Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- Pupil leadership news
- Breakfast Club and Extended Schools reminders
- Curriculum Evenings... next week!
- Key Stage 2 Tuck Shop reminder
- Learning updates from each class
- Asda... please help. See the PTA section for information
September is fully up and running and I must say it has been a truly excellent start to the new academic year. The children have settled back into routines so well and it has been lovely to welcome our Reception new starters this week. It is such a privilege to do the job that I do and at such a happy school with such amazing children!
A big job this week was appointing many of the children to different leadership positions. Roles included school councillors, prefects and librarians. Prefects and librarians are Year 6 pupils whereas School Council comprises children from across Year 2 to Year 6. Well done to all. Members of our School Council for 2024-25 are: Harry, Ava, Shai and Cali-Rose in Year 2, Adwitya, Tanner, George and Albert in Year 3, Ollie, Mya, Nicky and Aaliyah in Year 4, Daisy, Beth, Etty and Bay in Year 5 and Reggie, Bow, Daisy and Harrison in Year 6. We really value the contributions and positive difference the children can make in these roles.
Next week is a busy one as many of our autumn clubs get up and running. We continue as a school to provide a large number of free clubs, which sets us apart from many other schools. Next week we have dodgeball clubs for Year 2, Year 3 and 4, and Year 5 and 6 starting. We also have Year 5 and 6 football as well as the Key Stage 2 choir. Having so many clubs means a great number of our children have wider learning opportunities and chances to pursue their interests! More clubs will be starting later in the term and... Year 1... there will be clubs for you too in the new year. Also next week, we have our Cross Country trials. Good luck to those children who have returned their attendance slips and will be joining us.
Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday.
Mr. Chris McClay, Principal
Breakfast Club and Extended Schools
Our Breakfast Club and Extended Schools provision both started back on our very first day. Our Breakfast Club is free but there is a sizeable waiting list to join as we can only accommodate so many children. If your child does have a place for Breakfast Club and you no longer need the place, please do notify the school office as soon as possible as we will be able to quickly fill the spot. Also, please ensure that if your child has a place it is used. If a child is not attending Breakfast Club it might be that the space has to be withdrawn. Extended Schools is a paid for service (£8 per session) and must be booked for in advance by the previous Friday through ParentPay. Collection is a prompt 5:30pm.
Curriculum Evenings
Next week we our hosting our Curriculum Evenings. The sessions are a chance for you to hear from your child's teacher(s) about the year ahead and ask any questions you may have. Please do try to pop along for tea, coffee, biscuits and plenty of information. Please see the Diary Dates in this newsletter for a reminder about days and times.
Mr. McClay, Principal
Key Stage 2 Tuck Shop
Just a reminder that each day we have our tuck shop for Years 3 to 6 in operation...
What can the children buy?
• We sell a range of fruit and other snacks as per government guidelines. All fruit and snack items cost 30p.
• On a Wednesday, the children are able to buy a reduced sugar milkshake as a midweek treat, these are sold for 50p.
Please ensure that your child has the correct change (or as close to the correct change as possible). No notes please. The children are responsible for their own money; teachers do not collect it in.
Children can purchase one fruit/snack item each but on a Wednesday they are able to purchase one fruit/snack item and one milkshake if they so wish. Snacks and milkshakes are subject to availability and sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
You can of course send your child in with their own healthy snack rather than purchasing from our tuck shop. Please can we remind you that we are a Healthy School and snacks must reflect this.
Diary Dates
September
- Monday 16th - Reception 1st Day
- Cross Country Trials for Y5/6 8:00am KS2 Gate
- After-school Y5/6 Dodgeball starts. Finishes at 4:15pm. Collection from the Meeting Room next to the KS2 Gate
- Tuesday 17th - Cross Country Trials for Y3/4 8:00am KS2 Gate
- After-school Y2 Dodgeball starts. Finishes at 4:15pm. Collection from the Meeting Room next to the KS2 Gate
- Year 1 Curriculum Evening 5pm
- Year 2 Curriculum Evening 5:30pm
- Wednesday 18th - Before-school Choir starts. 8:15am KS1 Hall
- After-school Y3/4 Dodgeball starts. Finishes at 4:15pm. Collection from the Meeting Room next to the KS2 Gate
- Year 3 Curriculum Evening 5pm
- Year 5 Curriculum Evening 5:30pm
- Thursday 19th - After-school Y5/6 Football starts. Finishes at 4:15pm. Collection from the KS2 Gate
- Year 4 Curriculum Evening 5:00pm
- Year 6 Curriculum Evening 5:30pm
- Saturday 21st - 11+ Selection Test
- Tuesday 24th - Introduction to Phonics Meetings at 9:00am and 2:00pm. KS1 Hall
October
- Tuesday 8th - Portico PE Festival
- Friday 11th - Southend Cross Country Competition - KS1 am / KS2 pm
- Monday 28th - Friday 1st November - October Half Term
Nursery
Welcome back Nursery! What a great week it has been. I have been super proud of how well the returning children have come back and continued exactly where they left off. And of course, a huge welcome to our new children and families who have started this week, after a lovely home visit and a couple of excellently attended 'stay and play' sessions. Everyone appears settled and ready for the year ahead. Over the holiday the nursery staff spent a long time reorganising the nursery layout and setting up new areas. The children have really enjoyed exploring and playing within these.
Reminders: Please ensure children only have water in their water bottles and that these are brought in every day.
Reception
It has been fantastic meeting the children again this week and seeing parents at our 'stay and plays'. We are now even more excited about the year ahead... if that is possible!
Have a very restful weekend before our first full week, next week.
Year 1
An amazing start Year 1... thank you! We have had a lovely return to school and it has been excellent to get to know the children more. The children have left Early Years behind and are now Key Stage 1 pupils...
This week we have been focusing on the story of 'The Little Red Hen in our English work and in maths we have been concentrating on place value. We will be building on all of this next week.
Letters sent home this week
Year 2
It's Friday and what an excellent first full week it has been. We have had a very smooth transition from Year 1 and we are certainly 'Year 2 ready'.
In English, we have been exploring the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. All of our comprehension, grammar work and writing has been based around the famous fairytale.
In maths we have been looking at numbers and place value. We have represented numbers using base ten and drawings. It has been a lot of fun and we will do more next week!
Letters sent home this week
Year 3
What an amazing start to the year! Year 3 have come into school and settled down like they have never been away and have shown a real eagerness to get started on their learning.
In English we have been looking at the text Iron Man. The children have read the first two chapters and created their very own interesting description of the Iron Man as well as creating their own.
During maths we have started the year looking at place value, partitioning numbers up to 1000 in hundreds, tens and ones.
In the afternoons we did an investigation on how quickly or slowly a car moved down a ramp with different surfaces, and deciding whether friction slowed our car down. Carpet seemed to create the most friction meaning the car did not actually move! We created our own classroom rules in PSHE, discussed faith in RE and was introduced to our new reading scheme, Reading Eggs.
Reminders: Please practise spelling that have been sent home. They are sent home on a Friday with a spelling test on the following Friday.
We have sent the children home with logins for Reading Eggs and TT Rockstars. Please ensure the children are login into these at home when possible.
Letters sent home this week
Year 4
What a wonderful first full week back for us in Year 4! We have hit the ground running with our writing this week, and have focused on adding description to our settings in preparation for writing narratives next week. We have also fully immersed ourselves into our focus 'Layered Reading' book, which is ‘How To Train Your Dragon!’ We can’t wait to continue with the story. In maths, we have been revising and learning about place value up to 10,000 and representing numbers in different ways. 4G have been super lucky to have started their first full week with some Outdoor Learning fun with Mr. Brady in the Environmental Garden, where we looked at various mediums of art outdoors. 4S have continued with the study of the digestive system in science, looked at Anglo-Saxon settlements in History, and began their taste-testing in DT.
Reminder: Please practise the spellings sent home. This week our focus is the suffix ‘ly’ and how this might change the spelling of the root word.
We will be sending the children home with logins for our new programme Reading Eggs, and for TT Rockstars.
Please ensure the children are able to log into these at home regularly to practise their reading and times tables.
Please ensure children only have water in their water bottles, and that any nail varnish is removed before school on Monday.
Letters sent home this week
Year 5
We have had a fantastic first full week back in Year 5! We began the week with PE where the children began their unit on tag rugby. They looked at defensive skills so that they could take the tags of other players and also skills of evasion to dodge any ‘attackers’.
In RE, we explored the term ‘faith’ and what this might mean to ourselves and others. The children designed calligrams consisting of synonyms for the word faith. Geography saw us locating Egypt on a map of the world and then exploring the physical features of the country. The students were able to locate the River Nile and many other features. We all really enjoyed our first music lesson where we were introduced to Bon Jovi’s 'Living on a Prayer'. We looked at the lyrics and in future will be learning how to play it on the recorder. Science was a very fun lesson exploring the properties of materials. We looked at electrical conductivity, magnetism and transparency. We discussed lots of materials, their everyday uses and which properties were suitable for their job. We ended the week with an art lesson on Egyptian pyramids. We studied 3 different types of pyramids, creating a research page with example sketches. This helped us to develop an awareness of composition, scale and proportion in our drawings.
Letters sent home this week
Year 6
Year 6 have had a great start to the autumn term. The children have settled back into their routine and enjoyed starting our new topics.
We had a Victorian Hook Day where the children travelled back in time to the Victorian classroom. They wrote with chalk, took part in drill, very different from our modern day PE lessons and were visited by a school inspector (Mr. McClay) who inspected hands, uniform and commented on their work.
In science this week, the children have made circuits where they investigated the effects of more or less power when using light.
The children have begun tag rugby and hockey, of which they have thoroughly enjoyed.
Letters sent home this week
Computing
Computing started this week with Mrs. Axelson taking the reins as Mrs. Wheatley is out of school for two weeks. Mrs. Axelson has thoroughly enjoyed teaching all of the year groups and will be sharing information about the lessons next week.
Online Safety
With most children today having access to their own tablets, phones, computers and other devices, it’s vitally important that parents and educators know how to keep young people protected while using them. Between targeted adverts, age-inappropriate content, and other online safety concerns, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to keep on top of.
Parental controls, present on most devices and several apps, can make this job significantly easier – but a certain amount of knowledge is required to use them effectively. This free online safety guide will provide you with the information you need to activate and maintain parental controls on children and young people’s devices.
PE & Sports
At Friars, children in Years 1 to 6 have two PE lessons each week with one of those being delivered by their class teacher. The other lesson this year will be taught by either Mr. Markham or Miss Parrin-Celino. Mr. Markham joined the Friars team this week and will be teaching PE to Year 4 and Year 6. A big welcome to Mr. Markham. Miss Parrin-Celino will take Years 1, 2, 3 and 5. Miss Parrin-Celino worked at Friars last year too.
Next week is busy with the start of sports clubs and our Cross Country trials! Phew!
Outdoor Learning
We love that we have Outdoor Learning at Friars and that it helps to further enrich our curriculum! Outdoor Learning was back this week... First to begin their work with Mr. Brady was 4G and the class had a fantastic week. Next week is the turn of 4S. A reminder that the children must wear their uniform on their top half but can wear older, plain jogging bottoms for Outdoor Learning.
Singing Assemblies
This year we are very lucky to have Mrs. Bemister teaching music in our school. Mrs. Bemister works across the Trust and teaches at our other schools too. She is a very talented musician and will be leading the Key Stage 2 choir and our singing assembly each week.
Mrs. Bemister met the children last week and had her first singing assembly this week. The feedback from the children was excellent with many children saying how much they enjoyed it. We always like to hear things like this!
Dinner Menu
Week 3
Monday - Chicken & Sweetcorn Meatballs with Tomato Sauce and Penne - Vegan Roasted Ratatouille with Penne - Baked Jacket Potato with Grated Cheese - Hams Salad Wrap - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Carrots & Broccoli - Orange Shortbread Biscuit
Tuesday - Bacon & Mushroom Carbonara with Pasta - Vegan Lentil & Vegetable Curry with Steamed Rice - pasta & Tomato Sauce - Tuna Sweetcorn Baguette - Cheese Sandwich - Sweetcorn & Coleslaw - Carrot Cake
Wednesday - Herby Roast Chicken with Roast Potatoes & Gravy - 3 Vegetable Mac N' Cheese - Baked Jacket Potato with Baked Beans - Tuna Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Seasonal Greens & Broccoli - Chocolate & Beetroot Brownie
Thursday - Cottage Pie Topped with Sweet Potato Mash - Vegan Chickpea & Spinach Korma with Steamed Rice - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Ham Sandwich - Cauliflower & Carrots - Vanilla Ice Cream
Friday - Breaded Fish Fingers with Chips & ketchup - Vegan Bubble & Squeak with Chips & Ketchup - Baked Jacket Potato with grated Cheese - Ham Salad Bloomer - Cheese Sandwich - Peas & Baked Beans - Apple & Parsnip Cake
Freshly Baked Bread - Courgette & Tomato or Wholemeal Bread.
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
Attendance
Attendance this week was won by Wrens in Key Stage 1 and 5L in Key Stage 2. Wrens achieved 96.8% whereas 5L stood at an impressive 99.7%.
4G were very close behind 5L with a very good 99%. Often that would be enough to win… but not this week!
Please do find the time to read the letter that was sent today regarding attendance.