porters grange weekly newsletter week ending 13th june 2025

Look out for the letter about IndiRock climbing wall visit on July 2nd and 3rd

Save the dates:

Friday 4th July Year 1 and 2 Sports Afternoon

Thursday 10th July Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 Sports afternoon and picnic at Southchurch Park

Author Visit

📚 Exciting news! Author Jennifer Claessen is visiting our school on 18th June with Jacqueline Johnson from Jacqson Diego Story Emporium! Jennifer will share her journey and sneak peeks from her new series Netta Becker and the Timeline Thief — releasing 26th June but available early just for us! Kids can meet Jennifer and get books signed.

👉 Pre-order to guarantee your copy by 5pm, 17th June:

There’s also an after-school signing (limited copies available). Let’s get reading! 📖✨

Save the date

Monday 7th July to Friday 11th July the travelling book fair will return with an amazing special offer of 3 for the price of 2 on all their books! This is a great way to get some new reads for the summer and raise money for new books for our school.

Nursery

This week we have been talking about our butterflies that we let fly free in the garden. The children we super excited and we thought about where they might fly to. Lots of outside butterfly role play has been amazing to watch. We have also enjoyed soil in the builder's tray and was very sensible when we had our class photo taken.

REMINDER: Please remember to provide the correct clothing for the very changeable weather, as we go outside daily.

Also, if you have any unwanted clothes especially trousers, underwear and socks these would be greatly received. Thank you

Reception

This week all our caterpillars had turned into butterflies, and we were very excited to let them free in the wild garden. In maths we have been revising how to make numbers to 20 and working on addition. The children have been learning to make bridges using various resources such as duplo bricks, wooden dowels, strips of cardboard and masking tape to secure them. They had to test their bridges for strength and durability.

REMINDER: Please check the weather daily and ensure your child has a hat and suncream on the hot days.

Please read regularly at home and sign the reading record book.

Year 1

Year 1 have worked very hard with their phonics screening check this week. Well done everyone! In English, we have recapped nouns, verbs, plurals and suffixes to ensure the children are using them independently in their writing. In maths, we have completed our fractions unit of work and completed our assessments. We are moving onto place value, where we look at numbers from 50-100.

REMINDER: Please bring reading books into school every day. Your child read with many different adults during the week.

PE is on Thursday.

Year 2

Year 2 have learned how to write a postcard from a landmark in Brazil! The three locations are Christ the Redeemer, Iguazu Falls and Copacabana Beach. The children have completed the unit of time. Please support your child to tell the time during the normal routine of their day. They have moved on to the unit of statistics- the children are learning how to fill out tally charts, tables and block diagrams. It has been great fun making Brazilian masks, using lots of different resources to create an end product.

REMINDER: Please make sure your child brings in their reading book every day.

Year 3

This week we have been working towards understanding analogue and digital time. In English we are writing settings and described a river and its surroundings. In science we have set up some tests to complete over time and in history we looked at why the Romans wanted to invade Britain.

REMINDER: Please keep telling the time with your children at home. Remember to bring PE kits on Tuesday and Friday. Please make sure your child has a hat for break times.

Year 4

This week we have completed our workbook on decimals and will be starting a new maths topic of Money very soon! In English lessons we have been learning about the famous story of Beowulf. He fought monsters until he was an old man. The children have been writing descriptions and paragraphs about this story.

REMINDER: Tennis trip letters need to be brought back so that we know your child has permission to come along please.

Year 5

This week, year five have been completing their own newspaper reports – linking back to our litter pick we did earlier in the year. We have been creating catchy headlines, informative bylines and including direct and reported quotes within our work. In maths, we have continued our decimals unit, learning how to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1,000. In history – we looked at the history of Southend, whilst on Tuesday, we took part in an online ‘My Future, My Southend’ workshop.

REMINDER: Please remember to bring in suitable kit (including footwear) for PE lessons on Mondays and Thursdays each week.

Please strive to read each weeknight and record this in your reading records.

Year 6

This week, year 6 have been writing newspaper reports based on their own Tin Forest stories, using a range of features including attention-grabbing headlines and direct and indirect speech. In science, we have identified a range of fossils and considered what the world would be like if fossils didn’t exist. We were fortunate to be able to have one of our PE lessons in Southchurch Park which gave the children more room to move around and enjoy their surroundings.

REMINDER: Year 6 RSE meeting on Thursday 19th 3:45 – 4:15pm.

We are starting to design our own plushies. Children can bring theirs in to show the class if they want. They will be making them from unwanted fabric so they may ask you if they can bring in an old T shirt or top. Please be aware, we will be cutting them up!

Year 6 next week

Stubbers Residential Trip – children can wear non-uniform to school on Monday.

Non-residential children (the rest of the children) – children wear school uniform every day next week.

Music

Well done to all the children in the choir who have been working hard to learn the songs for the Junior Music Festival taking place tonight (Friday13th June) at the Cliffs Pavilion. They have developed brilliantly as singers and performers and are bound to shine brightly on the stage as they join a further 350 children from other schools in the Southend area.

Instrumental Tuition -

• Tuesday am Guitar – Mr Brown
• Wednesday am Guitar – Mr Elliot
• Wednesday am Keyboard – Mr Hockey
• Wednesday am Drums – Mr Peters

WE HAVE SOME AVAILABILITY FOR NEW PUPILS TO START LEARNING AN INSTRUMENT – CONTACT MRS BAINES (through the school office) FOR INFORMATION.

PE & Sports

A huge ‘well done’ to all those who were chosen to represent the school for Borough Sports on Tuesday 1oth June. We worked hard which made me and all of the other staff extremely proud. Massive ‘Congratulations’ go to those who came back with a medal or sticker for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Go Porters!

French

This week, year one have enjoyed a song about saying your name and asking other people theirs and have reinforced this with a good deal of written practise. Year three have spoken and written in French about how we made the origami kite last week; year six have further practised their use of relative clauses in describing pictures, which will really help them when they start their GCSE languages courses in September this year.

Community

Cost of Living Advice

Click here to access cost of living advice from Southend City Council. It contains information on housing support, energy cost advice and benefits and support for those with children.