickets
We have just 4 discounted tickets for Adventure Island left, with dates now extended to the end of 2025 – but these are the last so when they’re gone, they’re gone.  Please allow 48 hours from order so we can arrange distribution - get yours via the link: https://square.link/u/ZNuQtufZ

Discounted Barleylands tickets

Please allow 48 hours from order for distribution - get yours via the link: https://square.link/u/GoOZH0e5

Keeping Children Safe

  • Thanks to those parents who have supported us in protecting the children’s privacy by waiting on the path by the main entrance until 3pm.
  • 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.

Highlights of the week

Year 1

Year 1 have learnt all about VE day and created beautiful canvases. We enjoyed celebrating VE day and thinking about our relatives that were around during the war. We have also continued practising doubles!

Year 2

This week, Year 2 have been working hard on their division, continuing with their Grey Island Red Boat book and exploring the artist Jackson Pollock. Some of our Year 2's also competed in a 3 Tee's Cricket competition at King's Road Primary School, we are so proud of all of you!