Weekly News – Friday 6th June

Dear Parents,

We hope you enjoyed the half term holiday. The downpours have certainly caused some excitement in school! Please make sure children have coats in school and changes of clothes for Forest School as we have got through a lot of spares this week! Thank you for all the donations to Farleigh Hospice today, we raised over £140. We look forward to the launch of their Buzz in the City art project in early July, we will remind you about it then so you can look out for our painted bee! We also welcomed new parents for meetings this week about their child's induction in September. As you will now be aware, Miss Smith and Mr Williams will be the class teachers for Squirrels and Foxes respectively, which means that Mrs Giles will move up to Turtles class in Year 1. All other class teachers will remain the same as this year.

Attendance

Please could we remind all parents that term time holidays cannot be authorised. As a school we have noted an increase in requests for leave, many of which are not due to exceptional circumstances. Can we ask for your support in ensuring that children attend school every day, on time.

Next Week

Year 1 will have their phonics screening next week. The assessment is a short, one to one session with the class teacher and the children actually enjoy the process, so please don't worry. The only thing you need to do to prepare is to make sure your child has a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast in the morning! The result will be shared with you in July. There are also some fun activities planned for next week: Jolly Jazz dance workshops for every class on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning Drama 4 All will return to give the children a drama workshop, with the theme of Jungle Rumble! We can't wait to see the children perform!

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.

Best wishes,

Tracey Wilson

Forest School Update

We released froglets into the pond on Tuesday, we are so lucky to have the pond on our school grounds and to watch the wildlife around it every day.
We rescued a bee from a spider's web! The children noticed a spider attacking the bee, so we helped it get out of the web and took as much web off her legs as we could. She was very sticky and struggling to fly away, but she managed it in the end. The spider did have other food on his web.
It was so wet on Thursday that there were snails everywhere, there were 57 snails collected at one point! We had a snail race, which took some time to finish, but the children waited to see who won!
We have many ladybird larvae on the leaves of the trees, so the children know each stage before it grows into the ladybird we all know and love!

Home learning

Spelling Practice

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

Year 1 children will undertake the phonics screening check next week. 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 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

EYFS Tapestry Challenge

Your child will come home with their wildflower seed bomb either today or early next week. The idea is that your child can throw it into woodland or onto the countryside. The seeds are native to England and are flowers that bees will enjoy. Hopefully the ball will degrade and the seeds will germinate. The children have been told not to throw it into theirs or anyone else's garden without a grown up's permission! Please let us know how the children get on via Tapestry. Have a good weekend!

PTA Update

We hope you all had a lovely half-term!  A big thank you to everyone who helped make the inflatables event such a success on the last day before the break.  The event raised £890 and there were so many happy faces.

Sports Day – Tuesday 24th June

Your lovely PTA volunteers will once again be providing refreshments at Sports Day.  Come along for cold drinks, snacks and raffle tickets - cash and card accepted.

Summer Fair – Saturday 28th June

Our next event is the biggest of the year, the annual Writtle Infant & Junior School Summer Fair, from 11.30am – 2.00pm on *Saturday 28th June*.  Next week you’ll see raffle tickets coming home, with instructions on how to buy; don’t miss out, 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.

We still need more volunteers to run stalls, and to help prepare on Friday 27th June, collect donations on dress-down days, set-up on the day and clear up after.  If you are able to help with even a few hours of your time, please let your PTA class-rep know, email wispacharity@gmail.com, or let one of the school offices know (thanks to everyone who has already offered their help).

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.

Highlights of the week

EYFS

What a busy week! We have continued to learn all about bees, following on for the children's fun in Forest School last week. The children have been making wildflower seed bombs to take home and grow bee friendly flowers. In phonics we have been learning how to read and write longer words and it's lovely to see the children growing in confidence. In maths, we were introduced to the rekenrek which is a kind of counting frame that the children will be using regularly in Year 1.

Year 1

This week we have been revising some of the phonemes for the phonics screening check next week, especially the split digraphs! We have also enjoyed making up a story about Bear and Mouse and written our own.

Year 2

In spite of the rain, we flew to sunny Kenya in our Geography as an introduction to our final topic of the year! We've also been continuing with our fractions this week and working on our grammar in English. Keep going, Year 2, you're doing brilliantly!

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.