Weekly News – Friday 4th July

Dear Parents,

We’ve all braved the heat this week, as temperatures soared both outside and in! Well done to the children for being so sensible and to you all for providing all necessary sun protection and water bottles. Our air-conditioned library was suddenly the most popular room in the school! Our Foxes and Squirrels stayed cool in the shaded Forest School area for their Summer Fun Day on Tuesday. They had a brilliant day with activities in the morning that included making a musical instrument out of recycled materials and a Teddy Bears Picnic at lunchtime. Both classes had a workshop in the afternoon with Saul from The Junk Orchestra. They loved the ingenious instruments he had crafted from oil drums, bike wheels, pipes and even flip flops! Saul was full of praise for the children's behaviour and engagement in the workshops, so thank you to them all. Thank you to the staff for organising such a great day for our Foxes and Squirrels. 

Summer Fair

It was wonderful to see so many families at the joint Summer Fair on Saturday. Thank you to our incredible PTA for their relentless hard work and dedication to organising this huge event and to all the volunteers who gave up their time on Saturday to help the day run smoothly. The final amount raised was £5,660 which will be shared across both schools. This astonishing figure is the result of your donations and generosity. It will make an enormous difference to the resources we offer to children in both the Infant and Junior schools, so we are very grateful to you all. Thanks to our fabulous Cheerleaders and Mini Musicals participants for their amazing performances, pictured here!

Annual Reports/Meet the Teacher

Next week you will receive your child’s annual report and notification of their new class and teacher for 2025 - 2026. It is an exciting time for the children and they will all spend the morning in their new classroom on Wednesday 9th July. Parents and children are invited to meet your child’s new teacher on Monday 14th July from 3.15 - 4pm. Our new intake will also be visiting the school on Wednesday morning and we look forward to seeing and speaking to them at doorstep visits and phone calls next week. 

Work Experience Placements

Thank you to Harrison, Jacob, Simran, Becky and Rosie - Year 11 and 12 pupils from local secondary schools who have all been in to help your children over the last 2 weeks. Some are former pupils and it is always a pleasure to welcome them back, they're always amazed at how small everything seems compared to their current school! We are always very happy to support placements for young people interested in future careers in education and they all showed a hard-working and positive attitude which is a delight to see.

Reading Books

Primary | Primary English | Collins Big Cat All Phonics – Tagged "other-book-media-format" – Page 10

Please keep hunting for any school reading books you may have at home. We would love to see as many books as possible returned before the summer holidays as there are lots missing in school. You can access e-books through the Collins library, personal login details were emailed to you in December, or ask the school office for details.

Clubs

The final Yoga, Gymnastics and Football sessions take place next week. Please see the updated clubs timetable for more details.

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.

As we start to think about the summer holidays, please take a look at our Community Links page for lots of ideas for activities and child care options.

Best wishes,

Tracey Wilson

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

After playing instruments with The Junk Orchestra, have a look at some videos (down the bottom of the page) https://thejunkorchestra.co.uk/you-tube-channel/ and see if you can have a go at making one of your own.

Highlights of the week

EYFS

The children had their Teddy Bear picnic on Tuesday and had a wonderful time making crowns and beds for their teddies. They made musical instruments out of junk and had a great time, there was so much laughter to be heard! In the afternoon, the children played a variety of instruments made from junk with Saul from The Junk Orchestra. They all loved this! Thank you to the staff involved in such a great day and well done to the children too!

Year 1

This week Year 1 have created detailed shells using clay and have written wonderful postcards!

Year 2

This week, we’ve been keeping cool in the classroom while staying busy with our production rehearsals—it’s looking great! In English, we’ve been focusing on improving our sentence structure, and in maths, we’ve wrapped up our unit on time and begun exploring position and direction.

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.