Friars Weekly Newsletter

Nursery

Welcome back to the second half of the spring term. Everyone came in happily and we have even seen the sunshine this week.  This week we have enjoyed being outside where we have introduced our wooden hut as a staged area. The children have enjoyed playing the instruments, singing some familiar songs and dancing to an audience.  During group time we have introduced 1:1 correspondence, this being the importance of accurately counting how many objects there are, we will continue to practise this over the half term.   Thank you to everyone who came along to our first 'Stay and Play' of this half term, as always, the children are very excited to see their visitors and share the fun they have during their sessions. 

Reception

We have been really pleased to see the children back in school this week. They have told us about their half-term activities. We have been learning about length and height, identifying which items are longer or shorter and which are taller or shorter. 

Our new class book is Rumble in the Jungle. We have discussed the animals and what the jungle is like, as well as encouraging the children to ask questions about them.

There have been a few sunnier days, and more are forecast, please ensure that your child has a named water bottle in school, thank you.

REMINDER: Reading books and library books are collected in every Thursday. 

Year 1

This week we started a story called “The Secret Sky Garden” about a girl who planted a garden in an old, disused carpark. We had lots of fun re-enacting the story in a drama lesson which gave us the chance to think of some interesting vocabulary to use in our writing. We then had a go at some descriptive writing and thought about the carpark before she cleared it and then after.  In maths, we have started to look at place value with numbers to 50.  We had a lot of fun designing our DT project this week. We are going to be using the skills we learnt last half term to create our own moving picture, spring cards.  In PSHE we thought about what it means to have a healthy diet, sorting foods into their different food groups and thinking about things that are good to have regularly and those that we like to have as a treat. Well done Year 1.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 1 - Swimming Lessons - 24.02.2026

Year 2

During this half term we will be learning about significant people and events in history. This week we learnt about Florence Nightingale and her impact upon nursing and hospitals. The children learnt how to read a text in order to identify the key facts. They used bullet points to make notes to support their writing at the end of the week. In maths this week, we have continued to learn about multiplication and division using our knowledge of the 10x and 5x tables to solve word problems.  Within our foundation subjects we have been learning about the UK, including the cities and seas. The children enjoyed exploring these features using Google Earth and used atlases to locate places to add to their own maps. Investigating seeds and fruits featured in our first science lesson this term. The children discovered why plants have seeds and the many different shapes and sizes that can be found just in the food we eat. 

REMINDER: Thank you for listening to your children read at home. This really supports their reading development and allows them to practise skills such as decoding, as well as retrieval skills when discussing what they have read. Please add comments to their Reading Record to share their successes with us at school. 😊

Year 3

In English, we have been reading the exciting book Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit. The children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the story and imagining what it would have been like during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. We have been focusing on using powerful verbs to make our writing more exciting and vivid. Instead of saying “ran,” we have been using words like “sprinted,” “raced,” and “dashed.” The children have worked very hard to create dramatic and detailed sentences. In maths, we have started our new topic on fractions. We began by learning what fractions represent and how they show equal parts of a whole. The children have been identifying halves, quarters, and thirds, and using practical resources to help them understand. We will continue building our confidence with recognising and comparing fractions over the coming weeks. In science, we have launched our new topic: Light! The children are already curious and full of questions. We have started learning about different light sources and how light helps us to see. Soon, we will be investigating shadows and discovering how they are formed. We are very excited for the experiments ahead!

REMINDER: Year 3 have started to practise for their year group assembly and teachers have handed out some words for your children to practise. If possible, please try to practise them at home as it will help with your child’s confidence to read their words for the big performance! Thank you.

Year 4

We have had a fantastic first week back after half term in Year 4. During English, we began writing non-chronological reports linked to World War Two, choosing from topics such as the role of women in the war, evacuation or rationing. Particular attention was given to using fronted adverbials, accurate commas and clear paragraphs to organise our ideas effectively. In maths lessons, our focus has been fractions. We explored the whole, mixed numbers, partitioning and fractions beyond 1, building our confidence with reasoning and representation. History lessons explored the role of the armed forces, where we identified essential items a soldier would carry or wear and discussed their importance.

Meanwhile, in science, we examined ecosystems and how they are affected by the seasons, including how the Earth’s movement around the sun causes seasonal changes. As part of PSHE, we discussed emotions and feelings, recognising how they can affect people and identifying strategies to manage big emotions, as well as trusted adults we can talk to.

RE sessions began comparing and contrasting key rites of passage within three different religions.

Our new PE unit is handball; we have been learning how to move with the ball while developing catching, throwing and defending skills in the glorious weather. In music, we created an improvised accompaniment to the instrumental section of our current song, showing creativity and teamwork. Well done to everyone for such a positive start to the new half-term.  

Year 5

What a busy start to the week already! We hope you all had a lovely, restful week.   On Tuesday the children were back focusing their efforts with further use of decimals and fractions. Year 5 have been looking at thousandths and placing them in place value charts, as well as solving problems and comparing. We look forward to furthering this knowledge with use of percentages. We are seeing improved speeds with the answering of TT Rockstars. Let's keep this up Year 5 and improve further! Don't forget to keep practising at home too.   In our English work we revisited the use of parenthesis which gives more detail to the reader. The children were showing off their skills of the comma, brackets and dashes to demonstrate this technique. We are starting to delve further into narrative work.   We are still seeing improved skills on the ukuleles...watch this space about further performance options we have coming up!    5AW have had the pleasure of working with Mr. Brady outside for outdoor learning. They have been exploring grid references with maps. An important life skill!    5B will start their outdoor learning next week.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 5- Careers Week Visit - 25.02.2026

Year 6

Year 6 have had a great first week back and have settled straight back into learning. One particular highlight were the debates we had this week in RE. Well done to everyone for talking through ideas in a very mature manner. Next week we have a practice SATs Week. These weeks are important in preparing the children for the real tests in May. Our practices do help to put the children at ease so that they know what to fully expect. Sadly, Mrs. Bailey has been unwell this week so the Year 6 children have seen a lot more of Mrs. Pinckney. Thank you Mrs. Pinckney for stepping in...

Computing

Our computing lessons will start again next week... Watch this space...

Sports & PE

Before the half-term break on the final Friday, we had a team of Key Stage 1 footballers head to the Len Forge Activity Centre. This time it was for a KS1 football tournament with other schools from across Southend. The team was excited to represent the school and did a great job despite coming up against some strong teams. Congratulations to everyone involved for their individual and team performances. Finally, in school, we have had a week where the weather has seen more children outside for PE lessons and enjoying the space we have at Friars. This half-term will see some classes enjoying yoga sessions as well as their usual PE activities.  Year 2 was very fortunate to begin dance lessons with Miss Rebecca from the Amanda Restell Academy of Dance. The children were all incredibly enthusiastic and many said they would be practising the routines outside of school!

Online Safety

Adult animated content is increasingly visible on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and streaming services. While the bright visuals and cartoon style may seem harmless at first glance, many of these shows and clips are created specifically for mature audiences, featuring strong language, sexual references, graphic violence and unsettling themes.

This #WakeUpWednesday guide helps parents and educators understand the risks, from misleading visuals and algorithm-driven recommendations to desensitisation and edgy humour. It also offers practical advice on platform settings, open conversations and building children’s critical thinking, so young people can navigate online animation safely and confidently.